It is another rainy day here at Appleseed Farm. Suppose to have thunderstorms here tonight. After the last week or so of beautiful, almost hot weather, I am ready for a little down time.
This week, my brother, Tater (that is his nickname - he is officially Cliff but no one outside the family knows this) and I have been working our backsides off doing the farm clean up and some early planting. He is a godsend for me. He just works and works. For those of you who don't know him, he has had some issues in the past but is trying to put them behind him as he is a father now. He is also turning 40 this year. I give him no leeway for excuses - just expect his best and doggonnit - he gives it.
We have planted some early eggplant, peppers and tomatoes in our low tunnels. This is a new experiment for us but it is working out great. We have had a few frosts but the plants have been doing well under the plastic. We used an easy bender from Johnny's and made arches from conduit. It is easy.
The flower beds (all 20 of them) are starting to look fabulous. My hands on the other hand, not so much. They are just raw at the moment from weeding. I use a lot of mlulch but no black plastic on permanent beds. It is one of my concessions to the green movement. Therefore I weed.
The orchards are absolutely spectacular right now. The blooms will just take your breath away. The bees will just make you run away. I need them there for the polluniation but not for the stings. They do not like the stripping of the peach blooms. We have yet to form a healthy truce.
The 5 turkeys that I ordered have arrived but will be at the poultry nursery at Jennifer and Sam's for a while. They have also found us 3 roosters. I plan to put them in the little coop and let them do their business. In about a month or less, I hope for baby chickies, the old fashioned way. I can't wait. Haven't had any luck on the pig department yet. Farmers are asking way too much for them at the moment because of 4-H. Once that avenue is closed for them, I will get 2 little rascals for the back 40. I haven't raised a pig since I was a kid and then Mom did all the work, so this is another experiment on the farm.
Due to the bad weather, I am doing a little spring cleaning in the house. My pantry was a disgusting mess. I now have the junk off the floor and it swept and mopped. I am throwing away a lot of canned goods because of swollen cans. There has to be order to that chaos. I will NOT throw away any more money this way. Wish me lots of luck, I am a slob at heart.
I have saved the best news for last, it is a girls night out here on the farm. Sam and Lauren are spending the night with Nana tonight. It will just be us girls all night and all day tomorrow. This will be the first time they both have stayed together. They are both 3. It will be a pink and Barbie evening for Nana. If I survive, I will tell you all about it.
See ya on the farm,
Charlotte
Friday, April 15, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Raining Basketballs in here our neck of the Woods
It has been raining cats and dogs here on the farm since late last night. Or maybe I should say raining basketballs as Butler is in the NCAA championship game. I will surely be watching tonight for the Bulldogs to bring the championship home to Indiana.
Our nursery business has grown about 1000% this year. We have added a wholesale account that keeps me transplanting 6-8 hours a day for the past month. I love it. It is so quiet in the seedling room that I can hear the chickens and the geese talking back and forth. They don't get along very well.
I have most of the raised beds ready to plant. I had hoped to get some out on the 1st of April but it is forcasted to be below 32 degrees tonight..so I wait until Wed to get eggplants, tomatoes, cabbages and cauliflower in the ground. I know that I am rushing the season somewhat, but the Farmers Markets start mid May to early June and I want to be ready. I have the plastic to cover the plants at night to keep them toasty and healthy.
The fruit trees are just beginning to bloom. It is beautiful but them I have a job that I really detest. I have to knock off as many of the peach blooms as I can. Peach trees put on way too many blooms and can't support that much fruit. So you have to thin the tree or you either get quarter size peaches or the branches break. I have to watch closely this year to see if the brown fungus from last year returns. I"ll be on that like flies on poop.
I have finally hired someone to help me on the farm. My husband has an off farm job and does what he can but he is only one man afterall. (even though I think he is superman) My youngest brother is helping out a couple days a week. The farm is sure shaping up under his careful work. To date we have: mulched all the blueberries (all 2000 of them) with sawdust, mulched all the orchards (3 of them with countless trees), cleaned several neglected flower beds and mulched them, cleaned 2 chicken coops (nasty and disgusting job), and have done a consideral amount of just general clean up on the farm while trying to keep up with the starting and transplanting of the plants. We've had 2 weddings here on the farm, it looks so pretty right now, I think we are about ready for another if we had another child to marry off.
I have ordered 5 bronze turkeys from the local grain store. They will be here on the 15th. I can't wait. Going to try and raise them for food for Thanksgiving. Notice I said try. I also have 2 baby pigs coming sometime soon. Robert is not too happy about this but just shakes his head. These will definitely be for eating. This farm will become self supporting some day. I hope.
Even though it is raining, I have to get back to work. The rain has caused me to take a break and clean a dirty house. So bye for now.
See ya on the farm
Charlotte
Our nursery business has grown about 1000% this year. We have added a wholesale account that keeps me transplanting 6-8 hours a day for the past month. I love it. It is so quiet in the seedling room that I can hear the chickens and the geese talking back and forth. They don't get along very well.
I have most of the raised beds ready to plant. I had hoped to get some out on the 1st of April but it is forcasted to be below 32 degrees tonight..so I wait until Wed to get eggplants, tomatoes, cabbages and cauliflower in the ground. I know that I am rushing the season somewhat, but the Farmers Markets start mid May to early June and I want to be ready. I have the plastic to cover the plants at night to keep them toasty and healthy.
The fruit trees are just beginning to bloom. It is beautiful but them I have a job that I really detest. I have to knock off as many of the peach blooms as I can. Peach trees put on way too many blooms and can't support that much fruit. So you have to thin the tree or you either get quarter size peaches or the branches break. I have to watch closely this year to see if the brown fungus from last year returns. I"ll be on that like flies on poop.
I have finally hired someone to help me on the farm. My husband has an off farm job and does what he can but he is only one man afterall. (even though I think he is superman) My youngest brother is helping out a couple days a week. The farm is sure shaping up under his careful work. To date we have: mulched all the blueberries (all 2000 of them) with sawdust, mulched all the orchards (3 of them with countless trees), cleaned several neglected flower beds and mulched them, cleaned 2 chicken coops (nasty and disgusting job), and have done a consideral amount of just general clean up on the farm while trying to keep up with the starting and transplanting of the plants. We've had 2 weddings here on the farm, it looks so pretty right now, I think we are about ready for another if we had another child to marry off.
I have ordered 5 bronze turkeys from the local grain store. They will be here on the 15th. I can't wait. Going to try and raise them for food for Thanksgiving. Notice I said try. I also have 2 baby pigs coming sometime soon. Robert is not too happy about this but just shakes his head. These will definitely be for eating. This farm will become self supporting some day. I hope.
Even though it is raining, I have to get back to work. The rain has caused me to take a break and clean a dirty house. So bye for now.
See ya on the farm
Charlotte
Saturday, April 2, 2011
greetings
Well its been a good start to spring on the farm!!! All of the blueberries are mulched and so are the flower beds!!! Yeah go mom.....today we made our 2nd plant delivery took me two trips...they were very pleased..... ...were transplanting more plants! Locked mom in the seedling room while I'm transplanting strawberries...well I'm gonna get back to work before mom shoots me see ya all ...Jennifer
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