Friday, March 4, 2016

Farm Friday

Enjoying yet another Friday on the farm! This week the weather has been all over the place. Tuesday it was in the high 60s and then we got a light snow last night (it had melted by the time we woke).

On Tuesday I attended a talk by the manager and assistant manager for the Liberty University campus farm. I knew both of them as the manager has visited our farm in the past and we attended a film event that the farm hosted last year. It was encouraging to see students actively engaged in learning about the source of their food and the harm industrial farms do to our bodies and the planet - even animal cruelty was touched on. Not that long ago, such conservative organizations treated the idea of caring for our bodies and the planet like blasphemy (go figure). The times they are a changin....

We had some sad news this week. We lost two of our older goats - Missy, who was one of our 4 original goats (we only have queen bee Nellie left) and Barbie, who was part of the second generation of goats. Both left behind kids but fortunately they are old enough to wean so they should be fine.

The plants are coming up great in our makeshift greenhouse:
Sorry about the poor quality photo
Bill has been busy getting the gardens prepped for spring planting. He built some new raised beds and put down some compost. Next week is forecast to be warm and dry so it should be the perfect time for planting.

I'm enjoying the quiet of the winter, working from home, and eating delicious food that I put up throughout the growing season. But I'm also looking forward to fresh greens and juicy tomatoes! Those seasons are just around the corner...

Have a great weekend!

1 comment:

David said...

Cherie, sorry to hear about Missy and Barbie. It's always sad to see the older matrons of the herd pass. I'm sure they left behind a legacy of off spring over the years. I was glad to hear that their young for this year were old enough to be left orphans.

The temperatures here will be 50 and above all next week. I've been able to do some raised bed preparation but it's still way too early to be planting for my area. Although, I see the strawberry plants are green and growing. Well, what's left from the deer devastation from last year. It looks like maybe five or six plants survived out of 30 plants. The deer fence was completed last year so they won't be doing that again. I got my tomato bed prepared even through it won't be seeing any tomatoes until the middle of May. The last two corner posts for the sweet corn fortress were set last Thursday so progress is being made in Spring gardening.

Have a great Virgina Spring weekend day.

P.S. Say hi to Bill for me.