MOVING august first.

These two shots are views from either end of Frisco Field.

Frisco was the Frisian Stallion the previous owners kept for stud. He spent a few years fertilizing this field for us.

We've got the trench redug and have irrigated it twice, now.

It's about 42x130 feet (1/8 acre), plus some extra out by the cottonwood tree.

We're considering using some other spots on the east end of the property for the garden and putting more orchard in here. with semi-dwarf trees, I think we are looking at being able to get another 21-24 trees in once we trim back and remove the excess trees.

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hollowdweller said:
Looks great. What is the little two wheeled motorized thingie.
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the two wheel tractor is a little 3.5 HP machine with a funky old tranny and belt drive. It works, and you can sit in the cart and "steer" to some extent to haul garbage around. Remove the trailer and you can hook up a plow, or anything else that will fit (but we have the plow).

Remove the belt drive from the wheels and the motor can power a forward mounted brush mower, which I haven't managed to stweak quite right yet, but need to work out this weekend.
 
and now, the initial layout of the archery/airgun range.

posts set up at 7, 10, 15, 25 yards out. I might dig posts and reverse that so the targets move instead of the shooters. but I like the backstop right up with the targets.

I hope to improve this to a 8 foot high and 12 foot wide backstop with decent plywood and a little overhang. And some good target stands.

And a fence on the other side, as well. just to mark the boundary.

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Good lord, my family is away and I'm prepping/painting and feel like I've got a lot to do...

You've been busy/will be busy! Didn't know apple trees managed the heat that well.
 
Such a great setup you have there. Seems like an amazing place to live.

On a side note, do you have access to a river/stream or something along those lines? Not sure if there is something within reasonable walking distance.
 
well, there's the irrigation canal system. our "local" one in the back is empty much of the time, but one of the main district canals is across the road from us and is always full. Local meaning our irrigation line, of course. The one across the street is closer by the length of the pasture than the one we get water from!

In terms fo natural lakes and streams, nothing within easy walking distance, but there's a lot in the region. Duck hunting and fishing are fairly big local activities.
 
That is good. I take a look once in a while at property around the country hoping to find my dream area, though finding a decent piece of land that is affordable AND had access to water seems to be a big challenge. Always nice to have easy access to drinking water, from a survival point of view anyway.
 
762 shooter said:
Start stocking up on canning jars...
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I was going to say, we have a fair amount of canning jars. But - we really don't. We have maybe ... 7 cases of quart and 6-7 cases of other sizes. That's a lot in the suburbs, but not if we get a real orchard going along with truck.
 
koyote said:
I was going to say, we have a fair amount of canning jars. But - we really don't. We have maybe ... 7 cases of quart and 6-7 cases of other sizes. That's a lot in the suburbs, but not if we get a real orchard going along with truck.
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A good starting point is one case of quart jars per tree. That will allow for some of the fruit to be eaten that season and 12 jars of fruit to be put up for the winter/spring of next year. Apples and pears produce a bit more than stone fruits in my experience, so prep accordingly.
A typical year of tomatoes will get us 30 quart jars. We could easily double that.
We collected enough blackberries to make 20 pints of jam and jelly this year. Unfortunately, my thieving friends walked with most of it...
Keep your eyes open for sales on the jars. $8.00 for 12 Qt jars is a good price. Sometimes you can find them at garage sales for $.25 or so a jar. I have to refrain from doing the happy dance in such situations.
 
Well. ...

right now, with our one plum and 4 apples (plus some assorted unpruned fruit trees along the western fence line... plum, possibly sheery, and another crabapple) we're actually not planning to get much this year. The pruning that was being done was nightmarish- the ingrowth is extreme.

Depending on prices and budget, it may take us 2-3 years to get everything planted. What I think we're aiming for right now is 4 pears, another 6 apples on the east side. Then on the western field if we go orchard (which we might since we have other garden areas we can plant) - 21-24 semi-dwarf apples. I think.... The space is 45x115 or so.

Up front we have 140 feet of fenceline that comes back 50 feet, we need to keep much to most of that for dogs but 2-3 rows of cane berries would be nice.


Of course, this is like.... $800 of planting.

And we could add more pears in and reduce the apples a bit, too.

One potential issue with this area is late frosts. Apples seem to do okay, and most rose family stuff, too.
 
Wow I can see why it's an archery and airgun range. A high powered round would go for miles before it hit anything!
 
I could just about get away with a good solid backstop and some subsonic .22 rounds. But at the price, and the limitations (subsonics don't really cycle all my .22 rifles reliably, for example), why not just use a .22 airgun that gets 600-800 fps? They do great duty on varmints anyhow.

What I really want, now, is one of those old crosman co2 "shotguns" for backyard clays. woohoo!
 
Your family and ranch reminds me alot of Rich Mullins' song, How to Grow Up Big and Strong

Strong man beat the plowshare
He forges sword
He take the flower and he curse the thorn
He crush the serpent
He bite the fruit
His hand is absolute
And the world keep on turning
And the sun keep on burning
And the children keep learning
How to grow up big and strong...
 
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