Introducing the newest members of the Many Friends Farm family!

We have added 13 new friends to our growing menagerie in the last couple of weeks, and thought we would share the news, along with some pictures here. First, our new little chicks...12 of them to be exact. They are about 2 weeks old now, and chirping up a storm under their red heat lamp.
We are looking forward to their yummy eggs, which they should start to produce sometime in July or August.

Second, our new pal Libby. She is our new golden retriever, a little over a year old, and still full of an amazing supply of puppy power. Our other dog Henry isn't quite sure what to make of her! She has proved herself to be quite useful in the rodent chasing department though, and we are hoping she will be just as good at spotting those pesky elk before they come near the field.

Speaking of elk, they finally threw down the gauntlet. Last year we put up fencing that was both tall and wide. The "wide" was supplied by crossarms that extended out horizontally from the fence itself in both directions. Well, several weeks ago we found a very damaged crossarm lying on the ground, ripped from it's support on the fence...with a pile of elk poop on top of it! The insult! We have taken their challenge though...and are in the process of erecting an 8 foot fence that will be electrified. For some reason this is starting to feel like that Caddyshack movie.

We have also been busy planting some new fruit trees - a nice variety of apples, pears, and peaches. The trees are about three years old and won't start producing for a couple of years, but we sure are looking forward to that day.

One last piece of farm excitement - as this is being written, the back wall of our barn is being rebuilt (it got pulled off during the winter storms). Although the huge panoramic view from inside the barn was beautiful, it will be nice to have it intact again. Thanks to the guys from Richards Construction for doing such a great job!

Well, that's the news from the farm. We will be starting our seeds in the next couple of weeks, and will add some updates as things get growing.

Thank goodness for moles!

It has been quite a busy week here at the farm. After some long days put in down in our greenhouse, we finally finished one set of shelving. We are pretty proud of our accomplishment, and are really looking forward to getting our seed blocks out there.

Mother Nature has been trying to convince us that winter is over...it has been sunny here for days, not a cloud to be seen in the sky. But it surely is cold at night, and frozen every morning, so we're just not falling for it! We are going to start some of our cold hardy seeds, like cabbage, onions, and kale and see how it goes, but we'll just have to be patient for the others.

Today we set about making potting soil for the seeds we will be planting. Last year this was a chore that took hours to accomplish. This year, we came across an inexpensive mortar mixer being sold on Craigslist, snatched it up and brought it back to the farm. If it can mix concrete, it can mix dirt! We put it through it's paces today, and are quite pleased with it's performance...we were able to cut our mixing time in half, and no back pain! Yeah for mortar mixers.

To top it off, we got a little help from those usually-not-so-helpful guys the moles. Field soil is an ingredient in our potting mix, and the daunting task of digging it up was not something we were looking forward to. That's when we took notice of all the little mounds of dirt that have been springing up in the past week...hey...somebody dig the digging for us...and we don't have to screen out any weeds or grass! So a big thanks guys!! Now if we could just convince them to leave our root crops alone! :-)

Speaking of help...we were wondering if any gardeners out there had any of these little gizmos (pictures) lying around that you would like to get rid of? Many nurseries and garden centers give them out when you buy a flat of flowers etc. They are incredibly helpful as seed flats here at the farm, and we would be more than willing to pick them up. Drop us a line or give us a call if you would like to get rid of some, and a big THANKS in advance!

Hope everyone has a great week!