What there is to work with.

On to business currently I live on a piece of property that is surrounded on all sides by people. But the nice part is that the lot I live on is about .28 acres. Most all my research suggest that with only a quarter acre you can run a very successful urban farm.

Next I already have in place outdoor rabbit cages. The issue is that they are seasonal cages. So I will be getting a late start on mating the rabbits and I will have to slaughter them come winter. Some planning will have to come into play as to whether it is more worth my while to upgrade the cages or just come to terms with the fact that each year I need to start off with new stock.

I have two apple trees planted. But they are a minimum of 3 years away from producing fruit. If nothing else gets planted this summer I will at the very least put more apple trees in. The other soft fruit I planted this last summer was blueberries. I only planted one bush so this summer I will try and plant some more.

I already have a chicken tractor/coop just waiting for more chickens. But I have an opportunity this year to upgrade the chicken's living habitate. We had to buy a dog run this summer for the turkeys we had. But it looks like we don't want to deal with turkeys again so we are planning on using it for the chickens. The question now is how far will this up grade go, will we finally bridge the gap and make it so we can keep the chickens all year round?

Finally the garden. I tried hanging veggies and really liked it. So I'm going to expand that operation(I have already bought more buckets and the hooks to hang them). I have marked off plots for raspberries, rhubarb, TBD soft fruit, and a bathtub herb garden. I want to start putting in some raised garden plots but my wife has in years past fought me on this one. Of course I also have a compost bin and of course it just isn't cutting it so I will mostly have to get at least one more at the rate I'm going.

I have a good start already for next summer but as I like it there is plenty of room to grow and as long as I have the time I will be busy.

So where to go from here?

Well I"m all for having fun but first we have some work that needs to get done. In the U.P. of Michigan we have a very challanaging weather pattern our first hard frost come normally in Sept. and the last hard frost comes in late April so that is about 8 months give or take that it is near impossible to grow anything outside. Currently we have about 2 inches of snow on the ground and most people are happy that the snow took so long to come and stick. The only good part of the long winters up here is that it gives me plenty of time to plan and prepare for spring. Here is the list of everything that needs to get done before the snow melts.

First raise the funds needed to buy all the supplies. Currently I have figured out exactly how much that will be. I'm guessing somewhere in the range of $200-300. But seeing as I'm not sure what all I will need that number will go up.

So along with that I need to decide what all I want to have on my Urban farm next spring. I also have to make the tough call as to whether I should buy new, buy used, or just improvise (sometimes this last one is the most fun)

Next I have this little problem with local ordinases. It turns out that Uraban farming is no quit legal, in NO way is it illegal. It's just the ordinases are very out-dated and need updating. This will be a fight but it's one I'm willing to fight for other community member like me.

Next I have made it my goal I have to get indoor starts to work this year. For about 3 years in a row I have had all my indoor starts die or get infected with something. As a result I have had to run down to the local green house and spend more that I should to get starts from them.

I'm also hoping to get back to winemaking this winter. Along with that I want to try and make cheese. Crazy I know but you never know until you try right.

The finall thing (so far) is to get all the structures build and in place before the seasons start. This will take a bit of timing but I think I have it worked out.

So far that is the plan I'm going to fallow no dought it will change here soon like it always does.