Originally sent to subscribers on July 31st, 2024 Farm Update July/August July has been steadily busy with markets, CSA, and birthdays. We celebrated Craig's birthday with cherry pie and kayaking at Causey. In addition our goat, Finnick, celebrated his 1st birthday on July 12th and our mouser cat turned one on July 5th. This past weekend marked the halfway point in our CSA and it was also the first weekend of the Monastery Farmer's Market which will be happening every Satur

Originally sent to subscribers on July 1st, 2024 Farm Update June/July June was a much better month to us than May was. Even though we did have a random freeze mid-way through June that caused some damage to a few garden plants. Thankfully we didn't have to replace any plants and everything is recovering nicely. The CSA season is underway, we are in our third week already and even though the garden is still having to catchup to our harvesting needs, we are managing with a

Originally sent to subscribers on June 1st, 2024 Farm Update May/June May started out to be a very good and productive month, but did not turn out to be such a nice month for us. I don't intend to dwell only on the hardships we've had recently, but I do always want to be authentic and show all the sides of this homestead/ranching life we lead. The weather was moody and kept me guessing as to when there would and would not be frost/freeze. I covered much of the warm weather

Originally sent to subscribers on April 28th, 2024 Farm Update April/May It is officially the busy season around here. In fact, April was so busy I couldn't remember if I'd sent my monthly newsletter last month until I sat down to write this one and was able to check. (I did.) My USU Master Gardener classes will end on May 1st and even though I have until November to get my 40 volunteer hours in, I've been working hard to get them finished before the classes end since the s

Originally sent to subscribers on April 1st, 2024 It seems like the snow melted a little earlier than normal this year, but we've continued to have frequent wet weather. I am grateful for lack of snow, but I find myself wanting to get out into the garden and start planting things, which I know very well is a bad idea. But the no snow thing is like a trigger for my brain to start being outside. So, I'm having to rein myself in pretty much daily and that's been a little frustra

Originally sent to subscribers on February 28th, 2024 Farm Update February/March Every time I look at my calendar I'm shocked. Where did February go? I keep thinking it should be the middle of February still, but here we are about to enter March! Craig and I took a vacation the first week of February. We went to Sayulita Mexico for 4 days and enjoyed the beach. When we got home we had a day to rest and recover from the traveling and we've been crazy busy since. Craig has ha

Originally sent to subscribers on January 29th, 2024 Farm Update January/February It has been an unusually warm January and while we still have snow on the ground, it's melting at a quick pace. I'm not usually thinking about mud at the beginning of February, but mud we have. It's making me want to break out the garden tools, but we still have a couple of months before I can do that. My seed starting shelves are starting to look nice and green though. I haven't really shared a

Originally sent to subscribers on December 8th, 2023 Merry Christmas! The snow has finally arrived in our little valley and we managed to get everything winterized! Craig still has one project he wants to finish, but we're waiting for it to be delivered. It's a carport along the side of our house to shelter the tractor since we have decided to use it as our main means of moving snow this year, and it doesn't have a cab. Last month I mentioned I was working on some things

Originally sent to subscribers on November 6th, 2023 Farm Update: November The change in weather and the decreasing sunlight has be a little discombobulated. We're a week into a new month and all the things I typically do at the first of the month have been completely forgotten. Thus, the late newsletter. Actually, I can't entirely blame the weather and the sun. I took a week long staycation all last week and while I did do some work things that couldn't be ignored and kept

Originally sent to subscribers on October 1st, 2023 Farm Update: October This past week I gave up trying to get anything on my to-do list done. A couple weeks ago, Craig and I both came down with Covid. Craig recovered after about 5 days, but it was almost two weeks before I started to feel even close to normal. And just as I did start feeling better, we got bad news. At the beginning of the month, I noticed one of our chickens was walking funny. I looked her over and didn'

Originally sent to subscribers on August 30th, 2023 Farm Update: September Fall is in the air... kind of. We've had some rainy cool weather and there is a hint of color showing up on our trees. But summer hasn't left us entirely. We still have plenty of hot weather and sunshine, but I'm not complaining about the cooler mornings and evenings. The seasons are beginning to transition and so are we. September is the month where we start to think about winding down and wrappin

Originally sent to subscribers on July 31st, 2023 Farm Update: August Can you believe it's already time to start thinking about fall? I can't. I haven't forgotten about all the snow we had - it still feels like it was winter just a few weeks ago. And pretty soon the trees are going to be changing! At least with all the water we've had, it should be an excellent year for colors. We've started working on our fall projects and figuring out what needs fixed, updated, built, etc

Originally sent to subscribers on June 29th, 2023 Farm Update: July Our CSA is officially underway! We have the first two weeks under our belt and the garden is looking great. I'm excited for what this year is going to bring to us, and to our farm share members. In goat news ... Honey's due date is right around the corner. I expect I'll have some sleepless nights starting in about a week. You can expect baby goat content over on our social media pages as soon as they hit th

Originally sent to subscribers on May 31st, 2023 Farm Update You know how I said May was going to be a busy month? It has been. But somehow, even though I KNEW it was going to be busy, I didn't fully comprehend that would mean my whole body would be sore almost every single day of May. But June is here and the hardest part of gardening (prepping, planting, and mulching) is done. After moving about 10 yards of wood chips with a wheelbarrow, I gave up on woodchips and switche

Originally sent to subscribers on April 30th, 2023 The Busy Season Begins The time has finally arrived to get plants and seeds in the ground! We have tomato plants in the greenhouse, leeks, broccoli, onions, and chard have been transplanted, and carrots, beets, parsnips, potatoes and turnips have been sown. The entire month of May will be busy with soil prepping, seed planting, and transplanting the numerous plants that are sitting in my office. If you purchased one of our

Originally sent to subscribers on March 27th, 2023 Spring is Springing...kind of. The snow started melting, and then we got more. I'm trying not to get anxious about the timing of the garden, but the more snow we get, the more difficult it is to keep anxiety at bay. Hopefully we'll still be okay though. I know on the other side of the valley, people have far more snow than we do. Craig surprised me with a small greenhouse a couple weeks ago. I figured out where I wanted it

Originally sent to subscribers on January 23rd, 2023 Trying to make February cheerful February is usually that one month in the year we spend longing for spring. We know it's just around the corner since the sun is slowly stretching it's hours, but there is still snow (a whole bunch in our backyard!), and it's still cold. This year, I'm trying to make February as cheerful a month as possible. Not just for myself, but for you too, which is why I included a picture of a sunfl

Originally sent to subscribers on February 22nd, 2023 Farm Share Registration is OPEN! I am so excited about Farm Share Registration opening up! I've spent the last few weeks getting details finalized and kinks worked out. This is our first official year offering farm shares, you may remember we did a practice run last year. Since it is our first year, we know there will be plenty of room to grow. So we hope you'll be patient with us during our first season and offer any fe