Saturday Farm Journal

Joining up with Ginny today.

April 15 -- April 21

• April 16

Sunny and dry. It got warm enough in the afternoon to consider swimming!

Jason tilled the main garden adding several square feet for a big potato patch. He then tilled the squash garden (non-running vines) and prepared my spot for sugar snap peas. Jason put up two tripods that were used last year for bean pole beans (which never grew) for the peas to climb. This is a great improvement from what we did last year, which grew lots of peas, but they got a little lost.

Dad weeded the strawberry patch and planted a few squash seeds underneath a milk jug with the bottom cut off. He's hoping it will act like a cold frame.

Dad also took the 4-Wheeler into the woods to take down his taps.

I planted 23 sugar snap peas at the aforementioned tripods.

• April 17

Sunny and dry

In the morning Jason and Stomper cleaned smelts so they didn't do much in the garden.

Dad put up a fence at the end of the purposed blueberry expansion for some arctic kiwi's. He picked up a male and female bush(ling) ((what do you call a bush that is only three spindly sticks?)) for a dollar each. He planted them about 8 feet apart and stuck them through the holes of the fence. I believe he will later go back and string them up.

Dad and Katrina washed the sap buckets and other supplies, then put them away for next year.

Jason washed out the small freezer we received from cleaning out a friends apartment property.

• April 18

49 degrees at 9:00 / 59 degrees at 2:00  Sunny and dry

Jason spent most of the morning fidddling with the truck trying to get it inspected. By the grace of God it passed another year. We are hoping to get as many years out of it as we can as it is the only truck we have between the two families.

While Jason was out he bought 3lbs of Kennebec Potatoes and 1lb of Red.

He tilled the garden a second time, but didn't have enough time to plant the 'tatoes.

• April 19

36 degrees at 7:30. Light frost in the morning. Another sunny and dry day.

Dad bought fertilizer and soil test kits.

• April 20

47 degrees at 8:20. Sunny and dry

The pear trees and blueberry bushes are coming along nicely. I am hoping and praying we don't have a repeat of two years ago when the pear trees had flowered out and then we had a hard frost and killed the flowers and all our pears.

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This warm dry weather has us a little cautious about planting. I think we keep waiting  for it to snow. However, Jason's Grandfather, who has been planting since before dirt, has most his garden in so I think our reluctance is unnecessary.

Early next week Jason hopes to plant the potatoes.

Pear Tree Last Week

Pear Tree This Week

Blueberries Last Week

Blueberries This Week

Kiwi Fence

Kiwi Bush(ling)

The Old Farm

Sometimes I wonder about the previous farmers. What was it like for them in the early 1900's managing their cattle farm. Did they like it? Or was it just something they did? Would they be happy we were starting a small farm on the remains of their sprawling one, or would they roll their eyes?

I know from an couple of encounters with a nephew of some of the previous farmers that it wasn't a profitable farm. At least, not at the end. He walked us through the farm house telling us things we knew, "this was the summer kitchen that they incorporated into the rest of the house." and "there used to be a beauty parlor at the other end of the porch" and some things we didn't: "this was the birthing room" (our main bathroom) "My aunt was born here." This same person gave us a photocopy of a photo of our house before the summer kitchen was enclosed, before the dormers were put on, and before the three maples (one now deceased) were planted in front of the house. In that photo there are no cars in the driveway only a few chickens scratching in the ground. He told us that the previous farmer would walk their cattle each year to an auction held 13 miles away and uphill both ways (there is mountainous train to cross over). To us walking that distance seems incredible, but to him I'm sure it was just one more task to complete. We learned that much of main street (which runs past the house) was owned by the Webb Farm at one time, but in order to keep the farm afloat they had to sell bits and pieces off every few years. Of course, most of this we cannot back with actual historical proof (yet), but it is interesting to consider.

I pray we fair better than the previous owners. I think of them often as we remodel the upstairs bathroom. I look at the foot wide boards and wonder if the tree came off the property. I look at Mud Puddle Pond near our garden and think about cattle dipping their noses into it to drink. I look at the unevenness out the outside of the house and wondered if they thought of future generations when they kept adding on. Did they do what they did just to survive, or was there a greater purpose? Were they heartbroken on the day they sold their last head of cattle and sold off the last piece of land? Was it their choice to stop, or did their age bring their farming days to an end?

Dad asked us to think about the future of the farm. Would we keep it up when he and Mom couldn't?  Would we break it apart one more time to build our own  homes?

I would like to think that we could get to a point in the next dozen years where we grew all our food. That we would only need to go to the store to buy that which we couldn't grow: soap, baking things, ect. Personally I don't hold on to the dream that we will be able to profit monetarily from our farm, but I will by no means discouraged anyone from trying.

We look to the future as we lay in new fencing, put up new buildings, refurbish the barn to fit our needs, reclaim the pasture and rework this land into something useful. We do this for a better tomorrow and to pass something useful to the next generation.

Today

BJ Berg's Photo Site

Hello everyone this is BJ Berg,

I thought i would pop over here and say a bit about my blog BJ Photo.

It's a simple photo posting blog mostly. I post photos and talk about where I took them. Other parts of my blog are for my hobbies. I like to modify Electronics to see if I can get them to do things that they were not meant to do.I also like to paint my Airsoft guns and cars. I welcome you to post pointers and new ideas on my blog.

Thanks for letting me take some of your time.

Winner

I am happy to announce the winner from our maple give-away! The winner is MaryS! Mary if you could contact me through fb or email I'll get you your syrup. For the rest of you please contact us at jjhamberg (at) gmail (dot) com for purchase options!

I hope in the next week to have full write ups ready of our very tasty and limited syrup. This has not been a good year for sugaring and most of our syrup we are reserving for ourselves (pancakes are very popular here, especially ones with blueberries in it from our own bushes). I can tell you that we have have two types: a light and medium/dark. According to what I have been reading on-line most consumers would rather have a light syrup on their pancakes vs the darker, sweeter syrup we prefer. What do you prefer?