The week of April 20th - Continued

More fence to take down...

The Lime Truck arrives on Saturday! 

The second Lime truck arrives, after pulling out the first Lime Truck which got stuck on it's first go. Yikes! This is a monster truck if I ever saw one.

Week of April 20th - Events Continued

The Magnolia Tree came into full blossom this week. I've always wanted a Magnolia tree. So beautiful!

The house painting continues... 

Week of April 20th - Events

We commenced building a Rimol seedling greenhouse this week. Deerfield Builders came out to get the job done. A father and son team who were just terrific. They know all the tricks. We started out building the fan and squaring up the space for the greenhouse. For those of you who want all the nitty gritty on this process you can email me separately. 

Day One: Building the exhaust fan unit and squaring the site.

Day two: Putting up the bows and starting to frame the end walls.

This nifty tool was nicknamed "Augie" or "Augustus." Made some nice holes in the ground. We had some amazingly cool weather this day... the wind was howling the whole day. Not once did it let up. Next day, in the 90s. Go figure Spring.

Day Three: Steel framing and polycarbonate on the end walls

Last Day: Covered! A beautiful site.

Most Exciting of All...

Tractor Delivery!

After much deliberation I decided on a Kubota M5040! This is my first new vehicle purchase. The delivery guy said he gets a lot of people taking his picture when he delivers a new tractor. I guess it's exciting for a lot of people. I love my new tractor. I put it right to work picking up all those fence posts, put a whopping 4 hours on it right away. As soon as I get the first tillage done with the neighbors I'll be putting that tiller to work too. Things are shaping up at Blue Star Farm.

Could be in a Kubota catalog don't you think?

More Friday News

The greenhouse walls were delivered and thank goodness there were 5 strong men working that day to help carry the 430lb package into the barn. The driver was one of the only truck drivers to back into our driveway without hesitation. Thank goodness!

Fence post pulling finished today, too. With my trusty truck, mobile tool bench and tow chain/bungy cord set up I finished pulling the inner 250ft worth of posts. Yeah!!!! Done.

Momentous Events on Friday

Tree clearing was on the docket for Friday, along with greenhouse parts delivery, and TRACTOR delivery! Exciting times.

We said farewell and to about 18 old apple trees in our field. They had served their time and had been damaged badly in the record storm on December 12th (the day we closed). We will remember them again when we warm ourselves by the fire this winter and smell the sweet scent of applewood burning. We have chips galore too, so we'll be doing some smokin' with those as well. We plan on planting some new apple trees next spring.

Quite the production.

Whoa!

Groundhog Day

I have had ongoing battles with a groundhog since I moved here. He has taken a 4x4x4 piece of black plastic into his hole in the barn, he has chewed up my plastic containers of plant trays, and he has sampled a plastic bag with oyster shells in it. He has a decided interest in plastic. 

Never before have I experienced this. Since I'm getting ready to put up a greenhouse... a BIG PLASTIC house it makes me nervous.  I've poured over many ways of discouraging it from its continued residence in the barn. (Needless to say I have not mastered a .22 yet.) For you city people, evicting a groundhog is like evicting a rent-control tenant from your building. They are dug in, literally. 

But today I started the process of eviction. I got the wrecking crew on it, me. With rake, shovel and gloves I started to dismantle the heap of boards, pallets, plastic and gravel in the barn stall (a veritable groundhog palace). Low and behold, Mr. Groundhog was Mrs. Groundhog and there were, yes, 3 more in a little nest. Sometimes as a farmer you have to do what you have to do. There are 3 less groundhogs on this farm tonight. Go ahead.... it was my reaction too. Ugh.

Record egg laying

It was a record day yesterday for the ladies... 18 ladies, 14 eggs. That's pretty darn good for almost 3 year old hens. They are enjoying spring. The close up is Speckles. She is a very curious and vocal hen.

House Painting

Day 2: Prime coat

House Painting

Day one: Stripping the old paint.

Easter Weekend

The Easter bunny came! Chocolate eggs and bunnies, great stuff to keep the farmer going during the week.  Fabergé eggs came direct from Pip/Viv and company. Fancy! The lady hens are impressed.

Pasta Making on Easter.

Thank you Erin and Melissa! What a fantastic gift.

Fresh egg noodles with a slow cook roast. Yum.

Fence post pulling

The mission here it to pull fence posts. The greenhouse will be going in this spot so the fence needs to go. The tools of the trade right now are a tow chain, pick, shovel and my trusty truck. No tractor yet... still debating, orange vs. green. One down, pulled by single woman power, only about 100 to go. I'll let you know how this goes.

April Fools Day

Appropriate day for starting a blog? It's cloudy here, but the daffodils have been blooming now for almost a week. Not bad for end of March.