Turning a Corner

The weather looks like it's finally going to stay warmer. It shouldn't be long before we start complaining how hot it is.

We have started turning our attention to more permanent solutions on the farm. We are still very much in "survival mode", fixing things as they come up. But we are at the point where we are moving towards more long term solutions, in particular, with the animals. The poultry are growing quickly and we are running out of space. The Pekin ducks are about a month old and need to be outside. We have debated whether to give them free range and to bring them in at night or to try the "pastured poultry" approach. We've decided to try the pasture approach and will be building movable shelters/tractors for the Pekin ducks. That will allow them be outside eating grass and bugs as they please while providing protection from predators and weather. We will probably do the same with the turkeys and possibly some of the chickens. It's the more labor intensive option but we think it makes sense. The egg laying chickens and ducks will likely be free range around the farm during the day and cooped up at night to keep them safe. If we encounter problems with this scenario, we will go to an egg mobile (a hen house on wheels) with portable poultry netting.

The garden has been on the back burner, a bit, but Jamie has been diligently growing her seedlings and we hope to have them in the ground this week. There was a large garden here previously and we have asparagus growing like crazy. We were told there are 400 crowns of asparagus and I believe it...