This is our farm notebook. This entry is for what we can remember that was either overlooked or never had a ‘right place’ to put it.
We didn’t have help this year. As a result, we made less progress than last year, but at least we made it. We did run more fence, but are woefully short of firewood and managed no new sheds.
Next year, by concentrating on high tensile, we should be able to pasture the non sheep for most of the growing season. Smooth wire electric costs half the money and half the time of woven wire. Hinge knot fence really isn’t as good as the solid-lock stuff.
We also need to learn to build post and rail. That doesn’t sound hard, but I’ve heard that many times over the years.
The garden we have is almost the right size, except for the nightshade issue: Even when we get everything set up, over half our garden will be nightshades. If we should only plant nightshades in the same spot every third year, we have an issue. A green manure crop turned under would be the conventional solution but that is not compatible with raised beds. BTW, it seems that actual nightshade doesn’t get late blight.
It turns out that the tractor bucket will lift a bale of balage on a warm New Hampshire day. That would be 40F, 5C. The rear wheels were barely touching the ground. We won’t try again until I get rear weights in place.
I’m thinking of adding a subsidiary blog here where I can rant discuss non farming stuff. I’ve been turned off by too many people’s religion or politics, so I don’t want to do that to others. Candidates for title are Up to the Old Jones Place, and something about Granolageek, which is a nom de net I’ve used for years.
In the course of dealing with hundreds of boxes of NAFTA-labeled foodstuffs, I believe I’ve come across what ought to be the great Canadian battle cry: “Gardez Congelée!” It’s both impressive and appropriate, what more could one ask?
Lemon and lime juice are far more expensive than orange and grapefruit. Faced with hundreds of pounds of fruit, juice the expensive stuff. Besides, the pigs will eat oranges although none of the others.