The Quietness of Winter

   For the most part, I have been enjoying the quietness of winter. Although there are no garden chores, other than ordering seeds for spring planting, the barn chores have more than doubled in the winter months. It seems I just get done cleaning the barn, chicken house and duck house, when I have to leave the comfort of the woodstove in the house and go out into the frigid air and do it all over again. This is the first winter in a few years that we have had a cow in the barn again, and I must have forgotten how much work it is to clean up after a cow confined to the barn to have decided to do this again! Oh well, spring is coming and soon the sheep, cow, chickens, and ducks will be outside all day only coming in at night.
   I have started to order my garden seeds and have already received all my vegetable seeds. This year I ordered all my vegetable seeds from High Mowing Seeds, an organic seed company right here in Vermont. For years I have ordered all my veggie seeds form The Cook's Garden, but this year decided to "keep it local." This week I will order my cut flower garden seeds. I always order the flower seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine. I have tried other companies but my best flowers seem to come from Johnny's. I am especially excited to try some new varieties this year, as well as, the tried and true sunflowers (6 varieties), zinnias (5 varieties) and celosia (4 varieties). I am looking forward to growing "Blue Boy" bachelor buttons, pincushion flowers, snapdragons, and China asters. Wish me luck!
   The prospect of starting seeds soon is so exciting, but the thought of my laundry room being taken over by grow lights and flats of seedlings on tables is a little daunting. I do so love the smell of the damp soil though! So I think I'll make a cup of tea and sit by my woodstove, and do my flower seed ordering right now.

Chickadees having breakfast on the farm this morning.

 

Temperatures finally warm enough today for the ducks and chickens to venture out.

 

The quietness of Winter in our field.

 

The herb garden at sunset last week.

 

Fair Days

   My good intentions of blogging once a week have once again taken a backseat to the chores needing to be done around the farm. I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post.  Soon the gardens will be done for this season and that will free up lots of time for indoor pleasures such as writing. The gardens were quite successful this year with such perfect summer weather. My flower gardens all did beautifully and I was able to enter a lot of flowers in the Tunbridge Fair this year in the cut flower category. My entries included sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and celosias. I had sold so many bouquets of cut flowers in the past few weeks that I was really in a panic trying to find enough blooms for the arrangements for the fair entries. Luckily the flowers were in top condition and all received blue ribbons! My greatest honor was receiving the "Best of Show" rosette for a potted geranium I entered. This plant was bestowed with the "Libby Dodge Award" and was such a huge surprise and honor for me. It felt like Christmas when I was a kid!
   The animals are all doing well and the young chickens are finally laying eggs every day now. Unfortunately discovering that we have two roosters in the mix has left us without two laying chickens that we had counted on. I must say that the roosters are truly beautiful to look at though and delightful to hear crowing "Good Morning" each and every day. It's also nice that the chickens, ducks, sheep, and calf are all in the barn and chicken house earlier and earlier each night with the shorter days. That means my day has been ending earlier as well.
   I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely early fall weather.

Cosmos entered at the fair

Sunflower entry

Celosias entered at fair

Zinnias

"Best of Show"

 

Happy New Year

   A new year is upon us and of course it is a time to reflect on the past year, what we are grateful for and what we aspire to change in our lives. Mostly though it is a time to look forward to the new year with new hopes, dreams, and resolutions. I hope for good health in the coming year for myself and my loved ones, I dream of the perfect little sheep farm, and my resolution is to finish all my unfinished projects. I seem to have the incurable illness of having to buy every piece of antique furniture in need of repairs and restoration. "Oh I can fix this" is said every time I go to a yard sale, auction, or estate sale. I have refurbished many antiques for our home and many for our yearly tag sale, but yet I have an attic filled with undone projects. It wouldn't be so bad if my husband didn't have the exact same affliction. He now has a garage filled with hopefuls. This is the year! We are either going to use these treasures or sell them, so we must complete these tasks and make junque into treasure.
   New Year's Day I plan to finally look at all the seed catalogs that have arrived in the mail. I think planning my spring plantings is a wonderful way to start the year. Last year's cut flower garden was such a success that I am planning to expand it with more varieties of sunflowers and also different species of flowers to be used in my cut flower arrangements. Most of the flowers were blooming in late summer and early fall, so this year I want to plant flowers that will bloom from early summer until frost. My little roadside stand of cut flower arrangements was quite busy and really was a source of great joy for me. I loved providing a little bit of colorful cheerfulness for others. There is nothing like a sunny bouquet to lift one's spirits.
   January is also a good month to catch up on reading. I am looking forward to reading a new book I bought but set aside during the busy holiday season. January and February is the perfect time to do all the relaxing indoor things you feel guilty doing any other time of year. I may even find time for the daily nap I always talk about but never seem to take. From The Farm at Mill Village, Happy New Year!!

Holly, our two year old chocolate lab, does find time for many naps.

She waits at the top of the stairs every night at 8:00 to go to bed. This dog loves to sleep!

The snow continues to pile up in the sheep field.

The sheep waiting to come back in the barn, while I do morning chores.

Preparing Gardens for Winter

   Another busy week on the farm getting ready for the winter to come. This morning, since the weather is so nice out, I finished pulling out all the remnants of our four-square colonial kitchen garden. This year one square was devoted to green beans, another beets and carrots, the third onions, and finally the last square is where we grew our tomatoes. All have been harvested, eaten, frozen, canned, or stored in the root cellar. The ground has been hoed and raked and ready for next spring's plantings. I will be planting one quadrant with garlic in the next couple of weeks, but the rest of the spaces will sit barren until next spring. I only wish all the gardens were all cleaned out and ready for winter,  there is still a lot of work to do before winter sets in. I haven't even cut back any of the perennials in the border in front of the house yet. A long border! This is my least favorite job in the fall. It always seems like such a good idea to fill your property with beds of flowers until you have to maintain them, but that is the price to pay for beautiful flowers.
   Yesterday, while the ground was still wet from the rain we received, I pulled out all the stalks from the spent sunflowers and put some of the flower heads in the bird feeders for the wild birds and gave some to the chickens. What a treat they thought that was. I was amazed at how massive the clump of roots had become and how deep they went, a very hard job to pull out especially when you have seventy sunflower stalks to pull.
   The weather is supposed to hold out for the next few days, so I hope to finish all the outdoor gardening chores for this year. I do plan to make and can applesauce over the weekend as well, so it's back to gardening today. Have a great week and enjoy these beautiful sunny days.

Ready for next Spring

Sunflower Treats

 

Sunflower Days

Today is just the most beautiful day in late summer imaginable-low humidity, a heavenly breeze, and temps in the 70s. Tonight we are looking for temperatures to dip into the 40s in central Vermont. It was the perfect day to set up a roadside table with cut flowers from the cutting gardens. I grew five varieties of florist specimen sunflowers (no pollen to get on clothes or tablecloths,etc.) and all of the varieties are magnificent. Along with the "Benary Giant" zinnias they have made sunny, happy arrangements. Visit us at www.thefarmatmillvillage.com