Today and yesterday were the top above-ground seed planting days for this month according to the Farmer’s Almanac moon-planting calendar.
Since we are following the Magi at the FA this year as an experiment, we took two days off homeschooling and worked outside instead. Despite the hard freeze a few weeks ago, we didn’t get too much damage and there are blueberries growing on our bushes again.
Almost with planting lots of tomato transplants, some cover crops, more pumpkins and a few moringa trees, we also managed to mulch all the bare rows in the Grocery Row Garden, build a new lean-to rabbit enclosure off the side of the barn, move a pile of sand to create a new garden area, mulch the yam beds, plant some cannas and elephant ears for biomass chop and drop, rake homegrown hay and mulch the smaller garden area, and put wood chip mulch on all the paths there, plus move the cows to a new pasture area and harvest the old manure for compost. We also cut down some rotten and leaning trees, and some that were just casting too much shade on grassy areas. Those areas will be sown to a wide cover-crop mix including millet, bahia, fescue, brassicas, sunn hemp, buckwheat and sunflowers. Later we’ll let the cows, goats and chickens graze through and build organic matter, Gabe Brown-style.
With all the children working we can get a TON done in a couple of days. Heck, I even managed to finish editing and posting a new video.
On the down side, we had dogs kill about 7 of our chickens in the night, yanking them out of our PVC chicken tractor. The chicken tractor thing is obviously flawed out here. Even with our secure wire around the bottom they got in. Pretty sure it was the neighbor’s dogs, since we found feathers and a couple of carcasses on the road leading back to their home.
Oh well – we press on. Deus vult.
The non-dead chickens are laying like crazy right now so we’re getting enough eggs to give away some to neighbors.
The cows are doing great on single-line electric fence, happily moving from place to place and letting us pet them as they eat. We’ll need to figure out how to set up a milking station soon.
Also, I have updated my reading list here on the blog. Since getting rid of my smartphone, I am getting a lot more book reading done. You’ll see that list on the sidebar.
Tomorrow we’re sending our two dairy goats to a neighboring farm to have a meetup with a handsome young Kiko buck. These girls need to start paying their keep in meat and milk.
Catch you all next week.
You can have greener thumbs by this weekend!
9 comments
Raccoons pull chickens from cages not dogs in my experience.
Whoa! That’s a lot done in just two days.
Wow! That is a ton accomplished!! Can’t wait to see some of ut in future videos :)
Busy week! Sorry to hear about the loss of your chickens. :(
Wowsa! Ya’ll accomplished Gobs! Can I borrow your crew?
I’m interested in what you replaced your smart phone with? Another phone? Landline? I’ve never owned a smart phone, but they’re doing away with my flip-phone at the end of the year, so I’m trying to decide what to get. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I got a LightPhone II. A bit expensive, but minimalist. I like the simple tech.
We had a chicken tractor made with 1×4’s in years past with a heavier piece of wood sitting on top. Plus we had an Australian Shepherd roaming the grounds at night. Still had raccoons a few times.
Thanks David. I’ve been looking at that one too.
Y’all need a perimeter fence. I know, not really feasible on rented land. I just moved to a place that has a big fenced-in area and I feel like it makes a huge difference. I was worried about predator pressure on our chickens because we also have dogs running around loose, as well as what sound like coyotes howling at night, and hawks constantly overhead. But so far no losses, though it’s early days. But I feel like it would be a different story if we didn’t have a cattle panel fence around the yard and coop.
Congrats on losing the smart phone. I resisted them for many years…so obscenely expensive, plus the radiation, plus they track you. I had been using flip phones for years and finally had to ditch my last one because verizon would no longer support it, and the cost for a new one was outrageous. Finally caved and got an old refurb smart phone cheap on ebay. I don’t really use it for anything other than calls, texts, and taking photos, especially since my signal out here is so bad, but I still kinda feel like I let Bill Gates microchip me. I feel like they’re making it impossible to live without one, though – I keep encountering places where the only way to get in or do something or use a business is to scan a code or buy a ticket or read a menu on your phone first. It’s totally a racket.
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