First half of 2017

Biannual update in August.

Winter: snowy

Pruning browntail moth out of our favorite apple tree.

Adding overhead irrigation to the hoophouses with Rob.

Spring: Rainy

But thats not all bad

Got a new tractor on the farm: Satoh S-650-G.  25hp. Late 70's.

Thanks Prentice & Polly!

Added wheel spacers to give the Satoh just a bit more stability.

First harvest of our asparagus patch

The wet spring gave us nice rounds of radishes and scallions.

 And when it dried out we plowed up a half acre of the back field for the first time.

  (there's still plenty of work for the Super A!)

Expanded our blocks of plant families.

L > R Pickling cucumbers, a cover crop of buckwheat before fall pumpkins, potatoes.

Summer:  Dry

But dry weather is great for brushhogging the back field

And it's nice when the garlic was ready to pull.

So we got a few cucumbers...

Rows and rows of cucumbers.

 Red onions came out better this year.

  (considering last year, no onions at all)

I might have let this zuke go too long.  Look, it's got legs and arms and stuff.

Bowdoinham farmers market keeps rolling along

 And we love to make beautiful piles of veggies there.

Thank goodness I have helpers in the field.

We took time to watch the eclipse,

And dump lots of manure on the back field.

Managed to roll in the cover crop seed where the garlic was too.

now if you don't go to bed you have to stay up and clean garlic with dad.

Recap 2016

Where did we leave off?  Oh, spring of 2016...
Well, kiddo #2 came along and it's a little harder to stay awake into the evening on a computer.   But the season was awesome!  Little rain, but awesome.  To recap:

Rebuilt hoophouse doors to increase ventilation, and decrease frustration.

Observed rogue chickens in their natural habitat.

Expanded the north field

Rebuilt the seedling house in a better location.

Again, to increase ventilation and decrease frustration.

Started a new raspberry patch

Upped my potato growing game.  Disc hillers on the toolbar really helped speed things along.    (we're in Maine for goodness sakes, gotta grow potatoes)

Brought tons of veggies to Bowdoinham and restaurants and natural food stores.

 Watered Watered Watered Watered Watered Watered Watered Watered

It was a really dry summer.  

But as long as it got water, it grew!

Moved chickens and harvested good compost supplies.

Installed sprinklers on timers.  Awesome, I can go on deliveries and my seedlings won't die.

Made time to eat plenty of ice cream

Broke the Gravely brush hog.

(key on main gear broke, (as it should) which then chewed up the driveshaft (as it shouldn't))

And then fixed it!

Observed frost-killed buckwheat, and not-frost-killed oats cover crop.

One tree decided to change color before the others.

whew

March

Well, we got that rosemary weeded out.  Thanks little helper!

Got a little spring fever.  The snowmelt had Baker Brook flowing nicely so we took the first boating adventure of the year.  First, a portage...

And then set sail!  Good fun, till we sprung a leak.  Darn pointy beaver-chewed sticks.

The onions germinated.

And so did helper #2!  Awesome.

 Aaaand back to the salad greens.  They're up too!  You don't really want to see more cute baby pics do you?

We started seeding some Broccoli and cabbage.

Despite, what looks like a very wintry scene outside,

Really, spring is here!