Spring 2011

Spring 2011 is in full swing! Even more so, when the rain slows... Well its been quite a while; I seem to update our facebook page more often, since its so easy. So please check us out there, I eill attempt to update more. Jay is growing fast, 3 /12 now. Another one on the way, a boy. Barn is up, roof in place, yet to be sided. Building more permanent fence. Built portable "chicken tractor" for our flock. Have a broody hen with 10 chicks in a small broody coop we built. Corn fields 1/2 ready to plant. Still need to fix: hay maul floor, hay wagon top, haybine for hay season.

Snow!

Jay is loving the snow! We went sledding yesterday for about 30 minutes. We currenlty have about 5" of snow on pic nic table this morning. 1-3 " more snow coming tomorrow.

Firewood supply used approx 1/2 (actually a little less) but doing well. Maybe this year we'll get ahead?

Snow doesnt seem to phase the pigs much. They are growing, ready in Beginning of February.

Anyone interested my neighbor has for sale: 1984 Ford f250, 4x4, Cab/ chasis. 302. 4spd. Runs good, 4x4 works. Will need gas tank (current one works, rusted on top). Using for farm/ firewood truck- began to build flatbed. Willing to part out. $450 obo. Email me.

Note: Prayers please, for Grandma P she was diagnosed with stomach cancer yesterday. Thanks.

December 2009

We hope everyone had a joyful and safe holiday! Here are some December highlights:

The Deer hunting crew: Chris, Me, Kyle, Kevin.Cooking Chili on the wood stove... Our first power outage of the winter, at least we have heat!

Mamma, Jay, Santa (Papa)Jay's new bike (witha horn)- What a Happy Christmas Jay playing with gifts at grandmas.

October Update

October is going well, after a week of cold/ flu sickness everyone is up and back to normal. We have been cutting and splitting more firewood, we are actively using the wood stove nearly 24/7. Below is a view of cows in pasture during fall color.
The hogs are doing very well, growing well. Below is a photo me building their new hog house which is on skids so it can be pulled by a tractor to rotation graze.

Here is a photo of the new house in the pig pen (1/2 of our garden) where the pigs are harvesting the garden leftovers. And turning the soil. Below Jay watching his pigs (they're names are "Bacon"- that what he calls them).

Here is one of the calves which are being weaned in the barn and is currently for sale.

2010 Homesteading Today Calender!!!

We entered a few pictures for review and voting by members of the Homesteading Today Online community. This is a "Forum" or group of folks with similar ideals, a common place to congregate online and ask questions and get answers and advice. There are according to the site 21,000 Members; only 3,500 active Members. Link: http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/

Of the pictures that we entered, 2 were chosen for next years (2010) Calender. There was approx 90 pictures to vote from. Below the chosen pictures. Info will be updated as to what month these will be, and where they maybe for sale.

Slate Run Historical Farm Visit

On Sunday we visited Slate Run Historical Farm- run by Metro Parks. It is a fully functioning 1880's farm in Canal Winchester, OH. The farm is very activity filled with much to see. Please check out this link: http://friendsofslaterunfarm.org/home . What an outlook of the primitive ways of farming a century ago. As you can see Jay loved every minute!

Tractor

Our son, covered in a dust of corn and soybean meal that he was supposed to feed to the pigs (not throw, LOL!) But he had fun, as you can see above. Below is a photo of our tractor. Concord Mommy took this picture or she would be in it too. It has worked well so far, and will be a great asset to the farm.

This week we almost finished up hay season. The picture below is Concord Son and I traveling home from raking hay. He came over to the fields to bring Dad some water and begged to ride back with me. We have also been working on putting more firewood inside the wood shed and cleaning out the other half of teh shed for the tractor (to be parked out of weather). Monday morning was first of many firewood cutting parties to be had through the winter. The parties usal consist of myself, Matt and Andrew. We cut, split and load all 3 of our trucks with wood; many hands make the work go fast.

The pigs are growing. I am hoping to expand there pen this week to enclose our entire garden which is almost done producing for this year.

New Tractor

Above is the newest addition to CMF. Recently we have been in the market for a 50-70 HP tractor. On Wedsnesday we test drove and made a deal on this tractor. It is a 1966 Massey Ferguson 175 Diesel, 63 HP with 3 point and remote hydraulics ( It will do everything I currently and in the future will need). This is big enough to pull my haybine (mower), and disk and plow. It is going to be delivered on Tuesday or Wednesday. We are very excited.
PS- Pigs are doing well, will post on them soon.

August Photo Review

In July we took a great trip to Lake Erie to see Jay's Great Grandparents. What a great trip!

Family photo.

The camp set up, our camper.

Cayla Cooking on the fire
Family Campfire photo
Fresh Beets anybody? What a worker

Chris and the backhoe. Who said video games teach you nothing? He said, "I like this, its like a big video game." And hes pretty good at it too! Thanks to Chris for his hard work on the farm this week.

Work in progress, digging hole for water line. No more hooking the hose up inside the basement to water animals!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Andrew for his plumbing expertise and time spent. We now have a water spigot in the field.

Jay loved the rides at the Athens County Fair.

Ok, were tired now. LOL. Jay and I catching quality zzzzzz's.

PS: Feeder pigs in progress, they will be ready in February! More on them later. Thanks again, to Chris for all his help this week, we got lots of work done.

July

Summer is coming right along. First cut hay is done. Fence is in progress. Next to do: firewood and barn roof. We have canned some, and will be canning alot more as more tomatos ripen.

Jay playing on his toy "trac-sher" wearing my old work hat. He has so much fun on that tractor, it has seen and will see many more miles.

Here my wife worked on brush hogging the pasture which has been grazed early on in season, but before weeds go to seed and spread, we mow, to stop the seed spread and help pasture growth. What a great job she did!

Fence is an ongoing project. This will keep our bull Travis from wandering to the neighboring farm when their cows are in heat. The light weight electric that shocks @ 4,500 volts did nothing to stop him 4 times this week, thankfully they're understanding and very helpful. We have finally finished the east side of the perimeter fence; it has been built in stages. It consisits of 4 strand barb wire and cow panels for gates. Big thanks to Kyle for his help!!!

This is our newest family investment: a pop-up camper. We are so excited to use it, we have planned to camp the first weekend of August.

Summer Update

Times are busy as always! Since we are both working off them farm jobs and around the farm, days are long. Good news: all puppies have new homes; the garden is filling with fresh veggies (above picture) and we are late yet again splitting firewood but we have some done. There has been massive amounts of hay baled, stored and sold this season- possibly one for the record books. Everyone is doing well. Jay is growing by the day, its unbelievable; he got a pet Ki-Cat (kitten) for the garage/ barn/ outdoors... Mouse catcher... would be great for the feed storage area. Both calves are doing well putting on weight. adapting the pasture life.

New life on the farm

The garden is doing well so far, Jay has been a big help, LOL. So far we have 4 kinds of tomatos, potatos, bell peppers, banana peppers, bush beans cuccumber, cantelope and corn, and a rash of herbs which will be in our new raised bed. (Later Post)

Morgan and Jake just had their final litter of puppies before the fix. (Yes they're getting fixed.) She gave birth to: 8 total= 6 live, 2 still born......... 4 male, 2 female.......... 4 black, 2 white with black. Everyone is fine and dandy and eating well. Taking requests on pups.

Sally finally had her calf!!!!! Yesterday Morning!!! Easy birth she pushed for a few minutes calf emerged, and fell right out. she immediately began cleaning it, etc... The normal mom stuff I guess. Its a heifer (female) and appears to be a red/dun color. The first calving I have witnessed!

With the weather cool and rainy we decided to pin them up in the barn for a day or so. Sally is not happy about being in the barn, as you may know she has been our trouble cow.... she is plain nuts! Below she is playing guard, no human contact allowed on her watch.

The dates dont line up, I know, but these pictures were all taken yesterday June 3.

Happy Birthday Cayla!

Happy Birthday to my wife Cayla! We had a wonderful cookout last night, with family and cake. She got some peach trees, yummy!, that will be planted very soon; also received flowers and an iron plant hanger.
Kenny, Kyle and I nearly finished putting the haybine back together, thanks to them for the assistance. The reel is in place, belts need put back on, bolts tightened and everything needs a final check over. Then we'll be ready to mow with it. Pictures will be posted soon.

Make Hay While The Sun Shines

The old sang "Make hay while the sun shines" is hold true this week. Wow how the seasons have changed, the hot sun is out and its hay season again. Andrew (neighbor) and I have been mowing hay this week preparing to bale. Above is Matt's tractor (neighbor and Andrews brother), that we have been using to mow the hay. Below is a close up picture of raked hay rows in the above pictured field. Make sense? Anyway, we have had frost 2 days this week so far, lost a few seedlings to it, but thankfully nothing else. We're gonna shoot for firewood hauling and fence building after all the fields have had the first cut of hay mowed off of them.We did get a chance to plant our new apple trees. They are doing well. No calf or calves yet! Is the Vet right? are we crazy? Both? We'll keep you updated. I was recently looking at Mother Earth News online and read an article about Athens, and it made me think Isnt Athens County such a beautiful place to live? Link to the article: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/2006-08-01/Great-Places-Athens-Ohio.aspx