Denim Deb Hay, hay, hay. Thank the Lord!

[savingdogs]

You have described a lot of hard work getting your garden ready!

I don't have mine going because I have not put in that kind of time. I"m sure next year you will be telling us about your great harvests and beautiful garden. You reap what you sow!

 

[Denim Deb]

I hope so! Yesterday, I was just sick of the whole process. It had gotten down to 16*. I didn't get done work until 1:00, and that's hard, physical work too. So by the time I was able to get started on doing more, it was around 2:00. There were places that the ground was pretty much frozen. (It hasn't gotten out of the 30s all week!) But, I persevered and got another section done, and got 2 fence poles in. I also got the old plants out of a section. I have between 1/3 and 1/2 prepared for the manure and leaves, so today, I'm bringing home a truck load of manure.

I don't know how much I'll be able to do to prepare parts of the rest of it. It got down to 13* last night! But, I'll do what I can. The section that I already got done was the hardest section. It's not supposed to be as cold tonight, and it will be warmer tomorrow. So, I'm hoping I can be done w/most of it tomorrow. Sunday it's going to rain. Then Monday it's supposed to get cold again w/the temp right around freezing. I figure Monday is going to be the last day I can do any work to the ground because it's not supposed to get above freezing again until later next week.

 

[BarredBuff]

Our snow is finally melting, then Saturday more is coming in. With more cold air.

 

[savingdogs]

We have had a very cold year so far. No one around here remembers it snowing so early in the season. We had a little bit of a warm up but it was just going back to the normal temps for this time of year.
I think we are going to have another cold one! Get out the warm jackets and hot cocoa!

 

[Denim Deb]

Today, I killed 2 birds w/one stone. I wanted to bring home some manure for my garden. There's quite a pile of it out at the farm. So, I had a choice, go and get the tractor, take the spear off that's on for moving round bales, then using the tractor to load my pickup. Or, work on doing some more cleaning and dump the manure in my pickup. I chose the later. It would have taken me about as long to get the tractor all ready and load my truck as it took me to just get it out of the stalls. Plus, I'm going to need the spear on the tractor tomorrow since I have 2 round bales in my horse trailer. So, the stalls are cleaner, and I was able to get a load of manure.

I had to work this morning, and didn't get done until after 11:00. I had hoped to get done earlier. Plus, I needed feed. So, as much as I hated to do it, I got lunch from McDonald's to save some time. I ate while I was driving. I forgot that I had to get the feed when I was scheduling my day, so I didn't have as much time to work in my garden as I hoped. But, that may have been a good thing. Reason? The ground was too frozen to work-except for w/a shovel. And, the only place I'm using a shovel is in the new section. I put the manure down on the section that was already ready for it. I tried to work on the next section, but couldn't. Instead, I just dug the next section, then put in another post. I also had to redo 1 that I put in yesterday. When I was backing up my truck, I backed into it. And, I couldn't get it straight w/out taking it out first. Once again, I worked until dark. And, I was glad that I COULDN'T work any longer. I was tired. But, at the same time, I was elated. Tomorrow is going up into the 40s. It's not supposed to be too cold tonight, so I should be able to finish getting it all ready tomorrow! One section will be very easy. This is a section that I've wanted to turn into a small orchard for years, but have never had the time. Right now, there' nothing in it, and it's covered w/leaves. So, it should be really easy to prepare. The leaves will just get moved to another section.

Once done, my garden and orchard will be 32 x 52. An area about 24 x 24 is the regular garden. On the south side is where I have my asparagus and my rhubarb-that's not included in the regular garden. I'm hoping to add an artichoke or 2 next year. The west side faces the woods, and has a 4 ft chain link fence. I grow all my vine plants here, it takes up less room. The north side is where the orchard will be. And, the new section, which is on the east will be about 8 x 52. This will be my experiment section. I know the plots won't be big, but I'm wanting to experiment w/growing field corn as well as different types of grains. Since I'm only turning the ground over w/a shovel, I'll probably redig this section come spring. After all, there's grass in there now, so there's a ton of roots.

 

[Farmfresh]

As one who has done a LOT of digging and moving manure in the past... I give you a BIG old pat on the back! That is some hard work you are doing. You have been accomplishing a LOT the last few weeks.

 

[lorihadams]

I can't wait until spring to see pics of these gardens....it sounds so nice!

 

[Denim Deb]

Haven't had a chance to update this for several days. I've either been too busy, tired or both.

Friday night was much colder than forecasted. They were calling for a low of around 30*. They were off by about 10*! It was closer to 20*! And, Saturday was cloudy in the morning. So, even though it warmed up to the 40s, the ground was too frozen to do anything w/until the afternoon. I did work on some stuff, but just not as much as planned. I kept trying to work in the garden, but wasn't able to until sometime around 1:00 pm. By then, the sun had come out, and the ground was workable. So, I did more work on preparing the ground, and then worked to get the rest of the manure out of my truck.

By the time I got it all out, it was late, too late to get more. And, there was no way I was going to get the hay out of my trailer. I had to give Stormy his 2nd feeding, plus put blankets on my 3. It was supposed to rain on Sunday, then the temperature was supposed to plummet. I wasn't as worried about Licorice as I was about Misty and Stormy. I don't know if it's due to her being an Arab, or if it's because of her being neglected for the 1st 5 years of her life, but Misty gets cold if it's raining and in the 50s. And w/Stormy's age and heaves, he has trouble keeping weight on, so I wanted his blanket on him. Licky has a new blanket, but I had washed both Misty's and Stormy's. I dried them in front of the wood stove. I had bought a can of waterproofing in Wal-Mart, which I put on them on Saturday afternoon.

On my way to the farm, I called RU. I knew I needed to put out a round bale, but the only RBs I had were the 2 in my trailer. And, I just didn't have the time to get them out-I need to move the trailer to get them out. So, I asked if she could either call her hay guy, or let me buy one off of her. She GAVE me one! I put that out, then helped her get hay covered up. She has a huge stack of RBs covered w/a tarp. The tarp had blown off, so we had to climb up and pull the tarp into position the best we could. Once that was done, I went over and grabbed Stormy. I tied him to my trailer and gave him a quick brushing, then put his blanket on him, then gave him his second feeding. Then I grabbed Misty, gave her a quick brushing and attempted to put her blanket on her. She acted like she'd never been blanketed b4! I was finally able to get it on her, but only because RU had come over, so she held her while I got the blanket on her. Of course, once it was on her, she was fine. She just stood there and let me get it all adjusted. Then I turned her out. Then I grabbed Licky. She's never given me a problem b4 about being blanketed. Well, this time she did. And, by then RU had already left. I was finally able to get it on her, and adjusted. Then, I fed my chickens, fed Cindy, let the rest of the horses into the front field and left.

I had to go to the store and get a few things. My DH had said he was going to cut up some wood. Well, he didn't do it. I had a small stack cut, but I hadn't been able to split it w/the axe. So, I got out the splitter and split it all up. Then, I started to carry it all in the house. I got done just in time. It started to rain while I was getting it all in. It rained Saturday night and Sunday. We got a total of 2"! I figured I'd be able to finish getting my garden ready this week. I planned on doing a section a day, then bringing home a load of manure as soon as the ground firmed up again.

B4 I went out on Monday, I did some work in the house. I figured I could get the section done that I wanted to get done in a short period of time and I really needed to do some housework. It took me a bit longer than I was expecting. I still had to dig the new section. But I wasn't worried. I figured I'd just get out there earlier on Tuesday. The wood that I had split on Saturday had been just enough to get me thru the weekend. I had no wood to start a fire w/once I got home, so I did some wood.

I never made it out to the garden on Tuesday. The temperature dropped below freezing and stayed there. That didn't bother me. What bothered me was the wind! It was horrible. I went to the hay auction, and was able to buy 2 medium squares. The auction was still going on, but I couldn't take the wind anymore. I walked up to the feed store to pay, and almost got blown off my feet. The only good thing about the wind was that it had dried up the pastures quickly, so I was able to drive my truck into the pastures, up to the RB feeders, and unload the hay into them. Then I went home and worked on wood.

Wednesday, while not as windy was still windy. So, I did some housework, then ate dinner and worked on wood.

Today, I planned on doing some more housework, then going out after dinner and working on wood. Well, it started to snow! So instead, I did a bit of housework, then got dinner started and went out and worked on wood for awhile. I couldn't find out how much snow we were supposed to get. They kept saying snow showers. Well, it had been "showering" for a couple of hours. I didn't want to take a chance of it getting too deep. I worked on the wood for about an hour. It snowed the whole time, but wasn't a heavy snow. We got a heavy dusting.

Tomorrow and Saturday, it's supposed to warm up and get sunny. If it does, then on Saturday afternoon, I'm going to try once again to finish my garden

 

[Farmfresh]

I sure wish you would learn how to stay busy.










You wear me out reading!

 

[Wannabefree]

You make me tired reading this...I gotta stay away from your journal from now on!