Category Archives: Uncategorized

The water well works again

The water well and pump were replaced this past week.  I’d been taking water out weekly for two months or so for the cows and the plants.  It had not rained in almost two months so some of the newer trees needed water and all the plants appreciated the water.  And now I appreciate not having to go out ever 7 days with 180 Gallo s in the back of the truck. The water timers and drip system are again giving most of the plants water.

Organic chicken feed pickup in WatkinsColorado at Regen Farms

The organic feed pickup is scheduled for May 1st at Regen Farms.
37200 East County Road 6, Watkins CO.
Take I70 to exit 299 which is the Manila Road exit. head south on Manila Road and take your first right turn on E County Road. This road runs into the gates of the community. I plan to have the gates open. If not you can call me to get you in.
once you enter the gates the farm is the second property on the left (south). When 6th avenue begins to turn the farm gates are directly to your left. Hopefully I’ll remember to set a orange cone out.
If anyone wants to check the farm out ahead of time let me know. It is an early stage (3rd year) permaculture, regenerative farm.
Thanks,
Kinch
Contact (at) RegenFarms.com

Worms worms and more worms in the leaf compost

After expanding the mob grazing area for the cows I continued emptying the bags of leaves that have been sitting there for over a year now. It is a lot more work to even pick the bags up since the brom grass has grown through them thus tying the to the ground. So I was very happy to find work in and under the bags. I did relocate some of the worms to the piles last year so they have been busy multiplying. Now that the cows are out there I’m going to be placing worms with the cow deposits as I saw a farmer doing in one of Bill Mollison’s videos. He thought the value of his land was in how many worms he had working in his soil.

A couple of worms in and under bags of 1year old leave
A couple of worms in and under bags of 1year old leave

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Colorado mob grazers checking out the composting leaves
Colorado mob grazers checking out the composting leaves

Mini Herefords are here and the bee hive was destroyed

Mini Herefords are here and the bee hive was destroyed.  Great morning getting the two Herefords out and on the property. The plan is to do mob grazing on the micro scale with these two girls. They are 7 and 11 months old. The thought is they can help the soil an soil life a lot. Oh and it looks like they will eat some tree leaves which we usually have a lot of 🙂

Mini Herefords on eastern plains of Colorado
Mini Herefords on eastern plains of Colorado

Adding deer protection for the fruit trees at the homestead

Now that it is fall the deer are more aggressively eating some of the new trees. Originally I planned to run electric tape on both sides of the trees but didn’t figuring the neighbors who are selling their home might not like the look. So I’ve wrapped the trees with 4 foot metal fence. Right now I’m only using a single t-post to hold each one. Time and wind may require a 2nd or 3rd post to hold them in place.

Fruit trees with wire for deer protection
Fruit trees with wire for deer protection

And another example

Fruit tree with wire for deer protection
Fruit tree with wire for deer protection

CSA tour and more Catalpa trees

This past weekend we went to the Chatfield CSA to get a few vegies and to check the place out.  They have a total of 5 acres of crops.  This first photo is part of a one acre section of the CSA.  Seeing an acre fenced in really made an acre seem large.  You could run a small csa with an acre like this.  I believe this CSA supports 400 members with the 5 acres.  For the RegenFarm site I could see the farm having an acre of annuals on irrigation along with the fruit from the trees.

For many years the area between the two 2013 swales would work as a great place for annuals.  Adding perennials like berries and asparagus should make the inputs lower for some of the produce.
Chatfield CSA garden

Here is a photo I took to remember how they use steel rods in the ground with pvc pipe and cloth to cover the crops.
Crop frost protection heating

This time I planted some of the catalpa trees in places where other trees had died on the upper 2013 food forest and above the 2014 food forest swale where many of the mulberry trees never survived. As I plan for cows and animals in general I’d like some trees all across the farm for shade and shelter. Remembering that I learned that adding 10% trees to any field/pasture will not reduce production.
Catalpa Trees on the high plains of colorado

Comfrey Bocking 4 transplanting and dividing

Today I planted the comfrey I dug up from the past residence over a week ago. I kept it in a rubber storage bin with some dirt and water. Some of the larger crowns started producing new leaves since they were cut and dug up.

The blocking varieties of comfrey can only be propagated from root cuttings. Thus I cut some of the roots and divided some of the crowns.

Comfrey Bocking 4 transp

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Splitting a Comfrey Crown

I cleared a while section of the garden thinking I was going to plant the comfrey there them I remembered that removing Comfrey can be difficult and there is already some in the garden so I decided to use some space just outside the garden. I think we will have enough nocking 4 comfrey and surely common comfrey to sell some next year.
Planted Comfrey Bocking 4 Crowns

Raspberries transplanted to the new homestead

The raspberries have been transplanted to the homestead near Castle Rock Colorado.

I dug them up and ha to let them sit for a few days as I was out of town. I dug up about a six foot by 3 foot area that grew from two plants that were planted maybe two years ago. So I you plant them near a water source like sprinklers for a lawn they will spread quickly.

Raspberries transplant bucket

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I planted them along the fence thinking they can grow along it which will prevent me from mowing there.

Raspberries transplanted to fence line

Regen Farms has Sea Minerals to enrich the soil

Sea Minerals
Sea Minerals

The shipment of sea minerals showed up yesterday. Today I spread some out at the garden area at The farm. I was told it is best to dissolve it in water and spray it this time of year but it was raining so I threw it out.

The idea is sea water has a good mix of all the minerals. The water is evaporated and the salt removed ,along with another element, and you are left with a lot of minerals.

The plan is to first use them on the Swales and plants we planted to help the nutrient density then on the grass areas.

They recommend a 200 gallon tank to mix and spray from. I doubt I get anything g that large unless I can borrow or rent one.

Mixing a sea mineral solution with biochar sounds like a winning solution. Adding molasses and microbes and maybe some comfrey or compost tea should help as well.

Check the search engines and youtube for sea mineral information. Sounded like a great fertilizer to me.