news from the farm

The biggest news I have since I last wrote in here is that I got a part time job at a plant nursery,  I'll be working on Saturdays and some Sundays from 10 to 5pm as a salesperson, helping people decide on how to landscape their yards and pick out plants.  I worked last weekend and today, and am having so much fun learning and apprenticing under the very knowledgeable owner Sharon.  The nursery specializes in Northwest Japanese style landscaping, with all different types of Maples, Evergreens, Rhodedendrons, Azaleas, Hydrangeas, and many different plants, shrubs, and bamboo.  It has 25 acres of landscaping stock, with 32 full greenhouses.  I am in heaven actually and can't believe I got this great opportunity to make some extra money, and learn at the same time.  I didn't even go looking for this job, a friend told me her friend who owns the nursery was looking for help on Saturdays, I called her and got the job.

One of my passions throughout my life has been gardening and plants.  To be able to help people beautify their yards and homes is a worthy job that makes me happy.  I will also be doing a few hours during the week at home on the computer for her, and will trade those hours for plants! Can you imagine getting paid in plants for something I already enjoy doing taking pictures and writing?

Weather news for early April, we had about an inch of snow Wednesday night, and it stuck around all day Thursday.  That night we had a freeze, because it was clear Thursday night, so we had sun for part of the day Friday, I just wanted to put my face up to the sun and soak up the rays.  The fruit trees are all near blooming, and I'm hoping it will warm up, I did hear this next week they're predicting snow one more time.  It has been so wet here day after day it rains, someone today said we've had around 42 days since we had a nice sunny day.

The kittens are growing, and starting to get to a real cute playful age.  We cleaned and moved the 100 gallon stock tank in to the shop to move their home into it, so they could run around in clean shavings in a controlled area for the mom's peace of mind.  The 7 baby rabbits were ready for me to take in to our local farm store, they buy them from me for $10 a piece, so I had some money to buy more rabbit and chicken feed.  The farm store was happy to have me show up again for the 3rd season with cute babies.  I spent time trimming and filing all their nails, and gave them the final hugs and looked into their eyes and told them I hope they find a nice home and can be a good pet.  I may create a tri-fold brochure about rabbits and their care, along with the name and number of my rabbitry in case they can't keep them or a child loses interest.  I worry about my baby rabbits getting good homes.  As far as the mom's go, I let them loose with the buck in a portion of the chicken run so they could all be together and run and play for a couple days. I just put them all out together yesterday.  So in another 30 days we should have 2 more litters of new baby rabbits. 

We're getting around 8 or 9 eggs per day, and have been enjoying them all different ways.  I've still kept my commitment to making all our own bread.  It has been a challenge at times, like this morning I needed some bread quick, I made cinnamon apple scones, they cook in 15 to 20 minutes, we loved them, they were delicious.  I have an everyday sourdough bread I've been making that everyone likes, and I also make different grain loaves with oatmeal, sunflowers, corn, rye, etc.  This last week I made home made pizza, dinner rolls, muffins and still need to try bagels and crackers.  One of my favorite quick breads is corn bread, I love it hot out of the oven with a generous dollop of butter.  When you make all your own bread, quick breads are a good standby.

This last week was Spring Break for my kids, we had family in town visiting for part of the time, and I took a spring break from the Internet.  This month some of my goals are to keep working on the vegetable garden, build compost, weed and ammend with compost all the vegetable and flower beds, work on the goat pasture getting it fenced and their area all ready, and I plan to continue making soap.  By the way, the soap is exquisite, I love using the lemon grass bar in the shower, and make excuses to wash my hands at the sink with the lavender soap. The bars are not all the way cured and need a couple more weeks, but since I'm the soapmaker I decided to try them early.  I am planning to have a drawing in a few weeks for some of my home made soap when it's cured.

There's never a dull moment around here.  I hope Spring has sprung where you live, and that you're enjoying the longer days.  I've been wishing for the warmth of the sun to return so it can bring forth new life and fruit, we're all ready for warm sunny days again.