Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

This is a great time of year at Bloom Where You're Planted Farm.  Rain has been plentiful, the grass and trees look lush and healthy, and the iris and peonies are starting to bloom.  In the next week or so we'll start planting some of our longer-season pumpkins and gourds.  The full planting assault will happen around Memorial Day, hopefully finishing up the first couple days of June.  I can't wait to get out in the dirt!  Its so exciting to think about all the pumpkins we'll harvest, plus its great exercise!

On April 29 we brought home five hens, a cross between Rhode Island Reds and New Hampshires (so they're very East Coast but seem to be enjoying the Midwest!)  April 30 & May 1 was our second-annual Spring Open House.  It was good seeing the familiar faces of some of our loyal customers and friends, and exciting to meet some first-time guests, too.  The following weekend we held a "Barn Sale" -- basically a big yard sale heavy on the antiques and primitives.  We made room for all the "new" antiques, primitives and gift shop merchandise we'll be bringing in for this fall.

The most fun thing this spring has been the arrival of two baby calves.  Fern delivered her first calf on May 1, a bull calf we named Mayday.  Ten days later, Molly's calf Rosy arrived.  I surprised myself (and really surprised Terry, when I told him the story later) by jumping in to help pull her when I realized she was coming out rump-first and upside down.  Molly may have been fine without me, but ideally they should come out head/front feet first, and I got scared.  Both calves are perfect and they're SO darn cute! 

Mayday

Rosy

Well, I'd better get outside to enjoy this great weather and get something accomplished.  Have a great spring, and we hope to see you soon at the farm!

WOW!  Have we had a lot of rain lately!!  Since noon on Sunday we've received over 7 inches of rain -- 5+ inches of it Sunday evening.  Between flashes of lightning I could see what looked like a river flowing through the southwest pumpkin patch, and I was sure most of our plants were doomed.  That's the U-Pick patch, too, probably our most important field.  When daylight rolled around and we were able to get out and survey the damage, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared.  We're hopeful that most of the plants will survive and we can replant some short-season varieties in the areas that were washed out.

Our large nature trail bridge washed half a mile and ended up across the road in the neighbors' ditch.  It took out part of the electric fence around the cow pasture on its way through, and my dad called at 6:30 a.m. Monday to tell us that Fern, Molly and Alice were out in the road.  One of our neighbors happened by and helped Terry herd them back home.  The big bridge wasn't too damaged, and after a search we found the smaller bridge buried in debris in the pasture.  By the end of the day yesterday life was pretty much back to normal and we consider ourselves lucky.  There has been a lot of flooding throughout eastern Nebraska (and across the entire Midwest) and we send our thoughts out to all those dealing with real destruction and devastation.

We're looking forward to dryer conditions and getting back out in the dirt.  Our next project will be starting to build the structures for our new gourd garden.  There is also (always!) weeding to be done, and I may start ordering a bit of merchandise for the gift shop soon.  Its hard to believe, but there's less than 3 months until we open for the Pumpkin Festival!

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It is hard to believe that it was a year ago already that our filly, Dash, was born.  She came into the world on Memorial Day evening, May 26th, 2008. 

Most of our animals are adopted and we don't know their actual birth dates.  So, I got a little carried away and stopped at the store to pick up some party hats to celebrate.  I knew it would make for fun photos, and let's face it -- I'm a dork.

Nearly everyone on the farm (Rocket, the cats, the cows, and two out of four horses) took their turn to be humiliated.  Here are a couple of the highlights:

Sully

Molly

 Dash and her mother, apparently the two smartest of the bunch, wouldn't let the hat anywhere near their heads.

God bless my patient animals and husband for humoring me! 

Merry Christmas from Bloom Where You're Planted Farm!

I'm getting ready to start my Christmas cards today, but first I wanted to write to wish all our customers and everyone at Local Harvest a wonderful holiday season. 

This is a peaceful time of year for us at the farm.  All of the pumpkins are gone, the fields plowed, and everything put away from the fall.  Although we probably could get to work in the shop building some of the projects we have planned for next year, that can wait until January.  For now, we're getting caught up on our "real jobs" (the ones we still rely on to pay the bills!) and enjoying having some free time on the weekends.  Most of our shopping is done, and we've been trying to get out to see some of the holiday sights around Omaha, Lincoln, and our nearby small towns. 

For those of you who have visited the farm and befriended our animals, here's what's going on in their world.  Molly, our bigger heifer, is visiting my in-laws right now (specifically, visiting their young bull, in hopes of producing a mini-Molly next year).  Our younger heifer, Fern, is becoming friendlier all the time and is really loving the leftover pumpkins -- you should see her go at them!  Our "baby" horse Dash isn't such a baby anymore.  She's growing all the time and we have her halter-broke and are able to lead her around now.  Her dad, Sully, is a big brown teddy bear with his heavy winter coat.  Mama Sachi is currently at the horse trainer's and I'm looking forward to finally getting to ride her when she comes home after Christmas.  And, as if we didn't already have enough horses, we bought a new mare, Abbie.  She's tall and black with a wavy mane and big white blaze on her face.  She's very friendly and usually the first one to the fence to greet you. 

Rocket is enjoying lots of quality time in his dog bed in the house, and like the rest of us is trying not to over-indulge on all those tempting Christmas treats.  We'll all need to go outside and exercise after the holidays!  With the way this past year has flown by, the time to get out there and start working toward next fall will be here before we know it.  Until then, we're trying to slow down and savor the season, and I hope you will be able to do the same.  We wish you all a peaceful and happy Christmas.  See you in the new year!

Teresa