Happy Mother's Day!





First, our independence days progress this past week...

1) Plant Something: We planted the first bush beans, our remaining golden beet seed, another round of radishes (probably the last batch for the spring), and some dragon langerie wax beans. This week I'll cover the needs-improvment part of the newest garden and plant the first tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, and put in cucumber seeds under hot kaps where I harvested scallions.

2) Harvest Something: We harvested salad mix (baby bibb lettuce, dino kale, arugala, and mizuna), cherry belle radishes, and scallions for the first farmer's market, as well as our usual eggs.

4) Store Something: I emptied and cleaned out the pantry, so now know exactly what was lurking in there, and have been steadily working through some older canned goods this week.

5) Prep Something: We moved the pigs to what will be next year's garden expansion, and have been scattering their food all over the area to encourage them to root up the sod. I ordered new kidding supplies from Hoegger's - vaccines we were out of (we do a yearly CDYT vaccine here, as well as giving kids some short acting tetanus preventative before castration and dehorning), and some supplies for the livestock first aid kit. No babies from Lu yet though. We'll clean up the garage this week and take the opportunity to clean out the milking parlor area.

6) Manage Something: Weeded and thinned the beets. Removed last year's polymulch and prepped it for planting. Mowed the rest of the pasture and dreamed about fencing in that whole area and getting sheep instead of pulling out the old ride on mower to maintain it! Someday! :)

8) Add to local food system: Sold at the first market of the season and purchased asparagus, baked goods, and a hanging basket from our "neighbors" at market.

9) Reduce Waste: Composted everything as usual, recycled all our paper, plastic and glass.

10) Learn Something: Talked to North Slope about how to use/cook our green garlic, since they had a bunch for sale this week. Figured out how to make my mitered corners even on my continuous binding for quilts.

It's been a crazy week here - E needed to trade in his truck for a four door, so that he can travel with both girls in their respective car seats, so we sold his car and found him a new-to-us one, only to find that the brake rotors were acting up when we took it out on the highway. The dealer was great though, and had it fixed within days, but still, lots of running around. My car has been faltering for months, E would say years :), and the latest round of mechanical problems were estimated to cost more then we were willing to keep throwing at it...so, TWO new to us cars now! Luckily, our neighbor has wanted to buy my old Jeep for some time so he came over and bought it yesterday. We test drove one I kinda' liked yesterday, and will continue the search on Monday. I know having safe, reliable vehicles is worth it, but oh! way too much wheeling and dealing the past few days.

Our first farmer's market went well - since it was a full three weeks early this year, traffic was a bit slow, but we definitely brought in enough to make it worth our while. Lots of people looked at and asked about my quilts, so hopefully I'll sell one or two to returning customers this month. Now to get those started pullets laying so we have 50 dozen eggs fro NEXT Saturday. C'mon girls!

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Posted: Sun - May 11, 2008 at 10:12 AM        

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