Wow, what a busy couple of weeks!

Last weekend my wife went out of town for work and it was just me and the kids for three days.  I still had a lot of dozer work to do so they spent most of the weekend with my parents and I spent the weekend on the dozer.  

First order of business on Friday was getting milk for Legacy.  Alex wanted to ride along and they were still milking the fresh cow(cow that just had a calf) and we had to wait a few minutes for her to finish.  So Alex climbed up on the stool in the neighbors milking parlor and observed the process!

I cannot ever remember, nor can anyone around me, a stretch of 7+ days of 70-80 degree weather in the middle of march.  It made for great weather for running the dozer but was quite misleading if you walked into an area I had just finished and didn't know how wet things were. 

 Below is Michaela.  She is friends of the neighbors and comes down a lot to help around on the farm for the neighbor and I went she is not working.  Her and Steven's brother Josh stopped by to bring me something to drink and to go get me some more fuel for the bulldozer.  Michaela unknowingly followed Josh across the ditch I had just filled in and didn't watch where he was stepping and stepped right into a very wet spot and lost her boot.  She couldn't get it out and had to wait for him to come back and help her.  She didn't find it funny at first but laughed about it later!

In preparation for the oncoming landscape season my boss ordered several semi loads of specimen trees from several west coast nurseries.  We unloaded four semi loads this week and staged in the nursery to line out next rain day we have.  It is so warm that everything is starting to open up already.  It is supposed to get down to frost over the next two nights so some of it may get burnt but should be fine in the long run.

Below is a picture of one of the older and very expensive Japanese Cutleaf  Maples that I unloaded.  I would love to have one of these at my house.  I will have to take some pictures of the rest of the stuff after we get it all lined out and opened up.

Last year at this time we still had several inches of icy snow on the ground and it was raining daily for almost two months.  This year it has been sunny and warm since mid February.  So we have started having our weekend cookouts already.  Lisa was begging to have one Monday night after they all got home from school and made it a picnic with the whole family.  It was awesome to get some time together with everyone outside at this time of year.  I even got bit by the first mosquito of 2012, and it was the middle of March!

Our dog, Daisy, kept wanting in and out of the house.  So at one point I just left her in there to get the point across to make up her mind and stay one place or the other.  She finally decided she wanted out but I made her wait a little longer to be sure.  She got quite impatient and stuck her head out the cat door to stare me down till I came and opened the door for her.  

We had some rain the night after our picnic so I had to wait for the areas I cleared of trees to dry for me to work down to prepare for seeding.  By Wednesday I was able to get started.  I had one very large oak stump I could not remove with the dozer so I asked one of my snow plow subcontractors from work to grind it for me.  His business is Rick's Stump Grinding based out of Alliance Ohio.  I was excited to see his rig after hearing about it all winter so I stopped to watch.  His unit is around 80-90 hp and is remote controlled.  It only took him about 15 minutes to take out a 46 inch oak stump.  

The before.

 Size reference with machine.

 In action.  I posted a clip on youtube if you would like to see it in action. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gW89_MbYRU&context=C4c6428fADvjVQa1PpcFP3bvprvK2bqhIq_2Xr0pO3KTj5c9qHhuM=

I was back to my favorite project ever to straighten a couple of trees blow down in a storm.  I took a couple of pics to show how it is looking already this spring and it isn't even close to being pretty yet!

At this time last year the entire area these pictures were taken in was covered with icy mud and you couldn't even drive a dozer around the site.  Now it looks so awesome.  I can't wait to see it in a couple of years when it is all filled in!

I put up a temporary fence around my wife's garden at her request yesterday to allow the pigs access to it.  They were hesitant at first to go out there as it has always been off limits but by this morning they had already rooted 60% of it up.  By tonight they have almost rooted it all up.  We are letting them eat all the weeds, leftover crops from last year, and insects that eat our plants.  Plus they are tilling it all up so we are hoping to just rake it out, mulch it, and plant it!  I will post the pics later this week.  

Well, I am gonna get a shower and get to bed.  Another long busy week ahead.  We are supposed to have a couple of cold nights and then back into above average temps!   I am loving it.  If every winter was like this I would be sooooooo happy!

Kenny

Project pics, Legacy update, and beautiful weather!!

As I write this we are getting some rain.  It is supposed to rain lightly for most of the day.  Things are starting to dry out for the first time in over a year now due to the early spring we are having this year.  We have been having sunny days with light breezes for several weeks now with occasional rain.  I was actually able to prepare the barn site Friday.  I had to shove a lot of mud off to do it but it turned out pretty nice.  The next two weeks are projected to be around 70 degrees and sunny with one or two days of rain!!!  Phenomenal!


If you have been following the blog very long you will know I am not only a farmer but a Project Manager at Enviroscapes.  I have been working on a large, three year project at work. We are not there full time right now but in and out on some little stuff till the next phase hits.  The homeowners wife asked me to have a railing made up for her natural stone steps after falling during the winter.  We also needed to make an archway for her weeping hemlocks at the entrance to the back yard.  I was put into contact with The Iron Orchid Forge and met with the owner on site to come up with a design.  Here are the results!

 The archway blends in perfectly and within a year or so I will be able to train the hemlocks over so it is completely unseen.  He did such a wonderful job on it that even what is visible now is still a beautiful work of art.

 The railing literally astounded me when I saw it.  I knew if we just did a typical railing it would look very tacky as everything else we have done is very natural and rural themed .  So I proposed some type of curved railing.  The blacksmith suggested he could do a railing that looked like a twisted vine and could make the posts to look like the stems.  The owner is an avid fisherman and we actually changed the pond design to be able to support trout so I suggested he add in a fish feature to look like trout jumping upstream.

I think he nailed it perfectly.  I couldn't imagine a more perfect product than what he produced!  The homeowners were super happy and I am wishing I had one at my house!  Some day I will.


 Now, on to the barn site.  I have plans to completely replace the cow shed this year like I did with the pig shed last year.  Standing between me and those plans was a lot of mud and a really big hole!  Luckily you can rent bulldozers and I know how to operate one.  So I got together with my dad and some neighbors and in order to pay for it I worked out a deal to do work for them and split the cost so we all got a good deal.  Now, this is requiring a lot of my time but in working for them it covers most of my cost and again, everyone gets a pretty good deal as it doesn't cost anyone person very much for the amount of work I am doing. 

I remembered to get a before pic just after I cleaned the muddy mess up.  The barn need to extend out past the existing gate posts another 25-30 feet to accommodate some extra pen space and feeder space as well as a place pad to put a spreader under roof for loading out of the mud!

This is a quick after pic.  I will take more next weekend as I did work all over the farm.  It took me about two ours to do this.  I probably used about 200-300 yards of soil to fill in the hole.   I got the soil by taking down the hill to the left of the picture.  Everything is sand and gravel so it should settle out and pack quickly especially with the cows walking on it.  I am hoping to start construction in June or July.  Lot of work to do between now and then!

Here we have a project I did for dad yesterday.  We have wanted this right of way drive cleaned up and farm-able since he bought the place in 1979.  I was finally able to make that a reality for him yesterday.  I totally forgot to get a before pic but trust me, it is an enormous improvement!

Here is a view up the drive.  I am also regrading all the drives for the neighbor behind.  He is also the owner of the project I have been working on at work. 

Here is a picture of the pigs all sleeping together last night.  Man that is a lot of pork!

I decided with the warm weather and such that it was time to let Legacy out on the pasture again.  He was quickly getting too big for the pen with the pigs and I don't like having the animals penned up so I lifted him out and let him run.  He is getting quite heavy now.  I am guessing him to be about 125-140#'s.  He is growing very fast.  As soon as he got out of the pen he started running and ran for almost 30 minutes strait!

 Here he is saying hi to the matriarch of the herd, 50.

Below is just a pic of him by himself.  

I also have a video of him on youtube.  I wish I had started it sooner as this was near the end of his marathon run but still cute non the less!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCSU5bNAYM4&feature=g-all-u&context=G2879d2eFAAAAAAAAAAA

Lastly I would like to leave you with a little farm history.  I recently found out from dad that our farm name is not the first Conser Run Farms in the family.  In actuality my great grandfather, who owned the 100 acres on the other side of my grandma's place, had named his farm the same name.  I had forgotten about it but vaguely remember seeing that name painted on the front of his barn before my great uncle painted it when I was a kid.  

As an added note, my dad's farm name is Mer-Rick Acres.  It is a combination of his nickname and the family name.  Merrick is our family name and Richard is his first name but a lot of people call him Rick.  Every farm is named a little differently but when you look into it there is usually a history behind it somewhere and it is another way for the family to pass on that history even after they are gone!

Have a great day!!

Kenny

Mario gets a pedicure, piglets all turned loose, and redwing black birds return!

Well, ever since we brought Mario home to stay on the farm he has needed his feet trimmed.  His back feet were not that bad but his front toes were starting to get long enough to start curling.  Over the course of the muddy winter they rapidly got worse.  The right front one was curling up into the air and his foot was starting to roll to the side as well.  I finally found a local farrier and called him Thursday.  He was here the next day (yesterday) to trim him up.  The farrier, Mark Pastircak, said he has seen worse but he was still bad.  Mario wasn't too keen on the whole deal but didn't fight too awful much and Mark did a great job.  It will take two more trimmings to get his toes to where they need to be but he is walking much better already and his feet should start to feel much better over the next few day from being able to stand on them correctly. 

Mark and his wife did a great job and also gave me some more information on Mario while they were here.  They told me he is between 12 and 15 years old and is in good health.  Mark said he can live up to 45+ years and that he is pretty nice compared to some donkeys he works with. 

After finishing, Mark was checking out our piglets and said he would be interested in a couple to fatten out for himself to eat.  After talking about it we decided to trade his services for a couple of piglets.  After the awesome trim job he did I was happy to make a trade and look forward to his next visit, and hopefully Mario does as well!  If you are looking for a farrier look up Mark or just contact me and I can get you his information. 



After Mark and his wife left for home Steven and I let the sows and piglets out of their birthing pens to run and play with the rest of the pigs.  It only took a minute for them to all be running around crazy everywhere checking out everything!  You don't really realize how many piglets 24 piglets is till they are spread out all over the shed jumping and running simultaneously!

This is one of the white pigs meeting his half brothers and sisters for the first time.  Later on in the evening the sows all laid down to feed the babies and the piglets thought they just found the worlds largest buffet!  They went from pig to pig trying to eat from every nipple at the same time!  After a while they ended up back with their mothers but it took a little while. 

Steven was worried that Red Balls would be upset with loosing his women and would put up a fight when we put him back in his own lot.  Red Balls didn't waste long in taking advantage of the quite time and quickly went into his nest and within minutes was sound asleep! I think this is how a lot of men like to deal with newborns, or at least would like to!  

 Next order of business for the night was feeding Legacy.  He is still sharing a pen with the feeder pigs and the new Berkshire gilts.  I have the pen set up to limit the pigs so only the little ones can get in to eat and sleep in this pen.  That way the sows don't bully them out of the feeder.  The first couple of days Legacy stayed away from them but now he doesn't seem to care at all and even sleeps with them!  He is like a big furry warm blanket so if I were the pigs I would cuddle with him also!

Apparently I wasn't getting to the part where I give him his milk fast enough as he was giving me the "look"!

Next I wanted to share a couple of pics from work.  As I have stated before I went to college for horticulture, landscaping, and nursery, and I work full time for Enviroscapes in Louisville Ohio.  I am a project manager there and work on mostly large jobs.  However, there are times when some specialty work comes up that needs my attention and I am always happy to help out.  This time the specialty work was about 30 - 30' tall white pines that have been sheared every other year since they were planted.  The salesman asked me to try to clean them up and reshape them again with the power shears.  I tried this with the first couple and didn't like the results so I decided to hand prune them an give them a more natural look.  If you look at the picture below you will see the one right behind the lift is done. I was working on the one to the left of that one and you can see how misshapen the rest are.  Due to the large size of the trees we brought in a lift to speed up the process and allow us unlimited access to the tops. 

Due to the wet conditions, and the fact that it never got cold enough this winter to freeze the ground, we needed to bring in the dozer to pull the lift through the wet spots.  Also, you will notice my helper and trainee for the day standing amongst the trees for a size reference.  Below is a picture of me in the lift above the trees. 

To some the above task may not seem like a big deal, however, I am quite scared of heights.  I always have been.  So going up in the lift at first was a little scary but by the end of the day I was able to move it around without any trouble.  I am not saying I could work on a sky scraper, but I can at least run and work from a lift without any problems now.

I also want to show a couple of before and after pics of a couple of other trees I trimmed up.

First was a weeping norway spruce.

It had a lot of dead in it and was touching the ground.  So I cleaned it up and lifted it a little.

 Below is all the stuff that came out of it.  You can see it is mostly all dead material.  Until removed the dead material will continue to build and will keep the tree from growing well.

 Next was a crab apple at the entrance to the home.  It has been pruned in the past but was pruned incorrectly.  In the past someone was simply trimming of the long shoots across the top and not thinning or looking for problem branches. 

Plants bring many forms of interest to the landscape/garden.  Some of these are smell, texture, color, flowers, shapes, branching structures, etc.  A crap apple of this form brings all of these.  However, if incorrectly maintained you will lose or lessen many of them.  If you compare the photos you will notice that you can see the elaborate branching structure in the after pic but not in the before pic.  Also, by removing the excess unproductive and dead branches you will add extra root system support to the remaining portions of the plant increasing the smell and color during blooming!

I have a corral burst crab apply in front of my house that I am training to be a flat disc.  I will take photos of some of my specialty plants around the house this spring to show how I trim and maintain them.

Lastly I would like to leave you with a very great sign of the early onset of spring.  I was walking from the house back to the barn this afternoon and noticed a noise that I haven't heard in several months.  It was the chirping and chattering of red winged black birds!  After quickly looking around I found there was a large flock of them gathering in the hickory trees down by the pasture.  They are early this year as I usually don't see them till end of march or into April.  We also have cardinals back already.  I expect to see a robin any day now.  Once they arrive you know it is gonna get warm soon!

  The last guest to arrive is usually the Mocking Bird.  We have one that has claimed our TV antenna as the center of his area and he spends every summer day singing to us!  I can't wait to hear him again.

Sorry this post was so long but hopefully I gave everyone some knowledge they didn't have before and brightened everyone's day!

Goodnight!

Kenny