|
|
Post by davida on Apr 26, 2013 22:21:26 GMT -5
Davida, your cow hay was mowed yesterday and is sitting in windrows waiting for Peaches to come eat it. It wasn't a good year for hay. It was hardly even up to my waist. Last year, I could hide in it. If I could stop sneezing! Peaches would love the hay. I finally got to start her on "controlled grazing" of the winter wheat yesterday. It was suppose to be winter pasture but did not get enough rain. The controlled grazing will be on a 60-30-10 basis. When she has eaten 60%, trampled 30% and has 10% remaining, she will be moved to the next small strip. Hope you get some good rain after the hay is baled. |
|
|
|
Post by steev on Apr 26, 2013 22:40:10 GMT -5
Hacked out a lung, the past two days; I think my new helper (who has two small kids) brought me a novel new virus. Oh, well, tomorrow I'll go to the farm, where the air is dry and people are few; maybe I'll even be able to taste my food. Corn to plant and beans, many beans. I think I'll interplant Teparies and Sorghum in the same furrow, expecting to irrigate NMT weekly, if that often.
|
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on Apr 28, 2013 0:47:18 GMT -5
Hacked out a lung, the past two days; I think my new helper (who has two small kids) brought me a novel new virus. Oh, well, tomorrow I'll go to the farm, where the air is dry and people are few; maybe I'll even be able to taste my food. Corn to plant and beans, many beans. I think I'll interplant Teparies and Sorghum in the same furrow, expecting to irrigate NMT weekly, if that often. Well don't pop out your stitches while hacking that lung. I was thinking about you waltzing that tiller. How's she doing for you. I ran out of irrigation hose yesterday and it required a trip to Soquel to get it. So much work! So little time. Sorry about the wee ones...they are germy! |
|
|
|
Post by steev on Apr 29, 2013 0:47:50 GMT -5
No stitches any more; they do that with Superglue, nowadays; doesn't leave as cool/grotty a scar, either; too bad, that; I'm past wanting to be beautiful; I'm ready for "colorful".
Sukie, the BCS mule, is doing her job like the Romans built aqueducts: workmanlike and to last. You won't catch me in overpriced Italian clothes, but agricultural implements? I'd wear Italian farm-ware anywhere!
|
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on Apr 29, 2013 15:09:47 GMT -5
I so lust for Italian Farm - ware!
It's bleeding hot here in San Martin. Today I harvested the first green garlic! It's only April.
So:
No Favas
No Cicers
No Pisum
Main spring crops of Broc, Cauli, Cabbage, Kale, Fennel, Rhubarb, Asparagus done.
Joseph, I harvested your turnips and radishes today. I think I have one more week of these.
What in the world am I going to do for May?
I guess I have to do my spring planting in December with this climate change. I'm thinking I need a second farm somewhere further North...where they still have Spring.
|
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Apr 30, 2013 15:48:34 GMT -5
It is spring in coastal BC, 2 cherries finished blooming and now apples , plums blooming and I have discovered how to use dandelions as a vegetable ; delicious , organic and free for the forage ! The big problem I am seeing thousands of blossoms and very very precious few polinators . I mean I have seen precisely 2 bumble bees today total and one was very small. I am in an area of hobby type horse acreages for the most part so not swaths of GMO's or commercial scale pesticide application . It seriously has me concerned .
Happy news is the arrival today of a maiden meat does first litter of bunnies. I have not disturbed them enough to count but my other half Flemish half New Zealand doe had 9 healthy bunnies 3 weeks ago and they are happily bouncing around ( father was full new Zealand ) So far the does are being excellent mothers for maidens which is why I wanted the half Flemish blood in them. As cute as they are, I am still thinking of them as meat , raised with loving care as eating commercial meat is just disturbing for me for my families health and the ethics of husbandry on commercial scales .
I am flying by the seat of my pants at the best of times . I am planting apple seeds and others as we eat the fruit trying to get standard trees for my food forest ( the one that seems to exist in my own mind ) .
|
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on Apr 30, 2013 16:07:36 GMT -5
Synergy, Half of my farm exists in my mind. 1/4 of it on paper.
Then there's the 1/8 that exists in my seed bank, the 1/16th that exists in pots, and the 1/32nd that is the real farm.
The rest...weeds.
For bees, plant some borage. If they are around, they will flock to you.
Today I planted some Cortona Fasiolina's and a plot of Joseph Beans. And then I hoed corn.
Now I have to go start more corn to a flat, more zinnias and take a nap.
|
|
|
|
Post by billw on Apr 30, 2013 16:16:09 GMT -5
Lazy beds. 10 down, 16 to go.   |
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on Apr 30, 2013 21:48:25 GMT -5
Well explain lazy beds please.
|
|
|
|
Post by billw on Apr 30, 2013 22:51:15 GMT -5
Well explain lazy beds please. It is a traditional Irish method of simultaneously breaking new ground and growing potatoes. The rows are sort of sod sandwiches, with an overturned layer of sod atop intact ground. It accomplishes the goals of killing grass and weeds, providing drainage, and planting potatoes all at the same time. I've never tried it before, but I had a large area of lawn with poor, rocky soil to convert this year and it seemed like a good way to approach it. This area is about six feet lower than our main garden area with much higher clay content, so the better drainage was an appealing feature. Anyway, you can read more about it the same place that I first did: oca-testbed.blogspot.com/2012/04/breaking-new-ground-for-tuber-planting.html |
|
|
|
Post by 12540dumont on May 1, 2013 16:22:37 GMT -5
Oh, well, I have no sod, no lawn...only pastureland..oats, wheat, rye, barley to deal with.
I like the name lazy, it looks anything but!
A scythe?
A shovel and a hoe?
I think I'd rather waltz with the BCS. Strike up the band and play something in 3/4 time. Waltzing Matilda? Take this Waltz?
You did a great job!
|
|
|
|
Post by raymondo on May 1, 2013 16:59:42 GMT -5
Those beds look great. Nice job.
|
|
|
|
Post by billw on May 1, 2013 18:19:57 GMT -5
I think I'd rather waltz with the BCS. Strike up the band and play something in 3/4 time. Waltzing Matilda? Take this Waltz? I lust after those BCS tractors quite often, but I'm too small scale to justify the expense. I work just about 1 acre, on my way toward 2, but that is as big as I can go. I've found that I use power tools infrequently enough that they are more trouble than they're worth, even though I sometimes regret that in spring. Grub hoe, broadfork, and spade never break down, although I sometimes do. |
|
|
|
Post by nathanp on May 1, 2013 22:31:18 GMT -5
BillW - doesn't the grass grow through the bed to the top? How deep is the sod layer that you are removing?
|
|
|
|
Post by steev on May 2, 2013 0:51:39 GMT -5
While I admit that the initial expense of Italian farm implements is a tad spendy, it has become obvious to me that it is far less costly than a 40hp three-point tractor and implements. Further, the greater utility/power is far beyond smaller rototillers. While not up to the speed/area of work of a full-size tractor, I can see that this two-wheel tractor will let me break/amend new ground as fast as I can utilize it, given my limitations on planting, irrigating, and harvesting. I do wish Sukie had a cup-holder.
|
|
