Tractor Debut at the Farm

Jim has completely rebuilt the engine on the '52 Ferguson tractor we bought a few years back. He brought it to the farm this weekend and put it to work right away on a water diversion swale to help feed water to the new pond next to Sugar Creek Road. It is still holding water after even after the late start in the rain season and the extreme heat this past summer, it did only filled about half way. With the diversion swale the area feeding water into the pond will increase greatly, which will add a lot of volume during the upcoming winter and spring rain season. We expect that the pond will completely fill next year (see below). The swale is pictured at right.

The tractor debut was short lived, however, as Jim had to load the tractor and haul it back to Clarksville on Sunday with a leaky transmission seal. He now has the tractor split apart in his basement again and is replacing the seal.

The picture at left shows the pond on Jan. 2, 2011. Water line is about 18-24" from spillway.

The Ice Cream Social

When checking on the place one Saturday morning in July every cow on the farm was found in the gamagrass field border area. It turned out that a Friday night storm had blown a limb across a fence which allowed them into the area a few weeks before we had intended. Rusty Walker had told us that the cows loved this grass so much it was sometimes called "ice cream grass" and this proved the aptness of the nickname. Even sweet feed could not entice all of the cows out by Saturday evening. Janine said that they were all having an ice cream social.

These pictures show how thick and tall the grass has grown in its third season after the prescribed burn in March. Click on the pictures for a larger view. You can also compare the growth from the previous post.

Gamagrass and Switchgrass

This marks the third growing season for our native warm season grasses (NWSG). It has been remarkable how the NWSG has flourished after the control burns. While no quails have been seen or heard, other wildlife has been utilizing the NWSG.

The photo above shows the gamagrass on July 5th. The photo at right shows some of the switchgrass in one of the field border areas at the beginning of the third season following a late winter controlled burn. This is about six or seven weeks after the burn.


Last week several turkey hens were seen exiting the gamagrass. The cows also broke through the fence into the gamagrass and had an unplanned feast. The gama seems to be rebounding nicely from the unplanned grazing and producing even more turkey foot seed stems. We are hoping that the seeds produce even more gamagrass and fill in for an even thicker stand. The picture below was taken in late spring after burning in March.

The gamagrass doesn't grow much the first year. We planted the gama at the first of April. The grass was cut each fall. The burning at the beginning of year three has caused it to flourish. It is shading out the competition.

This shows a couple of views of another NWSG field border area adjacent to a small pond.

Water, Water, Everywhere: Another New Pond

The drought a few years ago had raised our awareness of how precious water can be. Our newest hobby of control burning had also brought to light the benefits of surface water for fire suppression. We had dug one pond two years ago but had always felt another pond would benefit the north pastures. The current NRCS contract called for a bulldozer to clear the stumps within forest openings areas. Since the equipment was on site, we decided to have another pond dug. This pond when full will bring our total number of ponds to four.

"A somewhat controlled burn" Winter 2010

It's hard to believe it has been almost nine months since the last post. This year has been one of stutter steps and two steps forward, one step backward. We now have a donkey named Cocoa at the farm among our increasing renegade band of livestock. Maynard the dog has appeared and disappeared with all his funny but annoying and sometimes endearing quirks. Just last weekend we were going to create a series of wildlife clearings according to a USDA contract but got waylaid by a misunderstanding about a Bobcat we thought had been arranged for. Steve's nephew Stanton was there helping so we changed plans to take full advantage of his help.

On Friday we experimented with controlled burns as a means of clearing and maintaining our pasture and wildlife areas. The first was on a pasture area and can better be described as a "somewhat controlled burn". The Minor Hill Volunteer Fire Department only had to be called out one time. It was quite exciting and a bit exhausting after the adrenaline rush. Actually the burn was tentatively under control by the time the truck arrived but it was nice to get some water sprayed over the last bit just in case. In retrospect, the burn accomplished its purpose very nicely and even included the field border warm season grass area, though that was not our intent. We learned some VERY IMPORTANT lessons about advance containment and wind shifts,then tried our hand with better success at the warm season grass area next to the new pond. Rains Saturday night and dense fog on Sunday kept us from continuing with our controlled burn practices.

Logan and Stanton in the field before the burn.

Looking toward the burn area across the pond.

A couple of weeks after the burn.

Tanner is arranging for a dozer in a week or two to create the wildlife openings we were going to work on last weekend. More to come on that.

NWSG Control burn in early evening.
(note back burn in foreground)The warm season switchgrass area before the burn.