A year in the life of a farm

[BillyloMexico]

Eating pears. Pretty cool

Awesome picture.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BolilloLoco]

That cockeyed back on right is very cool!!!

[STGS]

Fantastic story of hard work and success. Your deer herd is impressive to say the very least.

[Trumpkin]

The only income I have ever taken off the farm is the little timber income I get .My vision for this ideal is multi faceted. To accomplish the goals I have in mind I intend to add cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, bees, fruit orchards, pecans...and anything else I can grow in the south. All this designed to improve the soil fertility on every square foot of the farm. This in turn increases the nutrient density of everything growing be it plant or animal..all organically.

So to specifically answer your question I intend to create a business [ interrupting my delicious enjoyable retired lifestyle ] marketing nutrient dense beyond organic food stuffs to those with an interest. This in one part as a way I can give back to society. But also to show that a small diverse farm can be a profitable lifestyle in harmony with nature and spiritually coherent. Thus I am looking to be both profitable and educational.

A very minor consideration in mind is that all this will only increase the value of the farm. Without question, what has been done as a recreational farm has increased its value. By adding more diversity and depth to the profile I believe the farm becomes more attractive to a larger population thus increasing in value. So when I'm gone someone should be quite happy.

In the meantime I love a big scale project like this!

Dang! I've been looking at getting into this stuff for over a year, and kept thinking about your operation and wondering if you were doing this already. I knew you were roller crimping and cover cropping extensively.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you do with this endeavor!

[ethic1]

When do you plan on planting?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[elgato]

When do you plan on planting?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I will start crimping my summer annual plots mid Sept and plant shortly thereafter. The thatch should be adequate to hold moisture for fall planting. I will prep the clover fields about the same time but wait till rain before I plant as without thatch and rain they may not have adequate moisture for germination.

I'll update in detail as I start the process

[Big Mike M]

How are you doing Rusty? It seems like your place was in the line of fire last night. Hope all is well.

[GarGuy]

How are you doing Rusty? It seems like your place was in the line of fire last night. Hope all is well.

I'm pretty sure they took a beating this morning. He said all family ok. I'm guessing he is pretty busy with clean up

[elgato]

Quick update. Family and home safe with no damage. Much luckier than many in our Parish which saw intense destruction loss of elec water issues and communication challenges. The farm looks like Hiroshima. Countless trees down with some areas left holding only 3-4 trees per acres. Toured with forester today who was broken hearted to see decades of quality management blown up. Salvage operations start Monday.

Going to be pretty busy around here for while digging out of hole and starting fall projects. But there are many in La who have truly serious problems.

[BolilloLoco]

Quick update. Family and home safe with no damage. Much luckier than many in our Parish which saw intense destruction loss of elec water issues and communication challenges. The farm looks like Hiroshima. Countless trees down with some areas left holding only 3-4 trees per acres. Toured with forester today who was broken hearted to see decades of quality management blown up. Salvage operations start Monday.

Going to be pretty busy around here for while digging out of hole and starting fall projects. But there are many in La who have truly serious problems.

Good to hear you & yours are safe. Farm can be rebuilt. Probably bigger and better than ever if I know you.

[jbhlsu]

Sorry to hear about the farm. Had a tornado run threw our place couple years back. It is gut wrenching....

[bgleaton]

Sorry to hear about this! I’m happy to hear that you and your family are safe.

[elgato]

Been a tumultuous month! 2 hurricanes, 32 days without internet or computer, one throat surgery, and a list of unexpected additional tasks too long to count.

A recap of hurricane Laura shows we lost somewhere between 50-75% of the timber across most of the farm. The hardwoods in particular took a hit. It took nearly 100 hours with a skidder, cutter, and bull dozer just to open the roads to be able to travel the farm. There are still trees down everywhere in all the road right of ways and fields . We salvaged 50 loads of downed timber off about 75 acres before the crew needed to move on to more profitable opportunities. Have about a thousand acres to go. It will take years.

The two silver linings are from a deer perspective it will create a giant thicket to their liking. Course we may never be able to find them. The other benefit is as I have mentioned I am moving towards a regenerative ag program on the farm. The idea behind cattle grazing in the woods is to create a "savannah" landscape keeping underbrush at a younger succession. Well, Laura certainly thinned the timber to a savannah!!! May take me a couple of years to create the infrastructure and skill set to take advantage of this but the habitat is there.

Perimeter fencing is a disaster. A crew worked everyday from just after the storm [ August 27 ] till mid last week with chain saw , tractor and sweat and we still do not have all the fence back up. Probably need two more weeks. Is what it is and nothing we can do about it.

We were taking a break from fence repair to start belated planting. Then Hurricane Beto came along and dumped a bunch of rain on the farm stopping that in its tracks. Just Sunday it was dry enough to begin spraying but after one day a front has come thru with more rain today. The hope is we can finish spraying later this week and finish planting hopefully by early next week. I'm ok with the timing and certainly there is plenty of moisture to get things going but I haven't been able to experiment and play as I usually do.

While the woods are a disaster, as mentioned the deer couldn't be happier. Excepting a couple doe groups you cant find a deer now. I haven't seen a buck to speak of since the storm. Cameras are a luxury we simply don't have time for now. Hunting the woods will probably be impossible this year with all the downed timber and who knows if any deer will come to a food plot with all the fresh browse in the woods. Class B problem Guess it forebodes greatness next year.

I continue working with Dr. Allen Williams and Understanding Ag to transform the farm with a regenerative ag approach. We have the overall design outlined and I have taken soil samples across the farm for Haney and PLFA soil tests. New for me so keen to see what they reveal. I need a dozer to create r.o.w's. for electric fencing but every dozer in the south is busy with clean up. TBD if I can get that done before too wet this winter.

Enough for now. we are crawling out of the hole, everyone is safe, and as with all things habitat and wildlife oriented we do what we can and work with nature as she dictates.

[scott1022]

Your positive outlook never ceases to amaze me!

[Puncher51]

I hate to hear about all the damage Rusty. I can’t imagine the amount of stress that has caused. As others have mentioned, your positive outlook is inspiring! I pray that the throat surgery was a success! Thinking of y’all