Category: Farm Work

Pruning Grapevines

Spring is here according to the calendar but not quite for a gardener and farmer in our neck of the woods.

What a tangled mess it wove!!

What a mess! I need to do some research on one end of this concord vine because it has had lots of new growth, huge leaves but no grapes. The other end just started producing two years ago and it’s a red grape. We have several arbors of grapes mostly blue and one small vine that wraps around our woodhouse that has wonderful white grapes every year. They’re not huge nor are the other grapes but they’re all super sweet. I also need to figure out how to get the grapes to grow bigger. All of them now are about the size of a marble. I want some about an inch around. Any suggestions?

Much neater than before.

I didn’t cut it back as far as I usually do because for some reason the last two years we got a huge amount of new growth and leaves but not many grapes. We’ll see if this thinning is better for grapes than years past.

Transplanting Asparagus-Part Two

This is a continuation of a previous post.

The mass of asparagus roots has been dug up and transplanted and moved.

Hubby helped me dig it up because I couldn’t get the shovel to go in the ground at this spot. He dug up 14 large clumps and I dug the holes inside the garden fence for their new home. I’ve never seen such a tangled mass of roots in one little two-foot space. Last year it produced quite well but was overshadowed by the pear tree on one side and the grapevines on the other side.

We didn’t space any certain way when we transplanted and because other groups along the fence are doing quite well, we just filled in those space with about 10 – 12 inches between and buried deeper than the root balls.

I’m not sure we will get any produce from these transplants this spring or not but I’ve covered them with a little chicken litter and watered well. Now we wait!!!

The soil is really good in our garden but we constantly amend during the cold months with ashes from the stove and all of the litter from the chickens and rabbits (when we have rabbits).

After we finished this I pruned the grapevines and hauled the trimmings from them and the plum trees to our special spot to die, decay and make another rich place for planting. It’s also a good hiding spot from the hawks for the wild rabbits and squirrels.

Much neater than before.
The rhubarb patch is sprouting. It’s usually the first thing we harvest.

Next will be our very messy yard but it will wait until this next wind/rainstorm passes through.

A New Piece of Equipment

As soon as you think you have everything you need in the way of equipment something breaks down or wears out. Such is the case with our hay tedder. What’s that??? Well, it’s a piece of equipment that speeds up the drying process of the hay that has been cut and that usually saves at least one day, sometimes two, depending on the heaviness of the hay. The most important function of the tedder is it fluffs the hay to let air flow through the rows of cut hay, and it also brings the bottom of the hay to the top and exposes it to sunlight, which leads to faster, more uniform dry down.

Our wore out tedder is a single row machine and since we had a good last sale of our calves for 2022, Eddie decided to buy a double row machine to make things go even faster. She’s a beauty and she’s ready for the hayfields.

Our daughter, Heather, will more than likely be using this equipment if it’s cut on her day off from her off the farm business. She loves working on the farm with her Dad.

The hay tedder is also a fantastic tool to dry hay when we get an unexpected shower after the hay is cut or if a fall cutting gets frosted after it’s been cut. We let the sun dry the top and flip with the tedder to dry what was on the bottom.

We’re always looking for ways to improve our farming work and time and make life just a tad better. Now we just need for Mother Nature to do her part.

Bull Lot Fencing

We started on the bull lot fence Monday and got all of the bad wire fence down and the broken posts pulled out. The new posts have been placed and the wire tighteners on the end posts. The brace post where the gate entrance is, has been put up and then we had to stop. The weather isn’t that cold, but the winds are blowing at 20 – 40 miles an hour. We just can’t tolerate that now. Here’s a few pictures of what we got done in about two hours.

Brace post at the lot entrance.
We placed treated posts but there are still a few of the old locust posts that are still firm in the ground.
The lane between the bull lot and the pond field will have mostly four strands of high-tensile wire with a single barbed wire at the top.

If Mother Nature allows it, we hope to have the wire strung and nailed on next week.

I love working outside with hubby and accomplishing as much as we do at seventy+ years old.

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