July 16-17, 2011

Our tomatoes are being attacked by Hornworms.  We are only at the farm on the weekends and hornworms need to be taken care of daily.  We must have picked off over 100 hornworms this weekend, between 2 adults and one labradoodle..... yes, labradoodle.  My wonderful Nugget has watched us take the hornworms (large green caterpillars) off the tomato plants and he now sniffs them out and snatches them off with his teeth. He does a great job too and finds the ones on the lower part of the plant.  But you have to watch him because he also likes to eat the ripe cherry tomatoes.  We are hoping the special wasp shows up that lays eggs on the hornworms.  Once the eggs are laid, then in less than a week, the worms are gone.  Nature is it's own insect repellent sometimes.

Well, the heat has not diminished so we try to limit our workload outside and drink plenty of water.  Every once in a while Nugget will dash from the field and heads to the pond to cool off.... he swims around and then comes back to the field, wet but refreshed.  Smart dog.  

We are still waiting for the well. Suppose to come back out this week and drill deeper.  All we can do is wait.  We have been bringing gallons and gallons of fresh water with us every weekend so we can cook and drink but that is getting old.  

We harvested the potatoes (red & white) and the remaining onions.  The onions are drying out at the farm and then will be stored in a cool, dry place like the potatoes so we can keep them as long as possible.  

My sunflowers have all bloomed and look great.  The cabbage is growing nicely too.  The okra is taking off despite the weeds.  

We had our monthly meeting with friends Sunday at the Bolivar Nursery.  Once again, good food and good conversation.  Michele, the owner of the nursery discussed herbs and the various medicinal properties they have.  

On a totally non-farm related matter - we saw the final Harry Potter movie over the weekend too....it was awesome!

July 9-10 2011

 

Last week Alex and I went to Maryland to visit family and Cris stayed on the farm the whole week with the 2 dogs and cat.  Kitty took a couple days to adjust to his surroundings but is fine now.  He is not allowed outside though, not until he is used to the area. 

We put our Memphis house on the market and had a couple people look at the house.  It is not the best time to sell a house but hopefully we will find the right buyer and the right price.  The house has never been so clean….even Alex is keeping his room clean, but that could be the $20 he gets for keeping his bed made and floor clear of clothes etc…

The well is not installed yet.  We ended up changing well companies because the other kept giving us the run around… it was always, “next week”.  The new company (which came with recommendations from friends) drilled yesterday and hit sand around 50 ft. which is good.  They went to 95 ft. and stopped.  Tuesday another person comes out with a pump to see how the water flow is from 95 ft.  If it is good, then they install the pump and holding tank…..if not, they dig some more.  When the well is ready to be hooked up to the house, we get the electrician to run the electric and then FINALLY, we will have a well. (update - well is not deep enough so they are coming out again to drill....no well yet!)

Two weeks ago we had friends over to make shitake mushroom logs.  Cris hooked up a barrel of water to the house so we could at least use the bathroom.  That was handy and appreciated by all.  The mushroom plugging went great despite the heat.  Afterwards we all went inside to the air conditioning to have a wonderful meal and conversation.  Cris made two different mushroom dishes and others brought dishes from items out of their gardens. 

I thought it was hot two weeks ago, that was until we hit this weekend….. The heat and humidity are horrible.  We are not getting as much done as we had hoped for fear of heat exhaustion.  This morning we weeded the cabbage and ended up a drenched mess.  This evening we hope to start weeding the okra plants.  Last week while Alex and I were in Maryland, Cris weeded the 500 strawberry plants and then covered them with weed block…. That took him 3 days because of the heat and humidity. 

We are thankful that it has rained…not like last year  when it was so dry.  I think that is why the weeds are so bad this year….not really weeds but just grass.  Our cows will have some wonderful grass to eat because it grows like crazy. 

Since we are limited to what we can do outside, we “went to town” to pick up materials to make a solar clothes dryer (clothes line) and we installed that today.  I plan to buy a used washer when the well is ready and will only wash on sunny days so I can use the clothes line.  We will see how long that lasts before I beg for a dyer.

We are also pricing the sheeting that goes on the bottom of the trailer.  As soon as the well is installed, we hope to get the heat pump and then we can put the sheeting up…that will keep the dogs out from under the trailer. They love hunting for frogs.

Cris has been mushroom hunting around the property and has found chanterelles, which are in season right now.  They are all over the place.  Our dinner tonight will consists chanterelles freshly picked, and freshly picked cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and onions. 

The potatoes and remaining onions are ready to be dug up but the ground is too wet so that will have to wait.  We did some more tomato staking (the tomatoes we planted outside, not in the greenhouse), weeding and then called it a day at 6pm…. Just too hot for man and beast. 

Our farm home is currently a mish mash of furniture and boxes and there is NO method to our madness, as they say.  We are slowly moving items out to the farm but some items have to stay at the Memphis house since it is for sale and we want to make it look nice for potential buyers. We will not have the storage space we have in Memphis so we are coming up with ideas to create storage.  Our project list just keeps growing. Luckily, my daughter Lindsay has moved into a townhome and needs furniture...I am glad I can pass some of my mother's furniture onto her granddaughter.   

Weekend of June 18-19, 2011

We went to our friend’s farm today to pick out some more cows.  When we do live on the farm full time and have the fencing up, we will have four beautiful Scottish Highlands; Hyacinth, Henrietta (Hyacinth’s cousin, their moms are sisters), Mindy and another one that is a blonde beauty; forgot her name. 

Today we harvested the wheat.  Cris used the scythe to cut the wheat, then we gathered it onto the trailer and used the wood chipper with the medium size blade and shredded the wheat.  This took the wheat kernels off the stalk.  We then set up a fan next to a large container.  We picked up the pile of kernels and shredded wheat by the handfuls and let it drop next to the fan.  The kernels were heavy enough to drop into the container, yet the shredded wheat stalks flew away.  It worked great but we will have to run through this procedure a couple more times to get all the shredded stalks removed.  The wheat berries will keep forever in a tightly sealed container; you just grind the wheat as needed and the use that wheat flour within 2 weeks.  The wheat was grown on 1/20 of an acre.  I am not sure how many pounds of wheat berries we will end up with but we think it should be enough for a year. Kitchen Aid makes an attachment to grind wheat so that is handy.

The well has yet to be installed, which is very aggravating.  We have been told the last three weeks that it will be "next week”.  We are having people over to the farm to make mushroom logs on the 25^th and I was sure hoping to have running water.  We shall see. 

The English Peas are finished for the season, they turned out great and we plan to grow a lot more next year so we can freeze them.  They are not something I want to sell at the farmer’s market though unless we get a pea sheller.  I don’t mind shelling peas while watching tv for our own enjoyment but it would be a lot of shelling by hand to have enough to sell at the market.

The shade cloth we put on the hoop house works great….. Too great I am afraid… we may have to remove it so the tomatoes can get more sun.  It does cut down on the temperature in the hoop house though.  Some of the tomato plants are taller than me and green tomatoes are starting to grow.  The peppers are plentiful as well. 

Weeding is a big issue with the farm.  We did not put any weed block (liner) down this year and that was a mistake.  Who wants to spend time weeding in 95 degree weather….not me!  Nothing gets planted without weed block ever again. 

TEDDY VS THE SNAKES -  last week (June 11th) Teddy came up to us acting funny….. Cris went to look at his face and Teddy cried in pain.  He apparently went after another snake and this time he got bit.  We gave him some Benedryl and off to the vet we went.  The vet gave him a steroid shot to help with the swelling.  He got bit but a rather large snake from the size of the bite. We were never able to locate the snake that bit him so I guess it got away.

Farmisms.....

A few little Farmism's from Sandy:

Living in the country, the phrase, “Let’s run to town to pick up beer (or milk or a tractor part or gas for the mower) gets me super excited.  I just love “going to town”.  Of course, I usually sit in the truck and wait for Cris to get whatever he went to town for but I love it. I sometimes end up with a Dr. Pepper and a Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake ice cream.

Give me a tractor or riding lawn mower with a full take of gas and I could mow all day long.  I just love the feeling of accomplishment….. It is immediate gratification….you mow a strip and right away it looks better.  I feel that way about vacuuming too.  Just ask Cris about my fascination with vacuums, brooms and mops. 

The difference between 95 degrees and 85 degrees is night and day.  I learned that a couple weeks ago after we had a brief drizzle at the farm…. The temp turned from 95 to 85, humidity was lower and it was heaven. 

Two people working together make the chores easier to handle.  (duh!)

Just because the Great Pyrenees your friend owns had 6 of the most adorable puppies you have ever seen, that does NOT mean we can have one.  They are livestock guard dogs and we don’t have livestock yet. 

It is OK to name the female cows but not the male cows.  The female cows stay on the farm to have babies and the male cows end up on the dinner plate.

As usual this time of year, along comes the heat and there goes the rain.  No rain to speak of for over 2 weeks. Cris' irrigation system has come in very handy at the farm.  The pump can run for about 3 hours before running out of gas so we can give the plants a good soaking...but nothing beats a nice rain.

We spent the night at the farm last weekend and our dinner was almost 100% from farm to fork.... we had freshly dug up red potatoes with onions and a pepper salsa topped with grilled sea bass. (you guessed it....the bass did not come from the farm...but everything else did). 

Still waiting for the tomatoes to turn green but when they do, we will have tomatoes, onions, peppers, radishes, peas and maybe potatoes ready for the market. Later in the summer there will be okra, squash, cucs and beets.

The septic work starts tomorrow (Thursday June 9th) and the well installation has been changed to next week due to some equipment repair with the well people.

Cris installed a window AC unit in the kitchen/living area until we have enough in the budget for the big heat pump that needs to be installed.  (around $3500-$4000).

The Memphis house is about 90% ready to go on the market...waiting for my landscape guy to get here to do some trimming and mulching and Cris has to get on a ladder (not his favorite thing) and fix a couple paint spots on the siding.  We have hired The Alex's (Alex and his friend Alex) to do some power washing and mulching next week.  After all that, we should be ready.... keep your fingers crossed that we don't have to be on the market too long.  When we bought the house in 2007, it had been on the market less than a day.  But that was before all the housing market mess.... :(

We are done planting things for a little bit so now we are concentrating on getting the fields mowed and especially the terraces.  The terraces are where snakes like to hide out and hunt mice..... as we found out last Sunday when Teddy the Terrier found a cotton mouth and killed it.  It was about 2 ft. long and Teddy shook the living daylights out of it.  I think Teddy saw stars from shaking his head so hard and fast.  Luckily, no snake bites this time. 

Our goal is to eventually get a new tractor (nothing huge) so we don't spend so much time working on the tractor and less time actually using it.  My tractor, the Ford 8N is still in several parts....waiting for a rainy day to work on it.  The Massey Ferg. is having carburetor trouble.... Cris cleans it out but then after a while, he has to clean it again.  He said he thinks it has to do with stuff they put in the gas now.

When the temperature reaches 90-100 and the humidity is high, we seem to get less than we want to done.... I guess it is because we have to take more breaks and work slower so we don't dehydrate.  It will be nice when we reach the point where we can hire interns in the summer.... cheap labor!

Click on the link below to see recent photos from the farm.

https://picasaweb.google.com/102597985594428577815/MemorialDayWeekend2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCPOrgMmfoJu_Mw&feat=directlink



Cris and I both took Friday off so we could knock out some of the items on the “things that need to be fixed/touched-up” list so we can get our Memphis house on the market.  The best time to sell is in the Spring and we are unfortunately a bit late for that.  It’s really hard sometimes trying to maintain two households.

Saturday Cris went to the farm with Teddy Bear (wheaten terrier) and I stayed home to do some of the cleaning that never seems to get done….like wiping down the ceiling fans, baseboards and decluttering some more.  We are going to have a “living estate sale” after we sell the house.  Since we are downsizing from 2600 sq ft to 1300 sq ft, we won’t need as much furniture and other household items.

The other reason I stayed home was to take Nugget (labradoodle) to the vet….seems he ate something he should not have and at first he kept coughing and gagging trying to get it up…. Then he finally got it down but…. (no pun intended), he could not get it out the other end.  Poor pup kept trying and trying to go potty but nothing would happen.  The lovely vet aid gave Nugget an enema of warm soapy water and that was all it took.  He was such a happy pup after that!

Anyway, enough about that.  Sunday, Alex and I went to the farm and helped Cris.  Alex did some bush hogging and weeding; I planted 216 plants…. Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, red cabbage and green cabbage.  Cris worked on the irrigation system and he has it working great.  All we have to do is turn on the pump at the pond and the little sprinklers water the veggies.  It is such a time saver.

Seems like there is always something to fix around the farm.  The UTV needed a new fuel line….fixed that last week and now the carburetor sounds dirty.  Flat tire on the lawn mower, flat tire on the small spreader.  Had to get a new tractor tire last week.  I am just so glad that Cris can fix about 95% of what breaks down.

We made more mushroom logs this weekend too.  We have mushroom logs with Chicken of the Woods, Lions Mane and Reishi mushroom inoculated in them.  Next month we have a group coming over to learn how to make mushroom logs.  It is the Hardeman County Sustainable Living Association.  We have been members of this group for over a year and we trade techniques with each other.  We meet once a month for dinner and discussion.  Last month two of our members brought spinning wheels to show us how they spin wool into yarn.  I have 3 bags full of fleece that one of the members is going to clean for me so I can eventually spin my own wool.  When I ever have free time that is.  Sounds like a good winter project.

The really exciting news is that the well and septic will be going in this week.  We have electricity since about 3 weeks ago.  I can’t wait for running water.  The ac/heat pump may have to wait until later in the year but we have a couple window ac units for the time being.

GARDEN UPDATE (check out the link above)
Hoop House - as you can see by the photo…. Tomatoes and Green Peppers are loving the hoop house.  Plenty of buds on the tomato plants that should be sprouting tomatoes very soon.

Onions and Potatoes are fantastic.  We have eaten the onions raw…they are so sweet.  Cris brought some of the potatoes home for dinner….delicious but they still need to grow a bit.

English Peas - we picked some for dinner last night….Cris made a pasta dish with just linguine, peas, onions, Parmesan cheese and a little olive oil.  It was great.  I think we are keeping the peas for ourselves this year and will grow more next year.  Not enough planted to sell.

Okra, cucumbers, squash, limas, lady peas, butter beans… all growing but some had to be replanted.  We planted straight seeds and think that next year we will start them as seedlings in the hoop house and then replant outside for better results.

Next week we plan to chip the trees finally.  They have been scattered on top of the hill for sometime and we need to get them chopped and chipped.  The mulch we make from chipping will be used to create a mushroom bed to grow morels.

We are getting into the hot weather season.... makes for some long, hot days on the farm so we try to do the hard outside work either first thing in the morning or in the evening.

I didn't realize how long it has been since I last blogged.  The time gets away from me.

So here's an update:

In the hoop house we have well over 100 tomato plants of various types.  They LOVE the hot, humid temps in the hoop house and are thriving.  The little plot of lettuce was planted is doing great.  It's a variety mix of greens and we have enjoyed them with our dinners.  Hopefully the hoop house will allow us to grow lettuce all year round.  We also have about 100 pepper plants:  green peppers, yellow peppers, jalapeno peppers and chili peppers I think.  They like the hot, humid temps too.  I don't, but I will have to just suffer.  It gets very hot in there at times.

Out in the fields we have 3-4 types of onions:  chives, vadalia, candy apple, and something else.  We have red and russet potatoes planted as well as garlic that was planted last fall. 

The corn (sweet and organic popcorn), squash, zucchini are just starting to sprout out of the ground and some of the various peas are sprouting as well.  The upper field we used last year has okra, turnips, mustard, rutabagas and sunflowers. 

The fruit trees are great - the pears and peaches are full of fruit.  The apple trees are slower to fruit and may not actually have any apples this year.  The blue berry bushes have some berries but nothing really to speak of; just enough for Cris and I to enjoy this year.  The blackberry bushes as thriving and have grown from 4 little plants to over 10 plants. 

The strawberry plants have fruit on them despite being planted this year.  Next year will be a better producing year.  I love the fact that they are perennials and we don't have to replant them next year.

This past weekend Cris and I planted 100 asparagus plants.  They need a year to really start producing and again, they are perennials so I like that! 

The modular home was installed about a month ago and hopefully this week Clayton Homes will complete all the minor repairs we have requested.  We have started to move a few items in but are waiting to really start moving in until they have completed the repairs.  The utility company has installed poles and electric lines and the electrician will install the meter and get electric to the house this Friday.  Next comes the septic system and then the well.  The ac/heater unit will have to wait until late summer so we will use window ac units to keep us cool until then.  The home is not huge; only 1200 sq feet so it won't take much to cool the rooms.  The breezeway between our portion of the house and the 2nd bedroom (Alex's room) is a covered deck which offers the nicest breeze....guess that is way it is called a 'breezeway'.  We have a great view of the pond from the back and the fields from the front. 

We have been de-cluttering our home in Memphis to get it ready to put on the market within the next 6 weeks.  Alex moves into his dorm at college Aug. 25th so by then, we should be all moved into the farm home. 

We plan to sell on Saturday's either at the Bolivar Farmer's Market or the Cooper Young Farmer's Market.  We may try the Botanic Garden on Wednesday this year but then again, that may wait until next year.  This is our year to test the waters and see what it takes to sell at farmer's markets. 

It has rained at least twice a week so that has helped water the plants outside.  I had forgotten how much it rains in the Spring here.  Last year at this time we were busy building a barn and did not plant until June, which was when the rain stopped. 

We also plugged more mushroom logs a few weeks ago.  Hopefully this time we will grow some fungus!  Our logs from last year did not produce one single shroom. 

Cris found a patch of Morel Mushrooms in the woods and we were able to pick about 25 mushrooms total.  They are hard to find and it was by luck that he found this patch.  We have not been able to find anymore. They were so delicious.  Cris made a pasta dish that was just pasta, the Morel mushrooms, some garlic and butter and it was one of the best dishes he has ever made.  Alex raved too so that really says something.  The flavor of fresh Morels is like no other.  They have a short growing season though so we will have to wait until next year to find more.  Once the ground heats up to a certain temp, they stop growing.  The good thing is that we can go back to the same spot next year and they will be growing there again.

Weed control - being an organic farm, we do not use any non-organic pesticides or weed killer.  So, that means, alot of weeding by hand at times.  One way we are trying to keep the weeds down is by using hay.  We have hay rolls from last year's field cutting and we spread the hay in between the rows of plants to keep the weeds/grass from growing.  It has worked well with the strawberries.  We spread a bunch of hay in the hoop house last weekend and that is helping to keep the grass from growing around the tomato plants.  Fire ants are a problem too so we use the 'grits' method of fire ant removal.  We spread instant grits on the fire ant mound and within 2 weeks, the ants are gone.  Seems they eat the grits and the grit expands and it kills them. I love the Internet....you can find anything! 

Pond - our fish are so great!  They are reproducing like crazy and the brim are growing nicely..... within a few mos. I think they may be large enough to catch and eat!  They are so well trained too.  They hear us pull up on the atv's and come swimming to the edge to be fed. 

We have our first farm animal - it's a Scottish Highland calf and her name is Hyacinth.  She is staying with her momma on our friend's farm until we have a place for her at our farm.  She is no bigger than a dog and she knows her name.  Scottish Highland have a great temperament and do not get huge like an Angus cow.   Our friend names all her cows starting with the letter "H".  There's a Hamilton, Hero, Hannah.  Since our first calf is named Hyacinth, we are going to name our heifers/cows (females) with flower names.  Don't think we will name the males since they will become dinner.  Our friends named the pig they planned to butcher, "Freezer".  I like that.  :)

I will take pictures this weekend and post them.  I will try to make a video too soon.