Prepping the land

Praise for rain in the past few days but so far still no lift of the burn ban. In the meantime, D has spent all of his waking hours gigging the land and we now have lots and lots of rocks and roots to pick up to keep us busy while we wait for that ban to lift! Today I finalized the number count on the varieties based on our "master plan" and adjusted for the poor availability (many growers are saying they have the smallest stock they've ever had due to the drought, heat and late spring freeze). In other news, I have gotten prices for the nurse tank and trailer (looks like AgriSupply has the best price), a 24" auger to dig the holes, a sprayer that can be attached to the tractor or the ATV, various insecticide and herbicide prices, prices for lime and zinc, nickel (if needed), and a trailer hitch for the ATV in order to pull the wagon D bought today to use for many things, but for now especially to haul the roots and rocks we will be picking up for days (weeks?) to come! Moving along, just not as quickly as I'd like but then again I always said "Rome wasn't built in a day.... I think a few hours should be plenty."

Quote of the Day

"George Washington was quite a farmer. He was a farmer, Civil Engineer and gentleman. He made enough at civil engineering to indulge in both the other luxuries."

- Will Rogers

Texas

D returned weary but happy very late Saturday night (technically Sunday morning). Where do I begin? There was so much to see and do and find out but the main things are:
1 - We will definitely get as much of our stock as we can from Berdoll's. He does not carry some of the "Eastern" varieties we want but he does carry Pawnee and Desirable, 2 of our 3 main varieties.
2 - Other nurseries in Texas don't even come close to the quality he has (and we want)
3 - We are more convinced than ever that the key is going to be not just in growing a great product but in marketing it directly to the consumer, often with additional processing being needed.
4 - We will have lots of headaches, problems and many, many hours of labor before we produce a crop but won't it be great to produce something that is healthy and of real value, not like so much of what is produced and consumed in this country (eg movies!!). Sure, we'll never be as rich or famous as movie stars but that's another good reason to do this!

On the home front, it looks like we will still have to wait on burning for now. Praying for more rain and for that ban to be lifted soon so we can finish prepping the land and get some of those beauties growing!

In the meantime, I'm having lots of fun "taste-testing" all the goodies D brought back with him from Texas!

Daily journal

D is in Texas and had a fantastic meeting with Mr. Berdoll. We will definitely be getting trees from him but we need to decide fairly soon what size and get our order in to him before someone else snatches them up. Nursery stock is very short this fall after that very late spring freeze and ridiculously hot and dry summer here in the South. (This man and his family produce well over 1 million pounds of pecans a year, buy more from other growers to meet their demand, and sell about 25-30,000 trees a year! I can't even begin to think in those kind of numbers!) Tomorrow D goes to visit one other nursery and several orchards, retail stores and processors.

I haven't made much headway with the number crunching but hope to do so tomorrow. The land is cleared and graded (thank you Lord!) and we had a little rain this morning (much bigger Thank you Lord!!) If the Governor will just lift that burn ban for a few days we can finish prepping the land. The fruit trees and berry bushes have been hanging on and I am hopeful to keep them alive and actually get some small harvest from them next year, Lord willing. I especially would like to see the raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and grapes produce at least a little. It will probably be 2009 before we see any apples, pears, peaches and plums, though.

Bees - still researching how/when/where to set up the hives. As soon as we can get the clover established in the pecan orchard and it is feasible we would like to set up hives. It will not only be good for the clover and the bees but for the whole farm.

We've sketched out the layout of the retail space and will work on it ourselves over the next couple of years so that hopefully it will be ready by the time we need it. D and I have also been playing around with the layout of the logo but I think we need some more help. I am going to try to get Matt, Russ, Katy and Joanna all to give it a try to see what they can come up with either from their own photos or drawings or computerized drawing.

Update

1 - Planned D's trip to SE Texas to see orchards and nurseries - probably the end of this week
2 - Revised (again!) orchard layout - adjusted two more rows to be Pawnee after discussions about availability of productivity
3 - Dug 9 three-foot holes (7 on our land, 2 in Gran's pasture) to determine "perkability" - as of 24 hour mark, more than half have completely drained, remaining ones have from 2-6" left. Will recheck tomorrow morning (about 40 hour mark) and tomorrow afternoon at 48 hours. Recommended by Texas growers to determine whether soil composition is good and for which varieties on which part of the farm.
4 - Attended the last part of "Pecan Day" at Oak View in Raleigh. The good turn out at this event is a good confirmation that we are proceeding with the right idea. Mr. Bill Bunn and his wife were there and although we missed his presentation (busy fixing the tractor - which did not want to start on this cold morning - and attaching the auger to dig the holes) we were glad to get to see his slide show and see him for a few minutes. He had pecan halves, in-shell pecans, pecan pies all for sale; samples of cinnamon and sugar pecans as well as "roasted"/salted ones and taking orders. We bought enough halves for two or more pecan pies for the church supper next Sunday :) !
5 - Still unable to burn due to burn ban; still praying for rain!
6 - Still awaiting bulldozer for final grading (supposedly mid-week this week)
7 - to be done this week; finalize some cash flow projections including fencing, lime and ground cover costs; finalize D's trip (he will check Monday am about taking off work since they just had 20% of their workers laid off last week); discuss plantings on family land; continue research for crackers/shellers

Quote of the Day

"This session of Congress is also to relieve the farmer again,
relieve him of any encouragement

that he might have received during the last one."

-Will Rogers

Done. Finished. Kaput.

The layout of the orchard, that is. I have described it as a 5-D puzzle without the picture. I love puzzles. But this one has gotten to be frustrating and changed too often so I really am glad to see it finished. I'm sure in years to come we probably will say "if only"... about 423 times (that's the number of trees we will plant in the next 3 months, Lord willing) but we honestly have done our best. Several people have been invaluable with feedback and questions and experience and knowledge, most especially Mr. Bill Bunn. But now we will move forward and try to take the paper and turn it into an orchard. We can't burn yet (burn ban from the drought is still on per the governor's orders) but as soon as we can, we will burn, lime, plant clover and begin putting trees in the ground. This week ahs also seen many hours spent on determining the best watering tank/system. Amazing how many hours these things take if you want to try to make a good decision. And answers about root borne diseases, termites, marketing data on this year's crop, possible ways to visit a large orchard in Texas, more information about varieties and pruning and another week is gone. I can't seem to find a way to post the layout of the orchard here right now but I might come back and do so soon (after I order more printer ink and it prints clearer for a scan). Here's the rundown of the numbers, though:
Pawnee 115; Kiowa 98; Desirable 61; Oconee, Sumner, Stuart 34 each; Forkett 27: Cape Fear 16; Nacono 23 (if we can get them) - total count 442.
After first thin in 7-10 years we will have 239 left and after second thin we will have 128.