Late Spring Update: bungee cords break

Important tip for you gardeners and farmers out there: bungee cords don’t last. This may seem self-evident. And this lesson is one I learn repeatedly. But please remember that when using a bungee cord to secure a gate or fencing around your garden that it will eventually rot and fall away. That falling away of the cord can then be interpreted by thirty sheep as an invitation to brunch.

Waking after my afternoon siesta, a civilized practice that I have adhered to since kindergarten, and one I am fortunate to share with my mate, I heard our flock bleating what I took to be signs of distress. Upon examination of the source of this sound I found the whole damn flock in the spring and summer gardens. Magnificent kale, three feet in diameter, reduced to a nub. Onion tops nibbled down to the bulbs, potato plants trampled in their haste to get to the cucumber patch. And what I thought was sounds of distress were instead the sounds of delight from gluttons stampeding into a casino buffet.

I chased them out the open fence line, aimed a few well-placed kicks to the rear of the dawdlers and replaced the bungee cords with some wire ties. Surveying the damage and I realized that they had probably been in there less than thirty minutes. It could have been worse. At least I got them out before they hit the dessert bar and eaten the tomatoes plants.

This has been a vacation week, cutting hay, weeding the gardens, bush hogging fields, hauling hogs to market, canning pepper sauce and a hundred other small tasks. We have had two farm volunteers this past week from the state of Vermont, two women in their mid-twenties on a summer hiatus from the job of looking for careers, spending the next few months working gratis on farms across the country. We provided room and board and our charming company each evening over dinner. They helped work through the mountain of tasks that kept getting bumped to the back burner. This morning they hit the road for Alabama. They planned to stop in Dayton, TN to visit the site of the Scopes Monkey Trial, just a short 30 minutes away from our farm.

On other fronts we have new bees and are working on our sawmill shed. The shed is 30×20 feet. It will house a portable sawmill and have room for storing cut lumber. The footings have been poured and the support posts set. Once the shed is completed we will order that sawmill and move forward on our woodlot management plan.

Our new beehives are in place and both are active. We had to introduce a new queen in one hive. Tomorrow we will get into the hives to determine her status and when to add a new hive body to each. Clover is still in bloom, so they should be getting plenty of pollen and nectar. However, we will supplement those sources with sugar water over the summer.

Finally, for this update, we have been working with the state forester and local extension agents on a plan to develop a remote pasture into a nut orchard. We have a pasture of about 6-8 acres that is seldom used for cattle or hay. We had discussed using it to grow pines for a crop, harvestable in 16 years. But we’d prefer to use it for a food crop. Still in the exploratory stage, but excited about a new project. Because, we know nothing stays static on a farm.

Now why are those cattle bawling?

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8 thoughts on “Late Spring Update: bungee cords break

  1. When I saw your headline I was afraid a bungee cord had snapped and hit you in the face or eye. Still a drag that the sheep got out and eat merrily out of your garden, but it could have been worse. Congrats on the new bees!

    • Yep, have had that experience. But the best experience of that ilk is to clip a taut barbed wire strand and have it pop back at you. Now, that is a good day!

      • Oh that sucks!

        And, you were right about the dead fig trees. Mine finally shot up some new leaves last week. All of my friends’ fig trees are bouncing back, too!

        • Glad to hear it. I just wish the new apple plantings had made it. They too sent up shoots. But since the trees are grafted it made the new growth useless.

          • Useless to a farmer expecting the fruit from the grafts perhaps, but those shoots from the rootstock would still bear a fruit someday that the hogs would eat. Sorry for the loss, but if you’re hunting a silver lining, apple flavored bacon is pretty tasty 🙂

          • Clem,
            We have a small orchard of a dozen apple trees, mainly cider varieties. Every fall I feed the cake (leftover apple pressings) from the cider mill to our hogs. It ferments pretty quick and takes a few days to feed it all to our pigs. So the hogs walk around in a satisfied stupor for a few days. They seem to be relatively happy drunks.
            Cheers,
            Brian

  2. Brian,

    Could you plant an Oak grove and raise pigs on acorns jamon iberico style? If you’ve had problems with apples, look into the University of Minnesota apple breeding program. They have frost free cultivars you can plant on dwarfing rootstock that will fruit in about 5 years. You could have some divine swine if you combined the two… Good catching up. Matt

    • Matt,
      Great to see you as well, always enjoy hanging out and catching up. In the south there is a long tradition of feeding out hogs in the woods on mast from the oaks. We mimic that with paddocks in the woods. So our hogs get plenty of acorns and hickory nuts in the fall. Not quite the Spanish savannah oak system but one that is suited to our small farm operation. And, I can say, modestly, the pork that results is pretty damn tasty.

      Fifteen years ago when I planted our initial orchard I planted obscure English cider varieties. They are on the whole unproductive and not worth the trouble. So we are beginning to replant and expand the orchard with a mix of old Southern heirlooms and some more standard cultivars.
      Frost free is typically not a problem in our area Most apples can easily withstand the temperatures of East Tennessee. The problem is that with climate change the weather has become more erratic. Apples require as set number of chill days to set fruit and stay healthy. Who knows what the future may bring. So, we’ve also diversified our fruit and nut plantings with figs, quince, blueberries, elderberries etc. etc.

      Keep in mind this part of our farm is strictly a home use/homesteading farm. So we are able to easily plant one or two trees that are sufficient for our needs.

      Take care,
      Brian

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