Putting Back & Shifting Up

We were re-introduced to some muscles that we haven’t heard from in a while. They are a loud and obnoxious group and they must be snowbirds through the winter but they have announced they are back from their winter digs. We spent most of today cleaning the leaves and trash up that has blown over from the southerly neighbor that doesn’t clean up. It is quite irritating when we clean all the leaves in the fall and get the farm winterized only to have the neighbors let their stuff blow all over on everyone else.

We will have several more days of leaves to finish cleaning up out of our rock walls, flower beds, pond edge & nets as well as around the house & building foundations. Last fall it was all so nice when we had it all pristine and cleaned up. If we didn’t have all the neighbors stuff to clean up in the spring that they let blow over we could get to other things that are more pressing around the farm.

By evening we were feeling the toll of a long day of leaf clean up and mulching and since we still had greenhouse work to do, we put the equipment away and headed for the greenhouse. We shifted vegetable plants up for a few hours. We have all the retail vegetable plants that are ready shifted into pots and tagged. We just have to wait for some of the other plants to grow some more leaves then they can be shifted up into pots. Sunday we planted more carrots and beets and Thursday we will start seeding cucumbers and squash.

The grass is ready to be mowed but the big mower just started showing an oil leak so we will have to find and repair that. Sure hope it isn’t a costly item, we have come to that time of the year here on the farm we lovingly refer to as “hemorrhaging money” with seeds, farm supplies for spring planting, fuel for heating the greenhouses, the big farm insurance policy due and of course all the other farm bills after taxes was paid it will be extremely tight until crops come on and markets start. We put extra back each year hoping we can have some left over to put away but everyone knows how that goes many others are in the same boat. Ahh yes “self-employment the greatest form of poverty you’ll ever experience”, that’s what I always say. Here are some pics of newly shifted vegetable plants from today.