E. Barker

Just a quick update:  The oats and buckwheat are doing great!  8" tall at this point.  

   To elaborate on the previous state of the land:   the soil depth was 0-2 inches except where the oaks had cracked the ledge enough to get through.  and there are a few pockets with more soil.  no ploughing for potatoes here.

thanks for all your input!  What we ended up doing was leaving the wood chips, covering with 4-6 inches of freshish cow manure, 1-2 inches of sandy soil, seeding oats, field peas, and buckwheat  and covering with a loose layer of half rotted oat straw.   R. Steele- your comment about the amount of nitrogen the wood chips would need in order to rot down got us to beef up the manure layer.  we were going to save some for other projects, but put it on the pasture instead.  We also raked some mini contour swales into the chips to slow the water.  once we put them on it, they will probably mash them down.  
 I've always done something similar when I set up a new garden bed.  4-6 inches of wood chips, fresh manure, then 6-8 inches of soil.  It works great for veggies!  I only have to water if we don't get rain for more than a week.  Here of course. I don't have enough nice soil  to give it.

Next question:  should we chop and drop?  or let them on it when it is pretty grown in? or cut some and bring it to them each day?  I'd really like your input!

Hi, we are trying to establish pasture on a steep, north facing hillside in New England.  The soil is very thin with ledge poking through all over.  We've pulled out catbrier and underbrush, and have put down a thick layer of wood chips.  (3-4")  We also have a high canopy of red oak and beech.  We are thinking of mixing our fresh cow manure with some sandy soil we were given and spreading a thin layer on the wood chips, then seeding.  
        We'd like to hear your thoughts on this.  We really want pasture fast.  (our only other pasture is 4 feet under water because of BEAVERS dam!)
Feeding hay to our homestead cow is really getting old.

Hi Rebecca,
I got them from Pat at New England Grassfed. He's in Rhode Island

Hello all,
Sorry I haven't gotten around to following up on my post. I ended up getting Silver Fox rabbits. I love them, they are so beautiful! The does aren't full grown yet, so I haven't bred them. I'm on the north shore.

I'll keep you posted

Thanks for your reply. On the first point I don't quite get what you mean.

A: I would utilize an above-ground basket/cage full of rocks as a brace point to anchor modified plastic fence posts for electric fencing. I would modify my poly-posts by removing their metal spike(s), and drilling a hole at the bottom to run some rebar through for horizontal bracing under the rocks. As soon as you've cleared the rock you can use the step-in posts just as they come.

I'm picturing structures full of rocks holding the posts holding the fencing. How do you get the fencing tight to the ground around the rocks?

As far as calling and hand feeding, I do that with my chickens and geese, I just never thought it would work with pigs.

I 'd like some suggestions on changing woodland to pasture. our homestead currently has chickens, geese, rabbits, fruits, and vegetables. l'd like to add more...specifically meat and milk.
I have a smallish property -3acres- 2/3 of it slopes down northward toward a beaver pond.The whole thing was densely forested until the beavers moved in a few years ago and took hundreds of trees. the Flooding killed the largest trees that were left. Next, the town put in a beaver resistant drain and the water level dropped six feet, almost to the pre beaver level. I've cleared away most of the dead brush, leaving a few snags as habitat. now I have 2-3 inches of dry rooty peat, some gravely soil and lots of boulders. My goal is to make it into good grazing for a cow-I'm hoping for a mini Irish Jersey. I don't have easy access by machine, and parts of it are impossible to drive fence posts into (ledge.)

I'm looking for suggestions on how to go about getting pasture established. Right now it is mostly bare peat. Some catbrier and wild blackberry shoots are growing, but not much else. I need ideas that don't require a big outlay of cash. I'm still saving for the cow.
I'm also wondering if anyone has fencing suggestions for pigs on land such as this. The last time we had pigs they found a weak spot to get out and wallow around in the swamp. (Which doesn't belong to me) Their return involved hours of chasing annoyed pigs up and down the hill, calling my husband and sons home from work etc... Not something I ever want to do again.
If anyone has done something like this, I'd love to hear what worked and what didn't.

I have lots of wild sarsaparilla growing in my woods. I've heard that you can make a good tea from it, but I can't find good directions. Anyone have a good method?

I like to use a blank journal so I can add any kind of information that suits me at the time. Some years I have written detailed notes on all that I am growing and harvesting, but some years I just make rough diagrams and planting maps. I also add periodic drawings or photos of homestead highlights. I don't keep my homestead journal digitally because it feels like too rigid a format. I have used 3 blank journals in the past 25 or so years, but in that same time I've used many different phones and computers. Twice I've had computers crash without being completely backed up. I've really enjoyed having the homestead journals on paper because I also record the stories there that go along with the planting and harvesting records. My whole family enjoys pulling them out and reliving some of our zanier moments. I don't think it would be the same on my phone. The fact that a paper journal is less accessible requires me to be more intentional about recording things. I don't tend to use it every day or even every week. I don't mean to imply that there is no place for digital record keeping, only that it doesn't suit me as well as paper.

Hi Craig, Thanks for your reply. Very interesting story. Keep us posted on how it goes. I'm hoping to find some closer to us. 3 hours each way with kids who get carsick is more than I hope to do.