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04/02/2006: ""

Well, been a while.
Spring has sprung!
Spent yesterday chasing chickens around the yard, cleaning up from winter and generally puttering around.
Have to run some wire fence around the chicken yard as they peck at the green plastic snow fence and put escape holes in it.
Removed all the fence from around last years chicken yard and from some of the property line where the fence had really gotten bad.
Gonna plant sweet corn in the old yard.
Tammy has her tiller ready to go. I think it's a bit wet out yet but she's going to try it.
Had to put some chicken wire on the broken windows in the garage to keep birds out. Tired of poop on all my stuff. I suppose soon I will have to replace the glass.

Had a pile of apple tree limbs from fall cleanup out back and boy did the rabbits really give them the workout. Hardly a scrap of bark left and piles of pellets! I haven't seen so many pellets in one area since I raised rabbits. But they did leave the blueberries alone.

Finding a Jersey calf is turning out to be like the search for the Holy Grail. Seems the guys that have them are unwilling to part with them. There is an auction Wed and there will be Jerseys there. I have to borrrow my friends stack trailer and check it out.
I also want to get a walk behind sickle mower for cutting hay and any grains I raise but they are few and far between as well. Unless I want to buy new.

I am leaning towards modifying the land rotation and trying to have 6 plots instead of the 8 as in the book. I would rotate them like a regular farm and only raise hay corn and oats (with clover and Timothy).
I wouldn't have to have a big root storage area then.

I did get a book called Rootcellaring and am interested in turing a room in the basement into a root cellar but would have to see how well that works before I would trust a years crop in it.

This is the time for experimenting though as even if I do get a heifer calf I have 2 years before she starts milking and I need to expand for a pig as well.

The plant I have started in teh basement look good. Have to start on my cold frame next week.
Lots of things to do!