It's not that we aren't busy during the week, but on weekends we have Jeremy for 2 whole days and he helps us get so much more accomplished. Three sets of hands sure do come in handy when putting up fence!
When I woke up early Saturday morning the entire farm was embraced in a thick mist. It seems as though it's been months since I've had the urge to shoot pictures, but on this lovely morning I picked up my Nikon and headed outside. I could hear cows mooing across the road from our lane as I headed in that direction. And guess who was there? Several of the newborn calves from this Spring were just hanging out, chewing on grass and swatting at flies with their tails.
The little guy on the left was the most curious of the group. As I slowly approached the road, he began walking closer to me, too.
Isn't he cute? He seems to be saying, "What are you doing over there? Is it safe to let you get closer?" By the time I reached the road, he was directly in front of me and then all of a sudden he bolted away from the fence line and ran up the hill. Maybe next time he won't be as skittish.
I walked back over to the potager garden which is now almost completely weed free for the first time since planting it last year. And it looks so much prettier with a thick coating of brown mulch covering the paths. These brown eyed Susan's (Rudbeckia) surrounding the wind vane re-seed themselves every year. Talk about no maintenance!
A good portion of the potager is designed with ease of gardening in mind. The "bones" of the garden are all perennials.....plants which come back year after year....all by themselves. Plants such as the blackberry and blueberry bushes produce with just a little judicious pruning. And the huge oregano you see in the mid-foreground of the above picture came back without any help from me. The same goes for the rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, chives, peppermint, lamb's ears, and many more.
I hope to expand the potager by half again now that this original section is under control once again. The new section will be where I plan on planting sprawling plants such as pumpkins, hubbard squash and watermelon. They all need a large area all by themselves so they don't take over the entire garden. HA! Lesson learned from last year's big garden down by the barn.
And speaking of the large garden by the barn.....it is no more! Yup, we have completely cleaned it out and Joel spent several hours last week leveling out the ground using his tractor and the box blade behind it. Once it was all leveled out, we raked it and put all the remaining garden litter on the ever-growing compost pile. Next, we seeded the bare ground with pasture seed containing fescue, ryegrass, Potomac Orchard grass and various clovers. All of these should make good pasture for the alpacas to munch on.
On the days when it didn't rain we had to water the bare ground in an effort to encourage the seeds to germinate. Finally, we got 2 days of rain late last week and now there are tiny green shoots popping out of the ground. Since this area was already fenced in with 6' fencing, we have decided this will become our mating pen for the alpaca. It's in a central location near the barn and in a place where we can keep an eye on the animals.
Our alpaca males and females need to be kept separated so we can control who mates with whom.....a very important step in producing high quality fleece for spinning. Since the ladies pasture is on the right side of this large pen, and the males will be on the left, this was a logical spot for the mating. Whew! So much to plan ahead for!
Last week while Joel was in town running his errands, Jeremy and I decided to do a quick 2 hour project ourselves. Jeremy manned the front end loader and picked up gravel from our huge pile in our parking area, and I manned the rake. Yup, farming is
really good exercise! Admittedly, I did a considerable amount of huffing and puffing while raking the stone level, but we got it done and it looks really nice, don't you think?
Oh, yea, it might help if I told you what you are looking at. Duh! This is one of 3 remaining camp sites located behind the barn. The first one is occupied by Joel's workshop. The site we worked on just so happens to have 2 levels of railroad ties as a backstop for the gravel, making it really easy to level the site for future campers. The white post on the right of the site holds an electric box for campers to hook up to for power and also a water faucet. Now we have 2 more sites to finish with stone and then our RV family and friends can bring their campers here and have their very own space to camp on. Nothing like having a mini-campground on our property!
So, getting back to the fencing. Um, yeah, fencing has begun to occupy our thoughts almost every day as we plan where to put pastures for the alpaca and how to leave space for the cement truck to have access to our barn to pour pads in 2 separate areas for the critters. It's a lot to consider, but I think we finally have it all mapped out in a methodic order. Sorta. Hey, what do we know? We're complete novices in all we try to accomplish and sometimes things work out and sometimes we have to start over. Groan.........
From this vantage point you can see the barn on the left, the "new" fenced in mating pen, and the line of fencing off to the right is the beginning of a pasture for the females. Yup, that's a whole lot of fence posts and fencing we installed.
Here's a closer look at the first line of fencing we have installed for the ladies side. We can't complete their pasture until the cement trucks are done offloading their cement in the barn stalls.
Like here.....
The stall on the far right will become the feeding and watering area for the females. On the backside of the barn is a tall lean-to section and half of that will get cement also, and become the male side of the barn. We have yet to figure out how to install windows on the walls of the barn to let in more light and make it less intimidating for the alpaca. They usually won't enter a dark space that "dead-ends" as our stalls do, so we have some major construction alterations to make before we pick up the alpaca.
Like I said earlier, Jeremy has been a huge help with all this outside work. Joel figures out
how to do something, but he can't because of his bad eyesight. Then he shows Jeremy what needs to be done and oversees the work as we all pitch in to "git 'er done". Only a few thousand more feet of fencing and posts need to be installed and that chore will be done. yeah. That's a lot of fencing.
And here's a shot of my almost-worn-out favorite summer work shoes.....my little toe is busting out of the right shoe but I'll keep on wearing these sneakers till they are completely shot as they are soooooo comfortable and don't make my feet hurt when standing for hours working with my guys. Not exactly a glamour shot, is it? But it's the reality of real work on a real farm.
So, there you have it. This is what our daily life has been like all summer. Now I remember why I haven't posted very much over the last couple of months. We've been really, really busy, but still loving every single sun burned, sore muscle, bone-tired minute of it! Before we know it the leaves will be turning brilliant red, orange and gold on our trees. It's better to get this work done before the really cold weather sets in.
Learning to work with the seasons,
Debbie
