I received a surprise order of trees (I thought I cancelled it from the Arbor Day Foundation), and so I was busy this week digging holes and moving compost for an assortment of wonderful shade trees for the livestock area and two beautiful forsythias I hope will make it on either side of the front gate (ground is really hard there). Funny thing is I thought I would be hiring a backhoe and putting in 70 fruit trees, but I have tried to reach the nursery that ordered them for three months and no response....I guess we will do that next year. The Lord has funny ways of taking care of things and in this case I guess he knew I had my hands full with the meat operation and that I needed to delay the fruit trees a year. The plans are drawn for the goat and lamb pens, the pigs are set up, the beef corral is up and I have decided to go with small "greenhouses" for the turkeys and chickens and I put trees in today to shade them during the hottest months. I called and did the first orders for the meat chicken chicks and turkey poults to begin in may. We will be raising pork during the late Summer, Winter and Spring, beef year round and chicken and turkey during the summer and our beautiful fall seasons. Whoops...lamb will be in the Spring!! Spinach is planted in about half of the old greenhouse with the other half in lettuce. The new greenhouse has some lettuce and leafy greens, but I am saving the rest to plant this weekend with snow peas, green beans, cilantro, carrots and snap peas. The lacinato is doing beautiful outside so I think it will be a permanent resident outside along with the arugula. Potatoes will go in in April along with the rest of the summer crops following shortly after. The leafy greens picture is for my husband. He was trying to figure out why my HDLs on my cholesterol test are through the roof and his are not....leafy greens is all we could discern as the major difference in our diets...he is not a kale, Swiss chard and mustard green lover and of course I eat them in baby form in my salads and I steam them up or throw them in stir fries on a regular basis. I probably eat more nuts then him too since I use them for a quick snack on the run around here quite often and I love my oatmeal and bran flakes for breakfast so I guess it is always nice to have modern science give you a clue that you are doing the right thing!! Happy New Year Everyone!! I wish you all the best!
