The garden has exploded this week and we are doing everything we can to keep up! The cabbages are getting huge and the broccoli is moving along. The turnip, beet, and radish sprouts are poking through the ground and starting to get their second set of leaves. The potato plants are starting to surface here and there. I am trying to get the strawberries, which have been overgrown with clover because of neglect from a busy end of year last year, prepped and thinned out. I am hoping to have enough transplants to fill a bed in the big garden. I would love to have a whole 100 sqft bed of strawberries… you can never have enough strawberries! My plants that are still in our friend Toni’s greenhouse are getting huge and I am dreaming of fresh tomatoes and peppers! The farm is so beautiful this time of year. The trees are blooming everywhere, the grass is finally filling in, and the mud is finally going away! I love spring so much!
Last week we started a new afternoon routine where we now eat dinner at 2pm before going out for farm chores. Before this change we were going outside to do afternoon farm chores at 2pm and we weren’t getting inside until almost 7pm to start dinner. We were all starving by then and it was making the last 2 hours of farm chores miserable. Also, the kids were eating these large dinners then immediately going to bed… which is not exactly a healthy habit. Eating an early dinner allowed us to just focus on our chores and we didn’t feel rushed to get in at any certain time. So now we are eating dinner at 2pm, going out for farm chores by 2:30/3pm, we work in the garden until 5pm, then do all the actual farm chores with the animals, milk the does, and feed the babies, and then weed and work in the garden until it gets dark. When we finally come in we have a very light meal, like a salad and/or leftovers, and the kids go to bed. Our morning farm routine has stayed the same in all of this. It has been a huge and interesting adjustment, but so far so good! I might write a full post about the effects it is having on our schedule, and health after we have been in the schedule for a while.