A LEAP YEAR

today really is a special day. i reminded myself of this all day. i thought about people who were born on a february 29th. i love birthdays and celebrating with people. i am known to 1) celebrate my half birthday 2) start a countdown for my birthday and 3) remember about 100 people's birthdays in my head including my eighth grade boyfriend's. now that i am a mama and birthed my son angus, i cherish "birth" days all the more. i have never met anyone with a february 29th birthday and if i ever do.... he or she will never be forgotten.

another reason today is so special is that i finished my seed order. yes, just 15 minutes ago and it feels great. i plan to write about my unique experience ordering seeds this year. there was a political twist for me and i had new considerations to take into account. but not tonight, this story will wait another day or two. this week has reminded me of late nights finishing homework in college. i will treat myself to some early nights to bed in the next few days.

i can finally take the seed order off my "to do" list. i started my thank you notes and i also bought a chalkboard tonight. i mentioned earlier that i thought it would be helpful for the farm. one of our chalkboard tasks is to map our our fields for planting.

one last thought... this morning was a brisk -10 degrees. when i woke up, i opened the window shade next to the bed. i saw the most beautiful frosted pattern on the window that i had ever seen. i photographed it.

A BIG DAY

today was a big day for us. we now have plastic on our greenhouse. thanks to help from dad blackwell, jesse, jeremy and our new neighbor who just happened to be cross country skiing when he saw all the work being done. he stayed and worked for three hours (on my to do list for tomorrow is to write some thank you notes... another passion of mine, sending cards). today went very well. it was a calm day which was a tremendous help. this task is not an easy job. in the intervale, it took a dozen of us to put plastic on a greenhouse. the next steps for the greenhouse are to finish constructing the end walls, completely secure the plastic and build a rocket stove that will be used in conjunction with thermal mass to heat the greenhouse. more later about rocket stoves. it is so late. tonight i am excited to post these photos. enjoy.

I LOVE NUMBERS

wow, what a beautiful vermont winter day. sunshine, snow glistening, bright blue sky and a comfortable 32 degrees. spencer worked on the greenhouse endwalls and preparing for a workday tomorrow with friends to put the plastic on. while my mom and dave took angus for a little while this afternoon, i chipped away at our farm production plan. i don't know how other new farmers put all of this information together. it doesn't seem like there is an obvious method. here is mine:

1. determine markets, wholesale accounts
2. put together a sales projection sales sheet for each account/market which includes - # of weeks each crop will be sold, how many units per crop per week, selling price per unit, total production, total sales
3. graph a harvesting schedule to determine flow of successions and workload per week
4. from all of this information, i create my production plan with about 20 columns of information regarding total units needed for each crop, yields per bed, total beds needed, lineal footage per succession and so on

this is how i get started. now, we have numbers to work with on bed space and projected income. at this point, we spend alot of time making adjustments. after all of our considerations, we end up with a solid plan to use as a base for our seed order, greenhouse seeding schedule and field planting chart. i like organizing this information. by keeping good records, each year gets a little easier because you can build on information from the previous year. it is important not to just organize this information in the beginning of the year but to stay on top of it daily while it is fresh in my mind and is a manageable task. however, i would be curious as to how other farmers put seed orders together. i thought this would be a good workshop topic for beginning farmers at the nofa conference. just another piece of information that makes all this a little crazier... seed companies all label seeds in different measurements... mini packets, packets, 1/16 oz, 1/4 oz, A, B or C. i need a translator. and i also need a solid chart for crop yields per 100 feet. this i can do a better job at tracking.

i love numbers, problem solving, the seed order challenge. being a farmer involves many different skills and roles. a mathematician is just one of them.

LUNAR ECLIPSE

today is my stepdad's birthday and there is also a lunar eclipse. i read that there will not be another lunar eclipse until december of 2010. the skies have cleared up and we may see a bit of this show.

i had a great meeting with the kitchen manager at american flatbread today. we love the flatbread mission... food, community, farming. in waitsfield, american flatbread is a great destination for a night of great food, some beer and a bonfire with a group of friends. we love flatbread so much, spencer and i invited all 30 of our guests for an intimate dinner on the night of our wedding. anyways, i am excited to make this connecion and sell our vegetables.

the plastic arrived for the greenhouse today. spencer worked on assembling the cross-ties. there is still a lot of work to be done. my mom and dave are planning on watching angus on saturday for a few hours, this might give us a chance to work on some projects together. i miss that. most likely we will start our seeds in the house and move the seeding operation into the greenhouse by the end of april. i am very we built a greenhouse... there are many possibilities.

going to catch a glimpse of the lunar eclipse now and then get to bed.

HATS OFF TO NOFA-VT!

another amazing nofa vt farm conference. enid, olga, abbie, nicole... they all work so hard to put this event together. i only have a glimpse of how much time and work goes into planning this event. i used to volunteer on the conference committee and with the set up/ clean up crew. last night, as i left the gymnasium there was all sorts of hustle and bustle of piling chairs, packing up boxes and removing banners. part of me wanted to join the crew and part of me just wanted to go home with spencer and angus who had just arrived to pick me up. yes, they picked me up at the end of the day which means i was at the conference all day... solo. i spent most of the day socializing with farmers friends... didi, ron, lauren, s'ra, tom, dan, jack and so many other wonderful people. i had this idea of photographing portraits of my farmer friends because i would like to start a page of photos titled, "farmers i know." i saw this on another website and i just loved this idea. so, i would like to recreate a similar feature.

my favorite workshop i attended yesterday was ross conrad's lecture on beginning beekeeping organically. what excited me most about the presentation was his enthusiasm for his working with bees and his approach in explaining bee culture. it turns out he lives in middlebury. i am hoping he will be a source for continuing education as we begin to keep bees. i hoped to speak with him after the presentation about other upcoming events where he will be teaching, but there were about 20 people waiting to speak with him. i have his book. i am sure it will be easy enough to contact him for more information.

spencer and i have been talking about getting chickens this year. i really want to make this happen. i picked up a nofa publication titled "humane and healthy poultry production: a manual for organic growers." it is a small handbook with a very basic information to help farmers get started. i read a bit this morning and it was definitely worth the $7.00 i spent. it seems like the timing could work out to get some layers this year. i have been saving egg cartons.

this morning i started to do a little research on the internet about finding a chalkboard. wow, they are expensive! i might have more luck looking on sites that sell teaching or school supplies. i think it will be worth the investment. when i worked at the intervale community farm, we had various chalkboards and used them often. i think we could use chalkboards for farmers market, weekly task organizer, harvest posting board and angus might like to play with it on the off season.

today is a very rare 50 degrees after a very cold weekend. spencer is happy for the snow to melt which will make working on the greenhouse much easier. there is so much to do.

I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START.....

i have been considering starting this blog for some time and waiting until i have just the right purpose. i have thought about using this blog as a farm journal to keep track of our daily tasks and make it a useful tool for us to look back on during our planning. i also considered this an opportunity to share my photography and showcase pictures from our daily life on the farm. the blog could also be an opportunity to create an elmer farm community with stories, favorite recipes or book ideas. i like journaling, photography, farm life, being a mother and a wife, spending time with family, writing letters, reading, knitting, quilting and cooking. i have a knack for finding great finds at thrift stores and remembering people's birthdays. these are all of the joys i want to share with my friends, family and newcomers.

tomorrow is the nofa conference. this is the first time the event will be a two day affair. spencer is going tomorrow and i am going on sunday. it would be a wonderfully romantic weekend to spend two days together visiting with our farming friends, attending various workshops and talking about our newly inspired ideas. angus is just 1 year old and we haven't really started to leave him with a sitter all day. we will work on that. last year, i brought angus and he was just 6 weeks old. he just slelpt through the workshops snuggled in the sling. this year, i plan to attend workshops on beginner beekeeping, sweet potato production and perenial vegetables. i always have others lined up in case the room is just too packed or i am not really enjoying the topic. i always prefer to go to workshops that are given by farmers.

spencer is listening to our friends' band... bariki (a funky west african ensemble) at the monkey house tonight in winooski. i am exhausted and going to bed early. oh, i was excited that our farm business cards came in the mail today. they are just temporary cards until we figure out a farm logo. for now, we have MOO cards. they are half the size of regular business cards and i downloaded my photos to use on the backside of them. just in time for the conference this weekend.

i think i will end each blog with some sort of inspirational idea that i would like to implement on the farm. tonight i will say that i want to set up a huge chalkboard in the barn to help us stay more organized.