Two Weeks (+) in Summary

Spring has been charging forward with a vengeance here at North Branch Farm, and we are soaking it all in! A little over a week ago, Tyler and I spent some time on the barn roof and between our efforts and a couple of other stints around the same time, the north side of the barn is ALMOST completely roofed. There are only twelve more panels to put up (we've done more since the photo I'm posting here was taken).

In the cattywampus photo below, you can see the garden on the north side of the barn and Seth's and my cabin platform behind it. The heavily mulched area in the near left corner of that garden is where we recently put in 350 baby blueberry plants. The plum trees on the far side of the garden are now in full puffball bloom and smell riotous. You can consider this a "before" picture, because on May 10th we're expecting Wade the Heavy Equipment Operator to come and start digging a driveway behind those fruit trees, a foundation for Seth's and my house in front of the platform, and a leach field between the garden and the barn.



Here is the view looking south from the barn roof--Mt Waldo is the looming peak on the left in the background, and in the foreground is a second garden plot we'll be using this year. In the middle are many many acres of beautiful but neglected pasture and hay fields.


Here you can see the detail of the hip of the metal roof, where the shallow upper pitch meets the steeper lower pitch.


The barn as it looked at the end of April:


Gib and Sammy, the 6 1/2" long painted turtle he found sunning itself on Rt 139.


For Lucy: Bleeding hearts on the front walk that I noticed were blooming when I got back from dropping you off at the airport. They haven't quit yet.


"Still Life with Peas"



This is the amazing seeder that I loved and thought I would never own, because the manufacturer stopped making it. Johnny's Selected Seeds is now carrying it again and Seth gave me one as a gift. There is nothing better for seeding medium-to-small patches of greens and many other small-seeded crops, and this was my seeder's maiden voyage.


Looking back at progress in the garden south of the barn on Wednesday, there are peas in the nearest bed, mixed greens in the back left, and spinach, radishes, cilantro, carrots and beets all crammed into the back right bed. More to come soon, I am sure!