December 30, 2019 Our New Years Plan

Things have crawled along for about a month, but have picked up recently for a few good reasons. The first is that the weather has let up a bit. No major rain events, no winds either (and that's weird). The second reason we've been more active is that the eight week cold virus has finally gone away. It was horrible.

Since our last post we have finished our stem wall forms and got approved by the inspector. We'll be pouring it next Monday. We have also spent a good bit of time out working the fields. Our Market Garden is in pretty good shape, but it looks a bit weedy. We have also continued to have luck in getting things we need. This week we found a great guy with a lot of stuff we need. We picked up the handrail assist bars for the new house and a really nice Kerosun heater for the greenhouse. Both of these things were on the big list of stuff we need and we saved a bundle buy shopping used on Craig's List.

We have just agreed on a building plan for the coming year, so our New Year's resolution is to build the image below. The farmhouse build will go as quickly as we can, so there won't be very many big changes to the Farm. The stuff we'll have time for is small, but filled with small things that sound very big.

The New Year Plan

This is the layout we want to have built by May.
You can click on the picture to see it larger.

In the new plan we're going to restrict the Chickens to about a fifty by two-hundred foot fenced yard on our western end and move the Ducks in there with them. The birds spend much of their time in these same spaces, so the move won't be traumatic.

We're going to move some fences to create a very large Market Garden. Before tilling we'll take out four to seven large trees to let the sun shine in. The currently planted Flower Patch will move into the Kitchen Garden at the other end of the Farm as soon as we figure out a schedule.We have done a lot of improvement to the Kitchen Garden area this past year, but there's still much to do. We hope to take advantage of the newly opened space of the Kitchen Garden by planting many rows of corn and potatoes in newly tilled full sun areas. We'll begin laying out the decorative parts of the Kitchen Garden as time permits. And planting isn't for months.

We're only trying one significant experimental thing this year. We're trying a Ruth Stout potato patch. This is a no-dig method where you simply put in a large layer of straw directly on the ground in Winter, plant in the mid-Spring sprouting rush by pulling back some straw and throwing a baby spud in. After planting you put down a fresh layer of hay. There's no digging, no weeding, no watering, and no fertilizing. They say that the patch gets better every planting because it deepens every year and the nutrient release is better every year.

There are a few little things we need to build as time becomes available. We need a small greenhouse for sprouting seeds, a potting gazebo in the Kitchen Garden, and a Kennel complex is needed to house our only profitable business, the Rocketdog Bassets and Boarding business.  The Kennel complex will have a large fenced front yard and a fully covered back yard for puppies and rainy days. Inside the Kennel will be an open living room setting with very robust dog resistant furniture. We will also have grooming and whelping space. This will be the first thing we build after the house.

While we wait for next Monday and the concrete it will bring, we'll dive right into fence and Greenhouse projects. These are quick projects and all of the other projects can wait for free time.