Hurry up Spring!

We just cant wait for the weather to break! The last week has been so nice but we cant let our guard down. Remember last may we had 6 inches of snow, so we are far from being in the clear. We had a few ice storms this year that while are a pain they are so pretty. As much as we dont like dealing with ice, it did give us good moisture on the land during the winter. 

 Ice is hard on the chickens too, they would only come out of the coop for a little bit then run back in.

We did get some new chicks in October, Cuckoo Marans. They are a really sweet old fashioned breed and they dont mind being petted and held. This one liked me to scratch her belly.

 They are all full grown now and we still have 6 white ones and 1 rooster from the fist flock. The speckled ones are the Marans.

We are already getting prepared though, we have greens, herbs, peppers and tomatoes sprouting in the basement and onions are planted in the back yard. We hope to have a much better year this year. We feel a lot more organized and we learned a lot last year to better ourselves for this one. 

We started our orchard with about 30 trees and 60 blueberry and raspberry bushes last year. Hopefully we will have a few apples, cherries, peaches and pears this year and then enough to sell in 2015. The trees all look great and are starting to set buds.

We have redesigned the garden as we try to find the most productive way to run a farm with just two people. We are trying a different layout that may make it easier to plant, pick and maintain the weeds so we are wasting less time and getting more produce out of the same area. Every year we learn something.
We are signed up for Saturdays at the Lees Summit Farmers Market again and we are planning to join the Waldo Farmers market for our Friends and family on the Kansas side on Wednesdays from 3pm -7pm. The Waldo Market will be a great one to be a part of as they only allow growers and they have to be all natural or Organic so you know what you are getting is GMO and poison free. Cant wait to get going again......