holy batman! I just bought a farm!!

[smilingcat]

youtube is your friend ....it doesn't look easy though

https://youtu.be/bSatF4QoqmI ....if that isn't your set up there are a number of other ones on youtube too

That! just about sums it up. Doesn't it look fun??And he has far more experience than me. I have a pry bar but I don't think it would help.

And today, spent most of the day trying to figure out how to get a riding lawn mower out of blueberry patch. Rear tire is all twisted up and wrapped around the axle.
Thought of lifting the mower out the blueberry patch with my utility tractor but I would have to flatten out few berry bushes. Besides, there are too many linkages that could get bent if I try to lift it up and out with the fork on my tractor. towing it out using a compact tractor might work but the cutting blade and the metal cover on the mower is firmly buried in the dirt.

Managed to jack up the mower to remove the wheel but its rusted on and won't budge!! Make the repair at its current location in the berry patch. hmm oh the weather report says RAIN (at times heavy) for next several days!!

then there are hoof prints where my garlic plants are planted. hooves are about 4" across and goes down about 2" to 3" into the dirt. Amazingly, it only destroyed about half a dozen garlic bulbs.

Then there are things in the greenhouse. I feel like I'm just rearranging the chairs on the deck of Titanic... sigh...

[smilingcat]

First Farmers Market of 2016 for us. Yayyy we are finished and in stupor tonight. First one of the year is tough because you forget your routine. And being so early in the season, we were trying to figure out what we have to sell. We were confused and still confused... Logistic gets to be a real headache. Feed dogs, walk dogs, feed cats breakfast then lunch. Feed 150+ chicken And we were away for almost 9 hours.

What to sell was a pretty slim picking at my farm but we did manage to scrape together kale raab, baby kale, regular kale, swiss chard, wild arugula, few herbs but not many were interested in chervil (french parsley). And eggs. Weather was picture perfect, temp was mild and really couldn't have asked for a better day. Our animals may disagree though.

whats for next week? don't know. I planned on having micro greens for today but its growth stalled for about 3 days this past week so it wasn't ready for today. It WILL BE READY TOMORROW, SUNDAY. Will it hold till next Saturday? probably not. Maybe radish will be ready? Tatsoi, bok choi and others will not be ready for another two weeks.

Will I do this again? yes because I'm bit nutty and glutton for punishment. Besides, I get to enjoy things like baby greens, kale raab. Things you can't buy in regular grocery store.

[Pax]

Can't wrap my head around having access to almost unlimited produce, that is so cool!

[OakLeaf]

Nice. Our farmers' markets don't begin for another three to five weeks, but the spring has been so early that one farmer has been selling single-week mini-CSA baskets for a month already. Wishing you favorable weather, cooperative equipment, minimal pests and enthusiastic customers for the upcoming season!

[emily_in_nc]

smilingcat, thank you for being willing to sell at a farmer's market even if you don't have that much produce to sell. I so appreciate small farmers selling lovely homegrown produce whenever I can find a farmer's market as we travel!

[shootingstar]

Wish we could buy from you. Certainly if I knew where you were if we were travelling in area, we would drop by. Many of our bike trips and other travels do include a local farmers' market to get flavour of the place. For instance, we've been to a large Portland market on campus. My partner was a part-time farmer for a decade and also keenly supports local markets.

[smilingcat]

A grown man wants fresh apple from my farm. I politely told him its only mid-April and that earliest, apples will not be available in our area till July or so. He said then why is fresh apples available in the supermarkets? Yes he did say it and he was miffed. forget about the fact that I don't grow apples, pears, quince or any of the stone fruit.

I guess the generation where milk comes in a box, juice comes concentrated in a can. And you get eggs in a carton at the store. sigh...

Another man was angry at what I was asking for my dozen eggs. He said "You (us farmers) are crazy to be asking for what a steak costs" Go away!! If you can't tell a difference between our eggs and eggs labeled "free range/organic chicken eggs" at the supermarket. Ours really run around and eat bugs, dandelions and other goodies. BTW steak costs a lot more per pound than our eggs.

Our eggs will sink when you do the float test. supermarket eggs will most likely float.

[Aromig]

Another man was angry at what I was asking for my dozen eggs. He said "You (us farmers) are crazy to be asking for what a steak costs"

Crazy - if you don't want to pay what someone is asking...then move along! I'd love to see him walk into Walmart and try to negotiate egg prices.

Our backyard chickens (we only have 5, so nowhere near what you're doing) are about 5 weeks away from being old enough to lay. We are having a lot of fun! I'll admit, when my son wanted chickens I wasn't that excited (bad memories of backyard chickens when I was six) but we're falling in love with them. They've just moved out of our garage and into their coop/backyard play area and believe it or not they love the golden retriever (and she loves them).