Good morning farmers

Spring has sprung!! We are at T-Minus 20 days and counting to the opening of the farmers market.

A few matters of general blog "maintenance" to bring to your attention. I have been encouraging the interns and volunteers to share their thoughts here on the blog and with much gratefulness they have! The one thing that we have to work on is signing our work some how. In the meantime, to alleviate the fears of the many, NO, I was not nearly killed by King Richard. That was one of the many wonderful volunteers. Although the thought of the farmer being slaughtered by the rooster is ironically entertaining. . .

The ed field has been turned over and we have seized these last lovely days to start building the beds. We have starts at both Rippling Waters (thanks guys!) and here at the farm. The hoop houses have greens, carrots, radishes and leaks growing in them.
Already we are being reminded of our place in the food chain by the awakening and emerging critters. I.E. the ground hogs, cut worms, slugs, and various caterpillars. I have been having insect nightmares again (are their farm therapists out there??), but many of those have been put to rest by our catching a groundhog the other day. That is of course after we caught two skunks. . . watch Borders for my upcoming book, "How To Catch a Skunk Everyday and Live To Tell Your Family About It". We may even be featured on Brittany Spears remake of her music video, "Oops, We Did It Again". But that is another story. . .

Other farm news . . . We sheared Buster the ram. That was fun. Buster hasn't talked to us since. Bates the lamb "dropped" her tail and now looks a lot more like mom. The ladies will be soon to follow in offering their fleeces. . .

Speaking of fleeces, if there are any artisans on campus that are interested in spinning wool or learning how, we would be more than happy to donate the remaining two fleeces. We are told that they are a medium grade - 50-60 weight fleece breed with a good crimp (what does that all mean??!?!?!?!).

Alright, the sun is up and there are things to be done. I will post some pics in the coming days. . .