It’s been an interesting week on the farm, full of energy and emotions. One of our interns started this week and it’s great to have another set of hands on the property. Training a new employee is interesting when I’ve only been on the ground here about two weeks longer than him. That said Brett’s a hard working, diligent man.
We started the week propagating perennial shrubs to add to our tree belts and replace plants damaged by the voles this winter. We’ve been taking cuttings of Elderberry, Gooseberry, and Goji Berries, it’s amazing how many plants you can obtain by pruning and propagating. Even more exciting was we got it done in the nick of time, because the day after we finished the Gooseberry cuttings, one of our plants broke dormancy and sent out beautiful green buds. I’ll admit I enjoy farm life year round but there’s something magical when spring rounds the corner and life awakens on the farm.
With that said I’m reminded of Mr. Miyagi’s most important lesson for Daniel-son, balance. You can’t have life without death and even those of us with the best intentions still have accidents. One of our yearling calves managed to sneak through castration last year half intact, and we had to deal with it as he was getting a little to frisky. Unfortunately this task is more challenging with older animals, and a series of bad events an misinformation led to his untimely death. We’re all still grieving his loss and are evaluating measures to avoid this in the future.
As I don’t want to end on a sad note all of the babies on the farm are thriving. The goat kids get more rambunctious daily and the piglets are more and more inquisitive and starting to eat solids, although they still swarm Porky every given chance.
Til next week…
