Yep. It’s been that long since I blogged. I really thought that after the main part of the season was over, I could take a little break and then have plenty of time for updating everyone on farm activities and manage the new CSA sign ups. Boy, was I wrong.
While the pace hasn’t been as frantic as it was during market season, it’s still been pretty busy around here. We’ve had seven new potbelly pigs born, have two goats due to kid soon, baby chicks to care for, new pullets that started laying eggs (despite the cold weather and short daylight hours, which is amazing), a grant proposal to write, school application to submit, general clean up, website issues (that still arene’t resolved) a weekly winter market and the work that goes with it …. whew. Let’s start at the top!
Lola, our mama potbelly, and her mate Ito are the proud parents of seven new babies. Born on November 9th, they are all doing so well and Lola has proven to be a terrific mama. They will be ready to go to their new homes in about another two months.
Our two female goats are also getting ready to have their babies. Onyx is an experienced mom who always has the most beautiful strong kids. She is due around the end of the month and, as is normal for her, is already huge! Bambi is a first time mom so we are monitoring her closely. She is due in February. Can’t wait to have fresh goats milk again and make some fantastic cheeses.
Our spring flock is coming along nicely. We have 15 production red pullets who will be great egg layers along with the one cockerel who’ll be their mate. In the same flock are 17 White Wyandottes, a mix of males and females. The females will also be added to our layer flock and the males, except one great looking cockerel, will become someones dinner. They run around freely during the day right in front of the house, rather than with the older chickens, to keep them from being picked on. They also like to come up on the porch and visit when the door is open!
And, as I mentioned, some of our five-month-old girls have started laying their first eggs. Although the age is right, it’s unusual for these breeds (i.e. not commercial production types) to be laying when the temperature is below 65 and the daylight hours are less than 15 hours per day. That being the case I am extremely optimistic about their production level when spring hits!
Some of you know we purchased our first greenhouse earlier this year and have been in the process of putting up one 20′ x 48′ house for spring production and some winter growth. What we’ve also done is put together and submit a proposal to the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education foundation for their 2010 Farmer/Rancher grant program. We want to find a way to increase winter production in our area using greenhouses and completely sustainable heating and watering systems and a much lower cost than traditional methods. Our hope is that if our experiments are successful we can share this information with other small farmers, thereby increasing the amount of local produce available during the winter months and create the possibility of winter CSAs for this area. I know many of you hate when the regular market season ends because it becomes much more difficult to find locally grown produce. We’re hoping this will enable us and other local farmers to provide more to you during the winter season. Keep your fingers crossed … we’ll hear back from the committee in the Spring.
The school application is strictly mine. I’ve decided to go back to school to get my bachelors in horticulture from Texas Tech University. My application has been submitted for the Spring 2010 semester, so we’ll see. No worries …. most of my classes will be done online so I won’t be going anywhere. 
As far as the website issues go, some of you have experienced problems with downloading the 2010 CSA contract. That, along with updates to the site, are something I have been trying to fix; however, my server connection is not cooperating. I’m still trying to work through it but, in the meantime, if you need a copy of the contract please shoot me an email. I’ll be happy to send one right over.
Speaking of CSA, if you are interested in taking advantage of the 10% discount we offer for early sign ups the deadline is Dec. 31st. Pay for your share in full by that date and you can automatically take 10% off the share price. That’s a pretty significant discount and we do that as appreciation for letting us get an early jump on ordering seeds for next season. Just let me know if you have any questions.
I think that does it for this update. I will be doing a three part series on the creation of our greenhouse once I can get organized enough. In the meantime, come see us on Saturdays from 10am to 1pm at the Grand Court Retirement Center at 107th and Wornall. There are still some fresh veggies available along with great baked goods, organic fair trade coffee, holiday gifts and more. This market is indoors, which is great, and will continue through spring. We hope to see you soon!
~Karin
They are all healthy, beautiful babies and seem to be a few weeks old. Three are busy exploring their world with their proud momma watching over them. The other three are still deep in the nest. We are so excited and very impressed with Tigger’s inherent mothering abilities since she is also a first-time mother. What a sneaky little girl!
