More Prizes, and a few Hiccups…

Since our last trip to 13DogFarm had a few hiccups we carefully reviewed our calendar and goals. With the specter of Big Grass on our minds we decided to step things up with mo-mowing! To help with that, we decided it would be good to do a mowing focused trip a few weeks after our last trip. That would keep the plateau and driveway under control as well as ensure the outer fields were being mowed as well. The outer fields have some very steep areas. Pokey did a trial run on one of the outer fields during our last trip and, while able to mow it, things were a little less stable than we would like. Tractors get much of their stability from weight and while Pokey is heavy (around 8000 pounds with bush hog) but extra weight is always welcome. One of the ways to add weight is to fill the tires with liquid. Pokey’s tires are 54″ tall, so they can hold a lot of liquid. Since it gets below freezing water is not a good option so we purchased some RV antifreeze. The RV antifreeze is non-toxic just in case there is ever a leak. It also protects to -50, which is a temperature we hope to never see at the farm!! With that in mind we loaded up the truck with three 55 gallon barrels of anti freeze. Each barrel weighed 575 pounds, so they were a little heavy

Upon arrival, both Honey and Bun came over to see what was going on (and if there was anything to eat!)

Under the watchful eye of the labs, the barrels were unloaded – much easier with Pokey’s help

With barrels unloaded the tire-filling commenced….which lead to the Big Hiccup of the trip. During filling the tire came off the rim, which is very bad. Tires that size need a huge compressor to put them back on and we only had a little compressor at the farm. After a few calls to the local co-ops we found a tire service company that does onsite tractor tire repair. They arrived with a huge compressor and were able to fix the tire that came off. While having the tire come off was bad and delayed things, the prize of the day was finding people who can do onsite tire repair for tractors – a big (and much needed) plus!

With the newly filled tires Pokey had gained about 1,600 pounds and it was time to try a new field. We had selected the Purple field as the next to be mowed. It is a large field with some very steep areas and had not been mowed since we purchased the property

The Purple field got it’s name because of all the purple wildflowers that had bloomed in it last month. With the wildflowers having died back it was time to mow! The grass/weeds were very tall averaging around 4 feet tall with some areas as high as 11 feet tall! After about 6 hours everything looked much more orderly in the field

During each trip we also try to improve things at the barn. Over time, we’ve brought more and more tools to leave at the farm and the storage stalls needed some additional organization

During the cleanup and organization the water test kit was found. We have been drinking the spring water based on it looking good, smelling good, and the fact that many cattle drank it as their sole source of water with no ill effects. But happily during the reorg the test kit was located and the water tests came back all positive. The water is very good with all elements in the healthy range.

By the time the barn re-org and water tests were done it was very dark out. That created an opportunity to try and show how many stars can be seen from 13 Dog Farm.

It’s a little hard to see in the photo, but you can see the Milky Way as well as more stars than we ever thought possible (big prize!) . The photo below show the skyline and gives a perspective of the stars against the mountain backdrop

On a future trip we’ll connect the camera to the telescope for even more stars!

We are also learning more about how the land and crops work. While we had a wonderful harvest of 5 pounds of blackberries on the last trip, just a few weeks later all the blackberries were gone. That was a hiccup as we had such high hopes for more blackberry jam and hopefully enough for some blackberry wine. While the blackberries were a disappointment, several additional areas were located that had even more blackberry bushes (another prize!). With better timing next year we will be bringing home the blackberries in storage bins instead of bowls!!!

The fruit on the plateau trees is growing, we thought we had a peach tree but as they have grown we realized we have a persimmon tree instead. Now to learn what can be made with a Persimmon. Any suggestions or recipes are welcome!!

The latest trip also gave an opportunity to identify the nut trees that line the driveway. We identified several large Hickory trees. The ones on the driveway are the shagbark variety which produce the better tasting nuts. The nuts can be used like a Pecan or can be used in a smoke box on the grill to season meats with hickory smoke flavor.

This blog entry is a little late getting posted with the next trip scheduled for the weekend of the 17th so be sure to check back soon as the focus moves to building a shed!!!

— Al