Summer on the Homestead.

Lets hope the weather is nice to us this summer.

Thanks so much for the new thread and congrats on the great day at the market. I was wondering how your chickens were doing. Do you have only Brown egg layers? I thought of you when I passed a nursery in town that recently closed and their greenhouses are for sale. There are four of them and I can only imagine how many vegetables could be grown in them.

Heading out to Richmond in an hour on the bike - My son is in from Calif. have not seen him in two years hoping for a dry ride.

We have 200 Hubbard Golden Comets from Mt. Healthy in Ohio. 50 Araucana's that lay blue eggs.
Plus a mix of older hens. All are brown eggs.

I wish I was closer, I would be after those greenhouses for sure.

I wish I had room for one and the money to buy one.

Dug Godiva's stall out yesterday and have been in bed most of the day with spasms. But she is comfortable. That makes it worth it. I wanted to get some seedlings planted but did not feel up to it.

I was able to get back into the garden yesterday and this morning. I planted my eggplant and squash seedlings. I had to buy them because the eggplant I grew got chewed off the day after I set it out. I was so upset. It was my favorite kind and it was beautiful. I had to buy a white Which is a hybrid and I don't like that idea but I grew one last year and it was tasty and prolific. I also got an Itchiban. That is a long purple Japanese variety. They taste good too. I planted them yesterday, dusted them with sevin and put bird netting over them. I have them covered with shade cloth to give them time to settle in.

I had planted yellow straight neck and Bennings Green Tint scallop seeds but neither came up so I had to buy a couple seedlings. I got the YSN and a Black Beauty zucchini. DH can eat all he wants of those and they go great in soup. We also love the YSN rolled in cornmeal and fried like fish. I had to cover those two with bird netting too. Don't want to take any chances at $3 a pop.

I got my carrots thinned this morning and fed the thinning to Max. He really enjoyed them. I used to feed them to the chickens. If Radar, my DGS, had been here he would have eaten them in a flash. He should be here end of the second week in June. He momma is bringing him and she will stay a week so we can spend time with little Rayah too. We are so excited. Knock will be coming later in the summer.

Been a busy week here.
Set out cabbage, eggplant, sweet peppers, tomatoes & muskmelon. Total about 2000 plants.
Seeded zucchini, summer squash & cucumbers.
Today we put tunnels on the vine crops.

Wow! I cannot imagine farming on such a large scale. I would love to see such an operation first hand. It must take a lot of planning.

Planning for this year started last summer. Then our farmers market changed locations. Then neighbor boy came by & offered us his land. So plans have been changing all along. A lot of plan as you go.
Most things are done now. Still have winter squash, pumpkins, sweet corn & field tomatoes to go in.
Of course second, third, & fourth plantings of many things.

That is a lot to keep up with. But I am sure you enjoy it. Would love to see some pics of your place this year.

Things are moving slow here right now. Picking a few peas and a strawberry now and then. Got a couple little pear tomatoes on one Bush and some blooms but nothing else is blooming yet. We are behind because of the late Spring. Hope winter is late too.

I have never grown cauliflower before. My plants are huge but they are all leaves. How long does it take for a head to begin forming?

Hello. Like MaryE said, Yes, Nik's been busy and is now back. Our house comes off the line Monday and will be delivered a day or three later. It's less than 4 hours away by car, but I imagine it'll take a bit longer for the semis to get it here. It still shouldn't take more than about 6 hours though. The basement is poured, even the floor.
A word of warning to anyone in Ohio who buys a manufactured home; You don't need a building permit from your county if you have a state permit. The people setting our place obtained the building permit from the state, but we still had to get a zoning permit. This required us to first get a septic permit. The zoning guy told us that we were all ready for our building permit. This is issued by the county. The county (who KNEW BETTER) tried to charge us almost 1600$ plus over 200$ per inspection (11 of them). After jumping through all these hoops getting all the required (and not really required) blueprints and everything; we found we didn't need any of it. I had to work the day we found all this out. I told my lovely wife to go back and get us our money, I didn't care if she had to go in there with the shotgun screaming jihad. When she went back they tried to sell her on the idea of letting the county do it. She got our money back, and all our paperwork. Things are now going full speed ahead.

I quit my job at Ridgway hatcheries yesterday. It was on good terms and I am sure I'll be back there again one day. But I really needed a break, and I have a couple of medical issues to deal with. Dean and Micky both asked me to stay in touch, so it's all good.
We have 60 welsh harlequin duck eggs in our incubator here in the house, along with 60 auracana eggs. I still have 3 more things to do before they bring the house, 2 major, and one minor. I have move the carport, and run power back to the site. those are the major ones. The minor is that I need to chainsaw out a big mass of osage orange. It's been cut down a couple times but keeps coming back. That's happening later today when I get my chainsaw back from the service folks. The carport will moved on Monday. The power I need to talk to someone about.

Best get busy.

Good luck Nic for a speedy and easy set up of the new home.

I made the bike trip out to see my son. Had not seen him since he had a stroke a couple of years ago. He has trouble communicating. He understands and knows what he wants to say but has trouble forming the words. I know if I spent more time with him, I would be able to understand him better. He has trouble getting around and has to wear a brace on one of his legs. He has lost so much weight that I almost did not recognize him. It was a painful and bittersweet visit. I cut it short and rode home - 312 miles on the bike in one day, never done that before and I was a bit sore for awhile.

Got the chainsaw running, and found that I don't have quite the deadline I thought on one job. So all I really need to concentrate on is moving the carport. That's after I get back from the hospital where I need to get blood tests. Still having those thyroid issues.

Sorry about your son Dyson, where is he located? 300+ miles on a bike would definitely wear me out!!!!

Nik, so good to hear all the progress on your new house. It is all so exciting. You might try Brush B Gone on that orange once you get it cut. It is a product from Ortho and it worked great for us.

Dyson, sorry to hear of your son's ongoing problems. It must have been hard to see. Learning sign language might be useful for him.

Nothing much going on here. We got a new light put up in our kitchen yesterday. It was as dark as a cave in there. We had one of those chandeliers in there with the fake candle sticks and the small light bulbs. The sticks burned out and melted one at a time and we were down to one. Come to find out the wiring was bad and was hot all the time even when the switch was off. That had caused the melting. The new light looks nice.

Only lack two rooms being cleaned and the house will be ready for company. We have Bible School for the community kids in two weeks so we are getting ready for that.

This was the first harvest from the two small blueberry trees I planted last fall. They are still small and planted in a big pot. The harvest was small but the berries were delicious.

Blueberry bushes don't really bear enough for a good harvest unless you have lots of bushes, of course. I planted 2 service berries this year in the orchard, although it looks like one isn't going to make it. They grow into a bush up to 12 feet high, but usually around 8 feet. They are supposed to be self pollenating, but 2 bushes would (I believe) increase the pollination. I transplanted 2 weed mulberry trees also. I think one of them is a white mulberry. They are getting over the shock and leafing out again, so they might make it. we'll see. Anyone have any Walking Egyptian Onions they want to get rid of? or tiger lilies.

I drilled into the osage orange and poured kerosene in it. It smouldered for hours, but I think it's dead.

The house isn't coming until NEXT week now because of the rainy conditions. still busting hump on everything.

Debbi wants to get a new pup, a longhaired Chihuahua. we'll see. I'd rather wait till we're in the new house.

My Momma had four blueberry bushes that would bear like crazy every year. I miss those and I miss her more every day.

I will have to Google serviceberries. I am not familiar with them. I have a white monetary tree in a pot that I grew from seed. It is about four years old now and never bloomed. Mayhap it needs repotting.

service berries are also called juneberries or haskaps.

We got the new puppy. Hector Alonzo Gonzalez de Juarez. Gonzo for short. took the money out of my tablesaw fund. I was saving up for a Powermatic.

Great day today at our place. We have family visiting from home and the boys are here so we had a family cookout in the yard today. Food was delish. We brought the guitar and the mouth harps out for a few tunes. Then we went to the barn for some riding and carting. It was a blast. Boys have to clean stalls tomorrow then I think they will go to a friend's house to swim. I will take that time to get my house back in order from three weeks of company. It has been a great three weeks and I hate to see it end. Brother in law spent three days putting in a new sink, countertop and cabinets in the kitchen. All I can do is sit and stare at it. Words do not cover how much I appreciate what he has done for us.

Nik, how is the new pup adjusting?

Family left this morning just after six. I have most everything put back in order already so maybe I will nap this evening while the boys swim. Right now I have to take the trash to the road. Hope you all have a great day.

Gonzo is doing well. He's bossing all the other dogs around and getting away with it. Our house is on the basement now. They still have to get the siding on the one end and then do whatever has to be done inside. They gave us the wrong fridge and also the wrong sink so that has to be straightened out. But all in all it seems to be going well.

I took advantage of the cool weather and forked out the one chicken coop yesterday. We call this one the Projects as it has 2 rooms in it. One room we are just putting straw in, along with glass jars and such that will eventually go into the basement. The other room has electricity in it and we can put heat lamps in there. So that's where we start chicks and ducklings.

We baled the hay and got 33 4x4 round bales. It caused a bit of a conflict but I resolved it to MY satisfaction, but not really anyone else's. But I don't care, it's MY hay.

All in all things are going well. I really wish I could've bought that new tablesaw, though.

So glad the house raising is going well. I guess a few hiccups have to be expected.

Do you get your hay cut on shares? What do you do with it?

Everything's growing gangbusters here, even the weeds!

Lots of produce to take to market. my pea picker picked the Green Arrow peas this morning. Got 4, 5 gallon pails full.
Tomorrow he will pick green beans. Everybody's been waiting for them.
Some tomatoes are getting pink, so it won't be long.
So far we have had ample rain. More coming soon, according to the radar.

My next door neighbor runs his cattle in my pasture for a fee. He asked me a couple years ago if he could get a cutting of hay off of it for winter. My thoughts were that he could let them graze it, or he could feed it to them over the winter either way was good. But he couldn't sell it. All of his manure gets spread on my fields and gardens, plus I get a 1/4 beef whenever I want one.

The thing is, he's Amish and has no balers or rakes or anything, so he hires it out. But this year, he did it on halves and my hay was on it's way to the auction before I put a stop to it. It's actually my hay, and I can sell it standing, I get offers every year.

I let him cut it because it was coming back up here in the form of manure, along with everything else his cattle and horses generated over the course of the year. But if it gets sold, it doesn't come back here.

When the Eries and the Miamis, and Shawnee farmed this part of Ohio the topsoil was almost 4 feet deep. Now your lucky to go 4 inches deep before you are in the regolith. It takes close to a millinium to make 1 inch of top soil unless something is added. I am farming topsoil here, not cattle or grass. Although I do a lot to make sure the hay is of good quality.

I first seeded the field (7 acres) 9 years ago. The bag said 100 lbs of seed per 5 acres, but I used almost 400lbs. It was mostly bird's foot trefoil which is high in protein and causes no bloat. With a bit of redclover and timothy. I overseed it every year with either the trefoil, red clover or alfalfa. Before it is cut for hay it's so thick you can barely walk through it. Also, whenever the MacTavish and I walk the fields I carry my weedwhip and sickle off any weeds I come across so they don't flower or seed.

When my grandkid inherits this place I hope it will have at least 8 inches of topsoil, and some of the cleanest hay to be found in the state.

You are a very good steward of the land. Everyone should be so appreciative. So what became of your hay?

CG, I have not heard of Arrow peas. Is that a shell pea? I have only ever grown two peas, Lady Finger and Sugar Ann. How do you water inside the tunnels?

Green Arrow is a shell pea. 9 or 10 peas to a pod.

Drip tape inside tunnels.

The hay was sold. That's what caused the conflict to begin with. Actually it was done on halves. Del, the guy who did the haying showed me the receipt he got from the auction. It went for a pretty good figure. I made Marion spend that much on composted chicken litter to be spread on my fields. It's really cheap this year, about 9 dollars a ton delivered. It came to a lot of composted litter. Marion's 2 sons came over and spread it all. It really was too much for a field this size, and I am going to have a lot of weed chopping to do. But I doubt they'll try to pull a fast one on me again.

Debbie has been in the Hospital since Tuesday with diverticulitis. They still aren't sure if they're going to have to remove part of her bowel. She is getting an IV drip of cipromiacin. I'd be there now except that we a expecting her new furniture to be delivered today. It's been in layaway for close to a year now. a sofa, loveseat, chair and ottoman for the living room, a recliner for me for the basement, a sofa, recliner, and backtable for the family room.

I am so sorry she so sick. Many of my family and friends are victims of that very malady. I will surely keep her in my prayers.

I am so sorry she so sick. Many of my family and friends are victims of that very malady. I will surely keep her in my prayers.

I am glad you got a good return for your hay. It was not honest of the farmer to try and take from you like that.

I spent a bit of time in the garden yesterday and today. Yesterday I took the boxes up from around my tater experiment. I was pleased with it. I did not expect much because the boxes I used were small but I gr8 back the six taters I planted and non more. They are small but I am sure they will taste good cooked with some beans. I will do this again next year but I will use bigger boxes.

I picked a yellow squash and a zuke yesterday too. This zuke was shaped normal.

Today I worked in the beans. I finished the weeding. I had done most of it on the fourth but had a few I missed. I picked the masai beans and pulled most of the vines. I left a few for seed but I needed to get some out so the sweet peppers could get more sun. I got a nice little mess of beans and am anxious to taste them. I pulled the royal burgundy vines except the ones I am saving for seed. I did not pull the Dragon tongue plants yet but they are not shading the peppers so it won't hurt anything. I would have liked to have gotten it done this morning but it got too hot.

DH grilled for lunch and it was wonderful. I set the shade canopy up for him and got him a chair and a fan. I had been to the church for a while setting up for the hotdog sale after church tomorrow. We are trying to raise money to bring the kids to the Moses Theatre in Pigeon Forge. I saw a professional production of the Book of Ruth and it was breathtaking. I know this will have a big impact on the kids. They are from 11 - 13. We have one older person going with us. She is 36 but has the mind of a young child. She is also deaf. She comes to church regularly and she comes in my class on Wednesday nights. I cannot tell you how excited she is. Her bags have been packed for a week already and we are not going for two more weeks. :) I pray our sale is successful. We are having a bit of opposition from the previous youth leader. She resigned but she still wants to make all the decisions and she does not want us to use the money in the youth fund because she raised it for the teens. That was about three years ago and not a single one of them even comes to church anymore. They are not even teens anymore. They are all young adult with families! It just boggles the mind. Please pray that God will work it all out. I do not want to get angry but I will not stand by and see these kids hurt.

I rode my scooter a bit and I think I may go take another little ride. I love it so much. The boys are not here. They are at a friend's house swimming and they are going to some kind of burn out races in town this evening.

Hope you are all well and enjoying life. It looks like we may get a bit of a cool front in a few days.

I'm hoping to bring Debbie home today. She is being scoped at 1100, and then having a lung scan at 1300. They think her lugs are full of fluid. She's been on a liquid diet since 2sday and wants to go to Fazoli's for alfredo needles before we head home.

I pray everything works out at your church Caj.

Your dear sweet wife is in my prayers.

Our sale went well and we will be having another one next week with the extra food we had. The kids are so excited and the adults are too. :)

I am very debilitated today in in much pain. I would sure appreciate prayers.

I hope and pray you get to feeling better, Caj. I brought Debbie home Sunday evening. After we went out for Alfredo noodles. She is grouchy as all get out because she is breaking the nicotine addiction. Not fun, but it'll pass with time.

Getting power, water, and septic to the new house this week. It was going to cost me $640 to rent the trencher, but an amish guy I know with a mini backhoe said he'd do it for $250. so guess who's doing it?

The wire cost me over $1000. Luckily, I got a 10% military discount at Lowe's . otherwise it would have been close to $1200.

I am over my bout with strep throat. First time I ever had it and hope to never have it again.

Awful how much everything costs these days. I know know how folks will make it if it gets much worse. Just have to keep following God and He will take care of His own.

So glad your wife is feeling well enough to go home. I know smoking must be hard to quit. I will be praying for her.

The boys are going float fishing today. I will take the opportunity to go to town and get my hair cut. It is about to drive me crazy.

We are taking the kids from church h to Pigeon Forge this weekend. Really looking forward to it. We are taking them to see the life of Moses at one of the theatres. We will also go rough Cades Cove, the aquarium and Ober Gatlinburg.

got the wire trenched in, and the septic system installed. The electrician is coming either tomorrow or Thursday, and the well driller is coming sometime after Wednesday. Things are moving apace. We will probably spend our first night in the new house Friday or Saturday.

Debbie is doing a lot better. She saw Dr today. He wants her to have a colonoscopy in the next month or so. I had to whittle out a new cane from the osage orange I cut down last month. My knees won't hardly hold me up anymore.

It is all very exciting that you will soon be in your new home. God is good to bless you and all of us with the things we need. I pray you will enjoy your new home and that very soon it will indeed feel like home.

Glad to hear Debbie is doing better. My prayers continue for her. How is she doing with the quitting smoking? That must be so very hard.

I am sorry to hear your knees are giving you problems. That is a painful thing. We depend on our joints, especially our knees, and don't give them a second thought until they hurt. Do you take anything for it as treatment or will you eventually need surgery? I will say a prayer for you.

How is the new pup settling in? Likely owns the place now. :)

We got back from our trip last night around midnight. The kids had a great time and I highly recommend the Biblical Times theatre in Pigeon Forge. The singing and the production were both great. The food was delicious and we had plenty of it. We also went to Ober Gatlinburg. I had never been before and I really enjoyed it. It is a great place for the young and young at heart. We took in the Deer Farm and Exotic Petting Zoo. That was a big hit. Went to Forbidden Caverns. They loved it too. The ride through Cades Cove was great. We saw a few deer and we saw seven bears. One was a mom's with two babies and they were right beside the road eating blackberries. Got some pretty good picks of them.

We stayed at the Willowbrook hotel and it was very nice. They have an outdoor pool and hot tub and an indoor pool and hot tub. The outdoor pool was a big hit with the kids because it had one of those big slides that goes round and round. They nearly wore it out. :)

All in all it was a wonderful trip but it is good to be home. Got home about midnight and had to work on the pony fence. Max had managed to knock it down when the power was out. They had a storm here while we were in Tennessee. But I got it fixed back up and no harm done.

I don't think I told you we got another cart pony. A four year old mare that is nearly a perfect match for Max. She is already trained to harness and her harness came with her. Now to get our buggy rigged for a team and get them working together. So exciting.

Debbie is actually doing pretty good on breaking the nicotine addiction. Still grouchy, but not nearly as grouchy as before. I have ben home all week and not one of the folks who said they would be here (electricians, well drillers, septic inspectors) ever showed up. I'm a bit irritated about that.

The health department DID show up to make sure my well site was away from the septic tank at least 50 feet (a little over 110). Also, the dealer called to see if I had power yet so he could send out the carpet guy. I asked how much power he needed as I had a generator. It had not been used for a couple years but I would try to start it up when I got home. He told me to call if I got it running, and he'd have the guy out lickety split. I got it running on the 3rd pull.

When the guy got out he was amazed as he had never seen a homemade generator before. But he got the carpet done. Also, we picked out our door for the basement. A simple sliding glass patio door. Since we were doing all this electrical work, I borrowed a friend's backhoe and cut a trench to the chicken house. So it has lights and an 2 outlets wired into the shop. If I need power out side I can plug an extension cord into the chicken house now and not have to worry about the shop door slamming on my cord or anything. I am also running wire to the outside of the shop through the wall and putting in a water tight outlet. I have my carport right next to the shop and work under it a lot to keep out of the sun. Now I'll have electric there, too.

I had an old steel locker, like a gym locker. I drilled a couple holes in the back of it and bolted it to the upright for the car port. I have putting all the mechanic stuff in there; grease guns, grease, oil, oil catch pan, oil funnels, and any tools that are just for mechanicing. I also put a shelf ovr the breaker box in the shop and put an old tool box there with all the electric tools and stuff in it. Wire nuts, black tape, side cutters, a couple screwdrivers, etc. It just makes sense to keep all that stuff together. I also drove a couple nails in the inside walls and hung all my wire inventory, and another old box full of junction boxes, outlets, plugs, and other electric parts. I have another small tin box like an old tackle box, full of air tools and parts that I mounted next to the air compressor.

What can I say? I just keep plugging away at stuff. Debbie has been going through all our stuff here in the old mobile. She has 4 categories of stuff. Trash, goodwill, move to new house, nik to go through.

I've been through Tennessee on multiple occaisions, but I've never spent any amount of time there. It sounds like you had a great time, Caj. I'm sure the pony will bring you years of pleasure. I don't know a lot about buggies and such, but I'm trying to figure out how to turn a small wagon into a small dump truck. I have an idea.......

The new pony is starting to feel at home now. I think she will work out fine. She is a pretty little thing. We named her Jolene.

I am glad things are going well for you and Deb. Why is it that service people think only their time is valuable. Doctors tend to think that way too. It just chaps my hide.

It is a very good idea to keep things together where they will be needed. I wish I had room to do that. Makes work go so much quicker and easier when everything is right at hand.

I am putting up a few veggies today. I like to cook most of it before freezing it. That way it is all ready for a quick meal. Put up some corn this morning. Have some squash and eggplant to cook next. I dice my peppers small and freeze them raw. As cook I just take out a handful when I need them. I do onions the same way. The horses and ponies are enjoying the corn trimmings and the spent stalks.

I did a bit of cleaning and rearranging in the freezer this morning. I pulled out some old stuff that got lost in the back and I will bring it to my friend for her pigs. Some of it will go to our dogs too.