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5 Goals for 2014

 
pollinator
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Dan Grubbs wrote:Love this idea. And R Scott, holla if you'd like a hand. I'd like to help and get a look at your subsoiler in action.

1 - Cut three new swales in our pasture to add to the two already built.
2 - Plant the two existing swales with the dozens of trees and bushes coming in April.
3 - Plant S. lespedeza in alley crop between two of our swales.
4 - Build five loafing sheds (three-sided sheds), one for each of our paddocks.
5 - Study to see if any EQIP funds are available for the work we're doing on our farm.



April 1 update --

1&2 - I have complete one more of the swales I wanted to build (now have three of five done). We're planting on it and the one just down hill on April 26. Here's hoping it's not raining that day as some friends are going to help.
3 - We planted our sericea lespedeza this past weekend between two swales which equaled about 1/2 acre. We're getting good rain this week, so I'm hopeful. The experiment for goats begins!
4 - We found a commercial loafing shed that is built on skids for a very reasonable price, so we're going to go that route and move it as we rotate paddocks.
5 - We applied for and received a farm number and have since completed our NRCS application for EQIP programs and now will begin to develop our Conservation Activity Plan.

I dont' have them all done, but getting close. Yay!
 
gardener
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Just got ourselves a bit of land, and with it some vision so...
-Fence the perimeter
-Pave the driveway
-Build a shed
-Capture water
-Build raised beds.

Damn, looks like planting food isn't even in the top five!

That's OK, this is just my list anyway.
The real list is unwritten, it just issues forth from the lips of my Appalachian Queen...
Know what I mean?
; )
 
steward
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William Bronson wrote: Just got ourselves a bit of land, and with it some vision so...
-Fence the perimeter
-Pave the driveway
-Build a shed
-Capture water
-Build raised beds.

Damn, looks like planting food isn't even in the top five!

William, to me that's permaculture-food's just a part of the design
 
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(1) plant forage crops for future chickens and pigs (fruit/nut trees, perennials, some annuals)
(2) keep records of costs/time on all farm endeavors
(3) start a trial of 50/100 rotationally grazed pastured broilers
(4) use cuttings/layering to expand berries, fruit plantings
(5) Most importantly: have my 2 yr old son "work" with me on all of it (except the butchering of course, we will wait a little bit for that)
 
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1. Teach my first PDC (starting Jan 26th!) 5/13 UPDATE: 3 classes to go - this has been a really interesting learning experience for me - glad I did it!
2. Work on my "hedge fund" (as per this post)
3. Finish the earthworks in my front yard (infiltration basins)
4. Attend the Water Harvesting Certification class in Tucson in March - become a certified water harvester - It's official - I AM NOW A CERTIFIED WATER HARVESTER! Wow - that was one of the hardest classes I've ever taken.
5. Do an internship with Geoff Lawton at his Greening the Desert - the Sequel site in Jordan in Oct/Nov. Due to limited vision and other stuff, I will probably be documenting the project for use as a manual or case study. This is off the table this year until my health improves which really bums me out.
 
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George Meljon wrote:1) Finish chicken coop
2) 200 feet of contour mini hugel beds
3) Start forest garden around pond
4) Seed lower field with sorghum
5) Hop towers



1) Finish chicken coop - complete in 4 weeks or less
2) 200 feet of contour mini hugel beds - complete in 4 weeks or less
3) Start forest garden around pond - maybe happening in a couple weeks - getting late in the spring
4) Seed lower field with sorghum - looking for seeder
5) Hop towers - ?what was I thinking?
 
pollinator
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George Meljon wrote:
5) Hop towers - ?what was I thinking?



Maybe for the 2015 edition which should include our reasons for the goals, least we forget!
 
steward
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Midsummer update
  • Keep the +500 new trees we are planting in April watered and alive through their first year. Nearly all the trees are doing ok. Praying for monsoons to start early. This is taking significant almost daily effort. I wrote a blog post on how things are going.
  • Install gutters to direct water from the roof to useful places. Not likely to happen (see above time sink; the roof is nowhere near where I need the water tomorrow or this would be done already).
  • Add geese and meat birds to our flock Done. Geese are the best. Butchering day for the first 25 chickies is coming up in a couple weeks
  • Add to understory plantings in the first orchards. Does clover count? Been able to tuck a few things around the cherries, but not much else. Did make a new sheet mulch bed and loaded it with strawberries and currants and shallots. The geese trampled it before I figured out how to fence them out. It suffered but is coming back.
  • Sell something at our local farmers' market Won't be apples this year, everybody got frozen out in May. We have maybe a couple dozen fruits on 200 trees. Still hoping for something to take, but the garden isn't getting the attention it deserves (see above time sink)


  • Did you know that 3" high corn plants grazed by geese can grow back? Me either, but now we do.

    I think we are going to buy a garden tractor for orchard mowing. The 2 wheel BCS with sickle bar is just too slow and, on our "textured" land, requires too much upper body strength for me to manage it. DH is spending all his weekends trying to keep up with mowing the orchards. Much of it is legacy alfalfa we chop and drop, but it is a bear if it gets too high. And he won't trust anyone young and strong enough to do the work for money to do it. Sickle bars can wipe out a row of trees in a flash. Stefan's video made me realize it really is a better use of our time/money continuum. We'll never get ahead if we are spending all our time watering and mowing. Irrigation involves a bigger set of decisions that I don't want to rush, but mowing can be made easier with a machine that I can take my turn operating. And there will be cup holders.
     
    Dan Grubbs
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    Dan Grubbs wrote:

    Dan Grubbs wrote:Love this idea. And R Scott, holla if you'd like a hand. I'd like to help and get a look at your subsoiler in action.

    1 - Cut three new swales in our pasture to add to the two already built.
    2 - Plant the two existing swales with the dozens of trees and bushes coming in April.
    3 - Plant S. lespedeza in alley crop between two of our swales.
    4 - Build five loafing sheds (three-sided sheds), one for each of our paddocks.
    5 - Study to see if any EQIP funds are available for the work we're doing on our farm.



    April 1 update --

    1&2 - I have complete one more of the swales I wanted to build (now have three of five done). We're planting on it and the one just down hill on April 26. Here's hoping it's not raining that day as some friends are going to help.
    3 - We planted our sericea lespedeza this past weekend between two swales which equaled about 1/2 acre. We're getting good rain this week, so I'm hopeful. The experiment for goats begins!
    4 - We found a commercial loafing shed that is built on skids for a very reasonable price, so we're going to go that route and move it as we rotate paddocks.
    5 - We applied for and received a farm number and have since completed our NRCS application for EQIP programs and now will begin to develop our Conservation Activity Plan.

    I dont' have them all done, but getting close. Yay!



    June update --

    50 trees planted on two swales (pecan, elderberry, hazelnut, false indigo, persimmon) were given a solid layer of finished compost to just beyond their drip line and then a heavy layer of hay mulch.
    Cutting and binding hay between swales this week as well as rest of pasture.
    Expanded orchard by 10 pawpaw trees and installed deer cages around them to attach sun shades and composted and mulched them, too.
    Submitted farm plan to county EQIP coordinator for our Conservation Activity Plan - will apply for a high tunnel next spring based on this plan.
    Have to plan for a caged veg garden as rabbits and deer destroyed our annual veg garden (we don't yet live on the property).
    Identified where to dig well and located where retention pond will be.

    And, like everyone else, about a thousand other chores and tasks that always need doing.

     
    Jennifer Wadsworth
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    Update 6/28/14

    1. Teach my first PDC Finito! The students' projects were really creative - I'm so proud of them.
    2. Work on my "hedge fund" (as per this post) This is NEXT UP and will get installed in the fall with a little help from my buddies at Watershed Management Group and their Green Living Co-op.
    3. Finish the earthworks in my front yard (infiltration basins) - see above
    4. Attend the Water Harvesting Certification class in Tucson in March - become a certified water harvester - It's official - I AM NOW A CERTIFIED WATER HARVESTER! Wow - that was one of the hardest classes I've ever taken.
    5. Do an internship with Geoff Lawton at his Greening the Desert - the Sequel site in Jordan in Oct/Nov. Due to limited vision and other stuff, I will probably be documenting the project for use as a manual or case study. This is off the table this year until my health improves which really bums me out. However, I can now participate in a few local activities such as the Green Infrastructure class that I would have missed otherwise. And I have time to be on the advisory council for a couple of local sustainability/permaculture non-profits.
     
    Ann Torrence
    steward
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    Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:Update 6/28/14

    1. Teach my first PDC Finito! The students' projects were really creative - I'm so proud of them.
    2. Work on my "hedge fund" (as per this post) This is NEXT UP and will get installed in the fall with a little help from my buddies at Watershed Management Group and their Green Living Co-op.
    3. Finish the earthworks in my front yard (infiltration basins) - see above
    4. Attend the Water Harvesting Certification class in Tucson in March - become a certified water harvester - It's official - I AM NOW A CERTIFIED WATER HARVESTER! Wow - that was one of the hardest classes I've ever taken.
    5. Do an internship with Geoff Lawton at his Greening the Desert - the Sequel site in Jordan in Oct/Nov. Due to limited vision and other stuff, I will probably be documenting the project for use as a manual or case study. This is off the table this year until my health improves which really bums me out. However, I can now participate in a few local activities such as the Green Infrastructure class that I would have missed otherwise. And I have time to be on the advisory council for a couple of local sustainability/permaculture non-profits.


    Yay!
     
    out to pasture
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    The original goals were -

    Burra Maluca wrote:Find a way of enticing the menopause fairy to visit and then hold her hostage for as long as necessary.
    Convert the olive grove to a food forest.
    Send my son across the pond to visit The Land.
    Get the grid-feed solar panels up so I get a bit of regular income.
    Finish writing my book.



    First update -

    Burra Maluca wrote:
    Tickets booked for the Grand Adventure.
    Base is ready for the solar panels, and payment is waiting to go through. Should be all done in a couple more weeks, but this is Portugal so there are bound to be delays...
    A selection of trees and berry bushes planted in the olive grove, more to follow.
    Manuscript is still sitting there waiting for chapter 5 to emerge.
    Menopause fairy is proving elusive. Suggestions welcome.



    And now -

    Alan is back from his walkabout to The Land - he had a completely wonderful experience. He left a teenage boy, and came back a man. Well, in my opinion anyway...
    Solar panels up and running and earning a bit of income! Yay!!
    One or two trees didn't make it in the olive grove, but overall it's been a huge success. The comfrey survived, both rhubarb plants survived, and even my other half is impressed. Much more is planned for next year.
    My menopause fairy arrived! She flits away every now and again but the difference to my health is incredible. No more heamorrhages, no more impactions, no more anaemia, no more hiding away for days at a time too terrified to move. I'm even losing weight and starting to get fit again.
    Chapter five is still taunting me....

    How's everyone else getting on?
     
    gardener
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    Mike Sved wrote:1-take ownership of our new land
    2-clear access road/trail into the land
    3-set up camper there
    4-wake up there, brew coffee and then....
    5-ponder the 26 acres of possibilities



    1- completed, although stewardship would have been a better term
    2- completed, although it's a pretty sloppy trail when it rains
    3- failure!
    4- failure, again.
    5- success, albeit immeasurable. Every minute we spend there opens our eyes to some unrecognized feature, challenge and/or quirk of the land. We were so naive at first and thought we understood it after a few winter walkabouts. We've come to realize that our number one goal going forward should be to set up a temporary residence there as soon as possible and begin listening to all that the land has to tell us before we start making any plans that we consider permanent.

    We've succeeded in creating over one hundred feet of hugelbeds and planted lots of comfrey, horseradish, haskap, strawberries, chives, raspberries and cherries. We're awaiting a delivery of apple trees, hazel bushes, Korean Pines and pincherries shortly, plus we have several more apple and Linden trees to plant. There's snow on the ground this morning, so I think we should consider wrapping up our 'summer' activities soon. It sure went by quickly.
    P1110874.JPG
    [Thumbnail for P1110874.JPG]
    Hugelbeds 2 and 3
     
    steward
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    Craig Dobbelyu wrote:I keep a notebook with projects and it's always being added to. Here's five good ones I've got on the horizon.

    1. Expand my rabbit production
    2. Dig a few new ponds
    3. Build a respectable outdoor kitchen
    4. Build a smoke house for the six pigs I have reserved for spring 2014
    5. Add a few hundred more feet of swales and hugels



    1. Currently have 4 breeding does and 2 bucks. I have 20 kits to select the next breeders from. I'd like to get up to 10 good does.

    2. I expanded one pond and have been sealing it with ducks. Ducks are awesome! Other ponds were put on hold until next spring maybe.

    3. Major home renovations have kept me from clearing the space for the kitchen ... maybe next year.

    4. There's still time to build the smoker and there are six pigs out there eating the fields down so... there's motivation oinking at me every day.

    5. No new swales or earthworks for 2014. Spring 2015... Big time Earthworks.


    BUT...
    I did finish my PDC
    I started working towards building a greenhouse and a roots cellar.
    I planted 50 oak trees.
    This was a record year for food production for me. So... Yeah, I guess I'm on the right track. At least in some ways.
     
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    1) expand my garlic & shallot bed. Hope to have enough French grey shallots to test as Spring Turkey graze. Turkeys eat wild garlic and shallots in spring.
    2) expand my edible canna lily bed. Will have enough in 2015 to use as animal feed.
    3) expand my population of ground nuts. Now have enough of several varieties to plant sun chokes and ground nuts in small test plots in 2015.
    4) work with chicken with sun chokes, Giant Ragweed. Results were good. Birds love the leaves of both. They will each the seeds of Giant ragweed and roots of sun chokes.
    5) continue working with potatoe from true seeds
     
    Ann Torrence
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    I was just thinking of this thread in the middle of the night when my short-comings are most weighing. The best I can say is that the trees, the geese and the desired chickens are still all alive. I am so looking forward to the end of the month when our irrigation season comes to a close.
     
    Jennifer Wadsworth
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    So we're nearly to the end of 2014 - how did everyone do? What was accomplished - what wasn't and what unexpected things happened?
     
    pollinator
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    Convert our livestock to intensive grazing and hay-less. Did it. Got some kinks to work out for next year. I still have some hay in the barn (baled from the neighbor) just in case, but less than half of last year.
    Create and plant the first swale in our pasture. Done. One of my teenagers (that took Geoff's online PDC) started the second (much longer) swale, but found out just how much water the first swale was keeping in the system. Then it rained. It is going to be a struggle to get the second one done before spring
    Dig 3 new ponds for livestock and water management. Nope. This year stayed too wet to do it with my machinery.
    Finish my keyline plow to include a coulter, roller, and compost tea applicator. Nope. Plan changed, now I will follow the plow with a second pass with a seeder and cultipacker.
    Build a new composting setup and tea brewer. I have a berkeley by front end loader system figured out. Built 4 yards of compost in one shot. Beta-tested a tea brewer. It worked well enough for garden scale, but needs a redesign for broadacre use.
     
    Dan Grubbs
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    Well, Jennifer, I suspect like many of us I didn't get done nearly as much as I planned and hoped. But, the best thing that happened this year is that I learned a ton! I really gained some good insights from a variety of people. So, the best thing I did this year wasn't planting 80 trees or building another swale. It was to have the foresight to ask questions of smart and experienced people who come at alternative agriculture from multiple perspectives.

    I learned I needed to be less confident in my knowledge of my place because I had misidentified several of the species of grass on our farm. When I had a soil expert come out and walk the place with me and discuss plans, he helped me realize that my land was covered in early succession plants. Because the property had been hayed twice a year for at least 10 years, the pasture was simply trying to recover itself each time and it was sending up those plants that come early and they were not all that beneficial for our purposes. I think technically, by repeated haying, we were keeping the pasture in a constant state of ecesis and no real chance of building the grasses and forbs we desire for our plans. The removal of hay also means no thatch. Without thatch, more soil surface was exposed to the sun than I would have imagined, thus losing a good deal of moisture to evaporation and reducing the number of soil organisms as well as very limited organic matter returning.

    Plan adjustments:
    • Cancelled plans for two more swales and will stick to the three that I have now instead of the five I was planning. The three are sufficiently holding water on the land.
    • Will be letting the entire site grow, or better said, lay fallow for at least a year. We will NOT be taking any hay away from it anymore.
    • Cancelled plans for paddock fencing in favor of portable electric netting to let me rotationally graze the entire site.
    • Applied for and was not awarded a grant for a high tunnel by the NRCS. Resubmitted our farm plan and hopefully we will try again next year.
    • Had the county award us a driveway permit after inspection of the ditch culvert (don’t ask).
    • Selected a floor plan design for the modular house we’ll build.

    High hopes for 2015, not the least of which is building our house and finally being able to live on our land.
     
    R Scott
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    Got mostly done with the swale. Here is my redneck hack to smooth the swale without compacting it (or flipping a tractor)
    20141110_161211.jpg
    [Thumbnail for 20141110_161211.jpg]
    offset hitch
     
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    We bought a double wide on 8 acres. We have goals to meet by the end of the year so we can move.

    1. Level site for carport (getting delivered and set up next week)

    2. Paint interior.

    3. Lay floors. Ordered unfinished tongue and groove white pine flooring and a friend is giving us ceramic tile with grout for bathroom floors and even lending us a tile saw.

    4. Build enough fence to move horses.

    5. Build 2 hoop coops so we can move chickens.
     
    Dan Grubbs
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    Can't wait to hear more, Dana.

    Love hacks, R Scott. Swale looks great.
     
    gardener
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    Well, it's freezing hard here for the third night so the garden is about done. A good time to catch up.

    Dan Boone wrote:

    1) build a couple of zone-1 raised garden beds and a compost bin;



    In the event, I only built one raised garden bed. But it was a doozy -- double dug and then well-filled, and pretty big. It gave me by far the best tomato crop that I've had here, and in the raised bed underneath the tomato vines also turned out to be a great place to nurture fragile seedlings, protecting them from excess heat and ground-level nibblers.

    Dan Boone wrote:
    2) establish a clover ground cover and level harvesting surface under the two established/neglected wild pecan trees that I've already rehabilitated by removing competing understory trees and chest-high brambles;



    I got the clover seeded and it grew well, along with quite a bit of other ground cover. However this was an off year for my pecans, so I didn't put much effort into them once it became clear there weren't going to be many nuts this year.

    Dan Boone wrote:
    3) finish clearing young ash trees that are shading and competing for water with my ancient (it could be up to 100 years old, and looks it) Kieffer pear tree;



    No progress here. The Kieffer pear had a bad case of fire blight this year, so I focused my efforts on pruning away the blighted areas. The tree set a lot of fruit but then dropped it all by mid July.

    Dan Boone wrote:
    4) clear away the underbrush from beneath at least six more wild pecan and persimmon trees before harvest time next fall;



    I didn't do as much of that as planned. Instead, I put my clearing effort into small honey locusts and young osage oranges in areas where I want to be planting fruit trees. I also got distracted by my container gardening, which I did on a MUCH larger scale than ever before, with a lot of effort in herbs and fruit tree seedlings. I did discover a bunch of wild plums on the property (when they flowered) and did rather a lot of brush clearing around the best of those.

    Dan Boone wrote:
    5) before spring rains, finish building two extremely modest (faggots/fascines and borrowed sod) water/sediment retention barriers in shallow erosion gullies.


    Got this done, on a small scale. One was quite successful; the other one captured a bit of sediment but it's in a tough place and needs to be larger and to be given more rain events to capture sediment doing.

    In February I was thinking in terms of my existing fruit/nut trees and a bit of gardening. I didn't really realize how much preliminary effort I'd end up devoting to planting more fruit and nut trees. That ended up being my biggest focus, and I've planted out a lot of fruit and seeds as well as begun a lot of seedlings in my container garden.

    Now that it's cool enough to work, I want to do a lot more clearing (there's a whole thicket of sand plums that needs rescuing from competition) and a lot more soil building, including finally building that compost bin as well as collecting up a ton of fall leaves.
     
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    Location: Fennville MI
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    Peter Ellis wrote:1: get the house ready for the market
    2: get the yard ready for the market
    3: keep reading any and everything I can find about permaculture
    4: keep reading about alternative building methods
    5: keep researching the Washtenaw michigan area where we will be landing in another year

    Part of getting the yard ready involves all sorts of gardening stuff. This next growing season will hopefully yield Jerusalem artichokes, bunches of garlic, peas, beans, potatoes, squash, lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, tomatoes, peppers. I have a load of work to do in the yard to make it presentable and the house is being massively renovated due to burst pipes in the crazy cold spell we had.

    So, there is a whole load of design and execution to be done and walked away from, in order to get us to another, much larger, load of design and execution. Biting off so much. It is, in essence, a leap of faith.



    So.... I read and watch youtube videos and I keep trying to find more information about the area of SE Michigan we want to homestead in. Those pieces move along. Made progress with the gardens and yard, but nowhere near market ready. Which turns out to be ok since they only started the very earliest phase of the reconstruction of the interior of the house on Friday of last week. Yeah. 10 months and they had not even begun the repair work. Not happy.

    OTOH, we just found out that my wife has a cousin who is a realtor back in MI, in the general area we're looking at. Hopefully that will be a beneficial connection.
     
    pollinator
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    Location: Ozarks
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    John Pollard wrote:
    This year:
    Get gravel on our road/trail.
    Finish electric easement.
    get as much growing here as possible aside from the existing oak/hickory/dogwood.
    Get some chickens for meat and eggs
    Build my shop



    Well, I didn't get any gravel on the driveway but it is wider and longer.
    Electric easement is done
    Grew a little garden and some grass grew in places I cleared.
    Got some laying hens
    Got half the materials here for the shop

    Gravel and shop will get finished in the spring with tax money, meat birds are now on the 2015 list, I did get more trees out of the way to let sun in for a bigger garden and started on raised beds, The rest of the materials for the shop are in two different places, each over 100 miles away and each requires multiple trips. Now that gas prices are down, it's more feasible and we did make a few trips this year.
     
    "How many licks ..." - I think all of this dog's research starts with these words. Tasty tiny ad:
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