Catch up with what’s happening on Essex Farm with an update from Kristin Kimball:
“Budbreak this week on the apples, red maples, the lindens. First weeding. Lots of seeding. And snow. White on the lilacs and on the bright green grass, between the furrows of turned earth. It snowed and kept snowing, and there are still piles of it in the shadows of the barns and the round bales.
I was concerned about the newborn lambs, but they hunkered down next to their mamas, on piles of hay, and in the farrowing huts we took to the field for them, and kept themselves out of the cold north wind. The ewes who lambed this week were smart enough to do it in the snug dry barn. (Don’t let anyone tell you sheep are stupid.)
The plants didn’t mind the cold snap, either. The snow was a blanket for the transplants, as the nighttime lows dipped into the low twenties. Onion snow, they call it, or, the poor man’s fertilizer.
All the plants look good, and so far, no deer damage. Mark is still sleeping in the field every couple of nights, and Kirsten is going to bait the hot line with some apple scent, so the deer get a good shock and learn to stay away.
The horses are out on pasture now, and so are the chickens, and Mark is putting a fence around the fall-planted rye as I type. The dairy cows are going out tomorrow for a few hours of fresh green grass…” Continue Reading this Essex Farm Note.
Related articles
- Essex Farm: Perception of Cold (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Essex Farm: Lambs & Piglets (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Essex Farm: Lambing (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
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