Misc. musings on Springtime down at the Farm
The lambs are growing fast - weaning will come soon.
I plan to cull the herd down in the fall to winter over about 3/5's the flock - meat on the table and sheepskin rugs.
I have identified a mill in the East that I will send fleeces for felting - we'll see how that goes.
Rhubarb is mysteriously growing in odd places - any experience out there with volunteer Rhubarb?
I am behind in garden transplanting.
Pasture rotation seems to be working - I would love to have one stretch of portable electric woven wire fencing to create graze strips, but so far doing 3 weeks on each large pasture plus a week in the small pasture lot in between (giving each large pasture 4 weeks off) seems to be working out OK.
Grapes have gone into bud burst and are leafing out . . . I did some heavy pruning this winter so I am glad to see sufficient buds to support some crop.
Lilacs are coming on, and camelia is in bloom. Daffodils are going but cherries and apples are in full bloom now and its tulip time.
Oh - endless other things - all a joy to do, just wish there was more time to do them rather than work at a computer, but alas one must pay for these things somehow.
Enjoy your bright week, dear reader.
I plan to cull the herd down in the fall to winter over about 3/5's the flock - meat on the table and sheepskin rugs.
I have identified a mill in the East that I will send fleeces for felting - we'll see how that goes.
Rhubarb is mysteriously growing in odd places - any experience out there with volunteer Rhubarb?
I am behind in garden transplanting.
Pasture rotation seems to be working - I would love to have one stretch of portable electric woven wire fencing to create graze strips, but so far doing 3 weeks on each large pasture plus a week in the small pasture lot in between (giving each large pasture 4 weeks off) seems to be working out OK.
Grapes have gone into bud burst and are leafing out . . . I did some heavy pruning this winter so I am glad to see sufficient buds to support some crop.
Lilacs are coming on, and camelia is in bloom. Daffodils are going but cherries and apples are in full bloom now and its tulip time.
Oh - endless other things - all a joy to do, just wish there was more time to do them rather than work at a computer, but alas one must pay for these things somehow.
Enjoy your bright week, dear reader.
posted by Hilarius at 10:27 AM
4 Comments:
No, but I do like strawberry rhubarb pie.
Sounds wonderful.
Our sheep began bulging oddly around the middle a couple weeks back. So we may be do for some late summer/early fall lambs.
You must be a few weeks ahead of us; our apples just started blooming saturday, and our grapes just started getting leaves.
I've never tried growing rhubarb. Sounds prolific.
I share your pain - sitting in front of a computer is near torture this time of year. There just aren't enough hours in a day.
Friends: sorry for the lateness of this reply post - I had changed my comment settings and it was actually preventing me, the blog owner, from posting comments.
Mimi - I'm no rhubarb fan, but others in the family are delighted. I enjoyed hearing about your succession of flowers and the Spring rains.
Neil - I hope that you have some lambs. I read with amusement about your lawnmower travails. Have you considered hiring someone to mow with a mowing deck off a PTO attachment and a tractor? That's done quite a bit around here, esp. for those with a fair amount of acres - $$ or some fair trade. If you don't have need of a tractor for other things, it beats buying/maintaining a tractor and attachments and you probably only need mowing a few times a year, eh?
Glad to hear your sheep are recovering - here's hoping you get lambs!
As to apples - I can't imagine we are ahead of you as you must be near 38 deg. North and we are closer to 45N up here. Must just be the varietals, although we have a very warm site with SE exposure on a gentle hillside.
Best wishes - thanks for visiting!
This weekend we purchased a new ewe and ram lamb, who should be ready to make himself useful in about two months (Dorpers are a year around breed). So, if the other two are faking the pregnancies, he'll correct that for us.
I have friends with lawn tractors, but we were afraid of damaging it. The previous owner used the land as a junk yard, and we still find pieces of junk in the brush. My dad's lawnmower was already beat up, so I used that back where it was iffy. Luckly we got the thing working again, so I don't have to feel bad.
Wow, you are way up there. Is that Oregon or Idaho? I'm guessing Oregon from your new pictures. You have some pretty land there.
We're all the way down just below N34. So it must just be the varietals (or because we just hit our frost requirement last month). I didn't plant them, so I'll have to wait to see what they are.
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