Ghost of May Past

I have been reminded by various people over the years that a 'living farm' is a farm that is not a stranger to change.  Every once in a while, when the "to-do" list seems insurmountable, it pays to look in the mirror and remind ourselves of what has gone before.  Below is proof positive that we do accomplish tasks and we do adapt from year to year as the situation demands. 

2008 - during our first Practical Farmers of Iowa field day.

 We don't have terribly many pictures prior to 2010 because we did not have a digital camera at that time.  Hey, do you remember having to develop film?  Indeed, it cost money to do that.  So, we tended to be a bit more selective with our picture taking.  In the case of the picture above, someone else with a digital camera took it.  And, this picture is from August.  Without it, we have no 2008 entry. 

A more recent photo (but in June)

You might notice a new roof on the house and on the granary.  You can't see the new roof on the truck barn, nor can you see some of the other building modifications.  But, you may notice that the big maple tree to the right and behind the house/garage is no longer there. 

2010 - old plastic cold frames

I had almost forgotten that there was a (non-working) pass-through door on the truck barn in the southeast corner.  There is a window there now and the electric service is now underground and enters in that corner.  But, more important is the changes in cold-frame and coverage we have used over the years to keep young plants warm.  Those plastic cold frames are now long-gone.  The plastic covers held up for a couple of years in our wind, but there were only so many times they could withstand a windstorm that uprooted them and tossed them around the rest of the property.

2011 - we wood if we could.

 The old barn still had siding and much of a roof as early as 2011.  Now, it is a shadow of its former self.  The wood pile is much of what came from one of the oak trees that used to reside in front of the house.  That wood pile is still there... sort of.  For some reason, it's a little shorter than it was in this picture - and it's not because we used the wood for bonfires or heating.  Hugelkultur anyone?

2012 - birdy paradise

 We used this semi-portable building for raising our broilers for several years until the cover started to break down and the wood frame started to rot out.  My wonderful Dad did most of the work on putting the frame together for the end walls.  The only real shortcoming was the 'semi' part of the portable....  It was just a bit too heavy for us to move with what we had.  So, it did not get moved as often as we really wanted it to.  That's ok, we managed.  And, the birds WERE tasty.

2013 - Here, let me help with that.

Some changes are not of our choosing, nor were they welcome.  Mrranda was one of our friendly farm supervisors who disappeared a couple of years ago.  When you live on a farm with outdoor cats you have to expect to lose them well before their 'time.'  We'd been lucky with other cats living very full lives of 12 to 15 years, so having Mrranda leave at about 3 years of age was pretty rough.  Sadly, her cousin, the Sandman, went missing this Spring.  I guess we'll muddle along without them, even if we miss our little friends.

2014 - DUCK!

 Other changes have definitely been part of the ongoing reassessment of what we should be doing on our farm.  We raised ducks for a few years with some success, even running a trial of two breeds.  For the most part, we enjoyed having them on the farm.  But, low demand and the growing reality that we just had too many flocks to care for led us to remove ducks from our production list.  Unlike the green, plastic cold frames, ducks COULD return to the farm some day.

2015 - Bush line time.

It took us until 2015 to finally put in the full effort to complete the eastern bush line on the farm.  This was something we wanted to do years before, but time and other resources often leave us with an annoyingly long list of 'maybe next years.'   A satisfying percentage of these bushes made it through year one and are doing fairly well at this time.  We'd still like them to be 6 foot tall and 4 foot wide right now, but we'll just have to let them get there in their own way. 

2016 - the Inspector arrives

The cast of characters can change as the wheel of time turns.  We have had a number of wonderful people work during the summer months on the farm, but we often have turn over in that group from year to year.  Our customer base also changes, once again with some fine people moving on.  But, each year, we find new characters that bring their own brand of goodness to the farm as workers, customers.. and farm supervisors.  

It's May and the farm season is in full swing.  Let's see what changes our living farm experiences in 2018.