I'm Back!

Remember Me?

Just like the little purple crocus flowers forcing their way to the sun this month defying the cold and the snow to announce to the world “we are alive and have made it through the icy grip of winter,” I, too, am shaking off the effects of another Indiana winter and am ready to blog.

It’s been awhile since our last blog post and not much has happened, but I will catch you up anyhow. Sherry has just finished writing two very large computer book projects and is starting a new one, so this has kept her busy all winter. We were also very busy battling snow for several months. We found ourselves questioning the wisdom of keeping any type of livestock through the winter months. It’s a lot of work trudging out into the cold with buckets of water, busting ice out of the waterers and whatnot. The snow even pulled down our chicken’s electric fence netting. So we had some concerns with that, but the animals wintered over pretty well, all in all. We still have 43 chickens and the 2 turkeys.

Speaking of livestock, we have been bumping our heads against the proverbial wall (called the Indiana State Board Of Health) trying to get them to give their blessing on selling our quail eggs to retail businesses. Apparently, they don’t seem to have any experience or codes or anything that deal with quail eggs. The only thing they seem sure of is that they should regulate them (as with everything else under the bureaucratic sun). I, on the other hand, want to see the codes or statutes that would give them this authority rather than just arbitrary rules that, as far as I can tell, are forbidden by law. I want to comply with the law, but no one seems to know what that is. So this saga continues.

Meanwhile, I continue to come up with schemes that will make us millionaires by the time I retire. Sherry just smiles and skeptically shakes her head. The darned government safety rules are starting to shake my confidence a bit, though, with most of my schemes. Thank goodness my father-in-law still has the good sense to know a horse that can run when he sees one, so I am sure he is still right there with me in all of this. Thanks, Pop. By the way, what do you think about miniature diamond farms, Pop? I know, it sounds good doesn’t it?

I have just completed the first of the 2010 garden plantings. On March 20 I planted spinach seed that our friend Tracy gave me last fall. You may remember Tracy from my blog about the Florida weave last year. Tracy’s the one that was sure that a baby white-tail deer fawn had the same temperament as a Kodiak bear. I also planted red Russian Kale, Swiss chard, kohlrabi, collard greens and lettuce. You gotta love those cold weather veggies! People always forget about them and that they can be planted early.

On the subject of planting, we are fully intending to do a CSA again this year. I think this nice sunny weather is necessary to fully convict us into committing to doing it for another year. It is an awful lot of work but we learned a lot last year and think that we can streamline some of the work this go round. I think we are going to take on fifteen shares and would like to get a couple of folks to commit to working shares. A working share is a reduced price share for work in the garden--in other words, a discount for helping in the garden, a barter if you will. So contact us soon for more info if you’re interested because slots will fill up fast.

Well, I’m done talking. --Matt