40 years of growing barley and straw will teach you a lot. When I was young I used to compete with all the other farmers in my town. I would go to the farmer’s markets and judge their displays. Today, I try to help them. Want to know why?
The best philosophy I learned as that we’re only competing with ourselves. My farm began to grow much faster after I stopped competing with others and instead competed with old versions of myself. I learned this philosophy out of pure wisdom or teaching, but rather raw experience. I found that when I helped my competition they helped me back, or at least didn’t try to hamper my progress.
I highly suggest giving it a try. Be in the business of helping everyone, even your enemies, and it will be much easier to succeed.
At the farm we like to do things ourselves, but one thing I’d never leave up to my farmhands to do is landscape design. Sure, planting barley and straw is easy enough, but when it comes to the water features, rock walls, flower gardens and landscape lighting in the farmhouse’s backyard, I ALWAYS leave it up to the experts. Expert landscapers do a fabulous job and the cost of hiring them typically evens out to all the hassle I’d have to go through in order to get my farmhands to complete the same work. Besides, my farmhands don’t have the time to do be planting flowers and paving garden walkways because they should be, aye, sowing and reaping straw and barley.
That’s why today I want to talk about my love for my backyard landscape and to teach an important lesson: it’s never too late for professional landscape design. You might be like me and prefer to do chores around the farmhouse on your own. But landscape design is one of those things you should simply leave up to the experts. If you want to enjoy the beauty of professionally planted flowerbeds, ponds and other water features in your back or front yard, then, aye, it’s worth it to look for a local landscaping company near you who specializes in landscape and garden design.
If you have a busy farm, take a look at the picture below and ask yourself, “Can I get landscape results this pretty by doing all the work myself?” If the answer is “YES” then by all means do it! But my farm doesn’t have the time to care and plant such an elegant landscape design, and that’s why today I’m writing to say it’s okay to hire professional landscapers.
Above is a wonderful example of the result you can get when hiring professional landscapers as opposed to doing the work yourself. Sure, my farmhands can keep the flowers and bushes watered, and keep the pathway clean, but when it comes to the choosing of flowers, the overall design itself, my workers would be stumped. Although we enjoy doing things ourselves around here, we don’t feel any shame in hiring professional landscapers to take that work off our hands because we get to enjoy the expert results afterwards.
Just recently, a dear friend of mine was seeking professional landscaping Victoria BC, but before they did they asked me, “Isn’t this something I can do myself?” I answered, “Sure, you could do it yourself but I’d hire professionals if you want to enjoy a beautiful landscape.” So after taking my advice my friend ended up going with the Larix company and got a fabulous landscape installed in their yard, with retaining walls brimming with flowers, a drainage system built with beautiful rock features and new trees planted by the fence.
They were beyond satisfied with the results they got, and that’s the whole point of what I’m trying to say here. It’s completely alright, fellows, to hire professionals to do work that you don’t have the time or the skill to do yourself, especially when it comes the value and aesthetics of your property. We owe a lot of our farm’s success on the overall attraction and appearance of our farm, because when customers visit they always comment on how beautiful it is here. We owe all the beauty to deciding to delegate the work of landscape designing to real local professionals. So if you’re tired of looking at a drab landscape, try to understand what I’m saying here. Everyone who visits your farm will be glad you did!
Because I’ve been around houses and farms doing lots of things for many years, friends and family often ask me, “How should I clean my roof?” Or, “What’s the different roof cleaning tech I can use.”
Well, shucks, I might as well write my answer down because I’ve been thinking deeply about this. There’s a few different types of tech that can be used for cleaning a roof, depending on what kind of roof it is and how dirty it is. Now, if your roof’s made of concrete or tiles, a lot of folks use a pressure washer to blast away the dirt and grime. But if your roof’s a bit more delicate, like if it’s got them there asphalt shingles, then you might wanna try soft washing or even brushing it by hand or with a broom. Let’s just say than cleaning a clay roof is a lot different, and involves different tech, than cleaning a barn silo or a chicken coop. When you have asphalt shingles, wood or clay tiles, that’s when you use a low-pressure stream of water and some special cleaning solution to get rid of the mess. And if your roof’s got some of them pesky moss or algae growths, then chemical cleaning might be the answer. For a really high-tech option, some companies are using robots to clean roofs these days – can you imagine that? Anyhow, the best thing to do is talk to a professional roof cleaning company to figure out what’ll work best for your roof. I used a great company that does roof cleaning Victoria service, but you should be able to find a similar company wherever you live. In different parts of the world roofs need to be cleaned for different reasons. In Victoria BC its usually because moss is growing on the roof, or the roof is covered in old leaves because there’s a tree over it. Alas, it’s time to talk more about the different roof cleaning technology, because that’s why we’re really here..
There are a few different types of technology that can be used for roof cleaning, depending on the type of roof and the level of cleaning required. Here are a few options:
Pressure washing
This is a common method for cleaning roofs, especially those made of concrete or metal. A pressure washer uses a high-pressure stream of water to remove dirt, grime, and other debris from the surface of the roof. Whether you’re hiring a professional pressure washing company or doing it yourself, just make sure not to use high pressure jets on delicate roof materials, as it can damage some tiles and asphalt shingles.
Soft washing
This method is gentler than pressure washing and is used for more delicate roofing materials, such as asphalt shingles. Soft washing uses a low-pressure stream of water and a specialized cleaning solution to remove dirt and grime. Think of it like a roof shampoo. This is also when brushing or scrubbing by hand is done, to avoid damaging roof materials.
Chemical cleaning
For roofs that have heavy staining or growths such as moss or algae, chemical cleaning may be necessary, but not always. This involves using specialized cleaning solutions that are designed to break down and remove these types of growths. When I had fungus on my barn roof I strayed from using chemicals as much as possible, because things like moss and lichen can be scrubbed by hand.
Robotic cleaning
Some companies are now offering robotic roof cleaning services, which use specialized drones to clean the roof without the need for human operators. These robots are equipped with brushes and cleaning solutions and can be programmed to clean specific areas of the roof. The same kind of drones have been used for bridge inspection a decade ago, although these ones are capable of a lot more. I’ve never dried robot roof cleaners and don’t even know how to order it as a service, but for industrial companies I bet it comes in useful to clean their own properties. Either way, I would never use robots to clean my roof because, as you know, I may be old but I still like to work with my hands. I still think this robot cleaning stuff is incredible though, would make good use of it maybe if it’s something I grew up with. Check out this video I found of it:
Conclusion
Ultimately, the best tech for roof cleaning will depend on the specific needs of your roof and the type of cleaning required. Like I said, it’s always best to consult with a professional roof cleaning company to determine the best approach for your situation. I don’t need to clean my roof, but my friends do, and it’s interesting to share what I know about different topics as I get older. So I hope you enjoyed or learned something.
I remember when I was a young lad in the mid 20th century. Growing up on a barley farm was tough work, always getting my hands dirty. It’s very rare that today I see men working as hard as we used to back then. It brings a smile to my face when I do see it though, for most of them are smiling back. There’s something about hard work that makes all the trivial matters of life more trivial, and it’s a lot harder to get angry, much easier to stay peaceful after a long day of toiling.
Like when we used to have “tree day” on our farm, tending to the care of our trees, I sometimes see construction workers cranking out long hours, police officers dealing with emotionally-draining work that eats at your soul – the all around good old fashioned manly work of getting your hands dirty. It’s all nice to see but it’s a lot more rare in the 21st century to see. Back in my day, if a man didn’t work he’d be scorned. Today, men still live with their parents into their late 30s and it makes me shake my head. I know mental illness plays a big part, but in all honestly a lot of men these days were just not raised to the same standard as the men of my day.
Today, I’m an old man but I still work as hard as most young men. I don’t want to drag on this ramble for too long, and actually want to celebrate men who work hard today. I’m proud of Canada and the USA, and frankly I thought things culture-wise would’ve been a lot stranger by now in 2023. Easy times create weak people and weak people create hard times, they say, so maybe we’ll see some changes in the work ethic of our youthful men soon enough. Until then I’ll remember how hard we used to work in the mid 20th century, and how we took none of our blessings for granted.
I used to grow hay and barley for many, many years on my farm. Now as a retired man who loves to blog I want to tell you about the amazing trees my farm had and how I used to take care of them. I hope this exercise will teach you facts and tips about home tree care that you might not have known before, while also being entertaining and teaching you more about me and my past.
I had dozens of oak trees, many pine trees and also lots of fruit trees like apples, pears and plums, that I had to look after for several decades. I had my family and farmhands to help me of course, but much of the work of pruning, topping trees, trimming them, all had to be done by my old wizened hands.
I enjoyed the work though, even though it was tough stuff. I often worked my back hard on the farm, reaping and sowing barley, but when it came to rising early for “tree day” as we’d call it on the farm, my back was in for a special treat of pain. We called it “tree day” because that was the day on the farm when all the workers got together and planned we’d tame all the trees on our land. Tree day usually came about once a month or whenever major tree work was needed. We needed tons and tons of firewood on that farm, so one of the priorities on tree day was to see what dead trees we could chop down to turn them into firewood. We also had a coppice to maintain for wicker branches that the lady’s of the house turned into baskets and other things to sell at the market in town in the summer.
So, as you may be getting the picture, trees were a major part of the daily ins and outs of our barley farm. Now that I’m retired and move among several small houses in Western Canada, I simply get my tree work done by reputable tree service Victoria, BC companies. But back in those days when I was young and ran my farm with discipline like a sea captain, it was often me harnessed up in the tree canopies with a chainsaw cutting away branches. Many of my farmhands were scared of heights, but I showed them up by climbing up high into our tallest treetops to fell dead branches. One day I had a scare and thought I’d fall over 100 feet down to my death but my harness saved me and I’ll never forget the way my heart felt like it was going to fly out of my throat.
There was one hard task the boys and I couldn’t do ourselves, however, and that was grinding out some particularly nasty tree stumps that were getting in the way of our tractors. With the farm equipment we had it would have taken us days of majorly hard toiling to get all those roots up with picks but we had a stump chipper come in with a professional tree service company and the work was done in a single day, just after lunch!
We never thought it worth getting our own industrial stump grinding machine but one tool I’d definitely recommend that every farm and country household should have is a quality chainsaw. You can pick up a chainsaw at any Home Depot or department store and if you take care of it you’ll 1000X the money you spent on that thing throughout your lifetime. Though I had to change the chain on it many times, I must’ve made over 10,000 cuts with my trusty old chainsaw. I still have it as an antique on my mantelpiece.
In the future I hope to talk about other useful aspects of home care that I learned running a farm. I plan to have a post about how I kept my farm clean and tidy, as well as how I kept all my vehicles and heavy equipment working efficiently, stuff like that. I enjoy rambling about my old farm life and I hope you find it interesting. Thanks for reading and I hope you visit again soon.
Growing in my younger days was exciting and all, but now trying to do the same thing is rather exciting, mainly because I’m amazed at how a lifetime of growing and selling hay would have been much easier in the 1960s because there was more cheap land. But anyways, I digress. When I plant my seeds I don’t just sit around afterwards if you know what I mean. My hay sells well because I carefully cultivate it starting from the seed itself. By the time my hay is in a bale I’m sleeping with a half-bottle of Montreal brandy and the dogs are chasing the the wolves away. Maybe not that dramatic but at least I wake up the next day to see the work done.
Now if an old man who still grows hay is to consider himself successful he must ask himself “Do I have grandsons reaping and sowing my hay?” Even if you disgorge ordure on yourself you can lean up with pride knowing that farm you built from that was strong enough to hold you is still pumping out hay and generations of kids! Today as its if the farmer isn’t working anymore, and yes I’m that farmer making my grandson do all the work! Son!
Now that you know a little about my life growing hay as an old man, the main point I’d like you to take away is that it takes a lifetime to raise hay farm from its bootstraps. If you were to buy a piece of land in North America today and try to grow hay on it you might as well be trying to pluck marshmallows out of strangers’ coffee at Tim Hortans without getting your ass kicked.
Even if you don not live the farm life, these 3 tricks for getting out of bed early with minimal headache might come in useful, so I thought I would share them here with you today. Growing hay and barely for product production is no easy task. It requires getting up before your body wants to, before the sun even considers shedding light on your world. Rising early to work my farm is one of the greatest factors leading to the success of my farm, and these are the three tricks I used nearly every single day of my working life.
Alarm clock
#1: Go to bed early with help from red light.
I do not know the science behind red light, but I have heard from many sources that red light is best for your eyes before going to bed. The last thing you want to do is have bright blue lights blaring in your eyes before going to bed. There’s something calming about red light. The way I did it is as follows: I went to my local hardware store and bought a pack of red LED lightbulbs, then I went back home and put one red lightbulb in the lamp on my nightstand, and another in the ceiling fan of my straw mattress. I also put one in a lamp I keep in my bathroom, so I do not need to flash my eyes if I need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. I have always loved reading before bed, and all it takes is reading under red light for about 40 minutes before I get extremely sleepy, and I got to bed as early as 9 PM so I can wake at 4 AM. Red light works for me, and I have a good feeling it will work for anyone if they try it consistently for a few weeks. If you don not believe me, go onto your favorite search engine and type “How red light helps you sleep.” The important part is going to bed early, because, of course, it is hard to get up early if you have had a poor sleep.
#2: Have a fatty, high-protein breakfast.
There is a valid reason why bacon and eggs are the staple breakfast in the western world. I tried eating cornflake cereal once, but it just does not give me the energy I need to get out on the farm and work hard. Again, I do not know the science behind it, but the fat and protein in bacon and eggs somehow gives me sustainable energy to the point where I often skip lunch without even realizing it. If you are vegan, try eating more nuts and coconut oil in the morning instead of veggie shakes or whatever you eat for breakfast.
#3: Stare at yourself in the mirror before heading to bed and remind yourself WHY it is important to rise early.
Whether you have a long-term life dream that requires many hours at the office or you have family responsibilities, it really helps to constantly remind yourself WHY you want to wake up early. If you do not even have a reason for waking early, then why are you reading this? Surely there must be some important reason for you to set that alarm clock for 4:30 AM everyday. THINK ABOUT IT! Another thing I would mention is controlling your mind as soon as consciousness dawns on you in the morning. THINK! If you forget the important reasons why you must wake up and grind then it’ will be much harder than it should be to motivate yourself.
I know what you’re thinking. Who sleeps on a straw mattress in 2023? The answer is: ME! Yes, I prefer a straw mattress actually, thank you very much. I’ve been growing and selling straw, barley and other corns for most of my adult life and never got used to sleeping on a foam mattress or whatever type of mattress kids sleep on these days. I tried a water bed once, but it never compared to straw. Maybe it’s because my friends often call me stiff. My name is Doug after all, a rather stiff name, and I’m prone to having a stiff neck….
If you’ve never slept on a straw mattress before, let me be the first to tell you honestly it’s not very comfortable. I prefer it because it’s what I’m used to. I even make my own straw mattress and remake it every decade (the straw can go bad if you don’t replace it every ten years). My wife, on the other hand, has always despised it but to sleep by my side she’s learned to tolerate it. I think if I pried I could get her to admit she likes it too.
Sleeping on a straw mattress in 2023 might be like having solar panels in the 1960s but, hey, it’s my thing. My mattress is natural and comes from the earth. What can you say about your mattress being all-natural?
Anyway, consider this a prelude to what is to be Doug’s Blog of Industry, a first post of many more to come.
