Wow, where did my first year of full-time farming go? My office is much quieter, my travel almost non-existent, but my chores and to do list keeps me plenty busy. Now that’s it been a year it’s safe to say “I Love My New Career!”  We’re excited, a little intimidated, hopeful for cooperative weather, and crossing our fingers for as few set-backs as possible.

What’s needed: To buy, to build, to maintain
1) Irrigation system for berries and garden.  Expensive, yes; somewhat confusing to figure out on your own without buying a kit, yes; a must have in order to be successful, yes.
2) Build additional meat bird housing. We’ll raise 100 birds at once this year.
3) More electric fencing to enlarge meat bird housing area.
4) Build a farm stand.
5) Make a decision and purchase a chicken plucking machine.
6) Replant 27 blueberry plants that didn’t make it through the first year 😦
7 Remove tree stumps from last years sale and plant 100-150 more Christmas trees.
8) Hopefully start kiwi berry plants and a few pear trees. This isn’t firm because some of the issues surrounding this goal fall under the “Lessons We’ve Learned So Far” page, coming soon.
9) Shropshire sheep were a huge desire (for me anyway) to use as lawnmowers in our Christmas trees. After considerable research, we’ve decided to postpone this decision to another year.  You can will it, you can want it, but you can’t control it if they want to eat your trees!

Well, that should keep us busy for a few months.  Happy Spring!

Cheers,
Sally & Bruce 🙂