Spring Has Sprung

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written. I’ve gone back to work, and teaching leaves little time for anything else. The grass turned green this week, the daffodils starting blooming, and my thoughts turn once again to farming.

We’ve got big plans for our little farm this year.

Our flock of laying hens is doing well, and we’ve increased our egg sales. We replaced our chicken-wire fence with electric netting. It’s easy to move, so we can rotate the hens to new pasture as often as we need to, and it’s much better at keeping the predators from getting our birds. I thought this new fence would completely protect them, but we learned last fall that there are attacks from above to worry about. On occasion, a red-tailed hawk will come by, perch in a nearby tree, and then swoop down to carry off a bird. Fortunately, the crows in the area usually alert the chickens, and our roosters will herd the hens into the roofed area and keep them there until the hawk moves on. We just butchered our roosters yesterday though, so I’m not sure what will happen with the hawks now. We currently have 28 hens, mostly Buff Orpingtons, but a few other breeds from our first flock.

We thought we had lost our hive of honeybees yet again, but earlier this week, when the temperature rose into the 60s, there were bees buzzing about, cleaning up from the winter.

Our two steers, Rib-eye and Sirloin are growing. They fattened nicely on grass well into the fall, as we didn’t get snow until late. They are thrilled to see green grass again! We got a new calf, Hershey, two weeks ago. My husband built a new calf pen that makes it so much easier to feed them. We’ve had a lot of interest in people buying our grass-fed beef, so we’re considering getting a total of four calves this spring.

We finally bought a tractor! We’ve needed one for quite a while. Our neighbor can certainly attest to that, as we’ve imposed on him to help us using his far too often. Now we can clean the stall, move manure, keep the pasture up…the list goes on and on.

I’ve started a list of what I’d like to grow in the garden this year, but I have yet to start any seeds. This year’s list includes: zucchini, summer squash, spinach, kale, peas, beans, tomatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, lettuce, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, cantaloupe, and butternut squash, so far. I haven’t grown spinach (I did try), kale, or Swiss chard before. We’ve been making green smoothies every day, so we’ve been using a lot of greens. I’d like to be able to supply our own, so we’ll know that haven’t been treated with chemicals and aren’t contaminated with salmonella. According to the seed packages, they can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked. Well, the ground was workable three weeks ago, and I almost planted them, but it’s a good thing I didn’t because we got six inches of snow the next day. I think we’re finished with the snow now. I’m hoping to find some time this weekend to get the greens planted as well as get the tomatoes and squashes started inside. Cantaloupe will be a new crop in our garden this year as well. My baby loves it, so I thought it’d be nice to grow him some that’s chemical free. We’ve never grown sweet potatoes either, but I’d like to give them a try. Since I canned so many pickles last summer, I’m planning on planting cucumbers only for salads this year.