As I set out for the evening chores I have had some time to reflect on the projects I started back in late winter. This year I reorganized the garden (using a management term) to better manage the soil and water. I cut unwanted trees or dead standing trees to build raised beds. I recycled cardboard to cover walk ways between the beds with wood chips. In between each bed I created swails to allow water to be absorbed under the beds. We have had a heavy amount of rain and because of my reorganization planting was late but I am happy to say we have a great harvest coming and everything seems to be working. It should be noted that during the heavy rains, the garden was one of the few places on the farm that did not get flooded out. I went up to the swails and each one held a small amount of water while the rest was being absorbed into the ground. Our son William and his friend Tyler assisted me in cutting the trees for the beds and William helped me build the beds and swails.
The chicken coop I built out of pallets is 90 percent complete. I just need to put in the door, flooring for the egg boxes, and fence in the chicken run. Our neighbor, Barry, built the doors for the hen boxes, I did not like my design and he offered to build me a better design! He has now offered to do the same on the door and help with the flooring for the hen boxes! On top of all of that neighborly help he assisted me in cutting the roofing for the coop. I needed a saw to cut through the metal and he brought one over! Our son helped me in some of the construction and believe me any help you can get when you take on more than your schedule can handle is a gift!
Finally 51 grapevines were planted, fenced in and just need to add the electric wire (cattle will be near the vines thus the fencing). I believe the vines are far enough away from cattle manure and will not affect them. The. Cattle are on 15 acres below the vines and off the top side. The runoff, if any will not run into the plants or soil. This task was completed with the help of our son and our daughter, Dawson, as I have never put up a cattle fence previously we worked our way through the learning process and put it up! Okay this is where I have to share our favorite learning tool on the farm, YouTube! Yup, that's right we look up our conundrum on YouTube and watch the how to videos! When we were putting the wood post into the ground we looked up how to lock a post in the ground without concrete and found a great video using a 2X4 as a key to lock the post in place. It turned out to be exciting for the three of us as we had never put a fence like this and in the end it came out pretty nice.
In between all of this work I am still doing my work at the college! Talk about a weight loss plan; I have lost almost 20. Lbs!
The chicken coop I built out of pallets is 90 percent complete. I just need to put in the door, flooring for the egg boxes, and fence in the chicken run. Our neighbor, Barry, built the doors for the hen boxes, I did not like my design and he offered to build me a better design! He has now offered to do the same on the door and help with the flooring for the hen boxes! On top of all of that neighborly help he assisted me in cutting the roofing for the coop. I needed a saw to cut through the metal and he brought one over! Our son helped me in some of the construction and believe me any help you can get when you take on more than your schedule can handle is a gift!
Finally 51 grapevines were planted, fenced in and just need to add the electric wire (cattle will be near the vines thus the fencing). I believe the vines are far enough away from cattle manure and will not affect them. The. Cattle are on 15 acres below the vines and off the top side. The runoff, if any will not run into the plants or soil. This task was completed with the help of our son and our daughter, Dawson, as I have never put up a cattle fence previously we worked our way through the learning process and put it up! Okay this is where I have to share our favorite learning tool on the farm, YouTube! Yup, that's right we look up our conundrum on YouTube and watch the how to videos! When we were putting the wood post into the ground we looked up how to lock a post in the ground without concrete and found a great video using a 2X4 as a key to lock the post in place. It turned out to be exciting for the three of us as we had never put a fence like this and in the end it came out pretty nice.
In between all of this work I am still doing my work at the college! Talk about a weight loss plan; I have lost almost 20. Lbs!
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| Gate heading into the vineyard and fencing around the grapevines |
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| One of the beds with tomatoes, onions, nasturiums and basil on the other side. |
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| Chicken coop built out of pallets, old cedar siding and leftover metal roofing. Still needs gutters, door on the front and flooring in the egg boxes. The run will be fenced in towards the garden and next year we will add portable chicken runs into the garden. |
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