Tired and sore

So the sun has been shining here, which means we’ve barely sat down at all as we scramble to get things done. This weekend was full of socializing and meeting new people as well as much farm work. In the past few days we have:

• planned irrigation for the New Farm (nothing in the ground yet there since there is no water nor fence yet);
• had our farm inspection, required to sell at our Farmers’ Market — they just want to make sure we are growing and not importing;
• met a new friend and toured his chicken tractor setup, meat chick brooding facility, and brewing/drinking space, as well as meeting the soon-to-be-mutton sheep;
• introduced the Wyandottes, who are now 4 months old, to the big wide world;
• shuffled some things around in the greenhouse to make room for the tomatoes;
• moved the tomatoes back into the greenhouse so they can grow big and strong (we will not be having nearly as many tomatoes as we had hoped);
• watered everything, and then watered again;
• fixed the hanging auto-refilling chicken/duck waterers so that they actually auto-refill;
• watered again;
• hauled much dirt all morning to fill up the flower bed;
• mucked out the chicken coop;
• permanently moved the Wyandottes into the big girls’ section of the coop;
• moved the Ameraucanas, who will be 7 weeks old this week, out into the subdivision of the coop — hooray for no more poultry in the house!!;
• showed off our chicken tractor technology to some folks who want to build one;
• drank iced tea on the porch with Garth’s folks;
• made a list of everything in the greenhouse that needs to be potted up, planted, or otherwise dealt with — it’s a big list;
• potted up some squash we got at the Tilth plant sale, which are still in the greenhouse;
• planted out a few rows of Shimonita bunching onions;
• did two loads of laundry and ran the dishwasher;
• drank a beer.

But it’s just the calm before the storm. This week is OK — some basic things need accomplished like planting out the flower bed, mulching paths and around some of the larger starts, and addressing the greenhouse inventory list, but the next week, we have 6 turkey poults (babies) arriving on Tuesday, and 25 meat chickens arriving on Thursday, and a show to go to in Seattle that same day, Thursday, and then also a chicken slaughter party to go to on Saturday. Need to prepare homes for both these batches of poultry before they arrive! And then there are plans to make about doing chickens for sale … more to come on that soon!