FRETTING

I can’t help myself, but this time of year, I do a lot of fretting. Some people say worrying, some get stressed, I just fret. I am fretting thinking if I have enough seeds planted; I wonder and fret if the weather will be too cold to put out tomato and pepper plants; I fret whether I should water or not water; I wonder if the weather is not right for pollination of the fruit trees; I fret about thinking if the bees are able to get to my trees in the wind; I wonder if I will have enough produce so that my CSA members will be happy with the baskets when the season begins; I fret thinking about what the gophers will eat. Makes a person a little crazy at times but pulling weeds sure is good therapy, hoe work really helps break down the fretting too. I also knit in the evenings and that is always calming to me. Such is the life of a farmer, fretting and worrying is part of the being actually an employee of Mother Nature and self doubt does creep into your thinking. Once the erratic weather is finished and my plants really take off, I am sure I will feel more confident, I think!! But I can’t help but be amazed and wonder of nature when I stop fretting and see nature doing their thing in spite of all the efforts and fretting anyone does. I am sharing a few photos of some flowers and plants showing their beauty in the yard.

I have been running a “guess this bloom” little contest on Windmill Farm’s Facebook page. It has been fun and I hope my farm, “friends” are enjoying the game. You win a free pound of produce or a dozen eggs if you guess the plant or bloom.

My greenhouse is wonderful, I just think I should have purchased it a month or so sooner (but didn’t have the finances) as I had needed to start the tomatoes and pepper plants much earlier. I guess I may end up purchasing actual plants but that sure is costly since I have to purchase many more than most backyard gardeners. I did plant out more lettuce yesterday from plants that were sown in the greenhouse. I started seeds in the greenhouse and seeds in the ground and the greenhouse plants are twice the size of the ones in the ground.

I started cleaning up my sorting shed in anticipation of using it in a month or so while Frank tiled the floor in the sorting shed little bathroom. I am looking for some old barn wood to put it on the inside walls if anyone who happens to read my blog, knows where I can find any. I plan on white-washing the barn wood to lighten it up since the size is as big as a bathroom is on an airliner plane.

WE HAVE OWLS in our owl nesting boxes that Frank built. At night, the hooting is so loud; it even woke us up the other warm night as we had the windows open. Makes me happy to know they are helping us with the rodent issues, all part of the sustainability farming that we use. We have a couple left that Frank built that we are selling on Craigslist if anyone else wishes to try them out in their orchards, gardens or fields. They really work. We also have several families in our bluebird nesting boxes too.

We hosted the Garden Club that I belong to, here at Windmill Farm this month. The day was windy but our members and friends braved through it to take a tour of the yard and to talk a little about plants, trees, weeds, whatever gardeners find delightful to talk about. Our meeting went well and it is always a joy to surround myself with people who enjoy working in the yard as much as I do. And we always learn so much from each other and share new yard implements; new composting tricks; new places to tour gardens. I can’t wait until our next meeting in June that will be hosted at Robert and Paddy Bateman’s gorgeous yard. If you are interested in joining our very friendly and non-structured garden club/get togethers, just give me a call or email me at windmillfarm@sbcglobal.net.

So, I have decided to just keep plugging along in my vegetable fields, I will keep hoeing, knitting and weeding and will try to stop worrying. I will just give my frets to a higher person to do all the worrying for me. Besides, he is in control of everything anything, not me. Sometimes I just need to remember that. Happy Gardening!

WINDMILL NEWS

These last few weeks have been pretty much uneventful and not hugely productive. My grandkids have been sick so I haven’t been able to see them and miss them very much. The weather has been on/off rain but we did manage to get some things planted.
The strawberries arrived and all 300 plants are planted. Frank rotatilled a few areas that had some winter cover-crop and I planted Swiss Chard, snow peas, carrots, radishes, onions, beets. I need to get some broccoli going but have to purchase some seeds along with my other summer crop seeds, such as squash, cucumbers, peppers, beans.
Many of our fruit trees are blooming, the apricots, the nectarines, I have one apple variety that is blooming and the peach trees have what I call a “wisp” of blossoms. Just puffs of pink blossoms here and there. If you are reading this blog and do not live in this wonderful and magical land of fruit orchards, you need to take a drive all along Hwy 70 and Hwy 99, thru Marysville, Yuba City and Gridley and check out all the orchards. They are just so beautiful right now with all colors of blossoms. If the air is clear, you can even smell their sweetness.
The flock of chickens are producing very well, getting lots of eggs now from the heritage breeds young Buff Orphington and Barred Rock chickens I purchased a few months ago. Unfortunately, I did have one chicken die yesterday. I always hate that, she was one of my old girls so it was probably her time to go. I sell the eggs and are available by request, call 530-846-3344, cost $3.00 a dozen and I can leave the eggs for you on my fruit stand for a drive by pickup. There is a self service money slot at the stand to leave the egg money.
I attended the most fabulous workshop a week ago called Growing AgTourism for Small Farms put on by Penny Leff, UC Small Farm Program and Holly George, UCCE. They had all types of speakers to address as many aspects of AgTourism that people may have questions about, such as zoning, working through the challenges, social media and collaborations with other operations. I was very inspired and learned a great deal. I thank Penny and Holly for a great class. I am still working with our Neighborhood Group to fight our agriculture re-zoning issue with Butte Co and IF we are able to retain our present Agriculture Zoning, I would like to pursue a few other interests here at Windmill Farm. Frank and I are trying to be as self- sufficient as possible and want to help inform and educate others. We want to be able to put on some canning classes; also show how to dry fruit very easily for kids snacks, putting food by to eat later when it isn’t available (just like the little squirrels!); also like to give some beginning vegetable planting classes, maybe a class on container vegetables or even small plot gardening; and also do school children vegetable gardening classes and/or tours of the farm. At the workshop, they had 3 county representatives to talk about getting farms zoned to do AgTourism. Butte Co representative said it takes a minimum of $1600 for the initial fees to have the county review the request and it takes about 6 months for a committee to evaluate it. Calaveras Supervisor Steve Wilensky said there is NO FEE in their county and they will have an answer for you within a week and they are VERY PRO FARMING and anything related to farming is highly encouraged. Tehama Co department was represented and he said it takes about 2 months and costs around $500. So even though Butte Co states they are “supportive of agriculture”, I think they need to take lessons on how to promote business using their best business commodity, AGRICULTURE, and try and encourage cottage industries within Butte Co.
At least with the rain, I was able to get caught up on my 2010 paperwork and finished preparing my information for my tax guy. Even farming has to be managed in a businesslike manner. I have contracted with Sarah Tamagni recently to design a new logo for our farm. I need one that I can use in a new website I want to create and also to use on signs for my van and front of our farm. Maybe even have some labels made to put on my CSA baskets, business cards, even T Shirts!!!!! I can’t wait to see what she has come up for us.
Plan to take pictures every few days on the plants in the greenhouse to have some posted on the blog and Facebook to show how fast they grow.
The sun is out and I need to get outside myself to take advantage of this clear weather. Until next time, from Windmill Farm.
PS: Frank is building some owl nest boxes to help rid the fields of gophers. And they are beautiful animals to have around.