Road Building 1

The picture to the left shows high quality woven landscape fabric on my property that was crossed repeatedly with emply logging trucks on the way in and loaded logging trucks on the way out. (The mulch wasn't present when the logging trucks were using this route.) The rut occured because this area wasn't crowned and held water which eventually led to this small dip. Still there is no tearing from the fully loaded trucks. The picture above is the back entrance of a former Class 3 dairy barn (Roughly 1940 to 1970) that has been used for horses (Roughly 1980 to 2000) and then equipment (2001 to present). When a cow or horse stands in a dry barn and then exits during wet conditions, the dry hoof picks up a little wet dirt and moves it away from the entrance. This eventually leaves a large hole. (One of my friends claims we can't rule out the possiblity that all dairy farmers looked for a hole and built their barn so the cows had to walk through it, but I really like my theory better.) About 2001 this hole was covered with landscape fabric and then gravel. The first picture shows the intact fabric in the bottom of the hole. The fabric has limited the gravels trip downward and has limited the red dirts movement upward. No additional gravel has been added over the past 10 years. Contrast this to the picture in the Roadbuilding 2 post. I figure if I am going to do build a good road the right way, I will use a fabric under the initial gravel. However, there is rural road building expertise in the Natural Resource Conservation Office if you wish to get an expert opinion.

Hot Links for Vegetable Gardening Class.

Here is the post harvest handling link referenced in class
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/hort2/mf1175.pdf
Here is the Home Vegetable Gardening Guide referenced in class
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/pdf/ag-06.pdf
Here is the web site for weed identification mentioned by Wendy.
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/weeds.htm
Here is a composting site
http://www.p2pays.org/compost/.
This site was mentioned during the crop rotation presentation, however the specific article from Fall 2010 is no longer available to the public.
www.urbanfarmonline.com
Here is a place to sign up for quarterly newsletter that I help edit.
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/extgardener/about.htm
Here is a portal to the Extension vegetable references on the internet
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/hortinternet/vegetable.html
The Cabarrus County Cooperative extension website (with access to the Ask an Expert link)http://cabarrus.ces.ncsu.edu/

My direct email
djgoforth@cabarruscounty.us

Again I pulled my maple sap collecting equipment by Feb 1. I rinsed it before storing it. I am calling this year's harvest about 5 gallons. My wife cooked some down until it was the consistency of corn syrup. It started crystallizing aroudn the edges almost immediately. She then used part of it for a pecan pie. Without a doubt this was the best pecan pie I ever ate. I am not sure what she did with the rest of the syrup/sugar. I cooks one small batch down to the sugar stage. I ate it as candy so it didn't get counted a part of the 5 gallons.

Willow Oak.

This willow oak was increasing in diameter at the rate of 2 inches per year. I hated to cut it, but it was shading my persimmon trees and I valued them more.

Interesting Frost patterns

Here are a couple of pictures of frost patterns on my truck. These are natural. I think this is the first time I have ever seen anything this extensive.

2011 Maple Syrup harvest

This year we had a snow on Christmas night and I tapped my maple trees the next Monday December 27th. The first week there was a huge sap flow. I had over 3 gallons of syrup before the date I normally tapped my trees. I now have over 4 gallons total and hope the trees will continue flowing after this cold snap. I have heard that northerners call it a sugar snow when the snow is on the ground and the sap is running heavy. I am fairly certain it is the weather conditions and not the snow that makes the sap so prolific during that time. Here is the stove I use. I have it in an outbuilding because the house can't stand that much moisture. Out of 40 gallons needed for one gallon of syrup, I boil down about 38 gallons outside and then finish boiling off the last gallon inside. I have to boil it all day on the stove, but that is so much simpler than building a fire to boil it.

More on pesticides and peaches

Just found a whole website devoted to the dicussion of the pesticide issue I reference in an August posting. http://www.safefruitsandveggies.com/
I have said it before but will say it again-farmers exposed to the undiluted fresh pesticides are living longer and healthier lives than consumers exposed to the diluted and environmentally degraded pesticides. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that people aren't getting enough pesticides, but that would be a more logical jump than the one people are making.