Welcome to the first day of spring at Windy Willow Farm! I'll just bet you never expected to be greeted by a lovely photo of our manure spreader. But this manure spreader has earned a prominent place in our lives recently.Manure (or compost, in our case) is usually spread during the winter, so we're driving the tractor on frozen ground. Mark was spreading compost on our gardens, using our ancient manure spreader when it broke, mid-spread (of course)! As you can see, the manure is moved to the back of the spreader with bars run by chains. Mark limped back to the manure pile on high alert, dripping and dropping rusted hardware. I ran out (post morning shower, hair still wet) to help shovel out the compost and to assess the situation. Chains and bars were everywhere. In due time, the bed was cleaned out and the remaining hardware removed. A new set was ordered, post haste, and was installed yesterday.
The phrase "was installed" may be glossed over by some readers. Others may think about what it takes to install a chain system on a 30+ year old piece of equipment. Let me tell you that when one lays on recently thawed spring ground, the wet, cold mud seeps through a Carhart jacket and fleece-lined jeans surprisingly quickly. We finally wised up and sent enough chain through to attach together while standing on top of the unit, instead of from afore-mentioned ground position.
Now, off to spread more compost to nutrify the soil so we can grow great veggies! Many of said veggies have been started by my greenhouse friend already, and many more are planned on paper. Other pre-season activities have included the purchase of slanted farm stand tables, rearranging and organization of harvest equipment; inventory of plastic, row covers and irrigation equipment; plans for painting the garage (after power-washing), re-roofing our storage milk house and milk room off the barn; storing the snow blower for the season and starting up the rototiller; and any other preparation-variety activities.
We're still interviewing for Worker Share positions for the season. Let me know if you want to join in and lend a hand, and eat like a king!
Oh, and I was interviewed for a recent article in the Metroland: http://www.metroland.net/dining_review.html pretty cool stuff. Happy Spring to you!
