This Week on the Farm

This week the farm came one step closer to being farm-y with the completion of my pasture fence!

Siting the post.

The 10-foot post gets pounded 4.5 to 5 feet into the ground.
This machine was crazy cool to watch do its thing.

Main pasture area, west side of barn.

Pasture, east side of barn/shed.

The garden went totally gangbusters with the nearly 6 inches of rain that fell over the week. My MIL and I both pick heaps of lettuce to eat daily, but you'd never know by looking at our lettuce patch! Some of the leaves are as long as my forearm. Can anyone identify the varieties I'm growing? The only one I know for sure is Amish Deer Tongue in the top middle of this photo. My best guess for the others is Tom Thumb, Breen romaine, Rouge d'Hiver, Forellenschluss, Mingonette, and Oakleaf. Whatever they are, they sure are tasty!

 

Most of the tomatoes got their cages this week. This year I'm growing Sungold, Frosted Green Doctors, Barnes Mountain Yellow, Woodle Orange, Green Giant, Pilcer Vesy,  Dixie Golden, Black Prince, and Tappy's Heritage. I had planted Gemini too, but all my starts failed. Must've been a bad seed packet.

The potatoes are leafing out very nicely, the beets, parsnips, and carrots are poking up little sprouts, and the peas have started climbing. The first planting of radishes are nearly done, and the first round of kale is almost ready to harvest.

Elsewhere, the peonies came and went (why your blooming season so short, peonies?!), and the first zinnia finally bloomed.

 

Also this week, the larger portion of the tamarack bog moved for the first time in decades. If you're friends with me on Facebook, you'll know I'm OBSESSED with the bog. Sorry/not sorry for continuing to go on and on about it, but it's just SO COOL. Two floating bogs means the pond changes almost daily, and it's super fun to watch.

The way the pond looked with just the smaller bog floating.
That open area between the tamaracks is where it used to be.

Where'd the rest of the big ol' bog go?
(look to the upper left)

The beavers have their lodge in the bog, so they're on the move this week too! I finally got to see one of 'em while walking the dogs instead of just evidence of their existence (like sawed off trees and the very, very smelly trails my dogs love to roll in). It's hard to tell size from this picture, but the beaver is pretty large (yes, yes, insert inappropriate jokes here)--probably about 40 pounds.

 

And I've seen the goslings more and more too, now that they're almost full-grown.

 

And of course, not a day goes by when we don't see at least 2 does wandering around. They seem to be EVERYWHERE this season. I thought more of them might have perished in our hard, long winter, but looks like they did more than fine for themselves. There's so many of 'em, they're even eating things they normally don't touch, like our black-eyed susans and seedum. They sure are beautiful, though, aren't they?