Tuesday, March 4, 2008 – Beautiful, beautiful sunshine
It is so spring-y today. The seeds I planted in trays last week have sprouted up — everything except the celeriac. All my tomatoes look identical, which I find odd since there are four different varieties. I just assumed that they’d be distinguishable as plants. Silly me.
We’ve been really busy this winter, despite my hibernation tendencies and the minimal daylight hours after a full day of work at an office. Brock and his dad, Randy, have dug BY HAND (and shovel/pitchfork) numerous rows, then lasagna-ed them up with aged sheep manure, compost, and other yummies.
Brock built his amazing greenhouse. I’ve learned how to start seeds, make mozzarella and ricotta (although, to be honest, the mozzarella has only worked out once. “Easy for seven-year-olds,” my ass). I’ve killed a rat. The bunnies have added another winter to their lives and become a little more feral, despite living a life of pampered luxury in their Villa. Brock has accumulated a LOT of old wood, hay bales, glass windows and tools at minimal to zero cost.
We’re excited about having our booth at the Duncan Farmer’s Market this summer! Our first day will likely be June 28, although we might “drop in” a few Saturdays earlier. I’ve been busy with the health and business regulations, forms, registration, etc. Also, we now have business cards.
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Saturday, March 8, 2008 – Sweaty Saturday
Apparently farming is hard work. I know this because I spent an hour preparing the bunnies’ summer play area. This involved moving all the branches that Randy pruned off our apple trees — and not small twiggy branches, but huge limbs that I had to drag over to the wood pile. Then I raked the ground, to make it conducive to soft bunny feet. Then I re-dug parts of the ditch I made a few weekends ago, to clean up areas where the dirt had fallen back in. After an hour of hard work I am a sweaty, hot beast.
Next step will be to set up chicken wire and bury it in the ditch, so Delilah and Peter can’t dig themselves out into an open field and become prey.
Oh, as for Peter: he keeps getting poop clumps stuck to his bum. I think it’s due to the unsanitary Villa conditions, which is why I’m so very motivated to prepare the bunnies’ summer area. I hope it’s not just an old bunny problem . . . he hates it, and it’s unpleasant. For all concerned.
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008 – Post-Easter Weekend
Our Easter long weekend was very emotional. We built and lost our deer fence/greenhouse. After at least three days of work (and $300 in materials), a HUGE windstorm hit Sunday night and totally annihilated our half-done construction. The 2x4s are salvageable, but the plastic is torn to pieces. (As is our spirit!) This is the 2nd construction that weather has destroyed, which is all part of this Year of Experiment but nonetheless is painful to endure. We surveyed the wreckage Monday morning: the 10-foot-post sections were flattened in place. It looks like they’re laid out for assembly. They’re even in a straight line. The two 8-foot-post sections (each 100 feet long) had already been sheeted with the plastic, so they were tossed around by the storm. Even the stakes Brock slammed into the ground were ripped up. We are learning to respect the power and impact of weather as farmers, and we don’t even have crops in the ground yet. I can’t imagine how traumatic it would be to lose a season of crops to a hailstorm or early freeze!
In other news, we had a great weekend. Four days of being farmers, doing farmy things on our farm. Brock spent most of the time outside, while I planted more tomato seeds and attended to my wee plants indoors. We visited with Kyle & Chrissy, Byron, Craig & Sharon & Gavin, Randy & Debbie, my Aunt Pat and Gramma Walker, and had a huge Easter dinner at the Cutler’s in Genoa Bay. Monday we ate crab in the shell for lunch (thank you, Jim Cutler!!) and steak and asparagus for dinner. (The asparagus was from California — we’re not eating Mexico-grown asparagus anymore. I’d tell you why but it involves fertilizer sprays and that’s unpleasant.)
Meanwhile: I am designing our Makaria Farm website in preparation for the spring/summer; our asparagus seeds have sprouted and look like tiny asparaguses; I’m growing salba thanks to seeds obtained via mom and am VERY impressed with how quickly they’re growing; our tomato plants (round 1) are 4-5 inches tall; we’re fencing our entire property to keep the deer out, using barbed wire; our annihilated deer fence/greenhouse is still lying in the field because it’s too heartbreaking to go clean it up; we’re having more crab for dinner tonight (thank you, Jim Cutler!!); and we’re both back to our day jobs after 4 days of farming adventures. Brock only has three weeks to go until he’s done being a government employee, and becomes a full-time farmer!!
Oh, and next Wednesday (April 2) is our two year anniversary. We’ve come a long way in two years, baby.
