What happened in March

I keep waiting for things to slow down but for some reason that does not happen. There is no time to rest, especially not on the Kucek Family Farm.

Trees– The orchard is moving along as usual. This month we have been keeping up with the rain and sun. If you have a nice lush lawn you will know that after a rain comes sun, then follows growth. There is a lot of weed control that has to be done to keep the orchard healthy and manageable. This is done through lots of mowing and strip spraying. Some farms may spray the whole orchard, but we do our best to minimize chemicals as we are not fond of using them. For this reason  we have to keep up on the moving and practice a no till orchard. Tilling leaves a nice clean orchard after complete, but encourages weeds to grow even stronger and thicker.

Garden-The peas that were planted are looking great, I even did a second planting to keep them coming when they start producing. I have also planted lettuce of different types. The kale and swiss are looking great with the cool weather, although, as the heat goes up, they will start to seed and become more bug infested. Our kale and swiss chard we keep for several years before we pull it out. A nice way to save on money from having to buy new plants.

I have four long raised beds; three of which are in use right now. I am going through a process of adding nutrition and soil back in to them one bed at a time. This means 1 bed is full of onions that are looking good, one has kale and swiss chard, that will die back in the summer and be overtaken with zinnias, and the third bed has carrots, beets and cabbage. Those will also slow down in the summer and I will begin the process of redoing that bed.

Many people have their gardens in right now, but I am in no rush to put my tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and melons in as these are all heat loving plants. From experience I have found that they get a stronger start when the nights are warmer. I do however plan on putting them in in the next few weeks.

Those of you who wanted to put in any bare root plants or trees….Now is the last chance you’ll have before the heat sets in. I planted a new blood orange tree.

Chickens-Also as the weather warms up our chickens are laying more eggs, let us know if you need any. We have hatched out a few more chicken to take the place of some of those hard working hens. On the horizon for this farm…Turkeys. We have had turkeys in the past, but it has been some time since then. We will be getting some turkeys in April to enjoy during thanksgiving. We have always purchased local turkeys to celebrate the holidays, but this year we will be raising our own. Nothing like a home grown turkey. Of course, I will not be the one to butcher it…nope, I am not ready for that job. I did grow up plucking turkey for the table, but ending it’s life is another story. I will leave that to the pros.

Farm-We have been doing a massive clean up like no other on this farm. We have been going through generations of things, all along learning about our farm, our forefathers, and just our general history. It is amazing to see all that has been left behind from three generations going all the way back to the horse and buggy. Talk about needing some pictures right now, I will have to update with some. I found some great pictures of my Polish grandparents and pictures of my mom and uncle when they were kids. This is fabulous as I have seen very little from this time (the 1940’s and 50’s).  We were also able to get rid of 40 yards of waste!  That’s a lot of trash, and a lot of work, and a lot of letting go. We are making room for progress, something you will learn a lot about as you take this journey with us.

I have also accomplished some personal projects. I build my daughters bed! It is a loft bed, one my daughter had been asking for. It was also not in the budget, so in order to please my daughter I had to learn how to build one for her. Thanks to the plans I stumbled across on Ana White’s web site, I was able to accomplish this. My daughter was beyond happy, and so was I. I was able to build a bed for under $100 bucks! The joy on my little ones face was priceless. Worth the effort, and I learned some new skills. It’s funny really, because my dad build my bed. I was always the one standing behind him asking what he was doing, and he would always shoo me away, yet I am the one who ended up being the wood worker in my family, something I am sure my father would have never expected as he was very old fashion about things. Now it is me my family calls when they have a wood question. If you ever have a wood question feel free to ask.

 

March-So March is over and here comes April I will be sure to post all my new garden pictures and the progress of our house demolition that will be happening soon. Can’t wait to get the recking ball rolling..Until next time.