Maris the Amazing Farm Intern Digs in

The lines are all straight-really!

Thanks for keeping the blog going Maris. A pretty accurate summation of the week follows..planting, planting and watering, watering because of the ultra-dry conditions. yes, rain is in the forecast for tomorrow. Here's hoping!

Another week, another blog.

Leeks going to seed

I’ve been enjoying being outdoors all week in the fields diggin’ and plantin’. Linda’s new reoccurring question for me is “are you sick of diggin’ holes yet?” and my answer varies between “not yet”, “nope, I’d rather do this than most other jobs” and “it beats labelling”. The sun was pretty merciless at the beginning of the week (I’m somehow still getting more tanned and burnt), but the clouds have provided a bit of shade for the past few days. Despite the bit of shade, we’ve had virtually no rain. The weather network has given us nothing but false prophecies and I’m beginning to wonder if I should do some serious research on rain dances. Nevertheless we’ve been very productive and in the past four days we’ve planted basil, eggplants, peppers, corn, beans, tomatillos, ground cherries, kale, broccoli and some other guys. And I don’t just mean a few. I’m talking about hundreds upon hundreds for most of the above mentioned veg. I forgot my camera this week, but I think Linda took some pictures and is going to post them.

Our army of animals has grown in more ways than one at New Leaf. The whole gang (my family, not the animals) went to a free-range poultry workshop near Owen Sound last weekend, and we all learned/ saw some neat stuff including where the term to goose comes from (they literally bite your butt when you’re not paying attention). After the workshop, we picked up some more heritage chicks and heritage poults (baby turkeys), which we plan to raise for laying as well as for meat-birds (sorry Linda). The muscovy ducks we acquired have doubled in size since I last saw them. They’re hanging out with some other chicks and Billy the Kid (the miniature goat) in the same pen, and they all seem to get along and even sleeping on one another (the birds are on the goat, not the other way around). The next guys on the recruitment list are probably going to be some Berkshire pigs or geese, and maybe a cow. Another cool thing we learned at the poultry workshop was that cow patties contain 7 enzymes (don’t quote me) that chickens need to digest food with meanwhile the chickens end up breaking up the patties so they crumble and fall apart faster in the rain and wind. The chickens also lower the fly count around manure by constantly eating the fly eggs and larvae. How’s that for a symbiotic relationship?