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Phase one complete!!

Well first a follow up on my last post, the Jordan Military Police did return my pens after a little more then a week of the Embassy acting on  my behalf and waiting for them to be turned in to their headquarters.  At the end of the day however I did get my pens back and we will chalk it up to some overzealous interpretations to their directions.

I have not been on much the last couple weeks due to trying to get the first phase of my homestead plan completed!  The first phase of my plan was to get fruit, nut and berry trees and shrubs planted that would take a few years to start producing.  The purpose pf these trees are to produce food for the homestead, some to sell at farmers market,  to support wildlife and  to feed livestock. All total I ordered about 140 plants

 Apple: Breakey 5-6'                          3Apple: Centennial 11/16                    3 
Apple: Chestnut 11/16                       3 
Apple: Haralson 11/16                       3 
Apple: Red Baron 11/16                    3 
Apple: Red Duchess 11/16                3 
Apple: Sweet Sixteen 7/8                  3 
Apple: Wodarz 11/16                         3 
Apple: Zestar! 11/16                          3 
Butternut: 18-24"                               5
Cherry Plum: Compass 7/16             3 
Cherry Plum: Sapalta 9/16                3 
Cherry: Carmine Jewel 3'                  4 
Cherry: Evans Bali 11/16                   3
Cherry: Nanking 2-3'                        10 
Cherry: Sweet Cherry Pie 9/16          3 
Chokecherry: Common 2-3'               6 
Cranberry: American 18-24"              4 
Currant, Black: Tiben #1                    3 
Currant: Golden Flowering 18-24"     6 
Currant: Golden Flowering 18-24"     4 
Currant: Red Lake 12" nice               3 
Grape: Beta #1                                  3 
Grape: King of the North #1              3 
Hazelnut: American 2-3                     7 
Maple: Flame Amur 6'                       1 
Maple: Hard Sugar 12-18"                4 
Maple: Silver 1yr 5'                           2 
Maple: Unity Sugar 1yr LB 6'            3 
Pear: Early Gold 11/16                      3 
Pear: Harbin 2-3'                               4 
Pear: Ure 11/16                                 3 
Plum: American 2-3'                          4 
Plum: Pembina  11/16                       3

Plum: Toka 9/16                                3 
Sandcherry: Western 2-3'                 6  

Walnut: Black 2-3'                              3
Willow: Niobe Weeping 6-7'               1 
Willow: Silver 4-5'                               2 
Sandcherry: Western 2-3                   6 


The first week I was slowed down due to some cold and wet weather.  I also had to re-plan my original planting locations because the primary area I was looking at was still too wet to plant and was not draining well, I ended up burying a tractor down to it hubs trying to cut down the brush in that area,  so had to rework my plan on my planting location!  That was not the only change of plans however!  As I was purchasing the trees the gentleman asked what I was going to do to keep the deer from eating and destroying my freshly planted trees.   Well that was something I had not really thought  about and with my being out of the area for the next two years it was not something I could fix if it became a problem.  So the nurseryman showed me what they used to keep the deer out, it was an 8 foot fence around their orchards.  So it looked like I was going to be building fences as well this trip!  Before all was said and done we built two fenced in areas for the trees with totaling about 900 foot of fence at a height of 8 foot livestock fencing to protect the trees!

Of course the need to build a fence from scratch and a limited time frame also meant the need for a post hole digger, we bought one that would go on the back of the tractor by brother in law loaned us!  Originally we started with a 6 inch auger but soon upgraded to a 9 inch as the 6 inch just did not make the holes big enough for us, we also had the benefit of being able to use it to dig the holes for the smaller trees.

A couple of notes for those looking to build this kind of fence, do your homework before hand this ended up costing me much more then it could have if I had gone through the Department of Natural Resources for assistance.  In the end the fence cost as much as the trees!  Also do not try to go cheep on your corner posts, the first fence we did we used 4X4s for corner posts and they were not nearly strong enough to keep from bowing with your additional support,  On the second fence we used 6X6s, they cost 4 times as much as the 4X4s but the stability was so much better which was very much needed for an 8 foot fence.  

In addition the planting the trees and putting up the fencing we first had to clear out the  brush to free up the space,   Below is the before pics of the areas we used for the trees.









And here is the after area of the trees and the fencing









  All in all it was a successful trip but only thanks to alot of help from family and friends.  I really do not know what I would have done without them, without having to ask they were out there helping put up fence, finding equipment to use or any and every other little task that needed done.  This experience has also taught me that in farming nothing goes as planned, you have to build extra time into everything to take into account machinery breaking down, weather, or any other of a hundred things that can go wrong, they most certainly will.  Well that is one step down!!

If anyone has any question to the fencing or planing just let me know!



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