[dominiquer60]

Highway,

It looks like early blight to us as well, but again hard to tell. There are so many diseases and environmental factors that are causing problems. We have a combo of early blight and ozone stress from the hot weather on our potatoes, copper is all that we use to slow it down. I would recommend asking your extension agent to have a look, if it is late blight they will be able to warn growers in your area of an outbreak. This is especially helpful info for those of us that rely on vegetables for our livelihood so that we can apply copper as a protectant as the fungus approaches.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Go Timber! it will take an 8 year old to keep up with those Jerseys.

[dominiquer60]

I visited a local organic dairy where a friend of ours milks 5 cows, 2 are Lineback/Holstein/Angus crosses, one Holstein/Angus and 2 Holstein. She loves the crosses and only has the pure holsteins for the certification until she can get more of her cross heifers milking. The crosses give a good amount of fat and protein for her cheese and they only eat grass and a little ground corn at milking. I would like to see little dairies like this be the future of the dairy industry.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Good job Tuli!

[dominiquer60]

I find the Polish observation interesting. We have a nice family from Russia vending at one of our farmers’ market and at the end of the market she sometimes buys our extras. Last week she bought 11 beautiful bunches of rainbow chard. She could not believe that it did not sell and made the comment that people are to lazy to cook with raw ingredients these days. I would have to agree with her. This time of year I am so strung out between my job and the farm that even I have a hard time slowing down to cook a meal and find myself looking for those convenience meals too. I try to have some canned or frozen soup on hand that I made, but every now and then I find my self drawn to the dark side.

[dominiquer60]

Jason,

So sorry to hear about Rudy, he was indeed one of the nicest animals that I have ever met, and certainly the nicest stud horse. He had the body, grace and temperament that made him a winner even without the ribbons and trophies. He made it clear that he was a stallion, yet respected the people, routine and single stand of wire in his life. I hope he didn’t suffer much in the end, I know that he had a great life at Ridge Wind with great people.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

We use both sizes. For winter storage we stack the 7′ wide wagons on the 8′ wide wagons, they nest nicely and we even load the 7’ers with seasonal items for winter storage as well. Just a thought for anyone with a need for multiple wagons.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

A market gardener is generally a small farmer with a vegetable plot that sells at farmers markets or produce auctions. Size can vary from an over sized kitchen garden with some excess to 20 acres or more. Most market gardeners grow a diversity of crops, for example we grow 45 types of vegetables and over 200 varieties total.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

My Australian Shepherd was great with pigs and chickens as a yearling, but he fell out of practice when we moved to the city for a year. He is handy for some chores, but gets too excited and doesn’t listen well anymore for others. To top it off I am discouraged from letting him help, heaven forbid he make a mistake and we learn from it, but it is not my farm, so be it. I would like to get some formal education for my next dog.

[dominiquer60]

We find that a 1968 GMC fire truck with a 1500 gallon tank and a fire ax work really well against ground hogs. Tip: block all but the hole that you are waiting at with axe.

[dominiquer60]

Ralph,
All of Lynn’s book are worth the cost of obtaining if the subject of any are of interest to you. He has spent a lifetime collecting the information and years organizing it into well thought out books. Best wishes on the shaft building.
Erika

[dominiquer60]

Your welcome Marshall, That Iron Age is a beauty. I have an old Planet Jr. #4 that I use all the time in our market garden, in fact I was just about to go and plant 4 rows of beans with it, until I saw sheets of water drifting across the valley here. Maybe it will dry up enough in a hour to finish that task before the next storm arrives. Our IH 2 row was in a hedge row and was sold to us by and antique/junk dealer as a lawn ornament. He was surprised to discover our intentions while we were loading onto our trailer. I was glad to find a manual for it on ebay last night, it even has information on setting it up for different horse and oxen hitches 🙂

[dominiquer60]

Here is and ad for an Iron Age, we didn’t even pay half the price of this one for our two row. They can be costly, especially with the original paint in decent condition.

http://wad20.wantaddigest.com/forsale/item.asp?&adclass2=FARM&headsub=POTATO%20PLANTER&category=Farm%A0Equipment&onlineid=AAZJL92&adid=A00515

[dominiquer60]

When given the chance to obtain an old small scale potato planter, never pass it up, they are so hard to find. We know of a couple farmers that scrapped theirs, only to find that we would pay them double what they were worth as junk. If you don’t really need it, you may find someone on this site that would love to own such a treasure, what brand is it? We just picked one up two weeks ago, we have been looking for a one row, but found one for sale “saved from the crusher,” that is a 2 row IH with JD hoppers on it. It will need some work, but should be fine come next April.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I paid $22 /pair from John’s Wood Bending in PA, he is a very nice man to deal with, and the handles a ash and very nicely crafted. UPS lost my handles and he was going to just send me another pair, then UPS ended up paying for the replacements. Here is a link to a similar discussion and John’s number.
http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=2764&highlight=plow+handles

Erika

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