An update on the last 7 months!

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a blog post and I am SO sorry about that!  Life has been crazy and every time I sat down to write, something either came up or I just could not think about what to post.  We have had a very busy summer here on the farm and now that winter is closing in, things are starting to wind down and the time for rest is here.

Lets catch up on the things we’ve been working on!  Our biggest project of the year was probably our garden and greenhouse.  A lot of trial and error and a lot of “Oh crap” moments.  We built our green house by hand and without a kit so there was some trial and error there.  After repairing one thing several times, we found a better way to secure it.  After blowing the sprayers on the end of the irrigation system several times, we found a way to secure them.  Believe it or not….excessive heat in NY was an issue over the summer and since we aren’t fancy yet, we don’t have special sides that roll up with a crank so we had to do it ourselves.  After several different designs, we realized how awesome it would be to have those special motorized sides!  Note to self:  Save up for those!

The wind was another challenge…. which we were not surprised by honestly.  We had been told by friends that the wind is bad here from time to time, but we survived the summer.  Let’s see if we can survive the winter wind and the weight of lake effect snow. 

In the garden, we created some raised beds both in the green house and outside.  We were gifted some strawberry plants and placed them in a bed outside and they quadrupled since.  The bed is overflowing with plants and I’m excited for berries next year.  We planted cucumbers and potatoes in another raised bed and zucchini and sugar snap peas.  Inside the green house, we planted cherry tomatoes, lettuce and bush beans.  All did very well, but next year, I think we will stick to pole beans outside the green house.  Our lettuce bolted in the second planting, so we were unable to harvest.  We also added a garden outside the greenhouse and tried to grow something in the soil on our property.  We didn’t have the best success, so we are planning to amend the soil and prep it for a better season next year.  Fingers crossed!  We also added a couple apple trees, a peach tree, a cherry tree and 4 blueberry bushes.  I’m excited to see some fruit from all of these in the next few years. 

Another big project we started and have yet to finished is replacing our railings on our back porch.  They were starting to get a little loose and after we got an outrageous price for materials, we decided we’d make our own.  A friend of ours had recently taken down some cedar trees and so we made our way over and picked out some decent sized trees and brought them home.  I purchased a draw knife and started removing the bark by hand.  If you’ve never done this before, take it from me; it’s exhausting.  It looks super easy when you watch other people do it and then you realize every muscle in your back hurt after spending a few hours stripping bark.  It’s why this project is going to take WAY longer than I expected it to.  I also got the bright idea to use large branches as spindles and give it an even more rustic feel.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Why did no one slap me upside the head and be like “Hey Kristen…this is WAY more work that you really wanna bite off right now.”  Thanks guys.  Anyways, I sucked it up and we got some of the railing done.  It may be a project for the spring though.  We will see what happens over the winter. 

At the beginning of the summer, we hired a company to do some logging in our woods.  We wanted an area cleared for what will eventually be a site for a bigger barn.  We also had them create a cleared path all the way around so that we could easily drive full circle around the barn if we ever needed to.  Eventually, I think we may expand pasture area up there for the goats.  If Matt had his way, we’d have pigs up there too, but I’m not sold yet.

2020 is coming to a close and I couldn’t be happier.  I’m praying 2021 is better.  I think we all need some normalcy in our lives.  We host Thanksgiving here at the farm every year and this year, we were missing some people at the table due to COVID-19 cases rising again.  I’m hoping that soon we will be able to have meals with them and spend much needed time with them. 

While the pandemic has been debilitating, I can’t help but look at the positives it did bring to our lives. My husband is a hard worker and often times, worked long hours at the office. We had more unrushed, family dinners in the last 7 months than we probably have in the last couple years. While he was still working, most days, he was working from home. It was nice to have him here all the time, though I’m sure he was tired of the constant noise over the summer. 😉 Extra family time was our silver lining during 2020 and I am forever grateful for it. It has taught us to slow down a little.