How to Multi-Task Spring Farm Projects

Posted on April 15, 2019April 16, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

It never fails, springtime is busy and this year has been busier than ever. For many full-time farmers, this time of the year is a bit easier for them than those who work full-time off the farm and work the farm business as a second job. Well, the latter is my husband and I. We both have full-time jobs that take much of our time and in addition, we are both still quite active in our military Reserve careers, which only adds to the challenges when faced with the multitude of projects that need to get done this time of year.

Make a detailed list
Discuss all projects
Place in numeric order with highest priority on top
Determine what can be done personally, reflecting time, capability, and available resources
Pull out what can be done personally and start another list keeping the same numeric ordering
Determine what can be hired out, or convince friends for help if available
Start projects with highest priority first. Many can be done simultaneously.

My first accomplishment… finished my LAST required class for my Masters Degree! I have my capstone to do still, and will most likely do that this fall when the produce season is over.

The first project on the books this spring was the hay fields. John and I have some great debates sometimes. For the last year or so I have been talking about starting a ‘pick-your-own’ strawberry patch in the ‘front 5’ acres (we have names for each field that we both understand). He was so against it. Mainly because of our time restraints, but also to cut the huge cost of our yearly hay bill. I knew we had to do something to cut the cost, but my heart was set on strawberries! So last year we purchased some hay equipment to prepare for this year. John convinced me to give up my berry patch and plant a hay field there to lower the costs of our yearly hay bill. After much consideration, John won. More on that later. We missed the planting time last fall, so a friend of ours came over with his equipment and seeded in the front acreage and re-seeded some of our existing pastures. So thankful for wonderful neighbors, and the first major project is done! My answer to multi-tasking is to hire out what you cannot do yourselves. Consider all of the possibilities but place your priorities up front. This was a MUST for us and we were not able to do this ourselves.

You are probably wondering how John “sort of” won the battle. Well, he might have gotten his hay field but I am still getting to plant my strawberries. We decided to plant ever-bearing strawberries in our main field and move most of the peppers into another field. While this will not be a pick-your-own patch, it will give us berries to sell all summer. If this works and doesn’t stress us too much we will add to this by preparing another field and planting more this fall for a bumper spring crop. The berries will be planted on black mulch like all of the other vegetables and irrigated with drip tape.

The best onion planting tool
Ready to plant Strawberries

The next major project was preparing some of the fields for early crops such as onions and strawberries. I had prepped some of the fields while John was off in Germany on military duty and started planting. I have no idea what got into me when I ordered them other than seeing the more you buy the cheaper the bunches were. So funny! I’m nearly at the end of one of our larger rows… 550+ feet, and I still have some left over. Goodness. If I figured right, at a 4″ spacing in a double row… it is roughly 3000 plants. I have the most awesome planting tool too! I might even patent this one. LOL… We do not have any commercial high-tech planting machine for these so I opted for the old stick method and my hand. Yes, that is nearly 3000 onions planted by hand. Goodness, what was I thinking? I found it quite relaxing, however, and the next major project done. Again, priorities are a must. Sure other things need to be done too, but these were more important. I always make lists. Once I see what needs to be done, then I prioritize. It helps in determining what is more important or what is on a time constraint.

Tree must come down
Daisy on watch!
Davenport Excavating and Trucking
Davenport Excavating and Trucking

The next major project we had a partial role in. There was a large tree beside our back door that needed to come down. Not only was it half rotted and had the potential of falling we had decided to build a garage right there. Too close for comfort we hired an expert to cut it down. We cut the log into roughly 10-foot pieces to haul to the sawmill to be cut for barn siding. Then we rented an excavator and I dug the stump out and the footer for the garage. We had Davenport Excavating and Trucking come and level the site for us. Tracy’s crew was outstanding and really had the work completed in a very short time so I had them do some other small jobs that have been on our list for a while… like cleaning out the barn. We do not have this type of equipment to do so. Then hired a contractor to lay block, pour concrete and put up the main structure. Still under construction, but another project I can consider nearly done. Again here, priorities and know what you can and cannot do.

Fence time. Most of our property has the Kentucky 4 Board fence installed. It has been around for quite a few years and is severely deteriorating and the horses have broken through in several areas, including breaking the fence posts right off at the ground. While we had started installing split rail in another field last year, we did not get a chance to finish it. So, while we are busy planting berries and getting ready for the bees this weekend, we had someone come out and fix some of the boards. Yes, we are quite capable of fixing fence ourselves, and have done quite a bit of it, but right now we have other projects that absolutely need our personal attention. About half of the perimeter fencing is now fixed. Yes, had to hire out, but necessary in order for us to work on other projects.

Honeybee area preparation

On to the bees. Our honey bees will arrive this Saturday and we are not quite ready. I cleared an area in our orchard yesterday and laid down weed barrier fabric. We will place some stone in there to keep the area weed free. Today, John and I installed a boarder of treated landscaping timbers around the outside to keep the stone in place and make the area easier to mow. Another project done! We will now work on the frames that go inside of the hives this week and get them out there ready to go. Yes, I’d say we are a bit behind the eight ball here, but it will be done by Friday.

Time to enjoy nature. Spring flowers are popping up all over. I had planted several down by the new fence last fall (photo at top of page). I am so happy they have bloomed. The goal is to line the entire fence-line with flowers so we have fresh flowers all year. This is still a work in progress… you can see the string line still on the fence, and the tiller in the background. LOL… It also helps the bees too. Oh dear, our bees are coming next week too! We have to get busy. We haven’t even assembled the frames for them. At least I know what we will be doing this weekend during the rain. Stay tuned for more updates on planting, bees, and projects.

Garden Irrigation

Posted on April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

I have had many requests asking what is the easiest way to irrigate a garden. While there are multiple different ways to accomplish this, we have found this way works the best for our fields. Even if you do not use the plasticulture, the drip irrigation will still work well. You will need the following supplies:

Water irrigation lines (we like AquaTraxx)
Mainline piping
Shut off valves
Fertilizer injection system
Water pressure reducer
End caps for lines, both drip tape and mainlines
Drip line connectors
Back-flow valve

In our system, we have always used a 1 3/4 inch garden hose to bring water to the field. This is connected to the water pressure reducer (if needed) and the backflow valve. Then it is connected to the fertilizer injection pump and then to another water hose that runs out to the mainlines. Our main lines run along the edge of the fields and connect to each drip tape at the beginning of each row. If your rows are wider, you can add two drip lines for each. Use the connectors to connect the main to the tape and an end cap on each drip.

First step: Water source. What type are you using? We use a 1 3/4 garden hose (see below for updates and changes). Run the hose out to the area you are irrigating.

Second step: Run drip tape in each row and place end caps in each end. One drip tape is enough, but you can use two if you choose.

Third step: Lay out main water line at the end of the rows. Connect the drip tape lines to the main line with the dripline connectors containing the shut off valve.

Fourth step: In smaller systems, you can place your water source right in line with the main line at the garden. To do this, connect a backflow device on the end of your water hose. The ones we use have a water pressure reducer already installed, but if yours does not you will need to add this also. Connect this to your fertilizer injector and directly connect this to your main line. You are now done at this point.

Fifth step: Set up your fertilizer using your instructions. Ours has a small tube that is placed into a bucket or large tank containing the fertilizer, which places the right amount of fertilizer into the water flow. You are now ready to make your growing season much easier with using drip tape irrigation.

UPDATE: We are making some changes this year to the main water source. In smaller gardens, it is easy to water with a garden hose that is connected to the main line and drip tape. Unfortunately, in the longer rows like we have… 600 feet in the larger rows… we need a little extra push. We will use a 1000 gallon tank fortified with a water pump which will push and force the water out to the rows. We found this out the hard way by running our water 24/7 and it still was not enough. The system sounds difficult, but once you see a diagram it really is easy. Hope this helps everyone with their watering systems this season. Just send me a message if you need more information.

A Little Bee Told Me…

Posted on February 18, 2019February 18, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

When we started growing produce, we added lots of cut flowers into our fields. Mainly sunflowers and zinnias with a few others mixed in. One of my favorite zinnias was the giant queen red lime. I will add the link below where you can find it. Although we grew many different varieties of sunflowers, the chocolate and red varieties were my favorites. One thing we noticed that year were the bees. There were tons and tons of honey bees in the flowers. Before we planted we did talk to some experts at the extension office, who told us with the two acres of produce we would not need hives. We should have been able to rely on whatever was out there. I guess they were right since there were so many. The flowers had brought in tons of bees. There wasn’t a time where I went out there and didn’t find hundreds.

But last year, we could not find a single bee out there. The only thing we changed that year was that we skipped planting the flowers. This year the plan is to incorporate the flowers back into the fields in addition to purchasing four beehive set-ups. Yesterday, we picked up the hives and other supplies that we will need. The bees are scheduled to arrive in mid-April. I am real excited about them but at the same time a bit hesitant. I am not comfortable with bees or other insects that sting. John is allergic also and has been to the hospital a couple times for insect stings.

So, what do I know about bees? Well, that answer is just about nothing other than they pollinate flowers and fruiting plants. They are a necessity. One thing I learned at the vegetable conference last month was that there are certain plants you can plant that attract the “bad” bugs helping to keep them away from the good ones. So the sunflowers that we planted that year helped to keep the stink bugs and other insects away from our peppers. Sunflowers, buckwheat, and a couple others can be planted in blocks around the field will help lure the bad bugs there and keep them from the peppers. So the plan this year is not only to add the sunflowers back, maybe put in some buckwheat, and to add some flowers in the fields as well. That will naturally help remove some of the insects from the fields and reduce the number of sprays we use, which will help us achieve our organic goals. The flowers will help the bees and that will help our peppers and other produce that we have. I’m taking this as a “win – win” situation.

Starting the Season

Posted on January 24, 2019February 18, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

Hello to 2019! Welcome back to our blog and new website. We have reformatted to include pages of recipes, information about us, our farm and our horses. This is a journey with much laughter and tears as we work towards our goals of self-sustainability, healthy lifestyles, some fitness ideas, and much, much more. Enjoy!

It is January and the beginning of the new season. I consider the Vegetable and Produce conference the season start because this is where we all come to discuss the past year’s growing season, the good and the bad, and what worked and what did not work. It is also a large networking system where we meet other growers, farmers, experts, and educators. January is when the seed catalogs start pouring into our mailboxes and we decide which new seed we will try this year. I love this time of year. It is exciting!

John and I are discussing how we will make changes to our fields. Learning from the last couple years, our irrigation system must be changed this year. We came across a couple ideas from our distributor and other growers that will most definitely improve our watering system. We are also contemplating changing our row distance. In the past we have allowed a large area between them to allow our equipment and horses in. We have cultivated between them in the past, but last year we decided to let the weeks grow and mow it down each week. Unfortunately, the rain prohibited us from entering the fields much of the year so this method was not the most effective. I also heard of another way to deter deer from our fields and we will try that also.

Getting Ready for Spring

Posted on March 3, 2018January 24, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

03MAR2018

What a month this has been. Spring is coming quickly. The photo is of a recent ice storm we had that froze everything, including our water pipes in the kitchen and bathroom. Thing here on Crooked Beak has been getting busy as we ramp up for this growing season. We have added new equipment to our produce production with our purchase of a walk-in cooler. I found it at an auction recently, had a company tear it down for me while John was out of town and bring it out to the farm. The plan…yes plan… is to have it up and running by early May. Go ahead and laugh with me as we all know how plans go.

If I did not mention it before, we have found a new distributor for our produce and he is asking for much more than we grew last year. We will be putting in 2 acres of green peppers and poblano peppers in addition to our own supplies. We are also looking at adding an early crop such as beets or bok choy or something of the sort that will be completed by the time the peppers are ready. Hopefully this will relieve some of the pressure from us this way and increase our yields. We dropped off the seeds to the grower yesterday and received quite a few suggestions that will help us out this year. Much appreciated to him.

Our horses are doing wonderful despite all the rain we have received. Our barn, which stands on top of the hill, has conveniently flooded, leaving us no option but to leave the barn standing with muck in it. The priority this summer, other than the produce, is to build a dry lot for them. Not only will this help the flooding, it will help with the horrible cankers Mike and Mark get. Hopefully when I get back home the weather will cooperate a little better and we can get out there in the fields with the horses. We are so excited to get going this hear as things look a bit brighter than last year.

The New Year

Posted on February 4, 2018January 24, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

04FEB2018

Well, this is a new year and a new…hmmm …I’ll say everything. Last years experience with the horses and garden was pretty much a wash. We learned a lot, lost a lot, laughed a lot, and pretty much worked ourselves into serious overdrive. Yes, we are both laughing in a sense. Honestly, I wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity nor would I change much about it. Could things have gone more smoothly, of course they could have, but then we would not have learned as much. Life’s lessons are tough and we only learn through them. Pick yourselves back up and keep going! So here we are well into 2018 and starting over with the produce.

I am not picking out the garden seeds. We have a new distributer this year so we are scaling down but up at the same time. We are growing green peppers, poblano’s, and possibly serrano’s. Well, at least for the moment. LOL…. Our requirement jumped this year but at least two of these items are larger products, which will help the picking process.

Last year, we had some problems with the horses. Both Mike and Mark came down with cankers on their back feet towards the end of summer. I will post some pictures later of them. It pretty much stopped our work with them for the remainder of the year. They are fine now and we are looking forward to the weather breaking to allow us to get them back at work. Rusty and Duke are doing well also. We will start putting both of them to work with Mike and Mark, creating two new teams, I am hoping. The plan this year is to get some alfalfa and orchard grass planted in the new fields to help reduce the hay cost. We now have lights in the barn. Love solar power. Thank you Goal Zero. It is not enough, but we found a way to connect others to the system so that is coming soon. We also have added a walk-in cooler to our produce business this year and we are quite excited about that.

The fitness journey is on the back burner for the moment. Hope to get back at it soon. Last year I twisted my ankle and found out about a month ago that I tore two of the ligaments in my ankle so I am going through some therapy at the moment. Fun, Fun! However, I can still eat healthy so here is a new recipe I came across… thanks to a co-worker. I have fallen in love with this one so enjoy. I have found several variations online so feel free to change it up a bit. More to come later.

Beef and Cabbage Skillet

1 pound ground beef (grass fed if possible)

½ head chopped cabbage

½ diced onion

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 cup organic salsa

salt and pepper to taste

butter as needed

Place a couple tablespoons of butter in a skillet; add onion and cook till translucent; add ground beef and brown well; then add mushrooms and cook till soft; (add more butter if necessary) add cabbage and cook until soft again; add salsa, mix well and serve.

Yes, it’s that simple. Next time I will add some peppers, maybe even some hot peppers, and more salsa. Hope you like it too.

Closing the First Stage

Posted on June 14, 2017January 24, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

14JUN2017

We have spent nearly the past three weeks doing nothing but planting either seeds or vegetable plants. This journey is totally amazing and I cannot say how excited we are to see the progress we have made. As this stage ends we will be starting the next two phases simultaneously. Maintaining the garden and building the packing-house and walk-in cooler. Fortunately enough, we just visited a dear cousin of mine who gave us an outstanding idea. To some, this might be more than one stage but for us we need to do this together for the sake of time. Honestly, the packing-house should have been already done but we have not been able to find the time. The above photo is a shot of our fields. The larger one has all of the peppers in them (mixed in with a few other items) and the smaller one and a few rows of the large one has the flower seeds in them. Together they will contain nearly 30,000 plants/seeds.

This past weekend we attended a wedding of a family member, which gave us the opportunity to see some long lost family members and play catch up. MY cousin was actually who gave us the idea of building our own walk-in cooler just as they did themselves. It was fun and enjoyable, but it was extremely long due to the distance we had to drive in two days.

The horses have been doing wonderful. Mike and Mark are getting new shoes again this Friday. I think it took about three weeks and both of them threw one of their shoes off. I am beginning to think these two might be a little hard on shoes and their feet. Let’s hope I am wrong. We will start cultivating our fields this weekend. I am anxious about it. Nervous and a little concerned that I will not be able to keep them between the tight rows. My plan is to use John or my neighbor to walk at the head just to give them a little help… or shall I say give me a little help in keeping them straight. They will probably be fine and I am just worrying too much but I do know how crooked my plowing was so this leads me to think the cultivating will be the same. Sometimes I think about using the horses for our farming and remember when I was a teenager dreaming about this. It might have taken half my life to get this far, but I am (and I shall say ‘we’) doing it. It might not be a perfect effort and I might have crooked rows, missed spots in the plowing and cultivating but at least we are working towards a more sustainable farm. Dreams do come true sometimes and I have to keep reminding myself to stay positive and faithful. Things always have a way of working themselves out. Toodles till next time. Now if only my fitness will work it’s way thinner too. LOL!

Garden time

Posted on May 18, 2017January 24, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

18MAY2017

What a hectic couple weeks. With the rain that we have had the dry spell has finally come and so many here in Kentucky, are mowing and baling hay, plowing fields for crops, or putting in gardens. We have been getting our fields ready here at Crooked Beak Acres for our produce season. Starting off a couple months back plowing with our horses to now laying the plasticulture for our beds. Yesterday nearly broke us as we put in all of our plastic for the main field. It took longer than I had expected, nearly all day and our machine broke on the last two rows. Actually it would have been our last as it was the end of our supplies so we have to find somewhere local to purchase more plastic and drip tape. Go figure. I think we initially figured exactly how many rows we would need according to how many plants we were planting but didn’t figure in all of the extra items we have added since. LOL… Basically the last two weeks have been nothing but getting the garden ready.

We finally got our shoeing stocks up. Whoo-hoo. The farrier was happy for them. They need a bit of adjustment, but for the most part, we are all extremely happy with them. Mike and Mark were great with them last Friday, but Duke on the other hand…to say the least planted his feet and refused to move. Even with the tranquilizer. Maybe next time he will be better. Tonight we will be putting our first plants in the ground. I’m pretty excited about it and am quite happy about moving on to the next phase of this entire process. Yep…you guessed it. Now we have to maintain it; meaning keeping the weeds out and putting up the packinghouse. For us, this consists of a commercial greenhouse that we picked up this past winter. We will use it for packing the vegetables this summer and for hay storage for the horses. We also have to build some type of “cold room” where we can store picked peppers and the cut flowers. What a chore this project has been. HaHa. John’s not laughing but that’s all I can do to keep my sanity. As for fitness, you ask. Who has time at the moment? On the back burner again! Here are some photos for your laughter. Oh, love the one of our makeshift row-marker.

Recipe Time…

Posted on May 4, 2017January 24, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

04MAY2017

I think it’s about time I start sharing some healthier recipes. After all, this blog covers my fitness journey along with our farming venture. Yeah, it’s a crazy match but then so is my life. Anyways, here is one recipe that I have shared many times over. It is really a classic broth based beef stew that I found making in my crock-pot works well for my extremely busy life. I remember mom making this since I was a child and then in the restaurants that we both worked in. While she used the oven… like I said the crock-pot works wonders.

Challenging Spring

Posted on May 4, 2017January 24, 2019 by Lisa Mobius

01MAY2017

Goodness me again! I am going to really try to get this posted at least once a week. As you can see I have failed so far and for that you have my apologies. It has been a challenging couple of weeks, with work, the produce garden, the horses, and trying to stick to some type of eating plan. I had to break down and order new military uniforms for the Derby. I was afraid of that and I am quite frustrated with myself; but I see no ability for a stringent workout plan with all that is going on. I really don’t know where to take this. Now for the produce patch… It is all tilled. I had to break down, put the horses aside, and use the tractor. No, definitely not giving up on the horses. We are crunched for time and need to get this moving forward and ready for the plants and flowers. Our distributor was here over the weekend and was actually quite impressed at our progress and said we were right on track. Well, guess our frustration was all for nothing. LOL...

The horses have been doing great and I’m excited to start using them more and more. We plowed about one-third of our garden and we will continue to use them for the other fields as we more towards them. These past couple weeks we had two tractors and two trucks break down.

We managed to get our main garden tractor going enough to finish tilling, but it still needs some work. There is something wrong with the steering and it’s making this horrid “clunking” noise. John’s afraid it’s the transmission or something similar. I have no clue!

We still have one truck down, but at least two of the four are back up for now. Rain has pretty much put a damper on most of our outside activities for the moment. We are just waiting for things to dry up and warm up so we can get this produce in. My distributor said the other day that the first year is always the most challenging. I will agree! I’m adding some photos of our progress and your enjoyment.