ICE!

The weather is what's on every farmer's mind today, in our section of the country! As you know, the weather can, as they say, "make or break" you in little or no time. It can always delay your planting or field preparation for planting. Hailstones can wreck havoc on your crops and wind can flatten corn crops in a flash! We are experiencing a bit of a different problem here, right now. Ice and Snow.

We have been keeping a close watch on our high tunnels and greenhouse, to be sure that the bows that support them, are not bending beneath the weight of the snow we received yesterday and the ice from last night. John brushed the snow off yesterday and this morning as best he could, and we are just hoping for the best right now. If the snow or ice puts too much pressure on the bows, we will have to cut the plastic covering the frame to release the weight on the bows. Then, all the plastic will have to be purchased and replaced. We sure hope it won't come to that!

The one good thing that has come from this weather, is that the scenery in our valley looks like a Christmas greeting card, on which there is a beautiful winter scene pictured. This is something we can appreciate, and nature has provided it to us free of charge.

We now have a new family co-habiting with us at the farm! A litter of 5 feral kittens! They are wild, and will not come near us, but they do stick around long enough to eat Big Boy and Baby's cat food! The litter has Calico's and Tabby's. They are so cute, but we don't really need more cats! They have just been "dropped" which I think is a disgusting thing for anyone to do, but in the country unfortunately, it's done a lot. I frankly don't understand the mentality behind this myself. Never will.

Our CSA registration is in progress and we are anxious around here for a really good, ripe, juicy tomato. We hope to have lots of them this summer for our CSA Shareholders to enjoy! Tell your friends about our CSA and ask them to "friend us" on our Farm Facebook page!

We'll talk again soon!
Judy and John

Day's End

We have come to the end of another busy day here on the farm. John, with the help or our son-in-law Barry, has been cleaning out another of the high tunnels, getting it ready for spring planting season. There's been much to do around here and still a ways to go at that! John and Barry have also been working in the greenhouse, not so much cleaning it out as making repairs to various and sundry things.

One of our cats follows John wherever he goes, and when John heads for the greenhouse, he follows him there and patiently waits outside for him to come back out. This cat we named Baby because he is so small. Big Boy, as his name suggests, is somewhat larger than Baby, and he hangs around more with me. Tag, our barn cat, loves both of us, and "lives" for us to come and give her a good brushing! I believe you could hear her purring from outside the building when she gets a good brushing!

Things are never boring around here! For the past two mornings our neighbor's cows have gotten through their fence and into the back pasture that belongs to one of our neighbors. The first morning I looked out, I couldn't believe my eyes! I am used to seeing deer, but not cows. The cow's owner has a 350 acre farm but I guess they just went AWOL. In any case, within about 20 minutes they had headed back home. The neighbor said they had evidently escaped through a hole and that it was being repaired. Late this afternoon, the deer had returned to the neighboring pasture and to ours as well!

It looks like the temperatures will be moderating here a bit come Thursday and Friday. This will make working outdoors a bit more tolerable. Maybe no 'long john's" if we're lucky! No need to remind me that I complained about the summer heat not so long ago:)

Until I have a chance to "blog" again, be safe,
Judy