Beginings

    Hello everyone, my name is Shawn. I have decided to take my old love (writing) and my new love (gardening) and see if I can mix it up a little. So starting today, I'll be keeping this online journal of my exploits into agriculture. The good, the bad, and the holy crap its hot outside, it will all be here for you to learn from. I intend to do some video blogs about some of the more interesting things I have learned along the way.

Facts:

This all takes place in central Arkansas.

The land utilized is in my family for its 4th generation.

I am 34 years old.

I was a computer technician for 10 years before I lost my job.

I went back to college for a degree in Technical writing.

History

    Six years ago, I lost my job as a Technician for the US Army Corps of Engineers. My technical knowledge had lapsed far behind the times, and finding a job was nearly impossible.   I made decision to return home to my family farm in central Arkansas. I went back to school attending The University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I pursued a degree in Professional and Technical Writing.
    Once I left school, the prospect of finding a job was daunting, but I attempted it none the less. After a year of dwindling finances and frustration at how hard it was to find a job, I made the decision to try my hand at the family business, Not quite in the same fashion though. Historically this was a grain farm, specializing in soybeans, corn, and milo(grain sorghum).
    I couldn't picture myself as a grain farmer, along with not having the finances to support such an extensive endeavor. I chose to work with what I had: two garden plots which later grew to five, a small amount of capital, and a willingness to work hard in the dirt.

A Plan
    My plan originally was to grow ridiculous amounts of vegetables and sell them all and be rich. The reality of that quickly revealed it's self. This is a learning experience, and I'll be sharing it with you from now on.

Early Stage

 To the left here you see the primary garden, as well as an improv set of tomato stakes that I made from scrap wood.

This is the rest of the garden, where the Corn and Okra will be. If you look closely you can see the remnants of melted plastic and other debris from when we burned off the cover.
















That is the early stage pictures, with minimal information. I will be fast-forwarding through about a month and a half of hard work when I wasn't documenting (My bad) to now, in later post.