Down on the Farm

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!!

Thick stems

Peter and Susannah, who'll hopefully be working for us some this season, transplanted a bunch of the tomatoes into bigger pots. The tomatoes are much happier in the seedling house than they were last year under the lights. The stems are so nice and thick. I think it is the more light, less heat of the seedling house.

And the melons have already sprouted. Yum.

In bloom

Waverly

One of the many things I love about Waverly is how I can see all kinds of people I love in her. Like in the first photo I see her Uncle Pete, the second I see her Dad, and the third I see her cousin Lois.

Transplanting time again

What a beautiful day to transplant seedlings! Warm, and then cloudy, with just a little rain. The whole gang got into it.

Here's Maryel carrying trays of beets (yes, beets -- not usually a candidate for transplanting, but we are giving it a shot) into the hoophouse, and carrying Waverly to boot!

There was some weird temperature/humidity thing in the hoophouse this morning that made the lens of the camera fog up. Who needs special effects when you live on a naturally tripped out farm?

We also apparently have either a very laid back baby, or a naturally farmy baby. Later in the day Maryellen and I wanted to transplant salad turnips into a row out in the field (as opposed to in the hoophouse), but we weren't sure what to do with Wavo. The backpack is not so great for her if you are bent over. So we took her car seat out of the car, and we plopped it down in the field. We put her in her the seat, and gave her one of her little baby books. Well, she thought that was great. For about 40 minutes, she sat and read her book like she was flipping through a magazine at the beach, and she occasionally looked up to see how far down the row we were, or was occasionally distracted by a crow or a robin or something. Unbelieveable!

It's plowing time again

Spring is sprunging

Lettuces are coming up in the hoophouse. Beautiful sunny day today. After some lows in the teens last night, there is not supposed to be any frost for three straight nights. We are getting there!

Fence clearing

The clearing of the low pasture continues. In the photo above, Peter's pulling out some old, rotten, and overgrown fencing.

You can see what I'm calling the low pasture in the photo below. It's between the shed (the small gray building with the green roof), the trees on the right, and the wet gully in the foreground. We're clearing it to make room for more hoophouses (unfancy greenhouse type wooden framed structures like the seedling house -- which is also visible in the photo below).

Lichen

Waverly and I couldn't finish our regular old loop through the wet fields and woods, because the far gully is too full of rushing water.

It's good walking though, this time of year, with lots to see.

The ducks are in the farm pond, though we couldn't get close enough for a good photo. I think you should be able to see their wakes in this shot though.

Happy Birthday to the blog!

Woohoo!!!

As hard as it seems to believe, we started blogging one year ago today. So we had a little ceremony tonight, where I made some brownies and Maryellen sang Happy Birthday to the blog. Who says we don't how to party around here . . .

And we owe it all to the benevolence of Mark. Seriously, we do. If he hadn't help get us started, it would have never happened. So you have him to thank, or blame, I guess, depending on your point of view. Thanks Mark!!

Up and down

The onions have sprouted.

The rhubarb is pushing its noses up.

The double spruce came down to open up the greenhouse field.

What a difference a night makes

Out at the seedling house tonight, the winds have mostly stopped, the sky has cleared, and the lows will only be in the 20s, not the teens. And the stars, boy, the stars. A beautiful night and a big improvement. Plus, one of those big ol' Vermont full-ish moons is on the rise. Last night I woke up at 4am and thought it was daybreak, but it was just the moon. I went back to sleep.

By the way, if there are astronomer types out there, about one hand off the west by northwest horizon, there is a really, really bright star/planet. I am guessing it is Venus, but I don't know. Any one else see that tonight or know what it might be?

Tonight's the night

I was just out in the seedling house. It is 22 degrees out tonight with a howling northwest wind. The low is supposed to be in the upper teens. But in the seedling house (with the propane heater) is was holding at about 46. But the wind and cold will test that little house tonight. Send the seedling house good vibes!!

[As is obvious by this post, "spring" has been a little slow in coming this year, up in the great white north. We'll let you know when things turn the corner a bit.]

Tuesday a.m. update: 18 degrees outside at 6 a.m., but the lettuce lived. It was a balmy 42 in the seedling house this morning. And the whole thing didn't blow over, which definitely seemed like a distinct possibility last night.

New sides

Josh helped Peter put new sides on the hoophouse up in the main field this morning.

Last year the sides had just been regular construction plastic, which did not hold up well in the weather, so Josh and Peter replaced it with greenhouse plastic.

I think the plan is to put in some early lettuce and other cold crops, but leave space to start melons. That way we have something for the first farmer's markets, but by the time the melons start to run, they will have plenty of room, because the lettuce will be long gone.

Waverly

Photos by Cornelia. (Berry tart hat by Grandma.)

Brains and/or brawn wanted

I need some help moving the bees.

Cornelia, Waverly and I went to check the bees this morning. They are still alive. Which is awesome. The hive seemed pretty heavy, so I think they still have honey. I don't think it'll be too long, maybe a week or two, before the first flowers and pollen are out, so I think they're probably going to make it!!

It's been great for the bees for them to be in the barn, but it doesn't work so well there for the vegetable end of things. In the bees' defense, they didn't sting anyone at all last summer, except me during the bee fiasco, but they often went to the seedling areas for water, which would startle Peter, and they are fairly close to the future farmstand, which may scare customers. So we'll probably move them up to the farm field, which will have the added benefit of providing pollinators for melons and such.

Anyway, the problem is that they are on the second floor of the barn. They're pretty heavy and unwieldy to carry down the stairs, though two non-bee phobic and strong people could probably do it. (How did we get them up there to start? Well there were a lot fewer then, in a box about the size of a large shoebox.)

We have a dolly, and if we can get them onto that, we can roll the dolly out to a large window onto a part of the barn into which we can drive the truck.

But how do I get them from there down into the truck?

Or there might be a way to rig up some kind of pulley system and get them down from the window they're in now, though that is probably 15-20 feet from the ground.

Anyway, the best time to do this would be when the first flowers and pollen are out. That way the hive is no heavier than it has to be (before the bees start storing this year's honey and when they've used up as much as they're going to of last year's), but it's warmer and there's food for the bees, so the can better deal with the stress of the move. If any blog readers out there are available, I could pay you $10 per hour to help me move them and/or offer you the first honey of the season. (Cornelia and I tasted some of the honey that'd dripped down the bottom of the hive and it is yummy!) Also, ideas about how best to move them much appreciated!!

Waverly's first post

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Kinja mania

This site will never be mistaken for one of those blogs where very smart people discuss super technical computer stuff while using lots of acronyms. But I do want to point people to an application that actually is really helpful for semi-regular people like me, who know just enough about computers to get into trouble, but not quite enough to get back out again. Kinja allows you to keep track of new posts on all your favorite blogs without having to go from one link to another. I have found it wicked helpful. I am sure it does other things that I don't know about yet, as well. And they have designed the thing so you don't have to be a genius to use it.

Now the disclosure -- my friend Mark has worked on this project quite a bit. Take a bow Mark!