ARGOSY
FARM is a farmsteading1 project located in Hillsborough,
North Carolina. After years of fast-paced, hectic lives, we're looking for a
"simpler", sustainable and self-sufficient lifestyle. We're not abandoning
modern conveniences, but we believe we can combine the best living practices of
our grandparents with those modern conveniences which bring value -- without
ecological compromise. We hope to protect and nurture the land. Integrate simple
low-impact, self-sufficient concepts such as ecological design and building,
natural and heritage food production, and
alternative energy. And most challenging of all, we hope to do this without
mortgaging our souls.
We invite you
to follow our progress as we wade through the challenges of the local permitting
process, and learn the joys and pitfalls of farming, building and more.
Food, Inc.—if you haven't
seen this documentary yet, go see it.
December 2009 We added six Muscovy ducks this month—one
drake and five ducks. They're hanging out with the chickens until we figure out
their shelter needs. Three of the ducks put themselves to bed each evening in
the chicken house, but the drake and remaining two ducks head for the pond at
sundown. They show up for breakfast each morning in the chicken yard. Watching
them swim in the big pond is a treat, joyously splashing and playing like
children.
King of Hearts went back to his farm at the beginning of December and we'll miss
him. He lost his "goaty" smell after several weeks here. We worried he might
have become "one of the girls" as he'd also lost some of his, shall we say, more
interesting male goat habits, such as encrusting his head in urine, curling his
lower lip and sticking out his tongue. Hopefully we have three pregnant does.
Strawberry plants are blooming in the hoophouse, in spite of recent temps in the
low 20s. Collards, Swiss chard, spinach, turnips, radish, beets and several
lettuce varieties continue to do well.
November 2009
More berry plants went in this month in raised beds—gooseberry
and elderberry join blackberry, raspberry, strawberries and blueberries in the
orchard. Garlic is planted, a little later than last year, but rain kept us from
working the ground. We're using our own seed grown from this year's crop.
We've put up a shelter to store hay and straw until we can get a barn built.
Pastures need a lot of work next year to improve grazing for the animals.
October 2009
Milk and egg production has slowed down with October's arrival, along with
cooler temperatures and fewer daylight hours. This means less time to get things
done on the farm, and we're finding most of our evenings after work go towards
animal chores, making weekends even more precious. This month will be devoted to
preparing for the winter ahead -- winterizing animal shelters, tending the
hoophouse garden, and making sure the goats will be back in milk come spring. King of Hearts, a Nubian buck from Humbug Farm, will spend the month here at
Argosy. Hopefully we'll have goat kidlings come Spring.
September 2009
The raised beds are finished in the hoophouse and the plants are thriving:
lettuce, collards, swiss chard and some volunteers that popped up on their own
-- tomatoes and cucumbers. We've left them to grow, hoping they'll make some
progress before the cold weather sets in. Two sets of paved walkways, separating
the three raised beds, are nearly finished, leaving the other half of the hoophouse to complete. In this next phase we'll build potting tables, provide an
area for potting soil and organic amendments, and access to water -- when we
find some extra time. Also put in blackberry and raspberry beds in the orchard.
Our goats are now registered with the American Dairy
Goat Association (ADGA).
August 2009
This year, like last, August was a complete blur.
Most of our time was spent harvesting, canning, freezing or drying produce. It's
a real challenge to keep up with both garden chores AND animal chores.
One of our hens hatched another chick, bringing the
total born at Argosy this summer to four.
July 2009
We finally found some time to open the bee hives and harvest some honey,
after ordering an extractor from Brushy Mountain. A great discovery—the
bees will clean all the excess honey residue off the extractor, if the equipment
is left outside. Wish we could let them loose in the kitchen.
The pace has picked up in the garden with weeding, watering, picking and
processing taking more of our time. See the
garden slideshow.
June 2009 Ursa, a Great Pyrenees puppy, arrived at
the farm this month. She'll serve as livestock guardian once we've completed
training. For now, she's a white fluffy ball of energy, intent on chasing the
goat kids, turkeys and chickens.
Goats
turn out to be pretty cool. Not only do they provide milk, but they also work as our land-clearing
crew, eating up briars and poison ivy. Electric net fencing allows us to move
their pasture around once a week, opening up new territory for them and
gradually clearing land. We're building a milking shed on skids which will enable us to
move it as needed. And we built a milk stand using a plan from
Fias Co
Farm. See the
milk house slideshow.
The 14 young pullets purchased in February started laying eggs this month,
bringing our hen population up to 24. We have way too many roosters though, so
we'll soon be processing a few of them to bring peace to the barnyard and food
to the table.
In the garden, green beans are coming in great batches, tomatoes, onions,
cucumbers and squash are ready, while sunflowers and other cut flowers provide a
beautiful backdrop to the garden. The carrots, peas and Swiss chard are ignoring
the hot weather. The young blueberry plants produced a handful of berries.
Strawberries haven't been very prolific. Yukon Gold potatoes are delicious and
the little French fingerlings were a good choice. We also harvested our garlic
crop this month. We set aside the largest bulbs to use as seed in the fall and
it looks like we'll have plenty to sell after the curing process is complete.
After trying several soft goat cheeses, finally ordered a cheese press and made
the first one-pound wheel of cheddar cheese, coated in red wax. The aging time
on this recipe is just a month, so we'll have our first slice come August.
Flies have been unrelenting this month, with our Jersey cow Isabelle taking the
brunt of the assault. We talked to several local feed stores looking for an
organic solution, but as in many areas of our society, the "easy" answer always
involves some kind of potent chemical. Do you really want to drink milk or eat
meat from an animal regularly drenched in poison? We finally found an herbal
mixture that, when sprayed or rubbed on her coat, offers some temporary relief,
when combined with a fly mask made for horses. She does present a strange sight
though, standing in the pasture.
May 2009 We had our first birth at Argosy Farm
this month. One of our Key West hens went broody and, after diligently sitting
on one egg for three weeks, hatched out a little chick. Wish now that we'd had
more faith in her ability as we would have slid more eggs under her.
The garden is progressing and is well-planted with a
much wider variety of vegetables than we had the previous year. It was a
challenge getting everything into the ground on schedule. Seedlings did well in
the hoop house, strawberries are producing, and looks like we may have some
fruit developing on the fig tree. Spinach, lettuce and mustard greens are still
looking good, but as the days heat up we'll see those vegetables slow down just
as the beans, corn, tomatoes and other vegetables hit their stride.
We
built housing and fenced a paddock for three goats that arrived from
Humbug Farm this month. Emmy
and Jalapeña are Nubians, and Heidi is a Nubian/Saanen mix. We're getting milk
from Heidi and Emmy so we're now working our way through Ricki Carroll's book
Home Cheese Making. So far, we've tried easy queso fresco, a quick farm
cheese, and yogurt. Chocolate goats milk is also pretty good, and it makes
excellent ice cream.
A
week after the first goats arrived, we added two-month old Nubian twins, Zora
and Zada. The older goats aren't too thrilled with the new additions.
And to round out the month, we added a handful of Red Bourbon turkey chicks, a
heritage breed.
April 2009
All Fool's Day brought the birth of little Zora, a
Nubian goat kidling born at
Cedar Moon Farms.
She is the first of what we hope will be two doelings coming to us after
weaning. And we've reserved a Great Pyrenees puppy who will serve as a livestock
guardian to the goats.
The first eggs have begun to trickle in. Strawberries, asparagus, sweet
potatoes, French fingerlings and Yukon Gold potatoes are in the ground, and we
planted a brown turkey fig in the orchard near the apples and pears.
March 2009
March
roared in like a lion with blustery winds, driving rain and icy temps. And eight
Key West chicks found themselves a new home, albeit a bit nippier than what
they're accustomed. But the chicken house is standing up to the weather, keeping
the new tenants warm and dry. They seem happy. (Read
more)
The hoop house plastic is finally on! We regularly get some strong winds over
the ridge, which made it more challenging to install, but the final product
looks great. A temperature test taken around noon a few days later registered 81
degrees F. inside and 54 degrees out. We'll be transplanting seed starts into
larger pots and moving them out to the hoop house.
We moved the 5-week old chicks into the larger chicken house after cordoning a
portion of it off with leftover deer fencing to protect them from the older Key
Westers.
Twelve blueberry bushes arrived from Finch Nursery—four
each of Tifblue, Premier and Brightwell.
We planted them in the orchard near the apple and pear trees.
We also adopted six, 19-week old Barred Rock hens rescued from a factory farm.
Their clipped beaks and timid response to us contrasted with the outgoing,
free-spirited Key Westers. The hens spent the first three days cowering in a
corner of the coop before finally venturing outside. Our black Key West rooster
immediately formed his own harem and has the new "girls" following him around.
The chicken house is nearly complete, and none too
soon with the chicks expected to outgrow the brooder at age 4-weeks. While
it may seem a little fancy for a chicken house, we knew we needed building
practice for the sheds, barns and houses to come. Most of the outdoor work is
finished and we'll begin making roosting ladders and nest boxes next weekend. (See
chicken house photos)
In
the meantime, we also have eight certified Key West chickens arriving the first
day of March, complements of V's parents. The chicks,
complete with certificate signed by Key West's mayor, are descendants of Spanish
Fighting Game Cocks, brought first to Cuba in the 15th century, then to Key West
by Cuban immigrants. This batch lost their mother to a hawk, were rescued, sent
to a shelter, adopted by V's parents, and will make North Carolina their new
home.
January 2009
Winter
arrived with a vengeance this month, with high winds and driving rain bringing
in the New Year. Falling temperatures then hit a low of 9 degrees for two days
running, covering the ponds in an inch of ice. Arctic air brought snow on
Inauguration Day. All conspiring to delay installation of the plastic covering
on the hoop house. Being forced inside does have its benefits, however,
providing time to pore over the growing stack of seed catalogs. After
inventorying our saved seed collection, we ordered more for the coming season.
Our goal this year is to grow a larger assortment of vegetables and flowers.
We also placed our order for day-old chicks from
Murray McMurray
Hatchery to arrive in February -- 6 each: Araucanas, Barred Rocks, Buff
Orpingtons and Delawares, and 5 each: Dark Brahma Bantams and Mille Fleur Bantams. The hatchery
throws in an "exotic" freebie, bringing our total to 35 chicks. We've built a
brooder and are making progress on a 12'x12'
chicken house.
How
fast can a calf run? Pretty darn fast when she's out of the pen and running
free. We've had
Isabelle for just over a month now and we're still getting to know her.
Weighed down by heavy winter gear and hampered by snow, catching her was no easy
task. Although this escape was made possible by not adequately latching the
gate, we'll be looking at fencing around the property to help keep her contained
should she make another run for freedom.
