Arpil Showers

Its April and despite the sayings about April showers it has been a fairly sunny month. The greenhouse is up. As soon as the night temperatures stop dipping below zero, or we find a woodstove to heat it with, we will begin filling it up with seedlings. Lynn has gone crazy planting seeds. Pretty much any area that gets sun and some that don't, has plants growing in it. My kitchen is looking more like a "hot house" than a kitchen. Fluorescent lights are everywhere, with a few piled in the corner waiting for Lynn to decide where they could best be utilised. Lynn has been busily planting seeds in trays, then separating the seedlings into small cells like the ones you buy at the garden centre. The next step is to re pot the seedlings into larger 4 inch pots. It is a time consuming job that has kept Lynn busy for the last few weeks. Lynn uses a store bought organic potting mix. As soon the seedlings are up they receive a daily watering of manure tea. Manure tea is basically an organic fertiliser that we make. Soaking well composted manure in water to make a "tea". Despite the ingredients there is no smell. The manure is well composted and odourless. It seems to be working very well. The pumpkins, zucchinis, and squash are taking off. Our tomato plants are strong and about 8 inches high now. At last count we had about 300 broccoli plants coming up. Lynn plans on doing three farmers markets this summer, so she is going to need the stock.
Other things happening on the farm are not very exciting. We are hauling a lot of manure. The fields that we are using for the garden require allot of composted manure. The pastures for the livestock need manure as well. Most people don't realise it but manure is the most valuable product we produce on the farm. Without it everything else suffers. Manure is  like gold to an organic farm. Everything we produce takes nutrients from the soil. Vegetables, hay, grass, livestock all remove nutrients from the soil. The only way we can put the nutrients back is through compost. Most farms have depleted soils, simply because manure has been considered a waste product. Manure was piled up or given away instead of being applied back to the land where it belongs. We compost the manure for many reasons. First of all economics. As manure composts it reduces in size by up to ten times. That means less hauling, less diesel fuel, less time. All good things. Secondly composted manure is more stable and uniform. The composting process produces intense heat, which kills germs, and weed seeds. The pile can get hot enough in the middle to burn. Some creative farmers have been able to harness this heat to heat barns, greenhouses, even houses. Composting also eliminates the risk of ground water pollution. Fresh manure is full of molecules and compounds that cause pollution and foul odours. Compost smells like soil. The molecules and compounds have been reduced to stable natural levels. Manure is teaming with good and bad bacteria. As it is composted the ratio changes until the good bacteria far out number the bad. There are literally millions of simple life forms in a handful of compost. All working together to produce the soil that the more complex life forms depend on. The plants also produce nutrients as well through photosynthesis. They capture oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen from the air, and convert them into a product that is usable by bacteria and higher life forms.
That's probably enough about that shi...stuff.

I think we have had our last lamb for the year. But I have been surprised before. A couple of younger ewe lambs born late last year have produced healthy little lambs. Calving season should be getting into full swing. We have had five calves (3 bulls 2 heifers)so far. We should end up with about 16 this spring. There will be more in the fall. For those interested the little brown highland bull is doing well. He is a little slower than the others but is catching up quick. The black bull calf in the pictures is about a week younger. He is about 20lbs heavier. This is mostly due to the breed. The black calf is mostly angus. The mother is a cross breed the father was pure black angus. The brown calf is pure highland. As I mentioned before they are a smaller breed. Next year we will get our first crop of highland shorthorn calves. Breeding our own breed of cattle is a long process. Since these pictures were taken we have had a small highland heifer. Her pictures will be coming. At birth she was tiny, about the size of our border collie. The girls called her Friday, since she was born on Friday the 13th.