Free the Ducks!

I’ve kept the ducks locked in the barn since Sunday night. I feel badly about this but I’d feel worse if they were dining on newly planted seeds in the garden. My project this afternoon is to pound the stakes for fencing, put up the fence, catch one duck at a time, clip [...]

More Photos of the Same Veggies

The little seed that could. This is an onion in the onion bed in the greenhouse. The seedlings beside it came from seeds that didn’t germinate last fall. When the soil was turned over and watered the seeds kicked into action.
A note about the greenhouse – right now there are several small [...]

Wonderful Rain!

118″ of snow over the winter is long gone from this farm.  We need rain.  I planted three pounds of peas and a pound of spinach yesterday.  Today’s rain followed by four days of sunshine is a blessing for these seeds. The pond has been dropping much earlier than usual because we haven’t had spring [...]

I was wrong!

I sadly watched my much loved Blazer leave on a flatbed wrecker this morning.  I wouldn’t even go up to the house to talk to the men who came to get it.  It’s old and a little rusty.  It has a 130,000 miles on it.  But it’s comfortable.  It has bells and whistles, a sun [...]

Coffee, Trout & Tomatoes

Not a recipe. This is where I have my first sips of coffee in the morning. I no longer dare put off checking the greenhouse. I’m out of bed and in the seedling house around 5 am these days. I take my cup of coffee with me. The heater is [...]

Seaweed

Rockweed actually.  We picked up around 500 pounds of rockweed for the garden.  Steve tossed some into the chicken pen. They weren’t sure what to think for a while but were pecking away later.  I’ll start a batch of weed tea tomorrow.  That will be used to water the seedlings and the plants in the [...]

A Day Off

The numbers of readers has dropped to under 200 this week so it must be time to stop talking about what’s growing and add something more interesting. I took yesterday off to go to Bar Harbor with a friend.  These were taken on Sand Beach in Acadia National Park.  The sand was warm enough to [...]

Hoop House

This is what happens when you forget to take the poly off a conduit hoop house before a heavy snow storm.

I hope to tackle this over the weekend.  Every time I see it I want to kick myself.

Propane Heater

Steve’s dad gave this heater to me. It runs like a top. When I’m making Christmas wreaths in November and December it keeps coffee warm and takes the chill out of the greenhouse. It runs on propane. Just outside the plastic, a little to the left, is a large propane tank.
The [...]

In the Greenhouse

Weedy beet greens. The weed is lamb’s quarter. Amity weeded the beet greens and other beds. It’s a little tedious. The plants you want to keep in the ground come out as easily as the plants you want to pull. You have to pay attention to what you’re doing. [...]

Tom’s Confused

Tom is confused.  He courted this chicken all morning.

Mustard

Patience

At 4:20 am Steve got up for the day and sent T and two of her sleepover friends to bed. I remember when T used to grumble about how stupid it was when her sister stayed up all night and how she wasn’t going to do stupid stuff like that.
Patience is not planting the [...]

April Vacation

April Vacation is an oxymoron. There is no vacation in April for me. Most Maine schools are on break this week.
I ordered more seeds from Johnny’s yesterday. I usually order from Fedco but at this time I need the seeds quickly. I didn’t get a shipping notice this morning so I’ll [...]

Recent Searches

is buying cows a good idea

Cattle rustling is generally frowned on. I’d stick with buying them. If you have enough land and all the animals need to live healthy lives, yes, buying cows is a good idea.

glacier tomato fedco

I like Glacier a lot. They’re small at around 2″ but they’re hardy in [...]

April 17, 08

It’s hard to believe the month is half over already.
I screwed up and didn’t turn the heat on in the greenhouse two nights ago. Most of the cauliflower seedlings are dead. I’ll reseed today. The only good thing about this is that cauliflower isn’t one of my biggest sellers. Tammaro’s will [...]

Recipe please!

Evidence of my warped sense of humor. It could only be better with a “vegetarian chicken.”

I’ll spare you the details of the mouse being swallowed. You’re welcome.

This Week: April 14

The impossible To Do list this week: all regular chores and

seed cucumbers, more tomatoes
work with decayed bark in gh
clean seedling house
clean propane heater in seedling house
order propane?
seedlings to the seedling house, getting second leaves
fill six packs
order more six packs?
start potting up seedlings – broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage are starting to get true leaves (time consuming)
get greenhouse [...]

Farm Ducks

Christy asked if I like having the ducks. I do! I love the ducks. I like them enough to have 25. Yup, 25. The mallards are back.
We started out with rare and common breed ducks ten years ago. We’ve had welsh harlequin, buff/orpington, rouen, mallards, khaki campbell and call. [...]

A tractor, some water and a greenhouse

On the way to Bangor I gave in and agreed to buy a tractor. He’s wanted one for a long time. “WHY do we NEED a tractor?”

Steve said, “It’s a man thing.”