Busy February

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We're approved! Feb 24

Feb 18, 2011 Santa Fe with Phil, Jim Jr. and Jim Sr. Breakfast

February might be short, but it was a tough month at the farm. We began the month with two of the coldest days here in this high desert. They closed down I25 overnight and the ice and cold did a number on the plumbing in Sierra County....scratch that, in all of New Mexico. We know because we've been up towards Taos and down to Las Cruces to look for the needed parts. So long as he was doing some plumbing work, we did some reconfiguration of the irrigation to increase our coverage and to save even more water where possible.
We opened up the back of the chicken coop. Dug out the old road bed and ran pipe to the fruit trees that are out there. They are doing well, despite the deer deciding that fruit or not, they are good trees. I also got some new pipes else where.
January got us the laser leveled fields and February we ordered White Clover and Oats for ground cover. That seed came. It's amazing how much this stuff costs, but when you are covering almost acres, it makes sense. I'm going to use a broadcast spreader. I want to see how the mix of the two comes out, so I'll lay out some plastic tarp in the garage and look at that spread. I'm going to walk this and broadcast. Larger farms can't do this, but we can. It will take a morning but depending on how I carry the seed, I can refill this hand tool and get to stretch my legs between grading. (I have to think about the positive).

The chickens made it through the cold weather, but the eggs didn't. They are so fragile, it's amazing to me that some of these chickens can brood and do all the things like check temp and humidity, add water. Why, when a chicken is brooding, she barely gets off the nest. Yet, with the most modern of technology, thermometers, running water nearby, a heating unit, even n egg turner, we couldn't keep them alive. We lost power overnight when the water froze. The temperature dropped quickly and we didn't realize the power was out till morning. Sad day. We started new chicken eggs again on the 19th-22nd so we are hopeful that they will be viable this time. Keep your fingers crossed. Elvis does seem to take his job seriously!

The kitchen work has been busy but we did celebrate February 24th with an approval sticker on the window. We have three recipes and the shop is going to be great as well. Painting and polishing are making this into a nice location. I'm excited for so many positive things happening already over there. It's been interesting hearing the community reaction.

Finally, sustainability is something that I take very seriously. Trying to go from blossom to dried cherry is an interesting process, but it also can make a difference as to the quality of food that we eat at home. We enjoy sharing this with our family and friends as well. To be sustainable we'd like to be able to barter and sell a bit locally as well. The more we can share this in our community means that our neighbors benefit too. It makes me look forward to making the list of the seeds which can go in (spinach and mint this month inside, butter crunch lettuce didn't do well with the freeze) but we will not be deterred. That seed saving workshop last summer was a good thing and I put up lots of seeds.



Finally, I'm reading up on the planting of the clover and oats and found an article out of Ontario (okay, different climate, but concept is still good). They made a suggestion for ground cover but their example gave me an idea to keep down the weeds in the squash field. In this case, it is where we put in the plumbing. Start the squash, melon, pumpkin, etc inside about 4 weeks before transplanting outside. Work the soil to kill off the weeds...keeping even the sprouted weeds from growing before they can save energy in the roots through photosynthesis in the sprouted leaves. The chickens will help with that. Then, cage off the young plantings and plant the clover and oats ground cover. It should do nicely to keep weeds out. http://www.cog.ca/documents/07SP_SquashClover.pdf
I'll do the other side with the lasagna gardening and perhaps we will see which does better at keeping out the weeds this year.

I'll post March during March...I hope.