Once again, it has been quite a while since my last post but my excuse is the great weather we’ve been experiencing allowed us to get all the crops planted, weeded and mulched. Twelve raised beds in addition to a high tunnel and a 600 square foot bed requires quite a bit of time to prepare for the growing season.
Speaking of ‘growing season’, we managed to put up 17,000 pounds of hay over the past week to support our livestock this coming Fall and Winter. I’m not sure that I can recall ever getting all my required hay in the barn before the official start of Summer. It’s a nice secure feeling when the hay loft and woodpile are both full and ready for whatever Mother Nature throws our way.
Oh, and the new pasture is all fenced in and electrified along with an automatic watering system fed from the dug well. It has plenty of potential too as we hit the water table at five feet of depth and managed to get down to the ledge at 12 feet.
The controller software still being updated.
We put away 500 pounds of ground beef and processed 50 broilers two weeks ago and still have a half dozen turkeys in the brooder now as we’re growing them up for Thanksgiving. There’s so much to be thankful for… Our family has remained healthy and sane despite the outside world going crazy. We’ve all been working together as a family (children and grandchildren) to prepare for an unpredictable future. What an adventure!
Well, I’m back at it now… six weeks after the start of this post. Everything has progressed just as in prior years. We see no real change to our ‘normal’ existence here on the farm. Crops are being harvested and put away, time being shared with friends and neighbors, and Fall plantings beginning in the high tunnel between blueberry picking visits to our local PYO. Our two steers are up in the new pasture now, attempting to keep the new growth under control. It may require additional animals next year since I’m not convinced these two can keep up with the growth. It has been a good year for our hay fields as well with a solid second cutting a certainty.
I’ll try to be more attentive to this blog but there’s still so much to do with God inspired deadlines… the potatoes, onions and garlic are all put up, the turnips and tomatoes are coming in now, and the corn and Winter squash won’t be far behind. The peaches and pears will happen somewhere in there and then comes breeding season for the goats and processing turkeys for Thanksgiving.
