It has been forever since my last post, as life and the pandemic have kept us all busy. A few updates on the farm: We sold all our Berkshire Stock in early 2020, due to time constraints and pandemic issues. We were sad to see them go, but they all found new homes or freezers and the reduction in the daily chore time was significant. 

After 25+ years as a police officer, Nick was able to retire in December 2021 and has been keeping busy with new farm projects. We recently got a small greenhouse and I will be trying out my hand at growing tomatoes this fall and early winter.

D has expressed a renewed interest in horses and so it looks like there will be horses in our near future, if her interest continues and she is willing to put in the work to keep up them properly. 

We are also modifying our fencing and pasture setup to accommodate some beef steers to raise a few every year, for grassfed beef. We currently have about 80 laying hens on pasture and have been doing fairly well selling rainbow eggs.

As we enter into August in Tennessee, we are all starting to get sick and tired of the heat, humidity, and breaking a sweat just walking out the front door. Nick and I try to start work as early as possible in the mornings to avoid the worst of it and call it quits around noon, to rest and cool down. We have been working on several ways to stay cool and hydrated while we work. The first is Nick and I both love sugar free Poweraid and he often works with a backpack with a camelback bladder in it. We also have found some relief with the use of cooling towels that you wet and then wrap around your head or neck. Nick is also fond of taking swigs of pickle juice, me not so much, but D has acquired a taste for it.
 
I was recently reading about the old farmer’s hydrating drink Switchel and decided to give it a try. The raw apple cider vinegar (ACV) provides probiotics and electrolytes and the maple syrup also adds minerals and electrolytes. It’s a good way to get your daily dose of ACV if you can’t stand the taste, like me, but still want to get the numerous health benefits. Ginger also soothes the stomach, has tons of antioxidants and is a potent anti-inflammatory.
 
I’ve found numerous recipes online, but here is the one I’ve modified to be the most tolerable to me and almost tasty. I used ground ginger instead of fresh because I can’t find organic fresh ginger near me. Next time you are out working in your garden or doing any labor-intensive activity in the summer heat, give it a try!
 
Switchel: Makes 4 cups
Dissolve ¼ tsp. organic ground ginger in ¼ cup warm water and let sit 5-10 minutes to rehydrate.
1 TB Organic raw ACV with the mother
1 TB Pure Maple Syrup – Raw Honey could also be used in a pinch
1 pinch Himalayan sea salt
3 ¾ cups cold water or club soda
You could also add mint, lemon juice, or lime juice to jazz up the taste a bit.

So far, it’s been an incredibly raining start to Spring, with widespread flooding in our area, bad enough for the Governor to declare a State of Emergency for Tennessee. We are very lucky to sit high up on a hill, safe from most of the water. Our bottom pasture and pond are a different story. They are overfilling and water logged, but should recover for the summer haying.
 
This year, I have decided to focus on more permeant infrastructure and plantings for the farm, with what I hope to be long-term returns on investment. My first project was to convert several of my raised beds from rotting wood to concrete blocks. My second, is to complete our top orchard and fill in my open spots in the raspberry patch.  So far, I planted a dozen new raspberry plants of three varieties in the front berry patch, which is in an unused space along the fence line.
 
The top orchard as I call it, is behind the house and fenced dog yard, along our driveway. We have another orchard positioned down near the bottom pasture, before the wood line, that is strictly apple trees in about a dozen varieties.  This orchard has taken a hit from several trees being accidentally bush hogged by our old hay guy and the deer eating off them in the winters. This orchard will be my third project.
 
 Up in the top orchard, I already have three pear trees, two peaches, two apricots, eight bush cherries, seven hazelnuts and an almond tree.  So far this spring, we have added two nectarine trees, two plum trees, one pear, and six apple trees. Due to the rain, we still have three more of the apple trees to get in the ground. Once this is done, my top orchard will be complete, with just enough room to add three new rows of blueberry bushes to the existing three rows, and then I will be completely out of space!
 
The goal of these additions is, that once they start producing, they will provide an abundance of fruits and nuts throughout the growing season with enough to feed us, can and make preserves, sell at markets, and give the leftovers to the pigs and chickens. I hope everyone is dreaming of warmer, dryer days and making their own plans to plant something this year!

First, let me say that I’m ashamed how long it’s taken me to make a post on here (one year to the day). It has been a crazy year with many personal and professional bumps which have kept me away, but as a New Year’s resolution, I will try to do better.



Now on to my latest project, rehabbing my raised garden beds. This coming March will mark our fifth year on the farm, which is also apparently the life of untreated wood raised garden beds. My first two raised beds were completed the first year we were on the farm. They were in desperate need of fixing, as the wood had started falling apart from rot, leaking my precious soil everywhere. Add in overzealous scratching from chickens, and you have one big mess.
 
 I saw on a post somewhere, probably Facebook, about using concrete blocks for raised beds, which never rot and have the added benefit of coming with two bonus planters on each one. I decided to rip out all the rotted wood that was left and replace it with concrete blocks. This was quite an undertaking because those blocks start to get really heavy after the 30th one you lift and set in place. Luckily, I had some help from my awesome family who were visiting over the holidays. Once again, fair warning, if you come to visit, you will get put to work!
 
Once set in place, the block beds were larger than the foot print of the previous beds, so I ended up gaining 15 square feet of planting space for each bed, in addition to the holes in each block. We pounded in rebar spikes to set the blocks in place and then I filled each of the holes with unfinished compost. The idea is that the compost will break down over the next few months and provide additional nutrients to the beds and then will be ready to plant. I emptied the finished compost from our compost pile into the beds to fill in the extra space I gained.
 
The whole project cost around $225 in supplies for both beds and took around 25 hours of labor. The wood beds cost about half as much, but only last 4-5 years, where these will hopefully last me until I’m too old to garden. A good investment I believe. We plan to replace the other two beds in the next year or two as they start to degrade. I included a few photos from the process in case anyone else wants to give it a try.

Recently, we have been losing a lot of chickens to a predator. We moved all of the hens to the mobile coop since they finally started laying and the predator was picking off the chickens from our permanent coop by the barn. Each time he would visit, he would take a big crap in the driveway, which finally led to his identification! A fox.

One night a week or so ago, after the rain from Harvey came through, I heard a chicken screaming. I realized that with the rain, I had forgotten to close up the coop. I ran out with my hand gun and flashlight to catch Mr. Fox in the act of trying to drag off a very large rooster. I took a long shot and missed.

So last weekend, we packed up the remaining roosters and sent them to the auction house. We were planning on processing them for meat but thought Mr. Fox was going to beat us to it. Surprisingly, they brought $8 each.

This weekend, I was cruising Facebook and saw an ad for Great Pyrenees puppies that were already socialized to chickens and goats. We had been tossing around the idea of getting a Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD) for awhile and decided to just jump on it. Long story, but that is how we came to get our newest farmily member, a 12 week-old pup named Liam. His name is Irish for steadfast protector.

A while back, I wrote a blog about the challenges of trying to farm with an infant. Well silly me, those were the easy days, if I had only known! D is now a very busy toddler and is into everything. We try to include her as much as possible in the day to day farm chores and luckily, she loves to go outside. In fact, she frequently gets her farm shoes and her sun hat and brings them to us to put on her and drags us to the front door.  The down side is that she throws epic tantrums when it’s time to go inside and she is not ready to.
 
She got a little gardening set for Easter with gloves, trowel and a bucket. She like to bring her bucket along during feeding time and put in scratch or pig feed or rocks and then help feed the animals by dumping it through the fence or in the barn or where ever else she deems appropriate. A number of times, we have caught her sampling the animal feed with a guilty look on her face.
 
 She also enjoys riding in the feed cart, which is helpful when we are pressed for time to get chores done. I found a little stadium seat on clearance for her to sit on during her rides in the feed buggy. One of her other favorite things is to chase the guinea hens while they run around screaming like banshees. This just tickles her so much and its pretty funny to watch. I think we have a real farm girl in the making.