I'm sorry...but we just can't be friends...

Last fall, we bought a quarter of beef from our neighbor.  It was fine & dandy since I rarely saw the cow...no attachment...no friendship.  Well...Travis is planning on buying another quarter of beef this fall.  Here's the trouble that I have with this...

Look at those faces!!...these cows are cute!  AND...every time that I walk back to the flower field, they run along the edge of the fence to say 'hi'!  They watch me and beg me to come over and talk to them.  Stay tuned...I may become a vegetarian this fall...with two new friends living in our shed!  For now, I'm stuck saying, "I'm sorry guys...but we just can't be friends...I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

In flower news, Travis is building our cooler!!  He's made amazing progress in just two days!  It's 10:00 p.m. & he just came inside from insulating the floor!  This is going to be sooo helpful for keeping our flowers fresh!

The flowers are popping open!  This season is so wacky...redbuds, forsythia & daffodils are blooming at the same time as lilacs, double tulips (some of my latest bloomers) and perennial scabiosa!  Because of this wackiness, I'm looking into starting at The Freight House Farmers' Market next Saturday...a month earlier than the normal outdoor market season starts.  The flowers are ready!

Excited. *Very* Excited!

Early last fall, I applied for a high tunnel grant.  It really didn't sound likely that we would get one for 2012...especially since there was only one awarded in Muscatine county for 2011!  Well, I kept hoping...and bugging the guy in charge about once a month.  About three weeks ago, I received a phone call saying that we ranked high enough for grants for a windbreak & high tunnel!...we would definitely get funding for the windbreak ($1,010), but would have to wait to find out about the high tunnel.  The good news came a couple days later...we are getting high tunnel funding, too (somewhere close to the tune of $8,000!!)!!  I have been over the moon excited since getting the news!  With me quitting my full-time job at John Deere (7 days left!) in order to grow Seeded Earth & stay home with our little baby that is on the way, the budget will be tight.  It probably would have taken us at least 2 years...maybe 3, until we could afford to put up a high tunnel of this size ourselves.  This will be so great for Seeded Earth!  We'll be able to add a couple of months to our flower production & be able to grow some things that just don't do well for us outdoors.  It's going to be so, so wonderful! 

What else?!  Spring is here!...or maybe it's summer already.  Whatever it is, it's beautiful!  It does have me a teeny bit worried, though.  If it's this warm already, what will we get for summer & fall??  I'm hoping that we cool down a bit, don't get a hard freeze that damages everything that is already leafing out & blooming, get a bit of spring rain and then ease into a nice, mild summer with an even amount of moisture.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that the weather doesn't get too wacky!

Got the Fever...

So, don't look out the window today...we have another late winter/early spring snowstorm blowing in.  But, next Tuesday when it is 61 degrees, I expect everyone to be out cleaning, digging, composting...for goodness sakes, do anything you can to get outside & get your hands dirty!  I'm so ready for spring, it's silly!

We have our little hoophouse frame still sitting in a pile outside.  All we need to do is make a home for it by preparing the ground with a little tilling & composting, get everything marked out & then call in a few friends to help get it all put together (and maybe do a teeny bit more research so that we can limit the number of hiccups that we run into along the way!).

I may be nearly 28 weeks pregnant, but I'm eager to head outside, hop on the tractor and get things rolling!  I have definitely come down with a nasty bout of Spring Fever!!