Early September 2016 Homestead Update

This post is an Early September 2016 Homestead Update for Great Escape Farms.  We cover 1550-gallon water storage tanks, garden harvest, food forest update, and finally an update on the ever persistent ground hog.

Early September 2016 Homestead Update

Early September 2016 Homestead Update – 2 New Tanks

Those Are Some Big Tanks

This past week I was searching for more IBC totes on Craig’s list and I found two 1550-gallon water storage tanks being sold.  They were priced at $250 each or both for $450.  So I contacted the seller as soon as I could and bought them.  Both have some minor dents that can be easily knocked out.  One of the tanks has a cut in it near the bottom of the tank.  The other one has a crack near the top of the tank.

Early September 2016 Homestead Update

Early September 2016 Homestead Update – Ready to Travel

Tank Repairs

Initially I was a little concerned about how to fix the holes in the tanks.  But after doing some research, I found several ways to repair the tanks.  I bought a “Poly Welder Pro Plastic Repair Kit”, which should be the right fix for both tanks.  I’ll be doing a video on the repair of these tanks in the next week or so.

Early September 2016 Homestead Update – First Tank on the Farm

Garden Harvest

I had another large harvest from the garden.  About 20lbs of tomatoes, a dozen or so hot peppers, a dozen cucumbers, a butternut squash, and a 25lb watermelon.  I also harvested some berries from Red Malabar Spinach for seeds and some leaves from the Red Malabar Spinach.

Early September 2016 Homestead Update – The Harvest

Food Forest Update

I again watered the food forest on this trip to the farm.  We ran out of water in the totes again and used a little water from the well.

I have been asked about how big my food forest is.  The word forest makes it sound massive, but mine is only about 40-foot wide by about 120-feet long.  A food forest is more about mimicking nature and the layers of the forest than it is about size.  You can mimic the canopy, understory, shrub, herbaceous, groundcover, rhizome, and vine layer in a pretty small area.  I plan on building a bigger one once I’m out here full time, but that is a desire of mine and not necessity of design.

Early September 2016 Homestead Update – Red Malabar Spinach

The Ever Persistent Groundhog

He’s baaaack!!! The groundhog is leaving the deck alone now, but I found a hole under the garden fence this past weekend.  A groundhog can decimate a garden in just a few days, so I need to work at aggressively keeping him out.  I was in a time crunch this weekend and just threw a thirty-pound rock on his hole.  Next weekend I’ll burry some chicken wire around where he is going under.  If I ever see him, he will be in a stew, but he remains quite elusive while I’m around.

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The Video

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