God Speed the Plough

Saturday was the first time this year that the earth could be worked with the tractor, but the window of oppertunity was short as it was going to rain the next few days in a row. So work commenced on a new half acre garden, the rootiest, stumpiest and stoniest, half acre I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Even though the plot was only 100 x 200, it took over 12 hours to complete. Most of the time was spent busting large spruce stumps out with the mattock and ax, hacking the tangled mass of alder roots apart so the plough could move forward
and removing literally thousands of pounds of stones from the new garden.
Abandoned fields take a lot of work to bring up to snuff, but like all the endeavors on the farm, it is an investment in the future, and at the end of the day the world is a changed place thanks to the blood and sweat (no tears today) of the honest labor that went into it.
On the weather front, it snowed again today (26th of May) and rained for several hours before that. Below freezing nighttime temps for the next 3 or 4 days followed by even more rain means there is nothing happening on the stuff growing in the garden yet. This season is definitely reminding us of the fact that despite the warm years in the past, we still live in zone 3, and sometimes it is going to behave that way. We will have to be patient.

May Long Snow

As predicted here, the May Long weekend, the traditional time to plant a garden in the Thunder Bay Area, has turned out like the rest of this spring, cold, and in this case, snowy.
Unlike many chilly campers this weekend however, we could watch it through the window, next to the wood-stove.
As the snow fell a small hawk, a Merlin I belive, landed right outside the window.
He didn't seem to mind the flurries, and in ten minutes the storm passed on. Only a little snow stayed on the ground and it melted in minutes. Still it is quite a contrast from last year at this time:

When we were weeding in the garden and getting it ready for planting. The soil looks so nice and dry,fluffy even, its a dream in comparison to the cold, soggy soil of 2008. But every year brings its own challenges, last year was drought and forest fires, this year low temperatures and saturated ground. Farming is always a different experience, from day to day and season to season. I never get the feeling that I'm just punching the time-clock, or heading into "another day at the office". Today is a perfect example of how much things can change in the course of a few hours, because while the day started with snow, by lunchtime we had summer friends returning,
Bluebirds!

Spring Fencing

With the tractors carb rebuilt, getting the fencing project done was the next priority. This last week of daily rain and nightly freezing temperatures has meant the soil is little warmer now then it was last week, but the cool temps were good for setting fence posts and stringing up wire. The grass itself is springing up, its bright green a welcome change from the brown or early spring.
Last year our pasture was about 4 acres in size, plenty for the pair of steers. The newly enclosed land adds another 10 acres to our total and will enable our pasture rotation to actually 'rotate'. Meaning our animals can now follow a circular 'circuit' around the pasture land, moving from one paddock to the next, without having to go back though already grazed areas to get to the fresh grass. It took some time to develop the overall idea, and more to build the fencing and gates needed to make it work, but it is an investment in infrastructure that will be there for us in years to come. Also, pasture work has the added benefit of keeping me from going crazy while the garden warms up and dries out.
On the garden front:
Our CSA delivery boxes arrived this week!

Although the 40 boxes cost over $1000, they are the only attached lid boxes we could find made of food grade, high density poly. They should last us for some years to come and while keeping our customers food safe and easy to transport.
And one of the new garden tools arrived this week:
Known as the Hatfield transplanter, its meant for planting seedlings without having to crawl down the rows, as we have always done before. This year however, we have 1200 plus transplants (Yikes!) and I was searching around for some way of making it a less painful experience (on my back and knees) and came across this little device. Talking to other market gardeners I knew indicated it worked quite well, even punching through plastic mulch. So we'll give it a try this year and see how well it works.
Today its actually pretty warm outside, the first really warm day in memory, hopefully followed by many, many more.

Cool May

So far this spring has been a cool one, most nights below freezing and plenty of rain and snow the last two weeks. We are still 3 weeks away from our first planting date, but that may be pushed back if the soil doesn't dry out and warm up. The garden is looking good otherwise, the winter killed oat cover crop kept the soil covered last fall and then died over the winter leaving a relatively clean seed bed for this years veggies. Despite the recent snow and cool temps, this morning it was above freezing and summertime birds were staking their claim on some prime real estate.These swallows are a delight to watch all summer as they swoop and dive and chase each other around. Often they have two broods of 4 or five chicks each year, which in combination with the two other pairs that live in nearby bird houses, means there are a few dozen swallows flying over the gardens once the chicks have hatched. They make a clicking, squeaking sort of sound, not unlike dolphins really, when they talk to each other, which is always a sign of early summer. While they do eat a lot of insects, its usually insects flying 500 feet in the air. It is only on really windy days, when flying that high is difficult, that they pick off bugs closer to the ground. Every bird box on our farm is paired with another, one box for swallows and one box for bluebirds. The swallows won't tolerate another pair of swallows in a nearby box, but they don't mind the bluebirds too much. This gives the less aggressive bluebirds a chance to nest and brings them into the garden where we need them most.

A flock of several hundred starlings has been hanging out in the field for the last week or two, enjoying foraging on the lawn and garden.
We have had geese in the field, as well as the usual hawks, woodcock and owls. One avian anomaly this year has been the almost complete absence of robins. Normally there are dozens searching for worms on the lawn and the mowed field. But this year we have only seen one or two.
With luck the weather will warm up and dry out the land in the next couple of weeks, but until then there is fencing, landscaping and tractor repairs to get done.