Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Goat gets a Name

We have decided that to honour our friend Byung Soo who has been with us for the past 5 weeks, we are going to name an animal after him. Unfortunately, we only have girls so we've decided that our newest little black haired beauty, a Nigerian Dwarf goat, will be named "Sue". Her mother is named "Blackberry". Speaking of which, if it rains this weekend, I'm going to go looking for early blackberries next week to make jam!

Things at the farm have heated up. It's so dry that as of today I believe we've not had rain for 8 weeks now. Not even a light shower. It's supposedly going to rain this weekend but honestly, I'm not holding my breath. I might make some gutter diversions though anyways to channel some water into the pond of a storage bin like the old pool. If it does rain, I don't want to waste it! This has been the driest summer I've ever experienced, not good for gardens and lawns.

The other greenhouse beds have been built by Simon and Byung Soo, 2 of our wwoofers so they're ready to be put in place and the greenhouse hoops erected around them. Today looks to be another scorcher so we'll do outside work once it cools down again later this afternoon. The squash will need more water tonight too.

In anticipation of rain, we may plant some hard red winter wheat, but I'll check the forecast first. It wouldn't do to have it germinate and then turn dry again. We did plant buckwheat though. I sprinkled it on while the guys were tilling last weekend. It's a small patch so I can water by hand if needed. I mainly planted it for the bees to enjoy. Speaking of bees, I should check them today. It's been a few weeks since we introduced the new queen. We know she was laying but I want to see if they need feeding as it's so dry there are fewer wild flowers. This was a problem last year too. The buckwheat is a fast growing summer cover crop that bees love so that will be helpful as fall begins. It should help them store some honey for winter. And buckwheat honey is also one of our favourites. Dark and delicious!

I have to run. I'll let you know how the day progresses. I want to hang out laundry but it's so smoky we'll have to see.

Best Wishes.

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