Back to the Farm

We will be heading back to the Farm next week. We have a great deal planned for this year:

1. Rainwater Catchment System to collect water for livestock and emergency supply from the roofs of the barns with metal roofs. In the future an underground cistern... but for now an above ground ferro-cement tank.
2. Slaughter 1 steer and 1 hog (we'll keep half and give half to the family that takes care of the place during the winter. We have a huge coffin freezer, which along with a couple of big BBQ's will take care of this windfall 1,2,3. Raise 10 bottle calves.
3. Set cheese. This year some nice, hard cheeses.
4. Buildout beehive and instill colony.
5. Grow "the mother of all gardens." Corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, beans, squash, lettuce, spinach, onions, garlic, artichoke, brussel sprouts, carrots, tomatoes (several kinds), kale, beets, string beans, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe. The garden is 80' by 177' and I am going to fill it up.
6. Hatch out and brood 200+ chicks.
7. Repair the house deck, barns, and fencing; build out farrowing huts for potbelly cross hogs; buildout new "goat barn".
8. Put up a couple hundred mason jars of produce from the garden.

I've had a 350 pound hog living in the garden since last year's harvest. I had read that some folks did this for weed control (as well as fertilizer). I have not been there all winter so I don't know if this worked out as advertised... but my farmhand says it looks like the garden has a had a tiller run through it.

Pictures soon (pray for rain this summer).