Nature Will Find A Way

4 years. The last time we cared for our farm on a regular basis was 4 years ago. Yet as we vigorously prepare for our new plants, allowing us a fresh start, I found this raspberry plant peeking through as if to say Hello....we still like it here, and we're ready....

Click here: The Unexpected Farm Girl - The Prequel for photos & amusing stories from the 2008 - 2011 part of The Unexpected Farm Girl's journey. 

Smiles!

The Unexpected Farm Girl (Erika)

Mound Makin' Weekend

Raspberries don't like to have "wet feet." So the strategy is to make mounds, thereby creating an elevation through which water can drain away from the tender raspberry roots. Takes muscle, but looks so nice and neat, and in THEORY is not something we will have to do every year.

Friday

Quick break to capture the moment before the thunderstorm we hear closes in on our work for the day.

Saturday

3 hoop houses down, 3 to go.

Sunday

House #2

Whew. Done. And we even started in on getting the plastic laid down in house #1 to help keep down the weeds.

1 week count down to berry arrival!

Click here: The Unexpected Farm Girl - The Prequel for photos & amusing stories from the 2008 - 2011 part of The Unexpected Farm Girl's journey. 

Smiles!

The Unexpected Farm Girl (Erika)

The Deer Party

A quick break to admire the prints from the deer who obviously had a good time at the farm after we left on Friday....

My son (Thing 2) made this one, because he said, why were their foot prints such that it looks like they were staggering around all over the place?

Click here: The Unexpected Farm Girl - The Prequel for photos & amusing stories from the 2008 - 2011 part of The Unexpected Farm Girl's journey. 

Smiles!

The Unexpected Farm Girl (Erika)

The Rootinator

It's Easter! Happy Spring, and Cheers to new beginnings!

Today was pretty labor intensive. The guys measured the spacing for the rows and in between:

Then stretched the twine down the whole length of the hoop house to stake out the area for the growing beds:

Then the tough part began, raking up the mounds that allow for drainaige because raspberries DO NOT like having "weet feet."

But by quitting time, the guys had some nice looking rows. Even prettier dirt than it was yesterday!

And as always, the day was challenging, but fun. We were together, and that's what matters to me.

Oh, what did I do, you might ask? They called me "The Rootinator." Whenever one of the guys came across a root impeding progress, a root that we wouldn't want to be taking up vital nutrients and space from baby berries, it was The Unexpected Farm Girl to the rescue! I swooped in with my loppers and eliminated the problem in the blink of an eye, or at least, after tugging and fighting with a root for a while, making ugly grunting noises and eventually managing to cut it down as far as I could. So you see, it was a very valuable role I played.

Click here: The Unexpected Farm Girl - The Prequel for photos & amusing stories from the 2008 - 2011 part of The Unexpected Farm Girl's journey. 

Smiles!

The Unexpected Farm Girl (Erika)

We Have Pretty Dirt

A day out on the farm with my munchkins (who aren't so little anymore) is always a glorious thing.

 

Meanwhile, there was much to be done to prepare, as we received the email that our raspberries are officially on their way. So, time to work smarter not harder. This plow has been sitting at the farm for several years. Fortunately today Husband had the brainstorm to actually USE it. 

It's not easy to get the hang of it, and Husband had to get out and kick the weeds out of it almost right away.

 Quick break to carry this lady bug to safety.

 And a break to enjoy time together.

But then Husband says get back to work and clear that briar tree from house #2. And that was an endeavor in and of itself.

 It may not be the healthiest alternative, but we needed a boost of energy to keep tractoring.

 Using the plow turned out to be super successful, producing some nice rich looking dirt.

At the end of the day (almost literally), we accomplished much more than we thought we would, and ended up with 6 areas of pretty dirt, ready for the next step of making the dirt into mounds, then applying the ground cover to keep out the weeds, making us AND the berries much happier.

Alphabet Family Farm Hoop House #1

 Alphabet Family Farm Hoop House #2

 Alphabet Family Farm Hoop House #3

 Alphabet Family Farm Hoop House #4

 Alphabet Family Farm Hoop House #5

 Alphabet Family Farm Dirt Patch Area #6

Who would have thought that dirt would be such a sight for sore eyes. After considering where we started in January, with a veritable forest growing inside the hoop houses, and lots of snow puddles everywhere, it feels good to sit back and look at all that pretty dirt.

Click here: The Unexpected Farm Girl - The Prequel for photos & amusing stories from the 2008 - 2011 part of The Unexpected Farm Girl's journey. 

Smiles!

The Unexpected Farm Girl (Erika)