Ruined Hay

So this morning we had planned to wake early and deal with the hay only to have it rain before we leave the apartment.  Ugh.  I think someone/thing is trying to let us know that this hay was not meant to be.  So now we need to try to unload it or find a creative use for it.  I thought about donating it, freecycling it, making a shed of it (like a strawbale but hay instead), using it as tree mulch.  Its hard to say what is the best thing to do with it now that its pretty much worthless.

On the positive, we are going to visit TK homes today about an email offer that is pretty awesome and might allow us to build soon.....REALLY soon!  More to come on that, I'm trying not to get too excited about it.

Wet Hay

Wet hay is a very bad thing.  Its our second cutting of hay and we had it done in square bales this time and it was all going pretty well until it rained this morning--and looks like its going to rain off and on all night.  For us it means making tepees out of hay bales so they air out and dry again or suffer the consequence of ruined hay.  Like 100 + bales of ruined hay.  At $3.00 a bale that's money lost.  Not to mention, what do you do with that many bales of bad hay?  I guess it could be mulch for our orchard but we still have about 10 round bales left from the first cut that are needing to be used up or sold.  Did I mention that we suck at selling hay?  I'm thinking of asking my DH to let me handle the business of hay since I'm more available than he is in the hopes that we can do a better job of selling it off when the time comes. 

What! Its August???

Time flies, does it?  My last entry was in May so that's 2 months of busy work to keep me from updating my blog (I swear busy non-stop...haha!)  Ok, so I may be exaggerating a bit.  We did find a couple of builders that we like but the cost of building with a custom builder seems too high for today's housing market- we have some big concerns that the bank won't finance a custom home because it won't appraise high enough.  I think we will probably end up with the likes of Hallmark or TK homes.  There is also another option we are considering in that we are going to look at existing homes with acreage.  This could be a really good thing since we would have more total acres and we might end up paying less overall.  Anyhow, nothing at this point is set in stone.  We are going to start looking at existing properties and in the spring when we have our down payment together we will build if we don't find the perfect existing home. 
I have a couple of new ideas for a home based business.  One is home orchard management- taking care of existing apple trees in people's yards for the payment of 1/2 the produce.  It doesn't make money but it would give me valuable practice and of course lots of apples and hopefully other fruits.   I'm not ready to share my other idea, I still have much research to do.
The garden has been crazy.  We went on vacation in June and low and behold the skies opened up and rained for an entire week!  My garden looked pretty good before we left but when we got back the weeds had shot up a foot and the bugs had gone wild.  My tomatoes took it the hardest.  It looked (and still looks) like they were hit with blight, hornworms, blossom end rot...the works.  For about 2 weeks I was throwing away tomatoes for rot.  They are recovering and I'm getting some decent 'maters but I'm not sure I'll have enough to do much with them.  The corn also suffered; was stunted and lot of tassels but no ears.  Some patches are doing better than others so we might have some late corn but overall pretty disappointing.  My squash/cukes/melons were getting taken on by squash bugs.  I was tearing off leaves to remove the eggs and eventually I dusted them to kill them off.  I can however seem to grow beans pretty well :)
My son is growing fast, he's 15 months and walks well so when we go to the garden he usually ends up heading for the tomatoes.  Boy that kid can make short work of a 'mater.  He will pick it right off the vine and just begin chowing down.  That's my boy!! Glad I grow organic!

another month passes by

So we've been in the apartment now a month.  We are really no closer to selecting a builder but we are making progress; I've already met with 2 builders, eliminated one, with 3 appointments next week.  I do think we have a plan we like that we are using for estimates and its a very flexible cape cod style 1 story with a future planned addition.  Its a smaller house but I think it will be perfect. 

The garden grows!  We have already harvested several pounds of radishes as well as some spinach, lettuce, strawberries, even some buttoned broccoli.  The cabbages are beginning to form heads, the chard and kale are growing fast, corn is breaking ground and the first run of beans should be producing in a couple weeks.
Next up we need to plant melons and cukes.

Lots going on here, looking forward to the next chapters

Greening up Anderson

So I created a new Facebook page to help me (and anyone else who cares) find local businesses and farmers worth supporting.  Might also help me discover what businesses keep their money in the city I now live in.  I figure it will also help me find a customer base once our little farm thing gets off the ground. 
click the badge on the left of my page to view it.

Its Done!

The house in Greenfield is sold, done deal, no more anything to deal with. Have to admit its a bit surreal no longer being a homeowner but this is a step closer to our farming dream.  I've been neglecting the garden for about a week or so but next week I need to jump in full force to get pea trellis up, weeds knocked down, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants planted and staked where need be.  Its going to be a crazy week (as if I ever don't have a crazy week). 
We just celebrated my son's first birthday and we had no idea what we were doing but it went pretty well regardless.  New toys and new clothes and about half a cake came home with us that night.  We were so exhausted but it was great, got to see family and friends and hopefully a good time was had by all.

Spring Planting and Hancock Farm Tour

I've been busy planting; peas, beans, carrots, potatoes, chard....and so on. Its been so nice to get out in the sunshine and fresh air and feeling like I'm actually accomplishing something for a change besides a clean house.
I'm seriously considering a hoop house for our property, looks like a nice big one will run me about a grand for something not too fancy. While on the Farm tour we visited a nursery that had about a dozen hoop houses and he told us he started with just one to start his own seedlings and he started selling and before he knew it he was making more money doing that than his regular job and bought more houses. Seems like its been a good business for him.
Also on the farm tour we stopped at a dairy. Funny because just earlier we were discussing the possibility of beginning our own dairy; not really feasible for us we believe. Anyhow, we saw they had dairy bull calves and the dairy operator said they do sell them for beef steers. I'm thinking this could be a great way to get into raising cattle without the commitment of buying 2 dairy cows, kind of a test the waters approach. We actually plan to do the same with pigs, just buy a feeder pig or two to raise and see how it goes. With chickens we will start out at Tractor supply with their spring chicks. Low commitment but loads of experience I'm sure. I do however plan to get dairy goats right off the bat.
While I'm indecisive about cows, mainly because of their size and quantity of milk, I'm quite sure goats will work beautifully for us. I'm also quite sure I'd like to have turkeys and chickens. Anything beyond that we will just have to see how it goes.
We are still looking at house plans, seems like we just do it in spurts. Perhaps after writing this I'll browse through a few.
Until next time :)