I am writing in the twilight of the evening as the icy wind blows bringing in a late freeze that is sure to kill the fruit trees of many. This week has delivered many good and bad things.  Some of the good, I am working almost full time now at a previous employers’ company. 

There are three 30×50 plots and one 10×30 plot which need to be planted.  Plot 1 will be reworked sometime this summer so it is a non issue. Plot 2 (the first of the 30×50’s) will be planted entirely in sorghum for use as chicken feed; we’ll probably use some for flour for bread. Plot 3 will be the vegetable garden which has been tilled at this point for the first time but currently has a layer of hay over it to break down on the second tilling.  I have 5 rows (25′ Long) that are in Onions, 3 rows of Potatoes, and 5 rows of Spinach currently planted.  What remains in this plot are the Tomatoes, Peppers (sweet and hot), Huckleberries, and Corn (I am sure there are more but that’s all I can remember off the top of my head). Plot 4 is actually a 30×60 and is the plot that last year yielded the dwarf corn (regular corn that didn’t get enough nitrogen) so this year knowing what the soil is like I had hopes of breaking it up into parts A, B, and C, planting a permanent Alfalfa bed (30×30) to feed to the Rabbits, Oats for Rabbit feed and bread, and Wheat for bead.  Plot 5, which is a 10×25 I am planning to plan all in Amaranth for use as both chicken feed and or flour for bread, most likely will be used as the latter.  Again the only plots to be tilled so far are Plots 2 and 5.  Tilling our soil requires lots of till time because of the rocks.

The barn still is in need of more siding.  I have not been able to do anything since the last update.  I could have done some work on it last Saturday but I had this hair brain idea that I needed a break because I was doing so much work and I was tuckered out. So what do I do?  I went fishing and got even more tuckered out!  I have learned my lesson.  I am not going fishing by myself ever again.  Why?  Because I couldn’t even enjoy the fishing trip because I was thinking “you know you really have a lot of work to do why are you out wasting your time fishing?”  I caught two fish and only got those at the end of the day.  Only one was a keeper.  I will not do that again!

I am contemplating using some of my income at my new job to pay someone to come by and help me on a Saturday work on some projects.  The way I look at it the work output of two people working together is greater than the sum of their independent efforts so I could increase my efficiency and get some much needed projects done quickly.

I have received one order to build some bee equipment.  I know time is passing me by in order to take advantage of the season but I am going to ignore that for now because there is nothing I can do about it.  I am working on the new site for the bee equipment manufacturing company idea.  Yeah, I could be trying too hard or going to big too fast, but the website was free and it’s the easiest thing I can do (since I have a lot of experience in web development) to improve my chances at success.  It was a part of the package for this site so I couldn’t think of a better way to sell equipment than online.  I can even do ecommerce which is taking orders online and customers can pay with a credit card (just like I can do now with The Myerstown Market).  I have the price list developed, distributers organized (for products I don’t make) and some of the services defined.  I even have an improvement to an old tool that I think will be useful which I will make out of my forge. I only need to build one of everything to get pictures and then begin taking orders and building the equipment on nights and weekends in my new barn.

I am going to most likely sell the equipment at the Farmers’ Markets and Swap Meets too giving me another source for advertisement and point of sale.  I will roll out the new official company name when I announce the website address.  I am sure it will be a slow start so I am not assuming much in the way of profit as I am only hoping to redirect the income back into building more equipment.  I hope to seed this venture with portions of my paycheck from Netwatch Inc. In my opinion this is the most “doable” idea I have had yet!  I have defined parameters and understand: How to produce it and sell it, Who to sell it to, and What it will take to develop a reputation to bring them back.  I also am hoping that I can use some of my contacts with the Ozark Beekeepers Association to bring more business.

The main thing to remember is that I see this bee equipment business as an extension of my current endeavor with Myerstown Family Farm.  It is a subdivision!  I haven’t given up on the Farming idea; it will be part of it.  Diversification is the key to success in business.  I am taking a more realistic approach, thanks to many of you who give great advice, I am going slowly.  While maintaining a full time job I will spend every other waking hour doing what I enjoy which really is being self employed and working with wood, soil, and livestock.

The Tomatoes and Peppers are growing much faster than they did last year.  I started them early hoping to avoid what happened last year but now I have giant Tomato plants and the weather is too cold to plant them.

So I had to remove one of the shelves on my growing shelf to allow them to grow.  They are now about 24 inches tall!

I had a second planting I did just incase and they are much smaller but are beginning to grow pretty fast.

Brandy had planted some tomatoes and peppers one time and they never germinated (because she unknowingly planted them too deep we now figured out) and so we reused the soil to plant again and we have a mixture of tomatoes and peppers.  It’s a mess.

I have been researching goats.  I bought a book I think will do the trick for giving me a good understanding of goats.  I have never owned goats in my life; only horses, cows, rabbits, chickens, pigeons, dogs and cats, but again, never a goat.  We wanted to have milk mainly but if Brandy can learn (because I know I won’t have time) we’d like some cheese too.  While reading the book I stumbled onto the fact that people even use goats as draft animals!  This surprised me as I assumed they didn’t have the strength or body mass to do such a task.  But think of it, you wouldn’t have to feed as specific as horses require or as much.  Goats eat everything and therefore would be cheaper to keep than a horse.  I could see new ground being a challenge to a goat but what about existing plots.  I would have no reservations about using a goat to plow and harrow my plots.  That would be the ultimate in micro farming self-sustainability!  I wonder if there are others who do this in that have books or some instructional resources that I could find?  If anyone stumbles onto this site and knows the answer to that question let me know.

On the music side of things I performed at Sparta Elementary for our church’s youth center fundraising Auction with the band I am in called Stringfield.  It was good however we have some work to do to get “tightened up” and clean up our beginnings and endings.

Here is one of the better tunes. It’s called Molly Put the Kettle On and its on my CD:

I also performed at Baker Creek Seed Company with two bands (I am not in the band they just asked for me to be their fiddler for this weekend) Sunday at one of their monthly festivals.  I had lots of fun.  I sold 5 CD’s to the company to sell in their store.  I would have sold more but I forgot to bring more.  I could only sell what I had in my fiddle bag.

I am working on some solo pieces of which I want to play, preferably with a guitar player who can play the fiddle too.  I am hoping to get into more vocals I really like.  The most recent interest is Norman Blake and the tune Gray Coat Soldier.  I am working on it right now along with a dozen fiddle tunes that I should have learned long ago but didn’t.  You know the tunes that every beginner starts out with…yeah those that I don’t know but people expect me to know!

So as you all can see I have a full plate and that doesn’t even include everything.  It’s hard to keep a good attitude about it because sometimes I get overwhelmed by the enormity of work left to do.  I just remind myself of the tortes and the hare.  When I am trying to get it all done like the hare, I become fatigued and depressed, but when I view it as a tortes - one day at a time, one minute at a time, one step at a time - I am able to maintain my composure and keep on keeping on.

God bless you all out there and happy planting and music playing….or whatever else you do for enjoyment.