permaculture

[venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

On 10/8/2012 2:16 PM, KAKerby@aol.com wrote:
> Right now that is the Big Question for us. It would be a huge jump for  us
> in terms of property size to be managed.  Just this year we finally made
> use of the entire rented portion; past years it's gotten away from us over the
>   course of the growing season.  But the rented portion is just 1/5 of the
> total farm size.  We've been invited to consider buying the whole  thing.
> WOW!  That's a heady invitation, and a staggering  responsibility.  And we're
> trying to make the first best use of our home  property, which is also a
> challenge.  There are always questions about how  to use/work the land now, vs
> how to manage it over time, and whether what we do  now is conducive to
> long-term goals.  Then there's the family we rent from  and all their inner
> political strife (present in any extended family), and the  historical aspect
> of taking over and working on a 100 year old working farm,  which in this
> area is amongst the older properties.  Really, really brings  the concept of
> "humble caretaker" to mind, knowing that we're inheriting someone  else's
> plans, and we'll do whatever we do, but inevitably leave things  unfinished 
> for
> someone down the line.  How aquaponics figures into that, in  large part or
> in small part, is just one drop in the bucket of the issue in  general.
> Lots to consider.  We're on the fence between "too big a job  for us, sorry"
> and "if not us, who?"  The land calls to us to not let it be  taken over by
> someone who doesn't care about such things as trace mineral  balancing and
> rotational grazing and water quality and the sight of egrets  flying low and
> slow over the wetlands.  THAT is the context that I try to  fit our aquaponics
> plans into.  If it doesn't fit in that bigger picture,  then for us it
> doesn't fit.
> Kathryn Kerby
> frogchorusfarm.com
> Snohomish, WA

Fascinating. A way will be found for you. You are in the right forum to 
seek permaculture apprentices and teachers to help transform that new 
land, should you buy it. I hope you will. I am sure you will find ways 
to farm it, maybe even profitably. You could use the people in this list 
as "farm manager". You might want to think of the prospects for turning 
it into a land trust (Christian, are you reading this?, maybe submit 
input). Do not worry about the farmland "getting away from you". This is 
natural. Consider Fukuoka Natural Farming options. Apart from all that 
consider the possibilities for an integrated diversified farm operation. 
What an opportunity for the right apprentices, market farming ones and 
permaculture ones, all doing the same jobs. You could hold PDC's and 
convergences (Skeeter, are you reading?) Appreciation for your owning 
and preserving that land might bring in volunteers for work days to help 
"keep the land from getting even further away from you". Some of those 
could be hired for farm work or with marketing.

Think about the farm equipment you have and what you plan to purchase
to create the systems you need for your farming ventures. This is a 
really big issue. My take is to create large areas with raised bed 
gardens, laid out according to the terrain and available sunlight, 
drainage and slope. I corrected those variable on my farm with a skid 
loader and virtually terraformed much of my property. That is a long 
story and I will go into it in detail if you want to know more about the 
methods I used to build the beautiful garden sites with incredible 
enriched deep fertile soil.

In short I suggest you use the following:

70 hp tractor (preferably with airtight cab with recirculation and A/C)

8' 2 toolbar Cat 2 Roll A Cone hiller bedder with 4 chisel tines and two 
trailing subsoilers on rear toolbar, 4 26" discs on hubs, two per side, 
1 front & 1 back, offset, covers tractor tire tracks, creates giant 
raised beds with sloping sides and flat top plus drainage ditch between beds

three bottom plow

three shank Yeomans plow on a Roll A Cone single toolbar Cat 2

a good quality 7 tine spring tooth field cultivator

a 60 inch Howard Rotavator

a round bale transporter
- if you can grow weeds or grasses or legumes for hay and get it round 
baled you can use a transporter to move the baled hay to each individual 
raised bed and unroll them onto the beds for their entire lengths for 
mulch and eventually fertilizer and increased organic matter - result 
nearly no weed problem and excellent soil moisture retention -

You could certainly create there the aquaculture systems that you have 
in mind and more. The possibilities are almost limitless. The other 
thing is that if you make enough on 20 acres you won;t have to worry 
about farming the rest of the land, just manage it correctly with 
permaculture and natural farming. I always though that if someone gave 
me 10 million dollars I would go out and buy a large tract of prime 
farmland with water features; then the fun would begin. I would probably 
create an intentional community on it made up of like minded dedicated 
people, some who do physical work and some who don't do anything but 
brainstorm all day but all contributors to the greater good.

I wonder how many people in this list have land that they might want to 
protect in perpetuity by converting their property to a land trust under 
and using an umbrella trust already set up an functioning. Twin Oaks 
farm in Virginia has done this. They are part of an umbrella trust. I do 
not have names and links at hand but can find them later to post.

This is a great conversation. More later. Got to go for bacon and grits
and fried apples now. And coffee.

LL