Growing Farm

So as much as my wife may not like it now the farm continues to grow every weekend. The long weekend was no exception. I added a second PVC system for 110 plants that is nearly done and ready, I added a 40 plant sugar snap growing area, and I started over 72 more seeds for various things that will fill pots all over the yard. This weekend I plan to build some growing platforms for the pots so they don't kill the grass and finish work on the PVC systems and get them up and running full strength. As promised here is some pictures of things that got done.

Weekend

Very busy this weekend. I completed 5 DWC systems and planted 40 pepper plants. Also planted 40 sugar snap plants in a raised bed so they can hang. Got started on 12 cucumber plants, 28 green bean plants, 15 brocolli, and 12 summer sqaush. I still have about 20 more bell peppers plants that I will place in containers this week and 12 Roma tomato plants to put in hanging pots. I nearly completed a 2nd PVC pipe system for 110 more plants which will be a mix of lettuce, spinich and maybe beans. Mounded the potatos this weekend and I will also look to plant 4 more potato buds this coming weekend. My four vertical apple trees have not arrived yet but I will call Gardener Supply tomorrow and find out what is up with them. All together I think this weekends planting put me at over 500 plants now.
In other exciting news  I put in my 4 new beehives this weekend and the bees are already producing honey. I managed to snag an extra frame from last years honey and harvested 28 ounces. I also have a bunch of bees wax now that I will turn into candles with the help of  a friend with molds. I may check out building my own honey extractor and see how that goes for this year rather then buy one.
I'm still waiting on my seed starter plugs for the lettuce and what not in the PVC system I'm really itching to get it up and running full speed. But I will post pictures of everything hopefully tomorrow so stay tuned.

Victory Gardens

So I read an interesting thing today about Victory Gardens, that 40% of all produce consumed in the US was grown in victory gardens. All they were was a movement during the war to help relieve food supply shortages by growing it at home. I think it's interesting that after the war was over most people stopped planting their own gardens. Now here we are in the 21st century and people everywhere are trying to urge folks to go back to growing their own produce. With all the rampant pesticide use and other chemicals in our food growing your own seems the only logical step to me.
As of this weekend I have planted 478 plants on my small quarter acre of land. With any luck I will triple that by the end of the season. Anyway I'll leave for now with a couple links to the wikipedia article on Victory Gardens and a video from the 40's promoting them.
http://archive.org/details/victory_garden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden

Container Gardens

So tonight I have decided to share with you all, pictures of my container gardens. To date I'm growing tomatos, sweet peas, potatos, onions, carrots, bell peppers, brocolli, rosemary, basil, dill, and parsley. This weekend I plan to add at least two more large containers of garden beans, and cucumbers. Also plan on completing some DWC systems for the peppers, and putting in roma tomatos in hanging pots. I also have 4 Columner apple trees that will hopefully come in and those will be in large pots along the patio. If your unfamilar with this type of apple I have included a link at the bottom to show you what they are. Rasberries will be planted along the backyard fence, and maybe some summer squash as well. Anyway enjoy the pictures and feel free to add any comments.
http://www.gardeners.com/Columnar-Apple-Trees/37-513,default,pd.html

Also before anyone says anything I know they all need to be thinned down and cleaned out of the oak tree seed pockets. =)

Electric Motorcycle

I really want to build an electric motorcycle, not only do I think it would be a lot of fun in the building process, but also it would save me tons on gas for simple errands around town. There are a lot of great videos on youtube on how to convert an old gas motorcycle into an electric. I guess really all I need now is to find a donor bike. Hell I don't even need the whole bike the frame and rear assembly would be enough to get started.
You know the more I read and research these differant technologies the more bothered I get. It seems my whole life I was lead to believe that these things were so advanced that not everyone could do it. Things like solor power and electric vehicles, hydroponics and sustainable living. And here it is 3 months into this reawakening and I've built a solar panel, I'm growing more crops then I could alone eat on a quarter acre of land. I understand now that the only reason people wanted us to believe these things were unattainable was to keep us down, for lack of a better way to put it. Uneducated masses are easier to control and sell products to.
At this rate I figure I'll have cold fusion in the bag by this time next year.

Just kidding on that part but who knows.

Farmer

Recently I have started to think about the prospect of becoming a full time farmer. I can't tell you how much joy I get from working my crops and building these hydroponic systems. Not to mention how good I would feel being able to sell healthy, affordable produce, and honey to my friends and neighbors in the community.
Of course here is the hook, the intial start up cost of even a hydroponic growing system of this size, along with recurrent costs is well beyond my means at the moment. Especially when you consider for the first year to two years the farm would make next to nothing. Since you have to start crops and get rotations going for sustained income.
My ideal farm would be twenty of more large greenhouses, feild crops in the spring and summer like corn and wheat. A solar array to power the operation, worm and normal composting systems, a couple tanks for fish to also use in the hydroponics, much like growing power uses in the milwaukee. And a small to medium apple orchard and rasberry patch. Oh and of course beehives for honey and pollunation.
Some initial estimates, and mind you this is very rough guess, for start up and three years of operating costs would put the whole thing at about two million dollars, and that would be me and my friends doing most of the construction. Which is not to bad all things considered, I have nothing against swinging a hammer and building up a future.
So I guess in the end I might look into kickstarter or other crowdfunding sites. If any of you happen to be overly wealthy and have that sort of money laying around with nothing to do with it, I would gladly except it and get moving on this. Until then I guess I will keep doing my little farm here and dreaming.

Worm Composting

Today my worms came in to start my composting. After lots of shredding newspaper and cardboard, adding leaves and other lawn clippings, and throwing in a healthy dose of vegetable scraps, the worms are not neatly tucked into their new home.
My plan is to use the worm castings in a nutrient tea for my hydroponic systems. Which I'm going to be adding to with the addition of 5 deep water culture systems for peppers tomorrow. Along with that it will also be my fertilizer for the container gardens and reduce our waste going to the landfill.
To date all of the crops I planted have come up, carrots, peas, tomatos, brocolli, basil, rosemary, dill, bell peppers, parsley, and potatos. Tomorrow the PVC systems I had built will go into action and I'll get my spinich, and lettuce going. 172 plants total in the hydroponics. Add the 40 pepper plants going into the deep water culture systems and it is quite the amount for very little usuable space.
The first of five solar panels is complete and working now as well, and I need to start keeping an eye out for batteries and a control unit for it. I have two 3000W inverters that I will use to power growing lights and heaters in the winter but there is still a lot of time for that.
Tomorrow morning the beehives will be put up and ready for the bees arrival on May 26th. So lots of projects so little time.