Weekend project

[Merle Hawggard]

Awesome updates as always! Since Chuck and I are adding bees to the farm this year I'm going to keep a close watch on your adventures!

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[emetzger]

Thanks Cutman!

Lake, it’s so hot during harvest in July, I can barely ware a hat and vail. Although sometimes I get lit up pretty good. It all depends on their temperament.

Chainsaw, I will have to do some picture updates on the apple trees and c chestnuts I planted in the blueberry field. The chestnuts have done really well in that spot and I think it’s due to the lower PH. I have been applying sulphur pellets for years. They actually made some nuts this year.




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[emetzger]

More updates:
My older apple trees did really well this year. In the past I have tried spraying with pesticide and have had good results but since keeping bees I have not sprayed for 3 years and my orchard has not been top notch.

This past summer I decided to try a spray regiment that would (bee)less harsh on the bees. I sprayed 2-3 times with neem oil mixed with crystal soap. I think I will do it again this next year but add an early oil treatment on wood in March.

I will also mention, I prune aggressive and also plant a strip of wildflowers near orchard to encourage predator insects.

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[emetzger]

Here are some summer and winter cover crops to improve soil at the farm and my home garden. Most of my summer mixes includes: cow pea, buckwheat, sunflower, pearl millet, sun hemp, milo and E wheat. Most of these get devoured by deer and I have the grains standing to crimp.

For my fall mix I use: grain rye, oats, F radish, crimson clover, H vetch. I plan on crimping these next spring and planting hemp to see how it does. Some fields I may drill a companion crop of buckwheat. I did try a new cover crop called Balansa clover. It touts a 200 lb nitrogen per acre exchange if rank and can create tons of biomass if grown well. We’ll see!

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[emetzger]

Planted some small transportable food plots. We can’t bait so I just grow plots in these 200 gallon rootmaker bags and wood boxes and set them where I want to hunt.




Not really! These are pots I’m preparing for hemp next year. Cali style! I have old mulch in these with chicken fertilizer, lime and a bunch of cover crops. I burned some leaves in some to add potash.

My plan is to terminate cover crops next May and plant some plants. The deer really do hammer these pots though, It might be a good idea to hunt over them in extreme parking lot conditions.






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[TreeDaddy]

The roller-crimper is bad ass

How old is the Tye drill? Are they still being made?

bill

 

[emetzger]

The roller-crimper is bad ass

How old is the Tye drill? Are they still being made?

bill

Thanks Bill! The crimper and drill go hand and hand.

Collin builds and sells them from Heseman farms drills. Not sure how old it is, he cuts down 20 footers and builds these. Mine works great.

Only complaint is that big wheel off the side. He builds them without the wheels now.
His number is +1 (618) 335-1121.




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[emetzger]

Great thread, it is most helpful and inspiring. Am interested in how you made out with your narrow fencing experiment on the apple tree pictured on your very first post on this thread. Wondering did you continue to prune all branches below the fence top and how did the tree turnout?

Chainsaw,
Here are some of those trees I planted on the first page. Chestnut, and apple trees I grafted.








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[emetzger]

Spring update 5/15





Lots of bees getting caught!



Crimped and added worms to my mini food plots!

About to test my new ATV/UTV crimper.






Got the garden crimped. About to plant some plugs.




A friend sent me this book on growing veggies. This guy has some great secrets on his compost and who knew kudzu would be his special sauce.



Got a couple rabbits


Tried my hand at cloning some hemp. Don’t think I will ever try to keep mother plants alive all winter. Sure did learn Alot though.




Tried making some cbd oil. Hey it’s pretty good. Everclear is expensive though, not sure I could make any money washing it with food grade alcohol.


My youngest boy got his first bird! Said he can still see the beak in his mind from the shot. Aim small miss small! He’s a better shot then me.




Me and the boys got a lot of planting and chainsaw work done in March.






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[cutman]

What a great update.

 

[TreeDaddy]

great thread

No luck with my swarm traps thus far

Congrats on yours!!!!!

bill

 

[Elkaddict]

Great update!

 

[Chainsaw]

Great bird and super picture of it. Congratulations to your son.

 

[emetzger]

Update 5/16 -12/3


I started with 3 rabbits and now I have around 30. They are creating a bunch of manure so I can compost and use next spring.







Grow pots did great this summer. I planted cover crops, added some worms and crimped and planted hemp in June. Next year I need to use a trellis net to keep them from falling over.








I tried drilling hemp seed and roller crimping it this Summer. I used the JD7000 and had my kids drop seed manually down the shoot. I crimped while planting off the front. Some popped up but I ended up planting to deep. With hemp seed it shouldn’t be more than 1/2” and ideally 1/4” like clover. Also with this method I learned you better have your weeds under control. Johnson grass was bad. I have another field I’m trying next year that will do better I’m sure.



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[emetzger]

Honey harvest was awesome this summer. We did about 500 jars and they moved pretty quickly.



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[Mennoniteman]

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Honey harvest was awesome this summer. We did about 500 jars and they moved pretty quickly.



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That's awesome, nothing sweeter! Anyone that can keep bees alive nowadays with colony collapse disorder really knows what they are doing. I did honeycomb uncapping and extracting for many a day back when I took care of my dad's bees back when beekeeping was easy. I see you don't have an electric knife. Do you heat your uncapping knife in hot water?

 

[emetzger]

I haven’t tried a heated knife but hear it’s the way to go. I don’t heat the knife but just cut cappings off. It’s actually easier to remove capping for me if frames haven’t set in my car and are super hot. In my small brain you don’t want the frames to hot or to cold. To hot then honey is running off frames and transferring to spinner is a mess but to cool it’s harder for honey to sling. We usually harvest in my garage in July so it’s pretty hot but we can run fans.


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[emetzger]

I made a new stand this fall. Reminded me of some of the old style stands I used to hunt out of down in Selma AL. I’ve had a few sits in it where I think I could harvest but next year I need to darken it up a little more. I had one doe peg me. I think she could see through it.


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[emetzger]

I got my hands on an old fire pit grill. Welded some legs on it and had some steaks. Wish I would have brought it to my house. So good!


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[emetzger]

Some good mineral stumps, compliments of MSU deer research podcast.










I made some more biochar. I think I’m going to start a new business and call it “Thumper Char”. Biochar loaded with rabbit poop. So far it’s composting well and it should be some good organic fertiliser. I will need to test it out on some fruit trees or hemp.


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