Homesteader’s homegrow diary for '21

[mysticepipedon]

This thread is reminding me I have a lot of work to do.

 

[GimpDaddy]

that's awesome! digging the lifestyle and setup. i planted a few varieties of pears, plums, and cherries a couple years ago so they should start bearing fruit this summer. got some blueberries going too. i was thinking of doing nuts as well, most likely hazelnuts. which type of nuts are you growing?

Wow I thought this was MY comment there for a second because we did the same things!
up until I read the part about planting Nuts
we just bought so cold-hardy Ice Cream Banana trees.

so you’re going Nuts
While I’m going Bananas

sounds crazy right?

 

[PipeCarver]

I think just like everything, you need to jump in and be ready to get zapped a little. Electrical always scared me but then I had to rewire a lot of our house and I got over it eventually. I still get a little sketched out when working with 220 but no way I am going to pay somebody else to do it. I would go broke.

I love farming but most people don't understand the heartache that comes with it....especially raising animals. Shit happens with animals a lot and it drains you but on the flip side there are aspects (especially raising a family) that a spring farm brings that I wouldn't trade. Kind of a ying/yang that goes with it.

I was an electrician for most of my working life but I haven't done a lot of soldering or much in the electronics side of wiring. I've ripped a ton of shit apart that's in the above category but not good at putting it together. If I can help you with any wiring for your setup we can talk. It may help prevent a shock or two.

 

[PharmerBob]

@Homesteader looks like a fun project! Best of luck!!

 

[sportyridr]

sounds like a great time...pulling up a chair...cheers

 

[Homesteader]

The smaller veg room is just about complete. I still have to put down some trim and paint the walls and then I can start on the tiling and finish the room up. I knew this week long project would turn into a month but oh well.

 

[Homesteader]

So this project was going to start later this year but I bought my daughter an expensive morph corn snake for Christmas and was hiding it on my grow room until the day arrived. Of course I left the cage open and it was lost in my grow room for two weeks. As Christmas got closer and the snakes were unavailable online, I had to do something so I bought her a baby non morphed corn snake at the local pet store. Of course I found the other snake behind drywall a day later so now we have two snakes.

 

[SSgrower]

We have a lot of varieties, probably too many to list. Mostly old varieties from the 1800's the perry pears go back even further into the 1700s.
Golden pippen, Golden russet, Porters perfection, black oxford, blankeney red, as well as some newer varieties like macoun and honeycrisp. Gala is one of my favorites. We also grow three apple rootstocks and a pear rootstock
My hope is to get several smaller acre purchases and convert them into cider orchards for my kids to take care of in the future. A $20k field can turn into a $100k+ orchard in about a decade. You just have to plant the right variety I guess. Many orchards are all in on honeycrisp.

I understand the newer species & breeds of Apples are doing much better than Grannie Smith, Red Delicious, ect. I have a Pear tree,"sweet but very hard fruit", species unknown, some pecan trees {3}, one fruited a little this year. I am following this grow as well,Cheers!

 

[Homesteader]

The new area won't add all that much more grow space to my room (I think like 5 foot x 12 foot in total of new space) but I hated growing in a tight quarters and this will help a lot with that. Got both 20 amp outlets installed on the ceiling but now I need to get one more lighting controller. Haven't looked around yet but really just need a simple timer.

 

[smokedareefer]

I think just like everything, you need to jump in and be ready to get zapped a little. Electrical always scared me but then I had to rewire a lot of our house and I got over it eventually. I still get a little sketched out when working with 220 but no way I am going to pay somebody else to do it. I would go broke.

I love farming but most people don't understand the heartache that comes with it....especially raising animals. Shit happens with animals a lot and it drains you but on the flip side there are aspects (especially raising a family) that a spring farm brings that I wouldn't trade. Kind of a ying/yang that goes with it.

Wherever there's livestock you know there's going to be deadstock

Subbed

 

[Goblinkiller]

You got a nice build going on. I like the quality and thought put in it.
Farming is a lot of work, I got some hillbilly friends and I have been on some cow releases in the spring, tractor driving and some woodworking.

Your ability to take care of things yourself is a very needed strength in the farmer game.

I do hold my distance to those cows. They can easily smash ya

Edit: I dont mess around with electricity myself much either. Dont wanna burn the house down

 

[Homesteader]

Got a few of the tiles down this morning. Ill have to bust out the wet saw this afternoon and get this finished up tonight so I can get sheetrock up and get growing again.

 

[Goblinkiller]

I assume you dont have a hole in the floor to lead water out through plumbing?

 

[Homesteader]

Yeah no drain in this room. Concrete walls on two sides.

 

[PipeCarver]

Yeah no drain in this room. Concrete walls on two sides.

I bought a sump pump cheap and run a hose out of a large bucket/ garbage can to pump it up out of my basement that has no drainage.

 

[Moshmen]

Wow I thought this was MY comment there for a second because we did the same things!
up until I read the part about planting Nuts
we just bought so cold-hardy Ice Cream Banana trees.

Bananas actually are plants not trees and will only bear fruit once

 

[Homesteader]

I think I could probably plumb a drain up if I wanted to bust into the concrete because I think the drain to the septic runs pretty close but usually the water I bring in gets turned into oxygen by my plants so I don't really need the drain. I am running 3/8 pex in so I can automate the watering later on but also so I don't need to haul the water in with 5 gallon buckets in the short term.

 

[Homesteader]

The tile is laid down but still need to grout most of it. The small veg room was painted and the plants are now under some better light and a bit warmer.
The next step on the build will be putting up the rest of the sheetrock but I need to get the air flowing in the veg room first. I won't be exhausting the room very often (once a month if that) so I am going to be using the exhaust fan to circulate the air in the veg room. The plan is to vent the CO2 heavy air into the veg room on the top of the wall where the lights are, so I can cool the aluminum off. Then I will cut a vent in the bottom of the room to exhaust the veg room air and circulate it back into the flowering room.
I forgot to mention that the exhaust duct going out the room must be stuffed with insulation so the cold air doesn't dump into the room.

 

[Homesteader]

Working on a new light as well. Started this one a few months ago but it got put on the shelf before Christmas. Using a 12" aluminum profile from heatsinkusa dot com, I then surronded it with aluminum L channel bar from grainger dot com and screw it on with some self tapping metal screws in pre drilled holes.
The boxes are a company called polycase and great for cleaning up wiring. I cut out a switch with a dremel and wired it up.

 

[Homesteader]

I also need to figure out why several of these boards are not running and fix it. I have a temporary light up in the veg room but this will replace it when I get them all operating. I would assume that the drivers are okay but this light was running too hot as you can tell by the discoloration of the red wires. Hopefully the wires are just loose but I doubt it.