Old Otter Holler Farm

OOHF Activity Update

Things are really getting busy at the farm.  I spent the entire day Saturday pruning apple trees (this makes the second day) and only have about 125 young trees (~ 7 years old) and about a dozen mature trees to go.  I also need to prune about 20 peach trees.  I estimate I have three more days of pruning to go.  The damage from winter deer browse was not bad this year, probably since the acorn crop was huge last year and the ground wasn't covered in snow for the entire winter.  I am suffering from apple borer beetle damage though and lost about six trees.  I plan to take immediate action on this to help prevent further damage. 

We've also been starting some seeds in the last few weeks.  Last week we started cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower seeds in our germinator and will most likely sell most of these flats of plants to local stores since we don't get many requests for these plants in the spring.  We'll also plant a few rows of each for ourselves.  Also, we planted several flower boxes with a variety of herb seeds and placed in our sunroom windows.  They should be germinating soon and will be a nice size by spring. 

Since the weather has broke and the days are getting longer, I've noticed the spinach and kale that we overwintered is starting to perk up and grow.  We'll start eating on this in the next week or so and should have extra to sell in mid-April.  We're also grooming about eight more raised beds right now and will be planting onion sets and more greens in the next several weeks, probably one bed every week to stagger the harvest.

The chickens have also picked up their egg laying and are now laying from 12 to 15 eggs per day.  I need to find a few more regular customers to compensate for the increased egg production.  I also plan to incubate a few dozen eggs in late spring to replace many of our Buff Orpingtons hens that are coming up on three years old this June.  The Rhode Island Reds that started laying in late fall last year continued laying all winter, which really surprised me since we don't heat the coop or provide additional light in the winter. 

We're still feeding the wild birds, but will probably start scaling back soon.  Speaking of birds, we cleaned out the bluebird nest boxes a few weeks ago and they have already moved in and started building their nests.  Talk about good timing!

On a related note, our sunroom has performed beyond our expectations over the winter, but we have a problem that will require some thought to correct.  Several times over the winter birds flew into the windows and died of their injuries.  In fact, yesterday evening a hawk flew into one window and knocked itself out for a few minutes.  It eventually flew away and I hope that it is OK.  The feeder is about 20 feet from the windows, but I may have to move it farther away.  I need to do some research on the web to determine what else to do.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

On a final note, we're also in the process of developing an excellent spring on the mountain above the farm.  I'm working with the National Conservation Resource Service on the project and hope to break ground on it in a few months.  Our plan is to dig out the spring, install a dam and 1,500 gallon cistern, then pipe the water via gravity to three fields and the hog pen.  As it stands now, we'll be installing frost-proof hydrants at each of these locations so I can set up temporary water troughs for the livestock.  I also plan to tap into the line to feed the house and save my well for the greenhouses and garden.  The spring water is superior to the well water and the best thing is we won't be without water if the power goes out since it will be gravity fed to the house.

That's about it for now.  It is Sunday and I'll be heading back up to the orchard in the next few hours to continue pruning.  I'll be glad when I'm finished and can move on to other things.  If anyone local knows of someone who is knowledgeable in orchard care, please let me know. I could use the help! 

Leaf Mulch and Leaf Mold?

In response to my previous post where I talked about improving your soil to help control garden pests, a couple of readers have contacted me for clarification on leaf mulch versus leaf mold.  I'm certainly not an expert, but the difference to me is that leaf mulch is the application of unprocessed leaves to the top of the soil whereas leaf mold are leaves that have partially decomposed making a black, friable compost that still contains visible leaf particles. This partial decomposition usually takes about six to eight months in our leaf bin, which is turned regularly over the winter and spring.

There are a few drawbacks to applying unprocessed leaves (leaf mulch) to your soil.  First, decaying leaves take nutrients from the soil, particularly nitrogen, which can negatively affect your crop yield.  Second, depending on the species of tree, the leaves can compact over your soil creating an anaerobic environment, which is also unproductive.  Lastly, leaf mulch is acidic and can upset the pH balance in your soil making it difficult to grow many garden crops that depend on soil slightly on the alkaline side.  Have I scared you yet?

So exactly how do we use leaf mulch since it has so many drawbacks?  The secret is to minimize the negative effects and capitalize on the positive.  Here at OOHF, we only use leaf mulch for our garlic and potatoes. Here's how we do it.  In the fall, we shallowly till our planting beds after the first frost to help expose any insect larvae to the killing frost and to eliminate any late weeds that have sprouted.  Next, we add a layer of Green Ash leaves about a foot thick to the beds, apply a generous amount of lime, then add about three inches of aged manure. The beds are then tilled again to make better contact with the original planting bed soil and partially chew up the leaves.  For the potatoes, these beds are left as is until planting time in the spring.  For garlic, we wait for a few fall rains to wet the soil, then plant the garlic cloves into the strips.  That's all there is to it.  So what are the benefits of doing this?   Adding the leaf mulch in the fall and partially incorporating it into the soil allows the decomposers to immediately begin their work.  It also adds organic matter to the soil and serves as a weed barrier in the early spring by blocking the sun from the soil surface.  Because of these properties, we have never had to weed or water our garlic.

The leaves we do not use for leaf mulch in the fall will gradually turn to leaf mold by the next summer.  Leaf mold is alive with mold, fungi, bacteria, and microbes that are necessary for productive soil.  Like our chicken manure, leaf mold is like gold and is used in a number of ways here at OOHF.  Although we have applied pure leaf mold as a side dressing to all or our garden crops, we usually create a mixture of  compost, leaf mold, and manure to increase our quality and quantity since we have quite a bit of ground to cover.  Our mixture works wonders!  The compost/leaf mold mixutre improves the soil tilth and water-holding capacity of the soil, is rich in calcium and magnesium, and is easy to make with raw materials right here on the farm.  Although leaf mold and compost do not contain much nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, adding the manure makes up for this shortcoming creating a valuable and renewable resource that is essential for growing healthy crops.  Best of all, it is all free!   

Farm Efficiency Improvements for 2010

Each year around this time we start to reflect on what went well at the farm over the last year and what needs improvement. This ritual has been responsible for many good improvements to our life and farm operation, some that simply proved to be an intermediate step toward a greater good, and some that were not so good. Here are just a couple of our observations and potential improvements for next year:

Record Keeping: I used to be anal about keeping good records...everything from crop rotations, seeding and transplant dates, livestock care and rotations, mowing, wood usage, insect hatches, etc. However, over the years I have gradually taken less notes and relied more on memory. Not that this is a bad thing because working out the gray matter has many health benefits, but inevitably you make small mistakes that may have negative impacts to your farm life that often can't be corrected for another year. My solution...start making more entries into ONE farm journal instead of writing things down in whatever is handiest at the time.

Water Source for Hogs: Each year we have evaluated our hog raising operation and have made several improvements that were beneficial to both us and the hogs. Some examples of our improvements include:

• Adding a nice pig pond (a.k.a mud hole) fed by overflow from the water trough and from the nearby creek;
• Purchased a DC pump, battery, and hose that we use to water the hogs and fill the mud hole using water from the nearby creek;
• Built a more rugged hog feeder that is easier to clean and will withstand abuse by the hogs;
• Added a single strand of galvanized electric wire (charged by a battery and solar panel) about one foot off the ground around the inside perimeter of the hog pen. This has really saved our fence and no hog has been able to escape.

To be sure, these have been good improvements, however, we still need to address a few issues that would make our life easier. Our biggest issue that seems to get worse every year is water availability in the creek. Hogs need plenty of fresh water and we usually have no problem supplying it most of the year, but the last five years or so the creek has been drying up progressively earlier each summer and staying dry longer. This year, the creek went dry in mid-July (usually our wettest year in at OOHF) and only intermittently flowed through September when the watershed received an inch or so of rain on several occasions. In fact, the creek is still barely flowing and here it is the middle of October. Like I said, this has been progressively getting worse over the years and we responded by installing a 550 gallon cistern to catch and store rainwater off of one of our outbuildings. When needed, we would then fill up a 60 gallon tank in the back of our utility vehicle, drive it to the hog pen, and gravity feed into their water trough and mud hole - a chore that took at least 45 minutes. Installing the cistern where we did was a good idea at the time; however, this is a good example of one of those ideas that was simply a transition to a better solution. After this past year, our thinking now is to move the cistern BESIDE the hog pen and either build a small roofed-structure to fill and protect the cistern from the elements, or possibly enclose it and also store the hog feed there. Alternatively, we could temporarily set up the cistern near the hog pen and use the DC pump to fill it when the water flow is good and only use it when the creek was dry.  Whatever solution we choose, the cistern will be located beside the hog pen.

Firewood Storage and Handling: This topic has been in our thoughts every year since we transitioned to wood-only heating. We are always looking for better ways to make selecting, accessing, cutting, splitting, transporting, storing, and getting the firewood into the house. The evolution of this series of chores has been interesting to say the least. We started out with one overhead shelter that would hold a year's worth of wood. Then, for obvious reasons, we built two other structures (overhangs on existing out buildings) to store new unseasoned wood and implemented a rotation scheme that has worked out well. This improvement solved our issue of comingling seasoned and unseasoned wood, but did little for the chore of transporting it into the house since these shelters ranged from 100 to 200 feet from the house. To complicate things, we added the sunroom which made getting the wood into the house messier and more of a chore. Here's the new idea that we have been working on for the last several weeks and plan to have in place by mid-November:

• Build a large overhang (25' wide and 16' deep) off of the southwest side of the house (completed). This overhang is large enough to store all of our seasoned and unseasoned wood;
• Using one of the two basement windows just below ground level on that side of the house under the new shelter, build a wood chute (with outside door) that extends into the house and stops about four feet off the basement floor. This chute, protected by the overhang, will allow us to pick up a piece of wood, turn around, and drop it down the chute into the house eliminating 1) the need to handle the wood more than once to get it into the house,2) the use of our utility vehicle saving fuel and maintenance cost, and 3) the mess created by carrying the wood through our new sunroom. There are other benefits, but these are the most obvious;
• And now for the final idea that makes this solution so cool. Build a wood bin about 30" square on heavy duty casters to place under the open chute in the basement. The bin will be large enough to hold a night's worth of wood and allow us to push the bin across the basement to the woodstove where we need the wood. This would eliminate the need to handle the wood one more time before use and keep the basement clean since all the debris would fall into the bin.

These are just two of the best ideas we've had this year as a result of our experiences over the years. I could probably spend the next week writing about other ideas we had this year, and maybe I will since these three improvements will save an untold amount of my time freeing me up for more pleasant activities...like blogging!

Preparing for the Flood

OOHF is  located about a mile from the Greenbrier River, one of the longest rivers in West  Virginia (173 miles) draining an area 1,656 square miles.  It is also the longest undammed river east of the Mississippi River.  Although the farm is not physically affected by flooding along the Greenbrier River, we do experience two or three significant flash floods per year as Wind Creek, a perennial stream that runs through the farm, jumps out of its banks and inundates several acres of the farm with debris, soil, and of course water.  I'm not sure how many square miles Wind Creek drains, but we are located at the mouth of the valley and see every bit of water from the watershed flow by on its way to the Greenbrier River.  Although the flooding usually means several days of cleanup, some stream bank erosion, and replenishing the gravel in portions of our 1/2 mile driveway, I try to keep a positive attitude knowing that the floods are responsible for replenishing my deep, rich loamy soil in the floodplain.  One of the most important flood mitigation strategies we have implemented at the farm over the last 10 years is to restore the stream's riparian zone.  I don't want to delve into the details of our riparian zone restoration project in this post because it deserves its own.  Suffice to say for now that it is one thing we have done to insulate ourselves and our property from the negative effects of flooding here at OOHF.

Most of the flash floods we experience here are in the early spring and mid-summer, usually due to an inch or two of rainfall over a short time that runs off of saturated ground.  However, the potential flood we currently face is a bit different.  Due to the remaining snow in the Wind Creek watershed, warming temperatures, heavy water content of the snow, and the possibility of heavy rains later in the week, we could experience the mother of all flash floods here at the farm.  I have read reports by weather forecasters that estimate the moisture content of the snow anywhere from a few inches to eight inches of water.  I really can’t imagine what will happen if it rains a few inches and all this water rolls down the holler. With this magnitude of flooding, there is a possibility that I may lose my bridge that I need to enter/exit the farm, and there is not much I can do about it either.  The bridge is constructed to withstand flooding, and has withstood quite a few large floods since I’ve lived here, but one can’t underestimate the power of fast-moving water.  I've included a few images of past floods here at the farm to put this in perspective.  So, what else do we do here to prepare for flooding besides relying on our established riparian zone?  Well, we try to ensure there are no obstructions in the stream that impede the flow of water, ensure culverts and other water bottlenecks are clear, and ensure no equipment, livestock, or anything else we wouldn't want to lose is located in the floodplain.  In addition, we make sure we have plenty of gas and our generator is serviced and operational if we lose power.  A good chainsaw, tractor with an end-loader, and a variety of hand tools are also a necessary for post-flood cleanup.  Food and supplies are no problem since these flash floods only last a day or so.

This is not the case for those who live along the Greenbrier River.  For the sake of all the communities located along the river, I pray that the upcoming storm tracks south and allows the huge snowpack along the higher elevations of the Greenbrier River watershed to melt slowly over the next week.  If it doesn't, this could be the biggest flood on record here along the lower Greenbrier River.  Although I don't personally have images of prior record floods on the Greenbrier River (1985 and 1996), there is plenty of information on the web detailing the extent of flooding in those years.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

 
 

 

 

Catching and Storing Rainwater

Here is Summers County West Virginia we are blessed with about 38 inches of rainfall on average each year, most of which is evenly distributed between the 12 months with July being the wettest month and August/September usually the driest.  Since we fence off the stream on the property from our livestock, we had to get creative in how we water the animals or risk creating unnecessary work carrying water.  We have several ways we water the animals.  For example, we use a 12v DC bilge pump lowered into the stream and connected to a marine battery and garden hose to make mud holes for the pigs, top off their water trough when it doesn't rain enough, spray them down when its hot, and to mix water with their food.  In one of the images below you can see that we collect rainwater off of the pig's overhead shelter (10' x 10') and direct the flow into their water trough.  This is usually enough to keep the pig's trough full from early spring until August.  The pig pen is only about 20' from the stream which makes it a good backup water source when we don't get enough rain.  However, in August when the creek is very low and the rains cease, we switch to the 550 Gallon cistern in one of the images below, which we fill over the summer.  The roof that feeds the cistern is about 16' wide and 40' long and doesn't take much rain to fill it.  The 550 Gallon cistern is enough rainwater to water all or our livestock during the driest months until the rain resumes in October.

We catch rainwater from most of our outbuildings (and house) on the property.  Each of the paddocks has a 10' x 10' loafing shelter (like the pigs) which we catch water from and direct to a trough.  Again, rainwater is enough to water the lambs, poultry, and cattle from early spring to August.  Below are some examples of how we catch rainwater.  We also catch rainwater via swales, diversion ditches, and ponds on the property, but I'll save that for a later post.