Mini – Coop….. er

May15

I have fingers crossed that I will have a whole summer to just tend the gardens and animals. The 2016 projects are almost done. Aaron is going to come out and assemble the chicken tractor for me next weekend leaving me free to install the drip irrigation to the greenhouse. We built the smaller coop for the babies to inhabit when they are about 4 weeks old. They can’t go out with the adult chickens until they are similar in size otherwise there will be pecking and dominance issues. There will be anyway but at least when re-ordering the flock they will be able to hold their own. Also, because the new chicks are meant to replace the old church ladies who aren’t laying any longer, they won’t be around long anyway.

So I am eager and excited to have the construction stuff done! Even having to do the last big project – the irrigation system – just knowing I am at an end for the year makes it much more bearable. Pain is no fun and after awhile, if you don’t enjoy the fruits of your labor, the fruit starts to smell rotten. Something I never want to have happen here. After all, retirement calls!

Spring is Springing!!

May13

I spent the day today moving plants to the greenhouse and also planting the last of the seeds that need to get going in order to have them ready for the gardens. Today it was the 3 different types of squash. The big outdoor garden is primarily for storage type vegetables. Most of them are root vegetables but the melons and the squash need to be started ahead of time in order to give them a jump on the season.

I moved the pepper plants out today and introduced a bunch of lady bugs to help ward off the aphid attacks I’ve been having. The Basil and the peppers all had a pretty good assault in the seedling room. They could only have come in with some of the potting soil I purchased to get the seedlings going. They have been maddening.

The tomatoes and tomatillo plants will stay downstairs until mid next week. We are supposed to get some cooler weather Monday and Tuesday but by Thursday it is supposed to be pushing 90. At that point everyone comes out of the basement and I can turn off most of those high powered lights! So as usual, while anxious about whether or not I’ll get all the work done and get the garden in, the one step at a time, one day at a time, never seems to fail. I just get mental when I can’t see my way clear in my head a way to the end result.

So after all the hassles of actually getting the greenhouse, having it is just about as much fun as I know how to have (yes I’m boring – but a move to a simpler life is NOT a step backwards). Being able to get the plants out there to get ready for the season is such a big help – not to mention the fact that we have had spinach and lettuce since February! The big spring weather out here has begun and the greenhouse has endured at least one mild hail storm. The more ferocious ones are on the way – they always come, but another couple I met when I picked up the pigs had a greenhouse too and theirs has stood up to the ice balls. Here’s hoping ours will too!

All Livestocked Up For Spring!

May11

The first batch of broiler chicks arrived today. We decided to do them in batches of 30 this year as having to process them all at once is WAY too much work. This way they will be raised in the cooler temperatures of the spring and fall weather. So in the past 2 weeks we have acquired 25 new chicks to replace the older ladies of the layer flock, 2 piglets to replenish the bacon and ham in November, and the first 30 broilers. Next week one of the big girls goes off to the processor. Of course, if you like, you can always go get factory farmed meat like substances they call chicken and pork wrapped in cellophane at your local “grocery store”. Ick.

In the next several weeks we will begin planting. Potatoes, carrots, onions and beets can go out most any time now as they grow underground. The melons, cukes, Zukes, squash, melons, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos and other above ground plants need to wait until after Memorial Day so they 1. Don’t get destroyed by the hail that comes with the mountain run off and 2. To lessen the chance of them being exposed to a hard freeze.

May is pretty busy. This year more than most. We are all proud parents right now as well. My son turned 21 this past weekend and he just found out he aced his Calculus class. The kid seems to think in numbers. It was a great confidence builder for him. Hopefully there will be a good job waiting for him somewhere down the line.

Run Piggy RUN!!

May6

Ever try to catch a piglet when it doesn’t want to be caught and there are no fences to stop it? Better have a good cardiovascular system!! I got quite a workout today. I brought the two new little guys home in the horse trailer. When I opened the door to unload them one tumbled out onto the ground. No big deal, pigs are tough and it was only about a foot drop; but before I could grab him, he got up and headed for open country and freedom!!

He ran down the road, across the road, through wheat fields, grass fields, through barbed wire, through a tree thicket, met the neighbors, frolicked in the muddy road ditches and then back to the chicken coop! Damn can those little shits run! Keep in mind he is only about 25 lbs, his legs are only about 8 inches long, and he had his little butt takin’ him around the countryside leaving me panting! Finally, the neighbor dog came out and saw him and decided he wanted to play with it and ran that little porker until it was exhausted. It went to lay by a tree and I snagged him!! I’m sure we covered over two miles.

Then, because I was so concerned about catching the one that took off, I forgot to securely close the trailer door and the second one got out too!!! It did the same thing but not as far. It heard his brother screaming and came back and hid under the trailer. I got him to come out and he ran into the chicken run! I finally got him cornered and tackled him. What a freaking morning! Just about lost $400.00 worth of pigs and gave myself a heart attack trying to catch them.

We were concerned that the big girls would bully them, but so far they are just being big mommies. Looks like things ought to be ok. I’ll be babysitting throughout the weekend just to be sure. Whew!

It’s May And Everything Happens At Once

May5

This past week or so has been the usual frenzy involved with the impending planting season. The past two weekends really set me back as we had snow storms that made the outdoor projects impossible. You can see in past posts that we had an urban farm at our place in town. I had 24 raised beds all with their own little hoop greenhouses attached to them. Now that the greenhouse is up I don’t need that garden any longer. Frankly, to have that one, the greenhouse and it’s surrounding beds along with the half acre food storage garden, it was way too much work for me. After all, my wife and I also work full time. I get to work at home, but I am on the road a lot going to client appointments. So I began to dismantle that garden. It entailed pulling up rebar, cutting off plastic, and dis-assembling the PVC frames for all of those beds. Our aim is to smooth all of the dirt out and plant it full of perennials that will attract and help out the bees, much like we did when we landscaped the front of the house.

After the wagon loads up to the truck it was off to the dump. Why does everything I do have to be so damned heavy? My back was pretty spent. When I came out to the farm yesterday I started work on the watering system for the greenhouse. So today, my body said “ENOUGH”! I had every intention of getting back after it but my body had other plans. Now the moral of this story is that even when you “don’t get anything done” on the farm, you still get things done. By the time we reached this point in the day when I’m currently typing (4:30 pm), I have cooked breakfast, gotten the solar oven out and heating up to make dinner, been to two local feed stores to get ready for the new chickens coming next week, ordered a semi-load of planting soil to fill the remaining beds in and around the greenhouse, contacted a local pig breeder to get two new “weaners” (pigs that have been weaned from their momma and are being sold to be raised for food), taken alfalfa out to the chickens, moved some of the plants from the seedling room to the greenhouse, unloaded the truck, fed the pigs and did the real job thing. In the next week we will have 90 chickens and 4 pigs to take care of. My mom and sister get to play FarmVille for real when they come to visit in the next month!

May is insane. Everything comes to a head at once. The trick we have found, is to just keep showing up. Do one thing at a time. Rest, drink water, do something else. If you hurt, stop and sit down. It’s not a race and virtually everyone I know is not doing this, nor could they keep up if they came to help. The only person who cares if it gets done on some kind of time frame is yourself. Remember, its a hobby. Its a hobby that feeds you but it is still a hobby! If you are slave driver to yourself you will only kill yourself. The MAJOR projects are done. The ongoing upkeep and planting and daily chores on a farm don’t require a starting gun (Roosters crowing are good enough!). Nor are you trying to best your previous times. It’s OK to sit when tired, drink when thirsty, sleep when fatigued and never, ever care what others think. If someone is a critic who hasn’t got skin in the game, they matter not one iota. Homesteaders – be good to yourself. You know it will get done eventually…. even if it snows a foot.

Check out the Sun Oven and the Lazy Porkers:

Starting The Irrigation Project

May4

To think that this past weekend we had a foot of snow is kind of beyond bizarre. Today it was 70 degrees and it is currently about 85 degrees in the greenhouse! Tomorrow the weather gurus say that it’s supposed to get to 80!

So after pushing paper for work, making client phone calls, hacking into the Wall Street matrix and doing all the money voodoo that I do, I hopped on the faithful John Deere steed and commenced attacking the water project for the greenhouse. The tractor dug my trench for me using the “middle buster” plow I use to plant and harvest potatoes. I’ll be out tomorrow with hacking, scraping and digging tools to level out the base for the water tank. Once that beast is in place the rest will be pretty easy. Drip irrigation is pretty neat and it is super easy to install. If you can screw on a jar lid and know how to use a pair of scissors, you can install drippers. Plumber’s tape, PVC, some glue and a wood base, and all will be right with the world….

So here we go. Yet again into the unknown. As they say in the sales world: Fake it til ya make it!

>One correction to the video. I mentioned that it would cost $1.50 a foot to trench to the greenhouse in order to install a ranch hydrant. The actual cost is $15.00 a foot PLUS the cost to buy the plumbing and the hydrant AND the cost to install it. This will work about as well and be significantly cheaper. The trenching alone would cost around $2000.00. I am not a plumber and don’t play one on TV so I’d have to have someone come out and tap into the well’s mainline and install the thing. Not happening. This system: The tank, the pressure tank, the pump (which will be powered from the solar panels), and the dripper parts, were around $2500.00. HALF the cost of doing it the other way. DIY and save the dough (spoken like a true financial planner)!

Spring Rains and New Babies

Apr29

April and May are certainly entertaining in Colorado. While Kansas and Oklahoma are getting pummeled with hail and tornados we have snow! April 29th and a foot of snow! Fortunately it is relatively warm out and a lot of it is melting on contact. Ya Ya I’ve heard it a million times – we need the moisture. Bah humbug. I have a water tank to plumb to the greenhouse, a chicken tractor to build, chickens and pigs to care for, and a garden to get ready to plant. I will be complaining in August of the heat so I guess I should just chill and let nature take her course.

I Knew It. I Just Knew It.

Apr14

To quote Neil Young, “What will people do? After the garden is gone.” I grieve every day. The world is in hospice. When do we get to justify a violent reaction to unrestrained patriarchy and greed as self-defense and justice? What about my son? What about your grandchildren? Has breeding now become an immoral act? I feel sorrow for every pregnant woman I see today. The people who did this have names and addresses. I think they should be paid a visit.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oil-cover-up-climate_us_570e98bbe4b0ffa5937df6ce

My Food Hero

Apr6

One for you just to click on and watch:

A Delivery With The Usual Humor

Mar31

We had to ponder for a while how to best get a reliable source of water to the greenhouse. The spigot from the house is slow, leaky, and is needed for other things, so hooking it up as the source for the drip irrigation system doesn’t work. We have a ranch hydrant out in the chicken coop and we thought that maybe we could string another one over by the greenhouse, but that involves about 150 feet of trenching and some know how about how to tie it in to the water line coming from the well pump (trenching costs $15.00 a foot). I know my limits and that is something I simply don’t want to tackle. So I did some researching of water tanks, rainwater harvesting, using electric pumps on drip irrigation, etc. and I found a company that specializes in just such things! We designed a system and ordered the parts. Essentially, this is a 1000 gallon water tank that will be filled from a combination of snow capture, some rainwater capture (a certain amount is now legal in Colorado) and simply filling it up from the well itself (which will ultimately be the primary source). The tank will be plumbed to a 1/3 horsepower pump that will keep a small pressure tank pressurized(similar to one’s attached to well pumps inside the home). The drip irrigation system will be attached to the pressure tank with a timer attached to it. When I determine the amount of watering that is needed daily, I simply set the timer and voila! The pump detects when the pressure tank is low and switches on thus keeping the pressure in the irrigation lines constant. I can bury the irrigation line using a middle trencher I have for the tractor (it will be down about 8 inches), instead of having to bring in a Ditch Witch to get the line down the 4 feet needed for a hydrant.

The plumbing, pressure tank and pump all arrived within a week of ordering it. The tank itself had to be shipped by semi from someplace in Bumflucking Egypt. Because these things are made of plastic I had to sign a document specifically stating my understanding that I MUST inspect the tank thoroughly prior to signing for it as these things can easily be damaged in transit.

I have been leveled this past week with the flu. I don’t often get sick but when I do, I might as well begin funeral preparations. Man I’ve been sick. You know, the coughing up a lung, can’t smell, can’t hear, cold one minute sweating the next! That kind of crap. Yes, my beloved clients, I was still working through all of it. God I hate tax season.

So no one decided to call and tell me this beast was coming. Fortunately, so as not to pass this gem of a disease on to my son (he is in the throes of Calculus and we don’t need him bugging up now that he just aced his mid-terms), I am quarantined out at the farm. It has been cold and windy and the air outside has been like poison on my throat. So because of this vulnerable state, the creator in all of her mercy decided to deliver the tank un-announced!

No biggie. The guy brought the truck in, wheeled the tank over to the end of the truck, even had a lift-gate (miracle!) and lowered the thing to the ground. He was enthralled with the farm so I gave him a quick tour and he took some videos of the pigs for his kids. He was concerned, because of the soft ground from the recent snows, about being able to turn himself around to get out. I told him that if he backed up a ways toward the gate and because his trailer was pretty empty, he should be able to put his trailer out on the field, keep his cab on the asphalt driveway and kind of jockey himself around. Did he? Are you kidding!? That would have been far to easy! Why would anyone actually listen to the guy who LIVES here? So he started to do his jockey-ing down hill too far from the road. Instead of a series of backs and forth’s, he jackknifed the truck. So he thought that he would just do a big circle. This took him cab first into the field. I watched him do it. The weight of that diesel engine just sank that sucker right up to his gas tanks. Of course, he tried to rock it out and that just dug deeper holes. By the time I had walked out to him he had high-centered the thing and one of the back tires just spun freely with no contact with the ground. That my friends is called STUCK! Been there, done that. The soil out here when it gets wet is like slogging through snot!

At first he asked if I knew of anyone with a tractor that could pull him out. Knowing this part of the world, there isn’t a farmer around here that would knowingly put their tractor in that muddy field. So he had to call in for a tow truck. Turns out that another of his driver co-workers was stuck near here as well so they got a two-fer! About an hour and a half later the hook arrived and pulled him out. As my son said, “This wasn’t just stupid, this was ADVANCED stupid!” Couldn’t agree more. So off they went without so much as a “by your leave” or any offer to replace their divots – which are significant.

So as the JAZ Farm has proven time and time again, everything we want to do eventually happens, but NEVER, EVER, think it is going to go as planned. Just keep smiling, just keep moving.

The Beast! 1000 Gallons! Six feet tall, six feet wide. It will weigh almost 8500 pounds when full.

New Tank