I have a lot of catching up to do. I think it's been years since I sent out a letter. Postage has become too expensive and I just lost the urge to write. Now that I have a netbook (asus EEE Surf), I have access to the Net at work or where ever I can leach the wifi. I've been reading other blogs so I thought this might work. Please feel free to pass the net address to anyone you think might find this interesting. It's ok. If you comment and I don't respond, it's probably because I didn't figure out how to do so.
Let's start with the picture that I finally managed to post. I've become interested in animal power thanks to a science fiction book call Dies The Fire by S.M.Sterling. In it, most of the world dies when technology is reduced to muscle power by an unknown force. Since I try to farm, I decided to see how bad that would be. Stacey and I attended Horse Progress Days in Lebanon, PA in 2007. It was generally a nice vacation although pretty hot. I found that modern animal power users can do pretty much anything the tractor users can do, just slower. The picture is from HPD 2008 in Mt. Hope, Ohio. I just couldn't pass up going when it was so close. There seems to be a lot of new equipment being designed and built now. I'll try to include more pictures
The farm has done well. We put about 25 chickens in the freezer along with about 7 ducks. There are lambs to eat and a couple of Jersey steers fattening up in the barn. The garden was marginal do to insufficient weeding but still gave us plenty of tomatoes and cabbage. I didn't mulch this year and it cost me badly. The summer was cool and slowed the development of many crops but the hay did well. I actually got a second cutting which has been selling well putting me dangerously close to making a profit.
One surprise winner in the garden was Afghan Black Chickpeas. I planted an ounce and gathered about 10-15lbs. The plants don't look like any bean or pea I've seen. I think I can grow these in a field and harvest with the combine. I'll be a one stop shop for the Arabs who come here. Lamb, honey and chickpeas.
The bees did well. We only lost one hive and that from the queen dying of old age. We added 3 new hives at $110 each in the form of nucs. Purchased from a beekeeper in central Ohio, they consist of a medium super with a complete functioning hive in it. Since a 2lb. package of bees is about $70 and a new super is about $40, it's not too bad a deal. We have found out we have small hive beetle now. This means I'll probably have to extract a hive at a time to keep them from tearing the hive up. Honey sales are good.
Thanks to the cool weather and luck, Stacey managed to avoid any MS attacks this year. We hope that continues.
Stacey was a triple threat at the Ottawa County Fair this year. She got Grand Champion Best Of Show in canning, baking and oil painting. She also took a number of 1st prizes but who cares about such minor things.
We put on our old re-enactor clothes and wove cloth at the Oak Harbor Apple Festival. It was cold but kind of fun. We took turns on the loom set up in a log cabin in the park. If time permits, I may try to refit the old spinning wheel the historical society has and give spinning demos next year. The church wants us to teach the seniors to weave but that's pretty much a case of the blind leading the blind.
After the Apple Festival, we boarded a bus for a trip to Cape Cod but that will have to wait until next time.
