Erwinia amylovora........beginner's luck!

Shortly after  planting the apple orchard two years ago, fire blight broke out in the Sacramento Valley. Many farms and nurseries were hit hard by this disease, including ours. This is the source of insanity!
 

 

 

     Fire blight is a systemic disease. The term "fireblight" describes the appearance of the disease, which can make affected areas appear blackened, shrunken, and cracked, as though scorched by fire. Primary infections are established in open blossoms and tender new shoots and leaves in the spring when blossoms are open.
It's been a battle dealing with this virus, and there's been a lot of truck driver jargon involved! We have lost 17 young trees so far. This year, after consulting a few "experts" and doing research on the web, I have decided to prune down the trees down to 3–4 feet in height. This will allow me several new tools to deal with this ongoing issue. First off....I will be picking off any and all blossoms that will be appearing this spring. There is nothing for the bees and other nectar-loving insects to do but carry this infection to other trees. The other non-loving nectar bugs, such as beetles and ladybugs, will be killed off with orchard sprays every three days. If the pests choose to stay on the tree during the winter dormancy period, they are exposed and are much more vulnerable to the control efforts. Many disease organisms are also just as exposed and are much easier to control as well. For the disease organisms, a copper spray is used.
 It was very hard to butcher my work! The piles of cut branches will be burned soon—it's the only way to get rid of the fire blight in the area. I don't want to haul it to the local waste dump, for I may contaminate any trees along the route ....from falling branches and/or leaves.

We won't freeze.......but the pond did.

 The pond in the chicken yard is solid ice. So solid that, I thought I saw a few chickens ice skating out there! The weather has been totally off this year. I don't recall having freezing nights in December.....not for 23 consecutive days so far. Last night was the coldest....24f . I'll be doing a waterline inspection of the entire farm later today.....looking for busted pipes from icing up. Perhaps if I have time, I'll skate with the chickens for a few minutes.

We won't freeze.

A standard cord is considered a 4'x4'x8' stack of wood including bark and air space. I just got finished sorting out the "other" pile wood that was delivered out in the apple orchard field last year. That pile turned out to be 70 feet in length! Add this number to the stacked wood I did a week ago, that's a total of 172 linear feet of wood. 20 some cords of wood. This is ten years worth of burning for us here at the farm.
  Stacking wood is best if it's not laid directly on the dirt. I laid old worthless wooded planks and branches  down first, then stacked my rounds up top. This will prevent moister from the ground from contact with the firewood. Moister softens the wood, and the bugs will infest. Fungus will get in there too. Best to stack all wood so that it has good air circulation, and off the ground.
 A standard cord of pine wood ranges from 4,700 pounds to 5,550 pounds. We have "mixed" wood such as Ash, Oak, and Mulberry....all which is heavier than pine. I moved over a hundred thousand pounds of wood, by hand (and my back)!

"House of Chicken"

 There are two chicken coops here. The left, taller structure was added a few months ago. We are building the flock up to 150 birds eventually. The eggs will be sold in bulk numbers such as 5 dozen or more, per client, per week.
  It's a free range yard. The "ladies" have absolute freedom to roam. There is no need to close up the coops at night, our dogs do a excellent job keeping the night raiders away. Skunks will scale any height of a fence, grab a chicken, and then drag it over the fence! Possums will do the same. Of all these raiders...the stray dogs of the area are the most threat.
 I have lined the interior of the coop yard with heavy logs we get from the tree service, to stop the diggers from getting thru. The chickens will attempt to dig out as well, from their coop yard. Don't kid yourself...chickens are very good at digging! We lost a handful  of these escape artists, in the beginning of our chicken raising adventure.

The first coop built as seen here above, has an access door to open.  Reach in and grab the eggs,  from the boxed nests that I have attached to the interior wall.  It's really cool to open up that door and see chickens sitting right in front of you...laying in their nests. The "nest" are double wide plastic milk crates, that my good buddy Rom gave me.....he owns the  A & M Market in Sacramento. The use of plastic makes cleaning of the coop a easy task.

The young kids that visit the farm....loves this coop. It's the number one place to go to, for all returning kids. We let them collect the eggs, and take home their bounty.

Number Four tells the others..."it's pork".

Yes sir...they want some too! The farm dogs eat all too well here. Our dogs are tamed and well mannered....only if they get a bite of this roast!

Cold battles.....

 A scene from this morning here at "Icy Farms". My orange trees have more blankets on than I did last night!
 It has been freezing for two weeks now. Weather forecast shows another week's worth of this coldness. The young orange trees are holding up well this year. I covered the trees with burlap before any "unexpected" frost hit us.
 Last year I awoke to heavy ice in the orchard, the trees took a big hit. It was a struggle to keep them alive for the rest of the year because the leaves had died off....it is the leaves that creates a "blanket" to keep the branches freezing. It's all about protecting the branches!
Once the trees are 4-5 years old...the burlap blankets will not be necessary. Then I can be warm again at night..........

Using the Orange grove twice

 

 For the past week, we have been fencing off the entire Blood Orange grove. This included the area surrounding the farm house. The horses now have a new pasture to graze in. Fact is, the happy critters were let into this grove just a few hours ago. Oh yeah...fresh green grass!
 Horses will not eat the citrus trees. They may rub against the trees, but I see that of not being a issue. To say again...I am doubling and tripling the land use here at The Natomas Farm. Another green pasture to enlarge our rotation system of the grazing areas. Over use of any pasture will simply be a environmental and monetary blunder.
 So here's what I create at the Blood Orange grove.....no more labor of mowing of the orchard, savings on horse feed, savings on fuel cost, and we'll still get a juicy crop of Blood Oranges! Now....what else can I get in there to use the land even more intensely?  :-)
 As with all the grazing pastures, monitoring of the soil compactness and plant damage will be done weekly......and routine movement of horse to pasture to pasture....will have good results.

It's a win / win deal

In the below picture, the farm brings in wood chip material and wood from a tree service. Most tree services are happy as heck to find ways to depose of their daily waste.....to avoid paying $80.00 per load at the county refuse site. To us...this is not "waste", it's gold! The pile below was 42 feet long. I have spent the week picking and pulling this pile...to get it stacked. Halfway mark! I have found lizards by the hundreds living within the woodpile. Termites and wood beetles too. This pile is actually a accumulation of two years worth of deliveries.

It's all stacked now! I have hand split some of the more seasoned wood, which cracks with an axe with ease. Wood that has been stored for at least two years will split with ease.  We heat our farm house strictly with a wood burning stove. Heating bills from the SMUD is non existence here.

Much debris is on the ground.....and is used too! Nothing goes to waste here at the farm. This debris is loaded with insects. Instead of hauling it away at a cost (fuel, dump fees, time), I spread it out thick under the trees and shrubs. This will then promote more insects, for the chickens to eat! The debris will also hold down the moister from the summer heat, saving us the cost of running the farm well. Finally....all this stuff will break down into compost, rich with nutrients for the plants. It's a win / win deal.

Mimi is part of the farm now.

      




 Many years ago, back in the late 1950's......this weather vane was up top of my childhood home in Arcadia, Ca. The story is that my Grandmother Mimi gave this to my parents as a gift. Mimi was perhaps the greatest person in my childhood life, alongside of my Aunt Gail and Uncle Allen.
 It's been packed away for a special occasion these past 25 plus years......it is now installed up top of our garage. I now have great memories as I drive up the driveway each day.

11 pissed off pigeons

 I wish that I had started this blog when we first bought the farm a few years ago. Having said that.....there was a lot of improvements completed in the beginning. For example.....the barn pictured above was a total write off. The roof looked as if a few meteorites hit one night.....the walls looked as though somebody drove in and out of the barn, not using the entrances...and the winged rats had taken refuge in the loft.
 The farm in general looked like that place shown in "Green Acres", the T.V. show of the 60's. We did question ourselves of our sanity after buying the farm :-)
 Finally...the face of the barn is completed. It looks like a farm here
now. Bad news is there's 11 pissed off pigeons that got evicted from the
top level as I had to install the new upper door,their only access in and out. I'm using a umbrella when I go out tomorrow!
 The back side of the barn is yet to be restored. I am tearing off all the exterior panel wood...and replacing that, due to rot. A new staircase with a balcony will be constructed too. I'm just glad that we had a roofing contractor apply a new roof, some three years ago.

Butternut Squash was harvested yesterday

The finale test crop of our Butternut Squash was harvested yesterday. I intentionally left some squash out in the field for a extra 3 weeks to see if the "meat" gets better. It does! Richer in flavor....densely orange. It pays to experiment. Butternut Squash will be a crop...alongside of Banana Squash....as a cash crop. Both squashes can be stored for months in a cool dry area. .....this means we can sell at a premium price during the winters!

My brother Richard a few years ago made a mashed squash dish for me....it was awesome! Here's my recipe.....you'll never go back to mashed potatoes!

Mashed Butternut Squash

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
Butter ...more the merrier!
Two giant spoon scoops of brown sugar
salt and pepper

In large saucepan of boiling water, cook squash for 20 minutes or until tender (just like if you are making mashed potatoes). Drain and return to pot. Mash with butter, salt and pepper. Serves 4.

I'll try roasting the squash instead of boiling it......may have deeper taste.....next week. Also....I found a recipe for french fried Butternut Squash (?!).

Hey...do you mind?! Get your own room!

Pasture rotation

The results of pasture rotation. We have sectioned off four areas of the farm....three more more areas to be added later this year........for allowing the pastures not to be overused. This has proven to be a very good system.

Our first pasture was overused. It still has not recovered. Live and learn!

It's October and the stuff keeps growing.

Squash from last week's heat wave.

Still more to come with flowers! The chickens are in for a feast for several weeks with this crop.

Tomatoes. I pulled buckets more..... a few days ago. Made pizza sauce....and froze into waxed paper cups. No buying of pizza sauce for a year! I think the rest of these will go to the chickens, stem, leaf and fruit.......that's 3 weeks worth of feed.

Our other crop is Grand kid Flowers.

Not sure what to do with 800 Jr's !

800 seeds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The test crop of our sunflowers was harvested today. Small ones produce about 800 seeds and the larger ones 2000. Botanically the seeds are actually fruits. The test was this: can I get shade off the sunflower....in the Boysenberry berry patch? The berries produce much larger fruit when direct hot afternoon sun is blocked. Answer: yes indeed. A double crop using no addition land. Fruit trees such as Apricot or Nectarine will provide the shade too. Finale decision on this...next Spring.

Drive thu dinning?

Mc Horse! Best drive thru in town! Just finished installing two of these "windows" inside the barn....for passing the horse's meals. There is a wire screen dividing the stalls.....cant be seen in this picture. This saves Jeanette from having to walk around the barn to feed Sugar and Big Girl....and/or trying to feed them through Sunny Boy's stall....

I think the lizards are winning

 

Sparky, The Terminator..............Sparky, the "Mum dog" of our dogs.....will spend HOURS each day at the wood piles. She has discovered Lizards! The hunt is in her blood now. I have to drag her into the house sometimes....she just wont leave those lizards. I think the lizards are winning :-)

When?

"Damn Lucky" is asking.....when does the Halloween hay ride start?

The horses

The three horses. Happy horses in a happy home.

Hollywood comes to the farm.

The"film crew" was here this past weekend. My 16 year old son Nick,  is producing a film, with his film club from the Sacramento Country Day School he attends. Overnight stay and a great bunch of kids that said "Thank you" too many times!
 We often get kids here...and they are given "The Tour" of the farm. The Natomas Farm is being designed and built, to accommodate visitors. We take great pride in offering what farm life is.

Standing guard

For those of you who haven’t ever owned a rooster, let me fill you in on how useful they are to a flock…

A good rooster warns his ladies of danger. If a hawk is around, he will lead to shelter.

A good rooster shares food with his ladies. When he discovers an extra special treat, he’ll cluck in a particular way and the hens will all come running to see what he has found. Then he’ll step aside and let the ladies enjoy.

When a good rooster loses sight of one of his hens, he will call her frantically until he hears a response and is able to locate her position.

A good rooster stands guard, and keeps a watch out while the hens peck and scratch in their own carefree manner.

Whenever one of his ladies is in trouble, a good rooster will sound his alarm and alert everyone of the danger she is in.

Now.....we have second generation white roosters....along with the first generation red one. Today I just discovered a second fully grown red rooster in the yard! That makes four. I think we are getting drive by'ers....and they are throwing their roosters into out chicken yard!

Who wants a free rooster (or three)?

New babies on the way

CONGRATULATIONS Jeanette and Deno! It's a girl...no....it's a boy....Mmmmm...?
The second generation of chickens have started to lay eggs!

What happens when the chicken stops laying, you ask?

Fine dinning for the chickens

What is this wheel barrel full of?

Money!!!!

The tomato plants from the field produce a large shrub with edible leafs, green fruits, and over ripe red fruits......each morning I delivery the chickens their feast. All is consumed except for the thick root and stems.
No field waste refuse cost. No chicken feed cost . Free omelets each day :-) Again....using the land "twice". One for tomatoes...the other for chicken feed.

Damn Lucky, Number Four, and Black.

 

 

 

 The three girls were born here at the farm. I actually helped with the births. That was an experience. We couldn't ask for better dogs. There are now five dogs here at the farm.

Good eats

Last of the carrots are in. These carrots has 10x the flavor of what you find at the store. I'll be adding recipes in a few weeks for good eats.

Way up there.

20 feet off the ground......painting a barn by hand....and scared of heights, I am absolutely crazy. Not sure if the ladder was wobbling or my knees! Made this paint bucket contraption to keep the paint nearby without falling towards the ground. Front of barn should be "face lifted" and painted by this coming Friday.

Hello, I'm Mister Ed

A horse is a horse, of course of course,
and no one can talk to a horse of course,
that is of course, unless the horse,
Is the famous Mister Ed!

Go right to the source and ask the horse.
He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse.
He's always on a steady course.
Talk to Mister Ed.

People yak-it-ti-yak a streak
and waste your time of day,
but Mister Ed will never speak,
unless he has something to say...

A horse is a horse, of course of course,
And this one will talk 'til his voice is hoarse.
You never heard of a talking horse?
Well, listen to this...

I am Mister Ed

Getting there

Almost done with the facelift. Upper door will be installed...hopefully...tomorrow.

Fix'in the runway

The "runway" metal "T" posts have been replaced with wood posts and non-barbed wire. The horses FLY down / up this slope.....I have concerns that a horse may get caught up on the tip of the "T" post or barbed wire. Nasty that can be. Next......FAA approved airport lighting gets installed.

Doggy express lane

"Oh ya...new way to get pass this gate.....no more getting my belly all dirty up by going under it"

 "Oh ya..I love this new way to get pass this gate.....come on Mom Sparky Dog"

Hun? What new way?

That wood pile!

I wish Ronald Reagan was still alive....I'd have him out here splitting my firewood !

That's the next major job...to split this year's wood for the winter. We have 10-12 cords of wood...and counting still more to come from the tree service my sub-contractor owns. The use of the hvac for heating is never used. Either the wood burning box...or the rarely used space heaters in the rooms.... late at night. I despise paying money to SMUD or PGE !!!!!!

"what the hell is it now"

Resumed the painting of the barn today. A week delayed due to a "what the hell is it now"? week! It seems that all that is needed to be fixed or replaced....gets clumped into a week at a time. The weather tonight (actually tomorrow) is dropping down to 36f in downtown Sacramento....we are always 5f cooler. .......so it's 31f tonight and the orange grove.............like I said..."what the hell is it now"?

Wood burning firebox blowing maximum right now......and Sparky dog.... is happy dog!

Hope these grow well.

Wow..long day in the fields. The crew and I have been planting the new winter crop.

Happy chickens, and the pigs also.

It's cold today. Prepping the chicken coop for the winter to come. We cover the face of the coop with a fiber paper (weed block) to help keep the winds out of there...and to contain the body heat that the chickens put off.

Pig hut will get a cover too...shredded plastic strips like you see at the truck bays. I also dug out a shallow trench to divert rain water away from their hut.

We grow various Ornamental grasses such as Zebra grass, Red Silver Miscanthus, and Calamagrostis Karl Foerster within the house landscaping. This is used for bedding material in the hut and coops. Again....almost every single animal or plant here at this farm...has a purpose. No waste.

Now Jeanette is thinking about buying a new mattress set.....perhaps a bed of grass would be cheaper...and more natural :-)

Doubling the useable space

The fig trees did great this year. Jeanette and I would go out to the trees in the a.m. to pic n' eat the fruit right off the trees! Sweet like candy...better. Again...a experimental crop that proved to be a WINNER. The horses will not disturb the trees what so ever...therefor...I am installing a Fig orchard into the "Lower Arena" and around the fence line of the "Sunrise" pasture" (over by the Elm Tree) side of the farm. Doubling the useable space is the name of the game here. We currently have 17 trees...will bring that number up to 60 units.

Vicky has lost her legs

It seems that Vicky has lost her legs again. I am currently trying to find them.

Tall grass and more freedom

The horses were released today....into the Pluot orchard field. Tall grass and more freedom to roam. I am monitoring the activity to see if the animals will eat the trees. I think this will not happen...if there is ample grass to forage on. We'll see! This idea will save money (buying hay) and (not mowing).

Go ahead....eat what little is there.

We have acres of land here......green, fresh'ie, yummy green grazing acres.....and yet the horses have gone to the newly opened extreme corner of the farm...thru the wood piles and the bee hive construction site ......to eat what little is there!

Yesterday I released them into a new area for grazing.....tall green grass.....and they prefer to stick their heads thru the fence...to eat that single standing little ol" weed!

The horses

Big Girl is the brown female. She was the first horse to arrive at the farm. She'll give you a hug when asked! Sugar....our ol' pal. He arrived second to the farm. A little stubborn...with a whole lot of personality. And last...Sunny Boy that arrived recently. He was saved from the food processors. This guy will do nothing but show love! One of the most tamed horse I have ever encountered. We got lucky with Sonny Boy.

1, 2, 3....go!

It's "let out" time. 40+ chickens are ready to go. It's like a mad dash to the K-Mart blue light special! We plan to add many more this Spring. Chickens are sold off at a premium price after 6 months. Our first generation chickens (the red and the browns) will never be sold.