Its Spring, and that, for the Myers Family South, means its time for the garden to be put in. Now before you go a tellin’ me “Y’aint doin’ it old time because you got one of them there gas powered Rototillers”, I am going to make this disclaimer. I dont have any horses or land for horses (3.5 acres in the shape of a banana is not sufficient) but I intend to eventually and when that day comes…who knows I will most likely try to migrate to completely powerless farming practices.

I am reading a book right now that I cant put down - Stop the press there is a book on this earth that I cant put down!!!!!

The title is “Making Your Small Farm Profitable” and written by Ron Macher. Now most of the information in the book can be applied to conventional farming methods or to old time farming methods. I read it with old time methods in mind. If your interested in creating a sustainable farm (a farm that produces every thing - corn to feed the goats, goats to feed people and so on) then you should get this book. I got it at the “Baker Creek Seed Company”. You can see their website here but if you live in Missouri they are right in Mansfield.

With in the last 4 days I have learned a ton about farming (crop and livestock). I have learned about Heirloom seeds which are not Genetically altered - Alterations that have been linked to various illnesses and the seeds cannot be reused the next year because of hybridization.

Pasteurized milk destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer, and Homogenized milk has been linked to heart disease.

Well with this new wealth of information I am now even more intent with my interests in old time things, namely food production. I am not even content to go to a health food store and buy my food…nope as I migrate away from the crap we buy I am going to try and produce each product one at a time till I am independent from commerce. There may be a few things I have to do without but that is just what I’ll have to do.

Below are some pictures of me, my wife and my garden. This is my third year with a garden here. Each year the garden has doubled in size. Well this year it did it for the last time. I am out of room…I am not cutting down that tree!! It is now 28′x50′ and I am going to have a lot more variety this year. All seeds are heirloom seeds (with exception of the potato’s).

I have:
potatoes, onions, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, jalapeño peppers, green beens, tomatoes, and a lot of corn.

Here is what it looked like while I was working on it on Sunday after Church and Monday cause I was off work.

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Yes, thats me using a tiller after laying down a even application of Rabbit Manure. I have read that tilling is not good for the soil because it causes the soil to use up its energy and decreases water content. However my ground is so rocky I have to till it at least once.

Hoeing rows for the corn. I tried to put them about 6 inches apart but they ended up 8 to 10 inches apart

Brandy, My wife, is helping me to strain out some of the dirt to make a good seed bed inside the rows because our dirt is so rocky. Later I went to a friends house and got some good high organic mater soil and strained it to get some good soil.

Adding Dirt the Rows

For all who are waiting for a music or a blacksmithing post there is hope on the horizon. With my garden “in” I have time to do other things while it is growing. I am working on a DVD of the biggest Jam session we have had yet at McClurg. I already have a few requests for it if anyone is interested I dont mind sending them to you free of charge (within limits of course - Now that I have mentioned I’ll have a 1000 orders ha ha).

The forge is just waiting for me to mount the blower to it and turn it on.

I am thinking about maybe getting a Milking Goat, LaManchas are the breed I was thinking about because of another blogger using them here in Missouri.

Thanks again for reading and I hope you’ll let me know you read it…even if you didnt like it