Monday, June 28, 2010

We have new neighbors!!!
Yes, there is a new family in Churchs Ferry.  We first noticed them a week ago, although they most likely moved in months ago.  The whole family has beautiful golden red hair.  Mom, Dad, and several little ones like to play tag in their front yard every evening around 6:30 until dark.  They love to wrestly in their nicely mowed lawn and Dad even gets in on the action with the kids.  They're a fun family to watch.  I sure would like to get to know them better.  They seem to like to watch us too!
Sorry for the bad photo, I'll post another better one as soon as I have it - but these new neighbors are 'foxy'!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

New Additions, New Changes to the FARM

Well, rhubarb harvest is complete, for this year and possibly for always.  After another disappointing harvest, only about 1000 pounds, we're considering giving up the rhubarb business.  It's really a lot of labor for very very little return and the weeds have become almost unmanageable.  We'd love to find someone who would like to take the rhubarb - dig it, divide it and take it away - so if you know of anyone, please help us spread the word.  We're putting together a short video highlighting all it takes to harvest 1000 pounds of rhubarb.  We'll post a link on the blog when it is complete.


As for new additions - we have yet again been the nursery for tons of baby birds. We have robins nesting and feeding babies in the lilacs, catbirds by the arbor, ducks in the labyrinth, yellow warblers raising a brood in the nanking cherries (right)
and a killdeer family in production lot #2 (left).  We're glad to be able to provide habitat for all of our feathered friends.  Of course we have our toad friends in the high tunnel helping to keep the insect population under control - we're thankful for them as well.

We're proud to say that at least for a while we once again have Chris Klier working for us. I don't know what we'd do without Chris.  He is an EXCELLENT worker and knows just what to do to harvest, weed, maintain and keep the place running with us.  Thanks Chris!

We're also happy to report that with thanks to our new high tunnel, we're about two weeks from our first harvest.  The Basil that was planted early looks great and should be ready to go by about June 28th.  This is about three weeks earlier than any harvest we've had. 

We're already seeing the return of geocachers to our cache and are awaiting the arrival of several education based vacation families this summer.  Watch for updates on our visitors!

As I worked on  updating our web site and other business matters this morning, I came across a poem I had always wanted to post to our site, I'll share it here as my parting words:

This is the field where grass joined hands,
Where no monument stands,
And the only heroic thing is the sky. 
by William Stafford.
Peace!
Holly