Snow day and seed orders

   We finally got a little snow last Thursday. It was actually kinda nice to pile on my snow pants  and snow boots to go out to do chores. Altho I suspect the animals weren't quite as happy as I was. They were all doing pretty good tho and we gave them all a little extra straw to hunker down in. We hunkered in also (in the house) and looked at the seed catalogues for what we want to order, compiling lists from last year, piling up what we have on hand, sorting, dreaming...ah...

   The bad winds and snow kept us from our deliveries in Chicago on Thursday, so we went to the big city on Friday to deliver. I took Ricky with me...he rides on my head.

   I do have to be careful with him tho. As we cross the streets, some people have the tendency to speed up when driving toward us. I know that happens in the country...but come on folks! A quick whip off of the hat sometimes helps...

   The snow was blowing and drifting across the road when we left the house at 7:30am. The day before was pretty windy so we were glad that we sat it out at home. Chicago got a lot more snow than we did and it wouldn't have been fun driving all day in it...not to mention the crazies (oh, guess I mentioned them above with the Ricky hat huh?).
   We've been excited to take the new seed catalogues to the chefs. Every year we contact a couple of our favorite seed companies and ask for extra catalogues. Then we distribute them to the chefs so they can peruse them for interesting new products they'd like to try. They love getting them and we love hearing their wish lists.
   We ask them to give us their "dream lists" by the end of the month. Then we finish up our orders and mail them in. It is super exciting to see what they would like to try, and it's always fun for us to try new items. We really enjoy growing items that are requested special by our friends. It also helps us to know what to grow, takes a lot of the guess work out of it.
   Today, a Monday that feels very much like a Monday, the snow is already melting off. The chix are happy about that as they HATE walking across the snow. The ducks love the snow and look like penguins as they skid about on their bellies from puddle to puddle.
   I'm cleaning up the plant areas in the house today. Re-potted the cacti garden (one of the only gardens I'm actually good at, even tho they look a little on edge in the pic) and got the upstairs bookcases ready to hold new seedling trays. Then I started work on the downstairs.

   We can fit about 50 flats (36 pots each) in our downstairs planting area. But, we also "borrow" the plugs and extension cords throughout the year. So every year in January I clean up, find all the plugs, buy new extension cords, fill the water jugs, and start filling the plant trays with soil. That way everything is ready to go as soon as the calendar says the timing is right.
   The Stella Natura calendar tells us the best days to plant, so I start figuring out what gets planted first. I seem to be having issues with which way to tilt my head when I take a picture. But, you get the idea...

   Usually I start in mid to late January with some herbs as they take longer to get them big enough to transplant. Then the peppers and cold loving items (like cabbage and bok choi) get started the first of February as they will be transplanted into the greenhouses early and harvested in early April.
   So, back to my Monday work schedule!
    

Good Friday came early

   Teamwork is terrific! We are getting soooo much done lately by all three of us working on projects together. Yesterday we were able to get a lot more planting done. We started out by broadcasting our spring wheat into the south field. We use an old seeder wagon (thanks to Ray Meenen for selling it to us!). Marty and Will stood in back and poured the seed into the hopper which then flings it out, driven by the wheels turning.

Seeder wagon for broadcasting seed
(note that it is green!)

   After that was done, Will took the disc on the larger 190 tractor and covered the seed by pulling the disc thru. Works great. It almost looks like we use a new fangled drill to put the wheat seed in. But, nope...just old timey equipment like they used in the...1940's and 50's maybe.
   Then Good Friday came early this year. Even tho yesterday was a "leaf" day according to our Stella Natura calendar, we planted our potatoes. That is with the hopes that the rains will come in the next two days and soak them a little. I drove the D-15 (I drive the straightest rows) and Will put the potatoes thru the little planter. Marty cut the potatoes that were too large into smaller pieces and then he worked on hilling them up a little with the G after we were done planting. (See my previous blog for the tractor pics.)
   The potato planter is an old piece that was lovingly and craftily restored by our friend Warren Ulfers. I have to say thank you to Warren for giving us the seeder to use. It seems that very few people in our area have ever seen a potato planter like this. It is pretty cool.


This pic taken last year pulling with the C tractor.




Here's Will dropping potatoes into the coveyor slots.

   We joke about Will feeling like Lucy on the show "I Love Lucy" where she is in the candy factory trying to keep up with the conveyor. I have to drive pretty slow pulling it. The planter is powered by a chain on the wheel and we had some problems with keeping the chain on...until it broke! Then we shortened it a notch and it worked great.
   Will piles the potatoes in the box (as you can see) and drops the pieces into the conveyor in the middle. They go down a chute which is behind a plow. The plow creates a furrow, potato drops into it, and then another piece covers them.
   If you would like to see some of the equipment we use, we are having a Small Equipment Day at the farm on May 21. This program is sponsored by the Central Illinois Sustainable Farming Network (CISFN). Sign up at www.cisfn.org/about/join-the-network. Joining the network as a supporter or farmer gives you an opportunity to keep up with Central Illinois small farm news and programs throughout central Illinois.

  

A great cache of carrots!

   What a glorious day! Well, it was about three hours ago. (Now it is 15 degrees and snowing!) We were in our shirtsleeves and sweating it up earlier. It was sunny and balmy…at least 70 degrees. That is in the hoophouses...of course!

   The west hoophouse is going to have early potatoes. The goal is to harvest them the first of May as new potatoes and then put our peppers in that house. We cleaned out the carrots that were still in there. Boy was that a surprise! 

   The tilling went great!



Marty tilling the west house for potatoes



The soil was nice and soft, beautiful. But, getting the tiller from the equipment shed to the hoops was a challenge. Will got his wooden toboggan and he and Marty sled the tiller to the houses. They lifted it over the threshold as we haven’t gotten our ramp built yet. But, it started up okay and the tilling was done.



Looking at the barn from the hoophouses...the four foot snow drift!



   Then we cleaned up the yucky smelling greens in the east house. We checked our Stella Natura calendar and today was a “leaf” day, meaning we should plant leaf plants. Great!  

   We tilled the middle section as we still have onions and garlic on the west, a few herbs, and some arugula on the east side. We planted a row each of red mustard, komatsuna, rapini, and cress. It’s an experiment to see how they do. We’ve never had a hoophouse in winter so we are testing everything this year to learn all we can.

   This weekend are “root” days so we will plant our potatoes in the west house and the radishes in the east one. This is soooo exciting! We had a great time. It felt so much like April in there!

  

Our delicious hoophouse carrots

There were over 34 pounds of juicy carrots about 6” long and about 1” in diameter. Nice orange ones that we planted last fall. We thought they would be a little soft due to the freezing temps, but they were fine.