I’ve typically been a negative type person lately. I think for the first time in a long time Good Friday and Easter made me think of things a little more deeply. Spring is the time when the world starts to come alive after a long frozen winter. Nature seems to have a mind of its own. As cruel and as greedy man can be, the earth pays him no attention. She tips back on her axis and the land starts to warm. Perennials start to show in the beds around my house and soon leaves will be popping on the trees, at least we’re I live. (You may be ahead of me). I hope this spring gives us a new strength to fight on. I heard a song today by those famous wordsmiths called Landslide. There’s a line in the song that says I climbed a mountain and I turned around. I hope that we don’t turn around but that we all move forward and continue the struggle to stay free. Happy SPRING everyone!!! J.Goodrich
Hey neighbor! I'm just a short hop away from Madison, in Fluvanna. We just expanded our little flock of fluffy butts, looking forward to lots more eggs by mid to late summer. Thanks for sharing pics of your farm!
Hello neighbor! I’m in northern Albemarle. Hoping to move back to my hometown in Southside Va. someday once I finally decide to retire. But, I have grown to like this area, it’s taken several years!
Hey @GMoody, come say hello at the Hollymeade farmers market when it opens next month! I own Two Labs Coffee, we are going to be a new vendor at that market this season.
You're living like our over-educated family does 50 miles south of Silicon Valley. There's an epic sweetness to interacting with farm animals (sheep, goats, chickens for us) and the fruit trees.
Late in life, I learned the joy, peace, and sublime exercise of turning tree cutting into firewood, using only a chainsaw for the biggest cuts, otherwise just hand tools for the rest. This work keeps my body fit and mind clear.
Meanwhile, for my business, I take the train up to SF to meet with my startup clients. This work keeps my mind fit and sharp.
You know, if I chose where to live on politics alone, I'd been yet another Californian who moved to Florida during Covidland.
Also, I'm someone who grew up in Canada (and moved the US at 25 to attend law school), and who is also a citizen of Greece -- hence, I know the feeling of being a foreigner very well.
I saw SF for the first time way back in 1985 as a basketball player on his way to a summer tournament in Taiwan. SF in 1985 was a beautiful, provincial city, with many worn signs of its old money from the 1800s gold rush. I loved it then. That love drew me from Canada to a local law school.
Today, if the 1985 SF was a beautiful young lady to me, today she's an obese diabetic drunk old lady with a stump. Hard to look at.
But I still remember what she looked like in 1985. So, yeah, the tent cities, young masked idiots, and social distancing dances don't bother me at all. :)
Have you found the guinea carcass, or did they just dissappear? I ask because this very same thing happened to us and after 2.5-3 months our missing guinea came back?
In a couple weeks we'll have four more pigs. Mangalitsa/Berkshire cross to see what type of trade-offs there are between meat quality and growing speed as the Mangalitsa are slow growing.
Every year I evolve my growing styles and methods. For example I use cannabis to help control my seizures so I grow it myself through a method called 'manifolding'. This allows me to turn a plant with normally one main stock into a plant with 8 or 16 or 32 stocks..... the sky is the limit. I achieve 6 to 8 times the flower in the end.
In two weeks I will start the process of my first espalier apple tree.
I have the seeds from a 1964 pound Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkin to start in May. Cross my fingers I'm going for a record. I'm hoping starting with genetics like this will help my chances.
Sometimes its hawks. Over the winter and still occasionally I have large fat looking hawks hoping my dry cat food for the feral cat (or whomever, mostly small birds - cat get warm wet as well) will draw in small tasties. I'm not real pleased but for better or worse that's nature for us.
Oh, yes. I have seen hawks around and on Nextdoor the neighbors have been warning us to keep our small pets inside. Thank you, for the reminder. I live in town, but urban sprawl is causing an upset with our wild life.
If you want to keep coyotes away, by all means get a donkey. If you’ve never had one, their care is a little different than horses. Then take some of their manure and sprinkle a little near your chickens. Just their braying alone is enough for most coyotes and wild (feral) dogs to stay away.
This is done from the beginning to the end of the veg cycle when the sun is still up longer than 12 hrs....(or your light is on longer than 12 hrs.)
Manifolding is when you......
Wait until your seedling has grown to have five to seven nodes(branches on the main stalk) and cut the whole top off between nodes 3 and 4. Be sure to cut down close to node 3 so there's none of the old main stalk sticking out above it.
In effect, you've now just eliminated the main stalk of your plant and forced the two branches at node 3 into becoming two new main stalks. Double the yield.
Next step is to take those two new main stalks and cut their tops off just above each of their first nodes. Now you have 4 new main stalks.
You can see the pattern.... 4 becomes 8.
8 becomes 16. 16 becomes 32 new main stalks.
Using gardeners soft wire you postion each new stalk spaced evenly in a circle around the base of the plant.
Love Spring. Such a wonderful time to be alive. Pleased you surround yourself with all that life. I hope the Guinea fowl do not hang out very close to your sleeping quarters.
Sounds like our hobby farm. We are south of you in the Blue Ridge. Hayesville NC. I know you’re area is beautiful. I went to college in Buena Vista, VA and my parents bought me a horse at what used to be Shenandoah Farms, right in your area. I showed hunters and fox hunted while in college there at Rockbridge Hunt Club outside of Lexington (VA). So your writings hit old home week with me. Have a lovely spring!
Robert, we have so much in common, lol (except you are far smarter!). My wife has been nagging me to get chickens ever since we moved to NC in late 2019. During the "lockdown" of 2020, I planted 40 fruit trees (and have added about 8 more since), and a 3,000 sf vegetable garden. We have 3 dogs (2 German Shepherds and 1 Black Lab), and 2 cats (great mousers!). Our Redbuds are very nice, along with blooming fruit trees, surrounded by a 1-acre koi pond/flower garden area (now full of blooming Iris, Clematis and a few others coming along). Spring does bring some beauty and hope, and I hope you and Jill can take a breather and enjoy the season. God Bless!
Wonderful!! So wonderful! Thanks for sharing all that...
I grew up in Virginia...Winchester area, visiting Middleburg quite a bit...thought that is about where your farm was since they are so "horse focused" down there...Loudon County is not all that near Madison! But any of the rural parts of Virginia are beautiful...
💕🐣🐝🤗🌸🌿🍃🌱🐓🚜👩🌾👨🌾
Happy Spring, Drs. Malone!
Thank you 🙏 for sharing your
beautiful farm with us city folk.
💕🐣🐝🤗🌸🌿🍃🌱🐓🚜👩🌾👨🌾
Skip the English and stick to emojis. Saves time and reflects well on you.
I’ve typically been a negative type person lately. I think for the first time in a long time Good Friday and Easter made me think of things a little more deeply. Spring is the time when the world starts to come alive after a long frozen winter. Nature seems to have a mind of its own. As cruel and as greedy man can be, the earth pays him no attention. She tips back on her axis and the land starts to warm. Perennials start to show in the beds around my house and soon leaves will be popping on the trees, at least we’re I live. (You may be ahead of me). I hope this spring gives us a new strength to fight on. I heard a song today by those famous wordsmiths called Landslide. There’s a line in the song that says I climbed a mountain and I turned around. I hope that we don’t turn around but that we all move forward and continue the struggle to stay free. Happy SPRING everyone!!! J.Goodrich
Happy Easter, James and family!
Thanks Helen you and your family as well.
Eternal hope springs when new life is on the farm. Emu's make one smile!
I meant Emus. (Boy, I so got used to spell check with grammarly!) So, sorry!
THANK YOU for the refreshing and delightful insights and updates!
Hey neighbor! I'm just a short hop away from Madison, in Fluvanna. We just expanded our little flock of fluffy butts, looking forward to lots more eggs by mid to late summer. Thanks for sharing pics of your farm!
Hello neighbor! I’m in northern Albemarle. Hoping to move back to my hometown in Southside Va. someday once I finally decide to retire. But, I have grown to like this area, it’s taken several years!
Hey @GMoody, come say hello at the Hollymeade farmers market when it opens next month! I own Two Labs Coffee, we are going to be a new vendor at that market this season.
Definitely! Will see you next month, I’m 5 minutes from that market, good to know.
Spring is the best time of the year, and it's finally here!!!
Thank you for sharing! The pictures are beautiful.
You're living like our over-educated family does 50 miles south of Silicon Valley. There's an epic sweetness to interacting with farm animals (sheep, goats, chickens for us) and the fruit trees.
Late in life, I learned the joy, peace, and sublime exercise of turning tree cutting into firewood, using only a chainsaw for the biggest cuts, otherwise just hand tools for the rest. This work keeps my body fit and mind clear.
Meanwhile, for my business, I take the train up to SF to meet with my startup clients. This work keeps my mind fit and sharp.
You have my eternal pity having to endure SF.
You know, if I chose where to live on politics alone, I'd been yet another Californian who moved to Florida during Covidland.
Also, I'm someone who grew up in Canada (and moved the US at 25 to attend law school), and who is also a citizen of Greece -- hence, I know the feeling of being a foreigner very well.
I saw SF for the first time way back in 1985 as a basketball player on his way to a summer tournament in Taiwan. SF in 1985 was a beautiful, provincial city, with many worn signs of its old money from the 1800s gold rush. I loved it then. That love drew me from Canada to a local law school.
Today, if the 1985 SF was a beautiful young lady to me, today she's an obese diabetic drunk old lady with a stump. Hard to look at.
But I still remember what she looked like in 1985. So, yeah, the tent cities, young masked idiots, and social distancing dances don't bother me at all. :)
Your place is beautiful!
Have you found the guinea carcass, or did they just dissappear? I ask because this very same thing happened to us and after 2.5-3 months our missing guinea came back?
In a couple weeks we'll have four more pigs. Mangalitsa/Berkshire cross to see what type of trade-offs there are between meat quality and growing speed as the Mangalitsa are slow growing.
Every year I evolve my growing styles and methods. For example I use cannabis to help control my seizures so I grow it myself through a method called 'manifolding'. This allows me to turn a plant with normally one main stock into a plant with 8 or 16 or 32 stocks..... the sky is the limit. I achieve 6 to 8 times the flower in the end.
In two weeks I will start the process of my first espalier apple tree.
I have the seeds from a 1964 pound Dill's Atlantic Giant Pumpkin to start in May. Cross my fingers I'm going for a record. I'm hoping starting with genetics like this will help my chances.
We found feathers - although when the hens nest and can disappear for a while. But these most definitely were eaten.
Oh no. My friends lost their chickens to preditors too. Coyotes... or maybe it was owls.
Sometimes its hawks. Over the winter and still occasionally I have large fat looking hawks hoping my dry cat food for the feral cat (or whomever, mostly small birds - cat get warm wet as well) will draw in small tasties. I'm not real pleased but for better or worse that's nature for us.
Oh, yes. I have seen hawks around and on Nextdoor the neighbors have been warning us to keep our small pets inside. Thank you, for the reminder. I live in town, but urban sprawl is causing an upset with our wild life.
If you want to keep coyotes away, by all means get a donkey. If you’ve never had one, their care is a little different than horses. Then take some of their manure and sprinkle a little near your chickens. Just their braying alone is enough for most coyotes and wild (feral) dogs to stay away.
Hi David - we grow cannabis in our back yard in fabric grow pots! What is 'manifolding'? Thanks
Hey Jen,
This is done from the beginning to the end of the veg cycle when the sun is still up longer than 12 hrs....(or your light is on longer than 12 hrs.)
Manifolding is when you......
Wait until your seedling has grown to have five to seven nodes(branches on the main stalk) and cut the whole top off between nodes 3 and 4. Be sure to cut down close to node 3 so there's none of the old main stalk sticking out above it.
In effect, you've now just eliminated the main stalk of your plant and forced the two branches at node 3 into becoming two new main stalks. Double the yield.
Next step is to take those two new main stalks and cut their tops off just above each of their first nodes. Now you have 4 new main stalks.
You can see the pattern.... 4 becomes 8.
8 becomes 16. 16 becomes 32 new main stalks.
Using gardeners soft wire you postion each new stalk spaced evenly in a circle around the base of the plant.
I'll add a video to help explain
https://youtu.be/qezx_H7zZHE
my husband calls that "topping" - I think its the same thing - anyway thats what he does too
Topping is similar but stops at the first cut and no more.
Also known as FIM'ing.
The hopes there is that it's cut forces the start of two or hopefully three more stalks.
I also put a few pictures of my plants on my Google drive.
You can see the circle of main stalks take shape around the plant.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HEgZdV5yVrEtTBjqkr5aVgBMkL7Eud_f
Thank you for a respite from the world outside - and beautiful blooming photos!
Love Spring. Such a wonderful time to be alive. Pleased you surround yourself with all that life. I hope the Guinea fowl do not hang out very close to your sleeping quarters.
I fully agree, Dr. Malone, there's no place like home in Madison County. God bless you sir. Keep fighting the good fight.
Sounds like our hobby farm. We are south of you in the Blue Ridge. Hayesville NC. I know you’re area is beautiful. I went to college in Buena Vista, VA and my parents bought me a horse at what used to be Shenandoah Farms, right in your area. I showed hunters and fox hunted while in college there at Rockbridge Hunt Club outside of Lexington (VA). So your writings hit old home week with me. Have a lovely spring!
Robert, we have so much in common, lol (except you are far smarter!). My wife has been nagging me to get chickens ever since we moved to NC in late 2019. During the "lockdown" of 2020, I planted 40 fruit trees (and have added about 8 more since), and a 3,000 sf vegetable garden. We have 3 dogs (2 German Shepherds and 1 Black Lab), and 2 cats (great mousers!). Our Redbuds are very nice, along with blooming fruit trees, surrounded by a 1-acre koi pond/flower garden area (now full of blooming Iris, Clematis and a few others coming along). Spring does bring some beauty and hope, and I hope you and Jill can take a breather and enjoy the season. God Bless!
This edition of Dr. Malone's Substack brings a smile to my face and warmth to my heart! Thanks for sharing, Dr. Malone!
It's real life, with all it's ups and downs.
Wonderful!! So wonderful! Thanks for sharing all that...
I grew up in Virginia...Winchester area, visiting Middleburg quite a bit...thought that is about where your farm was since they are so "horse focused" down there...Loudon County is not all that near Madison! But any of the rural parts of Virginia are beautiful...
Loudon is near DPRK, I heard.