Thanks again for reading and a special THANKS to my two boys for helping out the Old Man again! ! Love ya guys! !
Todd
A blog about agrarian ideals, interests, and ideas.
In October of 1995 Marla, the boys and I moved onto this property here in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The 2 1/2 acre property and house were a fixer-upper for sure. The weeds, in what was suppose to be the lawn, were three feet high, the scrubs were higher than the porch roof, the roof leaked, the basement frequently got water in it and the mold was so thick on the kitchen cabinets that my Mom actually thought they were black! And these were just a small sampling of the challenges we faced in binging this house and property back to respectability in the 21 years that we have been here. During this time about two-thirds of the acreage has been cleaned up and receives regular mowing, trimming and cultivating (in the flower and vegetable garden). But there has always been this other one-third of the property that has been a veritable jungle of brambles, brush, vines and thorns - until now! ! ! A few days ago The Big Dawg borrowed a small machine from a friend of his and he went to work on cleaning up "the jungle". About 8 hours later nary a bush is to be seen. The only thing left of "the jungle" is some nice Walnut and Ash trees and two big brush piles that await some diesel fuel and a match. What a difference! Watching "the jungle" disappear has truly been a monumental moment that has been a long time coming! ! The purpose for all this work is so that I can have the animals out on pasture instead of cooped up in the barn all the time. The fencing contractor will complete his work in a day or two and then it will be time to plant the pasture grasses - at just the right time - the middle of March. For the past six months I have been reading up on what kind of pasture grasses to plant. The laymans research I have done points to the fact that clovers (both white and red) are the foundation of a quality pasture. So I will be planting 25lbs of white and red clover and 25 lbs of a grass mixture - 30% perennial ryegrass, 30% meadow fescue, 25%orchard grass and 15% Kentucky bluegrass. I have no "farm equipment" so all this seed will be broadcast by hand on bare ground that has only been "prepared" by the machine that did the land clearing. No plowing and no tilling as on a conventional farm - this is all a very low-tech, low budget approach. All the spring work is just around the corner. A partial listing of what is in front of me this spring is. . . hang the gates on the openings of the new fence, plant the pasture grasses, haul LOTS of manure, make compost piles, plant 15 new raspberry bushes, cover the garden pathways with wood chips, rebuild some of my aging raised-beds, plant the raised beds, till and plant the garden, start 4 new feeder pigs and start a new batch of meat chickens just to name a few items. This should keep me out of trouble for awhile! !
Thanks again for reading and a special THANKS to my two boys for helping out the Old Man again! ! Love ya guys! ! Todd
2 Comments
marcia stahn
3/6/2017 01:39:09 pm
Good job. Love reading the blog
Reply
melanie oswald
3/6/2017 05:23:46 pm
Sounds like you'll be super busy. Love your blog!
Reply
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AuthoRTodd Frey is a Christian agrarian from Chester Co. PA Archives
March 2019
QuoteS:"Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it." Genesis 2:15 |