February 14th is the traditional day to plant potatoes. We always shoot for that day, and most of the time get somewhere close to it. We planted them on Monday, Feb 15th. It was "a rather blustery day"!! to say the least. We all bundled up and headed to the farm to help Mo and Paw paw. Keith was also there. It is always so much fun to have family around and willing to help and work together. Mrs. Herzog and I were noticing that this year was a great improvement compared to last years planting as far as all the kids "helping". They seemed a little more coordinated and actually understood what they were doing and did a pretty good job. It was very enjoyable. We all love working outside together as a family.
James enjoyed his bottle in the backpack carrier nestled in between some hay bales that were blocking the wind.
Stephen was mixing the "fertilizer" together. It is a combo of Starbucks coffee grounds, compost, and goat manure. We piled it on top of each potato we planted. We'll see how they do. We have done it this way before and met with success although the concoction is always a little different. We try to do it as natural or organic as possible.
Paw Paw taking a break from tilling and holding Elaina.
This picture cracks me up. Millie and Bella planted a whole row's worth of potatoes all in about a 3 ft. line and totally decorated their faces with the lime that the potatoes were in. I think because the wind was so fierce and their hair kept getting in the way and they kept wiping it out of their eyes (even in poney tails and hoods from the jacket- it still managed to get blown out of there and bother them). We did spread these potatoes out and covered them with our fertilizer.
Keith and Millie using their hoes and covering up the row.
Martin found a little hand tiller and went to town. He had a great time preparing his land.
Then after working in the garden we moved the cows back to this side of the road. They have been across the road on the approximately 50 acres this winter. Stephen has been rotating them, letting them graze the standing hay that had been resting the whole year, and feeding hay when necessary.
Stephen and Keith are bringing up the rear. The cows did great going down the road. I blocked traffic at one end (thankfully there wasn't any), and Stephen and Keith held back the one big truck behind them at that end.
Then we drove back across the road to pick up electric fence and posts to put up where the cows were going to reside for the next few days. Martin resting after helping pull up lots of posts out of the ground.
Millie is always trying to stay busy. She helped pull up posts as well.
Working together.
No comments:
Post a Comment