Hi Folks,
Jeff's post about cabin fever has prompted me into introducing myself.
I'm Paul, a burn-out technician/engineer/programer who is in the process
of finally moving to my homestead. I had originally planned on moving
last spring, but life keeps intervening.
I own 50 acres of Ozark Heaven, I call Ledgewood Farm. It's not too far
from Gene's place. (Gene, I promise I'll either stop down your way, or
invite you up to Ledgewood soon.)
Half of my land is flat and was last farmed in the 50's or 60's. The
other half is mostly a deep hollow with a small stream that survived
the drought of �99. There are some pictures of the place on my web site.
http://ledgewood-consulting.com and click on the �Ledgewood Farm' section.
There's a journal there too that I actually update occasionally. Once I
finally get on the net from there I hope to keep the journal updated at
least weekly.
I'm hoping to �farm' much of the both the flat part and the hollow using
techniques close to those developed by Masanobu Fukuoka. Basically I'm
going to toss out seeds and see what happens. OK, I'll have to do a bit
more than that to encourage them, but it'll be hard to tell there is a
garden there.
The soil has an OK texture (silt-clay or silt-clay-loam with gravel)
but the organic content is low and the structure needs work. It'll
take me a few years of soil building before I can really try the
�natural farming' techniques. Since I need to eat long before that,
I'm putting in a raised bed garden.
My idea was to remove the top 6" or so of soil from a bed about 4 or 5
feet wide and 30' or so long. Then I wanted to fill the trench with
stuff that would compost over the winter and replace the dirt on top.
I had a neighbor over with his tractor to level up a few places in the
driveway and pull a few stumps. I asked him if he could also dig the
trench. I gave him two beers and left. When I got back I had a trench
that's 7 feet wide, 35' long and as much as 2' deep. I don't have
enough compostable stuff to fill the trench and it seems such a shame
just to push most of the dirt back in that so far I've just left it to
sit. I'll haul in sawdust and add bloodmeal to it when I get the
time. That much sawdust will take too long to break down, but it's
the best I can do this winter.
I'll be building rabbit pens as soon as I get back, and I'll start a
flock of chickens in the spring.
Wild foods will also play a large part of my diet. Wild edibles have
been a hobby of mine since I was a little kid�-now it's time to make
them a significant part of my diet.
I've cataloged over 50 wild food sources there, and I'll be planing
more native food-bearing plants. I've probably eaten more persimmons
there this fall and winter than everything else I've harvested combined.
Other things I've enjoyed have ranged from acorns to crayfish to a
variety of greens. I'll have to thin out the coyotes before I harvest
any rabbits or quail.
There is a fair amount of marketable timber on the land. I figure
these are my choices:
1) I could sell the timber and make enough money to live on for a year
or two.
2) I could cut the timber myself and sell the logs and make enough to
live on for two or three years.
3) I could cut the timber, haul it to the neighbors sawmill, season the
wood and sell the lumber and maybe make a living for 4 or 5 years.
4) Only harvest what wood and other forest products I can use to make
sellable goods like furniture and arts and crafts stuff and make a
living for the rest of my life, while keeping the forest pretty much
in tact.
I'll let you guess what option I picked. :)
My to-do list for this winter includes:
Getting the garden trench filled in and ready to plant.
Clearing the scrubby pine and cedar trees from most of the flat land.
Putting in trails to the bottom of the hollow.
Putting in a sawdust toilet.
Adding a room onto the 20' camper I'm living in.
Having phone lines run.
Finishing the driveway well enough to use the last 300' in wet whether.
Making net to keep the deer out of the garden.
Half a billion other things, but that's the top of the list.
I guess the last thing I should say about myself is that I tend to be
verbose and brag about my land a lot. :)
==>paul
