The Long Branch Homestead
The Long Branch Homestead
This channel is all about the joys and challenges of living in the northern mountains of Pennsylvania. Whether it be the weather, gardening, firewood, chickens, or our German short-haired pointer Josie. The projects around here never end but it's a labor of love and we're blessed and proud to call it home.
Contact us at email [email protected]
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I love this!
I love lavender! It's my favorite smell and just the most beautiful color! The only color combination that compares is purple and yellow. Just brings me joy!
Yeah between the smell the color and the 🐝 it's a pleasure to have it grow here. Thanks for commenting 👍
I have lavender all over my yard and love it. Also it keeps the mosquitoes away. 😁
We often thought about planting a couple acres of it here and if all went right it would be stunning. Thanks for commenting 👍
Pretty😊
Thanks !!
Mine was 6500 at auction
Oh wow what state is that in? How recent was the purchase?
@@thelongbranchhomestead1397 SW Missouri at auction.
What is she stalking?
@Johnlewissawmill Rabbits mostly but just a few weeks ago she chased a fox out of there 😀
Happy independence day!!!
That is awesome! Love blueberries 🫐
@Hatfield_Country yeah the plants are maturing nicely and it looks like this might be our best year 🙏
Well that's just a lovely surprise! Hope they're tasty (and if not, maybe you can make the deer smile in the fall)
I'm sure the deer will get up on their Hine legs for that treat 😅
Nice work! That turned out great!
@Hatfield_Country thanks and thanks for commenting and watching
2 good dogs right there!
Here in Florida it got too hot for the eight tomato plants we had. Our neighbor normally has better tomatoes than we do also failed. Normally one can get a good crop of tomatoes before it gets that hot. Just a few small ones and then the plant stopped flowering because the temperatures were 92-96F for an extended time in the daytime.
Last year we we had some cherry tomatoes go from green to black ⚫️ and we're still not sure why that happened 😕
@@thelongbranchhomestead1397 That is odd. I have never seen that!!
We did not grow cucumbers when I was a child. However I like this idea!!! The cucumbers would take up a lot less space this way.
I apologize for laughing 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Who knows, you may be doing it correctly, but that is sure a long way from what my Dad did when I was a kid. Our garden was small and we mostly ate everything as it matured. We did have enough potatoes that we just left them in the ground a month or two past maturity, but we ate them all before the ground froze. There was no precision, just an approximate 12 inches. Jam shovel in ground, push forward, drop seed potato, pull shovel, stomp with foot, repeat. The ground was freshly rototilled, making it easy. So growing up with that method it sure hit my funny bone to see how you are doing it!!! 🤣🤣 Now you can't ague with your results! Your getting at least 100 pounds in a few short rows. We have no idea how much we harvested except that our family did not have to buy potatoes for a few months.
Yeah Scott when I was a kid we just planted them In the ground with one eye of the seed potato 🥔 and don't remember hilling at all ( I plan to do a short video on hilling potatoes soon) but I know we never got the same results we do now. Then after harvesting we placed them in a root cellar but for some reason they started to sprout within a couple of months and throwing them out. Anyway do very well with our potatoes and the grandkids like searching for them 😄
Looking great Joe! Nothing like the first weeding of the season eh?
Yeah Jay everything is growing fast now. Keeping the homestead nice can be a challenge but it's also rewarding 👍
She’s a good dog!
Thanks John. Yes she is!!
Looking good up there. Get that garden going!!
Oh it's going and we have lots of informative videos to come. Thanks for watching!!
Very cool method there, how tall will they get? Will you eat them as is, or pickle some of them?
I put a response to your question in with the regular comments. Thanks for commenting and for the questions Jay 👍
@@thelongbranchhomestead1397 Thanks Joe, where can I find that? Cheers!
Sorry Jay don't know where that went 😅 but the cucumber vines will grow up to the top and cover the fencing. As the cucumber 🥒 we are only using these Cucumbers for sliced and used for salads or just snacking on. I'll be putting out a video later on pickling Cucumbers where we make 3 different varieties of pickles so stay tuned 👍
@@thelongbranchhomestead1397 I'll be watching! Looking to get something like that going in the next few years... we eat a ridiculous amount of pickles lol.
Love the bread and butter pickles
That's great glad you liked them. Our how to plant pickling cucumber video is coming up soon 👍
Great to see those potatoes going in! Hopefully the rain balances out for you and not the other way around lol 🥔
Yes it was, they were lead act in years garden 😅
Good luck with your potatoes!
And a good luck with yours. I checked out your channel and see we do much of the same things. I'm going to subscribe and follow. Thanks for watching.
@@thelongbranchhomestead1397 thank you I appreciate it! Subscribed to you as well.
Great job kids….
That was a fair deal for a beautiful tractor. Under 3k would have been a steal.
You said you can cut the time in half but did not say how long it took. I am guessing about one hour per acre for six hours total.
That's a good guess because when we do it together it's around 3 hrs
@@thelongbranchhomestead1397 Feel free to delete this comment because it is about Laura Farms but I think you might get a laugh from it. In her video today, "Mowing An ENORMOUS Lawn With My Tractor" She uses a JD7810, JD4020 and a Toro Z Master 2000. Just a note: A Toro 580D or 5910 would of run circles around this collection of machines!!
Six acres is not as big as I thought your lawn was when I first saw it on video. However if it does get to be a bit much to be walking all that way, you could consider a Wright Velke X2 Sulky. I don't know the price nor have I used one but I assume that it would give some relief from walking and be less effort, providing a transition. I expect your Bob Cats to run well at your usage for the next 30+ years. I am not a zero turn fan for your lawn. I kinda like my mobmower2 plan but realize that is a bit crazy. It does not eliminate using the walk behinds: just leaves less for them to do. so still getting some walking in. If money is not a consideration or just for fun: take a look at Ventrac 4520K (just a bit less cost than other engines) with the MJ840 contour mower deck, KL480 tiller and other possible attachments. One can still be outside but lower the amount of physical effort needed with this machine on almost all your lawn and garden jobs. It is likely that you will come to a point that walking the whole lawn is too much but walking some of it, like doing the trimming, still feels good. (clearly I just like machines) I would like to run a few different Ventrac mowers to see first hand how they travel over the lawn. They look good on video and I have reason to expect them to do very well. A less costly option depending on your skills, is an old Toro Groundmaster 325D or similar. I am not a fan of foot control but these Toro machines are time proven and can be gotten at low cost. The one I just looked at in an advertisement had only 3080 hours. They were not telling the truth about the size of the deck. 72" side discharge is the correct deck to get on this machine. However the price was only $2500 !!! As I look at more advertisements, I am surprised that one can even find 325D's with less than 3000 hours on them! At these prices, it is like stealing them! I recommend putting Rim Guard in the rear tires. This will help give it more steering authority on the slopes and ditches. Clearly I have been enjoying your videos!! I even found a 580D with less than 3000 hours on it for only $17K. How does a mower like that escape having 12,000 or more hours on it?
keeping the dogs in the garden area will keep rabbits and other animals out of the garden!
Until the garden is planted because they tend to step on the plants 😀
@@thelongbranchhomestead1397 I don't remember our dog running on the plants. We did leave room along one fence that had the neighbors dog on the other side. They would run up and down the fence barking at each other. They were noisy friends. That was a long time ago and I was a child so if the dog did run on the plants, I may not of noticed. None the less our dog and hunter cat lived in the same area as the garden.
I believe in the Westinghouse eVinci Microreactor. Using the eVinci decentralizes electricity production and provides stable, reliable electricity. If it were up to me I would make it ILLEGAL to have windmills and solar power on the grid because they make the grid as a whole more expensive and less reliable and cause stress on the good equipment!! I can't say more about my views on windmills and solar power on the grid because I can't hold my anger that long.......
Given the size of your lawn that is a lot of walking!! I was wondering what you mowed with. Just the time alone would have me looking for another way. I explained one possibility under another video that would do the bigger part of your lawn and then use the walk behinds to trim up.
Sounds interesting but we've been using walk behinds for thirty years and believe the exercise is so beneficial for us. That being said we're getting older and will have to make a change in the near future. Thanks for commenting!!
I love that splitter: it is made the correct way! Most new ones have a flat stationary stop plate at the end not the wedge. With this one you could set it up so that it would work more like a big expensive ones. With some fooling around your work flow could be made a lot easier with this splitter!!!
Very nice harvest!! I was wondering what you used to till with and now I know. I can feel the struggle with that tiller clear from the other side of the internet! Good idea to till just before putting the seeds in. We always tilled in the fall and spring and just before putting the seeds in. I liked the mowing operation in there. We did not do it that way but your way is likely better. Do you mow the whole lawn with that mower?
I like the way your gate works!
Will you be working up the soil with a plow, disk or rototiller or other? or not working up the soil just plant into it? Near the end you said rototiller: tractor or walk behind?
What do you mow that expansive lawn with? That is a lot of mowing! Just for fun you may like to look at the video I found called mobmower2 It will come up in the KZread search. One thing I like about this video is that I dreamed up this system as a kid but never actually did it. I find it fun that someone really did do this crazy Idea!! There are other versions of using a gang of small push mowers to mow wide spaces! If you are not very picky about how it mows it would work to mow your lawn quite fast while spending a lot less on the mowing system. One key to this system is using side discharge mowers with metal frames. No self propelled systems. oops more later gotta go for now. back now... new mowers The Yardmax 21" 170cc gas engine $262. The advantage of new mowers is that you can get them all at once and the engines will likely run well till the rest falls apart. 5 out one side and five out the other and two in the middle behind your tractor. I would get an extra mower "just in case" With over lap that is likely about 19 feet wide.... for under $4000. Keep in mind that my favorite mower is a Toro 5910 or its earlier versions. Those are in the vicinity of $100,000 new. about $40,000 at tractor house....
I would say that $4600 was a good deal. You just had to put a new battery and solenoid and the whole things seems to be working well. Moreover you have good paint!!! The best part is that both you and your wife like the tractor and it has sentimental connections as well. You will own and use that tractor to the day you die just like your friend did.
Yes I believe you're right. It found a good home 🏡
Very nice tractor!! I like the spoke wheels also. You will have to order some Eastern Hemlock lumber from LCLY for that trailer😀 You did not say or show what you did with the branches.
Growing up, we had a '58 841 w/industrial loader. Got a whole lot of seat time on that. The loader was maybe a little heavy for the front end (needed floatation tires?) but did everything we asked of it. Only had the loader off a few times (definitely NOT QT) but without it, that tractor was a little beast.
It's nice to hear how people used these old ford's and your right about being a beast
So cute
Weather looks amazing there Joe! Last years harvest was certainly impressive, woohoo! Here's wishing you both an equal or better harvest this year (and maybe even a peach or two!) 😃🤞
Thanks and best wishes on your garden ventures as well
Nice , i got mine started yesterday
That's Great!! Growing your own food is a wonderful thing.
Sure is
😲 wooooo! That must've made everyone jump! Glad it turned out safe and sound though. Is that your lumber being cut?
Yes it sure did. As for the wood I'm looking into making some live edge tables and things like that come this winter.
@@thelongbranchhomestead1397 Sweet, those are gonna be cool!
The 861's and 661's with the live PTO's are my most desired tractors. You may have had feelings of regret or buyers remorse. But that level of regret is nothing compared to the sellers remorse that you feel after you sell one of these.
No regrets here. Pricing new tractors blows my mind and I fully understand why when you go to a farm auction you see hundreds of people there. New tractors cost way too much!!!
lol, doggos love the popcorn!
You should see them when the ginger snaps come out lol 😆
Your never alone when you have a dog🤣
You know it!!
Lol it's the drooling for me ❤❤❤
We normally keep a towel on hand lol. Thanks for commenting.
If its in good condition, you cant buy a better tractor than these old Fords. They will outlast everyone of us.
I'd have to agree with that. Thanks for commenting!!
I have a few 8Ns, an 860 with hydraulics, and fluid in the tires, and an 851 powermaster. Still get used almost daily on the family dairy farm. Lots of uses and many more if you can think of new ways to use them! Great tractors. Extremely useful.
It's nice to hear you still working with your old ford's. Thanks for commenting. 👍
It's nice to hear about all these old ford's still being used. Thanks for commenting 👍
Love that tractor!
Me too my friend
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Thanks for the love and prayers 🙏 ❤️
I had an a exact model in my freestall barn whose sole job was to scrape manure into the gutter daily. It was there for 25 years. It would start every time in temps of -20 or -30. Strangely, it was hard to start on 32 to 40 degree (F) when the air was humid! I put over 8000hrs on it.
Interesting that that was all it was used for being that they have so much power. Yeah I've never had an issue with it starting in cold weather. Thanks for commenting and sharing your story.