Up date on the busyness

We got the gardens all planted and almost all the weeds out, there are eight more rows of corn left to hoe and then the french garden needs a once over again! We are getting a lot of rain and warm wether so the field corn is just about knee high! I will add pictures later of all the gardens and fields.

More Details

Well one thing that is keeping any human body here that has functioning limbs busy is pulling and chopping something that comes up when you disrupt Nature's garden and plant what you think is best. I think you who are reading this have have all ready guessed what I'm talking about if not it is weeds! With over an acre planted in garden stuff it seems like when one garden is weeded the one that was weeded before needs to be weeded again! We like to compare it to the Mackinaw bridge which takes years to paint from one end to the other so when it is all painted it needs to be painted again! By july every thing we planted is tall and spread out and shades out the weeds. But right now if the weed are allowed to gain the upper hand we will never get to enjoy the sight of a well maintained garden in the summer. Well, the rain shower was brief so I am heading out to plant potatoes.

I still exist!

Just a short update of what has been happening.

V E R Y B U S Y !

I will try to do a longer post soon.

I was going to write maybe when is raining and thundering and then go and plant potatoes.

Well as it was in my thoughts there was a bolt of lightning and then it started poring!

So until it stops raining I will try to do a longer post with more details!

Of Corn, Squash Pumpkins, Heat,Rest Flies, And Caterpillars

The corn is is up and growing fast in the hot days we're having. I have been hoeing it and planting squash and pumpkins between the hills of corn in the cool of the early morning before it gets hot.

We have a natural plague of sugar maple eating caterpillars that have have reached a population in the last two years to completely defoliate a forest in a few days. There is also a fly that eats these caterpillars. Once the sun is up these flies come to drink my sweat by ten o'clock they come by the hundreds to drink and it becomes unbearable and the dark sandy soil gets too hot to stand on in one spot for long so the I go on to other farm chores. Then if I come inside and read until I become sleepy and lay down for a siesta and sleep away the hottest hour I like to take a short nap like this if I get the opportunity in the summer it sort of give a boost of energy for the long northern evening.

The corn field looking at it diagonally at this angle you can see that it is planted in hills 36'' a part

At this angle it looks to be planted in rows.

The bothersome flies.

A close up of one of these flies they are known as Friendly Flies (Sarcophaga aldrichi)

The Forest Tent Caterpillars (Malacosome disstria)

This is the neighbors Sugar Bush that I worked in this spring it is completely defoliated. This will not kill the trees but it will reduce the sugar content in the sap.

The rye I planted last fall is growing good and is almost as high as me.

To the side of the rye I planted Buckwheat it is up and growing good too.

This is Hairy Vetch that I planted to build up the soil it is a good legume to plant here as it is winter hardy and it fixes a lot of nitrogen from the air into the soil.

A Blue Bird that is nesting near by this field of rye vetch and buckwheat.

This is a nest of Red Winged Blackbirds that is in another patch of vetch at the end of the corn field by the farm sign

Our farm sign

(verdant is pronounced vairdant like air and ant)

Here are some links on the forest tent caterpillars and the flies that eat them.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/treecare/forest_health/ftc/index.html

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/treecare/forest_health/ftc/friendlyfly.html

Our First Attempt At Making Hay by Hand At Verdant Farm

Here are some photos of our first time making hay by hand at our farm. It seems to have turned out good and better then any hay we have purchased.

Honing the scythe blade with a whetstone

Cutting

spreading the hay out to dry

Since I cut the grass in the orchard we had to rake the hay out from under the trees into the sunlight to dry.

The hay rakes are homemade out of wood

Gathering up the dry hay and bringing it to the hay cock building site

Stacking the hay on a rack

Putting on the finale layer

A finished hay cock. There is a opening on both ends that allows air circulation to further dry the hay.

Me and my brother with the only tools necessary to make hay.

A Mixed Up World

To day I am very tempted to be angry. There is something going on across the road that is not right. It started this morning when a stainless steel tanker truck pulled up our road and parked in the field across the road. Soon two men(they can not be called farmers any more and they prefer this! they're are properly called Agribusiness men ) drove up in a tractor and pickup and started pumping the contents of the tanker into tanks on the tractor and on the seeder at the back of the tractor. I went over and asked what they were planting they said corn. I was a bit relieved as they do not spray corn as much as the other thing they plant. But then I asked what was in the tank they said "fertilizer yup liquid fertilizer". Yuk! Then one of then asked why I was not in school today I was a little taken back I grinned and said I was going on 23! Then it was their turn to be taken back one of them laughed and said to the other "yer giding old"(MI way of talking) Then I asked why they had to spray there carrots so many times last year. One of them answered " oh we spray once a week" what for I asked "fer bugs" what kinda bugs? "oh nematodes an leafhoppers an fungus" Wow I guess thats what they get when they plant a mono crop! I never get these pests on our carrots. What is so upsetting about all this is that we just got our water tested and it is high in nitrates it has gone up from 11 pm(parts per million) on the last test five years ago to 14.5 pm. And this is hindering us from getting our farm kitchen state certified. What I think is wrong is that the MDA expects us to pay for the problem and does not address the source of the problem. And the Health Department who took the test is calling it a natural high nitrate level! So very upsetting!

A Hot Sunday

To day was hot, 80's in the shade. I made 6 more hay racks, they turned out well construction wise. I'll have to see how they work in a few day as I have all ready started cutting the grass in the orchard. Last week four more lambs were born they are growing very fast and already trying to eat a little grass! The young kids are growing good to and the mother goats are giving a lot of milk.

The hay racks, I made three different sizes.

Autumn and her first buck kid. I really like this goat she is only a year old and has grown on only grass and is only eating grass and gives a lot of good tasting high fat milk for her age.

The four new lambs and their mothers.

The barley and oat are growing good too!

As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. Genesis 8:22 NLT