Ohioans - Report In.

[seedspreader]

Hi all, although I am bound for PA in a few months... I am still a Buckeye at heart. I've noticed a few newbies here... so for the sake of them (and just because we haven't heard from some of you in a while) how about checking in and letting us know what's going on.

Here in Medina... I've been suffering some major predator damage. I've got a great horned owl that has a wingspan that is every bit of 5+ feet has decimated my chickens. We've picked up some goats and will be planting our garden this week. The May Apples are about to bloom, no morels around my place, but my sister has plenty of ramps at her house.

Report in Big O!

[MELOC]

if your sister could collect some seed from a few of those ramps this summer and send it along with you, a fellow pennsyltuckian would really appreciate it.

[edcopp]

Here in Southern Ohio we are predicted to have a low temperature of 34* tonight. The sky is clear. Frost is likely. I have a few things in the ground already. The weather has been nice for the last 10 days or so. A few things got covered this evening, we will see how it looks tomorrow morning.

[KimM]

Was a pretty good day here in Cambridge. I took 3 goats to a special 4H sale and ended up buying a doeling.
All the windows are closed up for a chilly night.
I have 2 chapters to read for my Anatomy and Psychology classes this week. No time to play with the new goat! This college stuff really takes a toll on my personal life. (kidding!)

[ladygreen]

Well, typing this will probably take the last of my energy. We are in central ohio and we planted 13 rows of corn, planted a raised bed with lettuce mix, beets, and vidalias. Oh, and more peas. Yeah, we turned the heater on in the greenhouse tonight, hopefully for the last time. I feel the big push now that they say it won't rain till thursday. We don't have out chickens yet, I would like to do 100 meat chickens, and get my hens later. Kinda glad we waited, lots of coyotes here this year.

[RedTartan]

We're having an eventful week over in Deerfield (Portage County.)

Last week a friend of a friend came over and tilled up a HUGE area of ground for my garden Saturday my husband and his father poured the footers for our new barn. We're getting a nubian doeling on Tuesday and a nubian doe in milk on Thursday. I've got a broody muscovy duck on only-God-knows-how-many eggs. I planted a greens garden for salads and some dahlia (sp?) bulbs today.

Things are going well here

RedTartan

[seedspreader]

Originally Posted by MELOC

if your sister could collect some seed from a few of those ramps this summer and send it along with you, a fellow pennsyltuckian would really appreciate it.

I'll try to remember to tell her.

[rootsandwings]

SW ohio. Lettuce and cukes up, three new kids in the barn from Saturday, eggs under a broody, and mail order chicks coming this week.

[jersey girl]

Here we finally got enough dry weather to get into the garden again. We hope to have most stuff planted by tomorrow. The weatherman is calling for 80 degrees every day from Wed. on, all with a chance of rain. Mushroom hunting is real spotty - some awsome spots, some can't find any.
Joanie

[MelissaW]

Hey Red Tartan, I'm in Portage too! The weather was beautiful this weekend. Over the last week, I got all of the straw raked off of the raised beds, and any weeds pulled. Hubby tilled compost into all of them, and I planted lettuce, beans, squash, beets, and annual flower seeds so far. I still have a couple of beds to go, and won't do plants for a week or two until all chance of frost is gone. I got the whole coop shoveled out yesterday. Bob, I lost a hen to an owl a few weeks ago. Then Friday we lost one who, I believe, was eggbound. I'm down to eight now. The little orchard is looking great. In a couple of years, I'm hoping it will be producing really well. I wish we had started it a decade ago! Next: firewood cutting and painting the porch.

[bill not in oh]

Several weeks ago I got a PM from Mike in Ohio regarding moving his hoop houses. Long story short we spent several weekends dismantling them and moving them to his farm. Getting to know and working with Mike was an absolute pleasure. He's a great guy with a super work ethic - 'get 'er done' kind.

We got a light frost last night (Granger Twp, west of Akron) - I'm calling it the last one and getting some plants/seeds in the ground. I'll also be splitting some wood for campfire bundles. Now for the big news....

I've been spending some of the last few days spiffing up the house and property and probably at the end of this week will put it on the market to sell. My wife and I parted ways a couple of weeks ago, and frankly she's the only reason I'm in Ohio. SO, I'm selling the farm. I'll list it on HT and a couple of similar sites first and those listings will include the livestock and equipment. If that doesn't work fairly quickly, I'll turn it over to a realtor and start selling the critters and equipment that I won't need for upkeep. I'm going to list it for considerably less pre-realtor, so if anyone knows of someone interested in 8½ acres with huge potential for making a living from shoot me a PM or email. No pity, please - I'm seeing my situation as an opportunity to do a bit of traveling, checking in with some folks I haven't seen in a while and maybe meet some of the folks from HT in person. First things first - Back to 'polishing up'....

[Danaus29]

Bill, if you were in Madison County I'ld be interested. Akron is just a bit too close to in-laws.

Kim, Cambridge? We lived in Byesville for a while. Love that area!

Darbydale here. Grass keeps growing, but it keeps feeding the ducks. Royal Burgundy beans are up, a few radishes are ready for picking. Sold some baby ducks and most of the spare adults (6 black and white Muscovies left, 3 hens, 3 drakes), new babies due from several clutches over the next few weeks. The chain link fence has so far kept the g-hog family out of the garden, however squirrels and birds searching for nesting material are causing problems. I could net out the birds but what to do about a gazillion squirrels??? Tomatoes are sprouting and I am in the process of thinning my seed collection, planting as much as I can in my little garden. No mushrooms here yet, no mayapples either, but the trilliums are up and lovely. Sassafras took a bit of damage from the late cold snap but seems to be recovering.

[brosil]

NW Ohio It's pretty good so far. The garden is going well, the sheep are on pasture and I may be able to get a first cutting of grass hay before June. Subject to change without notice.

[charliesbugs]

I always said nw Ohio, but guess it is west central.Yestersday I planted 5 rows of blue lake green beans,a row of carrots,row of parsnips,two rows of Swiss chard,some 'saved' marigold seed between row of cabbage plants,gold peppers and banana peppers.Also potted a vining petunia.Potted tomato seedlings, some touch-me-nots.Have all kinds of tomato plants , just not big enough to go in ground yet.Lots of touch me not up in pots,also forget me nots.Columbine are starting to bloom here.Peas and rhubarb are up- no asparagus yet. Haven't found any more morels.My wildflower garden has jack-in -the -pulpit,trillium,blue phlox,toadshade,and a couple others.Iris getting ready to bloom.Very few lilacs cause they froze.Sycamores are just starting to leaf out.Loads of wrens nesting in my houses!Oh, planted snapdragon plants and moss roses and some zinnias.if we get a frost I'll be busy covering EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!-Robin

[lgslgs]

We're finishing clean-up from taking down two 100 foot sycamore trees (one single trunk, one double trunk.)

If anyone in the area has a large wood splitter, you're welcome to what's left. We have 40+ trunk sections, 2 - 3 foot diameter, about 18 inches tall. They were just a bit too tough for our friend's bottom-of-the-line hydraulic wood splitter. Drop me a note if you want them. There's a lot of wood there, and if sycamore isn't your favorite you can always mix it with other stuff when you burn.

If we can't find anyone who needs the wood, we'll be rolling these to edge the driveway to dry for a year and next year we'll haul them up the hill and use them to build some sort of shape to view with Google Earth the next time they update the satelite photos.

Lynda

[Ohio dreamer]

Stark County (Canton area) refugee here living vicariously through your posts. Hope to post Ohio updates myself in a few years.

[cc-rider]

NW Ohio.... or West Central....however you look at it.

Wow....compared to the lists above, I haven't accomplished much. I DID get the rest of the siding on the barn...still have the doors to do. And then I need to figure out where to get enough fill stone to make up a 2' difference in the floor of the barn! Oops.

I started a "18-bale" straw garden. Trying that this year. Doing a lasagne-bed for the strawberries. Lots of new experiments.

3 baby chicks born on Monday! I sat up until 3:00 a.m. in order to take pictures of the hatching for the website. (You can check it out on www.tisawee.com .... you can also see the progress on the barn and the chicken palace.)

I start a new job next week, so this will be may last week commuting 1-1/2 hours a day. Whew!!!! I've also been asked to write a weekly column on homesteading for the local newspaper and that starts this week.....

So life is good!
Chris

[Mike in Ohio]

As Bill in Oh said, dismantling the hoop houses and getting them moved was a significant undertaking that kept me busy. Right now I am moving a bunch of the hoops from the hill below the cabin to an area where I can stand them up and stack them temporarily.

I have to say, Bill is a working fool (that's a compliment). He was out there in freezing weather with snowstorms and hail plus 40 mile an hour winds - all without a complaint. He didn't balk at a 17 hour day either. So, if you ever need a hand for a project, I highly recommend speaking with Bill. I like his style.

Lost a lot of bees over the winter - over 70% of the hives - which is what a lot of people in the area experienced. I have more bees on the way and a couple of our remaining hives are going gangbusters so I will do splits on them.

The fence guy is starting to pound the posts for our north pasture today. So this year we will finally have cattle on our place. Seeing as we are doing it on shares with our neighbor (I'm paying for the fencing but he is taking care of the cattle) I decided that we will start with one cow (and a calf if we get a good deal on a pair) - Scottish Highlands. Our neighbor is starting with 4....1 bull and 3 cows. We'll see how it goes with the first pasture before expanding. Initially we will divide the pasture into thirds for rotational grazing but I'm inclined to go quarters or even smaller.

We have a spring in the pasture that needs to be opened up and a drinking trough put in.

Last week DW and I planted a whole bunch of blue spruce seedlings and some scotch pines that I had put in pots last year. Transplanted a mulberry tree (3 more to go) and have more chestnuts and fruit trees to transplant.

Got a couple of the raised beds prepared for planting. I'm hoping to buy a larger rototiller (rear tine, looking at a cub cadet) this week to plant additional stuff outside the beds. I plan on using this for inside the hoops as well.

Mike

All sorts of miscellaneous stuff I'm doing as well.

[pygmywombat]

NE Ohio (Medina County). Its been mild and dry, but our hay fields are gorgeous and the cow's pastures are green. We have a broody hen whose clutch is due to hatch tomorrow. Hopefully this week we'll be building a hay feeder for the cow and bringing up the hay equipment to make sure its all in working order. Last week we installed 3 new packages of bees and they are thriving with all the flowers blooming- apples and dandelions especially.

[Ohiogal]

SW Ohio here...been tillin' and chillin'. The truck garden 60x60' is turned over, but needs tilled so I can plant. This is a first year garden. Also busted sod and tilled a small kitchen garden for my herbs and lettuce. Planted seeds yesterday.
Plants in the greenhouse are doing well. I have a mix of heirloom tomatoes and flowers for rehabbing the pond area. Still playing catch up on fencing repairs. The horses are doing well. So are the barn cats. Anyone need a cat? I have oodles and some are really nice and ready to go home with someone.