The May Blitz

Finally, the weather is warming up.  That means the farmer is outside.  Alot.  It also means he's often too tired to be all that creative with blog posts.  Of course, that depends on whether or not he actually gets around to putting blog posts out there.

However, there are a number of new CSA members this year - and thus, hopefully, a number of people who might be interested in learning a bit more about how we work.

Recent Events
The first Saturday Farmers Market in Waverly had beautiful weather.  We don't always get that, so we're grateful.  Thank you to everyone who came and visited us.  We were able to sell all of the spinach and eggs we brought along for the ride.  Even a few of the Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes found homes.

The Move 'em or Lose 'em Perennial Dig was attended by a few people and we are grateful for each of them.  We'll post a picture soon, but we were able to move a couple dozen daylilies, a couple dozen iris and many other perennials.  Some were sent to new homes, but most stayed on the farm.  I hate to say it, but I currently have three carts full of plants that still need to be transplanted.  But, to put it into perspective, most of these are divisions from things we did get into the ground already.

Potting Plants
Tammy got home from school today and we potted another 150+ tomato plants.  We'll have a decent selection this coming Saturday and an even better selection the following Saturday as we add peppers and some eggplant.  We expect to have a few broccoli and lettuce plants as well.  We're about 2/3rds done with tomatoes - so that's a good sign, especially since we've pretty much done all of the transplanting this season.

Planting Report
At present, we have all three raised beds planted and a couple rows of spinach in the field.  It seems like some of the fields are drying out about now, so we'll see what we can do before the rain hits us Thursday.  I'm guessing not too much, but we'll do our best.  The cold frames are full and the mini-greenhouse is filling rapidly.  We'll be putting another 50 or so trays onto the heat mats in the next few days.

Chickies
We have broiler chicks in the horse trailer and hen chicks in the garage.  There was a snafu in the broiler chick order, so we're only going to have 100 in the Spring batch this year.  We're not very pleased with this, but, I don't think we're willing to push ourselves on this.  If we have two batches that are two weeks apart, it just means two sets of trips to process them - and that takes alot of time we can't afford to spend.

Because some of you don't get the CSA emails, I thought I'd share the following with you as well:

It's been pretty cold the last several months.  Cold enough that we've been forced to use the furnace much later than usual (and much more than usual).  The extremes to which we have gone this Winter (and early Spring) to stay warm are best illustrated by a recent trip a couple of friends took kayaking down the Wapsipinicon River.  In case anyone cares, that river is only a little over a mile away from us. 

In any event, the river was open, but it was pretty cold.  And, of course, they hit a snag and flipped the kayak.  They righted themselves easy enough, but now they were very cold and had a ways to go to get out of the river.  So, they floated close to shore, grabbed some dry twigs and proceeded to start a fire on the kayak to warm up.

Of course, the kayak sank and they had to wade to the bank and hike to the road.

Why am I telling you all of this?

Remember - You can't have your kayak and heat it too.