Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Mike CHS]

That is cabbage and broccoli in that bed.

This white stuff is something we don't see any of around our place but this is the second time this winter.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Guess ya got things covered just in time. It has started sprinkling again here, it is 45° and falling.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh man, hope the covers work!

 

[Mike CHS]

We did this last year and although we lost many buds, we didn't lose all of them.

 

[NH homesteader]

 

[Bruce]

Can't you cover the asparagus with hay or straw??

 

[frustratedearthmother]

On the rare occasion that we've had a late freeze here, I covered broccoli and asparagus with a thick cover of hay and they came out fine.

 

[Mike CHS]

The broccoli should be fine and they usually survive a freeze. We went ahead and picked the asparagus so no loss there. Just a little snack.

 

[Baymule]

Snow in March??

Sounds like you made a good deal on the chute and the ram too. One stop shopping!!

 

[Mike CHS]

We went ahead and harvested the asparagus and put a bag of cotton burr compost on the bed to keep it a bit insulated. This stuff is 95% done composting and still generates a wee bit of heat.

We finished a small leg of fence in between showers today where the chicken pen will join the pasture fence. Post spacing is all over the place since this fence is over some thin rock ledge. We had to resort to some Wedge-Loc hardware for bracing but the span is only 60' on 3 sides.

We started to sort out how we are going to do our handling system since we want the vet out next week and decided that in order to make everything work with the tilt table we bought we were going to have to do a lot of jury rigging to make the handling chute work.

We did not get an entry gate with the table and couldn't find something that would work. We priced wood and hardware for a DIY solution and then looked at the web site for the vendor that handles the tilt table we bought. Turned out the chute system with the gate designed for our tilt table wouldn't be much more than our home built system and it would work as soon as we get it off the pallet. We are having it shipped to the good people at the Farm Center in Lewisburg and should have it in a few days depending on the storm hitting the east coast right about now.

We had planned on doing our own chute system but we want it to be more mobile. what we are getting is portable and can be set up in a short time and needs no supports not to mention it fits in with our tilt table. Hind sight is always 20/20 but we found out today we could have bought the handling system plus the tilt table for about $400 more than what we are now paying. We saved some money buying the used table but would have blown a lot if we had not figured out we needed a special gate to work with the tilt table. The biggest plus is that I don't have to drive a bunch of T-posts in rocky ground to support panels to drive the sheep.