Monthly Archives: June 2015

A week of planting

Right after our open house we started a week of planting. Up here it is definitely best to wait till after Memorial day to plant outside, but this year we had a night of 34 degrees even after Memorial Day, not quite frost but pretty cold none the less.

Since we are a small, family run farm it takes time to get our systems set up.  Systems are things that make farming easier but often have an initial expense, so we have to work slowly. This year we invested in a plastic mulch layer. Plastic mulch is used for weed control, to heat up the soil, and retain moisture. In the past we have laid the mulch by hand and it would normally take us days (literally all day days) to lay a fraction of what we did with our tractor in a couple hours–see what I mean about making things easier?

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Proud helpers.

 

 

 

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Admiring the view.

 

 

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On the way to plant.

 

 

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Pray loves planting. We just had to make sure the plants actually made it into the ground.

 

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Under the plastic mulch is drip tape that will be hooked up to a large hose that will be hooked up to this water storage container. It is a gravity fed system. The kids don’t care, to them it is a jungle gym.

We are now in the heavy duty prep time for our CSA. If you are interested in joining we still have some slots available. More information is available here.

Open House Recap

I am not very good at throwing parties. But thanks to some very special friends who enjoy party planning (Rose and Mara) plus my children who threw in some ideas of their own, this years open house was a great success. The weather was beautiful and the company glorious. And special thanks to my parents who came early to help with last minute preparations.

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When we were cleaning the feed sacks out of the barn in preparation for the party Avril came up with the idea of a sack race. As the children were racing one guest said, “Oh look there is actual dust coming out of the sacks.” Oh my, not exactly dust, more like remnants of the feed. Life on a farm.

 

 

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No Doeun family event would be complete without a basketball game or some variation. Here the children have a shooting contest. Notice Miracle, our pet goat that lived in our house for awhile roaming, in the bottom left. The only bad part was when she decided to try some of the buffet and we had to throw away some food, and she got sent back to the barn and had to be monitored for a couple days to make sure she didn’t get sick.

 

 

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The dogs don’t normally get to be at parties, but Hiro certainly loved the attention.

 

 

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The animals were a big hit, here is Miracle’s son from this year.

 

 

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The one area I didn’t get cleaned, but where we are keeping the chicks, so a popular spot none the less.

 

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There was also tours, a scavenger hunt and face painting. So much fun for the day. Hope you can make it out next year.