I was able to catch some rut action from Nick and Karen’s farm in Baltimore County. It is a rare moment to catch this especially on video. The bucks are bullying each other for breeding rights to any doe within the territory they marked. Think of teenagers on steroids!
Didn’t expect to see 6 bi-planes fly over while shearing trees this morning.
Looking for the paw-paw tree.
Picking paw-paw for another batch of mead. They have a very short picking window....this week only!
Scouting the front field this morning and found ANOTHER swarm. Part 1
Spring tree planting
A little rain is welcome for the 3,000 trees we planted this week.
Wow! Sure didn't expect to see a bear while Ryan and I were planting late pumpkins. This is my second sighting in 34 years here.
Composting 201
A pretty neat video of large scale composting at Ayrshire Farm. The machine is simply turning the pile. This accomplishes two things: It gets oxygen into the pile for aerobic breakdown and it changes out the surface so all portions are subjected to the 131 to 170 degree temperature range. After a minimum of 5 turnings and 15 days, it is compost! The raw ingredients are horse litter: bedding mixed with manure. On the video, you'll see a windrow on the back side that has yet to be turned, a stockpile of finished compost and a stockpile of raw litter.
Picking organic sweet corn.
This is a retro concept way of picking corn Iearned from my Granddad Gehlsen. They had a partition down the middle of the wagon, called a buckboard. They could pick corn from several rows away, toss it against the buckboard and it would land on the wagon. My modern retro fits are to use a cardboard bin that they didn't have 80 years ago and the cardboard buckboard is attached to the bin with tomato stakes and welding clamps so I can easily slip it out and attach to another bin. We have Gaelle with back against the wagon, Lindsay to the left and Jessi Cushman bringing up the rear. When we nearly get to the end of the pair of rows, Jessi uses another tractor to mow down the two rows, we turn the wagon around and pick in the other direction. As far as I know, this is the only Certified Organic sweet corn in Northern Virginia.
Planting field tomatoes
We rolled the dice and planted 3,000 tomato plants on Monday. With 3 people working, we plant over 400 tomato plants per hour.
Tommy planting a tree
We planted 80 fruit trees Wednesday and Thursday and thought some of you might like to see the process.
Planted the seedlings Tuesday and Wednesday with Tommy on the planter. It may look boring, but it sure makes quick work of the seedlings. We planted about half with the planter and half by hand.
raking hay
The next step in making hay is to rake it into a windrow. This is a side-delivery rake; not as many moving parts. However the timing of when to rake can make or spoil the hay. Have to factor in weather forecast, moisture content of hay, moisture content of ground, air temperature, wind speed and time of day.
Cutting hay with the sun shining
If you've been to the farm, you've seen the hay in the barn, but not how it got there. This is the first of a 3 step process, cutting the hay. The machine is a haybine, which is a bit retro as it has largely been replaced by the discbine, a faster machine. It has a sickle bar next to the ground that cuts the hay, timothy in this case. The beaters help push it back to the rollers that crimp it for better drying. The operator must keep the edge of the haybine between the cut hay laying on the ground and the uncut hay as well as watch for 'jamming'.