Our Year So Far

Well, it’s been a long time since my last posting, and a whole lot has happened! Here is a recap:


April

• After having our farmette on the market on and off for about a year and half, we found a buyer!
• Discovered that the farm we were hoping to buy was no longer on the market.
• Found a new farm to buy (bigger and better). 25 acres! 2 Barns! Farmhouse! Garage!
  
• In order to qualify for special incentives, had to settle on the new place by April 30.
• Managed to squeak through two settlements on April 29, selling in the a.m. and buying in the p.m.

Now, some of you may be looking at the calendar and saying, “Isn’t that a little close to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival?”, and you would be right! So here’s how it played out:

• Wednesday, April 28 – Moved tents, tables, etc. for our booth to the Howard County Fairgrounds.
• Thursday, April 29 – Two settlements in one day, am in Rockville (selling) and pm in Columbia (buying).
• Friday, April 30 – Moved plants and wool to the fairgrounds. Our box truck broke down (catalytic converter trouble), the friend’s truck we borrowed to replace it broke down (blew a spark plug), and for good measure Greg clipped Dalis Davidson’s pickup in the parking lot and broke her parking light. (Dalis, you still need to tell us what we owe you!)
• Saturday, May 1 and Sunday May 2 – Festival!!! Need I say more?
• Monday, May 3 – Festival over, we can finally start packing. Have to be out of the house by May 12, although the new owners say we can take our time moving the rest of the farm (bless them!)
• May 4–9 – Pack, pack, pack. No time to sort and discard. Move everything! Thanks to my sister Katrina, our friend Melinda Byrd, and Judi Stull, our realtor, for lending a hand.
• May 10 – Moving day! Hired movers to move the furniture and did the rest ourselves. Thanks to Don Alberg’s flat bed trailer, we were able to get all of the tractors, tillers, etc. moved.
• May 12 – Old house is empty and ready for new owners Daniel and Abby to take possession. We are unpacking at the new house and wondering how a bigger house can possibly hold less. Plans take shape for a big garage sale in the future. Need to get the gardens planted RIGHT AWAY for this year’s farmer’s market!

May

• Started planting gardens.
  
• Repaired old chicken house (shack?) and moved chickens from old farm.
• Started putting up fences for sheep. Although previously a sheep farm (Hampshires), in recent years it was used for horses. There is a new pole barn and two pastures fenced with board fences. Unfortunately, these fences do not connect to the barn, so the first order of business is to fence the area immediately surrounding the barn. Thanks go out to my brother, Irenaeus and his friend Don for spending so many of their weekends working on our fences, and to Ridgely Thompson for teaching them how to build braced corners.
• Farmers Market opened 5/29 (too soon!)

June

• Planting continues, and weeding starts.
• Fencing continues. By the end of the month, we finally have enough area fenced that we can move the sheep over from the old farm.
  
• Moved more farm stuff, including 100 tomato cages (5 foot tall cages, made of concrete reinforcing wire).

July

• By the end of the month, the new gardens are starting to produce. Weeding continues.
• Fencing also continues. Now we are wrapping woven wire around the outside of the board fence on the two pastures. Sheep are happy each time we expand their area.
• Harvested garlic at the old farm. All that’s left to move from the old farm now is the greenhouse.

August

• August finds us planting, weeding, harvesting, and going to market. Getting great yields despite lack of rain.
• Discovered the chicken house (shack?) is not predator proof. Found some dead hens and realized that a bunch more had disappeared altogether - started with 23, now down to 8! Started planning a new chicken house. In the meantime, Greg moves the chickens into rabbit hutches each night and puts them back again in the morning. Labor intensive, but we haven’t lost any more.
• Fencing in pasture #1 is within 30 feet of being done. Start thinking about pasture #2. We are going to build the flock by saving our ewe lambs this year, and they need some place to go during breeding season. (Not to mention it would be a good idea to get the ram lambs out of the flock before they breed their mothers and sisters.)
  

So what’s on tap for September? Planting, watering, weeding, harvesting, and going to market of course. Building a new chicken house; we've ordered some new chickens and they are arriving October 2. Moving the greenhouse. Fencing more pasture. Converting part of the lower level of the bank barn to a fiber workshop. Still need to have that garage sale. And the list goes on and on…