While the weather jumps sporadically between warm sun and nice breezes to freezing rain and dreary gray skies – we’re keeping busy with Springtime work. This week, the farm continued to make slow but sure progress – specifically in the garden, greenhouse and chicken coop.
Aaron and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned many times that it has been a wild and crazy year for the Crossley’s. On Wednesday, Aaron and I celebrated our very first wedding anniversary. The day really emphasized just how crazy the year has really been. Since our wedding in Sedona, Arizona, we’ve:
- run the gauntlet of pregnancy
- hosted our Kansas City wedding reception
- Aaron trekked to Everest Base Camp
- shopped and purchased a farm
- welcomed our son, 3 weeks early
- survived maternity leave and post-partum depression
- spent some time in remote Colorado
- went back to working in the office
- ironed out a daycare strategy for the nugget
- moved to the farm in the dead of Winter
- prepped, listed and sold our Kansas City house
- took the baby on his first trip to North Carolina
- acquired 10 chickens and 3 bottle calves
- started building our farm
- transitioned back into working from home during the local Coronavirus shutdowns
- experienced our very first international pandemic and quarantine
It has been a ride! Given the state of things, we celebrated with a wonderful low-key evening. I prepped veggies for the grill and Aaron mixed us some Rosemary burgers using some fantastic local ground beef from my uncle’s farm.
We rocked in our chairs on the back deck overlooking our yard and pond. The dogs ran about. Isai fell asleep in the breeze. We finally uncorked the bottle of Glacier Grey wine that I’d carried home in my hiking pack while we were in Patagonia. The stories from that trip – including our engagement – seem to have happened so long ago in the scheme of our latest adventures. It seems the time we have to slow down a bit right now is something to be joyfully embraced.
Garden plans are taking shape
Early this week, I designed a rough layout for the gardens. Aaron and I learned that we have very different approaches to planting – rows vs. grid. The plans have evolved through a couple of different iterations that now combine the best of both worlds. We’ll likely use a grid to define areas for planting, then run rows within the grid spaces.
I’ve done tons of research on companion planting and the opportunities to blend our cut flower garden with the produce. So far, the plans reflect a lot of experimenting that will take place in this first year. I really can’t wait to see how it all comes together in the coming weeks.
Read more: Planting the Three Sisters
Read more: Whoa, We Have a Garden Plan
Chicken coop building continues
The chicken coop has become an incredible project. With the frame up over the weekend, Aaron has been quick to add siding to the walls and plywood to the roof. Our windows have been on order and finally arrived on Friday. They made it into their designated spaces over the weekend and, now, we’re ready for Laura to step in with paint and some landscaping.
Before the chicks can move in, we still have quite a bit to wrap up:
- Add cedar shingles to the roof
- Epoxy the floor for easy cleaning
- Add a covered chicken run to the East side of the coop
- Install a DIY chicken feeder
- Set up gutters and a rain barrel for easy watering
- Plant close veggies and herbs for chicken snacking
We towed our SUV from the ditch
Friday morning brought us a freak sleet storm during the exact time that Aaron had gone out for a few groceries. Bonus points: his traction control warnings have been triggered in the Explorer and he’s been waiting for parts to show up for repairs. This led to the perfect combination of scenarios putting Aaron and the SUV in a ditch down the road.
Doing what we do on the farm, we grabbed a chain and pulled it out using our other vehicle. Aaron wasn’t hurt and the risk while towing was minimal – but it was an exciting morning given the low-key days we’ve been seeing while in quarantine.
We lost our Magnolia to the cold snap
The cold air and overnight freeze that visited on Friday claimed our gorgeous Magnolia tree near the garage. The blooms had persevered through some chilly weather a couple of weeks ago, but many more had opened up since last weekend due to the warm sun and fresh rains we’d been seeing. That changed with the frigid temps hit. Now, the whole beauty has faded to brown, limp petals. Our only hope for another glimpse at this gorgeous tree is that some of the smaller buds may have survived to attempt to bloom again later. Only more sunny days will tell us for sure!
We’ve also seen our apricot and peach trees opening up in blooms this week. The apricot is a massive tree with white blooms toward the back of the orchard. Just down the hill from it, a much small peach tree was full of tiny pink flowers just a couple of days ago. We’re more excited than ever to see the orchard work its magic through the Spring, Summer and Fall.
Bottle holders arrived for the calves
With 3 calves and only 2 of us – feeding the bottle babies has been a funny experience every single day. On Wednesday, our bottle holders arrived. Thank goodness.
These silly wire cages hold the bottles to the fence so that we don’t have to juggle bottles and hungry calves while standing in the middle of the pen. The hangers make it much more possible for one of us to feed the calves on days that the other is busy with the baby or house. We’re planning to add a carabiner clip from our hiking collection to each of the holders so that it latches to the fence while the calves eat. Other than that minor adjustment, these things have been a very welcomed and useful tool on the farm this week.
Sprouts are sprouting like crazy
All of the starts that have been going into the greenhouse are sprouting like mad. This is a very exciting change for the slow-to-get-going starts I planted back in February. We finally decided that I was under-watering the trays for that first month or so. They were much too dry and struggling to sprout. With a new watering can and some serious progress on the greenhouse set up – these little plants are looking better than ever.