Getting ready for another cow to be added to the herd, and if things go well she'll be calving shortly after she gets here and we want to keep her and the calf safe. I'm planning to set up a paddock shift system after the calf is born to help manage the pasture (preven over grazing) and repair the damage that was done to the pasture in the past.
After much research I packed up the Suburban and headed off to Lindale, Texas and Bob Wells Nursery. As a cantankerous, contrarian curmudgeon, anytime I have so many people saying good things about a company I usually go in with lowered expectations. Happily my expectations were far exceeded.
I went in on a Monday in mid-October and had the place basically to myself. I spent almost an hour just walking through and getting a feel for their inventory. The employees were friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful and gave me plenty of space to just wander around like a poor kid in a toy store. I ended up buying a plethora of trees, bushes, and vines. The guys loaded up my trailer, happily gave me my TSP discount (it paid for the next several years of membership with Spirko by the way) and I was on my way.
If you're anywhere nearby go in and talk with the guys there, they'll tell you what will grow and what won't. Amendments you need, and those you can do without.
Well, the swales are in so the next step is to get the trees in the ground. I ran up to B
"There is no greater act of rebellion than growing a garden." -Unknown-
Hello Hill and Ellis County! Welcome to the Snow Farm!
I had a small 1/3 acre suburban homestead before moving back to Texas. I found my passion in life is growing tasty, healthy, safe food free of pesticides and petroleum based fertilizers.
I bought this little 11 acre farm because I want my kids to know the joys and hard work that come from living on a farm. I want as much money as possible to stay in the local area with locally owned small businesses.
I know you're busy, but still want to give your family the best food you can. As we ramp up production here my hope is to find 5-10 families over the next 3-5 years that we can serve.
There's still a lot of work to do, but my goal is to help you feed your family the best food possible.
Whole chickens will be available in spring of 2016.
Heritage breed turkey orders for Thanksgiving 2016 will be taken in spring 2016.
Free range chicken and duck eggs will be available in the summer of 2016.
Right now there are 36 trees in the ground that will start producing an excess in 2016. The grapes and blackberries we planted should be coming on-line by then as well.
The two Belted Galloway heifers will be producing there first grass fed beef in 2017. As the herd grows so will our offerings of paddock shifted, grass fed beef.
There are so many other things that we hope to do, and I'm sure as the farm matures we'll find products that we've never dreamt of. Honey, fruit trees for sale, garden starts, lavender, hogs, and rabbits are on our radar right now, but who knows what the future holds.
As the site grows I'll be posting recipes involving the food we grow. My thoughts on gardening, and as much as I can what I've learned from all the mistakes I've made with my prior gardening attempts.
I can't wait to meet you, answer your food and gardening questions, and share our humble homestead's progress with you.
Your friend,
Russ Snow
After much research I packed up the Suburban and headed off to Lindale, Texas and Bob Wells Nursery. As a cantankerous, contrarian curmudgeon, anytime I have so many people saying good things about a company I usually go in with lowered expectations. Happily my expectations were far exceeded.
I went in on a Monday in mid-October and had the place basically to myself. I spent almost an hour just walking through and getting a feel for their inventory. The employees were friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful and gave me plenty of space to just wander around like a poor kid in a toy store. I ended up buying a plethora of trees, bushes, and vines. The guys loaded up my trailer, happily gave me my TSP discount (it paid for the next several years of membership with Spirko by the way) and I was on my way.
If you're anywhere nearby go in and talk with the guys there, they'll tell you what will grow and what won't. Amendments you need, and those you can do without.
For those of you who've owned a house already, you understand the time/money pit they can be. Setting up a homestead adds another level to that, in addition to the electric bill etc, you have the additional costs of trees, bushes, animals, feeding troughs, feed, tools et cetra.
Some of these are simply sunk costs, like renting the excavator to dig the swales, while others like the fruit trees themselves will give me at least 100% ROI per year for 10 years (if I can keep them alive, 50/50 that.) I get that ROI number based on assuming $25 paid for tree, and getting at least 25 pounds of fruit valued at $1 per pound for at least 10 years of the trees life.
The first big project that I had to get out of the way was getting the swales dug in. I dug in three, the first one ended up being in really poor soil. The next two swales were in beautiful black clay/loam and that's where I ended up planting a majority of my trees/bushes/vines. In the row that was poor soil, I only planted three trees, two Advacados and a plum. We'll see how they do.
After much research I packed up the Suburban and headed off to Lindale, Texas and Bob Wells Nursery. As a cantankerous, contrarian curmudgeon, anytime I have so many people saying good things about a company I usually go in with lowered expectations. Happily my expectations were far exceeded.
I went in on a Monday in mid-October and had the place basically to myself. I spent almost an hour just walking through and getting a feel for their inventory. The employees were friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful and gave me plenty of space to just wander around like a poor kid in a toy store. I ended up buying a plethora of trees, bushes, and vines. The guys loaded up my trailer, happily gave me my TSP discount (it paid for the next several years of membership with Spirko by the way) and I was on my way.
If you're anywhere nearby go in and talk with the guys there, they'll tell you what will grow and what won't. Amendments you need, and those you can do without.
