What's Happening At the Farm?

It is been awhile since I have updated the happenings of the farm, but since this is The Beginning Farmer blog I thought I better keep a good record of how the farm is beginning. As usual things have been very busy both on the home front, the work front, and of course the farm front. It seems like we have been doing a lot of family traveling lately which I enjoy and don't enjoy at the same time, but I'm glad to have the chance to do it. At work I am staying busy planning summer activities for the students and filling in for the Pastor when he is gone (I'm glad we have a full-time guy again!). And on the farm front... well, let me just throw out some bullet points for the past week or so.

• The building is progressing as much as weather is allowing and I think the building contractor phase will be wrapped up pretty soon. The roof is mostly on (needs the ridge vent), all the windows are in, the house is wrapped in Tyvek, and the steel is up on the North side of the house. We are VERY pleased with the way it is coming together and I'm especially anxious to sit at the dining room table or in the living room this winter with a big mug of hot chocolate and look out our large picture windows. If you want more details on the building process you need to check out the general contractor ... errr ... my wife's blog!
• Wednesday I took hold of the rare opportunity of somewhat dry ground and expanded the pigs area a little bit. We still aren't out on pasture yet, but they are doing a great job of tilling up next years garden. Our garden will be huge (48' x 48' is huge compared to what we've had) next year. It might be a little overwhelming, so we will just plant lots of corn!
• We are again moving our chickens in the movable pen we built last year and I love having them again. Now we just need to get the egg production up from this possibly broody hens who have only had cracked corn for a while. But, eggs are coming.
• This mostly falls into my wife's category, but the black raspberries are beginning to ripen and she enjoys that. While I don't like the berries I do enjoy picking them, so that is a bonus for me.
• One of Wednesday's overwhelming things was that I had to hustle so I could by some used cattle panels. And by "some" I mean about 126! There are just a couple things about them ... one, they are still standing so I have to take them down ... two, there are a few that aren't so great. My plan is to take them all down and then separate the good from the bad (there are around 40 that are just leaning against a shed). The bad ones will be cut up and sold for scrap, or I'll use the good sections for smaller areas. The good ones will probably end up as fencing around the homestead area ... no electric to worry about with the little ones around. At $5 a piece I can't complain.

So, as you can tell things are cruising along. There are a few hold ups (loan people take too many vacations), but we are still excited about what is happening and the work that we are doing.