I realized that I do enjoy reading blog updates even when there are no pictures. A little glimpse into the life of people I like. A small thread of connection with others. Positive thoughts and gratitude towards people those with similar interests, have fun digging in the dirt, hatching chicks, mucking stalls and enjoying every minute of it, in spite of hard work.

And as usual, when I have a few minutes to write a post, I have no pictures to go in it. So it will be updated later.

Here is what we’ve been up to for the past few weeks:

Fence. We have been working on the garden fence and it is coming along nicely. Enclosing the area between the house and the barn. Roughly estimated it is 70×170 feet. Thankfully, not all of it had to be fenced. Most of it, though… Not all of it is garden. There is a double line of pines/ box elder trees right in the middle, dividing the area. We are planning to put mushrooms in there in the future. Yumm!!

Old trusted Honda is out again

Posts go in

Originally we bought cedar posts. Then we looked at the receipt…and exchanged them for treated ones, which cut our costs by about 2/3. When 50 posts cost you $500 and not $1500, you feel a whole lot better about a lot of things. As I am not pitting vegetable beds right next to the posts, it should be safe enough. Besides, you do the best you can in being natural and chemical free. I wish we could do cedar, but the price is just too high! Moving on.

Frank and Sid the Micro Man

Sid is enjoying the ride

Here they are, in the ground

Between the posts is welded wire. Pretty, dark green one. Even though it might not be the most durable wire, it is the best out of all the types we had to deal with over the years. It is stronger that chicken wire, but definitely not as good as woven one. It is easy to stretch by hand and it looks nice. We had a go at woven wire when we were putting up horse paddocks…what a pain! It was extremely difficult to stretch, even with the right tools. And for all our efforts it was all bent out of shape in about a year, with horses leaning on it and  scratching their butts.

At this point we got all fence wired.  And makeshift gates were made. Next we’ll make proper gates and put 2×4’s on the bottom and top of the wire. Then posts will need to be cut, so they are all even and pretty. We might even put some tops on, maybe solar lights!

Garden. I am exited to have the garden so much bigger this year! I had to move some of the raised beds to accommodate the fence line and create a bit of a different layout for the whole thing.  The plan is to have it look like potager garden, with some raised beds and some inground ones. I am planning to have some flowers among the veggies, and nice wide walkways too. There should be room enough to bring the ATV in, when needed and to get around with the wheelbarrow.

Tomato and pepper seedlings are doing good, awaiting to be transplanted .

I bought four types of Raspberries from Green Barn Garden Center. Could not resist and got 5 of each! Nova, Autumn Britten, Anne Yellow and Polka. If they all make it, we’ll have a lot of raspberries! Got them all in the ground yesterday.

Golden Currants came from Isanti county tree order this year. A batch of 25. Got them in the ground too.

Sadly, can’t plant anything in the beds until the fence is finished, chickens are getting in and scratching things out.

Speaking of Chickens. A little Black Japanese Bantam hen hatched four babies. Unfortunately one disappeared. It was so tiny, maybe mice carried it off for a pet…

So  I took the rest of the eggs and put them in the incubator, together with some duck eggs, that I got from a friend. So far we hatched two babies. I do hope they are hens 😉

Happy Spring everybody! Keep busy!