Spring is Coming!

Well the days are starting to get longer-- so the chickens are laying more eggs and all of this is pointing to the fact that Spring is on its way.
I am very much looking forward to Spring around here.  Right now, everything is wet, cold, and dreary but Spring brings the great reversal to that trend.
I have been doing a bit of Winter Gardening in buy seeds and making garden plans for this year.  I am hoping to sell at a couple of the Farmers Markets this year in Knoxville and Oak Ridge.  So now, I am learning as much as I can about it all to be ready to make it!

Farm Update: Chickens

Chickens are the next venture I have begun. I have bought around 30 laying hens. They are all doing quite well! I allow them to free-range. Eating all the seeds, grass, and bugs they can scratch up. I also give them a good ration of food each day. I am thinking about switching them over to a Non-GMO, Soy Free diet. I have finally found a source of reasonably priced feed. But for now, the beautiful brown eggs are $2.50 a dozen. I am getting around 1 dozen each day. In the Spring, that number should go up. I have also ordered 75 chicks. The plan is to have them laying by July/August.  

Farm Update: Sorghum

It's been way too long since I have given any update. Lots of things have gone on here on the place in the last year. First of all, I began my venture into sorghum. It was very much a learning year as I expect next year will be as well.  I ended up with only 6 gallons of the sweet stuff but the plan is to up that next year. 

Here are a few pictures from the cookin'! 

Homemade Pig Shelter

I have never been much of a builder. Most of my contraptions turn into disasters. But with the cold weather that is now beginning her in the mountains of East Tennessee, my pigs needed my lack of building skills to be set aside in the name of warmth!  

So today, with scrap lumber in hand as well as a $7 piece of plywood I purchased, I built a pig house. 

I drove 4 t-posts in the ground in a slanted position then took an old piece of plywood and my new piece and used some old wire I had to tie them in position. Then with some other scrap plywood, I made a roof. Then with a pallet, I formed the back wall and put boards inside of it to give some wind break. I am going to get a piece of tin to put on the top to make all the plywood last longer but this works for now. 

I won't be constructing mansions anytime soon but I am proud of how this turned out!

Future Plans

A lot of people have been asking me what I am going to do when all of this land is cleared and to be honest, I am still more focused on the next hurdles than I am the finished product.  Before I can do much of anything, all of the burn piles will have to be burned and leveled out, and then there is going to have to be a whiole bunch of fencing done on the place too. I am planning to do a 5ft woven wire with 2 strands of barbed wire on top of it for all of me perimeter fencing. My cross fencing will be just barbed wire. Having houses all around me, I really wanted a strong perimeter.  

Once all of those things are done, I do have beef cattle in the plans to accompany my 2 dairy cows. Also egg and meat chickens will be a goal as well.  

Here are a few pictures of some of the latest clearing work   

More Clearing

The guy showed up yesterday morning at daylight to run the dozier. He was getting quite a bit done until around 11:00, he ran into a problem!

Well, ended up he calls another guy to come out and help pull him out. He brings up a smaller dozier, and know we have double the power!  The both worked until 4:00 or so and got a LOT done. 

Here are a few pictures of the work from yesterday. 

Around the Farm

Here are a few fall pictures of life around here lately.

Here is Jehu and Alex- best of friends.  

The pigs all lined up for supper. 

They love drinking straight from the hose!

Pretty soon a bulldozer will take care of all this over-growth. I can't wait!