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April 2006
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Sunday, April 30th

Finally an update


Well I was headed to the auction I mentioned in the last post when some guy pulled out in front of my truck and we crashed. Totalled out my truck and banged up my buddys trailer pretty good.
So I didn't get any cows that day.
But Tammy and I made it to an auction 2 weks ago and bought 2 cute calves. A Jersey/Holstein cross we named Belle and a crossbreed we named Lady. I think Lady has some Milking Shorthorn in her. They are both thriving in the old chicken brooder coop. Lady is 4 months old and fits in a halter so we have been tethering her out but she doesn't take the warmth well and starts overheating out in direct sunlight so I may have to modify my plans a bit.
I found a local farmer who will sell me hay at cheaper prices if I buy it on the wagon so he doesn't have to unload it in his barn. I will probably go back to having the calves graze on half an acre and buy in hay for the winter.
With gas at 3 bucks a gallon I need to come up with some other means to keep the lawn mowed. I bought 3 rabbits yesterday and may start working on a couple of chicken tractors.
We finally got the previous owner to remove the old cars he had parked out in the back acre and I have spent a few days cleaning out the remaining junk and old fenceposts and rocks left back there. Still have a bunch of stuff to remove, but it is looking much better.
Tammy tilled a buch more area for the garden and I have some tilled up around the chicken yard so I can plant some leaf letuce for them to peck in.
We got our asparagus planted and Tammy is working on thinning out the strawberries and moving them to a new area.
My dad is ready to give us all the raspberries we can handle and a few more varieties of strawberries so our soft fruit selection should be pretty good. Found what we believe to be a wild plum and hope to get enough fruit off of it to get some jelly this year.
This week should see the potatoes and corn planted. Plus we have lots of broccoli, cabbage, pumpkin, squash, and mellon plants to transplant.
One more pass with the tiller and most of the garden should be ready for that.

A couple of pics
Lady


Belle
sammyd on 04.30.06 @ 07:30 AM CST [link]

Sunday, April 2nd


Well, been a while.
Spring has sprung!
Spent yesterday chasing chickens around the yard, cleaning up from winter and generally puttering around.
Have to run some wire fence around the chicken yard as they peck at the green plastic snow fence and put escape holes in it.
Removed all the fence from around last years chicken yard and from some of the property line where the fence had really gotten bad.
Gonna plant sweet corn in the old yard.
Tammy has her tiller ready to go. I think it's a bit wet out yet but she's going to try it.
Had to put some chicken wire on the broken windows in the garage to keep birds out. Tired of poop on all my stuff. I suppose soon I will have to replace the glass.

Had a pile of apple tree limbs from fall cleanup out back and boy did the rabbits really give them the workout. Hardly a scrap of bark left and piles of pellets! I haven't seen so many pellets in one area since I raised rabbits. But they did leave the blueberries alone.

Finding a Jersey calf is turning out to be like the search for the Holy Grail. Seems the guys that have them are unwilling to part with them. There is an auction Wed and there will be Jerseys there. I have to borrrow my friends stack trailer and check it out.
I also want to get a walk behind sickle mower for cutting hay and any grains I raise but they are few and far between as well. Unless I want to buy new.

I am leaning towards modifying the land rotation and trying to have 6 plots instead of the 8 as in the book. I would rotate them like a regular farm and only raise hay corn and oats (with clover and Timothy).
I wouldn't have to have a big root storage area then.

I did get a book called Rootcellaring and am interested in turing a room in the basement into a root cellar but would have to see how well that works before I would trust a years crop in it.

This is the time for experimenting though as even if I do get a heifer calf I have 2 years before she starts milking and I need to expand for a pig as well.

The plant I have started in teh basement look good. Have to start on my cold frame next week.
Lots of things to do!
sammyd on 04.02.06 @ 11:14 AM CST [link]