Monday, March 23, 2015

Spring fever is far worse than March madness!

Spring fever is far worse than March madness!

All I can think about is when will be a good time to start our seeds. I wanted to get greenhouse material out and on the frame. My better half kept telling me it's too early! We could get more snow and the greenhouse would not be able to handle any snow.
We bought a greenhouse kit on a big sale on Amazon and now we know why it was a big sale. It has very thin poles that bend easily which we learned the hard way when it blew across the field after a hard wind blew  through.

I had to secure the greenhouse to the raised beds. I wasn't to happy as I wanted access too all sides of the raised beds. I built the beds 18ft long by 3ft wide and 2ft tall. Our ground has a lot of clay and boulders and digging is no fun at all. We dragged the greenhouse back into place and it worked ok for us last year. It didn't hold up to rain and wind very well and a lot of the seams are starting to fray. I really can't wait to get a real greenhouse built and running but for now we will do what we can to get things going. 

There are all shots from last year and it looks so nice and warm!



I also experimented with a Hügelkultur berm. 
Hügelkultur this will take you to a Wiki page to explain the concept. It worked well for us and I am going to add another one this year. Here is what ours looked like.

I put up a deer fence around the gardens and found out this fall that rabbits can eat through plastic fence and will have to go around with some wire fence this year. 

This is all covered in snow now. It is starting to melt but taking a long time! I want to work the soil and eat fresh food again. We have planned the raised beds already and are waiting a bit to start the seedlings.

Back to work for now another post soon!

Jeffrey Sawyer



Thursday, May 29, 2014

Our first chickens.

We want to raise our own food, and after a lot of reading, chickens sounded like the easiest animal to start with. We ordered the peeps from our local feed and farm store and a day before they arrived we attended a 'Raising Chickens' seminar.  We were pretty excited and since it was a very small crowd, got all of our questions answered and were coached on what additional supplies we'd need (heat lamp, bedding, feeder, water container, etc.)  The following morning before picking up our first batch of chicks, we readied our brooder box (a large Tupperware storage container).
Our new additions to the "farm": 7 chicks consisting of 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Ameraucana, and one Light Brahma. We quickly discovered that chicks grow fast!  After a week, I needed to come up with something bigger for the girls. So I dug around my wood pile and found some nice pine and made a bigger brooder box. They loved to be able to run and stretch their wings and legs!
Having no experience at all with chickens and brooder boxes, I never thought of how tall to make the box. My chicken wire was three feet wide so I decided that would be the height of the box. It wasn't until we moved the young ones in that I noticed our arms don't reach inside to the floor of the box!! Getting the food tray in and out to clean was hard which required me to cut a flap in the wire near the bottom. I used wire to make twist ties to secure the flap so problem solved.  Here is a picture looking thru the flap:

We never would have thought that chickens were smart but we were quite happy to see that they learn things very quickly. Well, most of the time! They learned that this was the place that treats (green grapes, mealworms, greens, and seeds) would come from and that freedom was a hop away!  In the picture you see the Brinsea EcoGlow Brooder in the back left corner. If you are going to raise chickens and start them in your house, I highly recommend this product as heat lamps are a major cause of fires. (A house fire in a nearby town was due to a heat lamp for chickens in the fellas basement). 

We added a perch for the girls. It was a tomato stake and worked very well.

They grow so fast!  To keep them happy and entertained, we added a stump for them to play on and hung a mirror for gazing. (Yes, chickens do love to gaze at their own reflection!)  The girls were feathering out and we wanted to take them outside so bad but our winter was long and so cold. Eventually when it did warm up, we lined our dog crate with chicken wire and layered in some straw. We loaded them up and headed outside for their first glimpse of sunshine and blue skies. 

Diane had so much fun with them outside! I went and dug up a chunk of grass and added it to their outdoor 'pen' and the girls loved it! They scratched and picked at that clump of dirt and grass until it was gone. It was a little cramped in there but they didn't mind at all with so many new things to see and hear.

The next post will be the new coop the "Chicken Condo"!

 

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Long Memorial Day weekend.

Wow that weekend went fast and I didn't get things finished as usual LOL. I am kinda glad to go back to work and get a bit of a rest! The coop run project was in trouble right off the bat. I did all my pricing online and got my budget for the run. I even took pics of the items at Lowes so I could find them easier. The shelf was empty but a young man working found more above the shelves. They pulled it down and instead of 19 gauge wire it was just plain chicken wire. I love how many times you have to explain why you don't want chicken wire for you chicken coops and runs!! So now I had to scramble to find better wire. It was all so expensive. I saw a roll of wire that was 6ftx50ft and bought that and the rest of the things on my list. I got home and started constructing the run. I was finally ready to start putting the wire on and when I went to open the wire I noticed that the wire was kind of soft and bent with little effort. I looked at the label better and saw it was 14 gauge wire ughhh! So needless to say the coop did not get finished this weekend. I am taking back the wire to Lowes and ordered the correct stuff from Amazon and it will be here Thursday. 






The greenhouse is going so well I am really pleased about that! My Huglekulter bank is now mulched and I hope that will help the young plants stay watered better and help with erosion. I have some more seeds to plant still and more plants I started from seeds to plant also. It is all coming together tho and looks good so far. I also barely avoided stepping on a rattlesnake yesterday and we had our fourth bear visit in as many weeks. We are buying a shotgun this weekend... can you say bear jerky??


Sawyers Susquehanna Aquaponics Farm/279806145502988 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

First time blogging.


Hello everyone,

 Welcome to our first blog. My wife Diane and I (Jeffrey) live in central PA and work full time jobs. We started living healthier lives a few years ago by hiking and trail running and wanting to eat healthier.
 Healthy food is what started us on this new journey. We looked at what was in our food and started reading labels and hearing news stories. So we decided this year to try to eat REAL food. So how do you get real food? The organic sections at the grocery store are so expensive and just fresh produce costs a small fortune. The meat aisle was not much better and with the huge droughts in the Southwest, prices are only going to get worse. And not only the prices.....but the chemicals that are added to everything.  Not to mention the salmonella outbreaks and other horror stories that are always on the news!
 Our choice was becoming clearer:  We needed to grow our own food. So we started planning a garden. How big should our garden be and what kind of garden? When in doubt Google it! I started reading up on vegetable gardens and was amazed at all the ways people were finding to grow their own food. So the first step was I found heirloom seeds and certified organic seeds and we started an indoor germination area while the snow was still on the ground.    
 We are lucky as we have almost 10 acres of land in the middle of forest gamelands. Space is not a problem but our soil is!
I really enjoyed reading all the different ways to grow food but was looking for a way to grow food all year long or as long as possible in central PA. I stumbled across passive solar greenhouse designs similar to Mike Oehler's earth sheltered solar greenhouse and will use earthbags for the walls. The foundation is dug into the ground below the frost line.  You get geothermal heating and solar heating to help keep the temperatures up in the winter time and be able to keep winter crops going all winter.
  Our intention is to be as self sustainable as possible. We will be using chickens and rabbits to help supplement the heat in the greenhouse thru the winter time. We will also be using compost as a radiant heating source. Building a large compost pile and using a closed loop tubing system will provide ample heat in the winter and come springtime will have nice organic compost for the planting beds.  I found an automatic vent opener that is a temperature-sensitive device that automatically opens and closes greenhouse windows. Works throughout the day and maintains a constant interior climate.

  We will use every Eco-friendly technique we can in the construction and operation of this garden. By using a few solar electric systems, we will power the water pumps for the aquaponics side of the greenhouse.  

  Our goal is to eliminate as much as possible having to go to the grocery store. We will also know exactly what is in our food as we will be feeding and/or growing it all ourselves. Our own fish, chicken, and rabbit for protein and fresh vegetables and fruit.
We have enough land to be able to expand as the business grows. We will sell produce at local farmers markets and am working to see if we can get into some local grocery stores.  We are committed to making this new adventure work!