Whew!

Well, things have been so busy around here, it is hard to know where to start. Along with the daily farm stuff, we have had a neighbor come in with an excavator and bulldozer to level some areas in the field south of the barn for greenhouses, and to make the barn more usuable and stable. This work has made a big improvement in the place already. And this activity, and our two present greenhouses, seemed to prompt a visit from our town listers who were curious about what type of potentially value adding structures we were building without a zoning permit. Ahhhh, laws, and the lawyers who write them. It is a beautiful thing.

But after looking at my feeble attempts to build greenhouses from scratch, I think they had more pity in their hearts than anything else for us. I think one of them muttered something about Don Quixote and windmills as they walked off.

The other big news is that this enterprise has gotten to be such a mega-corporate endeavor that we have actually had to hire people. Susannah and Tommi seem like they are on board for the '04 season. They were both here today, and along with Maryellen, we had a full crew. It is amazing what you can done with four people instead of just one.

Here Maryellen catches them in action planting mustard greens.

And there is no way to sugar coat it - it was pretty grizzly out there today. It was windy, windy, windy, with highs only in the 40s. In fact, it was snowing this morning when Susannah and I were planting spuds (only flurries, but still . . . ). But for some reason, the two of them said they would continue to come back, so that is very good for us.

Meanwhile, things are growing up fine in the hoophouse.

The salad turnips are coming up, and the lettuce.

Think warm thoughts!!