Off-Grid Living Group
Freesteading group focused on the discussion of off grid living.
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A World Away
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A World Away
5/13/23
This is going to be somewhat of a journal / notes of my off grid homestead going forward from here. As you probably guessed by now I call my place A World Away because that’s just what it is, my own little world away far off the beaten path in South Central Virginia. At this point I am 15 years in and raised my two daughters here. When I started this place was nothing but scrub timberland so tight with trees you couldn’t ride a 4 wheeler around much less get a vehicle in. As of now I have about 6 acres more or less cleared which includes about 2 acres of tillable land.
After nearly a month of prep work and tractor repairs I finally got a little planting done today.
planted today
Open Pollinated bloody butcher dry corn 115-130 days with giant sunflowers in the mix. 160×225= 36,000 sqft or roughly 8/10ths acre
small patch west side hybrid silver queen 90 days
seed patch south side Open Pollinated Candy Mountain sweet corn 70-80 days
I’m hoping the different rates of growth are enough to keep these from cross pollination. All these seed are from 2020-2021.
The entire plowed area of this field is roughly 210×225 = 47,250 sqft 1 acre is 43,560 square feet so about an acre and a tenth. I still have two roughly 1/2 acre areas to plow and plant along with one smaller area. One or both of the larger areas will be planted with a mixture to help improve this HEAVY clay and the small area I’m not sure yet. I did leave some open places in the area planted today for tomatoes and potatoes. I will also be planting beans in with the field corn once it’s been up two to three weeks.19:56 and the rain just started.
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47 Replies
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Sounds like you have been busy! The offset mature rates for your corn sounds logical. Sounds like a neat place.
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Thank you for taking us along in your endeavors. I look forward to reading more of your journal.
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Thanks Mr. Rain & Silver Lining. I find the older I get the more I need things written down so they don’t slip by so I’m hoping this will help.
The showers we were supposed to get turned in to flash flooding downpours. Hope it didn’t wash all my seed away.
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At the very start of your time, is the time to plant fruit trees if you have not already…. The sooner you get them planted the better the harvests will be in times to come. Thanks for sharing your journey with us.
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I’ve started some a few times without a lot of luck. Not really a big deal as I hardly eat fruit, I planted them for my kids and they’re pretty much grown and mostly out of the house now.
I did start some apple trees from seed and have two others that I bought but need to transplant. They don’t like their location judging by the little growth they’ve had. The trees I started from seed came from some red fleshed apples out Washington state and are doing well considering my cows got out and tried to eat them to nubs. That cost me about 1/2 the trees I had started, but I was happy some managed to survive.
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Got a total shock when I finally fought the mud and ventured up to the field. I got really lucky I didn’t see a single spot that washed out. Everything looked a lot better than expected. Everything around here is heavy clay and has never drained since I’ve lived here up until I started using daikon radishes to burrow down deep breaking the subsoil layer.
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Spent a few hours today attempting to repair the frame on the solar golf cart. I just don’t have the proper tools or knowledge for welding 2 pieces of 1/4 inch thick aluminum. One is I beam about 6 ft long and the other is an S shaped of sorts and 4 ft long. They need to be welded back where they cross I beam over the flat of the S. But the heats dissipating to quickly for a weld to take. Open to ideas. . .
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Because of the high thermal conductivity of aluminum, heat dissipates quickly when welding it. You should weld “hot and fast”. Turn up the amperage/voltage and travel faster to prevent burn through. See if this helps.
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My welder is only capable of 175 amps and it just isn’t hot enough to get a good bite in the metal. Tomorrow I’m going to try preheating the metal and then welding it. Wish I had some asbestos blanket to help hold the heat in. Back in the day when I was racing it seems like we welded aluminum occasionally by preheating it to about 600f.
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600F is way too hot for preheat on tempered aluminum. Depending on the exact aluminum material designation, heat treating temperatures can range as low as 250-350F. You will need to stay between 200-230F for the preheat to avoid changing the strength properties outside of the weld zone.
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That makes sense I guess as these were cast aluminum blocks that I was thinking of and heads.
Either way today was another failure. There’s far to much heat dissipation area for the amount of heat and size I can apply. I’m currently considering making up some raw clay to place blobs all around the areas needing welding. You know pressed tight all around the aluminum so it can’t bleed off the heat so fast. That or making a simple bracket clamp like a U-bolt but using 1/4″ steel and 3/8 bolts. Getting toward my whit’s end With this thing. I also tried brazing but again I can’t get it hot enough. Although I haven’t broken out the big propane weed burner to try yet. That move seems a bit risky considering the fiberglass and wires around the area.
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5/19/23
Corn is starting to sprout but it’s pretty spotty. Sure hope it fills in or I’ll be doing a whole lot of replanting.
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5/25/23
20 Tomato plants in the ground 12 with cages. I need to find 8 more a pile of them got run over and mashed / mangled which in turn caused them to be misplaced or maybe they were misplaced and mangled but anyway I need to find them. lol
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6/3/23
Sold two female AGH piglets this morning to the guy who started his own homestead after being around mine. He got them for about 1/2 price and will be back for a male out of another litter. I would have given them to him & his family but extra money is nice too. His sons are also building houses on the same piece of land and two of the three are recently married his third son is only around 10 or 11. I think they will make it if / when things go south.Once Ricky saw and understood what I was doing here and why he was quick to follow suit. I’d guess he’s had his place about 6 years now.
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I got to see the coolest emerald green humming bird up close and personal today. It came buzzing up within arms reach wings all ablur. First it hovered around at ankle level then waist high then head high. It stayed within two feet for over a minute almost as if it were trying to ask me for something. Neat looking little bird smaller than the ones we used to see here all the time. The body was maybe 3 inches long with the wingspan about double that best I could tell. They move so fast it’s hard to be sure but I’d love to see more of them around.
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We used to have feeders growing up, they would dive bomb one another to get access to them. Amazing graceful they are.
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So I stink at taking notes and keeping records. lol But this is worth noting as a good reason as to why have at least two fences between pasture and garden.
Cows managed to brake the gate latch and got over into what was the garden. Must have happened yesterday after feeding time as they had time enough to destroy the entire garden and about 1/2 the field corn. Apparently they first got the sweet corn then the maters and rest of the people garden before starting in on the field corn. Sweet corn was a day or so from picking and maters were starting to ripen etc.. They mowed them flat… Destroyed the mater cages too, but they can mostly be bent back into shape.
Just spent a few hours in 88f 77% getting them out and back where they belong and wiring the gate shut until I find one of the spare carabiners we use for latches.
LET MY LOSS BE YOUR LESSON
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I’ve known for years NOT to have the garden and pasture sharing a fence, which they have since I’ve been here. I learned that after living here! I have got to get more areas fenced. I have 5 or 6 1/2 mile rolls of electric wire, just not a fan of electric fence in the woods.
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Jeez it’s been awhile since I had anything worth posting on this thread, well any good news anyway. Red has bagged up nicely so I expect a new calf anytime now….. I was starting to think she was broken. lol
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Some friends of mine wanted a rooster and and a hen gone along with a 10x20x6 foot pen so Savannah and I went and got that this morning. Dang I don’t handle the heat well at all anymore. They also forced a bag of feed off on us even though they kept a couple birds. Who am I to complain about free feed? lol or a free pen it’s one of those chain-link dog pens.
Still waiting on the new calf. Poor Red looks like her bag may pop, I’ve never seen a dexter with such a swollen milk bag! Starting to wonder if she is having one huge calf or twins, praying for a single small & healthy calf with an easy birth like Dawn had. Wish I knew more / had more experience with this stuff.
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Just spent 1.5 hours chasing piglets to send to the sale this weekend. Kregg thankfully has a good net to help catch them now but I still ran a couple miles it feels like. THANK THE LORD FOR DRUGS OR I COULDN’T HAVE MANAGED THAT! We managed to catch seven, five females and two males. They are some healthy little buggers! Kregg takes them to the sale for me and keeps 25% of whatever they sell for.
If anyone wants AHG piglets I still have a few that need a new home.
Red still hasn’t calved yet but she still looks healthy if a bit slow moving. I’m sure she’s tired of being this pregnant at this time of year it’s been the hottest all year this last week. So glad they have plenty of shade and simi cool water to drink! My toughs are sunken down in the ground so their water doesn’t get so hot in summer or freeze so easy in winter.
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