Our landlord wanted to make bread so he had the neighbors plant a few acres of wheat. We got his old Allis Chalmers All Crop 60 Harvest running but shortly after I shot this video (about a week ago) it broke down. I hope to be back out tonight to finish it up.
And here's another:
Since we have completely neglected our blogging duties, I thought I would try to make it up to you with a bunch of videos from the farm. You are forewarned that these were shot using my cell phone, in the midst of doing whatever it was that I was doing at the time. So they can get pretty bouncy and there's some heavy breathing in the background on one or two... I also haven't edited them but most of them are pretty short.
Here's your first installment of the Open Sky Farm Summer Fun Video Series. Enjoy, FJ.
Wooweee....that was fun!
I have a confession to make...I was not really looking forward to our first day at market. My garden has been an utter failure this year and I didn't feel like we would have anything to sell. I've been focusing so much on my garden that I completely forget we have great meat and egg products to sell! We sold ground beef, pork sausage, chicken and ducks eggs. It was so much fun to meet everyone! I had a total blast and can't wait until next week. Thanks for everyone who stopped by to buy meat and eggs from us or even just to say hi! We really appreciate it!
And now on to the garden. I had such high hopes this year and what I've come to realize was unrealistic expectations of myself. I underestimated the amount of work that I had planned for myself and overestimated my abilities to grow. Combine that with the fact that I've got a six month old to take care of and actually manage to cook some meals now and then. And let's not get started on the laundry... It's tough, because the really good growers make it look easy. And it's not. There is so much to learn about soil fertility, planting schedules, pest and weed management. My hats off to you experienced growers! But we all have to start somewhere and this year is my somewhere. For every seed that I plant, I gain experience. For every time I lose a planting to bugs, I learn. And every time I look at my garden and want to throw my hands up and quit, I have to remember what kind of lesson that would teach my daughter. It's easy to quit, but it's harder to persevere in the face of inexperience and adversity. So, I'm doing it. I'm taking the lessons I learned from my Community Crops class and moving on.
Here's what we've got going on in the garden:
Farm Jon Here. We're still working feverishly to "catch up" with all the spring happenings. Jamie was able to get tomatoes and peppers in the ground before the rain. I finally fixed the tractor and the shredder and was able to prep the area for our trees. Hopefully today I can get the trees in the ground.
I suppose I should explain the trees. I signed up for several NRCS programs this year. One of which was a windbreak/shelterbelt renovation, which entailed planting 350 trees around the farmyard. I was very excited because I worked with them to create an "edible landscape" so we have pecans, walnuts, plums, cranberries, apricots and many more. All of which are edible by animals and/or humans. The time came and I picked up the trees and the tree planter only to come home and be completely overwhelmed. I decided I wasn't sure if their design was going to be too much of a hindrance on farming activities. It wasn't until I was out there trying to get ready that I realized how many things would need to be moved (trailers, piles of junk, piles of tree limbs, etc) and other trees cut down. Plus, that's where I was grazing the sheep and the bulls. Anyway, long story short, I abandoned the project and was going to cut my losses on the 350 trees I had already paid for. Monday rolled around and I told my NRCS guy the situation. He hopped in his truck and came right out. We surveyed the landscape and came up with a new plan that would alleviate most of my concerns, get the trees in the ground and ensure that I didn't lose my money on the trees. So, here I am a week later and hoping to get the trees in the ground today. Hopefully, it's not too wet...
We have decided to get some official help (not just from friends and family). We hope to bring in 1-2 part-time folks to help with various tasks around the farm. We're pretty excited because we've gotten a great response from a bunch of great people. We're still in the process of getting back to everyone but we'll keep you informed of how the process goes and introduce you to them once we have it all sorted out. One of them is hopefully coming out today to help me plant trees, since someone has to drive the tractor and someone has to sit on the tree planter.
If you haven't heard, we will start selling at the Old Cheney Road Farmers' Market on June 3rd and we will be there almost every Sunday through October.
Also, we have wholes and halves of pork available now and will have beef wholes, halves and quarters available later this year (but only a few, so reserve now!). Let us know if you're interested or might know of someone who would be.
but all I can smell is burnt rubber, as the soles of our shoes (boots) melt from the constant running around.
Farmer Jon here and boy have we been busy. Which has become our new normal since we moved out here but lately we've been even busier than usual. Here are a few examples:
Our dark cornish chicks are a few weeks old and growing a little every day
TGIM!!! Or in other words, Thank Goodness It's Monday...that may sound silly to everyone else who likes Fridays, but I feel like my Mondays are my Fridays. Our weekends have been so jam packed with me finishing up my Community Crops class, having friends and family over who generously babysit Clara and trying to actually get a garden going. Mondays are a chance for me to breath, take a step back and actually slow down a little bit. And of course, get caught up on laundry...which never goes away...
I guess I never thought how hard it was going to be to actually start a garden with a baby...and boy have I learned my lesson! I can't do it all anymore, which is difficult for me to swallow since I'm such a Type A, give it 110% type of person. I don't think I realized that about myself until I moved out to the farm. I was looking through all of my old pictures and I found one really good example.
Here are a couple of pictures of my cover cropping attempts:
Farmer Jon Here - Lots of happenings on Open Sky Farm. We're brooding just under 100 chicks and ducklings with more on the way in the next couple days. We have 16 new piglets. We're rotationally grazing the cattle and sheep and working on the Pastured Pig Paradise (more info coming soon). And the gardening is in full swing. We're also trying to get things set up for selling at the Old Cheney Road Farmer's Market this year. Some of which are more fun then others: getting insurance = not fun, having our freezer's inspected by the state = not so much fun, ordering banners = fun.
Wow, Saturday was a wild weather ride! We were very lucky to scrape by with the weather we did, it could have been much worse. We did get some very strong winds and about 2 inches of rain that came down very quickly and the ground was not able to soak it all up. Hence Lake Open Sky!
Some days a person can think too much. When a person starts to think too much, life gets overwhelming...that was me yesterday. I needed some time to get out of my head. And thank goodness yesterday was magical...
The grass was so lush after our recent downpours and the sun was just right on the horizon. It made for great lighting that I don't think I quite captured in my quick photo shooting.
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