Our work scene is going into high gear now. Stan got his new bee queens in the mail and he, Gigi and Michael are getting busy with the hives. Our order of baby chicks arrived here this morning and Cedar and Sol are learning the joys of adoptive parenthood. The new brood is currently residing in our wood shop.
We got the first batch of sorghum seeded in flats this past week. The screened front porch at our white house has been filled with batches of soil mix, the large styrofoam flats we use, and folks painstakingly planting the seed. The completed flats are now floating in a large "water greenhouse" by the new residence.
The weekend before last, we started perennial plantings in the field next to our new residence. We had a "go" and set out 150 Jersey Knight Asparagus crowns on Friday and Saturday. Gigi, Michael, Stan, Susan and I all did our time in the trenches. Michael also set out new rhubarb plants and perennial onions and Gigi put in yellow and red raspberries.
Cedar oversaw the cutting and inoculation of more shitake mushroom logs. We also getting our first harvests of the season from our old batch. What a treat! We can hardly wait for the morels to show up next
Gigi, Michael, Susan, visitor Thea, and I started planting potatoes Sunday. This week Rebecca and Michael will start setting out those 400 brassica seedlings in the north garden. The tomatoes are going great guns and the peppers are starting to germinate.
The final push to complete the interior of the new residence is underway. Chad has the oak flooring in and is doing the finish and trim. Laird, Susan, Michael, and Alyson from Dancing Rabbit did a great job on the tile laid in the hallway and other areas and Cedar and the painting crew are done now ,too. May 1st is the deadline for completion of the work.
We have had some great visitors the last couple of weeks. Sarah, who also visited Dancing Rabbit, spent the 3rd to the 5th with us before heading back to her Americorps position in the New York Adirondacks. Tom and Thea from Twin Oaks Community in Virginia came to stay last Thursday and left this morning to visit relatives near St. Joseph. They also brought their eighteen month old son Jonah with them. Jonah was an absolute joy to have around and Cory and he had a great time together. It was fun watching his reaction to the arrival of the baby chicks today.
Saturday, we hosted a group of students from Truman State University in Kirksville. They are studying ecology and were a lively, interesting group. After a tour of the farm, they helped us with sorghum seeding and herb garden work. They then went to Dancing Rabbit for the afternoon.
We appreciated seeing Stan's smiling face in the paper this past week. I hope all of you found the article about Sandhill Farm interesting. We feel like we are very much a part of the Scotland County scene.