As for the veggie garden, it is slowly coming along. We have the following in the ground: potatoes, green beans, carrots, Soldier and Jacob's Cattle beans, swiss chard, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, corn (lots of corn!), tomatoes, herbs, winter squash, and cukes. That should do us for the winter.
Here at Happy Acres, we have been in the hayfield and veggie garden. We have 1500 bales in the barn as of yesterday. We will be at it again today. Needless to say, it has been hot out there. We will make up a batch of Switchel to help with the thirst.
As for the veggie garden, it is slowly coming along. We have the following in the ground: potatoes, green beans, carrots, Soldier and Jacob's Cattle beans, swiss chard, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, corn (lots of corn!), tomatoes, herbs, winter squash, and cukes. That should do us for the winter.
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Today, Jim got the disc mower out. So begins the season of making hay while the sun shines. By the time that we are done, we hope to have over 2000 bales in the barn.
Now we need warm, sunny days with a little wind to help dry the hay. We put up square bales and sometimes the big round ones. We have also been know to make hay silage, depending on the weather. Mocha was out enjoying the fresh mowed grass and clover. More calves in the barn. We have five now, with four more to go. These four are running around in the haybarn, kicking up their heels and driving their moms crazy. They play like little kids and when their moms call to them, because it is time to nurse, they only go on their terms...when they are hungry. The fifth calf is still in a pen with his mom until they bond a bit more and then he will be free to run around, too. Three bulls and two heifers so far.
Jim has been spreading manure and the fields are greening up with a little extra help from a light rain. We heard a wood thrush and a cat bird this morning. Spring is making its way here. Jim has tilled the winter rye under in the vegetable garden. Once the rain is done, he will till it one more time and then we can plant the early crops. Our last boil was truly on Easter and we had been holding out for one more run, but it is like someone turned off the faucet. No sap since March 27. So, now we start the process of cleaning the tubing in the woods and the equipment in the sugarhouse.
As with other farmers, we move onto other activities. Our first beef calves of the year were born yesterday. Here is a new heifer. She is 1 day old and getting use to the noises in the barn, the other cows and a new calf in the pen next to her. Soon, they will be all over the barn and kicking up their heels. Our last boil was on Easter and we have been waiting ever since for another sap run. As I mentioned last week, we saw some Miller moths, so apparently, the wise old sugarmakers were right...our season is coming to an end. We have not started to clean things up as we like to wait until the very last minute. We have only been tapped since the end of February so the tap holes have not dried out, but we are starting to see bud formation on the trees.
While waiting, Jim has been able to spread manure on the hayfields and pastures. The ban to spread manure on frozen ground here in the VT was lifted on April 1 (two weeks earlier than usual). The cows in the barn will start to calf within the week. We shall post some photos at that time. These photos that we are posting are from sugaring. The first is sap coming into the sugarhouse and going through a homemade filter system. The sap looks like strings of water crystals. Then the second photo is sap boiling in the evaporator. The stages of clear sap to liquid gold. The sap is running a bit and we will be boiling this afternoon after recovering from the wonderful family Easter dinner potluck. Overall the season has been slow because the temperatures have not been the best for the sap to run. Some days it has been too warm, others it has been too cold. The sugar content was high at the beginning of the season, which makes for fewer gallons needed to boil for a gallon of syrup (40 gallons sap to one gallon of syrup). It dipped lower for a bit, but is back up now. We saw Miller moths last week, which the old timers would say means we only have one week left of sugaring. Based on this week's forecast, we suspect that they were right. |
About UsJim and Sandy have been operating Happy Acres together since 1987. Archives
October 2020
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