Wednesday, June 15th 2011

Finally feeling better after almost two weeks of being sick.  What is it with the sickness this winter?  Everyone has been sick several times, so I was a bit broadsided with yet another illness in June!  the house has now been aired out and we are all spending at least an hour in the sun a day, so hopefully that will keep everyone well.

I finished processing the first 30 pounds of strawberries we picked.  It translated into 17 pints for the freezer and 2 quarts dehydrated.  Of course, we ate a bunch as well.  Fresh Oregon strawberries are the BEST!

Julie came over and we weeded the corn and replanted any that had died or been eaten.  The birds are eating some of the small plants in the garden, so I encourage the sun to come out and make them grow!

I realized that my sprinkler is a piece of garbage, so I am now in search of something that will actually suitably water the garden.  Yet another expense.  The sprinkler search is tricky because out water pressure varies so much from one place to the next that not all sprinklers work out in the big field.  I’ve got to get this remedied because the plants are getting thirsty.

The kids and I worked on cleaning out the loose hay on the ground in the barn.  This worked very well to use to hill up the potatoes that are now growing very nicely.  The potatoes are about 75% hilled and the barn is getting cleaned, I like how these projects supplement each other.

The cows finally made it out into the grass field, which I like.  I went out and drove some stakes out for them and they were out from 6am to 9pm.  They really liked being out in the tall grass with plenty to eat, hopefully it increases my milk production.

The fridge came back from the painter, and it is beautiful, a nice shade of yellow, and it’s got the Cast Iron Farm logo on the front.  It’s now sitting on the front porch, and people can come get milk and eggs from it without having to come into my house.  Yes, I like this arrangement very much.

I’ve been giving the goat pasture a rest for a while and the goats have been in, but I finally felt bad for them being in while it was so nice out and I let them back out.  There is plenty to eat again for them, and I think they will be happy.  Of course, it started to rain the second I let them out, but that’s life, right, oh no, it’s just farming.

The dairy goats were reassigned the task of eating down the blackberries in the chicken coop.  I suppose another day or two in there and they will get to go back out with the cows to work on the blackberries and the thistles there.

On my way into town to celebrate my birthday dinner (it was postponed because of illness), I noticed that a farmer had cut some lovely clover hay I’ve been watching (and admiring).  I stopped by on the way back and left a note asking if he’d have the hay for sale and also asking if he might consider coming on down to cut some hay in our field.  It was a bold move for sure, but I wasn’t getting anywhere by sitting and watching the grass go to waste.  Next year, it will be fenced some more, so it wont need to be hayed, but until then, it would be nice to have a barn full of hay for the winter.  Now if only we had a hay elevator to get the hay up off the constantly flooding barn floor.

We are approaching the solstice, and it’s lovely.  I love those cloudy 70 degree days.  Jared and I just went outside at 9  to sit and enjoy and admire our beautiful farm!