Moving to the Farm

[Larro Darro]

Glad to hear everyone is helping out. Getting to be friends with the folks in the court house will only make your life easier in the years to come. Good luck in getting all the paper work done.

Larro

 

[Larro Darro]

While we have been working to get our permits I was able to get the first phase of our orchard planted. I planted 5 apples trees and 2 peach trees. I used concrete remesh to fence around them and keep the deer from browsing and rubbing the trees. You can see my full write up here...
Orchard Phase One… Complete! | homesteaddad

There are some pictures there as well. When I get some time I will try to take some better pictures of the fencing if anyone is interested. All in, I have about $260 invested in the trees and fencing.

The trees look good. Did you use any kind of mulch to keep the weeds down. Here in Florida if you water anything, it will be knee high in weeds before you turn around. When we built 11 years ago, we planted a lot of fruit trees. But between the deer, sandy soil and drought, they all died. I planted a few at our river land about the same time. With no care at all, most of them are doing fine. Only drawback is that I rarely get down there anymore, and the deer get to eat all the fruit.

Larro

 

[Tororider]

I did not use any mulch at this time. Appear it's getting so cool but nothing is going to grow anyway although I may put something over tjem yet this fall. I will definitely mulch them in the spring.

 

[dave1949]

Did you use a trunk wrap to keep the mice and voles from stripping the bark and killing the tree?

The last trees I planted were three crab apples. The mice did in two in the first winter, I lost the third one in the weeds (they were just little seedlings) and accidentally mowed it off with the bush hog. :ashamed:

 

[Tororider]

I have not wrapped the trunks yet, but I will probably get to that before the snow flies.

 

[Tororider]

I took this picture while finishing wrapping the trees in the orchard tonight. So peaceful.

 

[Larro Darro]

Nice low light picture. I haven't tried any that late, but this was sunset at the Larro Ranchero a few days ago. It is a good time of day.

Larro

 

[Tororider]

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=343102"/> Nice low light picture. I haven't tried any that late, but this was sunset at the Larro Ranchero a few days ago. It is a good time of day. Larro

That is beautiful. It looks like the sky is on fire. I normally take pictures with my iPhone, because it's what I have with me. So I just turned off the flash and hoped for the best.

 

[Tororider]

A couple pieces of good news, I have the sewage permit in hand which means that the other permits should be coming shortly.

I also got the orchard watered and the trees wrapped. You can find pics and a more detailed write up here, www.homesteaddad.com/2013/10/28/watering-and-wrapping-the-orchard/

 

[Larro Darro]

A couple pieces of good news, I have the sewage permit in hand which means that the other permits should be coming shortly.

I also got the orchard watered and the trees wrapped. You can find pics and a more detailed write up here, Watering and Wrapping the Orchard | homesteaddad

Everything is looking good. With only two stakes per pen, it might be easier to just pull them up each time. But what I do is only bend the wire at the top and bottom, and tie it in the middle with some electric fence wire. And for photos of wire, I have found tying a ribbon, or sliding a thin stake into the edge will give the camera something to focus on. Keep up the good work.

I'm glad the paperwork is coming together. Soon we will be seeing some more progress{I hope}.

Larro