Penguin
08-27-2019, 11:33 AM
Jimmie's remark in the coffee thread reminded me that I have been really scarce around any internet nooks and crannies this summer. Lord have mercy I have been busy this summer. Now that a lot of the summer work is done and I'm back on the payroll. I thought I would just drop a few lines on news/what we got done on the farm this season.
1) I got the summer wood finished up six weeks or so into the summer. 5 1/2 cord of prime black locust and ash are now stacked in the woodshed and ready to go. The new Huskie chainsaw performed wonderfully. Light and really capable. I really should post a pic of the splitting maul I use. Same one I've used since junior high back in the 80s. It looks like some old viking war relic now. :)
2) The garden.... man what a job that is! We did some serious soil amending last fall. Maybe 700 pounds of compost. And this year we have maybe a bit less than 1/2 cubic yard finishing up in our homemade bin. It is a combo of grass clippings and chicken manure. Should be prime stuff. And how did it work? Pretty well I'd say even though we aren't where we need to be yet. We have another batch or two of tomatoes to go, but we have maybe 30 of 2 1/2 cup packages frozen. We have 31 quarts of our own green beans. And a good friend gave us what turned out to be 10+ quarts of the old Dutch white half runner. And he told me he would save some seeds so I can grow them next year. After last years fiasco with what were supposed to be that bean it is a welcome gift. Country people are awesome. Our second crop of sugar snap peas are coming along nicely as the weather cools. And the new asparagus beds have plants that seem to have grown into shape a bit in their first summer.
3) The orchard is starting to take shape. We planted 2 cherry trees, and 4 apple trees this year to go with the 2 peach trees from last year. All are growing very well. I put in a nice grape arbor and hope to plant 4 vines this winter. The legacy trees we got with the place were mixed. We picked maybe 10 gallon of the old time small pie cherries and could have gotten 3 times that many if we could have reached them. They are small cherries that lose 1/2 their volume when pitted but they are some kind of tasty. The apple trees were a flop. We got a cold late rain that ruined us. Almost no apples although all of our neighbors had them in bunches. It happens. And last but not least we have a couple pear trees that are loaded. If we have one we have a thousand pears on them. The large tree should be ready to get started on late this week. The winter pears on the small tree are still a month or so away.
4) The timbering seems to be done. The poor fellow who was cutting fell ill about 1 day from finishing up. He almost died and scared us all. Hell of a nice guy but this might have been his last job. He decided to leave a good bit of the stuff between 18 and 24 inches. And we ended up keeping a whole lot more than we had hoped. Nothing under 18 inches was taken but in ~some~ areas it was all very big stuff and not much under 18 was even there. Along the fields, and along the top where the house and my deer stand are, though, were almost untouched except for some really big chestnut and white oaks. I am thrilled to have so much woods still looking so good!
Next year I hope to get started building a new fence so I can run stock. I didn't even want to start before they got the timbering done. And we need to paint the house next summer. And we need to get a couple entrances built that don't bring you in through the garage. And on and on. But so far she's looking good and taking shape. But it is a lot of work and I'm happy to be back in the classroom so I can catch my breath for a while.
Will
1) I got the summer wood finished up six weeks or so into the summer. 5 1/2 cord of prime black locust and ash are now stacked in the woodshed and ready to go. The new Huskie chainsaw performed wonderfully. Light and really capable. I really should post a pic of the splitting maul I use. Same one I've used since junior high back in the 80s. It looks like some old viking war relic now. :)
2) The garden.... man what a job that is! We did some serious soil amending last fall. Maybe 700 pounds of compost. And this year we have maybe a bit less than 1/2 cubic yard finishing up in our homemade bin. It is a combo of grass clippings and chicken manure. Should be prime stuff. And how did it work? Pretty well I'd say even though we aren't where we need to be yet. We have another batch or two of tomatoes to go, but we have maybe 30 of 2 1/2 cup packages frozen. We have 31 quarts of our own green beans. And a good friend gave us what turned out to be 10+ quarts of the old Dutch white half runner. And he told me he would save some seeds so I can grow them next year. After last years fiasco with what were supposed to be that bean it is a welcome gift. Country people are awesome. Our second crop of sugar snap peas are coming along nicely as the weather cools. And the new asparagus beds have plants that seem to have grown into shape a bit in their first summer.
3) The orchard is starting to take shape. We planted 2 cherry trees, and 4 apple trees this year to go with the 2 peach trees from last year. All are growing very well. I put in a nice grape arbor and hope to plant 4 vines this winter. The legacy trees we got with the place were mixed. We picked maybe 10 gallon of the old time small pie cherries and could have gotten 3 times that many if we could have reached them. They are small cherries that lose 1/2 their volume when pitted but they are some kind of tasty. The apple trees were a flop. We got a cold late rain that ruined us. Almost no apples although all of our neighbors had them in bunches. It happens. And last but not least we have a couple pear trees that are loaded. If we have one we have a thousand pears on them. The large tree should be ready to get started on late this week. The winter pears on the small tree are still a month or so away.
4) The timbering seems to be done. The poor fellow who was cutting fell ill about 1 day from finishing up. He almost died and scared us all. Hell of a nice guy but this might have been his last job. He decided to leave a good bit of the stuff between 18 and 24 inches. And we ended up keeping a whole lot more than we had hoped. Nothing under 18 inches was taken but in ~some~ areas it was all very big stuff and not much under 18 was even there. Along the fields, and along the top where the house and my deer stand are, though, were almost untouched except for some really big chestnut and white oaks. I am thrilled to have so much woods still looking so good!
Next year I hope to get started building a new fence so I can run stock. I didn't even want to start before they got the timbering done. And we need to paint the house next summer. And we need to get a couple entrances built that don't bring you in through the garage. And on and on. But so far she's looking good and taking shape. But it is a lot of work and I'm happy to be back in the classroom so I can catch my breath for a while.
Will