Every January/February is the same. Christmas comes and goes, the tree and decorations come down and then the New Year is rung in with hopes, dreams and aspirations for an amazing New Year full of goals and resolutions to do better, to be better than the previous year. January’s excitement is met with dark, Wintry days that go on for what feels like forever til Spring arrives. Many people, including myself, start daydreaming about warmer weather and create lists of what all we want to achieve. As a gardener, I start perusing seed catalogs and nursery websites to plan new additions to my garden and flower beds. As farmers, we start making plans for which crops we’d like to grow this coming summer and where. Fields are rotated, fertilizer and seed are ordered, trucks are hired to haul last years grains to the terminals and contracts are signed.
It’s an exciting time for us on the farm. A time I treasure every single year. I am especially looking forward to this year as I have a lengthy To Do list I’ve created for myself on the farm (all of which is fun & exciting to me!) and, the best part (of course) is we will have our little man with us for his first Summer on the farm! I’m already daydreaming of his first tractor ride and harvest..the memories and the photos I want to capture will be priceless!
For myself, I have already placed orders for flower seeds and Spring bulbs, I’ve started design plans for my *new* garden beds (since we now live in the old farmhouse that my inlaws used to reside in, I have her established yard to change and play with to my hearts content!) and I am eagerly anticipating Spring to see if all 140 bulbs I planted last Fall will poke their heads up thru the frosty ground and make their initial appearances.
While I will no longer be utilizing the vegetable garden space that I have had for the last 2 Summers (that is now where my inlaws reside) I have a huge empty plot of my own to work in that is just as big! But, this year I plan to scale way back on growing vegetables for a couple of reasons:
– this is my first summer with a baby and I already will have a huge yard to look after so do not want to over extend myself. And;
– this plot will be my dream vegetable garden so, I want to do it right! Nothing has been grown in this area, ever, so I want to spend this summer with hubby planning out watering systems, electricity and modifying the soil so that, come Spring 2015, it’s ready to get growing!
But, that being said, I *will* still be growing a lot. They’ll just be intermingled amongst flowers and herbs, sprinkled around the yard. It’s going to be a lot of work but something I truly enjoy!
Adam also has a lot on his plate this year when it comes to the farm. Yesterday, we had new fertilizer bins delivered to hold more fertilizer for our growing farm and, last Fall we decided to change up our farm equipment for seeding so pretty excited to see how our 2014 farm season goes!
Of course I can’t forget about my little farm babies, the chickens. I have wanted a new chicken coop for a while now and, if our list of things to do ever shortens a tad, we will get to building one soon enough! Currently, our coop is placed at the South end of our yard by our bins which is fine but, I now would like them moved up North to within viewing distance of our farmhouse. In truth, I want them placed in the same plot as my garden so that I can be out working in my yard and always keeping an eye on them. Especially since a certain Mr Fox has recently found their home and taken 3 of my babies for his dinner (grrr).
Just reading over this post makes me excited! Living a life in the country is hard and demanding work but my gosh is it worth it. I am ever so blessed and grateful for this life and so grateful I get to share a bit of it here with you!