Our first summer on the farm

There was still much to be done and I was no longer working the sales job with crazy hours. Now I could really get some things done around the farm. There was still the vegetable garden. It was without any fence at all, only half the chicken yard had fence around it and now my bestest best friend (my wife) decides she wants a flower garden ..."Ok honey" I said. I would start it right away. After all, if my wife wants a flower garden it was the least I could do. She has put up with me talking about chickens for the last seven months the least I could do was carve out a piece of land for a flower garden.















Next was the garden fencing and gate. I read a article on a make your own garden gate. The picture was cool and said to myself I could do that. Even better it would cost next to nothing. All the fencing and old post were piled up behind the barn so all I needed was a big hammer to pound them in place. Ok I really needed a post driver, but I had a big hammer instead. Visiting friend Toby (vacationing from Minneapolis) helped me make my gate. He was awesome! He helped me cut the tree branches to make the gate, helped me construct and hang it. And the best part... it was raining pretty much the whole time and he never once complained. (Thanks Toby for working so hard with me on your vacation)







My seedlings were growing well in the cold frame and the lettuce was doing fine. I was eager to transplant into my soil beds as soon as possible (weather permitting). Speaking of weather, at this time I was checking the weather forecast daily and getting very frustrated ~ this was a cold spring...

The apple and pear trees were in full bloom now, but it was too cold for the bees to come out of hibernation. We were getting worried that there would be no pollinating of our fruit trees. FINALLY the weather warmed up and we had bees for three days and all the blossoms fell off right after that, literally a 72 hour window. Look what those bees accomplished.