Homesteading

[Bullet:Mich.]

In our area the wild gooseberries and raspberries are plentiful, been picking a lot of them. With all the rain we been having the cutworms and garden grey slug worms have been showing up. I put a 40 gal food barrel close to my garden app 3 weeks ago to check how much rain we are getting and when I checked it yesterday it has 12 inches of water in it.

 

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[joncutt87]

Well, my Muscadine vine got away from me ...oops

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Well, the beans came up more quickly than I expected, and they're going at it! Maybe I'll eat some beans this year!

There was the two weeks of heat, and now more than a week of rain. TWC says we have a week of heat in front of us again.

At Friday's Farmer's Market I was talking to the "guru" about the damage to my garden, and he said he'd been hurt pretty severely as well. The last two weeks he has only been showing up with a little stuff just for the social interaction.

 

[joncutt87]

Deep, how's your supply of firewood coming along?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Deep, how's your supply of firewood coming along?

Ah! Jacob Marley's ghost! (Christmas Carol)

Well, I have both chain saws prepped and ready to go, new bar & chain for the Stihl.

I already have a stack of logs staged in the woods, but that's no more than a week's supply. But where we'd cleared the area, it's already overgrown again - and it is snake season. I need to pick up some pallets so I can stage the logs near the house for cut-up. What I really need is a wood shed. Time.....

 

[joncutt87]

I got started staging yesterday after work. Hopefully I can get back out there today. The heat was unbearable yesterday, especially working on an empty stomach.

the wood pile so far

 

[joncutt87]

Spent 6 hours today limbing and bucking logs. 99° this afternoon, but I doubled the size of my pile.

 

[joncutt87]

Well.... how is everyone else doing so far this summer?

 

[releventchair]

Doin fine here. Course not doin much either.
Looked at some wood that needs cut is as near to your labor in cutting.

 

[joncutt87]

It's been really dry here, I'm surprised that I haven't seen any trees dying.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

We have had so much rain here that in my low ground there is a lot of standing water which is causing it to be so muddy that some of my big live swamp oaks to uproot and fall down. Had some of my first early sweet corn to eat yesterday. Mosquitoes are big enough now to carry a person away from all the rain.

 

[joncutt87]

Sadly, I lost all of my corn; sweet, field, and popcorn. My tomatoes, zucchini, and squashe are hanging in there.

 

[releventchair]

Corn has not tasseled around here yet Bullet. Around three hours north of you.
Today's rains will be welcomed again. Corn has had a good year with leaves not rolling up from being too dry. Some thin areas from washouts.
The southern third of the state has indeed been soaked all year though,lots of areas still too wet that are normally dry enough to work.
Been a better year so far around me, with enough time in between heavy rains to be absorbed and only a few areas holding more water than normal. Clay based ones maybe.
Sand and moondust in my yard soaks it up fast.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

After it quit raining this morning the sun came out and it got hot. I went up to our village this afternoon and checked the retail prices at a farmers wagon where he always has some of the first home grown sweet corn for sale in this area, I thought the prices were a little salty at .45 a ear and $4.50 a dozen but it wasn't slowing his sales any. I never seen so many people wanting corn on the cob.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

It's been a few days since I posted here, but then there's been nothing to post or crow about. It's hot again, and the rain we're getting is from nasty thunderstorms. Night before last we took a number of strikes very close to the house. And I went out yesterday morning and a whole lot of the higher reaching plants were plastered to the ground. My carrots are the size of my pinky, two taters per plant, and tomatoes plentiful, but just not ripening. I guess if you counted as stages, I'm likely in my third season of planting here.

I noticed yesterday that I have some cucumbers growing now It's nice to see a positive here and there. My gardens are certainly "under performing", but then I was rather Pollyanna coming into this adventure. However, won't and can't stop now. Darned Japanese beetles! I've decided to dust the grapes, blackberries and everything else them disgusting varmits seem to like. Blackberries, Mom said you couldn't kill them. Those varmits must have heard her say that.

One of my raspberry plants died dead. So, I dug it up, and cut a larger hole and put in a mature container raspberry in its' place. I was wondering where to put it anyway, considered keeping it in the container - maybe I should have. Maybe I condemned it by planting it there.

And meanwhile the danged yellow jackets have invaded my upstairs suite beginning last night. More than 20 little yellow corpses litter the floor right now, time to sweep them up. Had a new one show up a few minutes ago, have no idea yet where they're coming in at. With the numbers I'd say they have a nest in the ceiling space above, but I don't hear any swarming, buzzing.

Thus another day of adventure.....

In contrast to all this, I'm still a farmer and will continue.

Keep the faith at all times, just adjust your method of travel!

 

[texasred777]

Deep, you just brought to mind something I heard my father say several times while I was growing up. He said that most Christians believed it sinful to gamble, but in his way of thinking, the farmer was the biggest gambler of all. They never know if the seeds they plant will germinate and thrive; or if they will rot in the ground. If they become plants, will they die of draught, too much moisture, wind, hail, or pestilence. I agreed with him. It's a big gamble. (But, also the Lord said if we had the faith of a mustard seed, we could move mountains!)
Everybody have a great week!

 

[DeepseekerADS]

We've mentioned ticks several times on this thread. I'm still sitting at 15 deer tick bites, fingers crossed. But I've been vigilant in checking myself every single day.

Found some "comforting" information with this paragraph on the following URL:

Don't let the bugs bite - CNN.com

If you can remove the tick within 36 to 48 hours, you should be home free, because it takes about that long for the Lyme disease bacterium to be transmitted.

 

[releventchair]

After it quit raining this morning the sun came out and it got hot. I went up to our village this afternoon and checked the retail prices at a farmers wagon where he always has some of the first home grown sweet corn for sale in this area, I thought the prices were a little salty at .45 a ear and $4.50 a dozen but it wasn't slowing his sales any. I never seen so many people wanting corn on the cob.

Prices always goin up.
In the sixties as a kid, I sold sweet corn at an intersection for 35 cents a dozen and threw in an extra ear. That was big money then,l.o.l..

 

[releventchair]

Stick with it Deep.
Days to maturity can depend on planting time and amount of darkness received.
You'll find some stuff that grows best on your homestead with minimum of fuss eventually.
In time transplanting something to a space something else failed at won't feel like putting it on death row...
Them Japanese beetles like the heat and invite others to join them by scent.
Half the battle is destroying their larva, but they mobilize once mature.
Organic /holistic farms have lots to contend with.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Stick with it Deep. Organic /holistic farms have lots to contend with.

When I was posting the Survival Tips this morning, re-read an older one on uses of wood ash.

I dusted my "victim" plants with wood ash.