The first of the spring seeds are in the ground, buried beneath
the snow and ice. We planted carrots, in
red, purple, white, yellow and orange. I
have onions, radishes in many colors, beets, Swiss chard, turnips and
lettuce. Just as soon as the ground
warms up their will be an explosion of life out there, I almost can’t wait…
Our birds are still producing yummy eggs, and we still have
milk from the goat, about a gallon or less a day. Our sheep are all in active rut, which makes
working around them very dangerous. The
One we call Snow ball; an all-white Jacob sheep has the job of getting the ladies
bred as we had not seen Joshua rainy day doing very much this year. Joshua will end up in the freezer as soon as
I have the money to get him done. I
think we have a few goats to go too. It
will be nice to have a freezer full again.
We need to put up a bunch of chicken, as well.
As to the daily running of the farm, I feel we are making
progress, though not money. Our expenses
were much higher than I had previously planned on them being. This places me in the position of needing to
add more work to the already growing pile.
Each day presents new challenges that we need to meet and overcome. So far even though we had moments where I was
less than happy with the outcome, we have made it through. I had to stop our farm boxes for a while as I
could not meet the meager demands. I
plan to bring them back in the spring as it was always my intention of
providing lots of fresh food. I felt
like I was failing in that role; our garden did well, but needed to do better. More aggressive planting is needed for the
spring, and we have done a ton of work to make that happen.
We have become part of the Native woodlands project and will
be growing black corn as part of the project.
We look forward to the blessing this presents for the farm and our community. Delaware black corn is scarce and the one way
it can survive is with farms such as ours.
I have lost my organic status, but not my ability to grow the very best
beyond organic food possible. Now more than
ever what we do on this farm matters, not only for us, or our children, but for
the world we live in. We will push forward
and continue to teach others and make ourselves available to others who wish to
learn.
Our holidays were blessed even though I made a fatal error
of judgment, by trusting someone to pay us for a few animals and their care and
feeding for a month. I was blessed by a
friend who would not take no for an answer… Thanks to her and her family my
boys had a brighter holiday. Eight day holidays on such a close budget can be
very hard. I had purchased most of their
gifts ahead of time, but was counting on the money to cover the last few and a
little of the light bill. So another new
lesson learned, I must remember not to hold animals for people and more.
With the passing of the holiday came the end of the school
term for my son Dah’veed and myself. Although
I was able to finish before the storm set in upon us, he was not. We are planning on returning to the school later
this week as the ice and snow break up and melt off a bit.
The storm hit us hard on the mountain, but we were well prepared
as we have learned from the failures of the past. As the first droplets of frozen water fell
from the sky, we knew we would be fine. We
received around two ices of ice which now residences beneath nearly 12 inches
of snow. This did complicate farm chores
and house life a bit, as early on we knew we could either have water in the
house or at the barn. We only have one electric
pipe warmer and with temps well below freezing, we chose the house. That said water must still be hauled, but now
to the animals from the house. It is
nice to have water in to do dishes.
Because our money is tight right now, we have only the feed
we could afford which is enough to get us by till Tuesday. Thank G-d for my wheat
stash, which is providing sprouted wheat as extra feed. I have jars of seeds on the counter and some ready
for the trays, but Tuesday they will be fine to feed the critters. I am going to continue to do the sprouted wheat
for the animals from here on out as it will say us a lot of money and provide
better, safer feed for them all.
It has been nice to have a few days with no real worries, so
delightfully knowing that I can sleep without the fear of anyone coming on to the
property. I could use more sleep, I just
have not gotten enough over the past few months.
As of yet, we have not started trapping. The new traps are stuck in the van; the doors
are froze shut and it maybe another day or two before they can be retrieved. I can now see where the raccoons and opossums
are at night, so that will help in setting the traps once I can get them out. I still have marshmallows for the traps, so
we are good there. The hides should
provide a much needed source of revenue for us and meat for the dogs and cats. I will use the bones in my artwork.
All this bad weather has allowed me to knit and sew, so I am
thrilled with the “down time”. I am also
happy to say that we are starting to set up a new area for me to work out in
the water building. I am hoping to turn
some nice pieces out before Christmas. My
goal is a dozen dream catchers, a coyote mandala and some more bead work, maybe
a talking stick. I may try and make some
book covers and some holiday stockings, who knows, it just depends on the
weather and how the kids behave.
Home schooling two young boys can be a lot of work. Just keeping them centered can be quite a
task. There are some days that they
really wear me out. I am so glad they
got art kits for the holidays along with Legos, they have been life savers. Letting them do art really helps to get them
settled down.
The most shocking of events took place while I was writing this,
we had a gutter full of ice fall off the side of the house in to the garden and
knock the ac out of the window…oh and if that were not enough I got hit by
icicles. Some days you cannot win, but I
will not give up.
We are surviving, we are grateful to G-d for all the
blessings we have and for the wonderful friends and family we have that believe
in us and our farm.
Be Blessed
Shekhinah, Michael, and all the kids and critters on the farm…
