Saturday, January 2, 2010

Frozen in, but cold hardy...

As the second consecutive night of light snow blows down around the house outside, I thought I'd take this opportunity to sit down and write in a brief update.

Consistent colder temperatures have brought all outdoor projects to a halt, but it's been a busy month nonetheless. Many good times have been had with family and friends, enjoying each other's company and celebrating the holidays. It is this time of year in particular that I find myself feeling especially thankful that I have such a great family and circle of friends, who have been nothing but enthusiastically supportive of this big change in my life and my reasons behind it.

Package after package of seed continues to show up in the mail... to the extent that I wonder if I should have purchased it all at once to keep better track of it all. As I've found a new seed company or heirloom variety here and there, I've placed orders... it seems I've done so a lot! It will truly be a challenge to try and wrangle all those tiny little embryonic future-plants through the correct circumstances and into the soil and a shot at becoming what I hope they will.

Also got the majority of my orders for trees placed with Raintree Nursery and the Arbor Day Foundation tree store. Not sure I don't need to supplement what I ordered at some point in the future, but the basics should at least be covered. Should have everything on-farm by the end of the first week in April.

ALSO ordered some super-futuristic LED grow lights, and along with some ultra-reflective mylar and a 5-shelf utility rack I'm putting together the beginnings of a seed-starting station in the basement so I can get a head start on some of this season's vegetables. A friend of the family is a long-time heirloom tomato growing wizardess, so I've been picking her brain for tips and technique.

ALSO looks like I'll be adding an 8 wk old female german shepherd mix pup to the farm staff here in the next few weeks. She'll be the first full-time animal here on the farm, and I'll be training her to help me manage all future critters, and to be completely awesome in general. More on her after she gets here.

In project news, I hope to employ my father's help to get the basement framed out and finished this winter during non-growing season downtime.

In financial news, looks like I'll be poor forever. Sadly, it looks like everyone else might be as well....

No comments:

Post a Comment