My land ain't for sale

Someone seems to think I'm the dumbest land owner in Iowa... maybe in the US or possibly the world.

He thought I would accept a cash offer on my land.

(Truthfully, I would if the price was right)

But not at a loss.

Land values have increased since we bought the place. Record breaking land sales, in fact, of well over 10,000/acre. (My moderate CSR rated land is not worth that, I'm not crazy.)

But someone thought I was.

I looked up this guy and he seems like a land speculator, gobbling up land on the cheap stating, "high seller satisfaction."

Maybe gullible, cash-trapped sellers but for me? Hmmpf, I don't think so.

Offering up a price of about half of what it's worth and about a twentieth of what I "might" consider.

I don't really care to be insulted and my squatters, like this doe, don't like it either.

To anyone listening, my land ain't for sale.

 

Shoe drop

One of the rules that I live by: Life Must Balance

Which is when I've bragged a little, reality comes along to smack that haughtiness back where it belongs.

In a previous post I mentioned that sales were good, only a few days later to have my worst sales day --- ever.

Then a friend asked if my popcorn looked good this year, I started to say, "It looks really goo...." when I realized that I said too much.

Two days later, half was laying on the ground. Kaput. Flat, broken stalks that won't recover.

This is a bit of superstition that I really don't play into. It's just a reaction to the moment.

Because if I truly believed that G*d reacts this way when someone takes a little pride in their efforts, then I really should be dead from His vengeful wrath. Truly...

Iowa gets storms (remember the derechio a few years ago?) so why should my little operation miss out. Acres of oats were also laying flat on the ground just up the road from us. Another lost his sweetcorn to hail.

Weather --- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The best I can do is shrug.

We planted an additional plot this year which will soften the loss and hope I can come up with some additional income for next year because much of what I grow now is for next year's sales.

I show this pic, not to generate sympathy but to show how fragile our plans and efforts can be, although I'm sure there's someone out there enjoying the bit of schadenfreude at our expense. (I see you)

It's about how, in a single moment, all of one's work, or their lives, can be swept away. Just ask those in floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. Some people lost much more than a few stalks of corn.

Plan, Prepare, Execute, Reevaluate, Adapt. 

I'm in the Reevaluate stage right now and next year might still be a good year. 

In the mean time, I'm keeping my mouth shut about this year --- just in case another shoe drops (again) and the wrath of the gods never run out of shoes.

 

Yes, it's been awhile...

Take a break - you might miss something.

This past week was three long days turning ground, planting, and interruptions to run for replacement parts.

You know that a drive belt never breaks until you use it, right?

And a planter plate doesn't turn if it's jammed.

I was rushing to plant the early crops before a rain on Thursday and another all-day job off the farm on Friday.

This is the time of year that if you get into a hurry, you miss things.

Like a sunset at the end of a long day, where the shadow cast along the bottom half of a soft maple tree but the sun illuminates the crown.

You can find your own metaphor in this but I find it one pauses once in a while you may capture a memory or two. I would have liked a better camera/skills to capture it for others.

Stay safe out there and give the farmers a little leeway while they move equipment from field to field.

It's planting season.

Christmas Blessings to you all (2023)

I wish all of you a Happy Christmas as another turn around the sun comes to an end.

Please don't look upon this Black Hills Spruce and think of Charlie Brown. This was planted from a 4" seedling about 10 years ago and was doing well as our Tree of Lights going forward.

Until a buck chose the tree to rub his antlers on what should have been about a 30" or so little tree. We plan on bringing the culprit to justice soon.

The spruce will continue to be our lighted tree until it decides it can't fulfill its obligations. We don't feel like giving up on it just yet.

There could be a lesson in there but your mileage may vary.

Happy Christmas from all of us at The Stranded Tree Farm

Same tree from 2021 ( a bit smaller though):

 

 

If gold could be grown

This year's popcorn yield was more than double of last year, in part to a dry August, no late severe summer windstorms and a whole lot of luck.

So, mostly out of my control, except for the planting time (earlier than previous years and no spring frosts), manual irrigation, and proper weed control with a heavy dose of bovine scatological inputs.

Some would still say... luck was the key factor. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As the self-proclaimed second largest popcorn producer in my county, we are expanding for next year --- if I get a new transmission so I could till the earth. Plus with some mad-scientist crossed hybrids, we will add a few colorful additions for the snack food consumers here, coming in fall of '24 and beyond.

In the mean time, winter is the time to shell some of this gold and I'd best get to work.

The reasons to plant a tree...

Conservation - water, soil, improving air quality, wildlife habitat

Shade - would you rather relax with a favorite beverage in the blinding sun or in the shade of a sugar maple?

For fun and profit - it may take 80 years but that straight walnut log is worth a little money

We added another reason: Legacy Trees.

Some might call them Memorial Trees but these are planted to honor those who are important to us, such as family, friends, and one planted for a group of people. All of them have an important impact on the farm and each tree is a reminder - a part of the legacy we hope to build.

We've even planted a few for other people who don't have the land to grow a maple, oak, or even a non-native species.

If you don't have the room for a tree, we can plant one for you. Contact me for details.

We have two Catalpa trees that were planted from seed collected from our neighbors who sadly passed away before they had a chance to watch them grow. Late Spring flowers are a reminder that they're still with us in spirit and seeds were given to their children to plant their own memorial. 

 

Squatter

I don't mind some squatters on the place but I would have liked a better location than my ladder that I store under the eve of the garage.

I'm delaying a new roof until she moves on...

(There's other reasons but now I can blame someone besides myself.)

New Legacy tree

First tree planted in 2023

First legacy tree of 2023

This one is kind of special. Planted for someone who came into our lives a short time ago and this little Norway Spruce will grow in the family reserve above the pond. 

He may be small but he's growing...

Springtime weather report

 Last Friday's storms left a lot of damage to the south and east of the farm:

One of the two tornadoes at the bottom were rated EF4 and reportedly started in Wapello County. Lots of roofing tin spread about in ours and the neighbors' fields and I'll walk the acreage to see what else I can find.

No damage (so far) just like a bloviating politician - a lot of wind...

Second batch of aronia wine from 2022

We just bottled up our second batch of aronia wine that we started brewing a few months ago. This recipe had two gallons of juice compared to the first batch which had 2.5 gallons, plus we tried a couple of different things to assist in the clearing.

With each batch, we bottle some as dry and sweeten the rest to between a semi-sweet and a sweet wine. We sweetened it up a bit more in search of a good balanced recipe.

Most of my tasters prefer the sweeter end of the spectrum but I do like how the dry turned out last year. 

This seems to be the best batch we made from 2022 berries and looks pretty good through the light. Our third batch with another variation in the recipe is almost ready for second siphoning to clear the wine.

#1 son and I drank tasted the scrubs, what we call that last bit of wine that isn't enough to fill a bottle, and it's probably the best that we produced this year.

We might be getting close to the preferred recipe but I'm looking forward to finding out how our third one turns out.

From the shadows...

 I'm a little behind on reviewing the trail cameras and found this guy from September last year:

Goodbye 2022

The picture below serves as a metaphor of 2022 at the farm: not everything went as planned.

Sure, we expanded our popcorn planting but late in the ground because of a wet spring. A dry Summer hampered the yields and late rains ruined a third of the harvest.

We fell well short of our tree planting because of a meager acorn harvest of the fall of 2021 and this past fall was even worse.

While we had our best year at the local farmer's market, I'm reminded of one potential customer's opinion of my "overpriced" potatoes. "I'll take them all. How much?" she said. I told her to which she replied, "That's too much." My prices were less than the guy 6 tables to the north.

It reminded me of a Monte Python sketch.

Back to the tree:
During my end-of-year cleanup of trash trees like boxelder and dead elm trees, this 8" mulberry unexpectedly twisted on me, turned 60 degrees to the right and landed square on this post.
(No one was hurt, including the post)

Just as in this last tree cut in 2022, not everything went as planned. Is there a lesson to be learned? Will 2023 be better? Will the questions of the universe be answered? 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We'll just plug away the best we can, feed some of our neighbors, and plant a few more trees.

Cheers!

 

Aronia harvest and redneck wine tasting

Our aronia berries ripened about a week to 10 days early this year. "Normally" they are ready on Labor Day weekend which makes the name appropriate - Labor Day. 

With the dry, hot year, I started picking in late August to sell at the local farmer's market and picked for ourselves on the off days. Ripening lasts only a couple of weeks but, again with the hot year, the berries were drying on the vine sooner than I wanted.

 

Yields were pretty good after sorting through the discards and we sold a good portion of that and kept some for processing into our home-made wine. It takes almost 3 gallons of berries to make one gallon of juice and one recipe uses 2 1/2 gallons of juice. We have enough juice for 3 batches this year, plus I'm looking at a rhubarb/aronia mix for next spring.

 

We do not sell but have given a few bottles away. Reviews have been positive and I'm looking at further experimentation with recipe mixes. 

We don't have a license to sell and we don't, repeat, don't sell to either family, friends, acquaintances, neighbors, or even family we do like. Nope. Once we come up with a proper recipe, we may look into it but danged if there isn't a hundred wineries per county in Iowa.

Which means we have to be different to make it a success.

In the mean time... A little redneck wine tasting.

Aronia dry 2021 and a half bottle of aronia semi-sweet. I use a half-pint jar.

In my earlier life, I visited a few bars where the glasses were pint mason jars, which made for cheap beer glasses for quarter draw nights. Yep, it was a while ago.

But for here, we aren't wine snobs but still, wine deserves glass. No frills label, regular half-pint jar, and a basic home-made red. I could have spruced up with a better cloth and background but I don't want to get carried away with a snooty atmosphere.

The Aronia Dry 2021 was a pretty good year... Cheers!

Miles to go...

In April and May of this year it was too wet to plant and our popcorn was delayed until June 3rd (6 weeks later than average and 4 weeks later than last year). I was beginning to wonder if this would be a repeat of 2019, when it rained through until July. No corn was planted that year and our bean production was nothing to brag about.

Through July and August, we had less than an inch total which, along with the summer heat, severely stressed everything including our market crops. I had to haul water - we don't have a well or electricity onsite. I have to pump water from the homestead and deliver using a 12 volt pump and batteries. There was no way I could keep up in order to water everything, so I left much to nature and hoped for the best.

I've lived through deluges such as hit Kentucky and Texas this summer and if nature would have shared a little of that with us, I would have been grateful but that wasn't to be our fate this year.

This past weekend was our first inch of rain in a day since June.

Better late than never, I guess.

But on the brighter side...

We have our first apple production on trees planted a few years ago. A couple of trees didn't survive winter but those were replaced. Now, if I can just get the pH balanced...

The aronia harvest was early because of the dry summer with production and sales that exceeded previous years despite our annual fight against Japanese beetles. The first batch of 2022 wine is currently fermenting as I write. (Strictly for private medicinal purposes only, of course.)

Our farmers market produce did well but I still have hopes for the popcorn which have 2-3 weeks until harvest. I'm guessing it won't beat last year's yields which brought repeat customers and rave reviews.

We still have beans to harvest and dry (navy, kidney and green beans for seed). This is my work for this week until a roofing project that came my way gets started.

The farm has occupied more of my time this year and I've pushed off other projects but fall is approaching and I have prep work before winter. 

As Robert Frost wrote: "Miles to go before I sleep"

Not sure

This is from a black cherry tree that I trimmed last year.

 I'm not sure if this is a heart or a smiling monkey laughing at me.

Caterpillar friend

It is the mid-summer weed cutting session. The never-ending effort to rid the acreage of noxious weeds such as the wild parsnip and other common weeds like lamb's quarter, horseweed, and thistles. We work to save as much of the milkweed as possible for any visiting monarchs, although it is nearly unavoidable when mowing on the tractor.

I have to cut the weeds on the slope of the pond dam with a weed cutter, one made by Stihl. I've used hand sickles in the past but operating something with a motor is much more productive and causes much less blisters.

On this day, while cutting the tall grasses near the pond, I found a bright green caterpillar with black and yellow spots arranged in rows. I placed it on a milkweed for safekeeping and looked up what it was. It appears to be a black swallowtail. 

Generally, caterpillars can cause a lot of damage to crops (if they would just eat the weeds and keep our beans alone, I would be happy). This one does eat mostly weeds.

I'll keep it around.

The next time I see it, I hope it has wings.

Wee Sprout waking up 2022

Cold winter, still it lingered well into April with its frequent rains, ice, and frosts. May warmed but the rains would not allow the ground to dry out long enough for planting of market crops. But the weeds grew. Thick grasses, thorns, and well-rooted wild parsnip (a plant that is best to avoid.)

The season seems to be running 4 to 6 weeks later than usual. Trees woke up late from winter’s hibernation cycle and in some cases, not at all which happens sometimes.

As Wee Sprout budded and dissuaded our worries, it’s grown to a “mighty” little seedling. The largest of the sugar maples planted three years ago, it’s nestled between a much taller walnut tree to the east and paired to another maple to the west. It has a way to go before it truly reaches the sky, being only about a foot tall.

Filtered sunlight leeches though a black cherry tree in the row to the south which protects Sprout from the harshest sun and heat that seemed to be most of our June as the season jumped forward. An abundance of overgrown soft maples blocks Sprout’s view to the southern hay field. I have been thinning these soft maples to use as mulch for the best and most important trees, protection from winter’s cold and summer weeds.

I cleaned up a bit around Wee Sprout this past week and noticed its little lean is growing away and becoming straighter. The pair of wrens that claimed a bluebird house this year chattered and scolded me the whole time. I’m used to them and they can squat again in any of the houses next year even if the bluebirds object.

As for today, the needed rain is falling, the weeds will wait another day, and I’ll have to wait to cultivate beans. If Wee Sprout had one desire (besides being the tallest sugar maple at the farm) it would want everyone to know how well it is growing.

Cheers to you all!

On May 5th

Exploding leaves on May 20th

 Linked to Poets and Storytellers United: Friday Writings #33: Daring to Dream

 

It can't rain forever, can it? 2022 style

I'm hoping that we don't get a repeat from a spring a few years ago but just when we get a day away from being able to get into the fields for some serious work, the sky opens up again. Although we could use the much needed rain to replenish the groundwater, the topsoil is saturated and flash flooding is a risk for the next day or two.

I've only been able to plant a very small test plot but my regular planting looks to be delayed for another week.

The big yellow splotch on the radar is headed our way.

Do daffodils bring sunshine?

Or does sunshine bring daffodils?

Cold has settled in for this mid-April day. It's too cold and too wet to turn the earth for planting but at least these daffodils brighten things up a bit.

An abundance of blooms next to the house.

Looking for a new home

We try to cooperate with nature as much as we can, so long as they don't invade the shed where equipment is stored as nature tolerates my tilling of the ground and other invasive activities.

We put up several bluebird boxes years ago with varying degrees of success. We enjoy the bluebirds as neighbors each year and they do help with the insect population but they are late this year as many other migratory birds to the area.

Yes, this birdhouse has seen better days but it has sheltered many a brood while stationed near a growing chestnut tree. I cleaned it out in February to await a new pair this year.

Sometimes nature fights against us:

Some wood devouring creature saw fit to expand the hole and then didn't bother to move in. 

With wood prices 4-5 times what it cost us to build the original birdhouse, I'll have to relook at our budget to see what we can do. 

It's a shame but nature does what it wants sometimes and we'll have to deal with it.