Spring doesn't just mean panting and field work.  Spring is also when the animal population on our farm greatly increases.

Five new piglets have arrived and are making their home under the apple trees in the orchard.

We are still getting all of our laying hens on pasture.  One third will spend their summer in the old egg mobile (nicknamed chitty chitty bang bang).  One third will spend the summer in the barn with free range of the farm everyday.  One third will spend the summer in the orchard inhabiting this Chicken Palace.

Our blog still isn't up on our website, but last night Farmer Don wrote his first Farm Ramblings.

A hot day on the farm today, still able to plant 6 trays each of tatsoi and komatsuna. Also seeded our second planting of green beans (doing these every two weeks). Got our first run of summer squash in yesterday. everything is under row cover; our neighbors must think all we grow are white sheets. Also seeded nasturtiums, marigolds, chrysanthiums, and sunflowers. We'll be planting the second run of kale tomorrow with a possible planting of pie pumpkins. We'll watch the weather for Thursday, looks like storms. Our thoughts and prayers are with the folks in Oklahoma. Mother Nature unleashing her fury. We're always in awe as we are completely at her mercy. Time to turn in and rest up for another busy planting day as the Farmer's Almanac rates this week as a great week for planting above the ground. Thanks for your support and stay tuned for more farmer don ramblings!

Wow over a month since the last blog!  And a busy month it has been.  We have been planting and seeding and getting animals and hosting open houses and ....

The fields are really starting to look like spring, which means we are growing white row cover.  The row cover this time of year is mainly for insect control.  By combining crop rotation with row cover we can avoid many of the insect pests of our green leafy vegetables.

We transplant the majority of our crops, which means many hours in the seed house seeding and watering our transplants.  We are getting more efficient with the addition of a new vacuum seeder.  This nifty little machine is manufactured by a fellow organic farmer and uses a series of custom made metal plates and a small shop vac.  It is proving to be a real time and labor saver!

Our first batch of broiler peeps arrived today.  Day old peeps arrive in the mail.  We get a call from the post office early in the morning letting us know our peeps have arrived.  Farmer Don reports they are all healthy and eating and drinking.  I will try for some pictures of them before they get their feathers.

On Monday of this week we picked our pigs up from a local Amish farm.  These piglets will spend the summer in our orchard, enjoying the sunshine, the grass and the shade of some old apple trees.   The apple trees are really starting to bloom, so hopefully we will get some apples this year for the pigs to enjoy.

This little guy had spent the afternoon rooting in the mud.  He looks like he is getting a mud mask facial!