Well the last two days have definitely proven to us that it is summer in the South. The humidity and temperatures are high, but so are our hopes that we will have lots of pool parties and morning breakfasts on the patio before the heat rolls in. We've had a busy month on the farm, particularly in creating our list of to-do's and starting to tackle some of the bigger problems we've had. More info on that below. |
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- We successfully managed our carpenter bee situation. They are no longer eating our front porch.
- No more mouse under the house.
- Ants are under control.
- We met the cutest cat who likes to play on our property!
- We finished all the adult-y things when moving, like new licenses, license plates, bank accounts, et cetera. yay.
- We bought a trailer, a tractor/riding lawn mower, and a wood chipper. Clearly, we're real farmers now.
- We bought 300 lbs of cover crop seeds to spread over our pastures to prepare for our future gardens, and that is enough to cover about 3 acres of land. More on that below if you're interested.
- Had new friends over for dinner, as well as visitors including my parents, and my dear friend Marissa who will be here for the next two weeks.
- Eddie has taken up a new hobby: fishing in the pond.
- We've discovered we have many animals on the farm, including owls, groundhogs, cats, deer, frogs, fish, and fireflies. I can't wait until we actually buy some of our own farm animals.
- We dried mint leaves, made sourdough pretzels, Shrimp Risotto, bright cabbage slaw, Apricot Chicken, Cherry Galette, Norwegian Rice Porridge, homemade pizzas, breaded fried trout, and my favorite, cobb salad.
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- Frogs like pools, especially ones that haven't been chlorinated.
- Groundhogs can be HUGE animals. Like the size of a small-medium dog.
- Appliances don't always work like you imagine. Dishwashers, AC units, washers and dryers, you name it.
- Fire blight is a brutal bacterial disease that can kill your entire apple orchard. In our case, only three fourths of the orchard. Here's to strengthening the soil over the winter for a better crop next year.
- Brown rot is a disease that rots the peach on the tree. Yuck!
- As mentioned above, cover crops (like oats, barley, red clover, sweet clover) are used to restore nutrients to the soil, protect from erosion, and increase plant matter in the soil. Animals also graze it, and their manure further enhances the soil. It is used to prepare plot of land for future gardening of crop veggies. With good cover crops, you can restore full health to depleted soils in a manner of a few years.
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This is our berry garden in front of the barn. Currently the grapevines are growing well, and the blackberries and raspberries are starting to fruit. |
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| | This was not on our farm, but we went cherry picking at Levering Orchard in Virginia. We live about 45 minutes to the Virginia border, so we had lots of fun picking cherries with friends. |
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| | We climbed the tall wooden ladders to gather pockets and buckets full of cherries. |
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| | We picked 24 lbs of sweet and tart cherries. Many many hours and days later, we have around 30 jars of cherry jams and pie fillings! |
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| | Back on our farm, apples are coming along. Looks like we'll definitely get a good yield of apples even though a good portion of the trees are out of commission for this year. |
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| | Our first peach tree was ready to be harvested! We have learned lots about organic farming, including the large number of birds and insects also interested in our yield. Thankfully we have 9 more peach trees we can count on that should be much more kind to us since those ones don't have the brown-rot. |
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| | Our very first peach tree yield. The basket is full of the good ones (they were delicious), and the others in the blue bucket are the brown-rotted peaches that got re-purposed into the lower pastures as compost. |
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If you want to add some sparkle to your life, check out these fireflies. |
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My friend Marissa is an incredible photographer, and she has been staying with us this last week. Already we've gotten some opportunity to get creative and capture the beauty of our home. More to come. |
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In our spare time, Eddie has been continuing to work as a farmer by morning and computer scientist by evening. We've been getting to know lots of locals and enjoying each day as it comes. I've been continuing to work with holistic nutrition and health coaching clients and am loving seeing their progress as they get healthier, stronger, and experiencing less pain. Helping people get healthy has been a huge blessing to be part of and I can't wait to see how the farm adds to that. |
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