Our small farm--then and now--updated with more photos

When we bought this little farm almost four years ago, it was in sad shape:



The beginning--shredding the barn lot ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )

It had been uninhabited for about three years, and the weeds had taken over. My husband started by cutting down the waist-high weeds in front of the barn while I tackled the cobwebs in the house.


Path to the pond ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )
After we got a handle on the area around the house and barn, we cut a path to the pond.


Teenage ladies ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )
After we got the barn shaped up (somewhat) we got chicks. Here are our ladies as teen-agers. They got their combs shortly afterwards, and started laying eggs. Their chicken tractor/nap time place is in back of them. It gave them security while free-ranging.


Pond in autumn ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )
This is what our pasture and pond look like now--we have taken out some saplings, cut the grasses regularly, and are slowly bringing back many of the native prairie grasses and plants.

Haying done for the year ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )
We finished the haying for the year last week--the grasses will go dormant and are short enough to make way for the wildflowers next spring, the flowers our bees love so much! Then we'll start the cycle of growing, cutting, harvesting and enjoying all over again.
As I promised, here are more photos, some then, some now.


New bed in back yard, three years ago ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )

When we came we came with two pallets of plants from our previous garden. After rescuing the bricks from the piles in front of the barn, we edged the new backyard bed and started planting. This photo was taken while we were placing and planning the garden.

This is what it looks like now:


backyard flower bed ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )

There is a previous picture of teenage hens. Here is one of our ladies all grown up:


A full grown hen ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )
Ruby Begonia taking a dust bath, in the flower bed of course! The green sheen on her feathers is a characteristic of black Australorps.


Front flower bed ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )
I was very sensitive about how the place had looked for years, so we put in a flowerbed in the front as soon as we could, just to "prettify" the place. We now have two, with the second put in this year.


Front flower bed ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )

And here are the outbuildings. The small yellow building is my husband's workshop, complete with front porch! There is a tin shed behind where we park equipment and keep fertilizers, etc. The truck is in front of the barn, and you can see that we were still cutting down weeds beside the barn. That is where the compost piles and vegetable gardens are now.


Outbuildings ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )
And only gardeners would take photos of their compost piles! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I think compost is gorgeous!
So that's our little farm. We love it!






Two compost piles aren't quite enough ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden )

 

It looks like a wonderful place to live! I'd love to see more photos too

 

Thank you all. I'll post more photos as I find them. The photos of the farm are stashed in several files, so it is a treasure hunt!
Promise to post wildflower photos in the spring!
Toni, we moved here from town and didn't much want neighbors. We hadn't moved in yet, and people started stopping by to offer help, meals, and plants! I don't mind having neighbors here--they are such nice folks.

 

I have a question in mind - How much quantity of beeswax can one get out of a hive (per year). I ask because it is something very useful in my opinion (far more then the honey bees produce). Because when it comes to metal working, die-casting, and some foundry work too - Then there really is no substitute for beeswax!

 

S-H, the amount of beeswax depends on how many supers you have on the hive (those are the boxes that hold frames for the bees to make wax cells to put honey into) and how active the hive is. What I'm trying to say is that you take as much beeswax as the bees give--there is no way to predict the amount. We save our wax for candles since there really isn't too much of it.

 

Gosh, what a transformation. It must be a wonderful feeling to see the results of all the hard work you've put in. Can't wait to see more pictures. I dearly love fields of wildflowers.

 

OK, I've also heard that in order to attract bees, you need to place some honey, water, and a little beeswax (provided that you already have lots of flowers for them to feast on).

Anyway I've heard that whenever a stray bee sees that (water, honey, & beeswax), it immediately reports back to the main hive of a possible new place to start another colony. So is there any truth to this myth?

To test this, I once placed a little bit of honey (in a bottle cap) then I placed it in the center of a shallow saucer. After which I put some water in the saucer so ants wouldn't get to the honey - And believe it or not, I did notice a lot of bees coming up to it.

However I did not have any beeswax, perhaps that is why they never made a colony at my place - Even though I took the noise levels into consideration too (as I've also heard that bees like it where things are quiet)...

 

It is real beautiful Marlingardener, both before and after. Do you need a hand, I want to live there too!!!

 

KK NG, Do we need a hand? We need a crew! I'm still trying to clean out the barn; there are two trees that need serious pruning; the twice-yearly walk of the fence to see if there is a place needing repair is coming now the grass is down; the asparagus patch will need cutting down after the first freeze, and I have loads of peppers and half-ripe tomatoes to contend with! When may I meet you at the airport? How long can you stay? Do you have any friends who would like a working vacation?

 

OK, on a slightly different subject - Farmers over here in Pakistan can get heavily subsidized rates on power, water, and other amenities (cheap agricultural rates is what we call them). This applies to both leased as well as freehold farmland.

But the catch is that you then have to meet a certain quota of production (be it of vegetables, or meat and poultry products). So if anyone fails to meet that quota, you then get heavily penalized by fines levied on the property.

So I was wondering, what kind of freedom (or restrictions) do farmers in your part of the world have?

I have actually had this question in mind ever since I saw the movie Astronaut Farmer (2006), starring Billy Bob Thornton - As a retired astronaut turned farmer, who decides to build an actual rocket on his property. And then shoots himself into orbit!

 

Thanks for sharing your before and after photos...you have come a long way. I also just noticed your website and visited it, very nice and informative!

 

Gail, I'm glad you like our website. We will be updating it soon (as quickly as things wind down here a bit) so please visit it every once in a while to see what's new.
S-H, farm land is assessed for taxes at a different rate than dwellings and businesses. Also, electric rates for barns, etc. are lower. There are subsidies and incentives for farming, but that is too complicated to go into here.