I really suggest that you get the PDF for free because the next section has a lot of pictures and they will not be in the Steemit file. Just send me your email address so that I can send them to you. Send it to [email protected].
Next year I am going to get the proper weed spray and apply it through the irrigation sys-tem also. The injector system will be refined and improved.
Now all that was left to do was to water the corn and watch it grow. Watering took about half an hour a day and was an enjoyable experience. Grow it did. Some of the corn grew to over 12 feet tall. Most stocks had two ears of corn and one had six really good sized ears. This corn was amazing.
HARVESTING THE CORN
We were not able to find a mechanical corn picker that we could buy or borrow. So guess what? You guessed it, we picked the corn by hand and that was a lot of work the whole fami-ly helped and we got it done the first part of November. It is not all shucked yet (husks re-moved from the corn ears) but most of it is done. Here is the pile that still needs to be pro-cessed.
The next picture shows the corn with the husks still in place. It is work to remove those husks by hand.
This is what the corn looks like in the bin for storage. You notice the old pvc drain pipe with holes drilled in the pipe. This pipe is to provide ventilation to dry the corn and main-tain air flow during storage.
As you can see the Lord provided nice ears of corn for our animals.
The next step is how to best provide this feed to our chickens. The proper way to feed corn to chickens is as cracked corn, that is corn that has the kernels broken or ground. We don’t have a corn grinder. The Lord provided a grinder in a strange way. A family was moving out of the area and had a lot of stuff to sell. They had this old chipper and shredder for yard wastes to sell. It was a heavy old beast and needed a lot of work. I thought that the price was too high but a still small voice said to buy it. Well I bought it and rebuilt it. Because it is old and heavily built it is perfect for grinding chicken feed. I just throw the corn on the cob in the shredder and it comes out ground chicken feed.
You see this old shredder with some of the chickens we raised this year.
Here is the corn patch after it was picked as you can see this was a pretty large corn field to grow by hand. Well except for the small tractor to till the ground. It is a miracle that this project was ever completed so successfully.
Lord’s Corn Patch After Harvest
SUMMARY AND TESTIMONY OF THIS PROJECT
The inspiration for this project began after we had set a goal as a family to grow 50 per-cent, that’s half of our own food this year. With the Lord’s help we achieved that goal. This corn project is a major part of that goal. The Lord has blessed us in many ways with his corn patch. The corn patch was not my idea. We are all under direction to grow as much of our own food as possible. I strongly advise everyone to grow as much food for themselves and their families as they can. This applies to you whether you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints or not. You still have to eat. Food will become an expensive and scarce commodity in this country if we don’t change our ways.
Please remember that the inspiration and direction to plant and care for this corn patch came before a drought in the mid United States was evident. Since the beginning of this pro-ject the price of corn in our local feed store has nearly doubled.
Here is what we have obtained from this project to date:
About 2 ton of corn, we have already fed our chickens for three months on home grown corn. We had three or four hens running wild around the place last spring. Those few hens produced about 100 chicks that have grown to maturity as free ranging chickens this year. In all the years that we have raised chickens we have never seen this kind of wild production. What this will net is three dozen hens to lay eggs and the rest in the freezer.
My wife and daughters canned about 100 quarts of corn and put quite a bit in the freez-er from this project. The Lord truly blesses us when we keep his commandments.
In summary we have a year’s supply of chicken feed and about a year’s supply of chicken to eat from this corn patch. With the continual increase in food prices this is a great blessing to our family.
What does all of this mean to you? This means that if you have a will to accomplish something and ask the Lord’s help you can do it. It does not mean that things will be just handed to you.
I testify to you that this project was a modern day miracle. The Lord’s hand in this suc-cessful project was evident at every turn. My greatest blessing was the sure knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ will help us to achieve righteous goals. I testify to this in the name of Jesus Christ—AMEN.