Welcome To The Peep Show
The world is a stage, and you are a star. Peep out from behind the curtains and see all the faces of those that love you and want to see you thrive. — Little Brown Chicken
Here’s What’s Happening At Good Spirits Farm
This spring has been unusually windy, and that’s saying something because it’s always windy up here on Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. Last Saturday, I had this same bee hive blow over for the THIRD time in a month. Luckily, this time I had my new bee suit at the ready, and it worked like a charm. No stings! As soon as I get a little extra bandwidth (hah!), I am going to have to build a windbreak. Having the hives blow over every other week is bad for the bees — and this stressed out beekeeper.
Spring planting continues with carrots, onions, parsnips, salad greens, and peas all going in this past week. If I have time this weekend, I’ll try and get the potatoes in too. (But, I’m racing my bike 100 miles on Saturday, so chances are I won’t really feel like doing hard physical labor in the garden on Sunday!)
I had a funny thing happen courtesy of Facebook’s “memories” feature this week. On Monday, it spit out a photo of the flerd from one year ago. Remarkably, they were in the exact same spot in my pasture as they are now. That means the flerd made exactly two trips around the farm in one year. Getting six months of rest between rotations means my grasses are able to grow long, deep roots. Those long roots host tons of microorganisms that—in theory—help sequester carbon. And, when ruminants bite off the top of a patch of grass, essentially an equal amount of root sloughs off the bottom of the plant. Those sloughed-off roots decompose and form organic matter, helping to build topsoil over time. There are so many things going on at the farm I knew it was several months between passes of an area, but I hadn’t really taken the time to calculate exactly when the flerd was where. Thanks, Facebook for doing it for me!
Look at these happy soil builders hard at work!
Here’s What I Loved This Week
Catching Benni giving her daughter Gimlet — born two years ago— a little love. Benni is still nursing this year’s calf, Jett, but she clearly hasn’t forgotten that Gimlet was once her baby too.
Are you direct-seeding your spring crops or are you transplanting? I direct seeded a couple of weeks ago down and covered my boxes to keep everyone insulated. The radishes, peas and spinach are growing and the carrots are starting to show signs of life, but the kale and romaine is nowhere to be found. I've been doing some succession seeding, but I just don't know if it's time to throw in the towel and go buy some plants from the garden center.
Also, I love nerding out on your land management practices!! Thank you for sharing!!
The details about the relationship between the flerd nibbling on well rested grasses and earth-friendly things happening as a result is seriously cool!