It's Officially Spring...;-)

Oops... haven't updated in a while! My dogboarding business has had the busiest 3 continuous months, and I've been up to my neck in dogs day after day. This is NOT a complaint! I've loved every moment of it. I am finding I am getting better and better and nicer and nicer dogs in here all the time. This week is a slow week, so I am using the few days I have to try to catch up on everything else in my life. Not an easy task!

Let's see.... what is new? I've been going gangbusters on the garden beds, and I now have 46 beds made, with the lumber for 3 more. I just have to go to the lumber store one more time to get the rest of what I need. Yay! I'm so stoked I got this much done, considering how busy I've been. I have a small load of compost coming in on Monday, so I will use that to start filling the empty beds. The load I'm getting won't get them all done by any stretch, but it will make a good dent in it.

Yesterday was March 1st. In Kelly Land, this is officially spring. I don't care what the calendar says, I don't care what the weather is doing. March 1st comes, and I want to be in the garden. Well, this year, I am! I started planting yesterday after checking the weather for the next week. There is no frost expected in that time, so I have been busy turning over the fall rye, and weeding and planting all the beds that are ready. I've got in 2 varieties of peas, 3 varieties of beets, arugula, several lettuces, walla walla onions, mesculin mix, and a couple of herbs- rosemary and oregano. If I think it's going to get cold, I will just cover the beds with newspaper to insulate the little seedlings. I also went to a friend's place who has several greenhouses, and planted basil, cabbages, tomatoes, and peppers, to be ready for me when it warms up. Very cool of him to let me do that... it will definitely give me a head start, and everything can be grown organically so I can keep my Certified Naturally Grown status.

I had to mow the lawn last week for the first time this year.... a huge bit earlier than last year! The mower started up just fine, and I got it all done just before it started raining again. I guess if it dries out a bit here and there, it will be my weekly chore again. So much to mow... I do almost 2 acres each time, all hand mowed... no ride 'em mower for me! I used to hate it, but now I don't mind so much. It's good exercise, and a great time to just plan what I want to do next.

There are green things coming out of trees all over the place, and the cherry blossoms are starting to come out. I think Mother Nature agrees with me that it should be spring now... !!

First Snow

Our first snow arrived 2 days ago. Lasted a day, then rained like crazy and it's all melted already. Typical of the island! Plus, it's the kind of snow I like- doesn't last long! I am hoping like mad that we don't get a repeat of last year where we had 3 feet of snow on the ground for over a month. People back east may think that's wimpy, but I live on the island because of it's typical mild winters... although, we haven't had a true mild winter in quite some time now. I think we are due!! Oh, and we are also due an early spring- last spring bit the big one!

It hasn't stopped raining since the snow the other night- it is torrential again. I am already cabin-feverish. I am just dying to get out into the garden. I am trying to do some indoor projects- Christmas baking, making soup stock from the chickens, and I tried my hand at making my own salsa with the remainder of my Roma tomatoes. The salsa turned out ok- I just made up the recipe- I made 21 jars, and then put them in the freezer. Some will go into my Christmas baskets that I'm making for my family, the rest will feed me for a while. The only thing really missing from the recipe was the fact that I couldn't seem to find any hot peppers... salsa really needs some spice to it!

Kybosh exiting the agility tunnel in the snow. Snow is Fun!!

I have also been going over my seed catalouges making up my orders for the spring. I am ordering WAY too much, but my enthusiasm this time of year is hard to control- I have no outlet for it! I am getting some things in that I have never grown before, so I can hopefully have some surprises for the CSA members in the summer.

Oh! Good news! I applied for my farm to be Certified Naturally Grown, and recieved confirmation last week that I succeeded! The only thing that remains to be done is sometime in the spring/summer, there will be another local farmer coming to check my farm out and do some soil testing, etc. That should be interesting, and hopefully I am doing everything correctly! I decided to go the CNG route instead of the Organic route, as it is WAY more cost efficient (by donation) and WAY less paperwork. With C Organic, you have to document every seed and every crop you grow, which is too much for a small farmer growing multiple crops- it is more for a larger farmer growing one or two crops. Plus, I have to admit, I don't really like anything government regulated- I think it's too much red tape for something that should be relatively simple.