Whew! It's been busy couple of weeks here on the farm. We have finally thawed out after a long cold snap. We rarely stay that cold for that long. Hopefully, we're back to normal now, at least weather wise.
As spring quickly approaches, and with it many added chores, we have been preparing. Two major accomplishments this week- the raised beds and the milking shed. Woo-hoo! Chuck and I did the beds ourselves. They're built out of 2x8's with 4x4 corners. The earth below is tilled, giving us about 18-22 inches of good growing depth. They're filled with rich, steamy composted topsoil. Now if we can get anything to grow besides weeds and sweet gum trees we'll be good. The vegetable seeds are on the way. We ordered a lot of heirloom veggies- those mostly came from pine tree seed company. There are a few hybrids such as the spinach because we have a hard time with spinach bolting around here. The plants are coming from Gurneys. I'm very excited about the heirloom tomato collection. There should be purple tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and green striped tomatoes in the group of 6 plants. Other things we ordered... peas, pumpkins, bush beans, corn, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, garlic, onions, carrots and beets.
Our other addition is the milking shed. We outsourced that to Curt's Decks and Sheds out of Trinity, NC. He did a wonderful job. He was prompt, fast and reasonably priced. The shed is 10x14 and should give plenty if comfortable space to milk the does and for Chuck to process meat. I'm searching for a large second hand sink- maybe of the restaurant variety and we'll have it plumbed. The gray water from there will be used to water the raised beds. We still have to paint it- we're trying to decide between Lazy Danes green or gray to match the house. Thoughts?
Two more significant projects remain- the second goat paddock and a brooder box for chickens. The chicken order has been placed at McMurray Hatchery. We'll be getting 25 straight run Delaware chicks- they are on the ALBC (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy) critical list. Most of them will be to process since we've had our fill of attacking roosters. We will keep some of the hens to boost egg production. We also ordered 5 Araucanas. While not an ALBC listed breed they do lay green or blue tinted eggs. Some people call them "Easter Eggers". I'm looking forward to adding a tinted egg or two to the dozens we sell. The hatchery is also once again sending us a free mystery bird. We adore last years mystery bird, Peck, so we thought we'd try it again. Peck turned out to be a giant partridge cochin rooster and is a real head turner.
We're still planning to order turkeys in the spring. We're looking at the Slate and the Bourbon Red. They're both heritage breeds, and the toms will weigh in the neighborhood of 23 lbs. I love the Royal Palms, so there may be a few more of them added. They're much smaller, but dress out nice for a family that doesn't need 20 pounds of turkey at a meal.
That's the news so far this year with a lot more in the pipeline!