Oh yesterday was wonderful! I figured after last week at the market with a slim booth, we needed to get some work done around here. So, I hired a couple of sitters and put in a full eight hours! Needless to say, I am feeling like my head is above ground! The sitters were fabulous....they even put away my dishes in the dishwasher! You know you have good help when they put dishes away!
yesterday I...
completed a teacher thank you project - Ry's last day of preschool, she is off to Kindergarten next year (minus her two front teeth, already!) - this required a trip to the local craft store early, early, early
fed and watered all animals
tilled , formed, laid irrigation to, covered with blue mulch, and succesfully planted cucumber beds (I am estimating there are over 60 hills of cucmbers out there - 4 types)
delivered the teacher thank you's - made the teacher cry...and me, too!
seeded hundreds of beets
hit-and-weed(ed) various areas of the field
washed my dirty feet
blessed a friend (more like family) with birthday dinner
dropped by more friends' house on the way home - late
forgot to get eggs...did that with a flashlight
collapsed into bed..sunburn and all!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Juggling
You know, my life often feels like a juggling act. Right now, I am juggling people and things around just so I can get out and PLANT!
We lost our hoop house and our greenhouse split down the middle the other night in a terrible windstorm. Let's not forget the glass screen door that shattered during nature's attack of the Pacific Norhtwest. We had so much going on that in the midst of it all...we left. Well, the greenhouse now resembles "Frankenstine"...never underestimate the power of the almighty duct tape! Travis went out and re-set the hoop house with ease, but the tomatoes did take a beating. And, it looks like a fine excuse to finally get that new screen door that we have been wanting.
So far, we have too many varieties of lettuce in the garden to count, peas that are flowering, spinach that bolted and is not harvestable, lovely garlic, 65 tomato plants in the ground, joi choi, cabbage (red and green), 5 different kinds of potatoes, cabbage, beets that are almost ready, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, sickly cukes (it's so cold), and lastly radishes all in the wonderful soil tonight. Tomorrow we will hopefully get to plant beans and corn!!!
For market on Saturday we will have:
dahlia tubers! 2 for $2
lettuce
radishes?
Paige's painted rocks
beets?
Well, that is all for tonight. You know what they say...the early bird catches the worm (eww)!
We lost our hoop house and our greenhouse split down the middle the other night in a terrible windstorm. Let's not forget the glass screen door that shattered during nature's attack of the Pacific Norhtwest. We had so much going on that in the midst of it all...we left. Well, the greenhouse now resembles "Frankenstine"...never underestimate the power of the almighty duct tape! Travis went out and re-set the hoop house with ease, but the tomatoes did take a beating. And, it looks like a fine excuse to finally get that new screen door that we have been wanting.
So far, we have too many varieties of lettuce in the garden to count, peas that are flowering, spinach that bolted and is not harvestable, lovely garlic, 65 tomato plants in the ground, joi choi, cabbage (red and green), 5 different kinds of potatoes, cabbage, beets that are almost ready, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, sickly cukes (it's so cold), and lastly radishes all in the wonderful soil tonight. Tomorrow we will hopefully get to plant beans and corn!!!
For market on Saturday we will have:
dahlia tubers! 2 for $2
lettuce
radishes?
Paige's painted rocks
beets?
Well, that is all for tonight. You know what they say...the early bird catches the worm (eww)!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Ah hem...
Hello out there....anybody there? *adjusts mike*
Oh okay, uh Hello everyone. Good to see you and thanks for coming. Let me introduce myself and my family (wipes dirt on her pant leg). We are two enthusiastic farmers trying to figure this whole sustainability thingie out. Get comfy...this post is gonna take a while..
We bought a house 2 years ago that has almost 2 acres and well, I guess I don't know what happened, but here we are. Let me attempt to explain.
Shortly after unpacking the boxes, my husband and three beautiful daughters went to the feed store and brought home 10 chicks. I remember telling him, "Hold on there, happy camper...we are NOT farmers....You bought what....we don't even KNOW what to do with a chicken...and just WHO do you think is going to take care of this chicken operation while you go on your submarine vacation for THREE months?" He shoved past me, chickens in hand, and proceeded DOWNSTAIRS with those chicks. It was obvious that he had made up his mind about the chickens. And the kids?....oh yeah, they were SO on his side! They were cuddling those baby chicks, taking them for rides in their strollers...
Meanwhile, I phoned a friend who's husband had pulled the same trick on her a year earlier and borrowed some books. We needed to be informed about what we had already gotten ourselves into.
Well, after carefully reading about our "options", I relaxed a little to the idea and had just settled into my life as a suburban chicken farmer when he brought home FIFTEEN chickens that we, he informed me, were going to eat! Are you kidding me?! Well, pal...the only time I will enter into this WE operation is when I am standing at the stove cooking.....I put my foot down and said, "You are butchering them...I will take the kids and leave that day and come back to a freezer full of chicken...I want NO part in that!"
Well, the chickens began growing and then he left for his 3 month vacation on a US Submarine. I stayed at home and chased away bald eagles and red hawks and threw some seeds into the soil of the small garden plot. Well, pretty soon those chickens that would be ready to butcher in 20 weeks (oops... a minor calculation on the chicken farmer's part) started dying for no particular reason. I began investigating and interrogating the local feed store clerks. Well, it seemed as though Mr. Farmer misinterpreted the part where the chickens would be ready to butcher in EIGHT weeks. So, the reason they were dying was they were ready to be BUTCHERED! I panicked!! It seemed as though I was going to have to "take care" of these chickens. There were 5 left! Most of my friends advised me to just let them die. But, the local farm clerk refered me to a farmer by the name of Nikki Johanson...yep, SHE was a chicken butcherer.
Well, I called her and begged for mercy. And, what do you know...that farmer took a whole Sunday afternoon off and helped me with 5 chickens! Now, most of you don't understand the process it takes to properly "process" chickens. When you get the whole operation up, you want to "take care of" as many chickens as you can...usually at LEAST 25. So, looking back, I am honored to think that she took time away from her own "stuff" to process my measly 5 chickens.
So, that is where it all began and I am excited to share "the rest of the story", but that is for another time...cuz I gotta be gettin outside to those tender little vegies. You know...there is a COLD front movin on in and we are battin the hatches down on our hoop houses...catcha later...
Oh okay, uh Hello everyone. Good to see you and thanks for coming. Let me introduce myself and my family (wipes dirt on her pant leg). We are two enthusiastic farmers trying to figure this whole sustainability thingie out. Get comfy...this post is gonna take a while..
We bought a house 2 years ago that has almost 2 acres and well, I guess I don't know what happened, but here we are. Let me attempt to explain.
Shortly after unpacking the boxes, my husband and three beautiful daughters went to the feed store and brought home 10 chicks. I remember telling him, "Hold on there, happy camper...we are NOT farmers....You bought what....we don't even KNOW what to do with a chicken...and just WHO do you think is going to take care of this chicken operation while you go on your submarine vacation for THREE months?" He shoved past me, chickens in hand, and proceeded DOWNSTAIRS with those chicks. It was obvious that he had made up his mind about the chickens. And the kids?....oh yeah, they were SO on his side! They were cuddling those baby chicks, taking them for rides in their strollers...
Meanwhile, I phoned a friend who's husband had pulled the same trick on her a year earlier and borrowed some books. We needed to be informed about what we had already gotten ourselves into.
Well, after carefully reading about our "options", I relaxed a little to the idea and had just settled into my life as a suburban chicken farmer when he brought home FIFTEEN chickens that we, he informed me, were going to eat! Are you kidding me?! Well, pal...the only time I will enter into this WE operation is when I am standing at the stove cooking.....I put my foot down and said, "You are butchering them...I will take the kids and leave that day and come back to a freezer full of chicken...I want NO part in that!"
Well, the chickens began growing and then he left for his 3 month vacation on a US Submarine. I stayed at home and chased away bald eagles and red hawks and threw some seeds into the soil of the small garden plot. Well, pretty soon those chickens that would be ready to butcher in 20 weeks (oops... a minor calculation on the chicken farmer's part) started dying for no particular reason. I began investigating and interrogating the local feed store clerks. Well, it seemed as though Mr. Farmer misinterpreted the part where the chickens would be ready to butcher in EIGHT weeks. So, the reason they were dying was they were ready to be BUTCHERED! I panicked!! It seemed as though I was going to have to "take care" of these chickens. There were 5 left! Most of my friends advised me to just let them die. But, the local farm clerk refered me to a farmer by the name of Nikki Johanson...yep, SHE was a chicken butcherer.
Well, I called her and begged for mercy. And, what do you know...that farmer took a whole Sunday afternoon off and helped me with 5 chickens! Now, most of you don't understand the process it takes to properly "process" chickens. When you get the whole operation up, you want to "take care of" as many chickens as you can...usually at LEAST 25. So, looking back, I am honored to think that she took time away from her own "stuff" to process my measly 5 chickens.
So, that is where it all began and I am excited to share "the rest of the story", but that is for another time...cuz I gotta be gettin outside to those tender little vegies. You know...there is a COLD front movin on in and we are battin the hatches down on our hoop houses...catcha later...
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