Maple Hill Musings

February 2012

2012-02-15T15:53:00.001-08:00

Feeder pigs enjoying the lack of snow.

A male pig we decided to keep as a boar. We've named him Sherman, since he's built like a Sherman Tank.

We have two four row corn planters. Between the two of them I should have enough parts to make one functional planter.

I need the double disk openers. I figured I might as well take the gangs off and keep them in the shop for spare parts.

Some of the seals on our Allis Chalmers B are leaking, replacing the seal is easy getting to it can be tricky some times.

The Oliver has some leaks that I'm working on fixing.

January 2012

2012-01-01T15:41:00.001-08:00

We've modified the old sheep pen into farrowing and sorting pens in the barn. This will give us more space for piglets since three of our sows are due in mid-January.

Its been really warm out the last couple days, the pigs enjoy sun bathing.

Another sunbather.

Recent arrivals, these piglets were born a couple weeks ago.

Jake and my dad working on our grainary.

We purchased a feed truck a couple weeks ago.

One of its uses will be for filling up our creep feeders.

I used 5 gallon pails to do this in the past and it would take about an hour, or longer depending on where the feeders were located.

Now we can transfer a large amount of feed in a few minutes.

We'll also use it to put grain in the storage bin above our grainry.

We're renting heated workshop space from a neighbor to work on our combines and other machinery.

In this combine the weld on an auger broke so I had to replace it.

October 2011

2011-11-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

The second annual harvest trail dinner held at Freehands Farm in Ashland was a success. The dinner featured local foods prepared by different restaurants.

There was also a silent auction auction with items from farms participating in the harvest trail.

Feremented food from Spirit Creek Farm.

Mead from White Winter Winery.

Goat cheese from Sassy Nanny.

Some of the husking wheels on our corn picker lost fingers.

Removing the broken parts.

Back together and ready to go!

Its bad when bearing come out of a gear box looking like this. We had to replace one of the gear boxes on our corn picker since the bearings and gears where shot.

Our resident forester Adam cutting down dying white pine near our grainery. We'll save the wood and have it milled into lumber.

September 2011

2011-10-13T13:07:00.001-07:00

September Farmers market, sales were still down this year due to the economy.

The tomatoes on the right are a heirloom variety called 'Orange Russian.'

Our pork chorizo is being incorporated into delicious breakfast burritos prepared and sold by Deep Roots Farm.

August 15-21

2011-08-27T06:03:00.001-07:00

I'm heating up the drum speed adjustment crank on our model 72 combine. The drum is the first step in the threshing process (removing the grain from the plant). The drum speed can be adjusted depending on the crop being harvested.

Success! The crank turns.

I also noticed that the rattles, the part the bring the grain up into the combine had jumped off their cog and bent the mounting bracket.

That meant I had to take out the part and replace it.

Finally got the old part out.

Luckily we have a parts combine. The damaged part is in back.

Getting things put back together.

Combining spring wheat.

Ben and Jake putting the roof on the grainery.

August 8-14

2011-08-27T05:55:00.001-07:00

Grainery construction.

The plan is to store grain upstairs and grind flour below.

Using a moisture meter to test the moisture content of rye.

Our Allis Chlamers Model 66 combine we purchased recently.

An unusual feature on this combine is an extra axle so four tires can be mounted.

The manual says to use four tires if the ground is to soft. I'm not sure for what crops though, if the ground is to soft to support the combine then its probably to wet to harvest.

Winter rye ready to harvest.

The First Week of August

2011-08-04T17:08:00.001-07:00

Two week old piglets on pasture.

We lost a disk blade on our Oliver disk.

Pigs taking their afternoon nap.

Jake and Adam building a portable pig shelter.

Footings for the grainery building.

Pouring the slab for our grainery.

Smoothing out the slab.

Carrots before weeding (right) after (left).

Disking

July 18-24

2011-07-28T15:07:00.001-07:00

Piglets that are approximately 1 month old out on pasture. They're starting to eat solid food now.

The gardens are about a week behind this year, normally we'd just start picking summer squash about now.

We should have green beans in about a week.

Putting a new deck on a set of new holland running gear, the original deck wasn't made out of treated lumber and rotted away. We'll use this wagon for hauling round bales.

July 11-17

2011-07-21T16:07:00.001-07:00

The cold, wet spring made weed control in the field corn difficult this year.

Hilling potatoes

A loader makes moving manure easy.

The spring wheat is doing well this year, its been a marginal corn year so far but a good year for wheat.

July 4-11

2011-07-06T14:03:00.001-07:00

We have tomatoes, peppers, and peas planted in the greenhouse.

While cutting hay today I lost a tooth on the haybine.

It looks like the bolts snapped off, I couldn't find the tooth anywhere so I'll have to get another one.

The potatoes are up and growing.

June 6-12

2011-06-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Planting barley

We've had a cool wet spring in Northern Wisconsin. The small grain crops (rye and wheat) enjoy this weather.

Spring wheat.

The First Week of June

2011-06-10T15:47:00.001-07:00

Saturday June 4th was the first farmers market.

We are selling our flour at the Ashland farmers market.

The End of May

2011-05-28T07:08:00.001-07:00

Seeding one of our pig pastures with oats and peas.

Cultipacking

There's been three litters of piglets this month.

We've been having trouble finding feeder pigs this year so we're fortunate that we have a boar and sows to produce our own feeder pigs.

May 2-9

2011-05-08T13:01:00.001-07:00

Disking with the Oliver, we bought a 14ft disk last fall. Its heavier and does a better job chopping up the soil than our small disk.

Plants in the greenhouse are coming along. Last year the lettuce was ready the last week of April. Its been a cooler spring this year though.

Grain drill #3 is finally functional. It had been sitting outside for 25 years and needed a lot of work.

Some barley seed was left in the seed boxes and caused the metal to rust. So I gave it a coat of paint.

On the older John Deere Drills I've seen the support straps between the seed boxes and the frame break. I was able to reinforce and weld them back together.

On Friday one of our sows farrowed, we ended up with eight live piglets. There were four still births which is a bit high.

The sheep got their annual haircut a couple days ago.

Plus a manicure (hoof trimming).

Napoleon in his summer coat.

March 2011

2011-03-18T10:51:00.001-07:00

The soil in the greenhouse is thawed and its warm enough to plant lettuce.

Some of the pigs like to burrow into the hay.

Two of our sheep have had lambs. The lamb total is 3 so far.

January 2011

2011-01-27T09:22:00.001-08:00

One of the baby pigs (we call her runt) is a little on the small side so we've been bottle feeding her. Runt is getting to be well trained, she come up to the gate in the pen when we're out there.

Runt is the smallest but everyone is putting on weight, rooting, playing around and generally enjoying themselves.

Piglets

2010-12-24T10:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (Dec. 23) one of our sows gave birth to piglets.

They are purebred Herefords

Today they were up and about. Baby pigs hit the ground running.

Storing Field Corn

2010-12-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

We use conveyors to move the corn into the corn crib.

Corn Picker

2010-12-12T09:15:00.000-08:00

The corn picker dropping the corn into the gravity box. Before I modified it the corn would drop towards the front, which meant I'd have to move it around with a shovel to fill the box.

Corn Picking Video

2010-12-12T08:47:00.000-08:00

Picking corn in early November

December

2010-12-05T11:24:00.001-08:00

Pigs enjoying the snow.

Our machine shed has most of the roof in place so we can get some of our equipment out of the weather.

Field Corn Harvest

2010-12-05T11:16:00.001-08:00

The field corn was ready to harvest in early November.

We use a corn picker which picks and husks the corn.

I added a piece of roofing tin so the corn would drop in the center of the gravity box.

Unloading the corn onto a conveyor.

I'm moving the corn around to get as much as possible into another gravity box. We barely had room for all the corn.

October 2010

2010-10-25T15:22:00.001-07:00

One of our tractors developed a leak in a coolant line.

To remove the line I had to take the sheet metal of the tractor.

To fix it I brazed over the area that was leaking.

The coolant line reinstalled and ready for a test drive. No leaks yet!

We are pouring a slab for our all season pig drinker.

The drinker won't freeze. This means we won't have to haul water when its -20 degrees out.

The last farmers market was the second week of October. Market starts again the first week of June.

One way to make a moldboard plow last longer is to weld old shares or moldboards to the parts that are wearing out. I patched our plow up to get it through the season, some places were starting to wear paper thin.

The end of September

2010-10-01T17:23:00.001-07:00

Some of the winter squash harvest for this year.

Our oyster mushrooms have started fruiting.

September 20-26

2010-09-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

Our walk in freezer is functional.

Some pork orders ready for pick up.

The field corn should be ready in a few weeks.

September 6-12th

2010-09-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

Unloading some wheat into the dump box.

Some of the potatoes ready to dig. The rest should be ready in a couple weeks.

Tilling up one of our fields. We planted sudan grass in part of it, there was to much residue for the harrow to handle. So I had to use the moldboard plow.

Looking backward.

Sometimes you dig up rocks. This probably weighed about 70 or 80 pounds and got jammed between the plow and the opener disc.

The First Week of September

2010-09-02T18:57:00.001-07:00

We started combining our wheat yesterday, it looks like we'll have a good harvest this year.

Once in a while I find some unusual tomatoes, this one is probably due to a double blossom on the plant.

The Last Week of August

2010-08-28T15:15:00.001-07:00

Our Hereford hogs on pasture. They are more active in the morning and evening, during the day they just lay around.

We have automatic waterers for our pigs. Its a lot easier than hauling buckets of water.

Sorghum sudan (Sorghum bicolor) is a fast growing grass that we use as a cover crop. In some places the sudan grass is over six feet tall.

View from the tractor seat, disking in the sudan grass.

Looking backward, the disk does a nice job of knocking the grass down and chopping it up.

Ben holding some of our wine cap mushrooms which have just started fruiting.

Its not visible in this picture, but our field corn is just starting to dent (dry out).

The Second Week of August

2010-08-11T09:31:00.001-07:00

Red and green sweet peppers.

The tomatoes have been ripening, the variety towards the front is call 'Orange Russian'.

August

2010-08-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

One of our larger pigs enjoying fresh pasture.

Last Week of July

2010-08-02T07:55:00.001-07:00

We've been getting quite a bit of rain lately. This has made it a difficult year to make hay.

The wheat should be ready to harvest in a few weeks.

The oats and peas are just about ready also.

The potatoes are doing well this year.

Our corn is over seven feet tall in some places, warm weather and rain have made for an ideal growing season.

We've been picking tomatoes in the the greenhouse for a couple weeks now.

July 19-25

2010-08-02T07:51:00.001-07:00

Our largest pigs are in the 200 + pound range. Here they are enjoying fresh pasture.

The freezer building is coming along.

The First Week of July

2010-07-02T18:10:00.001-07:00

We recently purchased a walk in freezer, before assembling it we need to build a structure for it. I'm wiring rebar together before we pour a concrete slab.

Smoothing out the slab.

Mulching cabbage, its finally dry enough to work in the outside gardens.

Grazing Pigs Video

2010-06-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

We upgraded to faster internet service so now I can post movie clips. This film was taken a week or two ago after we moved our smallest pigs to pasture.

June 14-20th

2010-06-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

The wheat is starting to head out.

I cultivated the field corn for the second time on Friday, rain and warm temperatures have make good corn growing weather.

Saturday was the third farmers market, sales were good for this early in the season.

Some of our smaller pigs enjoying their new pasture.

June 7-13

2010-06-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

We've gotten quite a bit of rain over the last week. Rainy days are good for getting caught up in the greenhouse.

Tommy and my dad getting the the hydroponics system set up.

There's a robins nest in the greenhouse, the babies have just hatched.

The First Week of June

2010-06-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday June 5th was the first farmers market of the season.

We sold quite a bit of pork.

Overall market sales were better than expected.

The oyster mushrooms are ready to be moved outside. It looks like the inoculation worked and we should get a good crop of mushrooms.

Adam driving the Allis Chalmers B.

We're doing a little bit of logging, we need some lumber for buildings.

The green beans have germinated, rain and warm weather have really helped.

The Last Week of May

2010-05-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Oats and field peas, the idea is to combine them both at the same time so they'll already be mixed for feed.

The field corn has germinated, warm days and plenty of soil moisture make good corn growing weather.

The wheat is also growing really well. We got an inch of rain earlier this week and that helped things along.

Rain and warm weather have given our pastures a boost.

Some of our larger pigs enjoying pasture.

May 17-23

2010-05-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to check the bees, smoke helps to calm them down.

Planting field corn, this corn will be be pig food.

We had a visitor earlier this week, a yearling black bear wandered through. He didn't do an damage and went back into the woods.

May 10-16

2010-05-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

Our batch of 30 meat birds arrived this week. They'll be cute for a few more days.

On Friday I planted sweet potato slips in the green house. Last year they did pretty well despite the fact we had crummy transplants.

I've been setting the onions outside during the day, hopefully they'll be ready to transplant this week.

I'm working on building another pig feeder. I can build them for a lot cheaper than what they cost to buy.

The last week of April

2010-04-26T16:41:00.001-07:00

The lettuce and arugula are ready in the greenhouse. We've started selling some and have been making lots of salads.

We finally got rain, and some hail last night. The hail wasn't big enough to do any damage though.

After quite a bit of work, the $75 grain drill is functional again!

I'm planting spring wheat for fall harvest.

The next project is to get our 16 ft drill working.

April 19-15

2010-04-26T16:32:00.001-07:00

The grain drill needed a hitch to pull a cultipacker behind it.

Instead of welding the hitch directly to the frame I welded the hitch to separate pieces of angle iron and bolted it to the drill. The idea is that if something happens the part I built will bend (or the bolts will shear) so the frame of the drill isn't damaged.

After adding the covering chains, its starting to look like a functional grain drill again.

April 12-19 th

2010-04-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

Quackgrass (Elytrigia repens) was introduced as a forage crop. Unfortunately it is invasive and very hard to get rid of since it propagates by underground stems called rhizomes (pictured above), rhizomes can be several feet long! The rhizomes are capable of sprouting a new plant at each node. If the rhizome is cut into pieces (such as by disking) then each piece develops more plants.

One way to manage quackgrass is to harrow at the three leaf stage. If the soil moisture is right the harrow will pull out the rhizomes and they will dry out and die.

A view from the tractor seat, I'm disking up a field I just plowed.

Disking breaks up soil clods to help prepare the seedbed for planting.

Lynn and my dad getting suited up to transfer honeybees to their hives.

The bees are given a dose of smoke to calm them down.

Maple Hill Musings is One Year Old!

2010-04-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

This was meant to be last weeks post. For some reason it didn't get published.
On Saturday the sheep got their annual haircut. And Maple Hill Musings turns 1 year old in May!

Bagging the fleece.

We needed to transfer feed from one of the big bins to the smaller one.

It worked best to put it in the gravity box, then auger it into the small bin.

The Second Week of April

2010-04-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

We're experimenting with growing wine cap mushrooms this year. Ideally they should be grown on wood chips, straw will also work if you don't have a source of wood chips. The straw has to be soaked for a few days then the mushroom spawn is mixed with the straw.

To keep the moisture in we used feed sacks to cover the straw.

Grain drill #2 we were looking for a parts drill, for $75 a friend sold us this one. Instead of parting it out we're going to fix it up and keep it. Its seven feet wide, and has a mechanical lift so it will work with our Allis Chalmers B. This drill will be great for seeding smaller areas.

A couple of gears were missing teeth. This is caused by engaging the drive shafts without checking first to see if the wheels will turn. If the drill is rusty or has been sitting outside for awhile the drive shaft can seize.

The culprits. The smaller gear took about 10 minutes to remove, the bigger one took a few hours. I had to dismantle part of the drill to get at the gear.

The site of this years vegetable gardens. Spring came early and its been dry, rain would be nice but this way we can get a jump on tillage.

April

2010-04-03T07:52:00.001-07:00

The lettuce and other greens are starting to grow in the greenhouse.

Some of our transplants. The tomatoes and peppers have to be brought inside at night since its still a little chilly.

Outdoor fiber art, my mom is working on some weaving.

The Last Week Of March

2010-03-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

The wattle hogs are big enough to be outside. So we did some pig herding yesterday.

Traffic jam!

Its mushroom season. We're trying to grow oyster mushrooms this year. Poplar (popple) trees are a good growth substrate.

To inoculate the log sawdust with mushroom culture is spread on the log.

Then another section is put on top.

Followed by a cap.

Then the bags are enclosed in plastic bags. They need a slight opening to allow for air flow and the bags should be kept at 50-80 degrees F for about four months.

We tap a few maple trees for sap each year.

Maple syrup involves a lot of evaporating. Usually takes about 40 gallons of syrup to make 1 gallon of syrup. This year hasn't been a great year for syrup.

The First Week of March

2010-03-02T13:05:00.001-08:00

March is our best month for solar power. The solar panels are fixed at a permanent angle, the angle of some panels can be changed to track the sun. Since ours are roof mounted and steel roofs are slippy especially in winter we decided to go with the fixed option.

Four of our larger pigs sunbathing. They like to lay in the sun so I put some hay down for them.

Feed

2010-03-02T06:44:00.001-08:00

We buy most of our pig feed in bulk. There is a discount based on the number of tons you buy.

We used to buy all of our feed in bags, it was time consuming to keep opening feed bags and we had piles of empty feed bags.

Prior to feed delivery I make sure the bins are clean. Sometimes feed gets stuck to the sides of the bin, plus there are salts and minerals that cause rust.

Two of our bins have an auger at the bottom. There is a an access panel that lets me vacuum or chip out feed that is caked to the sides of the bin.

Red Wattle Pigs

2010-02-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

We just purchased eight red wattle pigs.

The wattles are probably some sort of vestigial structure. I'm not sure what the purpose is.

These pigs around all around 40 pounds.

Pigs on the move

2010-02-12T12:22:00.000-08:00

The current batch of pigs is getting to big to be in the barn.

We have chute set up for herding them outside.

I shoveled out some paths for them. The ground under the snow isn't frozen so the pigs were having a good time rooting around.

The cold isn't a problem as long as they have a three sided south facing shelter that is dry and keeps the wind out.

January 2010

2010-01-26T10:59:00.001-08:00

Winter is back after a January thaw.

We got a few inches of powder last night.

Field Corn Harvest

2009-11-12T06:06:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday we got the corn picker going and picked our field corn.

This was our first year using the corn picker.

A corn picker picks the corn, husks it and drops it in a gravity box. The corn isn't shelled (removed from the ear).

The corn matured late this year because of the cool summer. We lost some due to deer and bird damage.

Slowing Down

2009-10-24T20:02:00.001-07:00

There's only a couple more crops to harvest and the season will be over. I'll continue posting when I have pictures but posts probably won't be on a weekly basis until spring. Thanks for reading and be sure to check back.

October 12th to 18th

2009-10-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

We received funding from the county to help with the cost of installing a frost proof hydrant and an all season pig drinker that won't freeze.

The water and electrical lines were buried approximately 6-7 feet deep.

Thursday was bulk pork order day. Cool weather and an insulated trailer make it a lot less stressful.

We have 50 and 100 pound options. Each customer receives an assortment of cuts.

We just purchased an Oliver 1855. Before then our largest tractor (the Kubota) was a utility tractor that wasn't designed for heavy field work like tillage. The Kubota is great for baling hay and loader work but didn't have enough horsepower for some of the jobs.

We had planned on getting a tractor next year but this deal came up. A few of the selling points were a rebuilt engine with 1,000 hours on it, operating hours is similar to the number of miles on a car. It has new hoses, a engine block heater (essential for cold weather starts), new belts, new hydraulic hoses, and it was available locally. There are good used tractors around but they aren't always close by. Even a 4-5 hour drive can add a few hundred dollars to the cost to haul it back.

October 5th to 11th

2009-10-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

Our grain drill needed new seed tubes and funnels. The seed tubes are reasonably priced but the funnels (pictured at right) are $30 each! That would amount to around $700 total. So using some tin and rivets I made replacements for a couple cents each.

The frost hasn't affected the greenhouse and the peppers are ripening.

We've had a few eggplants this year.

Frost!

2009-10-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

The first frost of the season put an end the summer squash.

We had an unusually warm fall and frost came late this year.

The End of September

2009-09-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

We dug the rest of our potatoes today. A potato digger is an interesting machine. It digs the spuds and separates the soil.

Our potato digger is really old, it was originally set up to be pulled by a team of horses! We modified it to use on our tractor. We're missing a set of chains for the digger so it just drops the potatoes of the ground. We have some chains, but they are to big and will have to be modified to fit.

Yields were alright considering the lack of moisture this year. Contrary to popular belief potatoes did not originate in Ireland. Potatoes are native to the Andes region of South America. There is a secondary center of origin in Central America.

There's usually a few monster tomatoes in the greenhouse each year.

A little while back we purchased a grain drill (planter). Its a John Deere Van Brunt Model B Drill that was built in the 1950's or early 60's. The nice thing about John Deere equipment is that you can find parts manuals on their website.

Three of the planting boots are broken. Basically the function of the planting boot is to push the soil aside while the seed is dropped through the center of the boot. For some reason two of the boots had been welded and riveted to the support bar. With an acetylene torch I chopped off the bigger chunks of steel.

To avoid destroying the support bar I used and angle grinder to finish removing the welds. Then with a chisel the piece came off! To be continued...

September 14-20th

2009-09-18T15:39:00.001-07:00

We're working on adding lime to our fields to bring the pH up. We rented a lime spreader and borrowed a neighbors tractor since we needed dual hydraulics to run the spreader.

A word of advice. Always test the spreader before you load it up to make certain that all the moving parts function. I learned this the hard way, I loaded the spreader up with lime and tried to start spreading with no luck.

In the bottom of the spreader is a sort of conveyor that moves the lime back and drops it onto the spinners. The conveyor had seized up, to make a long story short we had to shovel all the lime out of the spreader by hand to get it working again.

On Monday and Tuesday I helped combine some barley planted at the former experiment station near Ashland Wisconsin.

There is interest forming a local grain cooperative that would mix and sell feed for livestock.

The Second Week of September

2009-09-12T16:58:00.001-07:00

We've been doing about half as much business at farmers markets this year.

Last weekended we didn't sell any beets, today we sold out.

The tomatoes in the greenhouse are starting to ripen.

On Monday we let the big pigs into more pasture. You can see two of them almost hidden by the corn. The pigs will eat the entire corn plant starting with the ears. They figured out how to pick and husk the ears of corn!

Early September

2009-09-04T16:05:00.001-07:00

Today we cleaned up some of the rye and put it in a storage bin.

The rye first comes out of the gravity box (far left) then is augered up into our fanning mill (center) which cleans the seed. Cleaning removes chaff, weed seeds, grasshoppers etc.

Here's a close up of the rye coming out of the gravity box. The auger is inside the metal pipe.

Rye after one pass through our seed cleaner. This rye will be pig food so running it through the mill once is good enough.

After the seed is cleaned another auger transfers it into the black plastic tub. This auger is a little bit big for the job. We have another smaller shorter one I'll fix and modify this winter.

A third PTO ( power take off) powered auger transfers the rye to the storage bin.

View of the whole operation from atop the storage bin.

The End of August

2009-08-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

After combining we run the seed through our seed cleaner mainly to remove weed seeds. Weed seeds aren't as dry as the grain and can contribute to moisture build up during storage. It was raining out so we had it set up in the barn. If the weather is nice we set up outside and auger the grain directly into the storage bin.

The seed cleaner is basically a bunch of screens and a fan that separates out the chaff.

We started combining rye yesterday, we are slowly getting into growing more grain. Grain production takes a lot of machinery compared to vegetables. To keep overhead costs down most of the machinery we have is used. Our combine is a model 72 Allis Chlamers pull behind, its older than I am but does a really nice job.

Unloading some rye into a gravity box. The harvest isn't bad considering the poor growing season, and the fact we are still learning how to grow small grains.

A no-till grain drill was purchased by the land conservation office and in cooperation with UW-Extension it is being rented out to land owners in Ashland, Iron, and Bayfield counties. We rented the drill to do some hay field improvement. Here I'm seeding some red clover (Trifolium pratense) and bromegrass (Bromus inermus).

The field after a pass with the drill.

Underselling vs. Staying in Business

2009-08-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Today (Saturday) was a farmers market day. Markets have gotten more difficult as of last week a new vendor showed up and started underselling everyone else. Prices are a difficult thing to determine but they are typically based on the cost of production which includes labor, seeds/transplants, infrastructure and other factors. If a farmer is making a living from his or her farm they have to keep track of production costs. If they are selling below cost of production they can sell lots of produce but still lose money.

Some crops like carrots are very labor intensive (handweeding and thinning), resulting in a higher price. Infrastructure such as tractors, implements, deer fencing, coolers, etc. is costly (even if bought used) and takes years to accumulate. Land is perhaps one of the most difficult to find and costly investments of all.

As a vendor I don't see the market as a competition for who has the lowest prices. That mentality is counterproductive and results in a race to the bottom. Instead I think of the farmers market as a whole. Its important to consider the repercussions that arise from selling things to cheaply.

High prices don't have an immediate impact but if vendors are charging to much for their produce it can drive people away from the market.

Its been a good year for onions. They are sizing up nicely.

Carrots get a hair cut to make them more manageable.

We've started bagging up beans and peas to make them more manageable at the farmers market.

We had 1.5 inches of rain this week. The most rain we've had all summer!

Some of our meatbirds are getting to be about the right size to butcher. The roosters are trying crow, and that means its definitely time for them to go!

The Second Week of August

2009-08-12T18:53:00.001-07:00

The weather has been warmer lately (like a normal summer) and the summer squash and green beans have been growing like crazy.

It was also time to put new plastic on the greenhouse. The last plastic had been on for ten years, which is a long time for greenhouse plastic. The old plastic will be used to cover machinery, wood piles, hay etc.

Getting the new plastic situated.

Top view making sure its on straight.

August 3-9

2009-08-03T16:19:00.001-07:00

We've had some warmer temperatures lately. Summer squash really likes warm temperatures. Today I picked about 40 pounds.

Feel free to leave comments on ways you like to prepare summer squash! (Scroll down to the bottom of the post and click on comments).

Saturday means its time for the Ashland farmers market.

We brought about 8 pounds of green beans and sold out in the first 20 minutes. Business was slow for the rest of the day, partly due to the cloudy and cool weather. The downturn in the economy has probably contributed to the slower farmers markets this year. There were quite a few regular and new customers we'd like to thank for coming!

On Thursday we attended the Cornucopia farmers market.

It was the first time this season we sold at this market. The market has been going for about three years now and is located down by lake Superior.

Onions are about ready and I picked a few for the farmers market on Saturday.

Lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) is a common annual weed.

Fortunately pigs love lambsquarters.

We took four pigs to the slaughter plant today. We have a small stock trailer if we are only hauling a few animals, or are picking up feeder pigs.

These pigs are probably in the 250 to 275 lb range. They'll all be made into bratwurst since that has been selling really well at the farmers market.

The slaughter house is located in Radisson Wisconsin. Its about an hour and a half drive, but this is the closest place that does a good job butchering. Getting booked in the fall is tricky due to the high demand, but we managed to get slaughter dates for the rest of our pigs.

The Last Week of July

2009-07-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

Hops growing up their trellis. Hops are an ingredient in beer, they add a bitter flavor.

Some wine grapes sizing up nicely.

The crops in the greenhouse have been doing pretty well. With the cool weather the extra heat in the greenhouse makes a difference.

Warmer temperatures are essential for growing melons.

Another variety of melon.

Our second picking of green beans. The variety is Haricot vert, which is French for "green bean".

The summer squash has been doing pretty well.

Sugar snap peas are pictured in the foreground, in the back I'm harvesting summer squash.

We baled some hay yesterday (Sunday) afternoon.

This crop got rained on a couple times, but it'll work for sheep food.

As the wagon gets full stacking becomes a little more tricky.

We had some trouble with the binder twine (what holds the bales together) knotting up. It might have been due to humidity from storing the twine. Next year when we are done with haying we'll store it in a bucket or plastic bag.

A full load of hay!

First Vegetables!

2009-07-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

We went to the Ashland farmers Saturday.

We still don't have many vegetables, but the summer squash sold well.

Honey also seems to sell pretty well.

The first summer squash of the season. We also picked some sugar snap peas and green beans.

The basil is looking nice this year.

We had to change the orientation of a gravity box we just got. Here we're getting set up. For these types of things it usually takes longer to get set up than to do the task at hand.

Using a hay hook to grab a bale and stack it on the hay wagon.

We use a hay elevator to move the bales up into the hay loft.

We mulched the summer squash to suppress weeds, conserve moisture, and to keep the sqaush cleaner.

July 13th to the 19th

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Last night we received 1.6 inches of rain.

The rain should give everything a much needed boost. We're still really behind for precipitation this season, but any amount rain is welcome.

Some of our rye from last year. This year we have more planted and its looking pretty good (pictures on the way).

We've been adding rye to the pigs food. We soak it overnight, drain it, then add dried molasses. Eventually we would like to grow 100% of our livestock feed.

Putting down some mulch around the onions. We mulch to conserve moisture and suppress weeds. Mulch can also reduce soil erosion.

Making hay

2009-07-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning (July 11th) was our second farmers market. We still don't have any vegetables since its been so cold.

We have lots of pork though and it sold quite well.

In the afternoon I cut a bit of hay, here I'm getting started.

Finished cutting. Its a little hard to see the hay because of the camera angle. This field was on the thin side also. The hay crop has been poor this year, a lot of farmers are getting only a quarter or half of what they'd normally get.

We started incubating eggs to hatch some more egg birds. And tonight we had the first arrivals, the baby chicks in the above picture are a few hours old.

The first cutting of hay for the season. Its been really dry so the hay is pretty thin looking. We've been having a drought for the last five years, and the stress is really starting to show.

After hay is cut and has dried its then raked into windrows so it can be baled.

Finished raking. Basically a rake just scoops the hay into windrows.

Baling the hay, a baler scoops the hay up and compresses it into bales, we use square bales.

The bales are pushed out the back of the baler so you can grab and stack them.

Sometimes bales break, this tends to be a problem when the hay is really thin. We got about 80 bales off this field, last year it was 130.

Sometimes the baler jams and doesn't work. The previous owner didn't take care of this baler and the plunger (the part that compresses the hay) will get stuck. Using chains and a come along we got it moving again. We had to do this twice, and it made for a really long day night. It should have only taken an hour to bale up this field, instead it took about two and a half.

First Farmers Market

2009-07-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

Today (July 4th) was the first farmers market we attended. The market has been going for a few weeks but we didn't have much to sell. Yesterday we got our first batch of pigs back from being butchered so we were able to sell pork. Business was a little slow starting off.

Things did pick up a little later but over all it was a slow day.

Customers can now use food stamps at the market. The market manager has a card reader where they can swipe their card in exchange for the wooden tokens. The tokens can be used to purchase items from vendors and we cash in the tokens at the end of the day with the manager.

One of our pigs is pregant and will probably farrow (give birth to piglets) in the near future. Gestation for pigs is approximately 3 months 3 weeks 3 days. Another bit of trivia: a group of pigs is called a drift!

The End of June

2009-06-25T10:52:00.001-07:00

Herding pigs their new home.

Pig herding is easiest with pig pushers, lots of help, and patience.

Success! I'm in charge of crowd control while the fence is being connected.

Hilled potatoes, hilling is a great form of weed control.

Meat birds (cornish rock crosses) see the second week of May for an earlier picture.

Pigs on pasture. They're most active in the mornings and evenings. During the rest of the day they sleep or lay around.

There are carrots, not just quack grass in the above picture.

After some hand weeding... Carrot plants!
Carrots don't compete with weeds very well and need extra attention as a result. This year we had spotty germination in some places.

June 15 to 21st

2009-06-16T12:12:00.001-07:00

We were glad to host a tour on Sunday for a group of beginning farmers interested in raising pigs.

It was a pretty in depth description of raising hogs. We've learned a lot of over the years and hopefully were able to pass on some of that knowledge. This way the learning curve won't be so steep for others.

Pig pushers make it easier to herd pigs. The ones pictured above are made from half sheets of plywood.

Pigs can get a gate to come off its hinges by lifting up on the bottom. A flat washer and hose clamp fixes this problem.

Old non-working chest freezers are easy to come by and make great rodent proof feed storage. Usually people will give broken chest freezers away.

The Second Week of June

2009-06-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Summer squash transplants, summer squash doesn't ship well, most of the stuff in the grocery store looks like it fell off the truck. We usually grow and sell quite a bit of summer squash.

Yellow nutsedge is a tough weed to get rid of. Its main method of propagation is through small tubers called nutlets. If that wasn't bad enough it can also spread by rhizomes.

Lettuce is our only vegetable crop at the moment. We've had a cool spring so the season has lasted a little longer.

Rinsing to remove field heat and dirt a good stainless steel sink makes life a lot easier. We sell our lettuce to a couple local restaurants, the food co-op, and a small grocery store.

The future home for the meat birds. They'll have the opportunity to run around outside (if they feel inclined to do so). Meat birds (Cornish rock crosses) are bred to eat and put on weight. They're lethargic compared to egg birds.

One of our hens has been broody lately so I closed off the upper nesting boxes and put one on the floor instead. This way if she hatches some eggs the baby chicks won't fall out.

Here's the latest addition to our poultry collected. We borrowed this rooster from a neighbor so we can hatch more chickens.

Good and Bad Pigs

2009-06-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

Genetics is a major part of raising pigs. If you have poor genetics, or what we call Heinz 57 pigs (genetically they contain a little bit of everything), then they won't fill out real well. The pig above is to narrow and kind of scrawny for its age.

On the other hand really fat pigs aren't desirable. This one has way to much fat, despite being approximately the same age. Both have been on the same diet.

Here's younger but really nice looking Hereford hog. He's wide and well muscled in the shoulders and hindquarters.

Top view, investigating my boot. The Herefords are inquisitive and friendly.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse.

And some peppers.

The last week of May

2009-05-30T14:27:00.001-07:00

In the greenhouse, lettuce arugula and other greens have been selling well.

The newest residents at the farm, purebred hampshire pigs taking an afternoon nap.

May 18 to 24

2009-05-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

Onions and beans are the first outside vegetable crop of the season

Meanwhile in the greenhouse

The second week of May

2009-05-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

The latest additions to our livestock collection

Drilling maple logs for shittake mushrooms

Inoculating the logs

Now we have to wait a year to see if it worked!

Fixing one of the pig troughs. The holes in the bottom are where the welds tore away, they broke them twice. The trough is made from an old culvert cut in half its tricky to weld...

So I decided some reinforcement was needed. The chief supervisor is inspecting my handiwork

Monday was a big day for the sheep... Before shearing (above)

After, enjoying their summer coats. Sorry no pictures of the shearing process, I was busy helping hold uncooperative sheep.

The fleece pile for the most part they were pretty clean.

First week of May

2009-05-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

Pigs exploring their new home.

View looking back from the tractor seat breaking sod.

2009-05-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

Site of this years out side gardens

Spring (aka mud season) on the farm

2009-04-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

Timmy the steer. He's shy and gets chased around by a 100 pound sheep.

Some of our Hereford hogs