Deer Fence Installation Day 1

The fence was *supposed* to go up in one day, but what's *supposed* to happen doesn't always!  We do have 2 lines up and the corner posts set, and should finish tomorrow.  It must have been those days in the 80s that spoiled us, because we just weren't able to persevere as we should in the sleet/snow/weird frozen ice pellets that were coming down today.

We are using an electric deer fence to cover about 5 acres of land.  It has 6 ft steel T-posts for the corners and gates, with bright orange poly-tape lines at 18, 30, and 50 inches (off the ground) supported on 5 ft fiberglass rods.  We don't have snazzy pictures of that because it was just too wet today to risk the camera in the fields!

Near the hedgerow we have 2 additional low wires at 5 and 10 inches to (hopefully) keep out the bunnies and groundhogs, in case Arlo fails at this rodent-eradication job.

We bought the components largely from Wellscroft (up in NH) and Kencove.  We were only a little disappointed... Kencove had a sale on fiberglass rods, with the catch being that they were hot pink.  We thought this would be extra snazzy (a blaze orange and hot pink fence!), but fortunately for our neighbors, they sent boring old white posts instead...

In total, we are fencing 3000 linear feet with a single, electrified fence, with 3 to 5 lines and 2 access gates.  Should deer pressure get really bad, we would add a second fence line about 5 feet in front of this first line (deer have some depth perception issues, so the double fence really can deter them).  We aren't sure how bad the pressure is here, but feel like we can't risk not fencing in the produce, since one night of busy, voracious deer could wipe out beds worth of crops.  However, we are not convinced that deer pressure is so high here the we would need the double fence up front.  Because of this uncertainty, we made sure to get a fence that will be easy to change to adapt to our needs (and in the future if we don't need it, it will be great for livestock).

For the installation, this is what we did...

Step One--get a battery and get it charged up while you assemble the charger/stand/solar panel assembly.  We chose this charger on the recommendation of Dave at Wellscroft, since it can run off the battery (or solar panel combo), OR be plugged into regular house current.  Right now, we don't have power in the field, but we hope to have power out there in 3 to 5 years.  This charger is a little bigger than what we need right now, but it is sized perfect for when we have some animals on the farm.

Step Two--clear out all the annoying corn stalks that will snag on your fence lines.  We hope to reseed this to a low clover/grass mix eventually.

Step Three--prepare all the posts/rods for the fence.  I *hate* fiberglass (it gives me hives), but boy are these rods cheap (so we went with the fiberglass and the little squeeze-on metal hooks).

Step Four--go get all the corner posts and rods set in the field.  (We will have pictures of this when it stops raining/sleeting).  We are using 25 ft spacing between rods, with T posts for all the corners.  For our section, that runs around 15 T-posts and 110 fiberglass rods (we used the 3/8" 5 ft long rods).

The exciting conclusion when we return... (or when the rain/snow stops so we have more pictures!)

Tillers and Peppers

Big day on the farm... The tiller arrived, so now we are set to plant!  Of course, *today's* weather is not quite so planting-encouraging as the last few weeks (so we are holding off for a few more days... not that 17 degrees in the air will chill that deeply into the ground).

Here's Matt making the first pass on the right.  There was definitely good news in that the tiller seemed to handle the soil and corn stubble fine (we were a little worried about that, since there's some pretty serious stubble, and the tiller, believe it or not, is actually a bit undersized for our tractor).  But things worked up nice!  On the bad news, however... there were certainly a few more ROCKS than we anticipated.  Not that we can't handle rocks (we did come from NH), but we were hoping they were a thing of the past!!

Here's a close up before/after of what one tiller pass looks like.  Matt choose to try the tiller on one of the rougher areas of the field... it had been pretty compacted by previous field traffic (it's right by the entrance to the field).

What you see on the left (before) side is soil that has a fair bit of wind erosion going on... not an uncommon thing on a windy site with some slope that's been in a pretty "clean" (read:  weed-free) corn field for most of a year.  What happens is the wind whips through exposed ground and removes the "fines" from the soil (all the little tiny parts), leaving the larger gravel pieces exposed on the surface.  One of our main operational goals is to reverse the process.  This is much easier in a diversified produce operation, than for folks growing corn.  We will protect the surface fines by keeping the soil covered up more--either under plants with more leaf area than corn, or by cover crops (particularly in the windier off-season months).  To build up the soil more, we ultimately hope to add composted manure.  But until we have animals (or a source of local manure), we will focus on cover crops.  This summer we will be using a mix of buckwheat, red and white clovers, and a range of grasses.

Other big news on the seed starting front (besides the fact that we are living overnights with something like a hundred flats in our house... we will appreciate getting our greenhouse up next week!):  peppers are planted!  We intensively seed them in open flats and then pop them on the heating pad at 85 degrees.  We planted about 3000 plants this year, of a mix of hot, sweet, and unique varieties.  Check out the varieties HERE.

Peppers (along with eggplants and tomatoes) really like an extra boost of heat in order to germinate.  Since we have limited space for seedlings on our heat mat, we start one crop each week, and then rotate them off as they germinate.  Peppers grow the slowest, so they get a head start (followed by eggplants and then tomatoes).

It's been hard these past few weeks to control ourselves from planting more things early, but we have.  Last night as the temperatures started to drop, we were glad we hadn't jumped too far ahead of ourselves!  There is actually a crop warning for the next couple nights for our region for growers to protect things like trees that are prematurely blossoming.

One last pic before we go... herbs are germinating GREAT!  In the past, they have been tricky for us (they each are particular in their needs), but this year, they are doing really well... even the rosemary and lavender (my two personal favorites)... can't wait for them to be in the CSA (and at the market)!

Tractor Arrived!

(Sorry for any formatting glitches!  We are learning for the better--or worst as the case may be--insert images into posts)

So the tractor arrived! We are trying out picture posts... so here goes:

Germination!

I've been growing veggies for a long time, but for some reason each year, I don't *really* believe anything is going to grow until the first round of starts germinates!  Which it of course it did right on schedule (as it does every year) ...

We have three types of lettuce up (one red, one speckled green, and one beautiful scalloped oak leaf), two cabbages up (one green savoy and one deep red), two broccoli's up (both early season, heat-tolerant cultivars), rainbow chard, 2 kale's (lacinato and red Russian), and even some herbs (perennial herbs can be a bit tricky to germinate since some of them need very specific light and temperature ranges).

As you can see in the pictures, we are starting our seeds a bit differently than normal this season, since space is at a premium right now.  We are planting initially in open flats (show in the pictures), and then transplanting to normal cell trays once the seedlings have one or two sets of true leaves.  This way takes a little bit longer, but is much more space, heat, and potting soil efficient.  Each cabbage, lettuce, and broccoli flat holds 800 plants for 2 weeks, while the herb flats have double that!

Though with the weather holding out so warm, we will be switching this week back to our more standard seed starting methods for the first rounds of CSA-bound kale and chard.  Also on the seed starting docket this week are 7 varieties of peppers!

Field planting is also on the way... tractor and tiller arrive shortly!