More Farm News

I know, I'm almost done the Traveller read-through, but we had a very busy day on the farm, and a lot got done. I just wanted to share it. There are a few pictures, so let's get to it.

This is a piece of our first-ever crop: garlic. The wide shot I took didn't turn out, but there's this one, at least. There are about twenty bulbs growing, which is very exciting. This was the first garden I dug up after we moved last year, and the first stuff we planted. So, it's a great feeling to see this growing so well. It gives me hope that we'll get this farming stuff figured out.

And this is a Granny Smith tree that we picked up today. It's not my favorite apple variety, but it was the only one available that goes well with the Yellow Transparent (not Delicious) we already planted. We learned that fruit trees don't all self-pollinate, so they might need a different kind of tree to make sure we get both trees fruiting. The two apple trees are about twelve feet apart, and I'm thinking we'll get another tree next year with red apples. Empires and MacIntosh are my favorites, but we'll see what we can get.

And this is our second pear tree, a Harrow Sweet. They go well with Boscs (which are self-pollinating), but variety is good. I'm not much of a pear-eater, but I can learn. The greenhouse we bought these from also had cherry trees, which I'm considering buying this year after all, just to get them growing a year sooner.

I don't have pictures of them, since they aren't in the ground yet, but we also bought a six-pack of strawberry plants and a couple of blueberry bushes as well. We're going to plant them in a couple of weeks, after I bring my Honey Bunny out there to figure out exactly where we're going to plant them.

This is our new chicken tractor that we finally finished building. It's a bit rough, and we didn't finish meshing the bottom, but it's fine to use indoors for now until the weather is warm enough to keep it outside. At that point, we'll mesh the rest of the bottom to make sure no predators get in. For now, it's in the garage, with its new inhabitants.

These are the Rhode Island Reds we have, five of them. We're not sure how many are hens and how many are roosters; ideally, it's four-to-one, but we might have two roosters, in which case we're going to have to get rid of one before they kill each other. But they're finally in their new home, which is a very, very good feeling.

If you look through the coop, you'll see a second coop where the Cemanis live; it's a pre-fabricated one that Ashton put together. It's not going to hold a lot of chickens; three is probably its limit. To the let of the coop, you'll see the box (and lid) where the Reds were living while we built the chicken tractor. It was fine when we first got them, but it's less than 3 feet by 4 feet, which isn't enough room for five full-grown chickens. The tractor is almost five-by-twelve feet, which is plenty of space for them. In a few days, we'll bring it outside and let them go at the grass. Right now, they're getting used to all this extra space.

So, plenty of stuff happening on the farm. It's an exciting time for us, and we're looking forward to what comes next.