Christmas Snow on the Farm

Our Christmas day was indeed white here on the farm. It literally snowed all day Saturday the 25th starting at 6 am. and lasting until 7 AM. on Monday. We got around 9 inches of snow and it provided for a good blanket of insulation on the blueberries above.

The butterfly flight house and milkweed field blanketed by snow.

Here are the blueberry starts under cover of landscape fabric behind the pump house. I put the fabric down earlier this month due to the harsh and cold temperatures this month. I believe that it will go down as the coldest December on record for this part of the county. The temperature has only reached an average high two days this month.

Luckily, most of the time the plants have been covered in snow providing some relief to the below average temperatures. It has been 9 degrees twice and we have had over 16 inches of snow to boot. Looks like we will be breaking out the short sleeves soon however, as the forecast calls for 55 degrees on Dec. 31st.

Hop'n Blueberry Farm in Back Home Magazine

Wow, we are excited to be in the latest issue, Jan-Feb 2011, of Back Home magazine. This is a really great magazine that I have subscribed to for quite sometime. It is all about sustainable living and is a must for the farm as far as I am concerned, and not just because they have an article about my farm in it( although that makes em pretty cool!)

It was written by Jennifer McGaha whose daughter volunteered at the farm for this years Family Farm Tour. Jennifer came out later and spent a few hours with me on the farm. I have not yet read the article, but it is on page 40. I think there are even some good ole color photos in there as well.

I am currently trying to thaw out some ground and mulch here on the farm and am working on trying to secure some more funding for the farm for 2011 when it is too cold to work outside. The funding will be crucial to the survival of the farm in the near future and it sure consumes a lot of time, but hopefully it will pay off and I can really get to work expanding the farm.

If you can't find Back Home magazine, by the way, look on line at www.backhomemagazine.com
You can order it there.

Winter Blues

Did I ever say that weeding was fun? If I did or ever do, shoot me. I have still been working on weeding and bedding down my three field crops. Let's start with a blueberry update.

The good news is that I only have 6 more blueberry bushes to weed. Well, that's good news to just one farmer in the world anyway. My only problem now is finding enough free suitable mulch for them. I am looking hard to find old pine sawdust or fine chips to finish three 250 foot rows of blueberries. That's about 9 pickup loads. Anybody got a source?

I have recently finished mowing out my hop vines and I am looking forward, like a condemned man looks forward to the firing squad, to start weeding them and laying down the mulch for them. I have some composted cow manure that I am going to put down on the plants before I mulch them. I have to get on the stick, the really cold weather is yet to come.

I started tackling the insurmountable task of cleaning up my 1/8 acre of weeds that contain one weed that I want to keep, the milkweed. Man, that has been a real challenge. The use of chemicals might just be an alternative to this mangle of tangled vines, stickers, and stringy contagious assorted other rhizomes. I must say, the other day it was weeds 1, Van 0.

Next year, I will have an opportunity to get my milkweed in the production stage and try to keep up with keeping them a bit more organized in defense for the aggressive weed attacks.

I got my last installment on my AgOptions Grant last month and I am now working on another grant to help finance my last phase of the expansion here on the farm. It will be for the picnic shelter and bathroom facility. I am a firm believer that this is going to be the most critical part for the survival of my small family farm here. It will be the make or break it part of the puzzle. Ah, if it weren't for stress in my life where would I be. ( Without shingles for one thing!)