Sunday, December 18, 2011

Plans for the future

 Hi everyone, today I thought I would talk about some of the plans we have for our farm, both big and small.
 I'll start with the most pressing stuff.


The vegetable and herb garden. We moved onto the property in June of this year...in the midst of the worst drought in Texas history and at the beginning of 99 days of 100+ degree weather. There was no way we could have broken through the hard packed clay, so we put off plowing until we got some rain. Now we've had some rain and Mike got me a rototiller so this should get done in time to start onions and peas in February. I'll be starting seeds indoors under lights for the warm weather crops in January.


My chicken coop with recent goat addition.
A bigger chicken coop. I love my coop, I do, but Mike built it for me when I had a dozen chickens. It's getting a little cramped in there with the 30 I have now. Mike told me that I am allowed to have 200 total and they are going to need a house that fits them all. I'll use the small coop to brood young chickens or for the meat birds we plan to get.


The extent of our storage right now.

A barn. We are seriously lacking in storage for animals, feed and equipment. My husband has plans for that.







Fence. We have some fencing on two sides of the property and the creek is on the third side might act as a barrier for our animals, but the front is open to the road. The chickens and goats share a 30' x 50' fenced run which limits grazing to when I have time to supervise them. We can't get the cow I want so badly (see below)until we have better fencing.


A couple acres of wheat, oats and dent corn in the spring to use for bread and for animal feed. Buying grain is expensive and we'd rather be as self sufficient as possible.


Mike's bargain bee boxes. They need some work...
Bees. Mike got himself some hives recently and they need to be cleaned up and repainted so we can get ourselves some bees. I love the idea of having my own honey and wax.
 Now for some plans that are farther out.


Our 2 pear trees, they are due for a serious trimming
An orchard. We already have a couple of pear trees and we'd like to add apples, peaches, plums, apricots, and lots more.


A berry patch. Blackberries, raspberries, dewberries, and blueberries.


Cattle. We want to get ourselves a small herd of Irish Dexter cows. They are a small dual purpose cow that we think would be ideal for our property, once we get it fenced. They are yummy to eat and they make great milk.


Pigs. Can you say bacon!?


A large grape arbor. My kids love grapes and raisins.

There's lots more of course. I think of things everyday that I'd like to do, but I'm about out of quiet time this morning.

Blessed Be

5 comments:

  1. Can't wait to watch it all unfold :) Reminds be of our childhood. The grapes were the BEST! We would feeze them and have little grapsicles to eat in the summer.

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  2. I think it's a little too warm where you live to have blueberries, I had a hard time keeping them alive here in SoCal.
    Apples need a certain number of hours of very cold temps to produce properly, you will need to do your homework to find the right ones for your area.
    You should think about some nut trees, maybe almond, pecans.

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  3. Thanks Herb, we can't grow regular blueberries here but there is a native species called rabbit eye blueberry that should grow well in our area. There are also a few low chill apple varieties that do well here. We already have a big pecan tree in the front yard and I think (in a non drought year) we will have more pecans than we can use. We have a good nursery a couple of miles away and the owner has promised to steer us in the right direction when we're ready to start buying trees.

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  4. This is getting pretty exciting! I'm glad that you finally started a blog to keep us updated and informed. You and Mike will have ALL of the above.

    I want some of your wax when the bees get it made.

    OH...have you named your farm yet? XOXO

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  5. No name for the farm yet, Jill. I need to come up with something.

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