[TheBohunk]

It’s late in the year and my garden doesn’t look as good as it did a month ago but here’s a few pics.

Okra and green beans. Both are about cashed out

Swiss chard still going stromg

Tomatoes

Various sweet and hot peppers on the left. Sweet potatoes on the right

Pumpkins and winter squashes are visible, Spaghettis and butternut mostly but I think there is acorn squash in there too.

Probably not 16 footers like Panda, but pretty tall nonetheless

I’ll post more when I get some time later

 

[TheBohunk]

because of the Un-global warming , it was cold wet and rainy all summer here in New England [ its raining right now ] just about every thing died that l planted , l usually do pretty good with my garden , l plant-ed 4 kinds of Tom's , Zucchini , all kinds of peppers , its all water logged and l,m not the only one = nobodys garden did well , even the local garden flea market is empty , l dont grow corn but theres tons of that

I have my best years during droughts. When I control how much water the garden gets.

It was a drought year this year. Very dry all spring and early summer up until August. We had 11 inches of rain in late august. It was very helpful

 

[TheBohunk]

Iowa.

 

[TheBohunk]

Couple raised beds. I used the old tires from my tractor for a two of them. There’s nothing growing in the tires right now, I had carrots in one and cantaloupes in the other, but it’s all been harvested now.

Part of my future “orchard”. Pear tree in the foreground. Two plums and then a peach in the back. I have a few apple trees elsewhere on the property but not pictured.

 

[TheBohunk]

I’ve got 30+ laying hens roaming the place

I was raising sheep for a while but I’m concentrating on goats right now. They are a lot easier. I’ve got both meat goats and dairy. I milk two of them, getting about two gallons every 3 days.

My old billy goat, Buzz. He didn’t want his picture taken today I guess

 

[TheBohunk]

Panda, the greenhouse setup you described in the other thread, I think would work. I would still be concerned about too much heat and it drying out. As long as there is proper venting and everything was watered regularly, it should still work.

These are tropical plants we are dealing with. They like heat and humidity but too much would kill off anything.

 

[TheBohunk]

Your place looks really good. Are you guys farmers? Is your farm fully sustainable?
That would be my goal

Not really. It’s a part time gig. I have a real job in town. Wife works part time from home.

It’s a hobby farm. Though I do pride myself when I can make a full meal with nothing but what we produce here or barter with the neighbors.

Just 8 acres of the best soil on earth.

 

[TheBohunk]

I’ve seen The same trick used with old tires. Stacked up and filled with dirt.

 

[TheBohunk]

Kale

Leeks

Hell, I even grow a little tobbacuh

And of course, more damn tomatoes than I can deal with

 

[TheBohunk]

Very nice. I a little more artistic than me. But I bet you would get along great with my wife!

 

[TheBohunk]

I always kind of hated that term, prepper. Even though I guess I am one. It's such a loaded political term.

What we call prepping today was what my great grandparents just called "living" That's really all we are doing.

 

[TheBohunk]

Thanks. It's been an ongoing process. I gardened some back in town but since we bought the farm 9 years ago, it's been a steady job, getting bigger and better.

I made a lot of mistakes but try to learn from them. Here's a good one....We moved in in 2012. Proceeded to plant a big garden in some open land that used to be the cattle yard. Very good soil. But 2012 was a drought year, and the place we planted the garden was dry as a bone. We found out that it is a near perpetual swamp in normal years. So after fighting it a few years and having a total garden failure in 2017(12 inches of rain in one weekend with not enough drainage) we moved the entire garden to higher ground. I even had to uproot my fruit trees, almost of all of them didn't survive. So we started over. It was a mess.

Another....My sheep project turned into a catastrophe. After 5 years, I threw in the towel. I did everything I possibly could to learn and get better but still failed. I lost confidence in my ability to keep sheep alive. Now I'm focusing on goats only, I've been much more successful with them. I'm wanting to build my herd bigger but everything is kind of in a holding pattern right now with my new shop being built.

Always something going on, with a hobby farm.

 

[TheBohunk]

I don' like the word prepper or rather what it represents right now, but... I like the general idea.
Being fully self-sufficient is impossible in my case(or in any case?), but I'd like to get to a point where I can 30-50% of food from my garden/farm. That would give me a piece of mind.

That’s about what I shoot for too. This time of year we come close

 

[TheBohunk]

Panda, this is my wife’s flower beds. She started selling cut flowers at the local farmers market this year. She did pretty good with it, she made about $200 a week. Much better than I thought

It’s starting to die off, it looked much
better a month ago. I don’t know much about flowers, in fact this was almost totally her project so I don’t know much about anything

The nets on the flowers are to protect them from the corn borer beetles that emerge from the neighboring corn fields and like to eat flowers.

The tarps are where she is expanding her beds for next year

This last picture is just a Bush she has growing by the grain bins. I forget what it’s called but she likes the tiny white flowers.

 

[TheBohunk]

He is a heeler/hound mix named Trooper. I don't have a picture of him on my phone, I'll snap one in the morning when I get home.

I'm not sure what kind of heeler or what kind of hound but I think he has the face and markings of a Blue Tick. He has some natural herd dog instincts so that's probably the heeler. I put him in the pen with the livestock and he can have all the sheep and goats rounded up in the corner in a matter of minutes.

 

[TheBohunk]

I think it's more of a hobby for her, but she found a way to make a few dollars off of it. She took a part time, work from home job about a year ago. It was a large pay cut, but allowed her to stay home, no commute, and the youngest didn't need daycare anymore, so it largely was offset. But she found herself with a lot more time on her hands. This was her solution.

The net thing is to support the flowers while they are growing so they grow straight against the winds out here on the prairie. Nobody wants to buy flowers that lean.

I'll ask her the name of the white flowers. She told me earlier but it was some long latin or greek name that I can't remember now.

 

[TheBohunk]

The heck with the garden, tell me about the dog. Is she a red heeler?

Here’s Trooper

He was excited and wouldn’t hold still

He’s a good boy

 

[TheBohunk]

Panda, the wife says those white flowers are called Snowbank Bultonia.

 

[TheBohunk]

I like his color.

I do too. He almost has German Shorthair colors, but I still think it’s more Blue Tick Hound

 

[TheBohunk]

Spent half the day getting my tractor running correctly. Had it tuned real nice. I was all excited, finally going to get some stuff done this weekend.

So I set to cleaning manure out of one of my buildings. I put one load in the spreader and disaster strikes