Farmer Jon Working Hard

I spent most of the day Saturday doing chores around the yard, garden and barn. Here I am rolling my own tomato cages from concrete reinforcement wire. The finished cages were 20″ in diameter and 5 feet tall. I was able to construct 25 cages out of one 150 foot roll of wire. These are the best I have found for growing large healthy plants and it makes it easy to harvest the fruit. We lost a few plants in a windstorm this week, but I will re-plant those. We are experimenting with different types of tomatoes, in search of our favorite kind.

Another project I am working on is contructing a wood fence behind the barn. We are hoping to fence in a small pasture area where we can raise some livestock. The posts are nine foot railroad ties set 30″ in the ground. I will then add 2×4x8 rails across the top bottom and middle. Then I can attach the 6 foot cedar slats that I am hoping will keep the dogs and Max out of trouble. This will close in the North end of our property and make it extremely difficult for Max to go play on the county road or swim in the irrigation canal.