What are you getting done on the "farm"?

I'm just trying to shear the sheep. I have worked the primary garden and transplanted some herbs but I haven't moved the rhubarb yet. I have some seed started in my incubator downstairs.

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Oak Harbor, Ohio

http://thelaubachermarriagechronicle.blogspot.com/

Hmmm,

I built myself some shelves and cleaned out the junk in the shed,
Built a chicken coop (see thread on Countryside families for pics),
Raked some of the yard,
Pooper scooped (as all of a sudden the snow melted and everything appeared ),
Pruned my big oak tree,
Started seedlings,
Took down that yucky plastic on my windows,
Cleaned my house and threw out a lot of junk.

I love spring time! This weekend, i'm putting up some fencing, getting chicks, and probably doing a bit more cleaning. Maybe i'll till in my garden.

Cleared and did the first till on a whole new garden patch in a different place.
Started the massive barn clean and are toting it down to the new garden to till in...red clay, don't you know.
Removed honeysuckle from over 100 ft of wall. That honeysuckle has been there for decades! Dug out all the root balls.
Moved ALL the mint to a new place.
Have started the strawberry patch clean up.
Cleaned out the potting shed/brooder house (will build new pens to seperate breeds for sales)
I am sure there is more that has been done but I KNOW that there is so much more to do!

__________________
http://www.thehennery.blogspot.com -
the farm blog
http://thehennerytraditionals.blogspot.com/ -
the herbal blog + shop

You all are so busy, kinda makes me feel lazy or something

We've put in 4 4'x8' raised beds in the main garden ( getting harder and harder to get back up off the ground after weeding)
Cleaned out two dead out Bee hives and have them ready for two new colonies that we're picking up on the 9th.
Built a new chick run in the duck yard...Ducks seem okay with their new neighbors. (those BUFF chicks need to get growing cuz we have a batch of 29 Cornish chicks almost ready to move in)
Planted 150 sweet Walla Walla onions, Garlic and 1 lb. of Sunchokes.
Started the shop teardown so we can have a LARGER shop and food storage area. Hubby brought home some old barnwood for that project. (the barn was built in 1901)
Most of the Grapes are trimmed.
Greenhouse finally got painted.
Riding mower fired up and got a bath.
Kabota has already been put to work (LOVE that tractor )

Need to do this weekend:
Get seeds going in the greenhouse.
Attack Blackberries trying to move into the gardens.
Mulch rest of Strawberries.
Weed med. garden and prepare it for squash...gotta fence the chickens out before planting.
Prune Peach tree...course we've needed to do that for several years now.

There's a lot more chores but we are in our rainy season here in Oregon and it's a huge muck hole here on the farm.

__________________
"At The Worlds Beginning There Was A Mother"
~ Chinese Tao Te Ching~

cleaned up some scrap metal, got a new mod appointed to the garden forum, cleaned out the bunny hutches!

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àigeach carnaid
chaora dhubh
"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

cruachan

dale, am i going too have too send my tractor hauling chain back your way!? (came from madoc, was a mine lift chain! inch thick high grade chain!)

__________________
àigeach carnaid
chaora dhubh
"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

cruachan

When DH and I are both home, we're cleaning off the growth that took over the top of our root cellar. We're just going to re-cover it with rubber for now to save the building, but eventually it is going to be the site for our greenhouse. As you can see here, the goats love to help by supervising.



Incidentally, the dirt that we are removing from the top of the root cellar is AMAZING. All the leaves and whatnot that just collected there over the years had turned into the most beautiful black soil.

Along with that, we have goat kids arriving, so they are keeping up busy. And entertained.

Today I finished rearranging my pantry after hauling the old secondary refrigerator out at 1 o'clock in the morning. I was on a mission and would not rest until I got it out of the house.

Also slowly turning over our garden. The Gravely bit the dust during the last snow storm when my son was using it to plow so now I'm turning the garden by hand.

This weekend I'm hoping to move the chicken shed. We need the space because we are going dismantle another building and use that spot to stack the salvagable lumber.

Next week? Who knows?

__________________
Anne
Give me a sweet home set among the trees,
With friends whose words are ever kind and true.
-Phoebe Carey-

LONE PINE FARM
Barnesville, PA
Boer goats, Angora goats, Eclectic mix of poultry

We are dividing our time between the three acres where we live and the new place five miles from us.
-general yard clean up...tree and grape trimming.
-loading up the winter's worth of horse manure and hauling it out to "the farm" where the main garden is going to be (husband just looked at me but didn't say anything....I've shown him Forerunner's pics)
-trying to keep all the seedling trays watered, covered, uncovered, etc.
-put together a nice new rack to put those seedling trays on
-been going to farm auctions and getting some pretty good deals on oak lumber, lots of fence posts, and a chipper shredder that really works!
-brushing huge amounts of shedding hair off of my extremely dirty horses (nesting birds should be happy)
-cutting down some trees and lots of underbrush in preparation for a new pond and lane on the farm
-getting a couple of big culverts delivered today
-really need to get the new garden site tilled up (corn field last yr) because I've got an order of brambles, strawberries, asparagus, blueberries coming the week of the 12th
-plant the 23 spruce trees I got at an auction
-continue the NEVER ENDING job of sweeping and/or vacuuming up the NEVER ENDING swarms of ladybugs

What am I getting done on the farm?...less than I would like due to youngest DD's 16th birthday party but progress nonetheless over the past week.

Seedlings are started
new planters in the greenhouse
rabbit pens mucked
new set of quail hatching as I write this
new strawberry plants in the fridge waiting to be planted this weekend
raised beds mulched & waiting to be turned this weekend
compost pile turned
beehive checked & doing well I might add

Weather forecast for 80 & sunny over the next two days! Hoping to get lots done in the gardens.

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CJ

made a little more progress on the garden yesterday even though it was 84 out and hot hot hot..hand digging is hard work in 84 degrees !

Today I am hoping Joel will help level the area that we are going to move the greenhouse to..it needs to get done soon..much easier to do with the tractor than by hand as it is a slope

Hello everyone,
It certainly is obvious we have hard workers in this forum. Hope you all accomplish what you want without any harmful accidents.

This year brings much for us to do on our little 6 acres. Already we have trimmed the hooves on all our breeding Nubians & given them their tetanus as well as other useful shots. They gave us 6 kids to fatten for part of next year's meat. (At this time the kids are running with the does and the bucks are still separate.)

We started tearing down our old 25' x 4' chicken house, burning the wood and saving the aluminum siding for a workshop we want to do as soon as we can.

I started excavating the large mud puddle situated in the middle of our driveway. Hauling 10"-15" rocks from all over the acreage up to that puddle area has been terrible. (I should have put the harness on one of my bucks and had him haul it; but didn't even think of it until almost done.) I have managed to pick & spade about a third of this (going 18" deep) 12' x 12' area and using that clay/small rock dug out to raise one side of the drive. I figure I will get this digging done by the latter part of next week. Placing the fabric & graduated rock will be a breeze compared to this excavating part.

Heard one of our dams running in circles around the barn yelling and found her 2 kids had managed to get into the garden through a hole in the fence. Had to repair that. The entire barn will need cleaning again. With the extra cold weather we had here, the bedding is extra deep; but always clean it down to the soil, hauling it all into different parts of the garden. (About 2 months ago I threw some of that bedding out in the weather to rot some; then used it to mulch our fruit trees.)

Sometime this month I need to put on the 4-gal back sprayer and spray 4 acres to get rid of the weeds and fertilize the grasses. I am not looking forward to that. Also this month we will be mowing the garden and tilling under what was mowed down so as to get that area ready for the garden seeding.

Yes, homesteading is almost constant working at something. At least all the fencing is now ok. (Had to chop 3 of our neighbor's trees of them first.) I still love it out here and this work is much better (in my opinion) than working for another for income and living in the city amongst concrete and asphalt.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

My farm is drowning, it'll be awhile before I do anything other than make sure my ditches are clear for the run off that actually reaches them. I did my rounds this morning to realize one of my pastures didn't have a single spot for the animals to lay down 'cause it's so wet so I got to play musical pastures this morning. That's always fun.

When it does finally clear I'll be ready to start planting the garden. Yay!

What are all those big tiles for , especially the tall stack of them ?

Looks like everyone is getting a lot of work done. After this past winter it shore do feel great, don't it!!!!
Most of the country should have nice weather for this Easter weekend so lets all meet back here first of the week and compare notes on what else we got done.

HAPPY EASTER

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

Woot!

Today we cleaned out an outbuilding we basically couldn't get into. It's been such a mess I just ignored it --> until today. I found 3 leave blowers and 3 weed eaters. Unreal. But we've got a great organized new place for everything-including our new chicks and bunnies. I was wildly motivated to get them out of the house once I got a whiff of the rabbits.

Spread some lime on the plots I plowed last fall.... looks like I can disk it in tomorrow since the unusual 80 degree temperatures have dried the soil enough to work it !

I got more seedlings going.
Finished up the beehive, just needs a goat of paint.
We went tonight and bought hog panels and goat fencing.
I worked overtime this week to help us get a bit further with our little farm.

DH has been the busy one.
--Got more done with his tractor (restoring it)
--pulled out the old fencing from between our property and the additional acreage we purchased. He'll be pulling out the old fence posts so the back end of the property can go to hay.
--Built a really nice goat shed for me and hog shed for some feeders
--cut a bunch of brush out from around where new fencing will be going.
--plowed one of the garden beds

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What are we up to? Come and see!

The tiles are actually openings that go through the roof into the root cellar. Right now we usually keep them covered with plexiglass and they act as skylights. I'm not exactly sure about the tall stack but, as best we can figure, it might have served as a chimney at one point.

We were told that there used to be a chicken house over the root cellar years ago.

__________________
Anne
Give me a sweet home set among the trees,
With friends whose words are ever kind and true.
-Phoebe Carey-

LONE PINE FARM
Barnesville, PA
Boer goats, Angora goats, Eclectic mix of poultry

I got tired just reading some of your posts.....but we have been busy, too...

*rabbits bred
* built a cold frame from lumber and old house windows
*filled cold frame with starter plants.....(Thanks again Martin...)
*cleaned the porch off from this winter's firewood mess
*trimmed my roses
*garden plowed and tilled....ready for planting if rain holds off till Monday
*pick up the yard...Where does all that "stuff" come from that gets blowed around the yard and house through the winter? Anyway.....
*heavy bed covers washed and dried in the sunshine
* my boys recycle cans, so we loaded all them up, ready to cash in on Monday (we gotta go to town anyway)

Last week we went to an estate auction. Ended up buying a corn picker, 16' 4-wheel wagon, hay elavator, 110 gallon milking vat with hoses, pumps, and etc. , and other "goodies". Biggest chore for this week..... DH got all that stuff home! No small task, especially when you have the flu.

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Stephanie

Wife, Mom to 4 ( 2 in Tn, 2 in Gloryland), caretaker of chickens, rabbits, kittys, 2 dogs, 2 milk goats, 2 jersey cows, and 1 messy house

I am so glad for this thread. Sometimes, I can feel like my work is unappreciated. I read each and every post. You guys are amazing!! Hurray for spring and all the chores too.

Today was a big day. I spent three days of the last week driving all over Michigan - read: not getting anything done at home. Today, I was home all day. I moved a large bale of hay outside of the barn (no easy feat alone, let me tell you!) and set up a little fence around it so the llamas and sheep can eat, but not step in it. I forked up all the old hay from around the hay feeder and put it in a pile. Hopefully, I can find someone with a tractor and front loader to move it for me this week. I took down part of our fence that is falling over. Dug up and old copper ground rod that I hit with the mower a couple times last year. Dug up and reset a post for the garden water hydrant. Picked up the pieces of clear plastic over the garden manure pile and replaced it with black. that's where the melons will go this year. I moved a stall mat out of the chicken's stall (that sounds so easy when I just type it - believe me, it wasn't) and put it back down in the gateway to the garden. No more weeds there. I did four loads of laundry; baked bread and pizza crust and an apple pie. We also had Conference Session from our church today - that was 4 hours. AND it RAINED!!!! FINALLY!!! Which is actually the only reason I got the laundry and baking done.

I have so much more to do....so much....with a few more days like today though, I will feel that I am more on top of it.