I think this is the beginnings of an economy based on perpetual growth and fossil fuel energy running headlong into geological energy constraints. Basically I see an undulatory downward path for the rest of my life. From here out, I think any rallies in our economic condition are going to be met with spiking commodity prices that knock us right back down.
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6976 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 12:15 pm Post subject: [Sm. Farm] Today I...
I’ve been thinking about this starting this thread for a while. I sometime feel awkward posting about a “ field” when others are talking about patio gardens and I don’t want to discourage anyone from making do with what they have. I love the “Today I made for a PO world” thread, but some of the things I post there are a little off topic - fence building, raising calves, etc. I think a thread along the same lines but more in the way of a “homesteaders diary” may be valuable to some folks - including me!
Now just so you know in advance, I have 40 ac of pretty good land – for the Ozarks at least, use a small diesel tractor and hire other work done by those evil machines as well; I also use grid power and keep my store-bought beer in a refrigerator. It boils down to making a living today the best way I can while learning to do things in a more “sustainable” fashion. I hope to post on some homebrew fuel experiments as they are completed but in the meantime, hopefully some of you folks that know how can “learn” us some about using draught animals, homegrown traction fuel etc.
Sooo…
Yesterday I worked on a larger moveable chicken pen between playing “Biggie Barn Hardware Store” with my grand daughter. This one will house meat birds and be moved around for the birds to forage. It is 10’ x 12’ with 20” sides and a 6’ +/- roof peak. The sides and a little of the roof are old corrugated tin to keep the wind off and the bird snatchers at bay somewhat. The majority of the roof is chicken wire. The base is pressure treated 2x4’s bought new and the rest of the framing is 2x2’s - some new, some ripped from scrounged lumber. I’ll have a tarp in place for the worst weather. Two of us should be able to move it easily enough with hand-trucks.
I missed the magic potato planting date of St. Paddies Day but we now have a big pile of seed cut up and drying.
Some of the fescue and red clover we planted is coming up nicely in the new “central” paddock. This is a small area in the center of the place with a bunch of gates on all sides. It seemed to make more sense for the shape of our place to have one well-fenced paddock instead of a lane to rotate animals from field to field. Right now we will be using temporary hot wires to divide the pastures and perhaps go to something more permanent in the future.
I hope to plant some clover in the big pasture next winter - I didn’t have a chance to get the exiting fescue grazed or mowed close enough to give the clover a chance to get established before being shaded out this year.
A read neat trick for monitoring a temporary water line for leaks, I put in 1,000 feet of 1” poly line to reach the water troughs in the far pasture and installed a pressure gauge in the line where it is likely to be seen often. Our pressure is usually around 50# so if it is significantly below that for any length of time you know you have a bad leak.
OK, perhaps someone else?
(edited for weird font problem) _________________ Make a plan and work it:
Last edited by Pops on Thu Apr 14, 2005 8:26 am; edited 2 times in total
Cant argue with the fact that I have a SMALL farm. My house sits on a 3/4 acre lot. Unless I cant count my six chickens and less than 500 sqare feet of garden as farm material. I am working with small 10' diameter plots in my front yard. Today I dug and planted two more plots one with cucumbers and peas the other with onions and tomatoes. I laid out my potatoes late also dont feel bad. I planted my potatoes trench and hay method, a 12" trench and cover with hay, fill with more hay as it settles. This make digging up a breeze.
Also I am looking into small scale fish and worm farming in 50 gallon drums
Pops, have you considered additional planting for your fencing or boundaries. A very effective, and cheap, livestockproof fence is hedgerow. Luckily, hedgerow plants can also be edible. Over here the native hedgerow is blackberry, gorse, whitethorn, elderberry, holly, hazel.. etc. You might consider planting some along your fence lines and pretty much leaving it to do it's own thing once it's established.
I am going to be learning about "horse power" for farming soon, I know how to ride, but ploughing and haymaking with a horse is beyond me atm... I found a few websites recently that gave great information about it, but I can't find them, I'll keep looking though. I can personally recommend the Irish Draught horse as a brilliant all round horse. It can work and ride, and has a most amenable temperament. Get a mare, and you can at least breed another horse. Not many tractors can do that.
Where is the Ozarks? Is it in a cold or hot climate? If it's a cool/cold climate, you might want to get a polytunnel. This will greatly improve your yields, and you could grow winter veg.
Have you put any land as "set aside"? If not, maybe you should do an acre or two of set aside, and plant a small woodland of fast growing trees for future firewood.
These are all plans I hope to be doing on our own 50 acres in the near future, as well as building a "sustainable" house, with off grid living a definite ambition. Chickens and pigs will probably be our first venture, any ploughing that needs doing will done by the pigs on a small scale.
Can I also recommend rivercottage.net forums as a place to get excellent information on all the things you'll be doing, especially homebrew...lol. _________________ We've tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas.
I am only one. I can only do what one can do. But what one can do, I will do. -- John Seymour.
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 13065 Location: naive idiot fantasy world
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 1:52 pm Post subject:
Quote:
I am going to be learning about "horse power" for farming soon,
I'm wondering what work you anticipate which will require the extra expense and work of owning a horse? If you can use the pigs to plough, what other work would you need the horse for? Do you plan to do lumbering or cartage?
Cutting and baling hay to be specific, and any other harvesting of grain crops that I may grow in the future. Don't forget, it's 50 acres.. my initial plan of ploughing with pigs is only for small areas. As for the expense, I can't eat grass, but the horses can, aswell as the sheep and cows. I already have 3 horses, but two are for sale atm, so my next horses will be bought with farming in mind. Namely, I'll be getting a good Irish Draught mare so that I may breed from her in the future aswell as work her on the land. It won't be much more expensive than trying to run a tractor when oil is $100 a barrel. It won't churn up my land or compact the ground like a tractor will either (it's clay soil, so we have to be careful). I already keep one horse on the 50 acres, cost to me : nil.
Joined: Dec 27, 2004 Posts: 13065 Location: naive idiot fantasy world
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:27 pm Post subject:
Ok, I can see needing to do that if you're in a climate that requires preparing hay. I'm used to the idea of horses being an expense and a pain in the ass, rather than an asset!
I'm used to the idea of horses being an expense and a pain in the ass, rather than an asset!
Lol!! Where is it that you live? In fairness, horses are expensive if you don't have your own land. One of my horses is a show hunter, meaning he needs stabling in winter (he's thinskinned), it costs me a fortune because I don't have stables on my land yet. That's why I'm selling him, it's just stupid paying that money when I can just as easily keep a hardier horse on my land for nothing. I will have stables in the future though, but I will release some good capital and save on his livery costs if I sell him now. It will be a heartbreak, but so be it.
I do plan on driving (carting) them in the future too should I need to do it. It will be easy as pie with fewer cars on the road. _________________ We've tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas.
I am only one. I can only do what one can do. But what one can do, I will do. -- John Seymour.
Oh yes, rotation will be essential. I will be committing about 12 acres (perhaps less depending on yields) to hay for a good portion of the year. I will also be using cross grazing, which means grazing multiple species on the one field/paddock. This is better for the grass and soil. Like I said, it's clay soil, so it's wet in winter meaning we will not be able to graze all day, the animals will be housed overnight, needing hay. _________________ We've tried nothin' and we're all out of ideas.
I am only one. I can only do what one can do. But what one can do, I will do. -- John Seymour.
When the tractors have no fuel, horses will be very, very important. It wasn't that long ago, really, that they were it as far as transportation and farm/forest power.
I have a big Percheron mare that I log with, and do some driving. There is an "expense" of hay, but the hay is grown, using sunlight, right down the road here, not in Eye-rack or some other far off land. Hay will continue to grow post-petroleum. And haying can be done with horses. And horses create other horses!
If you have the temperament and situation for it, I think learning about draft horses and working with harness is a useful thing, and will become more useful. But again, as with all of my "preparations", I am doing what I want anyway, not doing it to prepare for anything in particular. Same with my gardening - I'd be doing it PO or not.
Yes, horses are a bit of work, and expense if you must buy hay, but aren't we talking about a post-petroleum world here? You will have plenty of time to care for your livestock once you lose your job. I'm not talking about keeping pets here. It's just that sometimes you need, well, horsepower!
unknownelement - (I'm not even going to begin to try to reproduce the capitalization) If you have large seed potatoes you can cut them into pieces that each have a couple of eyes. After cutting it's good to leave them so the cut sections dry before planting, some folks leave them a few hours, some a few days. It helps them resist rotting when you put them in cool wet dirt.
Potatoes are a great garden crop, fresh ones from the garden are so much better than store-bought from storage. Lots of folks don't grow them because they're so cheap at the store, but the quailty of home grown is so much better, and there are literally 100's of varieties available. I'm growing two varieties of fingerlings, small and long and skinny, two varieites of yellow multipurpose that have been bred here in the pacific northwest, and an early red variety.
Joined: Dec 04, 2004 Posts: 2353 Location: perpetual state of exhaustion
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:53 pm Post subject:
Thanks for the info. I wasn't going to grow any potatoes for exactly the reasons you mentioned, but if I did grow them my kids might actually eat them if they taste better than the store bought ones.
I just learned you can do the same thing with ginger, so I am going to grow a crop of it. My big thing is going to be figureing out how to grow intensively, I have to. otherwise I will be wanting to grow so much I will wind up ripping up my whole yard. (not that there's much to it)
Pops, good idea. I've had the same thought cross my mind, as it seems most of my posts are of the "homesteady" variety. Can't help it, since that's where I live . And for the record, your posts do not discourage me in the least - to the contrary they inspire me. I would imagine others feel the same.
As for us, we have 13 acres, with a total of 160 being in the family and attached to our 13. Therefore, firewood can be cut off the entire 160 with no complaints, but the 13 is really what I have to work with. Grandpa, who purchased this land in the 1960's did a lot of development, but over the years much has deteriorated. For example, most of the 13 acres we have is pasture. At one time the entire 13 was fenced, but old fencing was torn down, and now it is well fenced on only the east end. We'll be adding more fencing as we're financially able.
The land has a bit of a north-south slope, but the field was farmed in cotton in the 1930's and the CCC helped the owners at the time install terraces to help with erosion. On the north (lowest end) slope, we've recently had a pond put in (I was truly thankful for petroleum products watching the dozer work - I'd hate to think about digging a pond by hand - how did they do that???)
I don't have plans to garden on much more than I am now, until the time becomes necessary. My garden is about 2500 sq. ft. which is plenty big enough for me to learn better what I'm doing , and if the need arises at a later date, I can expand. In addition to our garden spot, we're planting a small plot (1/8 acre) of grain sorghum behind the house. The grain will be fed to our chickens and if I can find someone to cook the molasses, it will be cooked. Otherwise, it'll be deer food .
I currently have 25 grown laying hens and 4 roosters. I also have 38 layers that are now 5 1/2 weeks old, and 11 little roosters. Most of the little roosters and perhaps a couple of the older ones will end up in the freezer. We sell extra eggs to help pay for the food we purchase for the chickens, and for now, even with the extra cost of chick food, they pay for themselves. I have no illusion that this will continue as the chicks get larger and eat more, but still, selling the eggs will help with that expense. I expect to start seeing eggs from the little ones by August.
This weekend so far I've planted some more in my garden, and removed a LOT of rocks. Although our soil here (in the foothills of the Ozarks) is somewhat rocky, we're very fortunate that the past of this field was in farming. All of the larger rocks were removed years ago. The ones I turn up when gardening are at the largest, the size of your hand. A pain in the rear, to be sure, but not like the table rock near my parents' house. The rocks I removed from the garden are being carried across the front yard and deposited into the driveway to help with a couple low spots that seem to always suck in any gravel we put there.
This morning, we're hooking up the breaking plow (to the tractor:) - no horses yet, here) and breaking up the plot for the sorghum. We'll also be using the disc to break up the feed plot for hunting. My dad, brother, and husband are all avid hunters, and plant field corn, wheat, milo, soybeans or other cover for the wildlife. This 1 acre feed plot is behind our house in a clearing in the woods, and is part of the normal route the deer travel here. We also have wild turkey, dove, squirrels, rabbits, and a variety of other wildlife. Hunting is very good, for now, around here, and we're trying to encourage more wildlife.
After a few good rains (and FAR more expected this weekend), our new pond is filling nicely. There's a good 3 feet of water in the deepest part now, and I expect it will be full by the end of spring if things continue as they have been.
I'm looking forward to the development of this thread, and to learning much from all of you who have small acreage and are making it work using sustainable methods.
Kathy
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