Sweet Summer Pickins

Join us as a follower so you can keep up with our progress of starting a farm from the ground up.  I would also love to know who is following our blog.

I took the leap and ordered 150 blackberry plants!  Half of them will be shipped this week and the other half next week.  Ronny is working on tilling the part of the garden they will be planted in.  Fig and peach trees and strawberries will be planted too.  Turkey manure will be the soil amendment that we will till in before planting.

I decided on two blackberry varieties:  Arapaho and Navajo.  Being the Aggie Mom that I am, Texas A&M University Horticulture Department was my resource of choice for information on blackberry varieties.  http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/fruit/blackberries/blackberries.html

Arapaho Blackberries are an erect, thornless plant that produces a medium, high quality fruit.  It is very productive and resistant to Double Blossom and Rust.  This is a new variety developed in 1993 at the University of Arkansas.

Navaho Blackberries are an erect thornless plant that producess a dense hedgerow that ripens later than the Arapaho with even higher yields.  The berry is medium-size and sweet.

I am really looking forward to learning lots about blackberries and how to raise them.  Be on the lookout for blackberry recipes on this blog!

I get to go to Chicken Care 101 with my twinster neighbor, Becky Thursday morning.  She is going to show me the ropes then.  We are getting our rooster from her and she will be my go-to-person on chicken raisin'.  I can't recommend the link www.mypetchicken.com too much.  Check it out!  The chicken coop will be built after the blackberry planting.

We have had a warm winter and spring is filtering in without us realizing it.  I enjoyed a great walk on the back of the property with the dogs yesterday.  Here are some pictures I took with my new camera.....having fun learning to use the different features of the camera.

Thorny Mesquite

Donkey skull out in the pasture

Reflections

Red Sky at Sunset Means Storms in the Morning?

Something fun that I will be doing this week is taking a canning class.  I already know how to can but know that I can learn so much more.  I am taking the class at Aquaponics in Desoto.  Aquaponics is an interesting farming technique.
Check out their website http://www.aquaponicsandearth.org/aboutus/who-are-we/

Signing off for now.  Hoping for more rain tonight so we can continue with a healthy drought recovery here in our part of Texas.  Happy Farming!

Putting the Plan Together

We had a great rainfall this weekend.  We got nearly two inches and the ponds were all overflowing into each other.  Ronny and I got out and sloshed around all of it so that we could get a good idea of where to build our second pond.  Tucker was a hoot.  That dog hates to get his paws wet.  We followed the wash on one side of the property.  At that time is was a swift-flowing creek.  Somehow, Tucker ended up on one bank and us on the other.  He was not about to walk through that water!  Shasta just plunged right on in and crossed to the other side.  On the other hand our tenderfoot, 100-pound pooch found a narrow part and hopped over.  Heaven forbid he should get wet!

Our pond runneth over

Shasta ain't skeered

Mr. Delicate trying to find a good place to cross

So, the tax news was good and that means it is time to get serious about things.  Ronny's focus will be calves, hogs and building a shop.  We are networking with our neighbors and plan to buy some of their calves and fence-line wean them.  Derek suggested this as a more gentle way to wean calves in order to reduce stress.  Here is an article that I found discussing the method of fence-line weaning: http://animalscience.ag.utk.edu/beef/pdf/FencelineWeaningReducesStressDuringWeaningofBeefCalves-CDL-ASB312.pdf

My focus this year is getting the garden into shape, planting blackberries and starting a flock of chickens.  Thank goodness for my red head twinster, Becky, next door.  She will be my resident advisor on raising chickens.  I can't wait.  I love the website listed on my link list below: "My Pet Chicken".  It gives lots of great advice for the ordinary person and makes it seem like such fun.  I am definitely going to get a few Easter Egger chickens so we can have some green and blue eggs!  I also found a website called "Pick Your Own" that is listed on the right.  It is a great tool to publicize our crops.  If you are interested in eating locally grown food seasonally it will be a good resource for you to check out no matter what state you live in.

 Now don't get me wrong. This will be hard work but what would you rather do? Sit on your fanny and watch the world go by or dig your hands into some rich black dirt, work outside in fresh air and sunshine, and build something that you can call your own?  Share our blog with others.  We would love to hear from other farmers or ranchers.  Their practical advice, wisdom, and knowledge of resources would be greatly appreciated. 

Stay tuned for more farm fun news!

Preparation

So as we embark on this adventure, we know that we should prepare ourselves well.  Fortunately, we have a son who is a former Ag Extension Agent and who is working on his doctorate in prescribed burns.  His knowledge and advice are priceless!  We are also surfing the internet a lot looking for websites and resources.  I have provided a section at the bottom of the page for links that I like.  I have also added a book list of the books we are soaking up.

In my search for books that addressed holistic land management, biodiversity, and organic farming, I stumbled upon some books on biodynamic farming.  I have to say that the readings on biodynamic farming are the most interesting yet disturbing that I have read so far.  They enter a realm that is hard to fathom and one I don't want to enter.  Yet, they also project great knowledge and insight regarding the health of the entire world and our responsiblity in restoring land to health and wellness.  I found a lot of what I read very interesting and challenging as someone who is becoming a steward of a parcel of land.  While the philosophical and theoretical approach is a bit strange, I am learning interesting things regarding some practical application to farming.  It is worth broadening your mind and enriching yourself regarding different schools of thought to read books on biodynamic farming. 

For you newbies out there, I discovered something great today at H & R Block.  The lady filing our 2011 taxes gave me a Farm Tax Record Book that H&R Block provides.  It is a great accounting tool for anyone especially if you are new to this business.

Ronny is working on designing the layout of the property such as crossfencing and location of outbuildings and corrals.  The garden area was thigh-high in weeds and grass when we moved here.  I mowed it immediately and then scalped it last week.  Soon as we know tax damage (or not), a tractor is next on the list to purchase.  We will either start working the garden soil with our own tractor or tap into the neighbors' offers to help with dirt work.  I am also going tomorrow to talk to different nurseries in town to see who can give me the best deal on blackberry bushes.  Yes!  Blackberries from Scasta's Farm will be a main crop.  Stay tuned in the event section for possible public pickin's!  I am also leaning toward figs and lettuce greens as public crops.

Sleepless Night

One of the deals with living in the country is that there are inherent dangers lying around different corners.  Especially if the property was somewhat unkept with surprises buried in deep grass.  Our dog, Tucker, cut his foot a few weeks ago, possibly on metal imbedded in grass.  He ended up getting it repaired at an all night Animal ED to the tune of way too many dollars. 

He has been on limited mobility for the last two weeks and spends the nights tied up.  Welllll, last night the coyotes were howling all night long and so were Tucker and Shasta.......right outside our bedroom window.  Needless to say, he is officially off limited mobility.  His cone cracked with the freezing weather this weekend anyway so we took it off.  The gash is still open (some of the stitches came out) but Momma needs some sleep :)

We Bought A Farm

Okay, the first thing that I learned in setting up a blog is to save what I am writing because I just lost an almost completed first blog.  So, I will keep this shorter and add something new gradually (that was in the unsaved version).  Yikes!  Such a novice, I am.  But I just saved it and checked out a preview.....Whew!

So, the short version for tonight.....We bought 20 lovely acres complete with an old farmhouse, a pond, garden, small pen, and a very tiny workshop.  It is a blank palate for us.  We cannot wait to get started developing it into a small-scale, producing working farm.  We plan to hay some of the property, raise some marketable, grass-fed livestock, and sell several organic garden products.  We have so much to learn!  But we love the country life and the challenge and have a great resource in our agriculture expert son, Derek. 

The house and immediate surrounding property are requiring the bulk of our attention right now.  It needed lots of clean up as you can and will see in before and after pictures that I will be posting.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Before

After

Before

After

I love, love, love the original pinewood floors that we refinished.  I always thought I was a carpet girl but these floors are awesome!  Needless to say, we have lots of work still to do like new flooring in kitchen, bathroom, and dining room, windows replaced, paint the outside and electrical work (thank goodness for our son, Mark, the electrical expert) but it is really feeling like home!  We love it out here.  One of our favorite acquisitions with the property was the previous owner's dog, Shasta.  Yes, that's right....She is now Shasta Scasta :)  Here are her before and afters.  She is so cute now and has such a sweet personality.  She really helped Tucker settle right into country life.

Shasta is the long hair and Tucker is in the front.

All trimmed up and looking good!

So needless to say, one of the best things about having a farm is bringing the grandbabies out here.  I look forward to summer cousin camps at BiBi and PaPa's farm, fun weekends, and holiday gatherings.  Here are Bella and Cockadoodleloo in a standoff.

So, I will sign off for tonight.  Stay tuned and learn right along with us as we learn how to make a farm!  Sweet dreams!