Lots of fruit in the orchard is ready to pick. Wild grapes are seen in many places on the farm. This year the peaches in the orchard are going crazy, literally breaking branches.
Monthly Archives: June 2024
Fruit is Ripening
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Patrick Encounters Elk Herd on CDT
I really didn’t think there were still this large of an elk herd in southern Colorado, but what do I know. Pretty impressive.
Finally Spread the Compost on the Back Field
Bought the used manure spreader a few months ago but just couldn’t find time to get the compost spread onto the back field until today. Used the dump trailer to move 5 loads back to the edge of the field first.
Learned a critical lesson when I filled the manure spreader then hitched it to the tractor and pulled it into the back. Well, with the manure spreader fully loaded, going down a very steep hill caused the trailer to start pushing the tractor. Luckily the hill wasn’t that long but it sure was close to pushing the tractor sideways which would have been a disaster.
Actually spreading the compost was pretty easy, especially since my good friend JJ let me borrow his tractor to load the spreader, otherwise I would have had to unhitch, load, then hitch for every spreader load. There were many!
New Chicken Tractor Finally Done
I largely used Joel Salatin’s ‘EggMobile’ chicken tractor design. I like having a tractor that is enclosed and can protect the flock at night when most predators strike. Some notable changes to his design:
- Sloped 1:12 roof
- 16′ boat trailer for the base trailer frame instead of welding my own
- Two automatic chicken doors
- Solar powered lights to attract the chickens in at night
- Roll-out nesting boxes that protrude through the walls with ‘perch poppers’ to release the nesting box perch in the early morning.
Many of these changes have to do with decreased labor requirements. I don’t have a staff of interns to button up the doors manually, or clean the nesting boxes each day.
The boat trailer speeded things up, but I did have to purchase angle iron and have a steel working company cut and drill holes so I could anchor it to the frame. Below is a progression of pictures from the build until occupation.
Emily & Randy Arrived
Emily and Randy arrived from Denver, they are engaged now. Randy is looking for a job, likely as a chef and Emily is going to manage our chickens, the mowing and perhaps other things. So far so good, a few pictures of the first few weeks.
