Early Sprouts?

I'm not sure why, but this year our plants have germinated a few days earlier than last year.  The first to pop-up were the cucumbers, but then the roma tomatoes were just a couple of days behind.  That's 2 1/2 days for the cucumbers and 4 days for the romas.  Sharon thinks that it's because I've kept the corn stove cranked up and the temps have been in the high 70's - 80 F in the area we're germinating the plants.  She may be right.  Last year when we started the plants it was cold outside and we had temps near freezing during the day.  This year it's been in the 50's and the nights have now barely dipped to freezing.  The next change will be hardening the plants.  This year the basement is much warmer than usual, which I assume means that the plants will not slow down as much which made for really hardy plants last year.  I figure that I can keep the temps down by opening windows if needed but with temps outside so warm it might be warmer outside than down in the basement.  I guess I get to learn new things every time we run into something that is different.  I guess this is why old farmers can say they've been farming for 50 years and can only remember a couple of "normal" years...

Better Late than Never

We finally got our vegetable seeds sown this weekend.  It was practically stress free and Sara has taken over as lead planter.  She has the disposition to do the tedious work required to plant hundreds of seeds one at a time carefully into the germination cells.  Based on my notes from last year we should start seeing our sprouts in about 7 - 10 days. 

Frost Seeding

I frost seeded some alfalfa the other morning.  The snow is just about off all of the fields and while the nights are below freezing the days are above freezing which allowed me to get the tractor out into the field.  Frost seeding is supposed to take advantage of the freeze thaw action that happens between day and night temps.  When the soil freezes with moisture in it, it actually stands up and creates small pockets in the soil.  The seed that I sowed are supposed to then fall down into the cracks and pockets created by the freezing and when it thaws the soil should cover the seed.  That's the way it's supposed to work anyway.  We'll see how it turns out.  I'm trying to get away from using fertilizer but grass pastures need nitrogen so sowing a legume like alfalfa or clover that fixes nitrogen into the soil should add to the manure that the cows leave behind.  That and since I had a couple of bags of alfalfa left over from last years planting I thought I'd give it a try.  Only time will tell.

The pace is picking up and I'm falling behind.  I have some frost planting I'd like to do in the pasture, the vegetable seeds need to be germinated and I wanted to take some straw to the sale barn this weekend since it's calving season and I thought I could get a good price for it.  But when I tried to move the hay rack after taking it to town to weigh it I noticed the hitch tongue had a problem.  Pulling on part of the hitch tongue I was able to break it by hand.  Good thing I didn't take it to town loaded with straw!  I hooked up the rack and took it to my brother's.  Well almost.  On my way the hairpin clip must have popped out of the hitch pin and the hay rack unhooked itself as I was going down the road.  I noticed a flash of movement in the mirror and then watched the hay rack head off into the ditch and get hung up in a fence.  Luckily it went South.  If it had gone north it would have gone down into a school yard!  Miles of open farm land and it comes undone in Lake Park.  It wasn't a big deal to pull it out and hook back up, but it is just another setback in my schedule.  I keep trying to tell myself that we're not in control.  Today it's pulling the water pump off of my truck that leaked on the way home yesterday evening...

Goat Kids -- For Sale

Sara's Toggenburg goats had kids over the weekend.  One goat had twin females and the other had triplet bucks.  They all look very healthy and were jumping around after the first day.  Sara is bottle feeding the kids so she first has to milk the mama goats and then feed the kids with the milk that she just stripped.  It takes a long time, but Sara has always like to work with her animals regardless of how long it seems to take.  She really has a passion for her animals.  You can see a few pictures of the goats on our website here.

Vegetable Seed Orders -- DONE!

Whew!  It took most of the day but it's finally done.  The orders for this years vegetable seeds are in.  Next steps are to receive them, sort them, and start them.  We have about 10 days until we'll have plant trays strategically located all over the warmest spots in the house to facilitate vegetable plant germination.  Ready or not!

Geese and Vegetables

The weather is finally above freezing but we can already tell that the season is "behind schedule".  We usually see our first flocks of geese going over the farm by about Valentines day.  This year Tom saw geese on Friday of last week and I saw two ducks the same day.  I'm not sure if that will equate to a two - three week delay in everything else, but I kind of hope so.  This year has been very difficult to get our vegetable plans in order.  We learned last year that vegetables are a time killer and we thought about really scaling back.  They compete with everything else that goes on which I guess one would assume, but as with most things in life and farming, you have to choose what your priorities are.  So when we have hay on the ground or hay that needs to be cut, the window to get it done is set and the clock starts ticking.  The old saying make hay while the sun is shining is true to a point.  Grass hay can be made into bales at any time once it's dry, but alfalfa hay that we grow has to be made while the sun is shining but with enough humidity to keep the leaves from shattering, so not too dry, but not too much humidity or it will mold, and no rain on it or it will lose its quality etc.  But I digress...  Anyway, if it comes down to making hay, processing chickens, or picking vegetables, the vegetables lose.  So vegetable crop management is key.  If we can plant items that take less human capital, in a way that keeps us from having to "tend" the plants as much, we can then maximize our produce efficiency.  Sounds easy enough, but since we don't use herbicides, if I plant too much of the wrong stuff the wrong way, we'll be out pulling weeds, and when you have acres of vegetables, pulling weeds is not an efficient use of time.  Today is the deadline for getting the plants ordered to make our March 15 date for starting our plants indoors.  Interesting that I had all winter to get this done and today I'm running up against a deadline...