Time use on Ratrodbikes and our future

[BartRidesEternal]

Hi guys,

I know there is no need for justification, but I do feel a tad bit responsible here, since I invested in the people, community and a lot of builds.

The following (years?) I will be less active on Ratrodbikes, even more so than the past months. I will still be working on my hubs and bicycles now and then and post the pictures/details on this forum.

I will also be selling a lot of my bikes. I am 100% keeping "Pope Roger" my complete self-built bike though! I don't want to be bikeless

So what are we spending our time on?

I mentioned it here and there, offcourse family first, but we are pushing to start our Regenerative Agricultural Farm.
I can't help but share my enthusiasm here.
Probably more of a patch of land and start with vegetables, berries, fruit trees and depending on the patch we rent or buy, also Eggs or Poultry.

It is rather a challenge (on financial, time and political fronts) to start a farm in the Netherlands right now. But we are dreaming about/working on that for about 5 years. Starting with "Food Forests" that need 5 to 7 years to grow before you can harvest some products. Financially we could not take that time. Then we went to Norway to see if we could pursue a dairy farm that works with horses instead for tractors. Their way of working was awesome, but unfortunately we did not buy that farm.
Then we discovered regenerative agriculture.
The current engineering company I work at is great, but the motivation is slacking at this point.

Farming info (skip if not interested)
I will save you the climate change talk. Regenerative Agriculture is very interesting since it combines a lot of oldschool farmwork with new observations, insights and management tools.
If interested, I will below post a basic explanation and framework terms and links for this way of farming:

• Holistic Management (example) can be applied for more than farming only.
• Holistic Grazing:
  • How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change | Allan Savory
  • Pleistocene Park (interesting livestock importance example!)
• No dig market gardening info
• Agroforestry
• Food Forests (Martin Crawford)

Cool tools you ratters might like!

This week I bought a second? hand seeder tool. A October 1919 "Planet Jr" seeder. Because the new plastic stuff isn't my jam.
We used a plastic/aluminum modern seeder which is too flimsy... and the plastic degrades and has issues with stress relaxation. The belt slips when its wet.

But checkout this 'built to last' American beast, I think you might like the appearance!
I just can't wrap my head around the state since it is 100+ years old. I will do some maintenance and repairs as period-correctly as possible.

Hickory or pine wood?

I will be building a harvesting/bicycle cart in the future. Ratrod that thing aswell.

Thanks for reading guys!

 

[Captain Awesome]

Hi guys,

I know there is no need for justification, but I do feel a tad bit responsible here, since I invested in the people, community and a lot of builds.

The following (years?) I will be less active on Ratrodbikes, even more so than the past months. I will still be working on my hubs and bicycles now and then and post the pictures/details on this forum.

I will also be selling a lot of my bikes. I am 100% keeping "Pope Roger" my complete self-built bike though! I don't want to be bikeless

So what are we spending our time on?

I mentioned it here and there, offcourse family first, but we are pushing to start our Regenerative Agricultural Farm.
I can't help but share my enthusiasm here.
Probably more of a patch of land and start with vegetables, berries, fruit trees and depending on the patch we rent or buy, also Eggs or Poultry.

It is rather a challenge (on financial, time and political fronts) to start a farm in the Netherlands right now. But we are dreaming about/working on that for about 5 years. Starting with "Food Forests" that need 5 to 7 years to grow before you can harvest some products. Financially we could not take that time. Then we went to Norway to see if we could pursue a dairy farm that works with horses instead for tractors. Their way of working was awesome, but unfortunately we did not buy that farm.
Then we discovered regenerative agriculture.
The current engineering company I work at is great, but the motivation is slacking at this point.

Farming info (skip if not interested)
I will save you the climate change talk. Regenerative Agriculture is very interesting since it combines a lot of oldschool farmwork with new observations, insights and management tools.
If interested, I will below post a basic explanation and framework terms and links for this way of farming:

• Holistic Management (example) can be applied for more than farming only.
• Holistic Grazing:
  • How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change | Allan Savory
  • Pleistocene Park (interesting livestock importance example!)
• No dig market gardening info
• Agroforestry
• Food Forests (Martin Crawford)

Cool tools you ratters might like!

This week I bought a second? hand seeder tool. A October 1919 "Planet Jr" seeder. Because the new plastic stuff isn't my jam.
We used a plastic/aluminum modern seeder which is too flimsy... and the plastic degrades and has issues with stress relaxation. The belt slips when its wet.

But checkout this 'built to last' American beast, I think you might like the appearance!
I just can't wrap my head around the state since it is 100+ years old. I will do some maintenance and repairs as period-correctly as possible.

Hickory or pine wood?

I will be building a harvesting/bicycle cart in the future. Ratrod that thing aswell.

Thanks for reading guys!

I applaud you for your drive and ambition. Sounds like you are passionate and truly all in. I admire that

Cannot wait until the day we have our property fully developed and can get back to raising chickens at a minimum

 

[kingfish254]

Best wishes to you on your new endeavor! Yes, we will miss you cool contributions to our hobby and the RRB community, but follow your passions and keep us updated from time to time. Don't be a total stranger.

 

[Pondo]

Very cool man! I studied holistic land management a bit in college. Are you going to have a website where you post your progress? Sounds fun and interesting. Best of luck!

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Keep popping in with updates, Bart. We wouldn't want to lose your input, it's gooey good stuff!
That seeder is really cool, you should see the stuff that turns up at the agricultural fairs around here. I love all the old graphics, especially hand painted lettering.

 

[Cyclist]

What a great project. And please do come back when resting or when you have some time and let us know how it is working out.

 

[Frankie plekhand]

Awesome Bart, good luck in your new endavour!
Do you know about Joel Salatin? He has a great way of easy but scalable chicken farming

 

[Ulu]

I can’t imagine what it’s like to sell all your bicycles. I have moved many times in my life but I never had that much stuff that I had to sell it off.

I can’t imagine what farming must be like in the Netherlands or Europe. Here it is the very biggest business imaginable.

I live in a small town surrounded by America’s biggest farms, ranches, orchards and vineyards. All the big smelly dairies are thankfully well south of me, in Tulare. Tulare is where they hold the world’s biggest farm show of tractors and equipment etc.

It’s incredible how much farming there is in the San Joaquin Valley. There’s lots of social motivation here to be a “gentleman farmer”. It is incredibly popular and generally very lucrative.

Good luck with seeder and the new crops. I will be very interested to see the reports on your new farming efforts.

 

[BartRidesEternal]

I applaud you for your drive and ambition. Sounds like you are passionate and truly all in. I admire that

Cannot wait until the day we have our property fully developed and can get back to raising chickens at a minimum

I appreciate your words Captain, thank you!

Awesome that you have some property! A person I know advises the "Bresse" chickens: It is not a hybrid chicken and it has a good mix of meat/eggs.

Best wishes to you on your new endeavor! Yes, we will miss you cool contributions to our hobby and the RRB community, but follow your passions and keep us updated from time to time. Don't be a total stranger.

I won't be Kingfish, thank you man!
Bicycles will always be in my sight and I will post them here for shure.
And thanks again, that means a lot to me!

Very cool man! I studied holistic land management a bit in college. Are you going to have a website where you post your progress? Sounds fun and interesting. Best of luck!

Thank you Pondo!
We will certainly have a website and I will be happy to share it here.
Not shure when our farm name and website is planned yet.
I just finished reading the governments nitrogen rules regarding compost.

I will answer the rest soon. Thank you ratters

 

[Frankie plekhand]

I just finished reading the governments nitrogen rules regarding compost.

You've been reading for 3 days straight?

 

[BartRidesEternal]

Keep popping in with updates, Bart. We wouldn't want to lose your input, it's gooey good stuff!
That seeder is really cool, you should see the stuff that turns up at the agricultural fairs around here. I love all the old graphics, especially hand painted lettering.

Love that pun Matti, and thanks!
I feel you regarding the old graphics, back in the day products were 'built to last' and just simply more beautiful and crafted with more attention. I read this beautiful substack post regarding old products and their designs... 'honoring the gods'.

What a great project. And please do come back when resting or when you have some time and let us know how it is working out.

Thank you I appreciate that. I will certainly keep on building, reading and posting it here, just a slower pace.

Awesome Bart, good luck in your new endavour!
Do you know about Joel Salatin? He has a great way of easy but scalable chicken farming

Joel Salatin is a big inspiration for the regenerative farming community. I enjoyed his video's!
How are you farmiliar with Joel? Awesome that you know him!

I can’t imagine what it’s like to sell all your bicycles. I have moved many times in my life but I never had that much stuff that I had to sell it off.

I can’t imagine what farming must be like in the Netherlands or Europe. Here it is the very biggest business imaginable.

I live in a small town surrounded by America’s biggest farms, ranches, orchards and vineyards. All the big smelly dairies are thankfully well south of me, in Tulare. Tulare is where they hold the world’s biggest farm show of tractors and equipment etc.

It’s incredible how much farming there is in the San Joaquin Valley. There’s lots of social motivation here to be a “gentleman farmer”. It is incredibly popular and generally very lucrative.

Good luck with seeder and the new crops. I will be very interested to see the reports on your new farming efforts.

Thank you Ulu!
In the past, due to money restrictions, I had to sell a lot of other stuff and switch hobby's. It was a process but less stuff also makes me happier. The bicycles I enjoy most will certainly be kept: Pope Roger, my Klunker and maybe the green 'antique motorcycle style' bicycle, don't know yet.

"I can’t imagine what farming must be like in the Netherlands or Europe. Here it is the very biggest business imaginable."
I will respond to that without entering political territory, since this is a bicycle forum

Farming in the Netherlands is a dying profession for a while now. There will be certainly thousands of farmers left, but many farming businesses are run by people around the retiring age.
Large chemical/industrial farming companies take over and reduce soil health unfortunately. On the other hand, nature and forest unions by townships and volunteers try and introduce nature too.
There are several farming schools in the Netherlands. The regular farming school is not doing well and their pupils can't start farming and end up at contractors.
The biodynamic farming school (anthroposophical) is doing OK when we visited a few years back. Many people (doctors, engineers, analysts) that went through a burnout or event will tend the 'part time' education.

Regenerative is, in my view, better than every way of farming yet, since it has that 'long term' view, work with nature and its prioritizes people's, animals and soil health.

"t’s incredible how much farming there is in the San Joaquin Valley. There’s lots of social motivation here to be a “gentleman farmer”. It is incredibly popular and generally very lucrative."
We had a similar plan, but with an 'open income model' in mind. No hidden money streams. Just to sustain our way of life.
'Gentlemans farming' is also popularizing here, I did not know that is is common in the states as well. Awesome!

In our reg. ag. education program this awesome farm was mentioned in California:
https://www.singingfrogsfarm.com/
Is this near you Ulu?

Thank you for your interest sir!

You've been reading for 3 days straight?

Funny thing is: well, YES!

The governments way of writing is hard to understand and sometimes it leaves room for interpretation... not in the benefit of the user.

After reading and making notes for quite a while, I found the 'governments body' calculation website where farmers can put in their sh*t (litorally), compost and crops and calculate what they can use, this year and the next.

I understand why these rules are here, but with regenerative agriculture around the corner things are about to shift.

Frankie: If you like this stuff, I can advise you some Dutch/Belgium people that are (in my opinion) worth having a look at: Marc Siepman and Peter Vanhoof.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Ulu]

https://www.singingfrogsfarm.com/

Is this near you Ulu?

Almost 4 hours away by car. I am slightly north east of Fresno.

That farm is up above the bay area in the legendary wine country.