Time needed to prepare for the LONG winters

So I know I need about 1,600 quarts of food to make it through the long U.P. winters. So assuming I only used the equipment that I currently have (one pressure cooking and one good quality stock pot) I would have to make 200 runs. I'm going to assume that each run will average 3 hours (prep and cooking) It would take 600 hours (on average) to prep all the food I would need for the winter. Also because of the short growing and harvesting season I would only have about 3 months to get all this done. So I would have to average 200 hours a month, 50 hours a week and about 7 hours a day to get it all done on time!

Well at least I found my second job!

Marry Christmas Farmer Style

 

Rum, homemake hard cider, milk, cookies, chocolate dipped Oreos, snowman shaped cake and homemade mints!

SURE WIN TO BRING SANTA BACK EVERY YEARS 

FOOD for thought and planning!

How much food would you need to survive a winter? What kinds of food would you need? How much would it cost to prepare all that food? Well the USDA's National Center for Home Food Preservation put out TONS of helpful and useful information every year and are the main and best source for canning safety. One the worksheets they put out is this one. (http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE%201%20Home%20Can.pdf on page 1-34) It is a chart that helps you to plan how much food you need to can and what foods you need to can. I did the above worksheet to see how much my family would have to can to make it thought the winter( 8 months of snow). It turns out that I will need 1,536 quarts of food. For fun over the next week or so I"m going to break down how much meat veggies fruit and TIME I will need to fill all those jar. But for now to just buy the jars alone it will cost about $2,560 (based on the average cost of a 12 pack of jars is $20).

This is why planning is so key when entering into a venture like farming, homesteading, or being self-sufficient. I have to admit I was a little surprised by these numbers. Were you surprised?

Child Abuse and Endangerment... OH HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED

My sister shared this great picture of all of us kids. This is a photo of our annual chicken slaughter. As stated earlier these types of traditions started to die out when I was very young BUT I do remember a few of them. As a family we all had jobs ranging from slaughtering to gutting to de-feathering. We all worked as a family to make meat. Chicken though for what ever reason was quickly phased out and we switched to only harvesting pigs for meat. These memories are some of the main reasons why I have a passion to further my homesteading life style.

Now fast forward 20+ years and I now have kids of my own and I want to share with them the same experiences I fondly remember as a kid. So I started getting chickens, rabbits, turkeys and harvesting wild life. My kids LOVE IT! BUT as stated earlier TIMES HAVE CHANGED.

Back on the farm and in the community we lived in making meat as a family was just a way of life. But when I shared with friends and friends of friend that I make my own meat and my kids were involved I get a much different response. I have been accused of everything from child abuse to child endangerment.

One of the most profound events happened when one of my friends wanted to have a grill out at my house. At the time we had rabbits turkeys and chickens. The "farm" we had was in a very urban setting. We were lucky in the fact that at the time we had about .25 acres of land to work with (now we have A LOT LESS). All the animals were well taken care of and very healthy. Well we were having a good time grilling, eating, and talking. The friend of the friend was impressed that we could keep such healthy animals on such a small piece of land. BUT THEN ENTER AT THE TIME MY YOUNGEST.

She loved the animal but she loved even more that these animals were going to become our "chicken nuggets" (for here even the rabbits were going to be chicken nuggets, she was 3 and all meat was chicken nuggets) She took this lady around and explained to her about how this turkey was named Christmas, that one was Easter, and that one was Thanksgiving. Next came the rabbits and than the chickens. Well after that the mood changed.

The story goes on from there but you get the moral. We were bad parents in that person's eyes. Not to mention we were bad people too. Mind you this is just one story of many. But this one was one of the worst.

It's funny how less than a generation or two the only way to put meat on the table was to kill and clean it yourself. Even going to the butcher meant you had to wait around sometimes has he "filled" your order.

But besides that history lesson what the person failed to see is that all the farming activities were done as a family for us. My kids didn't watch much TV they went outside in the fresh air and helped with caring for the animals. My kids learned the what it took to have food on the table. My kids understood that everything on the earth had a purpose. They also learned some valuable life skills. If times ever got tough I know that my kids could survive not because "well you know I could if I had to" But I know that they could because they HAVE DONE IT ALREADY.

We have lost touch as a people. No longer can we do for ourselves. Instead we handicap ourselves to the magic of the supermarkets of the world. This is one of the driving reason why if at all possible I will restart the family farm despite all the new limitation we have. I firmly believe urban farming and family farmer on only makes us better parents but it also makes us stronger as a family!!

OK I learned my lesson the HYDROMETER is key!!

So way back when almost 9 years ago now I started brewing wine. I put together my own little brewing station from salvaged and improvised items. Everything from a Kerosene hand-pump in place of a syphon and empty one gallon cheap wine jugs as carboys. But it worked and worked well! Slowly I picked up more and more proper equipment. One of the last pieces I kicked up was a hydrometer. But funny enough I never used it! I thought it to be a waste of time and to high of a risk for contamination. So it was set aside to collect dust for years. UNTIL

Fast forward a few years and on last Sunday I started another batch of hard cider and came across my very dusty hydrometer and decided what the hell give it a try. WOW was I surprised what I found out from the readings! Turns out I have a lot of altering to do to my recipes!

I love it when a plan comes together!

My Theory was correct! The cider cleared up perfectly and as you can see it is carbonated nicely too! A tip for first time hard-cider makers, if you want your cider to be carbonated you need to bottle it (with normal amount of priming sugar) when it's a little cloudy (about one week after fermenting). Just remember that the cider will have trub on the bottom so unless you like that trub taste you will been to pour it into a glass (like a cool Guinness glass) to drink it.

Next Roud of Hard Cider is Almost Ready!

The batch has finished fermenting and in now bottled! I just have to wait for it to get conditioned (become carbonated). It is very tasty this time a little cloudy but I think that will settle after conditioning. (OK so the glass of hard cider makes the batch look REALLY cloudy but that is from the bottom of cask and I had to tilt it to pour it, so a BUNCH of treb came out. The stuff in the bottles is quit clear.)

The reason I didn't wait for the cider to totally clear is one of the ways I'm trouble shooting the last batch not being carbonated after conditioning. I think the last batch almost all the yeast died before I bottled the cider. Clouding in brewing normally mean your yeast is still a live OR it can mean you messed up. I was very careful so I'm ruling out messed up.

I know I had mentioned in an earlier post that I thought the problem of low to no carbonation was due to not enough priming sugar. Well I didn't increase my priming sugar. I only want to test one thing at at time and after re-looking at the last batch I think no having enough active yeast was more the problem than not having enough priming sugar. Time will tell.

Conditioning should be finished by Sunday so I will let you know after that if this batch is more carbonated and how the taste compares.

WINTER IS HERE!! So bring on the beer! (well hard cider)

We have started to get hit with our hard snow storms the last few days and I'm going to go out on a limb and say the snow is here to stay! I got most of my winter prep done before the snow hit but as always there is still some things that I haven't done. So for the next week I will be clearing snow to clear leaves to over stuff up. So in order to get myself ready for a week of being cold and wet because I was lazy and didn't do these chores sooner, I'm putting off starting those chores to make some more hard apple cider!

Alright I know what your thinking "JUST GET THE CHORES DONE!" and I will but my loving, awesome and might I add very caring wife allowed me to buy the stuff to make hard apple cider so HERE WE ARE. Besides it only took about an hour and it will take two weeks to cooks. I figure it will be a good reward when I finally finish all my chores.

Cheers

HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE

So after looking over my numbers I see I have broken the 1,000 pageviewed mark!!!! Thank you everyone for stopping by and taking a look at what I have been posting. I promise there will be more good stuff coming so keep coming back. Can't wait to pass the 10,000 mark!

THANKS AGAIN!!

Homemade Cider Press in Action

This press is just as easy to operate as it was to make. Here are the simple steps for how it works. FIRST

 Gets some apples

 Chop them up and put the pieces into cheese cloth or muslin cloth.

 If you can process or crush the apples it works even better. I have read many article that a handed cranked meat grinder works great for this. Well my meat grinder didn't work so good to crush the apples. But It also didn't work so good for meat either so it wasn't a surprise when it didn't work for apples either. (Next time I'm BUYING AMERICAN MADE!!)

 Make pucks (or cheeses as some people call them) by wrapping the apple pieces/mush up in the cloth.

Stack a few pucks on the press, cover with left over high density acrylic, and add a few boards. Than set the scissor jack in place.  

 Slowly add press with the jack. Take your time here, the quicker you add pressure with the jack the quicker you will stress the press. Making cider should be fun so take your time and enjoy the process.

One nice feature about this press is that it doesn't have an even stand. If you look that the side view pictures in the last post you can see the whole thing only stands on the 4x4 post. This allows the press to rock back and forth. Rock it forward and the juice flows to the collect shoot. Rock it back wards and you can stop it from spilling if you need to switch out buckets.

Finally all that is left is to enjoy the fruits of your labor!

(Guinness Glass not required but you look cooler with it!)

Here it is! How to build a Cider Press for $32.23

First and fore most what you need the most is helper (sons work great for this). It works even better if he loves the process of making apple cider but doesn't really like drinking it (leaves more for me).

Now lets get all the supplies together. Here is the list and prices I paid. My local hardware store has a scrap wood bin. It's all the left overs from in-house projects. The scraps are good quality at a GREAT price. Best source for cheap lumber for small projects. Here is the list,

1/2 x 4-1/2 inch Carrage Bolts (4 piece)  $6.99
1/2 inch Hex Nuts (4 piece) $1.96
High Density Black Acrylic $10.19
2x4 scraps $1.96
3/4"-2'x2' plywood $5.99
4"x4" scrap $2.45
1"x6"-8' $2.69
Random screws (Free! There in every shop.)

So here it is the heart of the machine. This frame is made of 4x4 post with 2x4 header and footer they are attached by mortise and tenon (of course). At this point you could save a lot of money and call it done. All you would need to add is some type of tray and a jack and you can start pressing. But lets improve on the design.

Now by adding a simple piece of plywood on the footer and an extra 2x4 at the header. With these simple additions we have strengthened the head and improved your work space.

Now by using the 1x6 we reenforce the work surface. 3/4" ply wood is extremely strong but by just adding few boards it's now close to bullet proof.

  Again the press could be called done but I wanted so style added to my press. I used the high density acrylic to line the work surface. This stuff is AWESOME. It is used in commercial grade kitchens as cutting boards. The stuff is tough and even a glass cutter had trouble even scratching the stuff (I had to us a table saw to cut it) But by adding it I made clean up easier, extraction smoother and will extend the life of the press (I hope). I add some channel arms to direct the flow of cider to one point. Than I finished it up by caulking all the seams.

Side View

 Front View

 Top (ish) view

The good thing about this design is you can use it for cider, cheese, grapes, or anything else that needs pressing. Enjoy

(Coming up to tomorrow I will post how to operate the press. Even I was REALLY impressed on how well and easy the press worked!)

Cider Press done and looking good!

It was a long night and a hard push but I finished the Cider Press! It turned out GREAT! I know I promised a full instruction on how to build your own cider press easily and cheaply. I will keep this promise but after a long night I need some rest and some time to marvel at a job well done.

Cider Press... ALMOST DONE

So here is the deal with the cider press. I have it about 50% finished with some great pic and was able to build it for around $30! My hope is that I will get it finished and than post the full instructions on here with in the next two weeks. I promise it will be worth the wait. I'm even really impressed how well it's turning out and how little it cost me to build. The bigger issue is that with the early snow we are getting apple season will be coming to an early end here in Winterland Michigan. So I need to hurry up and finish this press for more than one reason.

OH and even though I didn't finish the cider press (the plan was to spend the whole day in the shop but with4  kids; that plan changed) I do still believe I can safely say I have aged more like Wine than milk!!! The other projects turned out GREAT.

My loss, Your Gain... OR one year old one year wiser

So tomorrow is my 30th birthday. For lots of people this is a really big deal/milestone. For me my 26th birthday was the really big deal/milestone (for personal reasons). But everyone keeps asking me if I"m going to do something speical for my "Milestone" birthday. So I have decided to but myself to the test! I want to see if I have aged like fine wine or more like milk. I'm going to under take a hand full of wood working projects. Some will take great skill while others will take some ingenuity. My goal is to finish all the project tomorrow (except for staining them because that takes days to do it right). Than I'm going to judge myself on my work (or call in a 3rd party to do the judging).

Now you may be asking "OK GREAT but why put this on a blog about farming?" To which I would reply "First it is my blog" and next "Good questing!"

The answer is I'm going to be making a cider press as the project that involves my ingenuity skills. But I'm going to document the whole process and (if it works) post the full instruction here. The goals for the press will be that it is effective, quick to build (I have about 1/3 of a day to do it), and cheap to build (as most of my money will be going to the other projects)

So stay toned! Keep your eyes open for "HOW TO BUILD A CIDER PRESS" coming soon.




OR if it is an epic fail keep your eyes open for "how NOT to build a cider press"

Well it finally happen!

As I have said many times before I do all the farming and self-sufficiency stuff because I find it fun and I enjoy the process. I don't believe that I can save money, or that the food is healthier and I have NEVER found that the food taste better. I do believe that the Magic Super Markets foods of this world are just as healthy and tasty as anything I can make. Then throw in the fact that the food from the store is cheaper, all I'm left with is the enjoyment and fun that comes for the process.

Again I"m cool with that idea. Everyone needs a hobby and something to waste money on. BUT today I tried something new that has rocked my world and may have very well changed some of my ways of thinking when it comes to farming and self-sufficiency. What was this life altering activity you may ask? Well....

I tried making homemade NOODLES!

Crazy right! Something so simple and easy!  The noodles had more flavor, they were more filling, and crazy enough they are cheaper to make than to buy from the store. I'm glad I finally tried it. Oh course my diet in now shot. Oh well winter is coming we will call it insulation!

Cider Report!!

So I tried my hand at making cider and hard cider. The Cider turned out great!! I filtered it so it was clear and my kids were then willing to drink it. When I made the hard cider it turned out pretty good. It taste a lot like Hornsby's Hard Cider (http://www.hornsbys.com/) only flat. So I seprated the finished product into two different bottlings. One was just straight hard cider which no surprise to this day still taste like flat Hornsb's. Now the other batch I added priming sugar to the bottles in hopes to carbonate them (getting rid of the flat taste). WELL it turns out that with Cider you need to at least double the normal about of priming sugar. The cider had some carbonation but not enough.

So the plan is to make another batch of hard cider. This time I"m going to photo-document the process and post it here for everyone to enjoy.

OH and the good think about making cider is even a failed attempt is tasty and still has some kick to it! HAPPY DRINKING

Zone 1 defense!

 The first zone is going to be the vegetable zone. In the area I want to set up plots to grow all my perennial crops. The challenge here is that this area is also where my children play and I can't take that away from them. So I'm going to have to get creative.

First: Raised Garden Bed
OK this is a no brainer. The raised bed is going to be 4 feet by 8 feet and fit next to the gate on the right hand side there. This area is south facing as easy access to water and the kid don't really play in this area. Now the cool adaptation I'm going to make to this raised garden bed is in the construction. Which can be found in detail here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/An-Improved-Raised-Bed-Garden/

Then general idea is to use homemade concrete brackets to hold your raised bed gardens together. So when a board starts to rot you just replace it. With traditional all wood raised bed construction you could only replace the boards as long as your corner post were good. But once those rotted your almost had to start all over. Very cool design and I can't wait to use it.

Second: Hanging Garden
Again not a new idea but until this year it is one I almost scrapped. I have tried hanging gardens for the last few years and weak results. But this year I made a Hail Mary Pass attempt and it worked! (I'm not going to get into all the details now but this spring when I start planting I will go more in depth) All I'm going to do for this next spring is to sink 4x4 post at the corners of my raised bed garden and run boards along them to hang my bucket garden from. This will allow me to not take up more yard and time and time again I keep reading about the benefits of cascade gardening or to set up your plants so when you water one the excess water goes to another part of your garden. So when I water my hanging garden any extra will filter down to my raised bed garden.

Third: Play Structure = Grow Structure
Now this is cool and VERY original (at least I haven't found many other people that do this)  What it is going to be is a "fort"/Jungle Gym that my kids can play on but I have worked in grow mediums to the structure. Cool right! Peak your interest RIGHT! Love the idea and want to see more RIGHT! Well you're going to have to wait :-( Sorry the designs aren't done yet and I still have some research that needs to be done to make sure it not only will look nice (last thing I want is the city on my butt), my kids will play one it, and stuff to grew in it too. My plan is to finish the design this winter and start building as soon as most of the snow melts. So keep watching for more details.

Break Down of the work to be done!

Alright the next stage of planning I took the surveyed drawing I made and broke it down into areas that I'm going to improve.

 Here is the breakdown of what is going to happen in each area.

Area 1: After much talking it over with my wife we have come upon an agreement to make a raised bed garden that also has some features to adapt a hanging garden as well. The raised garden will be 4' by 8' in this area I'm also going to have room for a hanging garden and a surprise feature to be revealed later.

Area 2: This is the meat area. I'm going to put in both a chick coop and a rabbit hutch. I have also found an interesting way to work in an urban style chicken run (again more on that later)

Area 3 and 3b: Right now there is honeysuckle bushes (not edible). My plan is over a 2-3 year period I'm going to remove the bushes and put in some time of edible bushes, most likely cherry bushes

Area 4: Currently this is a cemented walkway that leads from the side walk to my house. Not 100% sure what I'm going to do with this are. Part of me wants to take out the concrete to have more yard to work with BUT as paramedic I know this side walk would be the best and easiest route of entry in case of an emergency. SO I'm stuck! Either I"m pulling the walk way out OR I'm improving it.

As of right now this is the break down plan. Keep an eye on the blog the next few post I"m going to further break down each area and I'm going to include more drawings, plans, instructions and resources related to each section.

What I have to work with.

So with my resolution to be more pro-active with planning this year I have pulled out my drafting tools. I than took my kids outside and had them help me survey the "farm" here is a isometric view of area I have to work with.

(Yes I'm finally adding some images to this blog! No more monochromatic text base post only anymore.)

The total square feet I have to work with isn't a lot. I'm looking at about 1513ft^2 or about 0.034 acres. I will definitely become very practiced in the art of micro-farming with a set up like this. From the picture I will soon split it up into the different areas and what I'm going to change and improve. After that I will work out the schedule of when what will get done. Lots of work to get done!

(oh, if anyone out there is wondering the original is at 1/8 scale or 1/8 inch = 1foot)

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.