Archive for the ‘Crops – Pasture’ Category
May 3, 2010 – Spring Seeding
Nothing is really simple around the farm. Last year’s septic installation, for example. There’s no way getting around a lot of torn up ground. Now that the piles have had a chance to settle over a fall, winter, and spring, it’s time to re-establish desirable vegetation. This shows a view below the tanks and the ...Read more.
March 24, 2010 – Soil Sampling
It’s time for some soil sampling. Instead of the small little soil probe that comes with the kit, we decided to use the bulb planter, so we could easily get below the sod line for the pasture soil test. This particular section of pasture has a thistle problem and I’ve read anecdotal evidence that calcium ...Read more.
March 31, 2009 – Planting Willows
It’s time to cut back the willows in the willow nursery. Here’s a curly willow before pruning. Here’s what it looks like after it’s pruned or “coppiced.” I use the prunings to start more willows. I put 88 in the ground. They seem to grow by just sticking them into the ground – we experimented ...Read more.
February 23, 2009 – Winter Willow Nursery
I’m a little bit pumped about our willow nursery. It’s taken off and I am even more excited to try expanding the willows as browse for the goats and sheep. As soon as the ground unfreezes, we’ll cut these down and plant many more in the back pasture. The test plantings we did last year, ...Read more.
July 20, 2008 – Martin’s View of “The Swamp”
I thought a seven-year-old boy would appreciate the life in the wetland, so I made it a point to bring Martin over and wax on enthusiastically about the tadpoles and diversity of life in the small exclosure when we were working on the trees in the back pasture. A bit later, he was helping mulch ...Read more.
July 19, 2008 – Wetland Success
We started an experiment a few years ago. There was this awful mudhole in the pasture that seemed to get bigger by the day – when the grass was soggy, the cows would keep breaking hunks of sod off, enlarging the mud area. This is what it looked like in the spring of 2005. Martin ...Read more.
April 27, 2008 – A Constant Battle
There’s always something to do on the farm, but eventually the most urgent things spring to the top of the list. One of these items is this fence. We’ll call it the “Leaning Fence of Melbourne.” It’s a bit of a pain to tear out the old, but this one is way past its prime. ...Read more.
April 19, 2008 – Moving Fence
After another rainy week, it’s important to keep moving ahead, even though the saturated ground prevents us from getting the new trees and grapes in the ground. So today, we moved a fence to enlarge an exclosure in the pasture to accommodate the trees, even though we can’t plant them yet. With saturated ground, it ...Read more.
March 25, 2008 – Pasture Overseeding
Last year I frost seeded some clovers in the back pasture (frost seeding is a fancy name for just throwing seeds on the ground and the early spring freeze/thaw/rain snow moves the seeds down into cracks in the soil and puts them in a place to germinate). The pasture was greatly inproved from its grass-heavy ...Read more.
March 4, 2008 – A First Melting
On Sunday, the temps soared to 46 degrees! In the back pasture, the four foot high fence is nearly buried and the yellow snow is water flowing through the snow from a drainage in the adjacent field. We’ve got a lot of melting before spring comes. A temporary river started flowing through a low spot ...Read more.
June 15, 2007 – It’s Hot, Must be Haymaking Time!
Now that the temps are in the 90′s – that means just one thing – it must be time to make hay! We were invited to help at Two Friends Farm this weekend. How’s this for a date? Sitting on an empty hay rack after the unloading 100 or so bales is a good rest. ...Read more.
June 4, 2007 – Farm View Series #1 NE Corner
Today is the first in a series of views of the farm. I went to each corner of the property (and the midpoints) and took photos in different directions. This view is from the NE corner of the property. I did some of this a decade or so ago, but wish I had been more ...Read more.
May 6, 2007 – Portable Fencing
Here’s a picture of our new portable electric fence. The name of this fencing is “Permanet” as it is designed to be left up for the whole season, if necessary. We get our electric fencing from Premier Fencing in Washington, Iowa. Many people swear it is the best you can get. We’ve used some of ...Read more.
March 27, 2007 – Boundary Fence Up
The boundary fence was completed in short order. “All” that is left boundary fence-wise is to re-string the electric wire around the perimeter and this new line. Eventually, if the planting goes as planned, a new fenceline along the east edge will be in order as well. But that is a much bigger project. one ...Read more.
