That darned groundhog saw his shadow today. I really like winter but am ready to gear up for the new market gardening season. I have been reading the Four Season book by Eliot Coleman and have been so inspired. My husband built a seedling room for me in the barn. It used to be the horse barn but we finally got rid of all those wonderful gentle giants and have the chickens housed in there now. Anyway, I have basil, tomatoes, tarragon, chives, leeks, and daisy up and doing well. In fact the tomatoes and the basil will receive their first transplantings today since they have their first set of true leaves. I bought a bender for bending electrical tubing to make small hoop houses and hope to get some of these plants out in the garden (I have some raised beds) by the middle of March. This will be an experiment. Keep you updated.
Our next show is coming up in March and we want to be able to offer some plants for sale there. So I really have to get busy planting and nurturing these little babies along. This show is the Master Gardeners in Terre Haute, IN. It is March 13.
I went out to feed the chicks yesterday. Nothing unusual. They were sqwaking worse than normal but I was a little later than ususal. I started pouring the feed into the trough and saw somthing white with a long tail in the coop. NO, it was not a skunk. (Thank God) A possum had burrowed under the door and was in the coop. Of course, we had no eggs left in the coop but all chickens were acounted for. My farm guy kindly disposed of the possum for me and life got back to normal. You know your a farmgirl when all you do is just close the door and go get a shovel to hit it with. No screaming involved this time.
I got a response from the economic development center man last week. He requested that I set goals and priorities for Appleseed Farm. That was hard for me. Our big goal most of the time is increased revenue in order to stay in business. But I needed to set goals as to how to accomplish that. If you have never done that in your life, it is time to start. I responded with a marketing plan and implementation. Then work on increasing production. Let's see where this goes.
The shop is about 50% back to normal after it was crashed into. The kid got into trouble with the lawman. But I have forgiven if not forgotten. It is hard to forget whenever I see that shop back in drywall and a mess. We are unable to work there now and have to rent a place until it is totally repaired. The poor kid has to do most of the repair work himself (His dad is showing him how) and pay for the repairs, rent of the temp site and the heating bill out of his savings. I feel a little bad for him but lessons must be learned.
I have to get back to the taxes. I am almost done and will have them to the tax preparer today or tomorrow. Glad to get that off my back. One of my new goals is to do this monthly and not have to spend hours going over it in Jan and Feb.
Now tell me what you are up too. It is cold so I want to hear all about you hibernation projects.
See ya on the farm
Charlotte
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