Mid-Summer Update

We got our new well drilled. Didn't want to drill another hole but the first wells water never did clear up. As you can see from the picture, soon after turning this one on the water looks great. Tested good also. The first well had over 10 ppm of iron in it, this one has none. We plan on using the first well for our Geo Thermal heating and cooling for the house, when it gets built, so it won't be a total loss.

I was taking a break from the heat one day and two of our barns residents came out to look around. They looked around, decided it was to hot, and went back in the barn. We have about 4 groundhogs that live around the farm. They haven't hurt anything I care about so I figure there's no reason to evict them. Well, the name of the farm is changing and our planning of the orchard will be changing as well. Our Korean Giants didn't do real well, we lost 22 of them to fire blight. The people we got the trees from, Willis Orchards, Located in Catersville, Ga. have a first year guarantee and they stand behind it, so we will be getting replacements for the ones lost. This however has given us a push into reconsidering how we're going to do things. Ideally we don't want to use sprays and chemicals but realistically organic farming for any kind of profit is extremely difficult. So Sandy has been researching and came across "Permaculture Farming". This is the next step past organic. We will be planting many things, not just Asian Pears, that compliment each other, help with fertilization, help with harmful bugs, with pollination, the list goes on. We want to attract beneficial bugs (that sprays would otherwise kill), birds, and of coarse pollinators. I'm thinking that instead of "Pear Blossom Farm" it should be "Blossom Farm" since there will be such a wide variety of blossoms. Things should settle down in about a month so I'll try to get an update on here then.