Dunlooken Farm

Is spring coming?  Of course it is, it always has. There are signs out there.  The buds on the cottonwood's buds are growing.  There are baby goats in the kid barn, a long line of milkers in the milker's barn, and even more big fat goats in the dry milker's pen.  The turkey tom is strutting his stuff and the ducks and hens have started laying, if sporadically.  We've already sent seed to the greenhouse that starts our tomatoes, peppers, and cole crops.

As soon as I can get out to the orchard the apple and plum trees need pruning.  I think most of the grapes are under a snow drift.  As soon as I can find them they'll need pruning too.

Spring is coming even though we still have drifts 5 feet deep and the days are just barely getting above freezing.  The horned larks have been here for weeks and the red-winged black birds will soon be here.  Spring is coming.  It always has before.

Well, my excitement for blogging lasted a long time, didn't it?  I hope this is the start of something much longer lasting.

I wanted to talk a bit about negativity.  Last growing season was tough on most of the garden but delightful in other areas.  We tried very hard to let our members know about the conditions in the garden.  We wanted them to know exactly why there weren't many beets or carrots and why there were few flowers and so very many squash.  Some of our members were very put out that I was so negative.  Obviously I was not a good farmer!

Now most of our members know that good or bad farmers can't do much about the weather, but others really have no clue. They just don't have any experience with things being totally out of one's control.  If it doesn't turn out right it must be your fault.

It would be easy to dismiss these people but should we?  Are farmers too pessimistic?

I'm just a bit excited by the new opportunity to blog here on Local Harvest.  It's fall and so many things are ending it's nice to have something beginning.

We're busy tucking the garden in for the winter and planning for our CSA's 2009 season.  There are two calves in the barn that will soon meet their destiny and furnish food for 4 different families.  Chickens are molting and eggs are few and far between.  Many of the dairy goats are bred and giving less and less milk.  Everything, including the year, is winding down. 

But now, instead of spending my time in the garden and barns I can spend my time in the kitchen cooking with all the wonderful things in my freezer and I can sit and spin or crochet or do needlework.  There truely is a time to every purpose.