I’ve been a little aloof lately and I apologize. It is one of those times where I want to post about everything but never get around to posting any of it. I spent a lot of the weekend making invitations for my cousin’s baby shower. I made the cutest ones to tie in with our frog theme. They are all done and mailed out – what a relief! I also got the long garden almost completely weeded and mulched. All the is left are two empty spots where I didn’t plant anything. I need to pull all the weeds and mulch those areas so they’re ready for next year. Also, the corn is very weedy again and I think I need a hoe for it this time. It isn’t growing very well (maybe due to weed pressure, maybe not enough rain) and I think I planted it a little later than my neighbors. Hopefully it will still produce enough corn to can and some popcorn for the winter. I’m about berried out. Blueberries, cherries, mulberries, oh my! I planted 50 strawberry plants awhile ago so maybe we’ll have some of our own next year. So far they’re doing good, just
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Growing Challenge Check-In: Planting
My garden isn’t small but I didn’t have any room to plant corn. Our neighbor Jeff was kind enough to come by with his tractor and rototiller and make the above long strip of garden for me. It is between the pasture fence and the road. We had to put the fence far off the road to make room for snow in the winter but can still use the space all summer. I planted 5 different kinds of corn the first day. I still had some room so in went 2 packets of sunflowers, hopefully to use in granola bars this fall. Well, there was still a ton of room left so I just kept planting. All the peas and beans went in. Then watermelon, zucchini, and squash. There is still room so I added eggplant seeds and may stick in some eggplant seedlings to fill it up. I’m trying to plant less valuable crops there since I wouldn’t put it past some idiot to drive through it or pick from it. The tomatoes and other crops will stay in the main garden. Plus, now there is room in the main garden for pumpkins!! Here’s the complete running list, new
Continue readingSunday Stroll: Garden Update
I have been taking a stroll around my yard every morning and evening lately. There is a lot of activity to keep up with! All of these pictures are from the garden today. I thought I would combine the garden update and Sunday Stroll this week to keep things simple. Plus, I have a lot of other things to post about this coming week. Potatoes are finally up! Yay!! I have picked and picked, eaten and shared, and yet till – the asparagus is going to seed. The first row of peas is really growing. The second row is up and about 1-2″ tall. My little bitty lettuce. This was one of the first things I planted. It is growing very slowly but I’m just glad it lived. The onions have doing great all along. The garlic is huge! I saved the best for last. Check out the blossoms on our new pear tree! This is the one that I just planted a few weeks ago. The pear tree that I planted last year has a lot more leaves but no blossoms yet. I can see this little blossoming tree from my window. See who else is strolling on Sunday
Continue readingGrowing Challenge Check In
Here’s what I’m growing so far: Seedlings under light:Amish Paste TomatoesGreen Zebra TomatoesWaltham 29 BroccoliPing Tung EggplantLong Purple Eggplant In the garden:Red pioneer potatoes- 10# – plantedRed onions – 2-3″ tallDwarf GreySugar Peas (hybrid) – 1 20′ row – just upAsparagus – up and growingBlack seeded simpson lettuce – 1 20′ row – some upBlack seeded simpson lettuce – 1 20′ row planted 4/27Sugar Ann snap pea – 1 20′ row planted 4/27Victoria Rhubarb – approx. 25 seeds planted 4/27 Around the farm:Heritage Raspberry – 4 canes planted 4/26Strawberry – nice and greenGooseberry and Currants – 2 of each – planted last year – doing great!2 Red Haven Peach trees – planted1 Harrow pear tree – planted1 Bartlett pear tree – planted1 Montmorency Cherry tree – planted1 Gala apple tree – planted1 Golden Delicious apple tree – planted4 blueberry bushes – planted last year – still alive
Continue readingFarm Update
I’m still here! Haven’t posted much this week due to the time change (I think!). I seem to be stuck in my old schedule and going to bed much later which means I’ve been dragging and tired all week. We’ve also been pretty busy, so I thought I’d fill you in with what we’ve been up to: I know the video is a little dark but can you hear the little lamb sounds!? We had twins born yesterday. The mama had me worried as she started to have a vaginal prolapse a couple weeks ago. We fitted her with a harness truss, which is basically baling twine tied around her in a way that encourages her insides to stay in. The harness truss worked well, so well in fact that it was trying to hold the babies in! Brian came home to find feet poking out, cut the twine, and helped to deliver the first baby. Then, when he had me on the phone, another set of feet appeared! Both mama and babies are doing great, and she is showing great natural mothering instinct. So, we only have one ewe left to lamb and I think she’s getting close. She
Continue readingGit ‘Er Done Update
I got quite a bit done during the week to make up for not doing much last weekend. We had a nice day where I opened up all the windows and stained a new batch of trim in the basement. Then I took advantage of the nice weather this weekend and took all that trim out on the porch to polyurethane it. Today I finished the trim in the kitchen, all but one piece that I need to do on a jigsaw so it fits around the countertop. Speaking of the countertop, Brian & I finally put the endcaps on. Now you can’t see the old butcher block counters that are underneath. It doesn’t quite cover everything from this angle but unless you’re 3 years old it looks pretty good when you walk through the kitchen. It was not a fun project – you have to cut and file it to fit and then heat it up so it sticks. I have enough pictures to do a step-by-step tutorial, let me know if you need that info. Remember me talking about painting the window frames? Here’s a pic of what I painted (the reddish brown part). Now here’s how it
Continue readingGit ‘Er Done 2009
As many of you know, Brian & I bought his family’s farm around Labor Day of 2007. We’ve been working on the house and yard since the early spring of that year, even before we bought it. Things are far from finished as we start 2009, and I don’t want to deal with this again in 2010. I’ve made a detailed list, room by room, of what projects need to be completed this year. I first posted about all this work in this post. I wanted to share my list but wasn’t sure how to set it up. After reading over at Green Resolutions I really like the way she sets up her checklist and shows updates. I’ve decided to use a similar format for my project list. Thanks for the inspiration GR! I’m going to title this segment “Git ‘Er Done 2009”. This will mostly be for my benefit, to keep me motivated and accountable. I’ll try to include some before and after pictures and maybe even offer some good how-to advice. I avoid debt like the plague so these will all be pay as you go projects. Feel free to read along. If you would like to join
Continue readingChecking In
I’m still here, I promise! 🙂 I’ve been a little busy this week but will have a more substantial post up soon. Work for me has been very busy this week due to the schools’ mid-winter breaks. Brian isn’t feeling the best, and last weekend was full of things to do as well. I have a few posts up my sleeve: I want to share about the knitting class I’m taking, talk about joining Farm Bureau, and post about how we’re preparing for lambs. Hopefully I’ll have some cute lamb pictures to share before too long! As for mid-winter break, forget that. I think it should be spring-is-on-its-way break, because if we are only midway through this mess I’m moving!
Continue readingOur 1st Farm Truck
I try to plan for big purchases. This year it was going to be a toss-up between a loader for the JD 4010 (or a separate loader tractor) or a farm truck. Brian found a pretty decent farm truck for sale nearby and we were planning to test drive it this spring. It is the kind with the cab and the box all on one chassis, I don’t know the length. Of course things never go as planned. Brian talked to my cousin on Christmas, heard about a different truck, and went and bought it this week. We didn’t think about it nearly long enough for my taste but it was quite a deal. The truck has some sentimental value for me. My aunt and her husband were killed about 5 years ago and this truck belonged to them. It has been in a storage yard since then and my cousin finally got all the paperwork done so he could sell it. It is a ’98 Freightliner and came with twin 28′ flatbed trailers and a dolly. We have the trailers and dolly for sale and think we can sell them for at least half of what we paid for
Continue readingFarm Update
No particular topic today, just thought I’d fill in with the latest happenings in our life. I thought this blog would be more of a day to day journal of the farm but it seems like every time I sit down to type I feel the need to find a specific topic. Well, not today. I considered titling this post “The Downside of Farming” because things haven’t been the greatest around here lately. Brian found 7 baby Holstein calves for sale last week and we bought them. They were cheap and we thought it would be nice to have some calves around again since we still don’t have a place to bring our bigger cattle home to. Anyway, cheap isn’t cheap when they all die on you. Brian’s sister took 2 and we kept 5, but we only have 2 left. The other 3 basically died of scours which is a broad diagnosis in calves. I fought hard to save the last one, taking his temp and tube feeding him milk and electrolytes. Didn’t work. I am pretty sure now that they probably never received any colostrum which gives them very low chances of survival. They remaining two are doing
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