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!

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.