I Would Love To Be Singing in the Rain

3 ROW FENCE LINE TECHNIQUE

Well I guess Mother Nature decided we had way too much rain this past Winter and Spring because she is sure holding back on us now. We see the rain clouds all around but they seem to part like the Red Sea when they get close to the farm and then....no rain.

Thank goodness we have access to water at our pond. With a pump, couple hundred feet of hose and 2 water sprinklers, we have been able to keep our vegetables alive and more importantly, nicely growing. The tomato plants look wonderful as well as the squash and cucs....these we started out as seedlings. The seeds we planted right into the ground are growing nicely but the deer have discovered the garden finally and seem to enjoy the Lima beans. I thought it might be a rabbit but the deer tracks made me think otherwise.

This weekend we are putting up electric fencing around the garden. We are trying the 3 row method of fencing which is suppose to keep the deer out because they can't determine the depth of things. This is suppose to keep them from jumping over the fence. We will have one row of electric fencing and two inner rows of just regular twine type fencing. I will let you know how it works out.

Alex has become a pro at using the tractor and bush hog. He has been clearing out the terrace areas and Cris cleared some paths around the pond. Alex likes the path around the pond; he times himself on the ATV to see how fast he can do the trail.

Cris picked up a cool gadget at Radio Shack this week. It's a weather station that has a part that you hang up outside and its measures the wind, temp, humidity and rainfall. It has a sensor and it will remotely transfer the information to the indoor unit and store up to a week's worth of data. That way we can keep track of any rain that may come along. It was originally over $100 and marked down to about $40. I am sure it will be useful if it ever rains again. (NOTE: We have since found out that it only keeps 24 hours worth if information, not a weeks worth. The week's worth one was over $200.)

I got to thinking today as Cris was hooking up the electric fence and Alex was bush hogging in the field, the dogs were chasing dragon flies and I was on the trailer shoveling sheep manure into the compost pile...... if someone would have told me ten years ago, we would be doing this, I would have laughed in their face and said they were crazy....heck, even 5 years ago. I appreciate all the support and encouragement we have received as we start our new adventure... my dad thinks I am nuts but that is because he worked on a farm from around the age of 10 and knows what hard work it is.

So, why are we doing this? Cris always wanted to have a vegetable garden but the last two houses we have lived in did not have enough sun in the yard to accommodate a garden. After moving to Memphis, we started shopping each Saturday at the Memphis Farmer's Market, something we did not have nearby when we lived in Maryland. I guess what really opened our eyes was watching the film, Food, Inc. and realizing that we needed to know what was really in our food, how our food was grown and how important it is to read labels.

The other factor that made us decide to purchase land was the fact that we lived within the city limits of Memphis and it is just too expensive to live here anymore. We are taxed for everything here and I don't see it getting any better. Crime in the city is high and again, I don't see that getting any better.

So we bought some land, built a barn, started a garden and hopefully next year, we will build a house. We are learning a lot and of course, making mistakes but it has all been worth it.