Week #1 of my Permaculture Farm.

Frozen Shelter
So my first week as a farmer went almost as expected. My first task was to go and pickup this tarp shelter someone was giving away, to use as storage or a future DIY greenhouse. Upon arrival we found the shelter was frozen in the ground and surrounded by a mini ice wall. I spent about 4-5 hours smashing the ice and beating on the ground to break the tarp free from the frost while my Dad disassembled it.

I spent a couple of days walking around the property with a map outline of the land, daydreaming about where things would go and drawing out potential layouts for the farm. We brought out an old wood stove we removed from a previous home to have a fire on the new land but it was so windy there was no way we could light it, although this was frustrating it made it clear that we could use layers of trees to the West and North of our main site.

I went down to the local Ag store and purchased a Cattle Shelter for $2400, wheelbarrow, cattle panels (for experimental greenhouses), and some crop seed. The shelter was delivered the following day followed by more wind ensuring once again that there would be no fire. This cattle shelter initially will be a good place to store a few items out of the rain/wind and give us a place for shelter as well. Eventually this shelter will be re-purposed for animals and a windbreak for some of those experimental Greenhouses.

The local County approved our proposed location for the dugout, so the next step will be arranging the equipment to do the digging. I have also been careful observing the spring runoff to get an idea of where we need to build swales and encourage water movement. Once the frost is out I will start to tweak the landscape slightly to encourage water to move to the initial tree planting locations nearby starting at the highest point of the property and then working my way down.

I'm excited for warmer weather so I can get started but I am starting to realize the size of the land and how much grass/hay is going to be growing around me, if I want to accurately measure the contours of the hills I may have to get started before it becomes a hay field. Also need to start thinking about which spots we are going to till early to plant a spring cover crop so we can get some experiments going in Year #1. Stay tuned!