Farming Week - Day 9 (hmmm, this is a long week.)

Sunday, the sun is shining, at least some of the time.  I want to plant and I want to sing and I want to rest and I want to be ready for the coming week.

Rob and a Welsh Harlequin

- RC poultry care

- dishes

- dug a bed for okra

- lots of weeds to the chickens

- planted okra in the hoophouse

- hoed the corn and sweet peppers

- started weeding the onions

- farm visitors (yay!)

- delicious breakfast/lunch featuring our own vegetables and chicken

- blog post

- I seem to have hit my energy wall.  oops.

- Everyone left and now all I want to do is rest but I also want to plant a few more things first.

- planted okra, with some marigolds

- planted cherry tomatoes

- thunder and lightening so I am back inside.  Now the sun is shining.  This has happened about 6 times today.

(Forgot to post this one.  The last of my daily posts from the Farming Week.  It was a good week overall except for the need to do paperwork when I wanted to be outside.  That made me stressed and grumpy for a while.  And I missed the singing in Amherst on Sunday because of being so behind.  It's a constant thing, trying to find balance between work and play, friends/family and quiet time alone, outside and inside projects.  I just keep carrying on and I do best when I don't forget to pray.)

Farming Week - Day 8

Two week old ducklings

- poultry care
- blog post
- dishes
- picked a whole lot of spinach

Before picking spinach

After picking spinach (now it's a leek bed)

- raining hard off and on.  to plant?  to freeze spinach?  paperwork?
- RC moved the ducks into a bigger space.  They love it.
- made a fire in the fireplace (June 2!)
- set out plants - tomatillos, ground cherries, snapdragons, broom corn (for the flowers)
- weeded New Zealand spinach, chard
-fun supper with friends featuring our own kale, scallions, green garlic, cilantro, sorrel, mesclun, and freshly caught shad
- lots of fun talking to a young chicken fancier.  "Chickens are my favorite animal."

Farming Week - Day 7 - Gone Gardening

Snapdragons

- share clean up (cloths, buckets, cold paks, flower vases)
- paid bills
- ordered Tree Collards from Bountiful Gardens (I am really intrigued by these.)
- steamed eggs for "hard boiled" eggs It worked!  Easy peeling of freshly laid eggs at last!
- planted brussel sprouts, cilantro, dill, leaf fennel, plum tomatoes, small salad tomatoes
- found these guys:

Tomato Hornworm???
- set 9 eggs under the broody hen (exchanged for her golf balls, which she defended fiercely)  Hopefully, we will have chicks for the solstice!

- supper = our own chicken (Delaware) and our own kale and scallions

Farming Week - Day 6

- bath!
- poultry care
- dishes/hand washing
- pick the shares
- correct my accounting mistakes, surprisingly quick and easy!
- town, turned in papers, Yahoo!, saw a friend who gave me some tomatillos plants (Thanks, David of Rainbow Harvest Farm!), dashed home
- rushed about putting away the most dangerous items in case of young children coming over, prepped two salads and some radishes
- friends - eating - singing!
- I feel much better after that and a good night's sleep and looking forward to some quiet, if busy, days at home.

Farming Week - Day 5

- poultry care
- dishes/clean hands
- picked extras, emailed and posted, chilled the greens
- checked on the birds around 1:30.  They were fine but it was a long time since the morning.  I saved some hatching eggs but I may use tomorrow's instead because of the heat today.  Plus, I want more Welsummer eggs.  So far I have saved mostly green eggs.
- still have accounts and two forms to fill out and get notarized this afternoon.  There's still hope but I do not like working against a deadline.
- sold a bunch of kale and mesclun, a big sale for me.
- refrigerated vegies.
- checked for eggs
- Fastest account clean up and tax form writing I've ever done.  Now off to get notarized.  Luckily, it rained again while I was working so I didn't feel as bad about missing outside time.
- Note to self:  Never get so behind on accounts again!
- nice rain

PS  sorry about these boring, whiny posts.  Soon I will be on to actual farming, cheery writing, and pretty pictures.

PPS  Check out this sweet article from NPR about salad.  "Everyone says, 'Your food is so good,' " Lloyd says. "But it's the farmers who give me the products that make it good."  (Jordan Lloyd, chef and owner of the Bartlett Pear Inn in Easton, Md)

Farming Week - Day 4

Tuesday:

My goals are to finish the accounts and prep for picking the shares.

- still plugging away at paperwork.  And I intend to finish!
- poultry care.  Collecting eggs for hatching but so far it's kind of slow.  The 2 I set aside yesterday got a bit wet so I decided not to set those as the protective bloom on the shell probably got washed off.  As of 8:30 am, only 1 green egg saved.
- blog post
- read about saving eggs for hatching, caring for the hen and chicks
- collected eggs (1 more green one to save)
- dishes, breakfast, put away laundry and containers for shares.
- banana bread
- check for eggs, 1 more green one to save
- ordered a new book about poultry
- accounts continue
- hoophouse temperature read 104 so I went outside and sprayed it.  Now it reads 92.  Storm may be coming, or maybe not.
- 2 more eggs to hatch.  broody hen off the nest and taking a dust bath.  Will she go back?
- no storm yet.  The hoophouse is back to 100.  Poof lettuces and kale and cauliflowers and sunflowers!
- broody went to another nest that she could reach more easily.  Now she is back in her new nest.  And content.
- RAIN!  Down to 66 in the hoophouse.
- accounts...

Well I did not completely finish but I am at the checking for mistakes stage.  Ugh.  I hope I never get behind again!  I am reluctant to promise, as so much in life is uncertain, but I will certainly do my best to stay on my weekly routine year round, despite busy garden times.  So much depends on good record keeping.  Wednesday I get to pick vegetables!

Farming week - Day 3

Kousa Dogwood

Monday:

- my goal is to catch up on my accounts

- poultry care

- slow start to celebrate the holiday, bath, blog posting

- start laundry

- poultry care, starting to save eggs for Miss Mix

- supported sweet peas

- watered seedlings

- very hot today, lots of chicken watering

- cleaned all containers from picking and share pickup

- csa email and blog post

- accounts!

- watered hoophouse and seedlings (very hot day!)

- more laundry

- more accounts!!

- accounts take a long time when they are so behind.  much progress, finish tomorrow, while it rains, I hope, then I'll be able to garden for the rest of the week

- more laundry folding, etc.

Snow Crown cauliflower in the hoophouse...small, but hopeful.