Monday, January 14, 2013

Welcome to 2013

Well it has been awhile since our last post, but we are still here. We have been spending our December with family, friends and each other. A trip to New Mexico, Xmas with my family in Cincinnati, and some down time at the farm has been quite rejuvenating.

On the train

Relaxing at the hot springs

On the pond with friends
January brings us back to business, and the excitement of the coming 2013 CSA season. Our 2011 apprentice Luke Knutter has joined us full-time. He will help us gear up as we expand the CSA to 150 shares, and will also be learning all the details of running the farm.

One of the first orders of business was tractor maintenance. Our gas tractor (aka Grandpa) was leaking and falling apart a bit by the end of the season and in need of maintenance. Immobile in December, he was a pretty sight nontheless in the snow. But we got him running and look forward to a repair free 2013.

Grandpa in the snow

Tractor repair
These first two weeks of the year have been filled with work, including: placing the seed order, ordering equipment, fixing tractors, cleaning the lower barn, designing a new cooler, planning for a laying chicken operation, entering 2012 data into the computer, presenting at the Great Plains Growers Conference, cleaning out the high tunnel, finding this year's apprentices, scouting out a new Brookside distribution site, and meeting with the Core Group yesterday.

We plan to begin seeding the onions and leeks in the greenhouse sometime this week. Signup information will be filling your in-boxes in the next day or so too, as we finalize the details of the coming season's costs, dates, and distribution locations.

The snow is gone, and warm weather is forecast for later this week. And while Rocky will miss the snow, we will have plenty of chances to walk the farm with him.


Rocky prancing at sunrise
 
Snow angels

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