This week we finally have made an offer on a 38 acre piece of property. We’re currently waiting to hear back from the seller and are hoping to close somewhere around the beginning of March. Being that it’s currently the holidays and the weekend, I would imagine that we probably won’t hear anything until middle of next week, but we’ll keep everyone posted as to any news we can share!

As I mentioned in my last post, the only major items left to purchase for Pony Tail Acres were a tractor and a farm. Well, we decided that we wanted to meet our goal of buying all of the vehicles and equipment we needed in 2009, so that we could leave just finding a farm for our major 2010 purchase. We’ve traded our personal vehicles for farm trucks. We bought the horse trailer and various tools. And the biggest tool yet we gave ourselves for Christmas while Kubota was still offering 0 percent financing – a Kubota Grand L 3240 tractor (that we’ll be running on biodiesel). We also picked up a bush hog and tiller attachment so as to make our gardening efforts and cleanup for whatever farm we purchase much more do-able.

Speaking of finding a farm, we think we’ve finally found one! We’re very close to making an offer on a 38 acre tract that we found that we believe should go for somewhere under $10,000 an acre. Since some of you have asked for ways to help, we’ve also created a donations page where you can help push the organic and sustainable farming movement to more peoples’ dinner tables.

http://www.ponytailacres.org/donate.php

Ashley (left) and Brandy (right) on the Kubota

If you are new to enjoying the PTA blog, you might not know that one of the farm goals is to be sustainably run. That being said, we haven’t made a whole lot of progress on this goal since we are having to buy so many new materials.

But as gardening items are starting to draw to a close and we begin to focus on the horse facility, we are seeing the need to both cut costs and find materials which can be reused. Below are some examples of how we plan to reduce our facilities construction impact on the environment.

-veggie support systems made from leftover lumberyard scraps. Free for us, and reuse of items that would otherwise go to the dump or get made into wood chips. Just make sure to wear thick gloves to avoid those splinters! We have lots of wire we already obtained from the debris around the house to use for the runs between stakes.

-barn materials and fencing from a local closed horse facility. If you know the Milton area, you know that builders own several large horse farms that have been shut down. It is our goal to contact the owners of these places and reuse board fencing, electrical fencing, feed bins, blanket barns, ladders, fans, and wood planks for the hayloft floor. Wish us luck in obtaining permission from this developers!

Wow, such a long time without an update! I hope ya’ll will forgive me . Well, everything is going along smooth and steady right now. Plants are growing in the front garden, in containers, and in the greenhouse. Here’s some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

(Note: Pictures will be coming soon as we work on restoring the blog…)

I would love to be out working in the garden, but its raining again! Fill up the lake sure, but I need to get these babies in the ground! Hopefully I can get a lot done in the next two days after work. It is supposed to be sunny and cooler.

Today I am leaving work early to take Pepper to the vet. I hope the news isn’t the dreaded back issue that many dachshunds have.

After the vet I will drop by Walmart to pick up some worm poop tea and visit the chiropractor. EWWWW! But the plants love it! It will help them get over the shock of being transplanted. Great stuff.

http://www.terracycle.net/main_lawn_garden.htm

Then its back home to plant plant plant.

Cheers!

Lots of stuff going on today. I’ll try to summarize as best as I can below.

-More trees have been taken down. Lots have died over the past couple of years due to the drought. We have to get the dead ones down so they don’t get blow over during a summer storm on the crops, fences, or horses around the property. And some of these trees are BIG!

-The board fencing continues to get patched and electrical fencing to the house garden is in progress. We were very excited to see the electrical fencing work, as you might have read from David’s earlier post.

-Fig tree is growing quickly and it is about time to start pruning and rooting limbs off the tree. I noticed today that several branches don’t have any early crop figs on them so we could go ahead and get some in pots.

-Front garden has one row planted with alternating beefsteak tomatoes and pickling cucumbers. We are running soaker hoses as we plant so the little baby plants don’t dry out in the sun before their root system get established.

-All the other seedlings are doing well in the basement awaiting their turn to be planted in the rich garden soil.

-David has filed our paperwork to become an LLC. Exciting stuff!

All in all we are on track with the facility part of the farm. I’m considering having several people over for a planting party this weekend, is anyone game? Send me an email at ashley@ponytailacres.org if you are interested.