Word-light Wednesday: X Marks the Spot

X marks the spot where my heart sings! A little walk around the farm to show you some  wonderful spring things...

Peonies preparing to bloom, last year’s pampas grass preparing to fall, and flowering crabs in full glory.

Last year the crab apple trees had so few blooms I was afraid they were dying, but this year they are  smothered in blossoms.

So is the little cherry tree - I don't expect all these blossoms to become cherries, but just think if they did!

Serviceberries (aka Saskatoon berries, aka Juneberries) also blooming profusely.

The new orange beehive, with bees installed. I intended to paint art on the hive but the bees arrived a week early.

After 5 years of beekeeping I have finally mastered the art of  firing up the smoker.

The top bar hive now has hardware cloth over the openings to prevent the dang mice from getting inside.  For some reason it never occurred to me they could get up in there, but it turned into a perfect winter condominium for mice.

A peek at the top bar hive bees through the observation window.

SBF is now a member of the Xerces Society and we have a sign on the pollinator garden gate.

The yellow magnolia had one blossom!  I was just happy it survived the winter - the chickens had repeatedly scratched out all the mulch and soil, exposing the roots.

Tulips here and there.

Ever since we moved here I have dreamed of a sweep of Virginia Bluebells across the back yard.They are finally starting to multiply into a swath.

A 5 o’clock shadow of grass is now growing in most of the construction zones, including  around the new pond.

A few of the 150 daffodil bulbs that WWOOFer Elizabeth planted around the pond last November. They are all blooming despite having to push through heavy clay soil.

It is not very impressive yet, but I love the little pond and visit it several times a day. There are always fresh deer tracks. Once I discovered a pair of sandpipers exploring the edge.

The ducks are so happy we built them a real pond and spend all day every day swimming.

Now a pair of wild mallards are often swimming or sitting on the bank - perhaps nesting nearby?

One afternoon I heard loud singing and found toads mating - when I returned with my camera  there were strands of  pollywog eggs.
I have planted a few lily pads in the pond, released some native minnows (to hopefully consume any mosquito larvae), and planted native pond plants like marsh marigolds and blue flag iris along the edges. There are now water striders and water boatmen on the surface and will soon be pollywogs... it is so much  fun to see  this bare mud hole  transforming into a pond ecosystem!

 Columbine at the edge of the woods.

Volunteer squashes or pumpkins coming up everywhere along the path - seeds must have been in the compost they used to cover the septic construction area last fall.

Orange helping me take farm photos this morning.

The cows have now been feasting on fresh grass (and a few leaves if they can reach them) for a week and they are SO HAPPY.

I have not been milking LaFonda all winter, letting Splotch  nurse so I wouldn’t have to in the cold. But this morning she was complaining she was so full that I thought I would have to quick clean out the milking parlor (it has 100 folding chairs and my mosaic materials stored inside right now.)  Must be all that lush grass she is eating. But when I came back out to set up the milking parlor, Splotch was dutifully nursing, giving me a reprieve.
Time to get back to planting the veggie garden--photos of that coming soon.

Clear and Concrete Progress!

We have been working so intensively all over the farm--planting the garden,  reseeding grass destroyed by all the construction, preparing the fish gazebo for the aquaponics set-up,  establishing the new pond...but for now I will update you on the greenhouse and kitchen.
Saturday was a glorious day and we had a wonderful group of friends helping us on the greenhouse.

Rog invented a bent ladder-like support structure to enable us to install the peak - but we didn’t get far enough along to actually use it Saturday.

Kelly (our new WWOOFer) and Elizabeth power-washed the panels

and rattled them to help water drain out of the channels.

Jerry and Beth slid the connector pieces on

and  sprayed the groove with WD-40 so the panels would slide together more easily.

We figured out  that it was easiest to  install the upper panels by threading  each panel into the bottom of the adjacent panel and sliding it up, while  applying constant pressure so it didn't pop out sideways.

Pushing from the bottom and sides; pulling from the top.

Randy, muscles and nerves of steel, at the top.

Rog and Dave attaching the last upper panel on the south side!

Surely the north upper side will go easily now that we have our system down. And then we just have the  peak...and the ends...and the vents, fans,  electrical and lights and doors...

For the past two months, lots of work has been going on in the commercial kitchen, but mostly work that had to be done by electricians and plumbers,  and that doesn't really show any tangible progress.  Finally, all that work was done and inspected and approved. Tons of sand were hauled in by wheelbarrow, raked smoothed and compacted, in preparation for the concrete floor pour. Yesterday morning, the cement mixer arrived.

First, the foundation for the wall by the new oven was poured.

The area where we had sawed and jackhammered out the concrete for installation of electrical and plumbing (now under all that sand) was re-filled next.

Finally, the north end of the barn - which will be the storage room, bathroom, and  wood-fired stove area - was poured. The concrete was a hauled in batches via wheelbarrow and Rog, Kelly and I screeded it and troweled it smooth, with a bit of help from the cement mixer driver.

Kelly and I troweling the last stretch of concrete around the oven.

Finished -- not bad, for a bunch of novice concrete workers! It looked even better this morning after it had cured a day. Now we can start tiling, building the walls, installing doors and equipment-- and we will have some tangible progress! But it is still going to be a Herculean feat to have this kitchen finished by the end of May.

A “Little" Greenhouse Project

When we found the perfect greenhouse on Craigslist and decided to replace our existing high tunnel with it, we knew it would be a bit of work and expense, but as usual with these kinds of projects, the actual work and cost have far exceeded our original intentions. First of all, the new greenhouse is oriented east-west, and because we have a significant slope, there was a lot of earth moving.  We hired our friends at Rise-n-Shine farm to remove and preserve the valuable topsoil, put down agricultural cloth and a foundation of gravel. This greenhouse will be used both for occasional events and for growing, but the growing will be in containers, not in the ground.

The south and west sides have a foundation built of enormous concrete blocks - pretty heavy-duty for a greenhouse, but  needed to contain the fill. No rabbits will be getting in here!

Two weekends ago, we gathered a few friends and dismantled the new greenhouse. I hope our greenhouse setting looks this pretty someday!

All the pieces were carefully labeled for reassembly.

Nuts, bolts, screws and washers were sorted into bins.

We were so fortunate that our friends’ son Colin called us up that morning and inquired whether we had any projects he could work on while he was visiting for a couple weeks. Did we have a project for him! Colin intrepidly tackled on the most difficult-to-reach parts.

Everything was loaded into a U-Haul truck and brought to our farm. It was a long, hard day, but amazingly we got the entire greenhouse dismantled and moved on Saturday. The plan was to erect it Sunday...um, yeah, right.  We had a wonderful crew of volunteers to help, but we got rained out.

This weekend we tried again, with much greater success.  The first two arches are put up.

We had  lots more great help - our neighbor Heath attaching a purlin.

Jerry.

Elizabeth - perhaps you can tell by how Jerry and Elizabeth were dressed that it was COLD.

Colin. I want to adopt this guy.

Working on ladders.

Carrying arches.

Half of the arches up.

The cows critiquing our work.
We got the structure up Saturday, but it took most of Sunday to tweak the frame--adjusting joints to make sure everything as precise as possible for installation of the panels.

On Monday, Colin returned with his dad, Dave, and we got half of the bottom panels installed. It is not nearly as easy as it looks. The panels are connected along the sides with a plastic channel. We found it nearly impossible to slide the panels together into the  connectors around the curve of the roof but we discovered we could thread the second panel into the connector at the top, and with the help of a spritz of WD-40, slide it down into place.

Half of the lower panels completed Monday by Dave and Colin!

Yesterday morning, they returned and got nearly all of the south side bottom panels up. It is getting there!
however, Colin is now returning to Malawi and we must focus intensely on completing the commercial kitchen in the next few weeks, so the greenhouse may have to stay half-finished for a while.

Huge thanks to our generous, hardworking friends. We owe you. Maybe a little feasting and festing  in the greenhouse one of these days...