2019's haul

[Penguin]

Jimmie's remark in the coffee thread reminded me that I have been really scarce around any internet nooks and crannies this summer. Lord have mercy I have been busy this summer. Now that a lot of the summer work is done and I'm back on the payroll. I thought I would just drop a few lines on news/what we got done on the farm this season.

1) I got the summer wood finished up six weeks or so into the summer. 5 1/2 cord of prime black locust and ash are now stacked in the woodshed and ready to go. The new Huskie chainsaw performed wonderfully. Light and really capable. I really should post a pic of the splitting maul I use. Same one I've used since junior high back in the 80s. It looks like some old viking war relic now. :)

2) The garden.... man what a job that is! We did some serious soil amending last fall. Maybe 700 pounds of compost. And this year we have maybe a bit less than 1/2 cubic yard finishing up in our homemade bin. It is a combo of grass clippings and chicken manure. Should be prime stuff. And how did it work? Pretty well I'd say even though we aren't where we need to be yet. We have another batch or two of tomatoes to go, but we have maybe 30 of 2 1/2 cup packages frozen. We have 31 quarts of our own green beans. And a good friend gave us what turned out to be 10+ quarts of the old Dutch white half runner. And he told me he would save some seeds so I can grow them next year. After last years fiasco with what were supposed to be that bean it is a welcome gift. Country people are awesome. Our second crop of sugar snap peas are coming along nicely as the weather cools. And the new asparagus beds have plants that seem to have grown into shape a bit in their first summer.

3) The orchard is starting to take shape. We planted 2 cherry trees, and 4 apple trees this year to go with the 2 peach trees from last year. All are growing very well. I put in a nice grape arbor and hope to plant 4 vines this winter. The legacy trees we got with the place were mixed. We picked maybe 10 gallon of the old time small pie cherries and could have gotten 3 times that many if we could have reached them. They are small cherries that lose 1/2 their volume when pitted but they are some kind of tasty. The apple trees were a flop. We got a cold late rain that ruined us. Almost no apples although all of our neighbors had them in bunches. It happens. And last but not least we have a couple pear trees that are loaded. If we have one we have a thousand pears on them. The large tree should be ready to get started on late this week. The winter pears on the small tree are still a month or so away.

4) The timbering seems to be done. The poor fellow who was cutting fell ill about 1 day from finishing up. He almost died and scared us all. Hell of a nice guy but this might have been his last job. He decided to leave a good bit of the stuff between 18 and 24 inches. And we ended up keeping a whole lot more than we had hoped. Nothing under 18 inches was taken but in ~some~ areas it was all very big stuff and not much under 18 was even there. Along the fields, and along the top where the house and my deer stand are, though, were almost untouched except for some really big chestnut and white oaks. I am thrilled to have so much woods still looking so good!

Next year I hope to get started building a new fence so I can run stock. I didn't even want to start before they got the timbering done. And we need to paint the house next summer. And we need to get a couple entrances built that don't bring you in through the garage. And on and on. But so far she's looking good and taking shape. But it is a lot of work and I'm happy to be back in the classroom so I can catch my breath for a while.

Will

[Thumper]

Great update Willy! Problem is, reading about all that work plumb wore my butt out! Now it's time for a nap. ;)

(P.S. I hope you won't be such a stranger from here on out.)

[Chicken Dinner]

I thought it was supposed to be summer “vacation”? [emoji23]

Just kidding, as I know how rewarding being a steward of the land can be. IIRC, it’s an old family place and that would be even more so. I think I’d be hunting that orchard early now season.


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[Bwana]

Always a sense of accomplishment when you can check off a list like that.

[Penguin]

One of the hardest parts is that you are putting in the work now but you can't even know if you are going to see any kind of a payoff. Or is you are being shortsighted or missing something that impacts the outcome.

Are any of the trees going to survive? Are you choosing something that will do well in your location? Will it have a taste you enjoy? Will you regret choosing this place for the orchard? Are you going to want to put in a greenhouse in the same place next year? It never ends.

It seems to always be something that requires more thought/effort than you figured on. Last season the grape vines all had their fruit die early and drop. I figured the vines were old or diseased and figured to replace them especially since the old arbor was on the point of collapse. So I built a new grape arbor in the new orchard..... and then I walked out to the old grape arbor a couple days ago and see that they have a pretty decent haul this year and they are very good tasting. So do I try to save a couple of the vines that my aunt planted long ago? I don't know.

But I do have a vision of what I'd like this place to look like. And I definitely have always wanted to have grapes and apples to make cider and mold wine. So I research but then I just go ahead and see what happens. You should have seen me trying to find accurate information on triploid pollination for apple trees. God, if I had a dollar for every paragraph of nonsense/incorrect information I had to wade through! :)

Ah well, I have an enjoyable project up next: my deer stand. I just want a very low seat with a back to put under this huge old oak that I hunted under last year. I still remember hunting for squirrels under the same tree when I was 13. The tree ain't changed much and I wish I could say the same.

Will

[Thumper]

You're a lucky man Willy! My grandparents bought a place in the mountains of North Carolina when I was a kid and I fell 100% in love with the place. It was to be their retirement home once my grandfather retired. He put a ton of work into the place, but they did the snowbird routine while he was still working. Every summer, I'd come home on the last day of school and their old Chrysler Town 'n Country station wagon would be parked in the driveway. I'd grab my suitcase, throw it in the back of the car and the three of us would head for N.C. I spent EVERY summer with them and they'd bring me back home a couple days before school would start back up. When I was entering the 2nd grade, I flat didn't want to leave, so I started school up there. Once I completed the first semester, we came back to Florida and I finished school here. My grandfather was going to retire when he reached 65 yrs. old, but had a massive heart attack just a few months before his 65th birthday. I was 12 years old and at that point and I made up my mind right then that I was going to retire the MINUTE I was eligible for Social Security. No waiting for a higher pay-out, as that day may never arrive.

My grandmother eventually ended up staying in that house permanently as she got to the point the travel back and forth was too much for her. I drove up to see her over the Labor Day weekend in 1977. She told me she knew she wasn't going to be around much longer and she wanted me to have that old place. I knew there was no way I could live there as I was married and had just gotten out of the military 2 years prior. I was building my career and saw no way I could make a living up there, or even afford to keep the place and live elsewhere. She passed away 3-months later. The family sold the place off and split the money between the 7 kids.

I went up to the old homestead a few years back and visited with the current owners. She is a college professor at the local college (Western Carolina Univ) and he works out of the house with his accounting business. They opened the place up to me and of course, had all sorts of questions about how things USED to be. TBH, nothing much has changed. The kitchen was upgraded and the old wood stove was gone. (one of my first chores every day was to get the wood stove fired up, then head up to the hen house to release the chickens and collect the eggs for breakfast) I just sat out on the porch overlooking the river for a while and could feel my eyes getting pretty moist thinking about what "could" have been if I'd been a bit more stable and established when I was 25 years old. :(