Spring Planting On The Farm

What says time for spring planting any better than fruit tree blossoms?

Over the past few weeks and for the rest of the month, we are in the process of spring planting. We have planted a lot of seeds, trees, and flowers around the farm. We have plants in the greenhouse, in the hoop houses, in the orchard and orchard field, and in all of the raised beds.

I have planted trees, flowers, herbs, and plenty of vegetable seeds around the farm and in the greenhouse. Last springs labor of spring planting my Purple Passion Asparagus is now yielding us delicious purple asparagus that turns green when you steam it. I steamed up some newly harvested asparagus last night for dinner.

March 15-March 21, 2021 Spring Planting

Monday, March 15, 2021

Some of the baby chicks with the new brooder.

This morning, I woke up just after 6am. It was pitch black outside. I waited until 6:30am to go see the baby chicks. They were all huddled together but not under the brooder. When they started moving around, there was a dead one at the bottom of the huddle. I was so sad. I have never lost a baby chick before. I think they moved around in the dark and could not find the brooder since it does not light up. This brooder is supposed to let the chicks experience day and night but it looks like they all got on one and she could not breathe. From now on, I will leave a light on in the shed where they are. Last year, I raised 26 chicks together and this was never an issue because we had a heating lamp that allowed them to see.

The day has been so busy. I arranged all 18 of my rose bushes where I want them in the garden and Jerry will see that his crew gets them all planted today.

Mike is here with a helper to get the two new buildings finished off on the inside. The air conditioner people will be here tomorrow.

FedEx dropped off a pallet of envelopes to ship out online orders to our customers. I filled all of the orders I had to take care of. The fulfillment team across the parking lot has hundreds of orders to fill today.

David somehow hurt his knee last week. Today, he is in the den keeping his knee up so it will heal faster. He is not resting. He is working and is on top of everything going on, making calls and texts as needed.

Tuesday, March 16, 2021

This is Jerry, our new farm manager.

Jerry, our farm manager, has his crew doing spring planting in the greenhouse, in the hoop houses, and in the field. There is spring planting going on everywhere and some of the stuff that I planted in 12 beds is now starting to come up. Some of our trees are budding and blooming.

Matthew went over to the nursery we use to buy trees and he came back with several more trees and plants, mint, honeysuckle, blood orange trees, grapes, blackberry bushes and more. They planted the trees, grapes, and blackberries in the orchard.

Jason, who came to us after losing his job during Covid in 2020, has been going to school for auto mechanics. He just got a new job as an auto mechanic so he quit today. Jason is a good worker so we are sad to see him go, but we are happy for him to start his dream job.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

There is plenty going on today. Spring planting and watering are going on all over the property. The electrician was here to add an outside outlet for the new air conditioner that will be installed for the commercial kitchen. The window units are just not enough.

We found out that our store boogie man alarm is not working so the ADT people sent two vans over this morning to diagnose the problem. One got a bit hostile with me while I had David on the phone and he asked me my name. I told him my name is Juanita and I am David's wife. He was very nice to me after that. LOL!

Three of our rose bushes are blooming beautifully now. I am sure the other 15 will start popping out roses soon.

Here is our planted rose bed.

Orders for spring planting keep on pouring in. We just finished with Sunday's orders so we are running a bit behind.

The baby chicks are doing well. I have been leaving the shed light on at night so they can find the brooder and they go right under it. They keep filling their food and water dishes with wood shavings so I have to fix them every time I go out there. I go out every few hours to check on them, except for at night. It is difficult to do that during the day because I have no one to help me in the store. Matthew has been pulled to the shipping department because they are overwhelmed with the spring planting seed orders. David and I say thank you for each of you who have ordered from us.

We had several customers come into the store today looking for seeds for spring planting. One lady bought six packs of different varieties of Southern Peas. Another lady bought just herb seeds. A third lady bought garden veggies like tomatoes, carrots, beans, etc. Each gardener has a different idea for spring planting. There is no set way to do it right. Spring planting is individual to each gardener. For some, spring planting means growing beautiful flowers. For another, it is having tomatoes in many colors, shapes, and sizes. Plant what you love.

This afternoon, I checked on the chicks again and picked one up. That is not an easy feat. They run as soon as they see my hand now. I finally got one and she had pasty butt. This is a real thing. Her poo sticks to the vent (the opening where everything comes out including eggs) and when that is clogged, they cannot go potty. Then they die. So I had to clean her up. I picked up others after fighting to get them and no one else had it. I had a terrible time cleaning the chick up with a wet cloth. She wiggled and squirmed and that stuff did not want to come off. I have read about it, but never experienced pasty butt before.

Thursday, March 18, 2021

The air conditioner got installed today for the two new buildings by Comfort Commander Air Conditioning in Devine. This is a family owned business run by good people who are friends of ours.

I filled orders and restocked the store for a while. Then I scheduled a bunch of spring planting posts on social media for next week.

My rosebuds are opening and they are beautiful. Good thing we got them in the ground quickly.

This yellow rosebud opened quickly. Isn't it beautiful? Just in time for spring planting to make the front of our home so pretty.

Friday, March 19, 2021

Here is the finished covered walkway from fulfillment and production to new buildings where we will house some seeds. It got finished on 3/24/21.

Nahass Construction started working on a walkway to the two new buildings today but did not finish it.

The girl who cleans our house every two weeks was supposed to come today. She normally gets here by 9am and it takes her a good 8 hours to clean. She texted me on Thursday night asking if she was still coming on Friday morning. I responded and told her, "yes please." I started texting her around 9:15am. No response...Then at 10am I texted her to forget it because we have things to do and cannot be stuck here late into the evening like we have been before. Still no response.

Around 11am, the housekeeper's boss called David and said she is ill with a fever and would not be coming. Wouldn't it have been better had she texted me at 7am saying she was sick and would not make it? I just don't understand this kind of thing.

Matthew and Jerry went into town to get some irrigation pipes and parts for the orchard. Jerry and his crew are working on the orchard as well as spring planting in the rows between the trees. More spring planting went on inside the hoop houses.

Jerry had asked me this morning if he could dump about 30 pots on shelving outside of the fulfillment building. I explained to him that most were mint plants that had died. I asked him to move them into the greenhouse and water them. Each fall, the mint drops seeds into the dirt and dies. It comes back the next spring.

Someone put all of these pots, about 30, on some shelving, thinking they were just pots of dirt. They should have been in the greenhouse getting care and attention and we would already have mint plants to sell but every year I have to argue to keep my mint plants when they go dormant.

When I closed the store at 5pm, everyone was gone and I saw that Jerry and his crew left the 30 pots where they were. If I did not have to be stuck in the store all day long, I could be taking care of my stuff but I am in there six days a week. I need a new assistant, one who will listen to what we say and do things how we want things done. In the meantime, it is just me and occasionally, Matthew will get to help me in there.

Saturday, March 20, 2021

My broody Rhode Island Red knows that spring planting time is also chick hatching time. Yes, sometimes a little poo gets on the eggs when they come out...Don't worry, we clean them.

I did a lot of dusting, cleaning, decorating, and restocking at the store this morning. We had one couple come in only. After the store closed, I did some grocery shopping. When I got home, I had to make turkey burgers with cheese and eggs. Then we watched Svengoolie and it was pretty good. The movie was The Shadow Of The Cat made in 1961. It was hilarious and I really enjoyed it.

One of our former employees, Ariel got married today. She invited us but the wedding was a four hour drive one way for us and David is still hobbling around after hurting the back of his leg a week ago so we gave them a nice gift instead. I did see some photos and Ariel was a beautiful bride!

Matthew moved a bunch of what appear to be empty pots from some shelving out behind the fulfillment building to the greenhouse. He did this for me because the outdoor crew did not do it yesterday.

Sunday, march 21, 2021

Another beautiful sunrise! Thank you, God!

Good morning. It is time to go to church. It is chilly again today at 41°. The baby chicks are doing well.

We went to church and then went to Shades of Green Nursery that Bob Webster owns. We found some nice plants there for our yard. I had a gift card from Christmas so we stopped at a Red Lobster on I-35 for lunch. Then we came home.

I got changed and went to catalog the orchard again as some dead trees have been removed and others have been added. To my surprise, some I thought were dead from the 2019 orchard show signs of life. A few of the new ones are dead due to our winter snowstorm in February that lasted for most of a week. Almost all of the trees are leafing out so I am quite pleased.

Return from Spring Planting to Farm And Business Life

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