Happy New Year!

January 2, 2013

Happy New Year

The sun is out and snow is on the ground.  I am so energized today.  As a rule the gray and dark days of winter drag me down (Seasonal Affective Disorder), but days like these are so appreciated. 

We have already put in our first seen order for 2013!  I was able to turn some of the compost over the weekend and it is black and beautiful!  The snow is bringing much needed moisture to the topsoil and the continued cold kills many of the bugs that survived the warm winter last year… so we are quite hopeful the New Year will be even better.

The lambs are eating our own hay we baled last summer, with a supplement of some Non-Genetically Modified grains (Non-GMO) with the grass being covered.  We have heaters for the water sources so they do not freeze for both the lambs, chickens, cats and dogs. The Guinea Fowl continue to hang out by the bird feeders until Lucky or Spot chase them out of the yard and onto a roofline.

The walls are almost finished on the new bunk house/conference center and Scott’s two-car garage.  The shed and barn are nearly complete.

Finishing touches are going on the 20,000-gallon rainwater cistern with its 3 level filtering systems. After a tour of Amesville’s Green Edge Gardens we found that we need to sterilize the rainwater if we are going to water the plants with it. Apparently bacteria might be able to grow in the cistern after the first two filters are completed.

The finale will be the green house.  We hope to get it up in time to start our plants there mid February.  We are already looking forward to hosting the Athens Herb Guild in August and are working on ideas to bring other groups to the farm for various venues.

In the meantime the snow gave us a chance to finally try out an amazing sledding hill on New Years Eve.  Several cousins came and enthusiastically researched the fastest sledding options…. plastic round sleds, black contractor garbage bags or the poly-plastic feedbags.  With all the slip sliding and rolling head over heals I think the black garbage bags won out but more research really does need to be done in the future!

Hope to see you all at the Farmers Market on Saturday!   Judy