May 23, 2020 Mid-Spring Progress

The Farm was cool and rainy for the entire week. We're hoping that we don't get a repeat of last year when things never really got growing because Summer heat never came. 

Beth and Wendy's Victory Garden

Weeding is always a big concern here. It takes only a few weeks for the weeds to get out of hand, usually about a month to get things cleaned up if that happens. So Ann spent a few days last week in the Strawberry Patch keeping on top of the weeding and this week she succeeded in finishing the work. Eventually we'll get the farm itself to control the weeds. Right now things simply want to grow and there's not much to stop it.

Considering the cool, cloudy, days the Strawberry Patch is doing re-markedly well . There were many large berries out there and we picked seven quarts of perfectly ripe berries just to keep them from rotting in the field. Most of these berries went into the first Strawberry pie of the year. It was wonderful.

The Potatoes look great.

On Tuesday a few of Ann's cohort of friends (people that kept the Farm working last year while I was on my back) came by to tend their Victory Garden. Finding that there wasn't much to do there, they spent the day weeding in the potato patch they helped plant a month earlier. I had flame weeded between the rows on Monday and they cleaned up all the rest in just a few hours. The patch looks super.

Between Monday and Wednesday I tilled much of the remaining open ground on the Farm (at least the places where we have tilled before) and Ann mowed what tall grass remained. The Farm looks as it should. Weeds are under control, for now, and it took just a few days. We hope to continue replacing weed patches with gardens. Keeping the weeds from going to seed is a big part of this.



The house build is coming along very well. We had put up most of the walls, but lacked the final two panels. So we worked the project and, by Friday afternoon- had completed all of the vertical walls of the new house. We still need to put in some blocking and sheath the whole thing, but the house had a distinctive  house-like shape. The lumber pile we once had is mostly gone, leaving the roof trusses and Strand Boards we will use to sheath the house. With any luck we'll be putting a roof on the place next week. And next week promises a bit warmer weather, so we are hopeful.

The new Farmhouse seems large, but it really is not.

The Banks-Vernonia State Trail opened up this week, so we have a lot more traffic passing in front of the Farm. We're looking forward to putting the Produce Stand up next weekend. Hopefully the Strawberry Patch will  produce enough berries to make some people happy.