Better Get Growing

Though we got a little bit of a late start, it's gardening time around here!  We could have started a few weeks earlier as the last frost/freeze was smack dab in the middle of March. Had we been psychics, we would have known that was the last of the cold weather and started planting by the third week of March, but we'll take prudence over getting the earliest start.

The vegetable gardens are mostly planted, with just a few items left to go in.  We have radishes, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, okra, corn, cantaloupes and canary melons, peas, cucumbers, scarlet-runner beans, bush and pole beans, artichokes, and onions.

Neta made markers from scraps of PVC pipe she
found around the farm for each row/variety of veggies.

The zucchini have sprouted.  Just those few plants will
probably be enough to end world hunger.

The radishes are sprouting.  A pinwheel apparently denotes "radish patch".

The scarlet-runner beans will climb this once we throw some wire over it.
We're using available materials we find in the barns.

Courtesy of our spigot in the distance, and 150' of hose, we can
irrigate all gardens when needed.

Two rows of recently irrigated corn.

Neta went a little exotic this year with some jicama and pepino melon garden berries (which aren't actually melons or berries), plus I'm going to put in a patch of horseradish, which I've done before in a large pot when we lived in VA.

We still have tomatoes, tomatilloes, peppers, watermelon and more cantaloupes to add. Pumpkins, too, but we learned last year that they need to be started much later if you want to have them for Halloween (instead of August).

80+ tomatoes, some peppers and a few cukes still left to be planted.

We haven't forgotten about flowers, shrubs and trees to help us add to the beauty of the place.  Last year Neta signed me up for the Arbor Day Foundation which allowed us to get a bunch of free trees.  We got a mix of forsythias, redbuds, dogwoods, red maples, hawthorns, 2 tartan cherries and others. For Valentine's Day I got Neta three different camellias that we've planted around the house so we can see them from our windows.

Camellia in foreground with a redbud and another camellia in the background.

Two cherry trees.  The second one is barely visible in the background.

Neta has been adding gardens and plants in various places around the house. I'd cut down a dying mimosa a couple of months ago and hadn't gotten around to moving the final couple pieces of trunk, but was going to leave part of the trunk standing to put a potted plant on.  The trunk was hollow so Neta decided to plant Black-Eyed Susan vine inside the trunk and use the other pieces as part of a garden, planting nasturtium in the rotting, hollowed out parts and some coleus at the base of the trunk, along with some hosta.  I think it turned out pretty nice.

Now that's how you make something nice from nothing.
It should be very pretty once it all starts to fill in.

This past Saturday, Neta and I spent part of our morning at a local plant nursery.  We came home with a carload of plants and flowers including: butterfly bush, a peach tree, a red buckeye tree, a flowering almond bush, 2 pink lemonade blueberry bushes (the fruits are pink when ripe), 2 thornless blackberries and a Lady Baltimore Hibiscus (we had one in VA), along with some jalapeno plants and assorted annuals.

Part of the haul we brought back that we've still got to plant.

Once again the tiller came in very handy.  We have a spot in the yard beside the house where an old well was filled in with gravel and were a pile of leftover gravel once sat.  As that spot would have always been trouble for the lawnmower Neta decided I should till it up and make it a flower bed.  Once again, we've taken what would have been something troublesome and turned it into something attractive.

Not too pretty yet as it still needs mulch.  It contains the flowering almond, the butterfly bush,
the hibiscus, some mums and a recently purchased iris.

Neta has also been filling her Grandma's concrete planters that were here on the farm and other pots that we had and putting them around the front and back porches.

The herb bench I built for her

The back porch area.

To top it all off, we have been clearing a spot in the woods behind the house. The trees were thinned last year and we want an area back there that will be nice to walk around in and plant some things among the pines.  Mother Nature gave us a head start as we noticed something coming up next to one pine tree.  We wondered what it could be and then it finally started blooming.

Gift gladiolas!

We do have a few trouble spots.  Our "driveway" leading up to the carport still needs to fill in with grass.  We're being patient.  Lulu loves to run around in the wet, dewy fields in the morning and then plop down on the mostly bare, sandy ground, covering herself with sand.  Our floors are like a beach hotel, and that's after wiping her down as best as we can.

Filling in slowly.

Also our blueberries got bit by the last freeze as they were in bloom.  We have one bush that seems to have made it through unscathed, but the rest only have a few berries as they managed to put out a few more blooms after the cold weather.

Not as prolific as past years, but we'll be able to make a dessert or two.

 

This particular bush has almost no berries at all.

That's it for now on the gardening front.  Coming soon...the wildflower meadow!

Productivity Increase

Neta and I both agree that the new tractor has changed things considerably here on the farm, even in the first week.  Stuff that would have taken us hours of manual labor now takes just minutes and we're on to the next project.  Things are getting crossed off the list pretty quickly, though it is a LONG list and even with the tractor, we've got enough to keep us busy for years.

When we got the new tractor we were going to use the old one for trade-in, but since we needed a few implements we decided to use the value of the old tractor in trade for those instead.  We mentioned in the last post we were getting a tillovator (roto-tiller) and since the old tractor had a bit more value we added a post-hole digger to our list.  It was a good trade!

So long ol' buddy... You've served us well.

Welcome to the family.  You've got work to do!

I see lots of fence posts, birdhouses and tree plantings in our future.

After the equipment was delivered (Thursday) I wanted to test out the tillovator as we'd be putting it to work in short order.  Hooking it up was a bit of a bear.  The hitches on the tractor are brand new and quite stiff so it will take some extra work until things get broken in.  I ran it over a spot from last year's garden that was grown back over with grass and looked like fresh lawn.  As you can see below, the results are everything we'd hoped for.  Smooth!

My test run.  One pass over three widths of the tillovator and it looks ready to plant.

On Saturday, Neta and and I laid out several garden plots to till, along with plans to till up the original garden.  First I tilled up a 15'x15' plot behind the small barn where we'll erect some heavy wire panels and plant cucumbers to climb them.  We'll also plant peas in that plot as they are a good companion plant for cucumbers.

Next I tilled up most of the original garden.  We have a small tree nursery at one end and had a pile of brush and debris burning in another place, so I didn't get it all tilled up.  Then we laid out a larger area, twice the size of last year's garden.  Last year's garden was around 2712 square feet (0.06 acres).  This year with the two new plots of 225 and 5429+ square feet, we have a total of 8366 square feet (0.19 acres).  Doesn't sound like much when you read the acres, but we have more than tripled our garden space.  Big plans!

The new "wedge" of garden.

A panorama of our garden areas.

I'll leave it up to Neta to decide what goes where.  As long as I have some good tomatoes and hot peppers I'll be happy.  The list of what we want to plant is long.  We'll keep you posted as things get planted or seeds sprout.

Another project that we are working on is clearing out the back of the small barn.  I currently keep the tractor and our lawn mower back there.  The "floor" of the back of the barn is approximately 8"-10" higher than the surrounding ground.  This is the result of 25 or more years of accumulated (and now dried) goat, cow and horse manure.  It is well aged!  I started cleaning it out a couple days after getting the tractor.  As you can see below it will be years before we ever have to worry about fertilizing our gardens.  I've been adding it to our ever-growing compost pile in the edge of the woods.

The back of that barn is full of s**t!

You can still see how high it was on the right side.

Along with tilling up garden plots and scooping poop, we also cleared more downed trees.  Along our fence out next to the interstate, we had several trees come down in last year's hurricane.  We have a grass path along that fence, wide enough to drive a car, that eventually leads to both sides of our big pond.  Those trees were blocking the way.  Nothing a chainsaw and tractor couldn't handle.

It looks more like a bundle of overgrown vines.  A wild cherry tree covered in wild grapevine.

Partially cleared.

It was so convenient to cut up a fallen tree and then use the tractor to push all of that debris out of the way instead of having to carry it by hand or load it into a wagon or trailer and unload it elsewhere.

There were two other pine trees that I just cut at the trunk and used the tractor and a heavy cable to drag off into the woods.  The birds and other critters will love the clutter.

The only downside was on the last tree.  It was old and rotten.  After cutting it, I used the bucket on the tractor to push the remaining trunk back over the fence for the state to deal with (which they should have done as they cleaned up other trees that fell over the fence after last fall's hurricane).  I was maneuvering one side, then the other, as Neta was directing me.  I was on my last push and lifted the bucket to get it high enough to clear the fence when a stray (bent) branch popped free from under the bucket and punched a hole in the grill of my new tractor and dented the top of the hood.  It's no longer pristine (dirt and dust notwithstanding).  Oh well...it had to happen sometime I guess.

The next tractor project will be bush-hogging another of our large fields so we can till it up and spread seeds for a wildflower meadow.  More to come on that.  But for now, that's where this work day comes to an end.

THE (second) BEST DAY EVER!!!

When I was turning sixteen (around 1978), all I could think about was getting a cool car.  I wanted one of the muscle cars of the early 70's.  They went fast, looked cool, sounded tough and could smoke their tires.  They were the cars most of the guys I grew up with dreamed of.

A car just like this filled my dreams as young driver.

I had my eye on one in particular.  It was a 1970 or '71 (I believe) Chevy Chevelle SS that a family friend owned.  It had a 396 cubic inch engine, " 4 on the floor", mag wheels, racing stripes up the hood, the works.  It was the perfect car for me.

My parents, and probably too my insurance company, didn't think so and I ended buying a 1970 Volvo sedan.  Not very muscle-y.  And telling the high school girls that I drove a "sexy European import" didn't make as much of an impression as you might think.  Still, my friends and I had tons of memories in that car including the night we had to stuff about 11 of us in on the way to homecoming dance because a friend's car broke down.  Good times.

See!  It's a sexy European import!

Anyway...cars come and go.  Dreams fade and reality sets in.  But sometimes new dreams emerge.  A dream I've been harboring since we moved to Georgia and bought our farm.  Finally that dream came true on, of all days, April Fool's Day.  No...this is not a joke.

In terms of best days of my life, April 1, 2017 has to be near the top.  Of course the day I married Neta was the best day...you know, having time to reflect on its overall impact.  And I'm not just saying that because she corrected me when I left it off the list the first time or two.  Just kidding.  No, this April 1st was one of the best days because finally, after almost 2 years of waiting, dreaming, researching and driving by the store enough times to nearly qualify for a restraining order, I bought a brand new...TRACTOR!!!

It's no muscle car, but it could pick one up.

Man, dog, tractor.  There is a country music song in that picture.

So far, I've only put about an hour and a half of time on it.  I've hauled a few loads with the bucket and cleaned up a pile of sand next to the house and dumped it in a hole behind one of the old barns.  Pretty standard stuff.

Next week my "tillovator" arrives.  I traded my old tractor for it and it's going to come in handy as we expand the garden and also create a wildflower meadow.

It didn't come with a "dog seat", but I'm going to investigate what accommodations can be made.

Along with tilling up more garden space we have a lot of areas we want to clear the timber debris from so we can maintain them a bit better and plant some other trees.  Just having the ability to scoop and haul stuff, in addition to bush-hogging, plowing/tilling and using the bucket to scrape and smooth areas is going to make my job and our lives so much easier.

Farm work just got easier and a whole lot more fun!

Oh Well

Sand!

If only I were referring to the beach.  Despite not living in the desert or at the beach, our house gets its fair share of sand on the floor everyday from what falls off of Lulu Belle after even a brief run outside.  She invariably gets wet - she likes to drink while IN the ponds - and then lays down in the dirt next to the carport (the grass hasn't grown in yet) to sun herself before asking to come inside.  However, that's not our biggest problem with sand.

The well at Terrell's cabin had always been known to pull sand from time to time.  It was a shallow well, unlike the well here at our house which is about 450 feet deep.  This was something we were aware of from other relatives who had used the well.  We figured it would be fine as he lived by himself and didn't use as much water.  On the advice of a local well driller, we had a filter installed in the pump house.  It was installed in mid-November when the plumber was putting the final fixtures in our house.  We figured we'd have to check it and clean it about once every 6 months or so.  By February it was filled to the brim and sand was passing through into the cabin.  Time for Plan B.  Looks like we're going to need a new well for the cabin.

Our well at the main house.  Pretty typical for this area.
Large tank, exposed to the weather.

I called the well driller and he told me that while he'd gladly take my money to put in a new well ($5000 - $6000), he had a cheaper solution for me (I like that guy!).  He recommended a local irrigation expert to tap off the well at my own house and run a pipe about 1000' to Terrell's cabin.  Interesting...and a couple thousand dollars cheaper.  He knew my well configuration as he's the one that put it in about 10-11 years ago.  He said it had a powerful enough pump motor (1.5 HP) to handle up to 6 houses if I wanted to put that many on it.  Good to know, but I only need one more.

I stopped by the irrigation man's office and put my name on the list.  He (Brian) returned my call after about 2 weeks (spring is irrigation season!) and said he could get started in about 4 weeks.  Today is 4 weeks from then.  The trenching has begun!

I told him that seeing his crooked line down the field made me feel better about the
edge of the garden that I plowed last spring.  It's not easy to do without a line or string.

We're taking advantage of the situation to add some outdoor spigots for the garden.  As the water line comes off of our well, it's running across the road and splitting off to a corner of our barn for one spigot.  Brian told me that he had the workings for a second spigot and he'd put it in (no extra charge) anywhere I wanted.  So we're going to have it pop up in the middle of the pasture so we can have water on both ends of our vegetable garden.  The orientation and the location of the garden will have to change so we're not plowing/tilling over top of the water pipe, though it is about 18 or so inches deep.

View from our well.

Spigot at the corner of the barn.

Spigot in the middle of the pasture, looking back toward the barn.
The spigot will be attached to a post (we had) laying next to the trench

It's nice to know that at the end of the day Terrell will have clean water.  If he doesn't, we're all in the same boat.  On top of that, we can irrigate our garden from both sides, which will really come in handy when we start to get our plants and seeds established.

Despite a rain shower that last over two hours and stopped work, they managed to do all of the trenching, dig out out around both well connections, connect all of the piping, cover up and tamp down the trench, smooth out the dirt/grass and get everything finished by the end of the day. A very nice and hard working group of guys.  I'll certainly keep them in mind if I ever need more work like this done.  They know what they're doing.  This is the finished product:

Recent happenings

News of our demise has been greatly exaggerated.  We're still here, despite a nearly month-long layoff.  We're going to try to get you updated on stuff that we've been doing on the farm with the next few pictures and paragraphs.

Neta and I spent a weekend about a month ago doing some pruning of trees, bushes and the huge, overgrown grapevine behind the house.  Neta pruned back some of the blueberries, leaving enough bushes so we'll still have a decent crop, but getting about half of them under control.  I climbed the ladder and significantly cut back the pear tree.  It had gotten to the point that its limbs would bend to the point of breaking as they were so full of pears.  They're not the best of pears, sort of grainy, and they're better for cooking or baking than just eating whole or sliced.  There are plans for other varieties.

Trimming the pear tree

The aftermath.  It needed it.

We showed a before/after photo of the grapevine in our "Looking Back, Looking Ahead" blog post.  Below is a more recent picture after we burned up some of what we cut out.  We are still going to do some more clean up and cut back the vine that was in the fire (it survived) and see how it fares.

After a good pruning and burning (far end)

On a lighter note...this little guy was trapped in a rubbermaid container on the carport.  He was release unharmed near our small barn.

He's a cute little fella, isn't he?

In the spirit of pruning trees, one of our big pecan trees got the ultimate pruning.  If you remember back in October, after the hurricane, we lost a huge portion of one of our pecan trees.

A few weeks back, after a thunderstorm, we lost another piece of the same tree.

We already knew that it had a hollow spot inside and part of the remaining tree was tall enough and close enough to fall and take out the main power line that runs through our property.  We, and the surrounding folks, wouldn't be too happy if it fell and we lost power.  So we decided to call a company to come take it down as it's too big and too precarious for me to tackle alone.  And so it came down, piece by piece.

Crisis averted.

Once it was all down and cut up, he hopped on his tractor with the grappler and hauled it all over in the field where we had some pines cleared last year.  That's when the next guy showed up and turned it all into mulch and dust.

He made pretty quick work of that tree.  In about 20 minutes it was all chopped up and we had a field full of mulch, which has come in handy as we've planted some new trees (details in another blog entry).  The only thing left to grind was the stump, which was probably about 3 feet in diameter at its widest.  It was no match for that machine.

Before

Nothing left but wood chips the size of my thumbnail.

That's all for now.  We'll try to be more regular with our postings, but no guarantees.  The busy spring is upon us and we have lots to do.  We'll do our best to document our adventures with pictures so we'll have more to blog about.  See ya next time!