Trip from Texas

Friday, Dec. 26 - rose at 4:30am, was at airport at 5:50, flight to Atlanta then after sitting on the tarmac, left 2 hours late for Austin.
Arrived in Austin about 1:30pm, picked up at airport by Mrs. Lisa Berdoll who graciously fed our hungry tummies before giving us a tour of both their retail store as well as the orchard and some of the harvesting buildings. The Berdolls are some of the nicest people ever, and we got to meet their daughter (Jennifer) and son-in-law who are buying the store on Monday, as well as their son (Brandon) and his wife who works at the retail store.
After seeing the orchard and Hal's new sorting machine (which he designed himself to re-sort pecans to his own more stringent specifications), we stocked up on some fantastic pecan products at their store and got a few pointers from Hal about planting the trees. They had already loaded up our order (85 Desirable and 235 Pawnee trees that are 2 year-old grafted onto 2 year rootstock, as well as 12 young Pawnees that have been budded but not yet forced, and one large Pawnee that will go at the entrance to the farm).
We drove to the closest Home Depot, bought a padlock to help protect our lifetime savings packed in that truck!, and hit the road just before dark. We drove down to Houston, and on into Iowa before stopping for the night. (Yes, Iowa! - Iowa, Louisiana, that is :) !). Saturday morning we fueled up at Waffle House and got gas for the truck, and hit the road. We crossed Louisiana amidst scattered light showers, marveled at the acres and acres of rice fields, drove across the southern edge of Mississippi, and on into Alabama. From Mobile we headed up to Montgomery, then on to Atlanta by about 8:30pm Saturday night.
Derwin was feeling very achy and feverish by late afternoon and by the time we reached Atlanta was into a full-blown flu. I had thought I would trade off driving with him when needed but a 16' truck loaded with everything it had taken us 30 years of marriage to save, and our two lives at stake if I made a mistake on a rainy, foggy interstate was more than either of us wanted to risk. So we stopped for the night and although D got very little sleep between coughing and headaches, he hung in there to drive us the rest of the way home on Sunday evening (he's amazing!).

Plan for planting:
1 - Unload trees under garden shed cover where can be wrapped/covered if freezes below 15 degrees or so before planting
2 - Subsoil the tree holes where they've been dug with 3' auger in at least 4 places (2 times across each hole)
3 - Level off each hole if sunken
4 - Dig 9" hole for each tree
5 - Remove from pot and plant in hole, packing in well, and then watering
6 - Berm about 3' from trunk around each tree (to hold in irrigation during dry spells before irrigation system is put in); mulch inside the bermed area
7 - Put up electric fence to keep deer out
8 - Wrap tree protectors around each trunk and put up bamboo supports & tie them
9 - Get sprayers, insecticides, etc. ready for spring
10 - Mark varieities with more permanent markings at each row
11 - Log varieties and planting info (weather, etc.) in computer database
12 - Water as needed
13 - Determine/file tax information
14 - Continue to monitor and log weather and soil conditions throughout winter and in preparation for spring fertilizers, etc.

Shelling Pecans

Saturday I was finally over the flu, so when D returned from a local pecan cracker with 10 pounds of cracked beautiful Desirables (that's a pecan variety :) !) we all sat on the back porch, spread them on the plastic tablecloth and shelled them. After weighing them into 1-pound bags, we delivered our first "prize" to friends and neighbors, reserving some in our fridge for soon-to-come Thanksgiving pies! The nuts were grown in an irrigated orchard in northern Georgia and make us even more excited about getting our trees in the ground and growing.

We pick up our first tree order next Saturday from Lake View Pecans in Bailey. D is taking Friday through the whole next week off to dig 3' wide, 4' deep holes at each tree spot with a rented bobcat with a 3' auger attachment. We will then hand mix lime into the soil (just a small amount) before refilling the hole, then he will subsoil both across and down each row which should break up any "glazing" done by the auger. After the subsoiling is done, we will use the tractor to smooth out the rows and will then replace each measured marker for the exact center of the hole. Our plan is to then be able to simply use manual post hole diggers for the hole and planting of each pot. We will probably try to get all of the NC trees (85 of them, 4 different varieties) in the ground before Christmas, but definitely by New Years. I will hand water and tend to the trees in the pots between this Saturday and the day they go into the ground. After New Years we will be going to Texas to get the rest of the trees (385 total but just two varieties). That's the plan. We will see what reality brings :) !

Fall is Here!

Suddenly the summer is gone and fall is here, which means - IIIIIIIIIYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHH! We have just a few short weeks to get everything done before we go to pick up the trees!!
Needed:
* Finish remarking each tree hole accurately (now that millet has been bushhogged)
* Put up fence (may wait on this until next summer unless we have problems with the deer in late Jan/early Feb)
* Dig almost 400 holes at least 4' deep and 4' wide ("ripping") and then mixing dolomitic lime with the soil, refilling the holes and leveling off
* Dig the actual tree hole (with auger attached to tractor - see next note!)
* Plant clover in the "alleys" between tree rows
* Get new radiator and water pump for old (very old!) tractor which of course has a very rare-type of radiator that has to be ordered from (are you ready to hear this??!!) - IRELAND! We've researched and called and talked to everyone we could find and evidently this type of radiator is now only made by one company in the world, so you can guess that it is not easy to get and of course not cheap! Since this is our only tractor, we don't have a choice (well, the only other choice is a new tractor and that's not really a choice!)
So right now we are "dead in the water" until the tractor is fixed or we decide to pay someone to do some of the holes. One supplier is ready for us to come get our trees in the next two weeks and then I will be the mother of 85 "babies" that I will have to tend to carefully until the spring. That brood will grow to over 400 after our January trip to Texas, so talking about being an expectant "parent" :) !

Other than the new trees, the other happenings are:
* Pick up, sort and collect nuts from a few local trees to try to grow rootstock from in the next two years (especially one very prolific old tree at the old homeplace where Derwin's Dad was born)
* Pick up, sort, and shell pecans for personal use and possible sale
* Develop website
* Finalize tax and other paperwork
* Prune and tend to certain berry and fruit trees that need fall attention
* Continue watering and tending cabbage and collards in the garden
* Gather and dry black walnuts from MIL's farm
* Cut/split more firewood for the winter

And try to keep the house and yard in order, do school with the children, teach Awanas, and all of the "normal" things to do on a farm and with a family! I am just so very thankful for our health and the opportunity to do so much together as a family. That's what makes it all worthwhile!

Placing "the" order

Tomorrow I will confirm with both of our suppliers the exact quantity, variety and size of each tree that we plan to plant next winter. We have "finalized" our layout (again!) but of course we will revise it if we cannot get the exact number of each variety that we want because we really feel like it is more important to get the good quality of trees as long as we can get almost all of the varieties in the quantities we want. The local farm supply place is scheduled to come and lime (1.5 tons per acre) tomorrow and then D will begin discing it in before we plant ground cover. I am still researching exactly what type of cover we need to plant at this time of year (usually you would plant it in the fall).

Tonight it is supposed to be down to about 30* so I spent a little time this evening covering the fruit trees with sheets. It looks so funny to look out and see two rows of sheets swaying in the cold north wind!! We will see tomorrow how much damage has been done. I didn't cover the blueberry bushes because they are still so small that I was considering plucking the blooms off for one more year anyway, to help advance the growth of the branches.

There is a possibility of some slight showers overnight but no further rain in sight for the rest of the week. Once the fields are limed it really would be good for it not to rain until we get them disced and sowed with some cover.

Back on the roller coaster

Well, here it is. Another "loop" on the ride. Just as I posted a little over a week ago that we were going ahead another few things went awry. We had rain - lots of it- at the end of the week and so of course the land graders weren't able to come as planned. In addition, since we had not made a firm order and paid our supplier in Texas (not knowing when or if we would be ready), he has now sold out of all but one of the varieties that we wanted during a big conference last weekend. The graders are supposed to come this weekend but the weather forecast is calling for rain again (which we do need but why can't it rain during the week?!) and the farm supply for our lime is now into spring farming season and will be backed up for days or weeks. So again we reverse our reversal of our reversal .... whatever, we are not going to plant this year. It's just too far into the "iffy" window of spring and we really want to do it the right way, not necessarily the fast way, so (for today) it is (almost) sure that we will not have any trees in the ground before next winter.
In the meantime I am looking into the possibility of some specialized crop farming this spring/summer and will keep you updated with that. Also, we will be placing a "very firm" order including down payment on our trees that we want to be sure to get late next fall/early winter, both from Texas and locally. In the meantime, it is nice to get rain to relieve this drought and refill ponds and lakes and I cannot be sad about almost anything in the beautiful springtime!
(Photos by Russ and Matt Creech)

Birthday present

D got the best birthday present ever 6 years ago - another son! But this week he got his next birthday wish - no, unfortunately not another child - pecan trees! We confirmed with our Texas supplier and land grading company and liming farm supplier and hole digger (me!) and disc-er (me & D) that if the Lord is willing we will get the trees in about a week and a half and spend the remainder of the month of March planting, pruning, staking, berming and tending to 400 trees. What a great gift!

How things look today...

Don't think I'd mentioned that we bought the water tank last week. 1000 gals worth. We will be using it for both the farm and for an opportunity that we have to rent it during this severe drought in Raleigh. In a way we have been blessed from this drought because it caused an opportunity for us that will actually help us on the farm!

Prayer. I'm ashamed that I do not pray like I should when it always gives me a way to be used by God and learn more about him. The 3 days of prayer we committed to have been amazing. Doors that had been closed for months suddenly opened. We got some rain last week but no one expected the burn ban to be lifted. It was (effective Sat., March 1st). If the Lord wills it according to the weather and other factors the final removal of the left-over burnt piles will be removed next weekend at half the rate we expected to pay (isn't HE good?!!), the following week we will lay off the rows and begin digging holes and the next week (third week of March) we will go to Texas to get 2/3 of our trees. The other 1/3 will be bought locally (varieties that are not available from Mr. Berdoll). This is just inside the planting window and with the addition of the water tank to our family we should be able to go forward. I know you think we are building a roller coaster ride but that's the ride called "farming". Weather, wind, rain, equipment breakdowns, supplier problems, money, labor, time, weather, money, well.... each and every one causes another twist and turn on the ride. I've always liked roller coasters myself. Good thing, I guess!