New calf spurs blog entry

Some photos of the farm taken from the roof of the Yentes-Quinn house, clockwise from Northeast-ish:

First, the top end of the vegetable field with blueberry acre behind.

Then the lower part of the vegetable field, with the fruit tree nursery in the foreground (and chicken tractor off to the right).

Southeast view of cows, pigs, Mount Waldo, and the beginnings of a greenhouse frame sticking out from behind the barn.

A better view of the barn

And the farmhouse, home garden, and Kioti tractor, plus a corner of our handsome grey standing seam metal roof thanks to CO Beck and Son.

Seth and Ada playing on the floor--since that photo, Ada Ruth has successfully turned one!  This weekend is the Maine Organic Farming and Gardening Association's Common Ground Country Fair, with all kinds of neat talks, demonstrations, tasty foods, wonderful friends to meet up with and ideas for new projects (just what we need, right?).  Strep throat keeps me home writing blog entries, though.

News from the last couple weeks:
The 320-pound 2011 garlic crop is cleaned, graded, bagged, and ready to go.  (Let us know if you'd like to purchase German White seed garlic, bulbs size 2"+, for planting this fall, $12/lb). 

The onion harvest is drying on the hayloft floor, and some that weren't quite dead enough at harvest are turning their few leaves ceiling-wards in hopes of a few more days of sugar-storage.  Unfortunately, they're having a hard time photosynthesizing in that cavern and we are reminded of Monty Python and the Holy Grail: our little onions, after losing most of their roots in getting ripped from the soil and being bumped about and lugged into a dry, dark location are still screaming "I'm not dead yet!" and "It's only a flesh wound!"

The winter squash is also harvested and waiting on hay wagons for us to find a suitable curing spot for them, and the 1/3 acre planting yielded two full hay wagons, which we preliminarily have estimated to be about 3 tons or 6,000 pounds.  We sent a few hastily-chosen specimens to the Common Ground Fair and won prize ribbons on almost every one!

We're excitedly looking forward to the winter CSA and subscriptions have been coming in over the last couple of months.  We're not full to capacity yet, so if you'd like to be the lucky eater of luscious, sturdy vegetables this winter, be in touch with us.  We can't wait to feed our friends and neighbors.

And finally, yesterday our cow closest to pet status, Ella Rose, had her first calf, a heifer!  She then went on to suffer milk fever and a prolapsed uterus but the vet came out and put it all to rights, and it seems like everyone's doing well now.  [Bookworm's note: In the past month I have read three of the four James Herriot books: short autobiographical stories about vet work in Yorkshire, England.  I think Dad read them to me years ago, and they are just as intriguing as they were and haven't lost the cheesy closing line to each chapter.  But now I know that milk fever used to be treated by inflating the udder with a bicycle pump.  Yikes!?!?]  I haven't even seen the new babe yet, but she's sure to be a beauty. 

So, until next time...enjoy these beautiful days and eat your summer veggies while you got 'em!