Pipe dreams

I'm quite certain that I am not the only one who day dreams about the future and what might happen.
These days it seems my woolgathering has been focused more around the farm/ranch that I will eventually open with my dad. I'm not sure if that is because I have already been to college once before or some other reason. What I should really be thinking about is now what could happen but, what is happening currently. That being my GI Bill funding has finally come to an end. What this means is that I'm now back in the position of having to support myself the old fashioned way. Either that or I have to win the lottery. Sadly counting on the second option is right out. The thing that I have found most difficult to accept or even understand is how hard it has been to find employment since I graduated. When forced to reflect on that I would have to say that most likely it has been the result of looking in the wrong area or of not adequately presenting myself. Another element to that is probably that I am looking to support myself not find a job that will be my "career". Out of all the jobs I have had the only two that could possibly even fit into the career category are working in kitchens, and the military. Right now I would say military would by far be the best option. Speaking of that I just found out that I am back within height/weight standards for the Army. My plan for the moment is to go back into the reserves, but I reserve the right to go back on active duty too. I think what is really happening is that I know what to expect from the military life. That and I don't know in the absolute sense how valuable the degree I am pursuing will be in my life. It almost seems like it will be worth it more to go back into the military, get 20 years, retire and then start the family business.

What would that business look like?
It certainly will not be a "commercial farming" operation. It would definitely have elements of that. There will certainly be livestock, cows (mainly for meat), maybe some pigs or goats, sheep, certainly there will be chickens, and I would like to have a few horses (dual purpose, riding and work). We would grow at the minimum a majority percentage of our own feed (51%+). We would have an mixed orchard of peaches, pecans, pears, blackberries, blue berries and maybe even some grapes. There would be at least an acre of garden just for us, everything else would be market stuff. Specialty stuff like honey that we could produce in house, or specialty heirloom produce. We would have solar inputs to keep down electricity costs, we would try to minimize reliance on fuel consuming items, by heating with wood and using large animals for a portion of the work. I would like to have at least 100 acres of land but closer to 200 would not be bad in my book. That way we could have a little land in woods to use and to hunt in too. Not that I've spent any time thinking about it though right?

Does anyone else have something long-term that they have been planning or hoping for?

It looks like fall at home

But it is now officially winter. Today I took, fifteen yard bags full of leaves from around my families neighborhood and they now cover my garden. Mulch is by far my most effective defense against weeds. It is also completely free for me too. If things go as planned I will not have to do any serious amount of weeding to plant my new seeds and transplants this spring.

Pipe exploded

Well one of my outside pipes bit the dust today. In the middle of the day right when the temperature was on the way up to 40 it suddenly was shooting water up into the sky. Lucky for me I have emergency shut off valves for just this reason. So I went to the local hardware store and got an endcap to make the temporary repairs. 65 cents and half an hour later I had running water again. This time I made sure that it was adequately insulated (I thought it was pretty good the first time). Fingers crossed that I don't have to make anymore repairs tomorrow.

It froze

The whole garden is completely frozen. It is also covered so I'm hoping that some of the tougher greens, like the Swiss Chard will survive. I'll have to wait until its around 30 to know for sure, but fingers crossed.

Adventures in season extension AKA Hoop House ver 1.0

So my hoop houses that I built this Tuesday lasted until yesterday morning. Apparently the combination of cold weather and small amounts of frozen precipitation cause catastrophic failures of low tunnels. At least this is the case with ones made with painters plastic and duck tape.
This is the result.

The worms

So far the worms have survived. Luckily this is despite my best efforts to ignore them. You see my house is kept cold 90% of the time and I fear sometimes that they will suffer from that. But so far so good. I did get some cool pics from the Texas Worm Ranch folks when I took my class. I won't talk about the behind the scenes bits but I think these pics will show that they know whats what about worms. Hopefully in about 6 weeks I will have some worm castings to add to my soil and seed starting mix. That will definitely help me get a head start on things for the spring season.

The lesson

The goods

Last week I was able to get some pretty good stuff out of the garden. I got to harvest red romaine lettuce, collards, swiss chard, spinach, and the last of the carrots. I'm pretty pleased as this is my first fall doing this gardening thing on my own.

Baby it's cold outside

You know season has really left summer behind when you can smell fires in the air. Although we Texans have only had one day were we could see our breath its still time to make sure the garden is protected. I have my first set of hoops up over two of the raised beds that are still producing. I'll finally be able to finish that set up tomorrow with the help of an extra set of hands. We will be stretching plastic over this in preparation for the freezing temperatures set to hit on Wednesday. Additionally I hope to build a cold frame to protect the third raised bed. I have also been mulching lately with leaves, wood chips, and leaves. This helps to maintain moisture and modulate soil temperature. If everything goes according to plan I'll continue to produce greens and perhaps even some root vegetables throughout the winter.

Update. I built a short lived hoop house. Here is the final result while it lasted.

I have my own seed bank

Not in the true sense of the word, but I'm starting to amass quite a neat little collection.

Here is what I do have:
Waltham Butternut Squash
Red Cored Chantenay Carrots
Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe
Cherry Belle Radish x2
Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard
Detroit Dark Red Beet
Muncher Cucumber
Dark Green Zucchini
Early White Bush Scallop Squash
Hale's Best Jumbo Cantaloupe
Marketmore 76 Cucumber
Sugar Baby Watermelon
Crimson Sweet Watermelon
Cherokee Wax Bean
California Wonder 300 TMR Pepper
Clemson Spineless #80 Okra
Roma II (Romano Bush) Bean
Early Prolific Straightneck Squash
Chives
Witloof Di Bruxelles Chicory
Spaghetti Squash
Golden Beet
Globe Artichoke
De Pierre Benite Lettuce
Tete Noire Cabbage
Bacalan De Rennes Cabbage
Romanesco Broccoli
Brunswick Cabbage x2
Red Romaine Lettuce
Merveille des Quatre Saisons Lettuce
Florence Fennel
Carob De Maussane Pea
Hairy Vetch
America Spinach
Wando Peas
Laurentian Rutabaga
Purple Top White Globe Turnip
French Sorrel
Russian Tarragon
English Lavender
Holy Basil
Chervil
Burdock
Caraway
Coriander (Cilantro)
Cumin
Red Clover
Lacinato Kale
Tendergreen Mustard
Old Fashion Mustard
Dill
Georgia Collards
Italian Dark Green Flat Parsley
Florida Broadleaf Mustard
Brown Mustard
Zebrine Shallot
Jaune Paille des Vertus Onion
Purple of Sicily Cauliflower
Autumn Giant Leek
Atomic Red Carrot
Charentais Melon
Petit Gris de Rennes Melon
Ananas D'Amerique A Chair Verte Melon
Blue Berries Tomato
Gold Rush Currant Tomato
Black Vernissage Tomato
Green Zebra Tomato
Cherokee Purple Tomato
San Marzano Lungo No.2 Tomato
Roma Tomato


These are obviously not in any particular order. Sadly I don't have the space (at least not yet) to plant all of these. I will however do what I can to keep everyone up to date on what I plant in the future.

Tomorrow

I'm pretty excited for this weekend. I'll be driving over to Garland, TX to participate in a vermiculture class. Texas Worm Ranch is putting on this worm composting class. What will happen is we will get a chance to learn how to compost using worm bins. This will help me use my kitchen and paper scraps in a way that should help make my soil much better for the spring coming up. As far as I know there are still some slots left people should definitely go.

Chicken coop for Black Friday.

Many people went out on black Friday and bought TV's and other consumer electronics. We instead bought a chicken coop. I am really excited about this new addition to the homestead. All I need to figure out now is what chickens to get, where to get them, and when to get them. Any ideas? Im looking to start out on the easier side for my first go at raising poultry so the lower maintenance the better for me right now.