NO time for pictures...too busy working

We have had a busy week...with two wwoofers here to lend a hand all kinds of forward movement has been made. The nettles have been pulled from the blueberries (ouch, is right. I forgot to wear gloves). And Shelton and Julia worked and worked down in the raspberry and marion berry patches in the garden. All is weeded and denettled.

We made nettle infusions, and nettle soup and dried batch of nettle in the dehydrator. Our first 'crop' of 2010.

Yesterday they watched Andrew the AI guy work his magic with Mattie. They seemed more than impressed with just how far he got his arm in there. Phew. Then I showed them how to dock the lambs tails and turn the boys into wethers (is that how you spell that, hmm). I expected the wwoofers to be a little more squeamish than they were but they dove right in and in minutes were pros using the handy dandy little tool which is seriously called the emasuclator. It only took a few minutes and all the boys were fixed.

So far, we have four boys lambs this year, one set of twins and two huge singles. Since we are growing the lambs for meat is always nice to get boys as they grow quite a bit larger than the girls. Two of them are going to have four horns just like their daddy did. We have two ewes left to lamb so maybe we will get some girls, who knows. Those poor ewes can barely make their way through the barn door to get their dinner. It is no fun being late to birth when you are expecting twins!

I also got started growing the flowers for Grace's wedding. I was outside today in the wind and the sun mixing a big vat of potting mix. Peat moss, coconut hulls, perlite, compost, worm casting and a bit of dirt...stir until mixed. I felt sort of like one of Macbeth's witches brewing my magic. As soon as the seeds turn into little starts I am going to plant them out in the hoophouse and wish them a speedy life to flower. July 4th is going to get here sooner than I can imagine.

Next week we are going to compost and mulch the blueberries, working to keep the mummy berry in check. The list is long. Good thing we have these two young backs to help cuz we have lots of work to do. Yea for wwoofers.

New Wwoofers have arrived...

Julia and Shelton (two friends from college) have arrived ready to get to work. They got here just as it was getting dark so I introduced them to the cows and then messed around with kefir and ate dinner. It's lovely to meet them. I wonder what we will do. There's a big list on the chalkboard--pruning kiwis, rooting out nettle roots, planting seedlings. Always lots to do.

Spring seems to be settling in. So maybe it wasn't so crazy to have planted all those seeds last week. Lots of things are greening up. Maybe the seeds will sprout. Hope so. I have high hopes for the garden this year. It would be great to get things going so early.

Back from the dark (and rainy) side of busy

Gosh, it has been crazy busy around here. In a good way, but busy all the same. We've had a wwoofer here for the last ten days and she is keeping me on my toes.

Wwoofing, for those of you who don't know, is a great exchange of energy between people who are farming and people who want to learn about farming. By offering to teach and supervise (and feed and house) someone when they are learning, I get a volunteer who will work on the farm for 25-30 hours a week. Here's a picture of our wwoofer Kaitlin hard at work!

This is our first experience with the wwoofing program and so far, it's been great. Wwoof stands for willing workers on organic farms, and Kaitlin sure fits that description. Just like most wwoofers she travelled here from far away. (Kaitlin is from the coast of Maine.) In case you are interested, you can learn more about wwoofing by clicking here .

So far, in the last week Kaitlin has shoveled manure from my friend George's dairy farm (stinky!), double dug two and a half very large garden beds (which you may remember entails digging a hole three feet deep, adding tons of organic matter and manure and then refilling it), made a biodynamic preparation, finished the property line fence with Steve and mixed up seven trashcan-fulls of chicken food. And that is just some of the stuff she has done. Here's a bad picture of one of the holes she dug in our

absolutely dreadful weather. Seriously, in the last week, we

we have experienced deluge after deluge, a ferocious windstorm and an icy snowstorm and Kaitlin has experienced them all first hand.

It's great to actually be accomplishing THE LIST. Even if we aren't the ones doing all the work. (Maybe BECAUSE we aren't the ones doing all the work.)

Kaitlin is in Seattle today on her day off exploring the city. When she's back on Friday it is on to building compost. And she thought digging holes was hard work!