I’m glad to report that we have had a
truly productive week!
To be able to say this in January,
following the coldest temperatures of the season, is a real accomplishment.
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| ice crystals IN the hoophouse |
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| ice crystals ON the hoophouse |
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| ice crystals on the greenhouse |
The week started out cold. And, I do
mean COLD. After weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures that spoke more of
April or May than December and January, to wake to 10* was a complete shock to
the senses. We even got a little "lake-effect" snow.
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| snow on the way to the feedstore (don't worry---I pulled off the road) |
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| snow over the mountains |
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| cold, snowy sky |
The cold weather does more than shock
our senses. It sends the plants in the hoophouses into survival mode. The
plants freeze solid overnight and thaw slowly as the sun warms the space inside
the tunnel. Covering everything with frost-blanket (very heavy row cover) helps
to retain some of the ground heat, but doesn’t do much to change the
environment. It just aids the plants in survival. Enough freezing and thawing
and the plants eventually succumb. Between the lack of light and the incredibly
low temperatures, there wasn’t a whole lot of growth going on this week.
That did have an adverse effect on sales…but, it also gave us time for other things.
We took advantage of the cold weather
and got a number of pressing “indoor” jobs completed. Job #1 was cleaning and
packing the “vet box” in preparation for lambing season. Did you read this one?
While I did that, the Boss worked on
organizing the Annual Farmers’ Market meeting. The Annual Meeting is the one
time that all the vendors get together in preparation for the upcoming season.
Any potential vendors come to learn more about the Market and past vendors
attend to reserve their spots. After years and years of organizing this
meeting, he’s gotten quite efficient...and it only required one trip to Staples
to make copies. With that out of the way, he will start booking musical acts, making sure that the website is up to date, and answering all those odd and random questions people have about the Market. I’m pretty sure that most of the customers and many of the
vendors have absolutely no idea how much time is spent in the “off-season”
working to assure a successful Market season.
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| sunrise reflected on greenhouse |
For my part, getting ready for Market
season means orders….lots and lots of orders. The big seed order was looming
over my head. But first, I needed to sort through and organize the seed
inventory…and the seed cabinet was a mess! With that completed, and some idea
of what we had in stock, I could start my ordering.
The seed orders took the better part
of a day. Not because we order SO much seed, but we need to plan for succession
plantings of many crops and involves a great deal of planning (and counting
backwards) to compute starting dates and amounts. Now, we will wait for those
tiny boxes (with great potential) to arrive in the mail. I must say, I'm getting eager to get things going once more.
Not only do we need to order seeds,
broiler chicks have to be ordered in advance as well. Before I walked out the
door for chores on Monday morning, I had spent $750.00 on chicks alone.
Depending on your point of view, this either sounds like a WHOLE lot of money
to spend on the potential of fried chicken...or a very SMALL investment with
great earning potential. If past earnings are any indication, it is definitely the latter.
We increased our numbers slightly
this year, because demand has been incredible. It seems like everybody
loves chicken! The first batch of chicks will arrive in February, and we will
have the first broilers ready for Market mid to late April.
Among the other accomplishments this
week, I am incredibly happy to report that we CAUGHT THE MOUSE in the
greenhouse. You have no idea what a big deal this little mouse actually is. I calculated that we lost at least $150.00.
Yes, just one mouse did all that damage in a single night. Despite the victory,
and the successful re-seeding, the mousetraps in the greenhouse will remain
fully baited.
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| not only did the mouse eat the SEEDS it ate the plastic seeding cells, too! |
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| working on trapping this brazen rat |
We also saw some success in the
battle with the rats in the barn…but, that’s a story for another time.
Thankfully, the weather moderated at
mid-week, becoming more seasonable, changing in what seemed like an instant. The following sunrise sequence took just under twenty minutes.
We are increasingly concerned about
the long-term effects of this unusual winter. All those lovely apple blossoms
from Christmas-time froze solid. I’m wondering what sort of winter-kill we will
experience, as the sap required for leaf and blossom production really
shouldn’t be running this time of year. And, while the garlic crop looks
amazingly green and hearty, we are worried about it as well. The growth looks
more like April than January…and the cold weather is forecasted to make a
return… So, it’s a matter of wait-and-see until later in the season.
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| garlic in January |
While the cold weather did indeed
impact our winter sales, we still had a great week as our loyal customers came
out to get chicken, lamb, eggs…along with the other things we had to offer this
week. When I send out our weekly email, it is with some measure of trepidation.
However, our customers have never let us down!
And, then it was finally time to
start “lamb watch 2016” in earnest. While this year’s breeding season was
fraught with anxiety and uncertainty, it was indeed successful…and the time is
at hand.
All the lambs should be born within
the next three weeks. (Except for ewe 192 “Doris”…and I don’t know what’s up
with her…she may lamb in March…) Three weeks is a little longer span than some
years, but considering the fact that at one point we (okay, I) didn’t think we would have any lambs…it is definitely a
workable situation.
Since we know which ewe is due to
lamb and when, any “check-ups” are far simpler. When they get close to their
date, I am sure to check several times a day, starting in the morning shortly
after five when I first get up and with a final check right before bedtime. (if
things look imminent, I will do a check about 2am as well)
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| before lambs |
The first ewe due to lamb was one of
the older girls who has lambed successfully numerous times in the past. I was
kind of expecting a single from her, since she’s rather old and she didn’t look
as enormous as she has in the past. I checked at her at choretime and guessed
that we would be seeing lambs the next day sometime.
Imagine my surprise to find twin ewe
lambs already up and looking for a meal when I went to do my last check of the
evening!
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| mama-sheep more intent on food than showing off her new babies |
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| the newborns |
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| a little more than 24 hours old |
That was more than a little unexpected and totally anti-climactic. And, I might add, just the way we like it. There is a great sense of accomplishment when we spend hours successfully birthing out lambs. But, human intervention means that there is some sort of emergency situation. And, often those have far-reaching complications. So…give me anticlimactic any day!
And, that was our truly productive, somewhat anticlimactic week.
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| today's weather |
Today’s weather is WET (it
rained all night and it’s still raining) and with expected WIND (gusts up to 30
mph are predicted). Honestly, it doesn’t sound too pleasant. So, another day of
inside work (we need to inventory and order sales supplies)...with a few trips
to the barn...the twins need to get tagged so the new family will re-join the
flock…and the Boss needs to build a couple of jugs in anticipation of this week’s
new arrivals…
Hope you have a Happy Sunday!
Thanks for stopping by! Come "visit" again real soon.
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| the wild turkeys were back in the neighborhood this week |
