Resurrecting the Farm and Ranch

[JulieNY]

Tex,

You can also use the extras to make some raised beds. I am going to use my extras for lettuce and spinach because lettuce is so difficult to grow in the soil here, I can mix the soil before I put it into the pallet.

[Tex]

Julie, that is one of the coolest gardening ideas I have ever seen. I will show it to the Hostile Native tomorrow and see what she says. The feedstore has plenty of pallets and I can get all I want.


Tex

[tk]

Good find Julie. Just goes to show you the simplest things can work well . Sometimes we over think things. TFK

[Gena.KY]

My friend Julie is one smart cookie. They look really nice Julie. Good luck with the project & don't work too hard.

[DMH]

Like Julie said, it would be great for shallow rooted crops like lettuce, spinach etc. Other crops can get root bound with it. Julie is going to have "sweet" lettuce this year.

[southernmom]

Getting ready for Easter.
This year my BIL and his wife and 4 kids as well as my SIL and her husband will be visiting from Fri-tues. I'm really happy the cousins will get to play together-it's been a couple years since they've gotten to visit, and the visiting kids will love playing with the animals.

That being said-boy do I have a ton of work to do. My grandmother doesn't really help out a lot, anymore-she just kind of fiddles with stuff and tries to get us into other projects that she feels are important...and typically aren't. All the cleaning and such gets her riled up and she gets agitated, as well (like today she thought it was sunday because there was a lot going on). And two days ago she let the bull through into the pasture where the little dairy calves are grazing-which was a fiasco cause it borders our neighbors pasture and they have a couple cows they don't want bred and the bull was trying to get through to them...ugh. All because she just fiddles and feels like she's 'working'. SO yesterday was a pain trying to get the bull out, and keep her from trying to let him back through. Oh, and I got 5 really big and lovely blueberry bushes to add to the other 4 and I have to get pine mulch and get those planted-and clean, and mow and weed eat and weed the garden and water....anyway, I'm wasting time on here so I will go (will add pics in a bit)

[Tex]

The get together sounds like a blast. Some of my favorite memories from childhood was when the whole family would get together and all of us cousins could play. Once we had breakfast, our parents wouldn't do much more than catch a glimpse of us throughout the day. I wish I had that much energy today.

Is there some way you can lock the gates you don't want opened? I know Grandma can be trying at times, but you will be able to look back on all of this and be glad you did it. She is wanting to feel useful and sometimes that can be exasperating. Have you tried to give her some chores that she can do? I bet she will have a ball this weekend with all of the family around her.


Tex

[southernmom]

Howdy all our visit with family was really wonderful, and the kids all had a blast-even had a night time easter egg hunt with glow in the dark eggs. My grandmother handled it pretty well, too.
The garden is slowly coming along. My tomatoes and cucumbers are really doing well-green beans and potatoes are, too.
Here's a cute pic of our youngest with some chicks:
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[southernmom]

I was going to post some pictures of the garden, etc, but if you know anything about florida you know that it is a sandy mess and the pictures just don't look good enough for me. haha! It looks like I put some plants in a sand box. Also, there are blank spaces because I stagger my plantings throughout the summer in a pattern known only to me. My fellow gardeners will understand!
But here is one of the new blueberry plants I put in. I have a few more waiting to go in the ground and behind is a small muscadine grape-we have about 3 HUGE ones along the fence that literally put out pounds and pounds of grapes every year. I figured I would plant a few more, cause you can never have enough muscadines or scuppernongs.
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[southernmom]

Here's a corner of my tomato forest-where I literally have a hundred tomatoes planted. I've already got tomatoes coming on. Also an up close shot of one of my 3 cucumber beds.

[southernmom]

My peas/corn/okra/beans garden are greening up, I'll post pictures of that garden when it's filled out a bit more. It's been pretty dry so because I don't have the new pump on the yard well up yet, I water with a water hose-takes a long while but I admit, I do love watering a little in the morning and a little in the afternoon. We usually put the little guy in his little wagon cart and he has a snack and watches us water while I talk to the kids. It's wonderful family time-especially when the cows come to water and the sheep come back for the evening. It is idyllic and I really feel fortunate to be back home.

I forgot to mention that we sheared the last 2 sheep that needed it, over Easter weekend and the cousins got to help, along with my sister in law (she loves the farm life, too) it was wonderful-We FINALLY have a good system down-had to hog tie the critters, but the shears worked perfectly. We don't have the electric ones, we use a pair of good scissors and the manual shears.
. One is a finn sheep, the other is a wooly cracker sheep. I have a lot of wool I'm washing and carding. Anyone got one of those hackles to get wool ready to spin???? I need one, I may just fashion something.

[southernmom]

Dug some red potatoes today, and picked some cucumbers-I do believe I will get some green beans tomorrow or the next day. yay for the long growing season in Florida...except that it's already pushing 90 these days.
I also got some grassfed butter and made some ghee-clarified butter. Easy to make, good to eat and has all sorts of vitamins and such.

[Tex]

I am jealous of your long growing season. The garden looks beautiful.


Tex

[tk]

Man I'm with Tex . You guys can probably make garden year round. With warm temps and long growing seasons It might be the place to head for if TSHTF. TFK

[VINCENT]

I have lion head bunnies for you