Bees! And a Long Day

My bees are here! They arrived on Monday. My bee buddies were good enough to pick them up and bring them to my farm. The bees were shipped to a bee company in Wisconsin. They come in a wooden box with screened sides. I ordered three pounds of bees which equals about 3000 bees plus one queen. The queen is in a smaller box with screens so that the bees can get used to her smell and won't kick her out of their group, which is apparently what they do if you just dump a random queen into a colony.

So we set up my hive and kicked out the mouse that had made its nest in there. Rotten mice. Stay out of my bee hive! We set the frames in the hive, set the queen in her mini box in the hive and then dumped, seriously dumped, the bees into their hive. We put some sugar water in there for them to eat, set the lid on top, and that was it. I've been keeping my eyes on them today and their buzzing around getting used to their new home. In a couple days I'll check on them, see if they need more food, and make sure the queen is out of her box and moving around. If you're lucky some day I'll post a picture of me in my kickass bee suit. :)

The adventure today was spend as much time in the fields as possible to get as much done as I can before the rains come (again!). My morning began at 6 when I hopped into the seat of the John Deere tractor and headed out to till up a large part of my fields and prepare the beds for the afternoon planting. Field beds are rows grouped together. My beds are about 4.5 ft which includes a walkway. In that bed I can plant three rows of spinach, 2 rows of broccoli or 1 row of tomatoes. Each crop prefers different distances. Some need a lot of room, others don't need so much.

I had a great crew of helpers this afternoon. We planted a ton of stuff, mostly my bulb onions. We planted yellow, red and sweet onions. Then we planted a rainbow of lettuces. By that time the crew was ready to call it a day. We were all proud of what we had accomplished. They took off, but I wasn't ready to call it quits yet. Rain's a'comin and I don't know when I'll get back in the fields. So worked for another hour or so. I called it quits when the sun did.

Not bad for my first long day. I'm in a pretty good mood, mildly sore, but I definitely don't feel beat up. That will happen in July or August I'm sure. That's it for now! Praise God for great help and beautiful weather.

Bees are Coming!

I just got the call. My honeybees will be coming tomorrow! I've been wondering when my bee-buddies would call and deliver my new hive. I can't believe the day is here. Well, almost here. A part of me is still apprehensive. After all, it is another thing to put on my to do list and I do tend to swell up when I'm stung. Still I'm going to try it. Bees fascinate me and just think of the honey!
In other farming news, it has been a week of realizing how little control I have over my farm and my plans. Sure I make spreadsheets of what seeds are planted when, and how many in the greenhouse. I have spreadsheets of when to transplant those seedlings outside in the fields. I have maps of what crops will go where. I have weekly project lists that are scheduled into october. Yet for all this God gets the final say. It has been over a week since I've been able to take a tractor out into the fields, which means I am a week behind in transplanting and almost two weeks behind in tilling. Not an easy place to be for a first year farmer, or for any farmer. It's just rained so much over the past week and a half. The fields haven't had time to dry out. So I figure out what other things I can do while I wait.
There are moments of stress and frustration. Even now I feel myself tensing up. But that's not the end of the story. I know that God is faithful and that God will take care of me. I am reminded of how dependent I am, how vulnerable I am. That's not a lesson that is easy to learn, but in the end is comforting. It's comforting because God is in control, not me. Though I can come up with a pretty good and fairly thorough plan, there will still be faults. And honestly, though it's hard to let go of my plans (in farming and in other things), I'd much rather have God in control than me.
So with that in mind I will continue to wait for my fields to dry. My bees will come tomorrow. Hopefully, I will soon be driving the tractor again. I'll keep you posted.

Fieldwork begins!

The time has come to be in the field! Last week I learned to drive the tractor and away I went to my fields. I was able to till up a few places and then came back to transplant my kale, swiss chard, and leeks. Another bunch of firsts! Here are some pictures for you. Hopefully the fields will dry out soon so I can go back this week. Another round of transplanting and seeding is here.

Growing On

Hey all, I'd thought I'd check in with you and announce I am blogging live from my very own apartment! That's right, a very new and exciting development has occurred; I now have internet access where I live. So no more excuses for me about not updating this thing. (nuts!)
Things are going well on the farm. It has turned a little colder here. After a few days of warm sunshine we now have cold drizzle. That's alright. I just won't pack my long underwear away yet. My seedlings are continuing to grow and their numbers increase each week. I've had some great volunteers come up to help and get their hands dirty. So far we have kale, onions, bunching (or green) onions, broccoli, parsley, cabbage, swiss chard, and as of today lettuce and peppers! I'm still spending a good amount of time looking for different kinds of equipment that I'll need or other supplies. I've spent so much time looking at catalogs and internet sites. Sometimes I feel like I don't get anywhere. My progress is a bit slow. Oh well. Now it's time for me to work on the text for my website. It's been on my to do list for three months now. Guess it's time to finally do it. :)

Sprouting!

It only took four days until my first sprouts! Amazing! I was (and still am) very excited! Kale was the first to poke through the soil and now a mere 8 days later I have onion sprouts too! So far my farm is up and running!. I'm keeping myself busy with farm related shopping sprees, working on marketing signs, and a wide variety of part time jobs. I gotta keep food on the table somehow until my veggies start coming in. Tomorrow I plan on painting my bee hive. I'll get my very first bees in April when it's a little warmer. Until then it's painting and planning. There are some other projects to keep me busy. I have farmers market applications to fill out, an organic farming certification application to fill out, fields to plan and map out. Oh it makes my head spin. I need to keep reminding myself to do a little at a time. I can't tackle everything all at once. Every day I have a much deeper respect for God, Creation, and my fellow farmers! There's so much to do.

It Begins!

Wild Goose Farm has gone from thoughts and dreams to a physical reality! There are onions, kale, and parsley seeds all tucked into trays of soil. It was a busy day and I had the help of a wonderful volunteer, Katy. We got a lot done. I can't believe it has actually begun! It's amazing and so exciting. I'll have pictures soon.

hello stranger!

well, look who finally decided to show up! Me! Sorry for the absence. I can't count on the number of times I thought to myself, "You know, I should really update my blog." I just didn't. A lot has been on my mind lately. I'm in the throes of planning my business; tracking down what things I need to do to be a legitimate business, continually rewriting and editing my business plan, reading up on sustainable farm practices, planning my planting schedule for next year, trying to put together a seed order, orchestrate meetings with insurance agents and loan officers. The list goes on. Talk about a juggling act! And if these few months are any indication I'm in for a wild ride next year. Keep me in your prayers!
So here's a quick update:
I have officially incorporated!
My farm finally has a name, Wild Goose Farm, LLC (limited liability company, it's a business thing)
I have a new email address for the farm, wildgoose.farm@yahoo.com
I'm still working for Sandhill Organics, that will continue through mid December. I'm still working on getting a winter job.

That 's the interesting stuff, anyway. I could get more into the details but it's not that exciting.

I'm posting a picture of the land that I'm renting. Right now it's growing a cover crop, a crop that I will till into the soil in the spring which will add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Plus it helps keep down erosion through the winter. It snowed here today so you'll just have to picture the field with a light blanket of white. I get so excited each time I see my field and picture in my head what it will look like next year.