This is a series I started 4 months ago to keep track of the progress on the farm. Don't worry, it's totally not boring!
This time around, I want to keep in short and sweet, and not overflooding you with too many pictures. The weather this month was really weird, we had a lot of rain, massive storms, some hail, which changed a lot our daily activities.
It's the first time I was growing radishes, it was a success, also I am the only one eating them :D Some of them were a little bit deformed, but still quite tasty.
You know, the farm life ain't so bad. Of course, it's a lot of work, and I cannot lose sight of my real purpose on earth, which is music, but I think it's important to test my skills, see if I will be able to sustain and feed my family in the long run.
We have already noticed an increase of 30 % in the meat price in the area, which made us rethink if we would need additional livestock.
It's kind of a risky decision, as we wanted to stay mobile if needed, if SHTF this year, and the world we live in becomes a dystopian tyrannical society, it might become difficult to be on the move with a pig, or rabbits.
Right now, the chicken are giving us much needed proteins, but rabbits could also be a good addition. One problem, is the myxomatosis ravaging the area, and making any rabbit enterprise very difficult.
We could also vaccinate them, which isn't always efficient, and might be costly.
Fortunately, picking berries doesn't require much work, it's more about waiting for them to be ripe.
We shared them with all of ours friends, because they are quite a rare commodity, and costly. They are probably the only fruit that we did not leave to rot (I don't have enough hands to pick all the plums),
Lucky for us, we picked them before the big storms arrived. so there were still some left. It felt a little bit like cashing out/going stable coin your cryptos right before a crash.
It's always good to get some help and learn, I am trying to listen as much as I can, my neighbour has been doing this his entire life, and has some great input. However, he is very old school, uses a large amount pesticide, doesn't want to learn about plant companion, permaculture, or organic food.
So I take what I can, stay polite, and try to do it my own way. The problem is that he keep on coming spraying pesticide on my crops while I am gone, I just need to find a way to politely explain to him that I am not a fan of it, I have to admit that I don't have aphids problems ever since.
I got some good radishes also
We've set up a dripping system not to waste too much water
Then this happened...Twice.
Yep, lots of crops disappeared due to the storms. I lost some corns, pepper plants, few onions, cabbages, few fruits, but the tomatoes plants are recovering.
I took the liberty to purchase a greenhouse, we could have made it for cheap, but we clearly don't have the time to build one right now (like we did with the coop).
I will shelter the most sensitive plants in there, as you all notice that the weather has been weird lately, I am expecting more storms in the following months.
We decided that it was time to get some fresh air, escape the comfort of our home and go on a road trip, and we have been basically visiting lakes, small towns, rivers, around the Pyrenees ever since.
The way we see things, there will probably be another lockdown by September, so it's about enjoying freedom as long as we can, I know we are all in the same situation worldwide, I hope you are all doing the same.
Now, we are working on the most important crops of all 馃榿, she is getting the hang of it.
I told you, short and sweet this month, take care y'all!
Ed