Farm matters

 

Little Farm, Pocket Farm, Mini-Farm, Hobby Farm, Farmlet, Farmelita. 

I'm setting aside 1/2 acre for the initial farm field. It's about 150 feet squared. Each 10 foot square area can hold 35-45 willow plants, with generous aisles between rows. That half acre will eventually fill with around 10,000 plants within 3-5 years. Each plant will grow 10-50 usable rods per year on average, giving a possible harvest of 100K - 500K rods. They currently sell for about a dollar per 4-6 ft rod. 

Not so little, eh? Well, depending on good weather, plenty of rain and sun and some timely planting and replanting. 

The first two years will be taken up with filling out the numbers. About half of my starting willow plants have rods that can be replanted in the spring to be new plants. I'll probably fill in with purchased stakes of willow varieties or colors that I want more of, and hold off selling anything til I have about half of the field producing well. 

For those interested, I started with these seven varieties, all recommended highly for baskets and some that are also good for fencing,  hedges and stream retention. 

• Streamco
• Frances Red
• Rubykins
• Americana
• Miyabeana
• Brittany Green
• Acutifolia

Jinxed

 A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks. Apparently, I DID jinx myself, if not the land purchase, in my last post. Yes, the purchase went through! We closed this Monday, four days ago. A little drama occurred since NC law apparently gifts half of any real estate purchase to your spouse, however estranged and distant he or she might be. Luckily he agreed to a quit claim, so the actual closing went through without a hitch. 

No, the jinxing was on me. On the 23rd I wrote, "anything could happen" to me, and it did. On the 26th I slipped and fell in a puddle of water. I had left the water running to fill a watering can and walked away too long. After hydroplaning, I fell flat on my back and knocked my head hard enough to throw my whole face off center. I was pretty sure I had done some damage, though I stayed awake and alert and only had some immediate pains. We went to the local emergency room and then I got ambulanced over to big Wake Forest Baptist in Winston Salem for observation. I was cat scanned several times and repeatedly tested. I went home the next afternoon, cleared for the moment, but with a concussion and some other possible damage to watch. 

I felt like I had been beat up for several days, and meanwhile, closing was closing in. I couldn't think, read, watch tv or really anything useful. Closing got pushed out several days, thankfully, but I was still a basket case up until the day, when I had to be an adult, handling large sums and answering for myself legally. But I did it, and pretty much fell out once I got word it was completed. 

Hell, yes! My one acre of paradise!

Anyway, I am still recovering and need to take it easy for several more weeks, at least. Meanwhile I am trying to get my house done to get it on the market so I can't rest every day. 

Why does everything have to happen at once?

For the next two months, I'm going to try to get my driveway permit filed and get the property graded and the driveway put in. Hopefully by October, I can get some electricity to the site. None of these things involve me lifting anything other than a cell phone, and maybe a site visit or two. The two groups of willow starts that I have going - now 56 of them  - are getting moved into a sunnier place in my yard, giving them a few more months of growing season before they go dormant. I'll plant them on the site... when I can. I'm looking at day to day right now.