Category Archives: Farm work

I’ve been wrestling with ways to enhance soil fertility.  Of course, my goal is organic, so no synthetic fertilizers.  When I first started out, I’d bring in organic compost but it’s a lot of work between shoveling it into wheel barrows and getting it into beds.  It’s backbreaking & time...

After planting 1,000 trees at the beginning of May and 1,200 last spring, we need some real spring rain to get the trees of to a good start. It seems that we’ve gone about 4 weeks without more than a trace of rain and things have been unseasonably parched.  With...

Hey farm friends! That 4′ of snow covering the fields three weeks ago is finally melted and the fields are beginning to dry out.  We still have snow in the woods as maple sugaring season winds down but our thoughts are turning to planting the Christmas trees. Winter was so...

With September comes time for our annual equipment maintenance on the farm.  I’ve tended to dislike these types of routine maintenance because I dislike getting covered in petroleum products and it always feels like a waste somehow to take seemingly fine oil and replace it with fresh oil.  Of course,...

Seems that I’ve had to spend a lot of the beginning of summer fixing a few broken things.  First, my disc horrors broke leaving the second gang of disks in the field.  I thought something was funny when I rode by them on the tractor.  Then one of my lawn...

Just getting in a little plowing practice with a half acre field for next year’s trees.  I’m surprised at how much subtle skill is required to do a good job at plowing.  The worse one does, the rougher the terrain is at the end of the process.  A block plowed...

There’s a line of white pines that I’m eager to take out to open up some long forgotten apple trees and high bush blueberries.  This will be perfect wood for boiling maple sap next spring.  Thanks to Chris, Danielle & Scott, and Atlanta for helping out — there’s more trees...

This is what happens when your helpers are tired and not listening to me say: WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T DRIVE THERE.  Yes, you guessed it, they get stuck in the wet ground.  On the plus side, I get to bring out the tractor and pull the truck out and that’s...

So, you know that story where Tom Sawyer tricks his friend Ben to into painting that ol’ fence? Sometimes I surely feel like that, too.  With this week’s adventure on the farm, I was joined by my friend Jim who turned out to be eager & enthusiastic to join in...