Wednesday, February 22, 2012
New Blog for the farm
I seem to be unable to change the url for the farm blog from the original brandybrookfarm. blogspot.com so I've set up an entirely new blog for Stonewall Corner Farm that now reflects the correct url. I was hoping to preserve the history of the blog by just changing the name but, apparently, it doesn't quite work the way I'd hoped. I want people to be able to find us with the correct farm name, so this will be the last post at this url. Please visit http://stonewallcornerfarm.blogspot.com/ to continue reading about our adventures. Thanks!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Challenges and planning.....
I've tried in a variety of different ways to add this to the side bar on this blog:
http://www.sustainableeats.com/sign-up-for-the-urban-farm-handbook-challenge/
It's got a nifty little graphic and everything. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I can't get blogger to accept it. So, please check out the link instead.
The upshot of it is, that it's a 12 month "challenge" (11 challenges, one reflection month) to help transition to a more self-sustaining lifestyle. It's based on the book, The Urban Farm Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Farm-Handbook-Resources-Preparing/dp/1594856370/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328884747&sr=1-1) which I will admit I haven't read but stumbled over on another blog called Food In Jars (http://www.foodinjars.com/2012/02/books-the-urban-farm-handbook/) which I read fairly often. Food In Jars author Marisa does a fine job of reviewing the book (not to mention writing a great blog in general!) in the above linked blog post, so click, read, and enjoy her great review and lovely photos. Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to a book or challenge oriented towards 'urban' farmers because I don't think of us that way - we are definitely out in the country and not in an urban setting. Out of curiosity, mostly due to Marisa's wonderful book review, I clicked on the challenge link she provided to see what it was all about and the more I read, the more I thought, hey, this could be really helpful to us. The final clincher was the sentence, "This challenge will be what you make of it – the ultimate in crazy or just dipping your toe in." Oh, ok. No pressure, no deadlines. I won't look like a deadbeat to the world if I can't meet some list of required tasks if life gets too busy to do a lot but I can at least keep up by reading the monthly guest blog challenges. Maybe I can do this. Sounds very interesting to me, and I want to learn more about almost about all the topics listed (seed saving, soil building, dairy, preserving, grains, to name a few). Plus, it will give me some exposure to things I don't think too much about right now (like bartering or foraging, for instance). Sounds like a winner all around!
I am continuing to get the gardens planned and hope to finish that today. We are going to plant all three plots again this year. Just to complicate things a little more, in addition to companion planting I am also using crop rotation principles. In all seriousness, it doesn't really complicate things that much and it actually helps in deciding what goes where in each plot. For those of you not familiar with the concepts involved with rotation, it's pretty logical: don't plant the same plants or plants from the same family in the same space every year. It's proven to help reduce the incidence of pests and disease. For example: don't plant potatoes in one spot one year and then tomatoes in that same spot the next year. Potatoes and tomatoes are both nightshades and share the same diseases which can stay in the soil between seasons. I'm also going a little further with it in trying to take into account the nutritional needs of the plants. Another example: corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder, which leaves the soil it was planted in lower in nitrogen than before. Legumes (peas & beans) 'fix' nitrogen in the soil, so it would help restore nitrogen to the former corn patch if you plant beans there the following year. Simple things that will, hopefully, make a big difference in the overall health of the garden.
http://www.sustainableeats.com/sign-up-for-the-urban-farm-handbook-challenge/
It's got a nifty little graphic and everything. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I can't get blogger to accept it. So, please check out the link instead.
The upshot of it is, that it's a 12 month "challenge" (11 challenges, one reflection month) to help transition to a more self-sustaining lifestyle. It's based on the book, The Urban Farm Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Farm-Handbook-Resources-Preparing/dp/1594856370/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328884747&sr=1-1) which I will admit I haven't read but stumbled over on another blog called Food In Jars (http://www.foodinjars.com/2012/02/books-the-urban-farm-handbook/) which I read fairly often. Food In Jars author Marisa does a fine job of reviewing the book (not to mention writing a great blog in general!) in the above linked blog post, so click, read, and enjoy her great review and lovely photos. Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to a book or challenge oriented towards 'urban' farmers because I don't think of us that way - we are definitely out in the country and not in an urban setting. Out of curiosity, mostly due to Marisa's wonderful book review, I clicked on the challenge link she provided to see what it was all about and the more I read, the more I thought, hey, this could be really helpful to us. The final clincher was the sentence, "This challenge will be what you make of it – the ultimate in crazy or just dipping your toe in." Oh, ok. No pressure, no deadlines. I won't look like a deadbeat to the world if I can't meet some list of required tasks if life gets too busy to do a lot but I can at least keep up by reading the monthly guest blog challenges. Maybe I can do this. Sounds very interesting to me, and I want to learn more about almost about all the topics listed (seed saving, soil building, dairy, preserving, grains, to name a few). Plus, it will give me some exposure to things I don't think too much about right now (like bartering or foraging, for instance). Sounds like a winner all around!
I am continuing to get the gardens planned and hope to finish that today. We are going to plant all three plots again this year. Just to complicate things a little more, in addition to companion planting I am also using crop rotation principles. In all seriousness, it doesn't really complicate things that much and it actually helps in deciding what goes where in each plot. For those of you not familiar with the concepts involved with rotation, it's pretty logical: don't plant the same plants or plants from the same family in the same space every year. It's proven to help reduce the incidence of pests and disease. For example: don't plant potatoes in one spot one year and then tomatoes in that same spot the next year. Potatoes and tomatoes are both nightshades and share the same diseases which can stay in the soil between seasons. I'm also going a little further with it in trying to take into account the nutritional needs of the plants. Another example: corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder, which leaves the soil it was planted in lower in nitrogen than before. Legumes (peas & beans) 'fix' nitrogen in the soil, so it would help restore nitrogen to the former corn patch if you plant beans there the following year. Simple things that will, hopefully, make a big difference in the overall health of the garden.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Today and a look ahead....
I just finished reading through the past couple of months' worth of posts and have discovered that I have started nearly every one with an apology that it's taken me so long between postings. Oh, my. I'm just not gonna' do that anymore. My goal is to be more consistent and post more often and I will keep working towards that, but I'm going to quit apologizing with every post. Life just is what it is right now and, sometimes, it's challenging. That means I don't get to put in the time to writing posts as much as I'd like to right now. I'm just going to keep forging ahead and we'll see how things go from here. Thanks very much for taking the ride with me and for reading, regardless of how often I am able to post.
It's raining here in our part of the northeast today and it's about 34 degrees out. An overall cold, raw, day. Challenging to deal with the dogs because none of us (me or the dogs) like it when they go out in the rain. They come in as wet mudballs and none of us enjoys dealing with that. But, they don't really like being stuck inside, either. Beau just hurt his paw jumping up to try to reach a rawhide chew that I'd put up because they were fighting over it. Usually, it's all just a grand game for them and nothing is serious. This time, however, Marcie got very serious about defending it and scared me when she lunged for Beau when he got too close. That is NOT acceptable so I put her in time out and put up the chew. When I let her out, Beau tried to resume the game by jumping up to get the chew, but caught his paw on the door to Marcie's crate when I told him to get down and hurt himself badly enough to yelp. No visible damage, thank goodness! Now that the drama has subsided, they are all sacked out on the floor and peace has returned to our tiny temporary home.
Tiny by my standards, anyway. Somewhere around 300 square feet. We never thought we'd be in here so long but the house is taking longer to complete than we expected. Things are finally moving along, though, and the interior work is picking up speed. All of the downstairs has been drywalled and the kitchen cabinets are about to be installed. Fireplace (with hand forged 18th century reproduction crane! yay!) and masonry for the woodstove have been completed, just waiting on the exterior chimney to be finished. I need to go take some pictures for you when it's sunny again. I am hoping to be able to move in in March, but it will probably be April or May.
Farm work right now consists of garden planning and getting space ready for livestock. If all goes according to plan this year we'll have chickens, turkeys, pigs, and maybe even a couple of sheep, with a livestock guardian dog to go along with them all. And most likely, no vacations together. It may be silly, but that is a sad trade-off for me. It is, however, a reality of farming for most.
Planning the garden isn't as simple as just deciding what to plant (though that's not always simple, either), it also includes WHERE to plant it. We have a long term permaculture plan for our farm, so that has to be taken into consideration. We also have to consider issues of succession planting. For example, you shouldn't plant nightshades (ie: tomatoes and potatoes) in the same ground two years in a row. We had lots of tomatoes and potatoes last year, so that will take some serious consideration. And we want to plant legumes (peas, beans) where the corn was to restore some of the nitrogen in the soil that the corn (a heavy nitrogen feeder) depleted. I also really want to try a couple of traditional 3 Sisters mounds, so we need to decide where to place those. The list goes on with things like that, and then there is the added issue of companion planting to seriously complicate it even more! Slow going, but it will be worthwhile in the end. I'm just getting anxious about ordering seeds, because I know I was behind last year and had to scramble to find bouquet dill when my first choice source sold out. I also couldn't get some flowers that I wanted for the same reason, so I am pushing myself to get the plan completed and things ordered asap. And, just to throw a wrench into the whole works, school is starting again for me. Fortunately, I have a less involved schedule this semester. I'm pretty happy about that because I think, between school, house and farm, things are going to be pretty busy.
It's raining here in our part of the northeast today and it's about 34 degrees out. An overall cold, raw, day. Challenging to deal with the dogs because none of us (me or the dogs) like it when they go out in the rain. They come in as wet mudballs and none of us enjoys dealing with that. But, they don't really like being stuck inside, either. Beau just hurt his paw jumping up to try to reach a rawhide chew that I'd put up because they were fighting over it. Usually, it's all just a grand game for them and nothing is serious. This time, however, Marcie got very serious about defending it and scared me when she lunged for Beau when he got too close. That is NOT acceptable so I put her in time out and put up the chew. When I let her out, Beau tried to resume the game by jumping up to get the chew, but caught his paw on the door to Marcie's crate when I told him to get down and hurt himself badly enough to yelp. No visible damage, thank goodness! Now that the drama has subsided, they are all sacked out on the floor and peace has returned to our tiny temporary home.
Tiny by my standards, anyway. Somewhere around 300 square feet. We never thought we'd be in here so long but the house is taking longer to complete than we expected. Things are finally moving along, though, and the interior work is picking up speed. All of the downstairs has been drywalled and the kitchen cabinets are about to be installed. Fireplace (with hand forged 18th century reproduction crane! yay!) and masonry for the woodstove have been completed, just waiting on the exterior chimney to be finished. I need to go take some pictures for you when it's sunny again. I am hoping to be able to move in in March, but it will probably be April or May.
Farm work right now consists of garden planning and getting space ready for livestock. If all goes according to plan this year we'll have chickens, turkeys, pigs, and maybe even a couple of sheep, with a livestock guardian dog to go along with them all. And most likely, no vacations together. It may be silly, but that is a sad trade-off for me. It is, however, a reality of farming for most.
Planning the garden isn't as simple as just deciding what to plant (though that's not always simple, either), it also includes WHERE to plant it. We have a long term permaculture plan for our farm, so that has to be taken into consideration. We also have to consider issues of succession planting. For example, you shouldn't plant nightshades (ie: tomatoes and potatoes) in the same ground two years in a row. We had lots of tomatoes and potatoes last year, so that will take some serious consideration. And we want to plant legumes (peas, beans) where the corn was to restore some of the nitrogen in the soil that the corn (a heavy nitrogen feeder) depleted. I also really want to try a couple of traditional 3 Sisters mounds, so we need to decide where to place those. The list goes on with things like that, and then there is the added issue of companion planting to seriously complicate it even more! Slow going, but it will be worthwhile in the end. I'm just getting anxious about ordering seeds, because I know I was behind last year and had to scramble to find bouquet dill when my first choice source sold out. I also couldn't get some flowers that I wanted for the same reason, so I am pushing myself to get the plan completed and things ordered asap. And, just to throw a wrench into the whole works, school is starting again for me. Fortunately, I have a less involved schedule this semester. I'm pretty happy about that because I think, between school, house and farm, things are going to be pretty busy.
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