Ahh, it was great last weekend here in the Pacific Northwest.  We got some much needed sun, which is a break from this year that has brought us the second wettest winter in  75 years (or so I heard on the radio).  I was beginning to think the rain was never going to end!  Of course, what’s the first thing I do with that sun?  Go out and get a slight sunburn.  Oh well, I got a lot done.

I took the day last Sunday to get quite a few chores done that needed to be taken care of. First, I got the tractor out and tilled up the field.  I have been trying to get this done for about eight weeks, but every time we got a few days of “not rain” so the dirt would get dry and I could till, the rain would come back and soak the soil.  I could try to till when it was wet, but that would just end up making a mucky mess and there would be a lot of huge clods of dirt everywhere.  That doesn’t suit me well when I am trying to plant my vegetables.  Anyway, I got a preliminary tilling done last Sunday.  My goal was to turn the dirt over a bit so I could till it again the next day and break up any clods that formed and we could finally get our seedlings in the ground.  It is started raining again on Wednesday, but I was able to get the field into a usable shape before then, so we can just go ahead and plant after the top inch or so of soil gets dry-ish again.  I also got some of the four foot tall grass that has been growing around the property cut to about half that height.  I let it dry until the next evening when I went over it again and got it mostly cut down to an acceptable height.  I’m pretty sure I could have baled that stuff up if I had the proper machinery.  At one point, the cut grass was so profuse that it balled up under the front of the mower deck and disconnected it from the tractor body. Luckily, I noticed it and no damage was done.  My hope is to, after the wedding this summer, use a box scraper to level part of the property and plant a bunch of blueberry bushes on the Northeast strip of land that borders the North forest of Priddy Acres.  Right now, I am just trying to manage the grass length and make it easier to manicure right before the wedding. At any rate, that’s the gardening news.

The bees are happily buzzing along.  They continue to drink up the sugar syrup faster than I thought possible.  I’m pretty sure it’s because they have so much comb to build and brood to raise, that they need to keep their energy up.  The brood patterns in the hive continue to be tight and the comb is continuing to draw out. I find myself continuously in awe at the amount of work they can get done in just a couple of days. Even as we went out to inspect the hives progress and refill the feeders, we had to scrape burr comb off the tops of the center frames.  I’m hoping that the burr comb starts to decrease in frequency after they get the brood boxes filled out, as I always feel bad for removing stuff they spent so much time and energy putting together. I do leave any honey they put in that comb in front of the hive so they can reclaim it. We are expecting to be putting the next brood boxes on the hives within the next week and the first honey super should come a few weeks after that. I predict a massive amount of honey coming this summer. Here is my theory: the spring in Oregon is coming later this year, as you can see from the persistent rain and lack of blackberry blossoms.  This will give the bees time to build up their brood a lot before the nectar flow begins in earnest, which means more bees collecting nectar.  I am really looking forward to seeing what our hives produce this year.  The chickens are also moving right along.

Our chickens are now acclimated to their new hen house.  We open the door in the morning and let them free range all day, and then close the door when they all return to roost at night.  We will end up having to clean up the patio every couple weeks, since they like to come eat bugs off the house, but I think it will end up being worth the little bit of cleanup we will have to take care of.  We gained three new chickens to our coop, which Chaser and Carrie were fostering until they feathered out.  They seem to stick to their own little clique, but at least no one is fighting out there.  They haven’t left the coop much, even though the door is wide open all day.  I figure they will venture further out once they get socially integrated into the flock.  We haven’t lost any to predation yet.  I think Charlie and Goose (the dogs) have a big part to play in that.  The dogs love to check in with the chickens whenever they go outside. There have been no aggressive biting attempts or anything like that (though Goose likes to run through the flock and watch them jump out of the way), so I think our gradual introduction of the dogs to the chickens has worked out pretty well.  Goose, our Alaskan Malamute, was my big concern (even though he’s a big lover) since Malamutes were bred to hunt, scavenge, and have a fairly high prey drive.  They typically don’t do well with livestock.  Charlie, the German Shepherd, was also a concern due to the breeds very high prey drive.  Either way, they keep the predators that exist in our area at bay so the chickens can enjoy their free range life.  We hope to start selling fresh eggs sometime in August or September.  Which brings me to some updates which will be coming to our website this summer.

We will be adding a page to our website, which will be updated each morning, with whatever vegetable produce, eggs, and/or honey we happen to have on hand that day. We also plan to get our orchard and blueberries planted this fall, so you have that to look forward to in the next few years.  The items on sale will be available for local pickup or free local delivery. The free delivery option will only be available if you happen to live in the neighborhood behind Priddy Acres, as Michelle doesn’t have the time (with all of the stuff she currently does) and the business hasn’t yet grown to the point where we have employees. We will always strive to be competitive with our pricing, so no one feels like they have to buy a lesser product just to save a couple dollars.  Obviously, we are a business and we want to make money doing this, but we believe that we have a duty to our customers to provide our products at a reasonable rate so anyone, regardless of economic status, can enjoy healthy farm-to-table food and use our other all natural products. We value your input and take it into consideration when developing and pricing our products, so please use our contact page or our email if you have something you want us to know (a ‘thank you’ is always an appreciated note, as well).

I guess that is all of the updates from the farm.  I hope everyone out there is enjoying today’s sunshine (if it is still out)!  Have an awesome rest of your day.