March 2007 Archives

All of the above got planted today on two very nice raised beds out in the ground garden, made by Mike's new tractor implement. Except the beans. They went into a freshly de-weeded raised wooded beds. I did the bean planting the Square Foot Garden method (mostly) by dividing up the 4'x12' bed into 48 squares. In each square, I planted four Straight and Narrow haricot vert green beans from Pinetree Seeds. The SFG book indicated that I could plant nine seeds/plants per square foot, but I think that's a little tight so I spaced them out more.

The beets are Red Ace and Golden Specialty and the chard is Bright Lights, all from Johnny's Selected Seeds. The carrots are SugarSnax and Nelson, also from Johnny's. We planted the Nelson last year and had some seed leftover. They were ok, but I have high hopes for the Sugarsnax.

Last prayers before bed are for the rain that looks like will come tomorrow. It will be wildly applauded and much appreciated.

...and counting, until April 21 and the Frost Free Day arrives here in Zone 7A. We had ten straight days last week and this of high 70's/low 80's temps and nice sunshine. (A cold front moved through on Friday, but it's warming up again today.) We moved all the seedlings outside to take advantage of ideal growing conditions and they have rewarded us with some stunning growth.

After 10 weeks of waiting, not so patiently, I discovered on Wednesday that my potato plants had finally topped the wheat straw! I seriously thought those potatoes had rotted long ago and that I was stuck with an expensive experiment. Looks like I was wrong, thankfully.

Got the phone call from the post office at 5:56am. The baby chicks are here, can you please come get them. Yes, sure, will be right over. On a Monday.

The first order, two weeks ago, arrived on a Tuesday morning, making me think that maybe the first flock spent an extra day in transit. Which might explain the high mortality rate we experienced (at least I thought it was high.....the CS rep at McMurrray didn't seem fazed by it.) There were two other shipments of day-old chicks today, too, and both of the other families were there to pick up their boxes. We had a nice little chat session in the lobby of the post office, comparing notes on what we'd ordered and what we already had at home.

These little babies look great and hopped right out of the box to drink and eat. So far, everyone's still alive and scratching. It's very interesting to see how much the chickens from two weeks ago have grown. I knew they were a good bit bigger, but they seem grown-up now by comparison to the fuzz balls that arrived this morning. So cute.

On a botanical note, the tomato plants are coming right along and the spinach in the raised bed has germinated. I love global warming.

I originally named this blog "Long Distance Farming" because at the time, we were living in the suburbs of Atlanta during the week and driving to the farm on the weekends. Not even every weekend, at least during the colder months. But most weekends of the year, we made a 90 mile trip here and then a 90 mile trip back to the city.

Now that we have made the move to the farm permanent, I think I'll keep the blog named as it is, even though there is no geographical distance separating us from the land that we love. There remains a "long distance" between what I know right now to farm successfully and what I need to know to make a successful farm a reality. That distance shrinks a little bit each month that goes by, but it's still a sizeable gulf to bridge.

Thankfully, we're here to see it all every day and learn to watch and listen. For me, that's where the learning begins, observing. Then reading. Lots and lots of reading. And then, the doing helps, too.

We have chickens in our basement. I've lost count on exactly how many. I think it's 59 total. They came in the mail as day old chicks and we've had them now for ten days.

I cannot adequately express in words how much I love watching these little chickens. They are completely instinctual at this point in their young lives and if the urge hits them to scratch or peck or stretch or fly, they follow the urge. Immediately. Sometimes they try to do two or more of these urges simultaneously, and that makes me laugh out loud. Which sets off another round of silliness in the brooder box.

I just celebrated my one year anniversary of blogging at Homestead Blogger. I've met some very nice people there and learned quite a bit about raising chickens, baking bread, and preserving fresh garden bounty.

I think, though, that Blogger might offer me the opportunity to expand a bit on what it is that I'm learning now. We've just moved onto our property in the last four weeks and spring is here in a big way, with warm, dry weather. There is much to do to get this little piece of earth ready to farm, to grow fruit and vegetables, to have livestock and begin to move not just to self-sufficiency, but to provide for others who don't have access to land but are willing to pay for home-grown food.

Sometimes I want to just pontificate on agriculture issues. I want to write about how raising sons in a more rural setting affects our family. How God is working on my contentment, the attitude of my heart, the direction our family is headed. I need to put it down in a place that appreciates it all, and I think that's going to be here.

So, I guess this is a second start for this diary and I'll post both places for a while to see how it works. Time will be short since we have so much to do outside. But I hope to see you here on a regular basis, to share what I'm learning. Thanks for stopping by.