A New Year, A New Farm

[reddawnspokane]

Is the new place in FL?

[southernmom]

Is the new place in FL?

Yep, not too far from where we are now.

[southernmom]

I was sick as a dang dog at Christmas-funny thing is, last time I was this sick was 18 years ago...at Christmas. Ugh. But I am feeling more human, now. I don't do being sick well. I get personally offended when I'm ill.

I am thinking nigerian dairy goats. The little ones. I think they would give us enough milk to do something with but not be overwhelmed, and make my cheese making mistakes and all...and they are pretty entertaining and I am thinking I might have a better chance keeping them contained as they are a little bit smaller. (wishful thinking). Anyway...that's my plan on the dairy animal front until I find the perfect milk cow.

I'm also trying to figure out the best way to get that pasture plowed and ready to plant-I can't afford a tractor and even using a rear tine tiller would take a gazillion years to get it plowed and ready to plant. It IS doable, I have done large gardens by hand before and while it took forever, it did get done and nicely...but dang it takes a lot of time. I think I will start asking around to see if I can hire somebody to plow it for me.

[southernmom]

We're moved in!
It's been a crazy move but we are finally here. Maybe now I can chill out and spend more time online here. I miss everyone and hate doing this 'driveby' update then disappearing.
But yeah, we have moved in, still unpacking, but love it! We are doing some minor repairs as the house is from the 1920's and I want to continue the original owner's intention of restoring it to more of the original look. So we are are doing beadboard to match the kitchen (when I get this place clean I am taking pics, the kitchen is amazing) and plank boards for the living room, and little dining room, etc.
Anyway we are home now!

[AD]

Welcome back

[DMH]

That is great. So nice to see some good news and have you back.

[southernmom]

back again!

Well Tex drug me out of my self imposed exile...I mean I have been super busy rennovating this lovely old farmhouse and planting every sort of strange edible I can get my hands on. I will be posting some pictures and updating so stay tuned.

[southernmom]

Welcome to Ghost Town Farm!

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Okay here is the house: it's actually in great shape-new roof, new electric, fabulous old country farmhouse kitchen completely renovated and HUGE which is a godsend-for us the kitchen truly is the gathering place. We did have to rennovate the old dining area-it's a small little strip of a room. We put some paneling and some beadboard in there and now it's pretty nice. It's just being used as an impromptu bedroom for some friends who are visiting. (two adults and their toddler twin boys. I thought I knew what chaos was. I didn't. til now.) We also had to re do a bedroom for one of the boys-which is getting finished today, thankfully.
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We have a bunch of old live oaks around here-they shade the place so nice that it stays cool and catches the breeze which is wonderful. More to come.

[southernmom]

So I got to work on gardens literally the day I had most of the place unpacked. We had a lot of work to do-a lot of weeds, a lot of neglect. We also had to take down the hoop coop from my grandmother's place and rebuild it here. I got some chicks and now they are all grown and happy. I only lost 2, which was surprising.
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We also have a chicken tractor built out of chicken wire and pvc-we just throw a few chickens under there and move it around the yard. I can't let the chickens freerange here cause we are further in the woods and there are all kinds of critters out here that will swoop down in the middle of the day and nab a tasty chicken treat.

Oh, here's a piney wood rooter we inherited, She needs a boyfriend:
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[southernmom]

So the first garden area I got going was for taters and green beans. I planted red taters cause regular taters just don't do as well here. I got a good bit pulled up and still have a couple rows left. THe green beans were outrageously great! Seriously the best I have ever grown. This area was once known for heavy agricultural production so I guess the soil is still ok. Green beans:

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and here's some tomatoes and tomatillos and hot peppers and such my other half and my son were picking today:
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The yellow squash and tomatoes have done well-teh zuchinni failed miserably due to a raging bout of vine borer. I have some more zuchinni put in and also have some seminole pumpkin that I am keeping an eye on...I'm really excited about those.
So here's a picture of some 'maters and squash and some of the gallons of green beans we picked, ate, shared and put up:
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[southernmom]

...and of course I have some peas planted. I went to the farm store to get zippers (which is my absolute favorite) and lo and behold there was a colossal crop failure of zipper peas last year. No seed. SOOOOO luckily I had some seed left over in the freezer and I promptly planted that-about 75% came up which was better than none. I also planted black eyes and pink eye purple hull and that hardly came up at all-and that is 'new' seed I bought this year. I checked with some local farmers and sure enough they had to replant 3 times to get anything to come up. We are all of a mind that there was also a colossal failure of those and companies are selling old seed. It concerns me, to be sure.
So I bought some cream40 and some more black eyes and got some black eyes in the ground. So far about 80% is coming up. I will plant some cream40 in another week or so.
My okra is looking wimpy so I am pouring the compost to it.
I will update more, just thought I would let yall know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth!

[DMH]

Thanks for the update. Glad to see things are moving in a positive direction for you.

[reddawnspokane]

The place is looking good SM.

[W.Lynn]

What are your temperatures like? I can't get okra to do much til it gets blazing hot outside.

[southernmom]

What are your temperatures like? I can't get okra to do much til it gets blazing hot outside.

It's been 88-92 lately. The rains haven't been as regular so that's probably part of it, too.

I am concerned about the peas, though-can't get conks either so I don't know what's up. I think this is the sort of thing that a lot of 'I got my seedbank and I'll plant when things get rough out there' people don't understand. Sometimes seed just doesn't come up, no matter what. It's good to have variety. Also, good to plant a LOT of it. I've got all sorts of little pea patches going on right now-empty sandy spot, toss a handful of last years seed and see what comes up. It's sort of my way of testing the soil out in different places, and doing some nitrogen fixing in the process!