Spring has sprung!

Things are really moving along here at the farm!  After many, many days of rain – 50% more than average for our area – spring is bursting out all over – as are “springs” throughout the pasture and along most of the back roads here!  Pollen is flying and people are sneezing, but we aren’t complaining!  We’ve waited so long to get things going here!

The rain catching system that we mentioned in a previous blog is finally in place.  Yes, it would have been nice to have had it set up during the recent spate of torrential downpours we’ve had, but be that as it may, it is up and ready now – just in time to water our garden as it gets going!

Above you can see an IBC that we resurrected from the farm.  The previous owners had used it to store extra water for themselves.  When it was empty, it blew around the place quite a bit and has some dents and holes.  We are really anxious to see if the repairs Roy did with Fiberfix Rigid Patch hold!

In back you can see above where Roy has drilled the downspout to attach the fitting to divert water into the IBC.

And here (above) you can see how Roy rigged up a PVC pipe attachment to the bottom hole of the tank.  We didn’t have the original fitting for this old IBC, so it took some time and modification to make something fit!  A faucet has also been attached to allow us to run a hose to the garden.

And as for the garden, it is planted!  Much smaller than our previous garden, it will be packed with food soon!  Our tomatoes will be growing along the cattle panel you see running between t posts.  The nice thing is that that same cattle panel will be used in the winter/spring to make jugs for lambing in the barn!  Horseradish and rhubarb acquired from a local farm’s excess are getting established nicely too!

We really miss our amazing firepit from CT.  On a bit of a whim I had the boys and Roy dig this one and line it with shale and brownstone from the property just before Mother’s Day.  I think they finished the whole thing in half a day!  It’s functional, but the stones aren’t permanently fixed, so Finnley likes to go in and steal one of the smaller ones and bring it into the yard from time to time!

The concord grapes that were here from before needed a serious cutback over the winter.  I am so pleased that they are coming back strong!  I think Finnley likes to knock new shoots off of this, though, so hopefully it will take off soon so he doesn’t destroy it!  Having that Lab around is seriously like having a toddler roaming around again!

Here you can see Roy finishing up a LONG stretch of fencing around the perimeter of the first part of pasture we plan to graze.  YES!  Our sheep have been born at their home farm in NY, and we have deposited to purchase 10 ewes, a ram, and a wether (castrated ram) as a companion to our ram when he’s not “working.”  We have a bit more fencing to do before we start subdividing that area into strips for mob grazing.

And speaking of pasture…we have been watching ours GROW with all of this rain!  We purchased a second hand stand on zero turn mower for keeping up with things until we have enough sheep to graze.  As we were contemplating our hay source for the winter, I kept looking at hay growing all around us.  Seemed a pity to just mow it all.  So yesterday I put out a feeler on Facebook to the locals to see if anyone was interested in harvesting our hay in exchange for supplying our winter needs since we don’t have hay harvesting equipment.  Seemed so silly to buy someone else’s hay and mow all of this down.  Hate to waste food, after all!  A very kind young farmer responded positively to our offer, and I can report that both parties of this agreement are quite pleased!