Offgrid in Bayham 2025

The situation at our farm: June 23 2025

It has been very hot for the last few days without rain.

I feel that the world is in very bad shape in every aspect especially in regards to nature. The use of the internet has overtaken everything and things like Data centers are using tremendous amounts of electricity to the point where places like Alberta are creating the majority of electricity for data centers. The heat at present is far too hot but luckily I have Joanie our new horse adapted to the north woods so she has some shade and seems to have joined the herd in their daily place in the shade of the north woods. We are suffering a drought. The spelt seems to be doing well and looks like a good crop but lacking water. The oats do not look very good as the field was poor to begin with. The camelina is looking poor and lacking water for a good crop. The pastures are doing well offering a lot of red clover and white clover for the horses. My years of preparing for better soils are paying off.

We are without a worker this year but doing rather well with the help of volunteers. The sunflowers have been planted into the crimped rye along with a few row of corn. Both of which are showing despite the lack of rain.

I am having difficulties with the electrical Solar systems as the sun is coming from a northerly east direction which misses some of the solar cells. I turned all of them to be more flat and face the sun which made a big difference but the heat is affecting the output negatively. I have some grave concerns about the solar cells and electronic equipment associated with them as the heat has affected all of our equipment negatively. Obviously the best use of sunshine is growing plants but they also need water which we do not have to flood a field. Dorothee has been hand watering the garden and we have a good supply of water from a large tank I installed from the 110 ft eves trough for the garden. Out well in the valleymay be in jeopardy as one of our neighbours want to use our small creek for his field of ginseng which needs a lot of water! I phoned Longpoint conservation but the said it was not of their concern since it was a federal matter concerning water. I actually thought they would be concerned that the creek will be dry and the various turtles and fish would not survive without water. It seems that one can drain water at 70,000 liters a day without a permit which sounds rather ridiculous to me!

At 6:15 this morning the horses were down for a drink at the water tank but in no mood for eating their breakfast. I retrieved them from the woods but they were reluctant to eat and Jim was the only one who ate most of his breakfast. I left the bowls in the field and let them return to the shade in the woods.

I have managed to plow up some of the center pasture to try grow some Sorghum that could be harvested with the combine if I can get it planted. Our farm with small 2-3 acre fields with various crops in rotation is a very good idea as it is quite self sufficient but does not allow for the idea that large volumes provide in the way of profit but it does allow for the betterment of the soil. Animals are very important as they produce manure which is far better for making compost than the artificial chemicals being used today.

I started a compost facility in the south pasture but have not been able to get a load of manure yet from Chris Stoll.

The drinking water system had a failure this spring which I have repaired. I changed the pressure tank from the valley to up in the pump house which so far seems to work well. I am still working on getting the Horse water system working.

I purchase a new horse at the amish auction who is 21 years old and expecting a newborn. I tried her out at the auction... took her over to the grass to see if she could eat grass and then walked her around. She did very well so I bid for her. Once home she settled in using the round pen as home but I soon realized that this would not work when things got hot. The horses could see one another from the respective pastures and I introduced Duke, then Jim and Then Ginger to Joanie. Finally I introduced Joanie to the north west pasture which allowed her to access the north woods for shade. It did not take her long to be integrated into the herd and she seemed to enjoy the shade in the north woods like the other horses.

This spring was actually very good following a cold winter with snow but the sunflower planting, and the oats planting made me late in getting to the hay. Thanks to the many volunteers that helped bale the hay and stack it in the hay barns. Dorothee and I could not have done it without their help. Ali provided meals for two days and had many of his relations and family there to help. We set up our farmers market tent and table in the shade. Luckily it was not so hot as it is today June 22 about 36 degrees Celcius.

Dorothee and I have been having troubles finding a way to enjoy our old age and how to get someone to take over this type of farming. While at the moment it may seem senseless when you can get a job but my feeling is that unemployment will be rampant and finding enough food is going to be difficult for thoe who frequent the grocery store. I tried hiring two people in the past 6 years but that has not worked out since most people are always looking for the way to get rich quick. Now it is just Dorothee and I and volunteers but in many cases the volunteers are not of much use in the field crops or understanding the workings of the garden. We have continued to have visitors but most people are looking for a high paid job and not willing to put that much time into working every day 6 am to 8 at night.

Our lifestyle is not conducive in this modern world where everything is based on making profit. Our way of farming is what I consider a minimum to just keep and rebuild the farms healthy soils. Farms needs animals, small plots of crops, alternate sources of energy and crop rotations as well as experimenting with crops that thrive in a hot dry climate. This is in a sense a modern subsistence farming approach. This year I am trying sorghum as the climate is changing to hotter dryer weather..

There are many good things here at the farm. All of the work I have done to prepare for very difficult times by getting a lot of maintenance done, planning the fields well and improving the soils health are appreciated but it is the unknown that we can't foresee.

I am much more aware of the fraudulent activity going on today in everything. I had my bank accounts hacked and had numerous fraudulent credit card submissions. I suspect that many financial institutions will fail this year due to unemployment forcing mortgage foreclosures with the lack of profit in most businesses so need get rid of employees. I am more aware of those who bank their money are supporting the corporations who borrow money from the banks at ten times the value of the deposits. Most everything is dependant on making obscene profits and many people are caught up in this game. I do not have any investments and only purchase equipment I need as my investment for the future on our farm.