Cleaning my riding mower and weedeating

Well, today I did some weed eating around the place and I wish that I had started two weeks ago. I hate weed eating my road banks, because some of them are really steep and hard to stand on. I had to use a blade on part of it with all the brush and the multi flora rose growing on there. I think I'm going to spray to kill all the brush and just leave the grass and that will make it a little more likable job.

I also mowed some grass and then took the deck off to clean it. It was a total mess. On the deck the grass was so old that it had night crawlers in it. That was kind of embarrassing to admit. My wife and I cleaned off the top; night crawlers and all. Then we cleaned out underneath around the blades and such. Then we greased the top pulleys and where the deck engage slides back and forth. It wasn't rusted or anything yet, but I think a regular cleaning schedule would work wonders. By the way I was going to sharpen my blades but they are too far gone and I need new ones. I will now have a newly cleaned and serviced deck to mow more grass. I can't wait!

My Wife's Iris's and a bleeding heart

These are some peach bearded iris's that were are planning to replant in a new bed this year.

Here are the bleeding hearts under the tree. It's the first time in 3 years that the frost didn't get it. The picture doesn't show it justice. It is huge.

These are a few big iris's at the end of an old timey iris bed as everyone calls them

Here are the old timey purple iris's. They are small compared to the bearded iris, but still very pretty.

Here is her orange bearded iris's. They are our favorite of all the iris's. She wanted me to post some pictures of them. I told her that it's not to manly to post flowers on a man's website. She said you're not manly you're married. That is a different philosophy but I guess it works.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've been planting like a wild man and trying to keep up with this 4 and 1/2 acre lawn. It seems as soon as I finish mowing and trimming that it's time to start again. My baby chicks aren't babies anymore. They were around a month and a half old and all feathered out. The Rhode Island Reds look like babies compared to the extra large Cornish X Rocks. I'm moving them to the chicken house tomorrow to stay inside for awhile and then out in the lot they go. I'm feeding them all the vegetable scraps and some grass everyday on top of all the starter and grower they can eat. We've not had any rain here for about a week and a half and we finally received some this evening so no garden watering for me. It's usually up before work and watering and watering right before dark, but it's all worth it knowing that I have all this food that I've grown and that I know what is in it and on it. Plus it'll taste pretty good this winter when every one else will be eating old produce that was commercially grown and is a week or two getting here and god knows what is on it or in it. I'll sleep easier when I know I have all that food canned up and stored for the winter. Winter, well let's no go there.

Some pictures I promised and planting flowers

This is a picture of my concord grape vines after I cleaned them out. They are still without an arbor or trellis.
These are some of the tomato's I planted last week. The grass was growing well from all the rain we received.

This is my first load of wood I hauled in this year. I have about six at the house already that I cut last winter when the wind blew them into the road.

This is my wood pile that I piled up last summer to dry out some, but I'm in the process of splitting it and getting it hauled in so it can really dry out. I have wood scattered all over this farm.

I helped my wife clean out some flower beds and we removed an old cherry tree stump to plant some flowers. She still has a lot of seeds to plant so I better get after it again.

Very Busy

I finally planted most of my garden. I have tomatoes, corn, green beans, sweet peppers, hot peppers, squash, spinach, radishes, cucumbers and of course all my early plantings. I've also been trying to get a start on my winter wood. I cut most of it last summer and now I'm splitting it and hauling it in. The lawn finally looks normal after it got to a jungle state for awhile. It took a couple of mowings to get it right, but it suits me now. So between my job and all the work on the farm I've been busy. I'll post some pictures later on today as soon a I get a chance.

Planting tomatoes

Well it rained again yesterday, but it held off until I could till most of the garden and plant around eighty tomato plants. I planted mortgage lifters, brandywine and beefsteaks. I still have about sixty five more brandywine to plant this evening. I'm going to make this post short and sweet so I can get something done.

Finally getting something done

I know it was Mothers Day and all, but I had to get things done. I cleaned out some concord grapes that my grandfather had shown me 15 years ago when I was a teenager. They were growing here when my grandfather originally bought the farm back in 1967 and they kept cutting them down every year. He didn't need them because he had a very large grape arbor in his yard and it was in the field next of where my father later moved to in 1980. It was neglected and cut down for years and I even cut it down ever since I got married and moved back here in December of 2003. So this year I checked it and it was still there, bigger than ever and vines running everywhere; through multi flora rose, wild cherry sprouts, brush and a lot of weeds and grass. It is actually in the edge of my current lawn. I cut everything out and pitch forked it in a pile. It looks really neat and clean. I'm going to build a nice arbor out of treated lumber and hopefully I'll have some good homegrown grapes this year or next. I see a lot of grape juice, jam and jelly in our future.

At least I got my grass mowed

Well, guess what happened today? It rained again, but I did finish mowing my lawn before it started. The chicks got a little too hot today so I had to raise the heat lamp so it would cool down. It is so hard to believe they are the same chicks that we bought a week ago. They have grown so much. I will have some pictures up soon. We bought 13 Rhode Island Red chicks for laying and 5 Cornish X Rocks for eating. In a few weeks I'll be eating fresh chicken for the first time in a long time. I'll be hand plucking and I've never done it. I think after the first few I'll get the hang of it. I'll be ordering some more of the Cornish X Rocks in a month so I need to practice up on butchering these five. I would like to have about six to eight months worth of fresh chicken in my freezer, but wouldn't we all. So long until next time.

It can't rain forever, can it?

It has finally quit raining after about a week or so. I started mowing my lawn or jungle; which would be more appropriate. It was close to a foot high in places and it was extremely wet and sloppy. It seemed I was mowing as much water as grass. The forecast called for a hiatus until around noon Friday and then rain until Sunday. I had to get grass mowed so I can get the rest of the garden in and help my wife with flowers when it finally dries out early next week. When it started we needed the rain and I hope that it doesn't turn off dry like it has the last few years. Our 18 chicks are growing leaps and bounds and my recently planted rhubarb, raspberries, blackberries, asparagus and strawberries are greening up and growing. They would probably do better if they could get some sun instead of constant rain. I'll look back in a couple of months in the middle of a dry spell and wish for some of this rain, but for now listen to me complain.

First post ever

Hi everyone, this is my first post ever. I will be telling you my journey into farming with 2 young boys and a wife that has never had any farm animals or raised a garden or anything like that. I farmed some when I was younger around 16 to 18, but I think I forgot many of the highs and lows of farming. So here is our journey of remodeling an old farm house and rebuilding outbuildings and fencing everything and clearing pasture fields and many other farm things while juggling a job, 2 young boys and just everyday life stuff.