Lupin Farm ~ Updated photos of the goat pen in progress

[Farmfresh]

We used to have a HORRIBLE problem with milk weed, the vineing kind. I pull the vine when I can. Then I started picking all of the seed pods that I found and putting them in the garbage. Even without poisons my problem is less and less every year!

 

[lupinfarm]

ooo We have lots of milkweed on the hillside, I'm going to have to start picking it out this year before I put the goats out there.

 

[Farmfresh]

Now remember there are TWO kinds of milk weed. The kind that grows tall out of the ground like a stalk and the kind that vines. The tall kind you can eat! Steamed like asparagus.

Look it up on the net for pics and more info.

 

[TanksHill]

lupin I am already tired hearing all you plan to do. Between the weed pulling and the garden boxes your are going to be very busy.

I use wire on my boxes because I have a horrible gopher problem. I think in the heat of summer when almost everything around us is brown and dead my veggies are very tempting. A few years back I lost 6 bush beans in two days. The whole plant. Pulled down into the ground beans and all.

I refuse to let the gophers win. Maybe I should be like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack.

gina

 

[hwillm1977]

It's 5 degrees celcius here today! I was so excited I could go outside without a sweater on The sun is beaming down and it makes me want to plant things even though we are still 14 weeks away from last frost...

Yay for hope of spring!

I think your raised beds look great. I made mine really long, and now I wish I had broken them up a little bit (mine are 2x28 feet, 2x28 and 4x28 feet) eventually we're going to build a greenhouse over them

Have you ever read that square foot gardening book? I think I'm going to try his methods this year.

 

[lupinfarm]

hwillm1977, I am going to BUY that book I saw it at Lowes yesterday so I think I'm going to order it from Amazon, its much cheaper and although it'll go on my visa, it'll at least come to my house which'll save almost an entire tank of gas. It looks great and really simple stuff. Definitely will work for us I think Especially since we're on a lot of rock in Rocky Rawdon LOL..

TanksHill, everything is super green here in the summer Like unbelievably green. Last year we had to mow our lawns about 3 times a WEEK! Thats why we have such a big weed problem, our land is pretty fertile and the first year I dug down it was like pure black earth, BEAUTIFUL stuff. Black gold here. I think its because this place used to be a big cattle farm, about 60 years ago was the last time it was operating and my gardens are located in what used to be a small sacrifice area for the cattle up by the house.

 

[TanksHill]

Wow, it's just beautiful!!!!

gina

 

[lupinfarm]

2 Down, 9 to go!

Today I made the first of 2 raised beds for the peas. I like my peas to munch on all summer and fall long, so I've got 2 - 10ft long by 2ft wide raised beds going in for the peas. I'll be making a fence down the middle of it probably using a stock panel on posts for the peas to train on. It should look awesome this summer!

And that raised bed I made yesterday? Well I've been writing down my plans for the garden this year in a nice grid, and gridding out where the vegetables and raised beds are going and I've decided my 3 - 4x4ft raised beds will contain tomatoes this year. If I divide those beds up into quarters I can comfortably (with lots of breathing room) get 4 tomatoes per bed in there, I had about 12 tomato plants last year and we were over-run with tomatoes so I'm hoping we'll be overrun again this year!


Here is the raised bed with the poly-tunnel frame set up

And with the plastic on

Right now I have peatmoss in the bottom of it, and I'll be adding black earth when I'm ready, but until then near the end of this month it'll make a great hot house for my hardening off some of my plant starts.


Turns out I have 2x6x12's as well from the barn so I'm using those for most of my beds. I like the deeper ones for the Tomatoes though!

And somehow I managed to get Cissy's (goat!) feet completely trimmed! WOOHOO


Work for tomorrow....

Put together the other 2ft x 10ft pea bed, put together one or two of the 2ft x 8ft raised beds for the lettuce, and I have to figure out still what I'm doing for carrots as I'm going to need a deeper bed for those...

Start mucking out Luna's paddock

Finish cleaning the ice shed, cut pop door bigger, remove chickeny things, scrub with virkon and let the goatie brains in! (Kev will do most of this)

Clean goat shed, scrub with virkon, put the nestboxes and a new roost in there for the chicken heads, put up mesh on the vents and taadaaa temporary chicken accomodation!

 

[Farmfresh]

You go girl! Your to do lists remind me so much of mine when I was younger. I love to hear about a hard working girl!

 

[lupinfarm]

Oh and if anyone can hazard a guess as to what is wrong with baldyhen (for future reference) then I'd be very appreciative! I've wormed her with Ivermectin Drench, dusted her with Dri-Kill, changed bedding, added BOSS to her diet, she free ranges and I think she even lays an egg. No other hens feather picking. She's never been the nicest looking hen, always had patchy colouring, could this just be a bad-breeding/genetics issue?

She's meeting her unfortunate end no matter what, but I'd like to know for future reference...