Observations from someone actually doing it

jdumars

I have mentioned elsewhere that my wife and I are doing our best to create a nearly self-sufficient landbase through a combination of transition agriculture (headed toward permaculture), wildcrafting, hunting, fishing, food preservation and some alternative energy.

I'm going to use this thread to share some really, really hard-earned lessons that may help others who eventually try this. I will tell you, that this sort of endeavor is grueling beyond words, and frankly most people have absolutely no idea how hard it is to make it like this.

First, a little about the terrain and layout here. The farm consists of roughly 500 acres, with 400 in hardwood forests and 100 in very fertile river bottom. There are two ponds, both heavily populated with fish, some very large. The smaller pond is near our primary field, which is about 4 acres.

This is the first year the field has been worked since being plowed a few years ago. Since it was left alone after the initial plow, the weeds completely took over, especially Pennsylvania Smart Weed, Ragweed, Horse Nettle, various thorny brambles, grasses and passion vine. Because of some issues with heavy rains in the spring, we were not able to plow/disc until late April. This meant a late start for our peas, broccoli, cauliflower, cilantro, wildflowers, Jerusalem artichokes and such. Sadly, the cilantro never came up, nor did the wild flowers. The yields on the others has been quite low. The moral here is two-fold: if you cannot plant something on-time, don't bother planting and tending it. The space will be better used for something else. The other part is to plow/disc an initial time, wait about a week, then do it again more thoroughly. This approach made the consistency just right for direct-planting.

We did about 300 indoor seedling starts, which have had varying degrees of success. My advice to you is get as good as humanly possible at growing starts. Direct planting is extremely tricky because germination has so many different factors, and in most cases the weeds have a major head start. Another important bit of advice: if you have seedlings that are not fully developed, or hopefully ahead of the curve, don't plant them. They will simply take up space and not prosper. Everything you plant creates a set of future demands in terms of weeding, watering, pest management and such. Anything that isn't stellar needs to be removed as soon as possible. You will learn in a hurry that wishful thinking in terms of "catching up" is not useful. If a plant is behind, pull it out and put in something that isn't.

Watering is something you need to give a LOT of thought to, especially if you have to tote water some distance, as we do. Make sure that plants have an intentionally-constructed dirt berm around them that allows water to pool up (this is for drier climates... wetter places may wish to create a drainage system). Our main field is on an incline, so terracing your plants is very useful.

If you chose to do rows, make sure you leave enough room in between plants and also rows. You'll need that space to maneuver with buckets and other tools. Planting distances are really minimal, and unless you are space-bound, you should err on the further distance. If plants are a little too close, it can be very problematic in terms of disease and pest spreading. For the most part we did this right, but in a few places things are too close, and it shows.

When marking rows, use jute or biodegradable twine. It helps keep things straight, and you can just leave it there for the duration of the season. If/when weeds get really crazy, or something eats your stuff, it will help you re-plant easier because you can maintain the exact same row density.

If you are in a clay soil area, there are a lot of things you need to watch out for. First, be very, very careful about soil compaction. Because clay forms into a hard crust, you must not walk around on areas you wish to plant in if they are too wet. If your foot leaves an impression in the soil, it's too wet. Wait. You can use compaction to your advantage in some places, like in-between rows, which we have done to help keep the weeds down. If you're doing everything by hand, you'll need all the help you can get keeping invasive plants at bay.

If you are in an area heavy with ragweed, use it to your advantage. Use it as a mulch, let it shade more sun-delicate plants, use the allelopathic nature of the roots to control weeds the next season. The good thing is, once you pull them out, they stay gone, unlike many other weeds. In some cases, you may even want to promote it in lieu of other more aggressive plants.

One of the hardest lessons of this has been the absolute, dismal failure of all more mechanized tools, especially from the Lehman's catalog. Planting tools such as the Lehmans corn planter, and "best seed planter" made by Earthway were absolutely useless. Virtually all of these tools are intended for use in land that has been relentlessly plowed, has plenty of sand, and absolutely no rocks -- in other words land that has been the benefit of lots and lots of machine work. Hand working the land does not afford uniform soil consistency. You're much better off just working future rows by hand with a good shovel, then a wide-toothed rake, then a hand cultivator. Then, finally, when you plant, do the final work by hand with a very sharp hoe. Did I mention how back-breaking all this work is? Tools that do work: Korean ho-mi hoe plows and hand trowels, steel hoes that can be sharpened, gloves that have ventilation, 5 gallon buckets with foam handles -- I'll post more when I find them.

In hotter climes, I recommend doing as much of this work as possible early in the season, and as the Spring/Summer progresses, early in the morning, right before the sun is fully up. You can take advantage of dew on the ground, and the top layer of soil not being baked as hard.

For daily activities and maintenance, it's good to develop a routine. Just walk each row and look for droopy plants that need water, hand remove pests and crowding weeds, look at leaf color to see if they need a little fertilizer. Which, speaking of fertilizer, I highly recommend using blood meal as your primary nitrogen amendment. It's great because it repels deer, and doesn't burn plants if it accidentally gets on the leaves. It's also sustainable long term, because you can make it yourself as a byproduct of raining livestock and hunting.

Some non-agriculture tips:

If you are stocking up on ammo, you need to test-fire some rounds from each box. I recently shot some Blazer Brass 9mm that jammed in every pistol and misfired. As I went through 3 different boxes, same thing. If I had needed that in a pinch, it would have been much more of a liability than an asset.

Learn how to sharpen knives, axes, scissors and hoes. Get really, really good with a sharpening stone.

If you're in a field with rocks, learn to use those rocks for various tasks. For example, there's a lot of flint in this field, and I have learned to use it like a knife. Larger stones have been used as hammers and to break up dirt clods. They also make good weights on row lines, stacked up they make row markers, and if you're planting potatoes, you can put them by each plant. Also, where there's a rock, it will typically stop weed growth beneath it. You can make mounds one year and then plant in the weedless spots next year.

Learn everything you can now while you have access to the Internet. Also, find a set of books that are useful to you. You need to get good at differentiation -- plants, animals, even weather. Learning to differentiate is especially important in things like toxic/non-toxic, edible/non-edible, venomous/harmless. Practice your identification skills, and make it a game. It may very well save your life someday.

Get good optics, and keep them with you. Bushnell make a great pair of $40 binoculars with the quick focus bar that I simply can't recommend highly enough. If you're in an area with snakes, these can be very helpful -- especially for water snakes.

Speaking of snakes... start learning now if you have poisonous snakes where you are farming. My personal recommendation is to not kill any unless you absolutely have to. It's much better to learn their range, and what times they are active. For example the cottonmouth usually has a fairly defined range along streams, rivers and ponds, is active during the night and controls rodent populations.

If you're in a region with ticks, develop a routine of regularly removing them. Every time you get ready to go in for a break, check yourself. In the future, getting cured of lyme disease, spotted fever or babesiosis is not going to be easy, or perhaps even possible. Also, forget all the old wives tales about removing them. You need to learn their physiology, because your life will depend on it. To remove them, use tweezers if available. Grab as close to the head as possible, do not squeeze them. Gently pull them while twisting slightly counter clock wise. Once removed, immediately clean the area with alcohol if you have it. Otherwise, just wash. If they leave mouthparts behind, dig them out however you can, or it will get infected. Note that it's very common for them to leave a small, raised bump that may persist and itch for literally weeks. It's annoying but not necessarily an indication of disease.

If you're like me, flies can drive you nuts. I have had very good success using a mosquito hat. I think I am going to buy about 2 dozen of these because it makes me so much more productive when I am not swatting at biting bugs. At $4 a pop, there are few things that are a better value. Long term, having a bolt of mosquito fabric would be a great investment.

Buy a lot of light, long-sleeve white T shirts. Seriously. When sun block is not available, these will save you. As part of the process here, we use absolutely no sun block, no bug repellents or any chemicals at all. If you've never spent a lot of time outside like this, you better start now. Again, most people have absolutely no concept of what it's like to work for hours outdoors without the benefit of chemicals, machines and such.

There is so much more to share, but I need to get out and do some watering. People who talk about a "self-sufficient garden" have little or no concept of what this means for the most part. Also, the "acre-per-person" rule of thumb should be considered best case scenario. From my experience, the amount of labor associated with that acre means breaking even, or hopefully a little better from a caloric perspective. Without using any petroleum or having work animals like oxen/horses, trying to grow enough food to live on is more demanding than you can possibly imagine. Seriously.

I hope this information is helpful. I'll try and post some photos later.
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wisconsin_cur · Moderator Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 3211

Thank you for all of that. It is the first long post that I have read carefully in a long time. Sounds like you have a great set up, esp the ponds.
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Ludi

Looks good, j. Thank you for sharing your experience. Smile

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threadbear · Expert Joined: Jan 22, 2005 Posts: 7738

Do you have chickens?

Troyboy1208

Jesus you would think its the end of the world based upon your post. I remember growing up on a farm as a kid. No doubt those skill will come in handy in the future. You are lucky to have so much land...I have a 115 x 75 foot lot. My dad has 10 acres in the country. So if it gets bad I will shack up with him

startswithearthquakes · Tar Sands Joined: May 27, 2008 Posts: 93

That's great it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an airplane, and Lenny Bruce is not afraid. ..

jdumars

Thanks for the kind words! I truly appreciate them.

No chickens or domesticated animals of any kind. There are plenty of doves, Bobwhites, Chuck Wills Widows, ducks, geese, turkies and such here. We're trying to avoid any kind of animal husbandry to stay as near permaculture as possible.

Troy, the end of the world as you know it may be a lot closer than you think. We're just one supply shortage away from complete collapse. The reason we're doing this is partly to learn how hard it is, and also to improve our skills for the future. One thing I have learned is that almost no one who has "experience farming" really has experience farming. If you take the oil, power tools, chemicals, tractors and such out of the equation, your average farmer knows next to nothing. Factory farming has almost no relation to real farming. That's why I am giving you a peek into the real world.
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Dismantle globally, renew locally!

Ludi

Permaculture often includes domestic animals...

Just sayin'. Smile

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"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow." - jboogy

Ludi

I have a couple questions:

If you're using hand tools in your farming, what are you using to plow/disc?

How much of your food supply are you currently providing through your farming efforts?

Thanks.
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"...powerdown so soft and fluffy you'll think you're living in a pillow." - jboogy

WisJim

Interesting post. I will agree, based on over 25 years of doing it, that starting seeds inside and putting transplants in the garden works very well. It gets us an early start on many kinds of crops, allows us to plant more succession crops as we avoid the weeks waiting for seeds to germinate. We transplant just about everything except beans, peas, and chard. We usually plant spinach seed in the fall and overwinter it with good results. Otherwise, everything goes in as little plants.

frankthetank

What percentage of your calories would you like to hunt/grow yourself?
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patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1664

Based on our experience doing some subsistence farming with horses, I know jdumars is correct in his assesments. I'm not sure that it is possible to produce ALL your own food with human power alone. It may be possible, but I'm certain that it is not a desirable choice. Even using draft animals as efficiently as possible, it is still a life of drudgery. Our forebears lived a perilous existence, indeed.
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Local fix-it guy..

allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 893

Thanks for the derailed report. I've printed it out to digest at leisure.

davep · Expert Joined: Jun 21, 2006 Posts: 1304 Location: Europe

manu · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jul 26, 2006 Posts: 760

Interesting. Have you ever thought of getting a couple of cows or oxen?