getting the garden game going . . .

Today is the FIRST day of summer break for me. What a different year this has been. I enjoyed the school year, we bought this farm, and we bought a car. Tons of changes going on all at once. And I love it!


First off, a couple of weeks ago some friends planned a move out of state, and needed to sell their car. Ildi and I decided that it would not only help them out, but help us out on my gas spending commute to school. As a result, we bought this 99 Saturn, pictured above, with a WHOLE BUNCH OF MILES on it. :) Works out great so far in that I have saved $60. in just two weeks.

Gresham has started in the building process of our farm. He is being such a great help in many ways. This past week he helped Nolan building a new movable chicken structure for the upcoming egg production business. 40 new laying hens will be arriving next week some time. It is really sweet to see Nolan working with his younger brother having him help the way he did with me when he was that age.


I have come up with some really creative ways to use the unwanted hay that is littering our fields. The busted beef operation that was going on before we bought this place left TONS of unusably large mounds of hay on much of the open pasture. This past week it dawned on me that I could re-purpose it and use it like much like mulch for areas where I don't want the grass to grow. Like this path I cut through a spot of trees. It so works out that it will cover the ground not letting grass grow, it looks nice, and it gets it out of the fields re-purposing it. This type of stuff makes me happy!



And now we are getting our serious garden game face on. We have planted one of the 6000 square foot of gardening we are doing this season. We plowed out 4 paddocks (each 1500 sq. ft.) and have gotten one of them finished around all the rain we have been getting. Yesterday it didn't rain, and if it stays dry and hot today, I will be able to get the other three areas prepped and ready for the family to "plant out" the rest of our ambitious planting plan. The statement "jump in head first" seems appropriate for this season of life for us.