holy batman! I just bought a farm!!

[smilingcat]

Oh good grief!! What am I getting into?

my parents are city slickers. Not the country, dueling banjo type. Not sure if such thing existed in Japan... They are the quintescential New Yorker equivalent in Japanese.

So its a farm. It's zoned for ag. Gots green house, gots hoop house, gots pole barn, gots storage shed/coop. Gots cover crop rye in the field. Gots nursery trees by the thousands, gots rows and rows of blueberry bushes, gots small fruit orchard. and oh, it does have a very nice house. Farm has been neglected but it still gets farm tax exemption... Well there are wild life around. elk or two or herd comes running through. deer likes to use the trees to "sharpen" their antlers during rut. Lots of bunnies, lots of hawks flying over.

What am I going to do now??

Get farming girl!!! I guess.

[IBrakeforPastry]

Just today I finished reading Hit by a Farm by Catherine Friend. You might want to check it out ;)

In the meantime, enjoy the land and all its beauty!

[withm]

Congratulations! I just bought a new house too. Now if only I could get the old house SOLD...

[Eden]

Congrats!

[emily_in_nc]

:pSounds wonderful! Lots of work but so rewarding, based on my friends and family members who own small farms. We did too, for about 5 minutes, but for a variety of reasons, it was not meant to be. Hoping yours will be!

P.S. It's always better to buy a farm than to have "bought the farm"! :D

[OakLeaf]

Wow! Good luck and have fun!

[azfiddle]

Sounds like an adventurous new turn in your life!

[smilingcat]

Just today I finished reading Hit by a Farm by Catherine Friend. You might want to check it out ;)

In the meantime, enjoy the land and all its beauty!

Well I think I have to get that book too. I read Peace At Heart An Oregon Country Life by Barbara Drake. I enjoyed it a lot!! Amazon always have good reviews and even a review by Ursula K. Le Guin an award winning SciFi write.

And last night we had heirloom variety of broccoli we grew. OMG!! Lightly steamed and it was sweet with really yummy flavor. no butter, no salt or any seasoning needed. I also like eating the stem without the woody outside/skin. But this big broccoli's outer skin was soft as peach skin and it peeled really easily. The big stem inside was so good. I don't think I can ever eat another store bought broccoli. Oh the variety was DiCiccillo. We'll start another batch for fall harvest.

[Catrin]

Congratulations, sounds like the start of a brand new, and fun, adventure!

[GLC1968]

Congratulations! I'm jealous. I miss our farm.

Another good read: The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball :)

[AppleTree]

Sounds idyllic. Enjoy your new life!

[shootingstar]

Enjoy your farm and its tasty results...eventually and Nature all around. :)

I'm sure you must be familiar with this Californian farm book by a 3rd generation Japanese-American peach farmer: http://www.masumoto.com/our-writing-art/mas-writing-2/four-seasons-in-five-senses-things-worth-savoring/

My partner was a weekend part-time farmer for a decade while he also had a full time career job with an oil firm in Toronto. I get my basic info. from him on cows, pigs, hay, chickens, beets.... and horses. He actually took a few evening courses with one of the local universities with faculty program in agriculture, etc. He also befriended an experienced (older) farmer down the road where he learned some basics. He and the other farmer helped each other, also bartered some stuff or bought some discounted equipment (of course, he went to local farm equipment auctions.) Farm was sold.

But many years later...his son now can draw upon his childhood memories of farm....for his butcher and sandwich shop that he just opened up in Toronto this spring.

[Trek420]

Congratulations!

Growing up on a farm was great, at least for me as a kid. I think it instilled in me a love of the beauty of nature. But then I was not the one having to do all the work. It is hard work.

My parents bought a small chicken farm right after the war. This was back when Petaluma was "the egg basket of the world". In time they saw that larger factory farms made it impossible to compete. So they both got other jobs. If there had been farmers markets, our farm to table movement, our re-found love for local foods perhaps they'd have been able to continue farming.

Both my parents continued to garden long after the farm itself was gone. Their garden was amazing. People sometimes stopped on the road to stare, or walked up the drive to ask if they can pick some flowers. Their answer was always "yes!". When Helen and Scott Nearing, the writers known for advocating a "back to the land" simple way of life they called "The Good Life", toured Sonoma County they stayed at my folks home.

Mom had a kitchen garden right up till the end she produced amazing meals, jams, pies right off her garden. In fact I'm off to plant some flowers using some of her garden tools. Enjoy your farm! Hey, sounds like a good destination for a bike tour! ;)

[Wahine]

Congrats!!!

Assuming you're still in the PDX area I'd love to come out and see it sometime. I'm capable when it comes to berry picking and can be paid in food.
:D

[smilingcat]

Congrats!!!

Assuming you're still in the PDX area I'd love to come out and see it sometime. I'm capable when it comes to berry picking and can be paid in food.
:D

BETTER!! Many of the locals think I'm in Boring (yes its a name of the city) or I'm in Sandy. But title says its in Gresham Oregon and its in Multnomah County and not Clackamus. I'm at the very east end of Gresham. In all honesty, I think the property is closer to downtown Sandy than downtown Gresham.

Yes when I take posession, come and visit. Probably nothing to see till next spring. And no berry bushes for a year or so. No berries on the property right now.

Tomorrow, I'll be filing for DBA. Already secured a web address for the farm and lining up buyers.

[uforgot]

I am flying to Beaverton on Tuesday. Is that close? By the way, I live 5 miles from Bland, Mo. Could be a sister city with Boring!

[smilingcat]

I am flying to Beaverton on Tuesday. Is that close? By the way, I live 5 miles from Bland, Mo. Could be a sister city with Boring!

It's about 40 minutes from Beaverton. It went into escrow about 4 days ago. So its not officially mine for another 26 days or so. Yes its a 30 day escrow.

[smilingcat]

OMG!!!

I was talking to the neighbor today. And she informs me that we have elk herd nearby. Well sort of knew that with elk trampling down about an acre of my field about a week ago. She said there are whole lot of bunnies. What are you going to do with them? I don't have a heart to kill'em. But I can string up portable electric fence and few other things to keep them out. Also have my Great Pyrenees, Holly Spirit Bear and an Australian Shepherd named Austin. Austin is still a pup of only 4 month or so. They can keep the bunnies out without killing them.

Then the coyotes and down the line she went. Last one was bit out of order. She said, we have a neighborhood BLACK BEAR!!! AHHH WHAATTTT!!??? You must be joking??

Nope. The big paw prints much bigger than my hand must belong to the bear and not a cougar. Well that's going to put a wrinkle into having an apiary and a redesign of a chicken coop. Also need to bear proof my trash cans.

Honestly, my farm isn't located in middle of nowhere land. It's less than hour from downtown Portland Or. We have municiple water for the house. Natural gas and not LP in the back yard...

But the most devastating thing I found so far have been Brown Marmorated stink bug. Found literally hundreds of them around my farm house!! http://www.stopbmsb.org/

So why did I decided to farm?

[OakLeaf]

Ugh, what a litany of pests! I didn't even realize the stinkbugs had crossed the Mississippi yet, let alone made it that far west. We only really started having a problem with them in Ohio last year (and last year's very cold winter actually cut this year's population).

I'm thinking you'll want permanent electric fence with all those big critters around ... bigger investment and more work to begin with, but a lot less work in the long run. (OTOH, rabbits will go right underneath electric fence ... you'd have to put the bottom strand so low that you wouldn't have time for anything but weedwacking, and then two more strands super close on top of that ... nothing but chicken wire keeps them out of my garden, but your dogs should be enough to keep the rabbits out as long as you can keep the large predators away from your dogs.)

Sorry you're having to deal with all this stuff right off the bat. :( But then on the other hand, if it's dealt with right off the bat you're less likely to have big crop destruction one after another after another ... Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you!

[lph]

What are stinkbugs? Still love reading this stuff, Smilingcat!

[OakLeaf]

Click on the link for the full rundown ... BMSBs are a species of Hemiptera (true bugs) that stink when squished - we have a number of native stinkbug species that can be moderately destructive when there's an infestation, but the BMSBs are an Asian invasive that are devastating fruit and vegetable crops, I thought it was only in the eastern USA, but they've spread very fast. Even more fun, like the Asian ladybugs but more stinkier, they like to come into people's houses for the winter.

[lph]

Urk. :-(

[smilingcat]

fun with the tractor and the hydraulics.

first was a delivery of two pallets each weighing 2000 pounds each (around 900Kg each). That went without too much hitch. beginner's luck.

Second delivery was a pallet loaded with the green house I had ordered. A 20' by 48' by 12' high green house. It's small as green houses go. And the whole thing came on an eight feet long by about four feet wide and about a foot thick. Freight guy pushed the pallet to the back of the truck for my tractor to pick up. Forks on my tractor are not eight feet, maybe four feet wide. Tried to pick up and it doesn't want to balance on the fork. We dragged it out onto the truck lift and lowered it on the ground. Got to the side and everything was fine. Not as smooth as the first delivery of ground rock mineral in the two pallets.

It's been about a week now and only now am I willing to write about it. It was a delivery of a brand new wood chipper. Chipper capabler of grinding and chipping a tree up to about eight inches in diameter (20cm or so). Again the freight guy pushed the pallet to the back of the truck for my fork lift to pick it up. That was easy. Got off to make sure it was securely and well balanced on the fork. My dismay, Forks have lifted the pallet on the side that had two big stickers that said "DO NOT LIFT ON THIS SIDE"... too late.

Drove the tractor with the chipper on the fork into the pole barn where it will stay dry. Lowered it onto the ground and realized that if I unpack it there, there is no way I can get it out. The attachment to the tractor is on the wrong side. Besides, I picked up the pallet on the wrong side.

Back out the tractor and the chipper on the pallet. Lowered on the ground, continue backing up and the back side of the fork catches on the ground and causes the fork to pitch up and my chipper on the pallet goes THUMP onto its side. And its pouring rain now!!!

Righted up the pallet with rope attached to the chipper and the tractor and rest went without a hitch. Pouring rain puddled on the vinyl seat of my tractor for which my pants were more than eager to soak up all the rain. YUCK!! Soaking wet bottom for my pants. Rest of me is wet from the down pour but nothing like my bottom...

Drove the tractor back to its normal storage place away from the rain. Normally I back it in but not this day. I had more than enough frustration. BTW I didn't mention that I also managed to bend to exhaust pipe that sticks vertically out of the tractor. Now its got that racey swept back look. I was backing the tractor into a car port. I was worried about clearing the roll bar on the tractor, worried about clearing the 6 foot tiller on the back but forgot to check to see the exhaust pipe clearing the rafters. It didn't so when I drove out from the car port space, the pipe got bent back wards.

[Pax]

Farming is so fun! Where else to you get to work 16 hours a day, and smell like poop! :D

Seriously though, a good friend of mine runs a small sheep and grain operation nearby, she works harder than anyone I know, but is also happier than anyone I know.

[lph]

Aw, I feel for you! Sounds like our remodeling epics, writ large.

[smilingcat]

Things sometimes go BUMP.

Upgrading the electrical on the farm. That means running over 300feet (100meter) of 220V 100amp circuit to the barn and to the free standing garage/carport/tack room. My electrician had contacted all the pertinent companies, power, natural gas (amazing natural gas pipe for the farm instead of propane), water (wow city water too!!), electrical, telephone and cable (OMG!! even a cable. must be in the city!!) to spray paint and mark out where they are burried. So I see colored lines on the ground. Looks good.

But in process of trenching to lay the power, we almost had an accident. There is already 120V 20amp circuit going to the freestanding gararge and the barn. They were digging and I asked the workers if the circuit was shut off. OOPS. Took us a while to figure out which circuit breaker needed to be turned off. All was good. They did cut into the 120V20amp circuit later in the day with the powered trencher.

That wasn't too bad.

Further trenching and they managed to slice through the water line feeding one of many spigots on the farm. Shut the main valve in the house and we still have a geyser. Water company says go to the street and you will find the meter and you can shut it off there. but which one? there are three meters there. The one where the meter is running wild. Oh... Then I remembered, I have burried all over on the property a shut off valve for the spigots in the field. Where are they?? Mostly marked with 4 to 6 inch black round steel plate. Under it down two feet is the valve. Its freezing outside!! Running all over the field looking for the darn thing. I knew where two of them were but they are not IT. Water is still gushing. run around the house looking for it and one of the electrician found a broken slab of concrete perched bit above the ground. Under it was a pipe and at a bottom was a shut off valve. Good thing he had an arm like an Orangatan. I couldn't reach it. He shut it off and geyser stopped. Trench is partially filled with water. Geez I wonder what my water bill is going to look like?

Water line was bad enough...

I did say that the property has natural gas service didn't I?

There are two gas lines!? Oh oh... One was marked. Who would ever guessed that there was a second one. I was away from the farm and when I returned there is a natural gas company truck there. not a good sign. Don't anyone smoke!! A plumber showed up shortly there after and the gas company guy and the plumber made a partial fix so that the house would have gas for the water heater and central heating. But I've got no gas into the greenhouse. Greenhouse is not setup with solar heating yet and I've got pepper plants and ginger and other warm/heat loving plants that will die in the cold. The strong artic storm brought ice and extreme cold to my area so I really need to have the heat in the greenhouse. Not happening.

So I carried about 50 big pots maybe more into the warm house and found a place for them. Talk about a work out.

Today the plumber came out on Saturday morning first thing and patched up the natural gas pipe. It's a yellow plastic pipe of all things. Gas is back in the greenhouse. And I moved all the plants back into the greenhouse. Looked at the temperature record and the greenhouse temperature had dropped to 18F (-8C) last night.

Electricians are going to dig the rest of the trench manually with shovel. Electricians are having to pay for the plumber and the gas company for their service. I feel bad for them even though they broke it. I want them to make money too.

Tomorrow, setting up the germination table in the solarium that is attached to the house. Already have 600 seedlings started and they have germinated. My home made soil blocker worked pretty well. Each time I can pop out 50 seeded soil blocks.

People I know says that I look happy. I'm not so sure.

[DebSP]

Wow you are a really hard worker! In a world where I see so many people wanting everything to be easy and almost instant it is so good to see someone working hard and problem solving and staying positive while overcoming obstacles. Good for you. I am sure you are happy. I always think nothing is better for the soul than getting things done on your own. A real sense of accomplishment!

[OakLeaf]

Yikes smilingcat! Sounds like it's coming together in spite of the bumps ...

There's definitely a satisfaction that comes from doing work with concrete results. Way to go getting it done.

[smilingcat]

Oh my... I'm on a steep learning curve with running a farm.

So I've learned to patch the broken water line. Water line that was cut when the electrical line was being laid down.

No leaks and have water back in the green house.

Day before yesterday, I noticed the explosion of aphids :eek: so I've searched high and low for organic approved (OMRI) insecticide at this time of the year. Home Depot of all places have thing called Organocide in stock so off I went. Followed the instruction... 2 to 4 TBS per gallon of water about 75ml of insecticide to 4 litre of water. Sprayed the stuff. Actually, drenched the pepper plants, and some cabbage plants. To be on safe side, sprayed the underside of Kale, chard, lettuce.

All is good except it smells like dead fish inside the green house. Label says contains sesamme oil, not too bad, FISH OIL yewww... No wonder.. I think I'll mix up my own conccoction of ghost pepper oil spray.

I just hope that my lettuce, kale and chards don't have the dead fish smell or taste...

So how can I kill the dead fish smell. This is almost as bad as opening a can of surströmming, fermented nearly rotten fish. blach...

[smilingcat]

dead fish smell is gone from my green house. I bought some Neem based pesticide OMRI approved to use next time. Now I've got ants in my kitchen. I wonder if I can use the Neem stuff in my kitchen?

Also spent last week morning till night figuring out what seeds to plant/buy and how many. Scary!! Maybe I'm making it far more difficult than it should be. Figuring on where to order to try minimizing the cost. I started to reach a point of diminishing return to save $$. So I've thrown in the towel. Just placed an order with one of the seed companies.

Size of my field, scheduling of sucession planting and how much I want to make $$ tells me how much to order and what. That in turn tells me how big of germination table I need and how many flats. OH BOY... What have I gotten my self into?? help

kale chard lettuce money maker. cabbage broccoli parsnip almost money loser.

[Eden]

kale chard lettuce money maker. cabbage broccoli parsnip almost money loser.

best of luck! In my tiny garden plot, my best stuff so far has been shiso (which I think retails around here for about 50 cents a leaf - expensive enough that our favorite sushi place stopped using them as decoration on the sashimi platters and loved me dearly for bringing a handful of leaves to them very week) and snow peas. I've got sad broccoli out there right now… 1 floret on each plant :p, but I am kind of bad with plants. My garden will never be more than an amusement.

[OakLeaf]

I'm in awe of your journey. Thanks for keeping us updated. Best of luck.

[ny biker]

Last October I did a bike ride that visited local farms, and at one of them I met a man who worked for a state agency that helps farmers figure out what to grow on their land. He was growing some herbs used in ethnic cuisines (amaranth was one, I think) along with cut flowers (well, flowers to be sold that way). Apparently it can be very profitable to grow cut flowers on small farms.

The bike ride was in an area that I know well, but it wasn't until after that conversation that I started to notice all the greenhouses there. I'd never thought before about the decisions that farmers have to make about what to grow.

Best of luck with the kale, chard and lettuce. I had kale once as a child, fresh from my great aunt's garden, and I hated it. I've avoided it since then, despite its popularity. What type of lettuce will you be growing?

[OakLeaf]

Eden, do you plant shiso every year? I tried once and found it incredibly difficult to start ... but it's happy to re-seed itself year after year. For the last ten years or so I just choose a few volunteers and let them grow where they choose!

[Eden]

I planted my shiso from starts that I got a local Asian grocery. It's the first year I've had it and it grew marvelously. I let it seed and I'm hoping next year I get some volunteers.

[smilingcat]

shiso germination needs one odd trick. It needs repeated freezing and thawing. Put it in a freezer and let it freeze for several days. Take it out of the freezer into somewhere its cool (not warm) for few days and repeat this three or four times. This sort of mimics nature with its arrival of spring. After the fourth or fifth time of doing this, scatter the seeds in a pot filled with soil then add about 1/4" of soil on top and water well. And that is supposed to help with germination. I used to go dig up the volunteers I find in my yard.

I find shiso germination to be almost as frustrating as parsnips. Parsnips has to be the worst in germination. And it must have the shortest viability.

Never had luck with shiso when I tried in a flat or waited for the soil to warm in the spring time.

Kinds of lettuce: buttercrunch bib, red iceberg, green oakleaf, merville de quatre, rogue d'hive, bronze mignoitte, tom thumb, pirat butterhead, antares leaf lettuce, blushed butter romain...Some solid green, solid pink or red, some speckled, some form tight head, some loose, some frilly and all are supposed to taste very yummy. I have tom thumb growing in the green house right now. It's only about 2 inches across. They need to be about 5 inches across.

You can find these seeds at rareseeds,com, seedsavers.com, fedcoseeds.com, groworganics.com, Anniesheirloomseeds.com, Victoryseeds.com, territorialseeds and bountiful gardens. One really odd place I found was a place called mypatriotsupply.com.

rareseeds.com is BakerCreekHierloom seeds company and its probably the best heirloom seed company around. Seedsavers exchange is a non-profit organization. Their goal is to save varieties from going extinct.

To Oakleaf and Eden:

I will be planting number of japanese ume trees so I can make pickled plum. Also will be planting sansho trees for sansho pepper. Plum and pepper will not be available for about a year or two. Sansho pepper would be easy to ship when they become available on my farm.

Sansho trees are more like shrub and require may be four feet by four feet space. They are cold hardy so it should be quite okay in Seattle area. Soil doesn't have to be that great but it does need descent drainage. branches have nasty thorns so plant them underneath your windows. Burglers will have extra hard time. ;) You can make tsukudani out of sansho pepper leaves and the husk of the seed pod IS the sansho pepper. Not the seed some grind the seed as well. And lastly, you do need a male and a female plant. You can get them at bayflora.com and onegreenworld.com. Latter is probably one of the best places to get trees. Another place is fourwindsnursery in California.

[Eden]

Yum - I've had kinome on something that Kotaro used to make for us before he moved on to his own restaurant, but not often so I don't think it was easy to get. I'll bet you'll be a rare US source for it. I recall when the seed pods were nearly impossible to get here because of an import ban - they can carry citrus canker. The ban has been lifted, but all imported stuff has to be heat treated, so you'll be able to say yours is not.

[smilingcat]

My ever pragmatic (engineering side) won out again. I signed up for a small farms conference consisting of three sessions. Attendees can attend all three sessions but only one topic out of each session. Each session has about nine maybe twelve topics.

First topic mentioned in each of the three session was how to have six figure income for small plots. Speaker is Jean-Martin Fortier. The person whose book I read cover to cover and duly impressed. I'm not a groupie but it would have been interesting to hear what he had to say and not just what he wrote. But alas, instead I signed up for other topics: Advanced Plant Disease Mgmt on organic veg. farm, impact of organic certification and coorperative farming...

Whhooey! May be I'll still take the book and have him autograph it.

It's not about kumba-ya or feel good thing. It's just business. So when do I have fun?? or get to play in the dirt?? :D

right now trying to figure out how to install over 900 feet (274m) of deer and critter fencing... It's over seven feet high (2.1m). Fencing will enclose in a rectangle an area of about one and a quarter acre. Inside it I need to mark out the rows/beds and the furrows. Mark out the location of trellis supports. install over 10000 feet (3000m) of drip lines (irrigation). ITS GOING TO BE FUN FUN FUN!

Maybe its time I bought a flannel shirt. yuk yuk yuk... http://www.ehow.com/how_6199011_dress-like-farm-girl.html

[smilingcat]

I dread trying to hook up an implement/tools to the tractor. It has a thing called a three point hitch. at each point is a pin that goes through the 3 arms/links on the tractor and through the holes in the implement. You can just imagine, trying to lineup the holes just right. What a nightmare...

I have two working tractor a small one and a utility tractor. I managed to connect the wood chipper to the smaller one because it is much easier but when I tried to lift the wood chipper, the tractor front end lifted up. not a good sign. Wood chipper needs to go on my utility tractor. But it has maybe a 2000 pound tiller hooked to it. Thinking of how to disconnect it is making my stomach churn. then attach the 1000 pound wood chipper. After all said and done repeat the process in reverse. Have you ever tried to line up your car to less than a 1/10 inch? I can't budge either equipment to line it up.

just some of the fun on the farm.

[Pax]

Wish I was there to help you, I don't have a lot of skills, but that's one of them.

A little tip, RVers use these thingys to help them line up a hitch, you can also use a one of the Orange flags on a pole like you see on the back of a bike trailer. http://t.harborfreight.com/magnetic-trailer-alignment-kit-69778.html?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

[shootingstar]

smilingcat:

Great to read of your farming adventures and stay safe. Are you the only person working the land or is someone else/partner helping you from time to time?

That's great there are courses in your area.
Maybe over time, you'll be able to hook up with an experienced farmer locally who can show you stuff/advise or swap some stuff/work with one another.

My partner was a part-time weekend farmer for a decade. He had 100 acres about 90 km. outside of the city. He had /worked a full time paid job for an oil firm in the city. He is a civil engineer. So he took evening courses at the local university..which was about 70 km. (different direction from farm) outside of home city on animal husbandry since the university does have a top notch veterinary medicine program in Canada.

His knowledge of farm machinery, farming came from a local older farmer that he befriended from down the road. This farmer was like a father-coach farmer to my partner. My partner in turn paid him for checking horses and cattle during the work wk., etc. Don't be embarrassed to ask for advice. People would rather have you safe than hurt. (My partner did nearly lose his leg when a piece equipment fell on him. He was by the tractor out in the field. Meanwhile his ex-wife was in farmhouse with their 2 young children. This is before the days of cellphones.)

[rebeccaC]

I dread trying to hook up an implement/tools to the tractor. It has a thing called a three point hitch. at each point is a pin that goes through the 3 arms/links on the tractor and through the holes in the implement. You can just imagine, trying to lineup the holes just right. What a nightmare...

I have two working tractor a small one and a utility tractor. I managed to connect the wood chipper to the smaller one because it is much easier but when I tried to lift the wood chipper, the tractor front end lifted up. not a good sign. Wood chipper needs to go on my utility tractor. But it has maybe a 2000 pound tiller hooked to it. Thinking of how to disconnect it is making my stomach churn. then attach the 1000 pound wood chipper. After all said and done repeat the process in reverse. Have you ever tried to line up your car to less than a 1/10 inch? I can't budge either equipment to line it up.

just some of the fun on the farm.


youtube is your friend :)....it doesn't look easy though:eek:

https://youtu.be/bSatF4QoqmI ....if that isn't your set up there are a number of other ones on youtube too

[smilingcat]

youtube is your friend :)....it doesn't look easy though:eek:

https://youtu.be/bSatF4QoqmI ....if that isn't your set up there are a number of other ones on youtube too

That! just about sums it up. Doesn't it look fun??And he has far more experience than me. I have a pry bar but I don't think it would help.

And today, spent most of the day trying to figure out how to get a riding lawn mower out of blueberry patch. Rear tire is all twisted up and wrapped around the axle.
Thought of lifting the mower out the blueberry patch with my utility tractor but I would have to flatten out few berry bushes. Besides, there are too many linkages that could get bent if I try to lift it up and out with the fork on my tractor. towing it out using a compact tractor might work but the cutting blade and the metal cover on the mower is firmly buried in the dirt.

Managed to jack up the mower to remove the wheel but its rusted on and won't budge!! Make the repair at its current location in the berry patch. hmm oh the weather report says RAIN (at times heavy) for next several days!!

then there are hoof prints where my garlic plants are planted. hooves are about 4" across and goes down about 2" to 3" into the dirt. Amazingly, it only destroyed about half a dozen garlic bulbs.

Then there are things in the greenhouse. I feel like I'm just rearranging the chairs on the deck of Titanic... sigh...

[smilingcat]

First Farmers Market of 2016 for us. Yayyy we are finished and in stupor tonight. First one of the year is tough because you forget your routine. And being so early in the season, we were trying to figure out what we have to sell. We were confused and still confused... Logistic gets to be a real headache. Feed dogs, walk dogs, feed cats breakfast then lunch. Feed 150+ chicken :eek: And we were away for almost 9 hours.

What to sell was a pretty slim picking at my farm but we did manage to scrape together kale raab, baby kale, regular kale, swiss chard, wild arugula, few herbs but not many were interested in chervil (french parsley). And eggs. Weather was picture perfect, temp was mild and really couldn't have asked for a better day. Our animals may disagree though.

whats for next week? don't know. I planned on having micro greens for today but its growth stalled for about 3 days this past week so it wasn't ready for today. It WILL BE READY TOMORROW, SUNDAY. Will it hold till next Saturday? probably not. Maybe radish will be ready? Tatsoi, bok choi and others will not be ready for another two weeks.

Will I do this again? yes because I'm bit nutty and glutton for punishment. Besides, I get to enjoy things like baby greens, kale raab. Things you can't buy in regular grocery store. :D

[Pax]

Can't wrap my head around having access to almost unlimited produce, that is so cool!

[OakLeaf]

Nice. :) Our farmers' markets don't begin for another three to five weeks, but the spring has been so early that one farmer has been selling single-week mini-CSA baskets for a month already. Wishing you favorable weather, cooperative equipment, minimal pests and enthusiastic customers for the upcoming season!

[emily_in_nc]

smilingcat, thank you for being willing to sell at a farmer's market even if you don't have that much produce to sell. I so appreciate small farmers selling lovely homegrown produce whenever I can find a farmer's market as we travel!

[shootingstar]

Wish we could buy from you. Certainly if I knew where you were if we were travelling in area, we would drop by. Many of our bike trips and other travels do include a local farmers' market to get flavour of the place. For instance, we've been to a large Portland market on campus. My partner was a part-time farmer for a decade and also keenly supports local markets.

[smilingcat]

A grown man wants fresh apple from my farm. I politely told him its only mid-April and that earliest, apples will not be available in our area till July or so. He said then why is fresh apples available in the supermarkets? Yes he did say it and he was miffed. forget about the fact that I don't grow apples, pears, quince or any of the stone fruit.

I guess the generation where milk comes in a box, juice comes concentrated in a can. And you get eggs in a carton at the store. sigh...

Another man was angry at what I was asking for my dozen eggs. He said "You (us farmers) are crazy to be asking for what a steak costs" Go away!! If you can't tell a difference between our eggs and eggs labeled "free range/organic chicken eggs" at the supermarket. Ours really run around and eat bugs, dandelions and other goodies. BTW steak costs a lot more per pound than our eggs.

Our eggs will sink when you do the float test. supermarket eggs will most likely float.

[Aromig]

Another man was angry at what I was asking for my dozen eggs. He said "You (us farmers) are crazy to be asking for what a steak costs"

Crazy - if you don't want to pay what someone is asking...then move along! I'd love to see him walk into Walmart and try to negotiate egg prices.

Our backyard chickens (we only have 5, so nowhere near what you're doing) are about 5 weeks away from being old enough to lay. We are having a lot of fun! I'll admit, when my son wanted chickens I wasn't that excited (bad memories of backyard chickens when I was six) but we're falling in love with them. They've just moved out of our garage and into their coop/backyard play area and believe it or not they love the golden retriever (and she loves them).