What are you getting done on the "farm"?

Hank · #1 03/30/10, 06:50 PM

I haven't been on here much at all lately because the weather has been to good to sit at the computer. My list of things done on the "new" Double M farm are....

planted several fruit trees
dug out natural spring (going to rent a backhoe to finish this job)
built a trelles of cedar poles for a old grape vine left from the original land owners (has fantastic grapes)
transplanted several blueberry bushes from city property to "new" farm
hung several gates (a few more to go)
scraped road to cabin (getting it ready to be rocked)
planted lots of azaleas
cleared site for chicken yard
and the best of all, got a good start on the new goat shed.

All that in just one week!

Whew!!!!!
Will be planting spring garden this week.
Thinking of making a video tour for the web site as soon as the dogwoods start blooming.

So, now that winter is just a bad memory (at least in most places LOL)
what are you getting done on the "farm"?

Hank
http://www.doublemfarmandchuckwagon.webs.com

misplaced · #2 03/30/10, 07:06 PM

We have been relentlessly weeding the strawberry patch... everyone hates doing that job but it must be done. It is a never ending job in the spring and summer.
Husband and son have been out hauling compost material, making several trips a day. He now takes two tractors with 2 wagons a piece on each trip.. compost everywhere.
The daughter and I are trying to plant a flower garden and it is a lot harder than originally thought

We have been planting garlic, onions and cabbage. Trimmed our apple and peach trees.
Did some landscaping at my father-in-laws farm. Trimmed his apple trees and put grape arbors up over there.
We received a new horse a couple days ago, so our daughter has been working with him.
I am so happy that winter is finally over and we can spend time outdoors.
I even volunteered to do laundry today by myself (we do our laundry outside).
So I got A LOT of fresh air and sunshine today

DaleK · #3 03/30/10, 07:08 PM

Sent Dad out disking today while I worked on other equipment. May start cultivating tomorrow, or I might start getting the corn planter ready.

Callieslamb · #4 03/30/10, 07:43 PM

I cleaned cob webs from the barn. Built a hay manger for the sheep and repaired one for the calf. Planted a rhubarb plant. Set up a brooder area for chicks arriving tomorrow; cleaned their equipment. Spent 3 hours at the dentist and an hour working on the farm website.

upnorthlady · #5 03/30/10, 07:49 PM

Hank - I got tired just reading your list! I think everyone so far on here is way ahead of us in northern MN. The two little lakes on our farm just iced-out today, and we only just finished maple syrup season yesterday. Hubby and I were out today looking at the horse pasture fencing and our apple and cherry trees and dreaming of the garden, but hopefully we will be able to do plenty here pretty soon!! I DO have all my seeds started indoors and the tomatoes, peppers and flowers are up and sprouted.

ronbre · #6 03/30/10, 08:04 PM

well i'm hand digging all new beds in a 48 x 50 ' garden with a fork, shovel and rake..

so far i have marked out some circular paths in 3 16' circles, and in the center of two of the circles i have 2 8' round beds that will have a dwaf apple tree in the center..they are done and edged in plastic edging i had on hand from last year.

i have set up one raised bed that is somewhere around 4'x 8'..didn't measure it..and i have clear and spread compost over a bed that is about 16' long by about 6 to 8' wide..and established some more paths..some are edged..

i have moved yellow, red and black raspberries, and blackberries as well as a bunch of other smaller things..and have a lot of stuff yet to do on that bed.

i also have worked on the area north of the pond..JOel helped with the tractor and that will be a long ongoing project for us to do.

got a start on my spring cleaning too..got the vacuuming done..cat hair !!!

Kmac15 · #7 03/30/10, 10:25 PM

I started cleaning out the chicken coup a few days ago, just finished it today. Put all the bedding in the garden and DH tilled it in today YAAA. We have gotten the fencing down on the chicken run extension ( got torn up by the 6 inches of snow) and the onions sets planted. Pulled up the last of the collards and the first batch is in the canner right now.

DH is still working on my new kitchen cabinets (that is going to take a while)

DoubleBee · #8 03/31/10, 07:34 AM

Planted 2 new pear trees. Strawed the garden. Trimming up tree limbs and stuff out of fence line. Checked my other fruit trees. Checked my bee hives. Took out part of an old fence.
Moved some daylilies.

Lazy J · #9 03/31/10, 07:40 AM

We are working hard to get ready to plant corn. On of our tractors is having a mionr engine rebuild ans we still need to have our new corn planter shipped here.

Jim

StephanieH · #10 03/31/10, 09:27 AM

On our 1/2 acre on the edge of town we have just got more chicks, bread our NZB does, built 2 new raised beds & planted onions. Not as much outside as I would have liked to get done because our inside has been needing our attention. We had a flood in basement & have had to take out carpet & drywall. We are getting that finished this week and we also just put in new shelves in our pantry and I got that all back together. We will have sun & 70s this week so we will be back outside & I am so glad!

Ramblin Wreck · #11 03/31/10, 09:31 AM

Set the four corner posts for a new pole barn last Saturday, and I hope to set the rest of the posts and cut the lathing for the metal roof sometime this week. The pasture has been fertilized, and a few apple trees have been replaced. I'm way behind on chores/tasks, because we have been blessed with lots of rain lately.

DamnearaFarm · #12 03/31/10, 10:01 AM

After a four year or so absence from the old farm, in the last two weeks we've:

bushhogged the pasture for the horses
strung new fence in the pasture and tightened it up in the paddock
cleaned the barn, getting rid of non-barn stuff the renters left
hauled off 1200 lbs of garbage left by the renters
hung a gate to close off the barn door opening until we can build new doors
brought the horses home
turned over the garden spot
fixed a dog run at the back of the shed

Yet to come (and most by this weekend's end, despite having guests Sunday):
rehanging stall doors
re-routing the gray water that now DUMPS inside the barn (today's job)
setting new gate posts for new gates
rototilling old horse manure into garden spot and planting
converting a stall into a chicken house and building a run

More when we figure out what we want to do next :0)

michiganfarmer · #13 03/31/10, 10:05 AM

just finnished boiling maple sap for this season.

Last night I brought the collection tank, and the vaccum pump from the woods up to the sahouse. I replaced a couple clutch discs on my john deere 720, and got the propane burner hooked up that I use to heat the syrup for canning.

I have sap tanks to clean, next years sap boiling wood to put up, tubing on the trees to take down, lots of syrup to filter and can, shelving to buld in the sap house,I have to empty the sap house then concrete to pour in the sap house, more tubing to put in the woods for next year, the overhead doors need to be repaired, I have to get the holes in the roof for the smoke and steam stacks closed in.

just like lots of people here, I have tons to do.

Pretty soon we will be vaccinating dads cattle, butcherin my 2 pigs, spreading dads winter manure, then getting the haying equipment ready. My truck needs ball joints. My woods needs dead trees cut down. My 720 needs front axle work. My outdoor wood furnace shed burnt this winter so I have to reinsulate the furnace, and get some roofing on the new shed.

Its never ending. there arent enouhg hours in a day or days in a week.

Mike in Ohio · #14 03/31/10, 10:39 AM

-Pruning fruit trees.
-Going over all the various equipment checking air in tires, greasing axles, checking oil levels, etc.... and of course firing them up.
- mowed half of the chestnut orchard
- planting lots and lots of seedlings indoors
- just planted the first of the outdoor early stuff (spinach, lettuce, arugula, radishes, etc)
- brush hogging where the new aspargus patch will be (will be tilling and spreading composted manure this week)
- hauling lots of alpaca poo
- feeding the bees
- cleaning woodenware for the new bees that are coming
- cutting down a couple of dead trees that I wanted to do earlier but there was too much snow or it was too wet.

ErinP · #15 03/31/10, 10:46 AM

"Farm" is a four letter "F" word, ya know...

We do, however, have baby calves dropping all over the place on the ranch.

About 200 are calved out so far, so we're just over half way with the spring calvers.
And, so far, we've been able to graft bums on to other mamas, so, knock on wood, we don't have any bottle-babies in the barn.

The kids and I have tomatoes and peppers started in seed trays and we made birdhouses that are going up this week. The new chicks are feathering out and just got moved out to the coop.

Yesterday it was 84 degrees here (new record), so I guess spring has sprung!

SFM in KY · #16 03/31/10, 10:53 AM

Fencing. As the horse numbers change, the pasture needs change so we not only repair fences but end up building new ones as well.

Getting the "summer machinery" up and running. Mower. Work on on the small tractor (70s model so that job is pretty consistent). Cleaning stalls and barns.

Get ready to plant our limited garden. Very limited, just what I can plant in "hills", mulch and forget. I can't work outside during he summer here, so my gardening is limited to half a dozen tomato plants and a few hills of squash.

Build more rabbit cages!

kabri · #17 03/31/10, 01:42 PM

Planted 1 peach tree, and this weekend hope to get in the walnut, butternut and asian pear that finally arrived yesterday. Pruned lots of existing fruit trees and mulched the 40 baby fruit trees that we planted last spring.

Best money we spent though was to hire a professional sheep shearer this year for our 10 sheep. DH has done the shearing last 7 years. Learned from watching an instructional video. Had never seen it done by someone else. Wow, can't believe how fast the guy was, and no blood! DH was SOOOOOO happy, had a big grin on his face the entire time!

ChristieAcres · #18 03/31/10, 08:07 PM

That is a loaded Q! Have a cute litter of popples (baby bunnies), that are just now (13) days old. For fun, I have been photographing them once/day and posting on my thread in Pet Forum. In addition, the little greenhouse is coming along. After DH put in the foundation and put the greenhouse kit together, I went to work inside, digging out the floor a few feet down...this is still an ongoing job (when done, I will shovel in the pea gravel). This was so we could put in raised beds (done), then plant for earlier greens (done- Gourmet Lettuce Greens, Swiss Chard, etc... 1 bed is planted with tomatoes), and then they can also serve to other heat loving veggies. (3) long shelves went up, and I am filling them as fast as I can. DH then built a corner shelf unit, and I added a few more shelves (see thread in Gardening Forum- Costco Greenhouse...). I've spread compost around most of my flowers and a few of our perennials, and one fruit tree so far. DH is too busy working on his van rebuild to help right now, so I am doing all the garden weeding. So far, one bed is done (5 X 20 raised bed), with compost 3/4 done). I took out the biggest weeds out of another complete bed (same size). A week ago, I weeded the other 2 beds (also 5 X 20), and the front long narrower beds filled with Asparagus. In the past two days, I started (50) Mint plants (either Peppermint or Chocolate Mint, am not sure yet), (12) Lady's Mantle, and started the next plants two weeks ago- (20+) Comfrey plants (now beginning to emerge). I am starting Pineapple Sage plants, too. I just cleaned out the compartments the chickens lay in & added fresh straw, gathered 11 eggs yesterday from 14 layers, so they are gearing up... My seed orders are arriving, so I will begin to plan the garden very soon. That little greenhouse will be PACKED. There are so many chores to get done and I am impatient to get to them each day & just don't get quite as much done each day as I want to. The weather has wrought havoc on my daily work schedule out there! Oh, also today, I set out our Mason Bees.

Just walking around, I did a mental list of what I'd like to get done. With only me working out there, I have to do one big job and a lot of little ones each day. I have to admit I was pretty happy looking at my upper garden, as tomorrow, I can start shoveling on the compost on all 4 larger beds and my Asparagus beds. Then, I will weed the back garden area & add compost where needed. Just typing this makes me want to go out and get another job. So, back out I go!

Heritagefarm · #19 03/31/10, 08:16 PM

Surviving. We're in survival mode.

AnnieinBC · #20 03/31/10, 09:15 PM

Uggghhh, nowhere near enough! Today I've been working digging out sod for yet another strawberry bed.

I'm determined to finish that tomorrow, later will add manure to the site. After that, I'm going to start digging out a new flower bed.

There's so much to do, and not enuf energy to do even 1/10th of it!