A summer of planning and waiting

So with the move things have been busy to say the least and down right chaos at times. Despite my willingness to press forward on project Urban Farm 2 I heeded my wives advice and just spent the summer planning and observing. So here is what I have to work with...

Apple Tree: Not as dead as I first thought! This fall it seems like we will have a enough apples for a large batch of cider. But under the tree does need to be addressed. Some type of ground cover is needed. We are thinking about using the rubber mulch to control weeds and help with irrigation. Plus the kids will love playing with it.

Fruit bushes on the the Fence line: Sadly they are NON-Edible berries (honeysuckle). The birds will love them but they are of no use to me. My plan is to replace them with edible berry bushes(cherry most likely) But have I have to convince my wife.

Raspberry bushes: There is hope for them yet but it will be a lot of work. Mostly mulching and pulling out non-desired plants.

Area for gardening: Enter the highest point of contention! Currently I want to have a simple 8'x8' or 4'x8' raised bed garden with hanging plants on one side. But my wife really doesn't want to loss any more yard space. This battle will go on all winter I"m sure.

Chickens and rabbits: Both have been approved (by my wife) and the area has been selected. Mostly all that is left is to prep the area. There are some flowering bushes that need to go. Also I'm going to talk the guy that lives next door. I don't think he will have an issue but better safe than sorry.

Flower Plots: The house lot is filled with small pots of lilies and another flower I don't know what it is. I'm against flowers as I feel they are a waist of space mostly but they are well established and honestly because of the shade I'm not use much else will grow there. SO for now they stay.

Garage: Potential is the name of the game here! I really need to get rid of a vehicle though (anyone in the market for a Camry?) I do believe that the garage needs some reinforcing but nothing major. The project that I'm looking into and saving up for is to turn on of the roofs of the garage into a solar array. The roof is pointed exactly where it is needed to get MAXIMUM solar exposure. It's going to take time but I think it will pay off.

Those are the projects and potential I have seen so far. The plan is to use Google Calendar to set up a schedule to make it all happen!

Is It Time TO PLANT YET?!?!?!?!

Sadly the answer is NO. I'm impressed with myself that I have waited this long. The snow is melting, the sun is shining, and we have temps above 32 degrees. But I know with a winter like this we are not even close to being 6 weeks before the last heavy frost HELL we not even 12 weeks before the last heavy frost yet!! No I will wait and plan. Maybe I will just have to make some more beer and play Farmville for now.

Thy Must Not Plant Starts Yet

As said many times, I live in a zone 4 growing zone (yes even after moving) So unlike most of the United States March and April are months of freezing and sometimes snow! Normally I fallow the rest of the world and plant my starts in march. THEY DO GREAT before one of two things happen, they die from out growing there containers or produce very little vegs because I dwarf them into indoor only plants. BUT not this year I'm going to wait till the first two weeks of April before I plant my indoor starts. I WILL WAIT I WILL WAIT I WILL WAIT

Looking to the moon

Ok This is nothing new and really isn't the first time I've run into it but I'm thinking, WHY NOT? The idea is pritty straight forward! Not to mention I have seen it work for some people. So I figure what the hell lets give it a try and plant this years garden according to the MOON

Farmers' Almanac Gardening Calendar

Chickens not looking in the cards

So we have been doing some planning and number crunching for this summer. We came to the conclusion that we really don't know the people around us yet that well and we're not even really sure what the property looks like because its been under so much snow. So we decided to not do chickens this year :-( I know tragic and sad. But instead we are going to focus all our time and resources on rabbits and making the rabbit operation year round. That means a bigger and better hutch set up and getting a better rabbit. It will be sad not to have the chickens but I will deal.

IT"S Feb-CHICKEN-ary at Tractor Supply Company

Just got the word chickens are currently being ship to my local Tractor Supply Company. I can't wait to start raising them again this year. BUT here are the changes from years past. Due to the fact that I'm more or less 9-5ing it now. I need to plan out my days to make sure I have time allocated to chicken care, AKA waking up earlier until summer gets here. Next and I can't believe I'm doing this... I'm buying a commercial chicken coop :-( Not happy its come to this but that whole time thing is getting in the way here AND we are already walking the razor edge with the chickens, so I'm hoping a commercial coop will relax the tension.

This is the Coop I'm looking at. It's has everything the chickens should need. It's strong but light and has multiple doors for easy access and cleaning. Its compact which we need for the limited land we have but it should accommodate 4ish chickens nicely.  Plus it will take only minimal effort to insulate the coop for next winter.

Yes, we are looking again at keeping the chicken for more than one summer... HEY STOP LAUGHING I MEAN IT!!!! We are going to keep the chickens year round this time.

Than life has this funny way of changing your plans!

So on my last post I was admit about keeping up the post and not letting this Blog fall by the waste-side like like count less others, than life struck. It's funny to like of last summer has I'm now neck deep in snow. But such is life, either looking forward or back. Well I had great plans and great ambitions to finish them. I had 10 chickens with every intention to keep at least 5 of them through the winter. I had a beautiful breeding California Doe and a strong litter to match. I had at the time plenty of time off and lots of projects to fill that time with.

Well first strike was an Instructor-Coordinator (IC) Class was offered. These are rare! You would have a better chance of seeing Bigfoot. So I signed up and whoosh half my weekends were chewed up by the class. But it has been my hope to attend an IC class long before I wanted to turn my urban home in to a rural getaway. So it was worth it.

Next I got a phone call from the Island EMS Corp Capt asking me if I would still be willing to work on the Island this summer. I didn't plan on and every part of my body told me I should say NO. But they are good people that live on the island and they really needed the help. So off to the island I went. CHOMP more of my free time gone.

But still fine. After years spent stretching myself thin I still had just enough time to spare for my farming goals. WELL until the final one two punch of the summer came. I got a very exciting and different opportunity  I was offered a job working as Security and Industrial Ambulance Tech. The pay was right the position was right the bosses were awesome. Only one thing the job was over 175 (ish) miles from where I currently lived. SO it was week long commutes fallowed by week off packing up a house

In short order the chickens and rabbits were all slaughtered and frozen. The house was mothballed and off we went to a new home, new jobs, and the prospects of new opportunistic.

The new house is awesome. Over 110 years old with many of the features that make old homes awesome still in place while many of the ones that make these homes nightmares already upgraded (goodbye nob and tube). I is on a corner lot, it has a garage and a nice spear room in the basement for a future sauna. BUT the land it sits one is less than a tenth an acre :-(

But I have made it my goal not to let this deter me. I will see this as a challenge to be over come. I still plan on transforming this chunk of dirt in to my next urban farm.