Switching over to winter activity

It seems to me that I must have had alot to do with the addition of haying this year.  Noting my last blog post date and the topic that it was, I draw this conclusion. :)

As we removed the last of the produce from the field, greenhouse and hot house, it was clear that this summer was not as warm as last.  The Sweet peppers were the biggest indicator with only a few plants producing full sized peppers, followed by the potato plants not growing into large spuds.  This was noted across the area by several of the vegetable producers.

Wintery weather hit us October 26th and 27th, with near 10 inches of wet snow falling across the region.  This curbed any further work out of doors and shifted tasks to many of the indoor ones.  So on the schedule now is getting some woodwork done for market stock.  With the help of my daughter we are coming up with different ideas for our usual stock and hoping these items will appeal, especially as we head into the Christmas season.

Over the Remembrance Day weekend, the reality of a wet and early winter came to visit with the collapse of our large greenhouse.  It seems that with the existing plastic having been a bit torn in places, the snow load was uneven and the whole unit went down like a set of dominoes.  I have a pretty good idea of what I will be doing in April next year!

In the meantime we will be attending markets to sell Christmas gift ideas.  One major market left at the Oxdrift Hall on December 9th.

The First "Field Test" of the No. 45 Hay Baler

Dodging rainstorms.

This seems to be the only way to make hay this summer, dodging rainstorms.  When the best possible forecast is given for the bit of haying we want to do, a sudden cold front sweeps across the area and another half inch of rain falls on the haying job.  But we persevere, waiting patiently for the sun to dry things out.  So we started off this week with an actual baling run in the neighbor's field and baled up about 90 bales of mixed grasses.

Until this time, we had only been able to "barn-test" the baler by pulling a large round bale apart and feeding it by hand into the cross conveyor section of the baler.  This was a good exercise as it allowed all portions of the baler to be checked for proper operation, after many evenings of maintenance and general care.  From the large knife on the plunger that makes the sliced edge of a square bale, to the amazing knotter assembly that has to be able to tie each bale up or the pickup system that takes the hay off the ground and feeds it to the cross conveyor, this is really quite an amazing piece of equipment.

The field we baled was very wet during the cutting and raking sessions.  With a few sunny and windy days, the standing water was gone but the ground was still soft.  The baler sank it's wheels several times and the tractor had it's work cut out for it, both pulling through the soft ground and powering the baler at the same time.  It was a lot of work!  As we started baling, the hay wagon was also being pulled behind the baler to minimize the work of handling bales as the bales slid up the bale chute right onto the hay wagon.  As the wagon started to fill, the load became too much for the tractor and the balance of the job left the bales on the ground to be picked up by hand.

So a few photos and a link to a video of the McCormick # 45 hay baler at work below.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI8FM4hG4k4

Working along the windrows

Looking back over the baler

Hay rake

Hay going into the mow

Hay elevator in the mow door

Aside from vegetables...

The last 2 weeks have been quite wet and not alot of activity out in the field, except for the occasional inspection to see if the vegetables need flotation devices to survive the rain!

In the meantime, we have been preparing for the haying season.  We were hoping for an early cut in June to allow a possible second cut in late August but again, the rain has caused a delay.  So while the showers were keeping things well watered, I puttered in the barn, preparing the old hay baler for this season, servicing the mower and rake but also took on a project of essential need.

Enter the hay wagon!  It came to our farm as a old, rotten item, needing alot of care.  The first order of business was to remove the rotted hay deck.  It was so deteriorated, there were mushrooms and fungus growing on the cross beams!  Using the chainsaw, we cut the decking apart and put the rotting wood right on the fire-pile.  Not one piece of it was worth a second look.  From there, we inspected the steel, the wheels and the steering gear.  All seemed in good order, so we set it in the back yard laydown area for the winter.  With a little research on the internet, this wagon would appear to be a Model 19 Farm Wagon, made by the New Holland Company.

So a few weeks ago, we pulled the wagon frame out of storage and got to work.  Scrubbing down the frame for a fresh coat of red paint, cleaning the wheels for a complementing coat of yellow paint, the wagon started to look more appealing.  The next step was to engineer the bunks and rails that support the hay deck.  The bunks have adjustable brackets to accommodate a number of different configurations while the connecting bar between the axles allows for variation in length.  We chose to set the bunk brackets at 4 feet apart and the axles at about 9 feet apart.  This allowed us to build a 6 foot by 12 foot hay deck which will hold 20 bales per layer, possibly 4 layer high.  Of course, we had to consider the weight of such a load of hay.  With 80 bales at 50 pounds per, we are in the order of 2 tons of hay.  When the wagon is connected behind the hay baler, the tractor is going to be taxed, pulling both items at the same time!  The baler is in the order of 2500 pounds or about a ton and a quarter.  So we will see how it all goes in the field.  True to the term, we will be "field-testing" the equipment!

Back to the hay wagon, the rails on top of the bunks were made out of 2x8x12 all weather wood.  We coated them with the same red paint as the frame to keep things looking uniform and fresh.  We had to consider the front axle wheels and how they meet the rails; so some tracing of the top of the wheel surface was applied to the rails to do some trimming, ensuring the wheels never contact the rails during use.  Once that was done, we applied an all weather wood deck, a rear rack to hold the load steady and sealed the cut ends of all the wood with stain, maximizing the wagon's weather resistance.  So now it is ready to test.  We will post the haying activity as it happens!

7am lens flare shot of the wagon

Hay Wagon

Model 19 Farm Wagon Service Parts Catalog

Close up of the front wheel and rail

June on the Farm

We've had a socially busy month with planning and prepping for a wedding in our back yard on the May long weekend, so now it is back to the grind and time to update on the gardening - field and greenhouses!

Things in the Hothouse are growing well.  Today we opened up the plastic wall as there is a forecast high of 28 degrees which could become a bit to hot for the lettuce without some major ventilation.  It seems each bed has a uniqueness about it, maybe it is just the vegetables being in different locations since last year - we've modified location to capitalize on the hotter or cooler zones of the Hothouse for each vegetable type.

The greenhouse is nearly full of tomato, pepper and cucumber transplants.  We've also added a wall of peas and a group of tomatillos in the greenhouse as we've pared back on the variety of tomato plants and have that bit of space to use.  Last year of our four varieties we had a tomato variety called "Early Orange Stripe" that seemed to dominate the other tomato varieties.  It's orange striped top characteristics blended by Open Pollination and gave the Earliana Tomato variety some orange striping.  Quite amazing what will happen with the varieties in this way.

The field is now full of seeds and bulbs.  The field has not been used much until this year so we will be tending to alot of weeds and leftover grass clods in order to keep the things we planted from being crowded out.  We have already run a cultivator between the rows to knock down the weeds and may have to do this every week for the next while.

Our chicks are growing as well - 25 days old and rambunctious!  These will be our new egg layers in another three to four months.  The birds are Columbian Rock Cross Red.  They are a heritage breed and generally speaking are quite calm and are a bit larger than the average egg layer.

So for now, things are status quo.  Enjoy the photos!

Lettuce

 

Beets

 

Celery and Organic Red Onions

Greenhouse tomatoes and peppers

The new field

Potatoes

Spanish Onions

Chicks at 25 days old

 

May in the Hot House

So here we are in May, already a week in.  The produce start is slow, or at least, it seems slow to me, party due to the last two weeks of looking at snow, the storm that hit us with the scale of a winter storm - 10 inches of fairly heavy snow, then another 5 inches of lighter fluffy stuff for the following days.  It took a week to melt; there are still patches of snow in the shady parts of the woods!

We have started several crops in small batches, less our tomato plants of which we have planted all we want for the year and these are already transplanted into three inch pots, about 125 plants in all.  Otherwise, we have lettuce, beets, peas, peppers and cucumbers, three types of bunch onion, our delicious Lemon Grass, some herbs and some flowers in trays ready to be planted any time.

Yesterday gave opportunity to put some climbing pole beans in a small plot beside the house where the house creates a warmer micro-climate.  This year, we chose the Annie Jackson bean, a really nice looking burgundy and cream colored bean, perfect for drying and storing into winter.  Today's tasks included some more transplanting, watering, tilling the cold-frame greenhouse and working some of the ground in the new field with the tractor and plow.

We will post in the next few days as things start to ramp up with the warmer weather coming.

Herbs and Lettuce

Lettuce

Radish with Cukes in background

Head Lettuce

Beets

Tomato Transplants

Homesteader Peas

Morden Early Cucumbers

Start of a New Planting Year

Penner Farm from the air

Since my last post in late August, the farm took a different track from what you may expect.  Amazingly, there is still much going on after the growing season ended and the last of the vegetables had gone to market!  Stumping and plowing was done in the new planting area, old fire-piles were picked apart and spread out to return the carbon to the soil.  Horses were moved to the now vacant vegetable garden to do weed control and a bit of fertilizing, greenhouses were cleaned out and irrigation systems were put away for the winter.

We attended several late season markets with other products we have been carrying.  Preserves, bread, kitchen-based woodwork and some very late season produce which included our successful crop of Flaming Orange Habaneros!  These hot and beautiful peppers were worth the six and one half month wait!  We used some of them to create a superb appetizer product, Pineapple-Habanero jelly.  This can be used with crackers and cream cheese.

Now that February is here, I have been going through seed inventories, seed catalogues, notes from the 2016 season on things which we felt were important (products to add to our line, products to not bother with again) creating a summary report that will help us get the best things to market for next year.

Another project I have been looking at is deer-resistant fencing.  Because I am moving the operation to a new space, I realize I am into an area that a family of deer pass through on a daily basis.  I need to divert the path of these deer from the new field, while giving them an optional path to travel and still keep them out of the vegetables.  A day of on-line browsing for fencing was in order last week.  It seems that the best product may be a plastic mesh type fence.  It requires the least amount of labor to install and it is strong while still being light-weight.  It can be fastened to existing trees or you can install posts where needed.  Of course, I will need gates to access this space once the fence is up, so a few posts will be in order!  I will post this project when it starts.  Be prepared for a new route, deer family!