The Newfarm Forums

[CP Knerr]

Julie,

Thanks for the tip on Steve Groff... I had read a bunch of stuff about Cedar Meadow farm a while back, and I remember he'd put in radishes I think in his wheel tracks to un-compact the soil.

Steve,

No beer spilled while chasing pigs. Come to think of it, I don't know how not, as I was running through a brushy area to head them off, jumping over small bushes and such. I believe I may have developed some sort of gyroscopic leveling control of sorts in my beer holding hand.

I have to run soil tests on all my land. I have about 10 different places I'd like to test: orchards, new goat/cow pasture (rank with goldenrod, which goats love, but which also indicates lack of humus if I remember correctly), all the garden fields, new fields, etc. I am beginning to realize that compaction is really becoming an issue. The soil is a sandy loam, I can get the exact specs from the NCSS Web Soil Survey when it works again: (http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/).

The garden area of the farm was ripped about 12-14" deep 3 years ago, deep moldboard plowed and cultimulched 2 years ago, then I've been spring moldboard plowing fairly shallow (5-6"), disking, and very shallow rototilling (2"-3" deep). This last 3 (2 bottom 14" plow, disk, and rototiller) are the only equipment I have unfortunately. The ripper is this 10' contraption with I think 8 shanks or so, with ripping points then 6"-8" or so wide wings maybe 6" up the shank. I've applied a bit of straw mulch and very rough compost over the last 2 years. I need to get better at my cover cropping and "finishing" where veggies were, that is, get a cover crop on them when I do my last harvest, instead of letting them go to weeds then mowing off the weeds constantly.

I'd like to move into larger equipment, unfortunately, I have money issues (hey, just got my $4500 school tax bill on Saturday! Thanks Town!) affording the equipment at this moment. I can custom hire it, or, use the radishes or other crops like that. Soil tests are also a must at this point. In the future, I'd love to do it with cover crops, and I think it is very important as people who have small-ish gardens won't be able to afford $10,000 tillage machines to work a couple of acres. However, there is also the need to accomplish things I want to do next year, and not wait for the biological controls and humus to form. Not ideal, but reality at this point.

I have been reading a lot of Wendel Berry lately, specifically "[Mod Edit], Economy, Freedom, and Community" (I think... something like that). He brings up the issues of absentee farms, where the land is rented out (like mine had been for the last 30 years). There is no incentive for long term soil improvement, just to extract as much money as possible the season you have it rented. As a result, the land quality suffers, along with biological diversity, groundwater, etc. Even the farm buildings suffer. The farm has lost at least 6 or 7 buildings since it was back in owner production in the '70's.

The renters of the farm had used bulldozers to push back the brush, which ended up on top of the buildings, knocking them down and rotting them so now there are just foundations. There are still deep ruts from where they plowed through swampy areas to plant.

Even the town has not seemed to care: they installed the town water system 25' into the property, which opened up some springs so now I can't get within 35-45' of the road in some places as it's a swamp. One man who used to farm before the water authority installed the town water said it never used to be like that, you could plow right up to the road if you wanted to.

The town saw fit to install a drainage swale this year right into my one field, without even notifying me, to drain some guy's land across the road so he can maintain his manicured lawn. I was driving my tractor mowing down clover and almost tipped into it. I need to get out there this winter and measure how far it comes on to the land, vs. their right of way

The idiot politicians have their signs up all over my road frontage for this November's election. I don't really like people putting up signs on my land without asking, so I've been ripping them down, and they just put more up. I plan to make seedling starter trays out of their signs, so I hope they keep putting them up. The thing I love is the people who put up the signs are running on the platform of developing all the land around me, to "lower taxes" for everybody. Give me a break. They just developed at least a couple hundred acres of land for tract housing, built a church which is larger than a Walmart (and perhaps uglier) on some other farmland, and my taxes went up. Church bought 50 acres at a discount from a farmer, kept ~15 or 20 to put their big box Church on, and sold the rest to Target to develop another shopping center, in a wetland, and supposedly at quite a nice (i.e. multi-million dollar) profit. If you have to have enormous tractor powered scrapers to build your church, there is a problem in my opinion.

In any event, enough ranting.

I will try out growing those oilseed radishes instead.

Reminds me of a Wendell Berry poem, entitled "February 2, 1968":

In the dark of the moon, in the flying snow, in the dead of winter,
war spreading, families dying, the world in danger,
I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover.

[AndyF]

CP,

The town has an obligation to return your land to its previous condition once they do work like putting in municipal waterlines. They are also not allowed to concentrate runoff and drain it onto your property. If you haven't already, assuming you are a member, contact your county Farm Bureau to get a better understanding of your rights as a landowner. If you're not a member, consider joining Farm Bureau as this type of problem you are having with your town is one place where being a member can pay off.

You may also need to work with a lawyer to get the town to do what it is legally obligated to do. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease and if you don't complain you will get the shaft.

[CP Knerr]

Thanks Andy,

I'm going to join, if for nothing else to get a good sense of what is OK and not for people to do to the farm property.

A neighbor down the road stopped by to talk this weekend and was also joining, for the same reason: problems with the town, and a neighboring golf course. I happen to own land adjacent to the golf course, but which is currently undeveloped.

The golfers hit balls onto his cow pasture, literally knock down fence to retrieve their balls, then the cows wander onto the fairways and pug it up. Golf course gets mad, complains to the town. Town tells him he needs better fence, and oh, by the way, barbed wire is outlawed in the town and you can't run electric against an adjoining property.

What I don't understand: how much does a golf ball cost? Is it worth it to risk your life in a herd of cows where you have no idea what they'll do, to retrieve a golf ball? Maybe golf balls are expensive or something. If they are I've got a goldmine in my fields as they are full of golf balls from the people who use farm fields to practice their tee shots.

I suggested he cultimulch their fairway flat again for them after they let his cows out, to fix the damage but he thought they wouldn't like that much either. Evidently they need grass or something for the balls to land on.

So short term he's contacting the farm bureau to see what he can do about the situation.

Long term we intend on buying the golf course and raising beef/pork.

Thanks again
CP

[AndyF]

CP,

Re the electric fence. You definitely need to join Farm Bureau and start learning about right to farm laws in NY. If you are in an ag district, there shouldn't be any restrictions on electric fencing as they are standard ag practice. The town of Lyons which is in Wayne County just north of me recently tried the same thing with a farmer telling him that he couldn't use electric fence. He was in an ag district and found out that it is permitted and that the town cannot forbid it.

[CP Knerr]

Last Thursday started hoeing corn but got depressed as there had been no rain and the corn was definitely showing it. Finished hoeing particularly weedy parts and we'll see what happens.

Saturday was a slow CSA day, only a few things: squash, kohlrabi, grapes, tomatoes, herbs, turnips, and rutabagas. Things will hopefully pick up with the rain. I have lettuce mix seeded, carrots, radishes, spinach which should be coming here in a couple of weeks.

Need to better supervise CSA planting team members, or give better instructions. I had disked and prepared a nice seedbed, now there are footprints all over it. So we have to establish walkways and not walk in the beds to be seeded. Also don't go out of your way to stamp down a deep path through the soil. Stretched strings for marking rows but things were not planted near strings, sometimes off by 12-18" away from the string. I need to realize people don't do this every day and give better instructions, and also the "why" we do things this way: So we have nice straight rows for cultivation, and also so we can build fairly straight trellises. It will be a mess as now I don't have the slightest clue where the plants are as they are all over. Oh well. They had planted snap peas, some very short season summer squash (a risk) and some very short season cukes (another risk). We'll see what happens. I want at least some pickles for this winter. Last year our first frost was very late so I'm hoping for the same this year.

In general I need to give better instruction. Things get trampled even though I tell them not to step on beets, etc.

After CSA planted 1 acre cereal rye and hairy vetch for more small fruit beds. Checked last night and the rye is germinating already with all this nice rain we've been getting.

Took care of friend's Great Dane and Border Collie over the weekend. I find that 3 dogs are too much. Too difficult to put on boots in the morning with 3 dogs attempting to lick your face simultaneously. Also every time you turn around the Great Dane is right there. Nice dogs though and no dog fights.

Brassicas are looking up after the rain: cauliflower, brocolli, savoy and red cabbages, Brussels sprouts. Now the weeds are popping up again (mostly lambsquarter and pigweed) so we have to do some weeding this week. Even places weeded 3x are now showing some small weeds again so I have to run through with the wheel hoe.

Disked in about 75'x100' section of weeds (ragweed mostly) in preparation for early winter planting last night. Have endive and raddichio planted in 2" cells for transplanting.

I'd bought a couple of Rogue Hoes hoes for the summer, a 5.5" field hoe and a 6" garden hoe. They are made out of old disk harrow blades. I'm very very happy with them, I can sharpen them up with a file, and they stay sharp for days. Also with the heavier weeds, they just chop them down. I had been using stirrup/scuffle hoes but they tend to clog with fast growing weeds (because I don't weed early enough). These "open" hoes really work well.

At this point last year I was very worn out, I remember very well. However this year I still feel upbeat about everything. Not sure why. Perhaps it is the new hoes. Also maybe because it's finally raining.

[CP Knerr]

Things are starting to turn around with the rains, although we've got none predicated again until mid-late next week. So we'll start watering again.

This week for the CSA we had tomatoes, beans, squash, burdock root, scorzorenza (sp?) root, beets, grapes, swiss chard, sunflowers (for seeds) and tons of basil. It was supposed to potentially frost on Saturday night so we picked all of it. Of course it didn't end up frosting anyway but can't be too careful. Ed, did you have frost down there?

Where I had disked down the hand harvested barley and planted crimson clover, I have a better stand of barley than I got when I planted this spring. We must have missed a good quarter or more of the harvest. Oh well! Good for the soil at least. It looks nice too.

Pig's turnips and rapeseed are up and doing well, although there are alot of crows in that field now. Probably eating the turnips and rapeseed which were doing well.

Last planting of sweet corn will be ready next week.

Finished (for now) new goat/cow pasture. 3+ acres (I think, it's very oddly shaped). I have a bunch of existing fence utilized, and around 1000' of 6 wire HT fence and 330' of 47" high field fence. The field fence installation is very rough, as I cannot get the fence pulled tight as I can't get the existing T-Posts out of the ground (as I had commented on earlier). So it's pretty poor looking now, but what are you going to do. Have a few odds and ends to tie up with the HT too but it's functional. Ground is disked up for planting cereal rye for winter forage. I'll throw in some berseem or crimson clover as well for kicks. Plan is to graze rye/clovers through winter when I can, then when we have the permanent stuff coming back in, I'll go ahead and fence that off, plow it under, and plant other grasses. Now that the goats have their fresh pasture, they are stuffed and no longer wake me at 6:30 AM for hay and grain. This morning they looked like they'd just gotten up after Thanksgiving and were still stuffed with turkey, didn't want to move and looked groggy. The one goat especially was getting extremely thin so she was happy to get some fresh food.

Need to get back to chopping wood here, it's going down into the 40's at night and days are getting real short so it makes me realize I've only got enough chopped for a month or so.

Rye/vetch mix planted where new berry patch will be is doing outstanding, rye is up nearly 4" tall now, and vetch is coming up too just slower.

Still need to finish up harvesting oats and wheat for grain share, and now popcorn is ready as well.

Also with the rains, need to run tiller through beds for cultivation again, a new crop of weeds is up. Also need to get clover interseeded for winter cover. May put in some Italian ryegrass as well. Just need to get to it.

I've been finding a bunch of worked flint in my fields this year, it would be interesting to know what the land was used for prior to farming. I'd assume the flint is from Indians but I'd like to know if it was a camp or something like that.

While plowing for vetch/rye, plowed up a shoe. It says "Sketchers" on it but it's all leather and looks to be of an older design. I thought Sketchers were newer shoes, but, I'm not up on my footwear. I also plowed up a baseball and a ton of golf balls, but golf balls are pretty normal at this juncture.

[singingpig]

CP,

been meaning to comment on this:

I'd like to move into larger equipment, unfortunately, I have money issues (hey, just got my $4500 school tax bill on Saturday! Thanks Town!) affording the equipment at this moment. I can custom hire it, or, use the radishes or other crops like that. Soil tests are also a must at this point. In the future, I'd love to do it with cover crops, and I think it is very important as people who have small-ish gardens won't be able to afford $10,000 tillage machines to work a couple of acres. However, there is also the need to accomplish things I want to do next year, and not wait for the biological controls and humus to form. Not ideal, but reality at this point.

I have money issues, too. I was able to pick up a great 10ft 9shank chisel plow used this spring for only $450 delivered. I posted photos of it, can you view photos yet? 9 shanks is all my 62hp 4wd tractor wants--it would be better with 7 shanks.

For your tractor you don't want more than 3 shanks--1 in the middle and 1 behind each rear tire. A brand new one from Market Farm is $1825. Watch the ads and you can pick up a used one cheap. You could pick up a 1 shank subsoiler for under $200 new. There is a grass farm in my area that is so large they have a separate co just to sell their used equipment. They have a 32ft wide chisel plow advertised for $1250--$600 cheaper than a new 3 shank! I'm not sure where you got the $10k price for a chisel or is that a different machine you were referring to?

Compaction has 3 major components:

chemical

structural

traffic

Traffic is pretty self explanatory, you run equipment or vehicle or livestock over ground and it compacts from the weight of the traffic--everybody gets that one and much focus is put on it.

Structural you're dealing with what soil type and organic matter content. Again, most everyone gets that and we cover crop and manure and add compost to change that structure by the action of soil life consuming the organic matter and excreting glues which cause the soil to form that nice crumbly aggregate structure.

Chemical is the one that few people get and I think it is the missing piece for you. Mg binds soil particles together, Ca drives them apart. The ratio of Ca:Mg is very important to prevent compaction along with it's other implications for increased yields, health and vigor of your crops. The soil life responsible for creating humus works best and more efficiently when the Ca:Mg is properly balanced. Certainly if you grow legumes as green manure you are shooting yourself in the foot if you plant them in a soil with low Ca and unbalance Ca:Mg. Legumes are heavy users of Ca and will acidify your ground. The rhizobia that colonize the roots of legumes and form nitrogen fixing nodules need adequate balance Ca and a proper pH.

I just got my soil tests back and I raised my organic matter an astounding 1.5% in the last year. The ag consultant who pulled it for me was incredulous. I am convinced that it was because I limed in the spring to bring up the very low Ca levels, then chiseled to break up the hard pan and aerate the soil for the soil life, disced in many tons/acre of crop residue and manured.
_________________
"Fine produce for fine restaurants since 1989"

[CP Knerr]

Thanks, Steve.

I have noticed, when I dig my legumes up, they don't have nearly the amount of nodules you see in photographs, even though I innoculate. Didn't know the bacteria themselves needed Ca. Interesting stuff. I'd seen clover grow alot better with high calcium in my books but it hadn't dawned on me that maybe it's the rhizobial bacteria themselves that were giving the plants that boost. Soil tests are definetly in my future.

Congrats on your 1.5% organic matter increase, that's incredible in one year, from what I'd read. I just got my first issue of "The Natural Farmer" last night, it had an article on experiments at the Rodale Institute regarding increasing organic matter over the years, in conventional vs. organic systems with cover crops. Their goal was to keep the soil covered year round, instead of the no-till conventional where they normally do not plant a cover crop. They talked alot about mitigating global warming by switching to no-till organic with cover crops (or even conventional and spraying, like Steve Groff does it I believe). Gives me some hope. Not that I believe it will happen on a large scale, but gives me hope.

I've been reading more about grass/legume systems rather than legume only. I've got a very high nitrates in my ground water, I think 14.5 ppm, where 15 ppm is the upper 'safe' limit. l need to rethink straight legumes for most of my covers, unless they are followed by something to suck up that nitrogen. I don't need any more nitrates down there leaching.

I had disked the soil where I had the barley planted, which re-planted the barley I missed during harvest, then seeded some crimson clover in and shallowly disked it. It's doing very well and looks really good.

Definitely looks like soil tests/corrections are in order for the upcoming year.

Also need to get to some auctions. You really made out on that 5020.

[singingpig]

I am really happy with my soil test results. I was hoping for 1/2% increase in organic matter. I overshot the Ca and it is 80% saturated instead of 70% but I'm ok with that. It was 32% saturated. I only put on 1 ton/acre except for 2 acres that got 2 tons because they had extra lime in the truck and they like to go home empty.

I have my own personal theory about the huge increase in Ca from just 1 ton/acre. Just a theory and the probability of my being full o' manure is high. I think it is from all of the phosphate fert the previous farmer had poured on the ground for 50 years. Most of the phophate in conv ferts becomes unavailable within 90 days. It forms calcium phosphate with the Ca in the soil. My phosphate level also went from very low to very high and the only P I put on was in chicken manure. So here is my theory:

There was a huge load of calcium phosphate in the soil making both elements unavailable. Phosphate is most available at pH 6.5 and is made available by the organic acids excreted by microbes. I limed to about 6.5 and added 40 tons of fresh chicken manure which gave a huge bloom of soil life. I think those 2 things broke down some of the calcium phosphate and made it available. Again, just my own theory. Anyone feel free to rebut.

I keep my ground covered year round but mostly with crop plants. Our fall/winter weather systems are moderated by the steady 55 degree water of the Pacific Ocean so I am able to grow kale, chard, beets, mustards, radish, turnip, most of the year. Most of our systems drop down from Alaska over the ocean where the moderate before hitting us. Occasionally we get arctic air that slides in from Canada from a NE direction and that is when we get hard freezes. If that happens Nov 1, I'm screwed, if it happens mid-Feb I make a little money over the winter .

The conventional farmers in my area rarely leave their ground open for long. This time of year they are planting annual ryegrass for a cover crop on ground they'll grow cannery crops on next year. Come Feb they'll spray it the plow it under when it dries out. There's only 1 million acres of farm ground in this valley so that is small compared to the rest of the country. With no snow cover, the weeds go nuts around here if you don't have something in the ground, especially the cool weather grasses.

When I bought this place, the well was 50 feet deep--twice as deep as most domestic wells in the area and it tested high for nitrates. I am surrounded by grass seed fields and grass hay fields and they just dump the fert on those. On the sweet corn, when it is about 1 foot high they hit it so hard with liquid N that it burns the whole top of the plant then they pour the water to it and it is waist high seemingly overnight. 1st time I saw it I thought the farmer had accidently got herbicide in his sprayer. With all of that fert being broadcast around, nitrates are high in the drinking wells. I am fortunate that the seller of my place had a new well put in 75 ft deep before closing. It got into a whole new aquifer and the water is great.

Are there large conventional farms in your area that could be contaminating the water with nitrates?

The 5020 is from just good old clean living. It belongs to friends/neighbors who just appreciate the fact that I am out there bustin' my behind everyday farming. I haven't paid them yet, and they have had people give them cash offers but they tell everybody it is sold to Steve. They just want to see it go to a place where it is needed and appreciated.

Have you done auctions before? I went to my 1st one this year and it was mostly a bunch of junk, although there were a handful of good deals. I went as strictly an observer with 2 neighbors and kept my checkbook firmly in my back pocket. I need to go to more.
_________________
"Fine produce for fine restaurants since 1989"

[willing hands farm]

Hey Everybody,

I just stumbled upon a MUST SEE site www.maplecreekfarm.com they have video taped informal dialogs of the owners. It was very very informative and cool. Steve, Ed, CP and Andy I would love to see these kinds of rolling commentaries, directly addressing issues while working/walking the fields.

The website menu on the left has a video menu link and it is fascinating. I completely blew away time I should have been busy elsewhere. He talks about so many realities of CSA farming. The one thing I was so hoping he would show was greens harvesting/cooling. Don't miss the one on crows and melons-guy lost 10,000 from a small resident flock.

Steve, you have a smaller operation and are making good money, he has no money saved and I get the impression they are in significant debt. Could you please comment on why the discrepancy. What are you doing different management wise? Course he is doing a CSA not restaurants. They had a 700+ member but have scaled back.

Am interested in if yall found these videos as interesting as I did. Most are 4-6 minutes long.

Julie

[singingpig]

Julie,

I haven't hooked the speakers back up to my PC since I move 2 1/2 years ago, so the videos aren't much good for me.

I can't really comment on any differences between our operations as I don't have any information on Maple Rock. If they have 700 subscribers @ $700 each their gross sales just from the CSA is almost $500k plus it looks like they do farmer's markets too so they should be sitting alright.

I'm not making a profit right now as I reinvest every extra dollar back into the business. I'm not going into debt to do that though. I have a basic understanding of cashflow- not an expert, but I make the business generate enough cash to purchase needed upgrades to equipment and facilities. I plan for those items and then 'bottom feed'. I just go about my bidness, wait for the right deal to come to me and then I bite. That's how I got a $450 dollar chisel plow and a $5k 140hp tractor. Plus, I am a blessed man.

I hold most of the business debt and the land personally and am living off of the debt service and rental income. I haven't had a paycheck sine 1/2005. I went into this move planning to lose money for at least the 1st 3 years. I look forward to making enough money to pay taxes next year so I can start funding my retirement again. I'm no spring chicken y'know.

1 difference I can tell you is that they get their money at once at renewal time and I get checks every week. I run a cash flow business that sells to other cash flow businesses so I am able to forecast and budget fairly well. I think it would be hard to make the money last the whole year.
_________________
"Fine produce for fine restaurants since 1989"

[CP Knerr]

Julie:

Thanks for the videos. Watched a bunch of them at lunch. Great stuff. You need to get a day job so you can get paid to watch them.

Steve:

Most of the land to the south and west of me is conventionally farmed, but with houses dotting here and there, and a ton of abandoned fields. Most of the abandoned fields have rotting fenceposts at the corners, so I think at one time there was a lot of livestock critters running about. Most are growing up in brush/box elder/ash.

Around me (I'm zoned agricultural conservation) land is zoned "Rural residential" which means 5 acre lot minimums with 1 single family dwelling. They typically mow < 1 acre and let the rest go to weeds. Town master plan is to zone everything around me "Light industrial" so they can build warehouses to "lower taxes for residents".

My house was started in the mid 1800's so I'd imagine the farm was started around then. The newer dairy barn has "1970" scratched into the concrete, so I'd figure that's when it was built. Older barn fell down 2 years ago. When we dug it up, there were the foundations of another barn beneath it.

We found records for 24 head of cattle from the '60's. The fencelines have barbed wire, so they probably pastured critters at some time.

The cropping is a lot different than yours. They plant cash crop, harvest, wait over winter, cash crop, harvest, etc. Corn stalks are left on the surface, bean residue (what little there is) left on the surface, wheat straw is baled. They are starting to seed clover cover crops now this last year. Before they'd just grow weeds until the fall. There are very few hay fields. Just corn, soybeans, wheat.

Around me, most of the land is rented, not owned by the farmers.

There is a golf course across the road... not sure what their fertilization is like.

The well is a hand dug shallow well. Not too deep, maybe 20'.

Everybody I know has problems with nitrates in the groundwater, especially to the west of me (even more heavily agricultural) and south. In the summer the Genesee river will really get stagnant and get a nice algal bloom on it. A few years ago I went canoeing up the river and there were 10 or 12 fish, swimming in circles on their sides, on top of the water during my trip. Did some research and found this is due to high nitrates. South of me (upstream) there is also heavy agriculture use and a few industrial plants (Kraft foods, etc.).

They close some of the Lake Ontario beaches around Rochester each year when the algae and bacteria counts get too high to safely enter the water. Army Corps of Engineers had a plan to pump water from around the beaches, back out far into the lake, to pump the bacteria and algae far from shore. I would think algae issues may come from nitrates. Not sure on the bacteria but there is at least one horse farm I know of, along the river, where they dump the raw manure into the river as a way of managing it. I suppose that could have some potentially harmful affects.

A train overturned maybe 10 miles south years ago (not sure how long), and everybody got county water for free down there because they contaminated the ground water with something.

I'm about 5 or 6 miles from the river, not sure how far the ground water would travel from the river.

My land was in all wheat in 2003-2004, 1/2 corn and 1/2 beans 2004, 1/2 fallow/wheat and 1/2 beans 2005, 1/2 wheat and 1/2 beans 2006, 1/2 red clover and 1/2 wheat 2006-2007. The farmer who was renting it, keeps planting beans year after year. The water tests were done in late winter, 2003, I moved in May 3, 2003.

I have not seen them do a lot of fertilization at all, normally just during planting, then they hit the corn with nitrogen once. This corn is probably 200' from my shallow well. I also don't know what they grew around me prior to me moving in, but I think it had been in corn for years according to neighbors.

That's the scoop on the land around me.

Better get going.

[Alec Bauserman]

the link you shared with the videos is very helpful. Thanks!

[CP Knerr]

I had ordered the "Weed 'em and Reap" videos from Oregon State University they had mentioned here. They are 2, 1 hour videos on various weed control techniques. I thought they were great.

The first video dealt with some machines you can use for weed control, with cultivators, tine weeders, a hayrake, some other mechanical weeders, then a bunch of flamers. I wish they had gone a little into the technique of what the farmer was trying to do, they just show him driving down the field on his tractor. They also didn't cover what the various shovels and sweeps are capable of. The first farmer highlighted planting winter squash in a trench, then weeding it, which pushed soil into the trench, burying the young weeds. I think kind of like how Steve plants his tomatoes. Many of the weeders required a number of operators which is difficult for me, doing things alone. Maybe I need to use my software skills to author a weeding game for the XBox 360, I could train some kids to do it. Not sure how that would rate vs. Halo 3.

The second video was much more interesting in my opinion, covering winter killed mulches, rolled mulches, mowed mulches, and tools to plant into them. The one thing I noticed about both videos was the tools people are using are not off the shelf, they in general require the farmer to engineer and build something, and tinker. On the video, they featured the cover crop rollers, vetch undercutters, and features of no-till planters, along with various cover crops to use. Very good information and it will go into my farm plan for next year.

Yesterday, I received emails from 2 csa members who missed Saturday pickup and wanted their vegetables. Unfortunately, I'd already eaten their vegetables, so I had to go pick again. This wastes all my daylight after work at this point in the year. I have to come up with a better strategy for next year. I don't want to give them old produce, so I end up re-picking. So now I've missed my window to get some cover crops in for winter which would have been perfect, as it is finally raining now.

The rats have eaten 90% of my sunflower harvest which I had hung to dry on the porch, and moved into my attic. While I'm not certain, I think they can smell the grain and seed I have in my upstairs bedroom/seed storage area and are going for that. I need to kill these things off or drive them away. I moved all my feed out into the detached garage so there is nothing anywhere for them to eat, which I figured would drive them out of the house. I really don't know what to do at this point, even if I have the feed in garbage cans, they get into the animal feed I put out for the animals to feed them. I'm just trying now to reduce their places to hide and destroying their burrows as fast as I can. I need to get a rat terrier or other small dog to hunt them.

[willing hands farm]

CP,

Where you been????? Do you think you can make the Neal Kinsey conference? I know you have day work.

What is up with those rats! Do you hear them in the walls at night? I have mice and they are a real nusiance. I think outside of Beatrix Potter they are dirty, disease spreading varmints.

Julie