Category: Farm Photos

The Day After Thanksgiving

…and I’m still thankful. Mostly for the dedicated guys we have working at the farm. It’s a balmy 28 degrees here this morning,

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And on a day that we always give our guys a break, I asked them to please come in. We have a field of grass that gotten eaten by slugs and disappeared in a matter of days. It’s a small field of 10 acres, but lost 9 of that field to slugs.

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The ground has been freezing and thawing for over a week so the soil on the top is really lose and very sticky. Except when the ground is frozen, so we are giving it a try.

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So yes today I’m thankful that even while in a slight still food coma these guys are still hard workers and know I wouldn’t ask unless it really had to be done.

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Stay warm and hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!

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A Very Cold…and Very Pretty Sunset

It’s been pretty chilly here the past couple of days.  Down into the low 20’s every night, but the good news is that it’s not raining!!  Yay for no ice…yet that is!  photo 1

I took these photos last night as the sun went down while we were loading the last wheat truck for the day.  This scene…the sunset, the windmill, looking out onto the prairie, has always been the first picture in my mind when I think of “home”.

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What We’re up to on Our Farm

For today I’ll just give you an update on what’s going on here in Oregon.  We’re having some incredible fall weather, foggy mornings, sunny afternoons and chilly evenings!  Basically it’s the best time of year here and we’re taking advantage of the lack of rain and getting quite a bit done!!

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We have only one more field to get worked down before we get it marked out to plant filberts.  We plant in the fall and then crop in between the rows to get a little return on our land while we wait for a hazelnut crop to come (4 years is about how long it takes).  Below is an example of a 1 year old orchard with crimson clover in between the rows.

262112_747476613819_3819296_nWe are also working on getting our established orchards pruned up to be able to take out half the trees next year.  Our older trees are 23 years old, and hazelnut trees love to have room to grow so that they can produce more and more.  So because of the size of our trees, we are going to be taking out half of them.  This may sound counter intuitive, but it does work out in the end.  We did this to another orchard a few years ago and the first year we lost half the production, the preceding years though it slowly caught up and this past harvest we broke even. I’m guessing that next year this orchard with only half the trees could out produce those where we haven’t thinned yet.  In a way it’s like pruning your roses back, just on a much larger scale!

As for me….due to my post from last week.  I’m on light duty, only allowed to lift 10 lbs for the next two weeks.  (Do you know how many things on a farm are OVER 10 lbs??!! Basically everything!!)  So I’m working on next year’s budget…a necessary evil of farming and good business.  Anyhow hope everyone is having a good Monday so far and if you’re not having this great weather…aka Midwest states…I’ll try to send some your way!