Well quite a bit going on since the last posting! Looks like we will be heading back to the
states a little earlier than planned. It
was planned Terri would go back in May anyway to start setting up the
household, not it looks like I will be heading back to Washington DC in May as
well to finish up my time in the Army, I need to get a little medical work done
and none better then Walter Reed! The
other benefit with being in Washington DC is it make the possibly of long weekend
trips to the farm possible. That along
with Alexis volunteering to work on the farm this summer in exchange for a
little cash it means there is a few projects we will be able to start this year
rather than waiting until next!
Turns out we will likely be able to get the bees going this
year after all. However, that is still possibly on hold depending on what day I
need to be DC. Just all depends on how
the scheduling works out. The company we
are looking at for bees have two dates open in May for delivery 10 and 17 May. Typically,
in the army the reports dates are the 10th, meaning if I have a May
10 report date neither of those dates would work unless I signed in then went
back on leave (a possibility). Also,
need to figure the time to put the hives together (two warre hives) and set up
on location (near the pond on the homestead) before the bees arrive.
We are also going to set up the worm farm this summer in the
garage, it sounds grander than it is LOL.
It is a worm composing bin you can get through amazon. Figured it was
not a bad idea on multiple fronts, the casings will be fertilizer for starting
plants next year when I am back, some of the worms will make their way out to
the Chickens for winter protein snacks and some will make their way to fish
hooks this summer I am sure! On top of
that once we get the aquarium (salt water) set up they will become snacks for
those fish as well!
Terri had also decided she would like to add a pig this
first year, knowing how intelligent pigs are and not wanting the one to get
lonely I talked her into going with two rather than one! They
will be up on the north-west portion of the homestead so that means we have a
lot of fencing to get fixed up in what used to be the corral. We will have to
figure out a watering system to get them watered out there but thing this first
year we may just go with a portable water tank.
We also decided to add a pumpkin patch along with the
sunflowers on the south-east corner.
This will give us extra winter feed for the chickens and give us
something good to finish the pigs on before butchering, not to mention the
possibility of a small cash crop for Halloween.
This month been reading a lot of forest farming, some pretty
good idea’s in there, unfortunately ideas are the one thing I am not short
on. Really like the idea of a lot of the
forest farming however most of what I have available right now is poplar which
is not really the best for a lot of those concepts, it will take many, many
years to slowly develop that into hardwood stands, one idea would be to take
that north-east corner of the 40 acers and start planting hardwoods on that
area, was kind of the plan all along just have not yet fully decided on the makeup
of it. Right now I am thinking a mixture
of Maple (if the ground is not too full of clay), some white and red oaks and
maybe some beech as the canopy trees with some paw paw and nut trees in the
understory along with American Ginsing and various berries and shade tolerant medicinals
down below. The mast from the trees
should give a good place to finish off pigs down the road the month before
butcher, if I can keep them from destroying the Ginseng that is. And cannot forget mushrooms 😊
Honestly the first Mushroom logs will probably be inoculated
next spring if I can find the hard wood logs for it, maple is probably the best
for Shiitake mushrooms. Will use the
area around the pond on the homestead as the laying yard. You can get enough spawn for about 30 logs
(each log is about 3-4 feet and 4 inches around) for less than $60. You have to keep the logs moisture up for the
first year as the spawn colonize the log so I will wait to do that until I get
home. Just another task on the never-ending
task list for next year! Since I would
like to thin out the poplar in order to provide a better mix of trees, I will
use some of the polar for Oyster mushrooms.
It is a little different procedure then for Shiitake mushrooms but it
should allow me to thin out the poplar without the stumps going to waste as
part of a forest management plan. Well this is plenty for now! As always I look forward to your comments!
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