Spring Hiccups

Spring has come rushing in like a mad-thing throwing everything into a riot of bloom and activity. We have fruit trees budded and blooming to the point that its nearly obscene. The most exciting to date is the apricot trees, which only bear every 4-6 years.

An Apricot Promise

The bees have been out in the trees in full force, despite the wind and cool temps. To add to the excitement, we added another 12 hives just this week, with an additional 5 to arrive in a few days. As I mentioned on the farm's Facebook page, there is something a little crazy about driving any distance with +/- 144,000 bees in your car. Luckily it was a fairly uneventful trip.

Given the great early-season working conditions, we were able to get the gardens prepped earlier than usual, (mostly due to the fearless new BCS). This was an unexpected plus, given that we are now cold and soggy with 100lbs of potatoes to plant and 6,500 asparagus crowns that have already been postponed twice. Ah spring, you heady tease!

The real topper for the craziness occurred last week as Sean was practicing his "death-defying-ladder-and-electric-saw-dancing trick", while working on the new building. The ladder provided the trick and down they both went. Luckily the saw didn't follow them down, but Sean was rewarded with a nasty banged-up knee and a fancy new piece of hardware (knee immobilizer). So now he is mostly relegated to household duties and hard surface work areas.

Despite the madness we are marching forward and mostly making progress. Thanks to the ever-supportive Blue Gate Parents, we planted nearly 300 row feet of shallots just before the rains started. And just today we hosted Dr. Dolezal's Nature Writing and Environmental Literature class from Central College. This great group of students and their fearless leader came out for a cold, rainy-day tour, asked some great questions and then helped weed the high tunnel and assemble beehive parts. What a crew!

So here's to the promise of Spring , what a crazy temptress she is, hiccups and all!

 

Progress

We are making progress on many fronts these days. The high tunnels are all sown and growing, we have a sunroom full of little (and not-so-little) transplants, we burned some native prairie areas plus some of the gardens that were overcome with weeds last year

we bought a "fancy" new BCS walking tractor/tiller and have prepped a good percentage of the beds and we are still making forward progress on the new building...

its about enough to wear out a farm dog (or two farm dogs and a farmer) out!

Framed

 The recent weather has been kind to us and we are making steady progress forward. At least now it takes less imagination to see the future building

Greek Progress

We continue to make progress on the new packing shed. All the posts are in and the first roof truss is in the air, though not quite in its final position. This shot really gives an idea of the scale of the new building compared to the existing one. Somehow it reminds me of the Parthenon in Greece. Must say, trying to get that first truss in place was interesting...the first one is always the hardest (I hope!)

Building Again

I've been neglecting the blog for the past few weeks, but now with a big new project on the ground, I'm back with updates and pictures featuring the stars of the show: namely Dad, Sean, Blue, Luci and the all-important skid-steer!

If you've been to the farm, you've likely seen the "character-filled" little building that we used as the packing shed, wood-fired boiler room, workshop and general storage catch-all. It has served us well for the past 6 season, but we've finally outgrown it so up and out we go! Since we are still using the building for a variety of purposes, we couldn't just tear it down, so we are building around it, and then will "deconstruct" it from within the protection of the new structure.

First post going up!

The ground is thawing and it is a muddy mess! But 3 posts are up!

Three sides done, amid a change in the weather...6" of fresh snow, now melting.

The original building never seemed all that small, until we started surrounding it with 22' - 24' posts. As of today all of the posts are up and tomorrow we will start installing the girts. Supposed to be 50°, so some welcome weather and lots more mud!

Winter Wonderland?

After a barely productive and somewhat comic trip out to the timber to cut wood today, I caved and ordered my first pair of snowshoes.

We'll see if their arrival functions like the groundhog and his shadow...either an early spring or plenty of practice opportunities??  Hmmm, wondering what OSHA says about snowshoes and chainsaws??

Chicks with Fiber

The chicks are now a little over 3 weeks old and don't seem to mind sharing their space with some freshly-dyed Shetland fiber.

They are now starting what we refer to as the "baby dinosaur stage". Their legs stretch out and look too long for their bodies. Many of their feathers have come in, save those on the head which are still downy.

They are now rather scruffy, awkward-looking little birds that look like nothing more than miniature prehistoric creatures.