Shown, Unshown – Moving the Farm & The Space Between

Tomorrow marks four weeks since we made our move to a new home and new beginnings and I can’t believe a whole month has already passed!

Time has both flown by and seemed to stand still for us.

There have days upon days of work…doing and re-doing…planning and scheming…unpacking and nesting.

And then there has been setbacks and steps forward…dreams discussed and ideas thrown about…sleepness nights & moments of rest.

I’ve been trying to write this update for days and am happy to report that I used the last 1% of battery left on my camera to get the photos off of it and onto my computer so I can show you just a bit of what’s up in our new space. Now to just find the battery charger so I can deepen my documentation of the beginnings of this newest chapter 🙂

But first, here’s a glimpse into the first four weeks:

A post shared by Melissa (@evergrowingfarm) on Feb 27, 2018 at 2:30pm PST

A post shared by Melissa (@evergrowingfarm) on Mar 21, 2018 at 5:35am PDT

A post shared by Melissa (@evergrowingfarm) on Mar 11, 2018 at 2:42pm PDT

Shown

Moving Day

What can I say beyond, Holy Cow! Moving Day was super intense but made a thousand times better with the help of some amazing friends and family, my amazing wife, and a guy named Lito we hired to help who happened to have a Mastery of squeezing incredibly large vehicles through gates only inches wider than said vehicle. Magic.

What was meant for the house was stacked in boxes in corners and what was meant for storage was put under the tent.

The animals all waited patiently (or impatiently, as it were) for us to stop scrambling long enough to get them settled into their spaces.

(All of the photos taken in the first collage of Moving Day were taken by Ember who just may be a better photographer than I am.)

Settling In

Cats & Dogs

Despite some rough beginnings, everyone seems happy with their new stomping grounds. Akuna escaped a few times before we perfected the electric fencing and Ben went missing for three days before returning scrappy as ever, but amazingly intact.

The dogs are definitely still on high alert, so barking more than I’d like, but understandable given their circumstances. I’ll take it for now.

Goats

The Ladies are loving their new set up. The barn, their run, the hills, and the trees all seem to satisfy them just fine. Mama Mello is due to kid any day now with Luc and Ethel set for mid-April. We will soon be bursting at the seams with bouncing babies and more love than our hearts can surely handle.

The boys are being housed separately and their saga can be found below 😉 Silly, stinky boys.

Poultry

The chickens are content to have free access to the whole upper property until we can figure out their permanent structure (see below for the drama of it all), are laying eggs everywhere, chatting us up incessantly, and need to have their wings clipped. We’re hoping to have one or two permanent shelters set up for them this weekend and full fencing around the orchard to corral them in by the following weekend.

On a more somber note, we’re missing our Mama Duck, Kitty. She was here, then gone. My hope is that she’s set up a clutch on a hill with a gorgeous view of the Valley that gets warmed by the morning sun and she’ll turn up with a bunch of fluffy yellow butted babies in a couple of weeks. My fear is that a predator got her. Only time will tell.

On the flip side, our white female duck has decided to lay a clutch of eggs in their shelter in the goat area, with seven eggs laid as of today, so there’s that 🙂

Garden Planning & Future Fruit

We’re planning a small-ish Kitchen Garden that will allow us to cultivate beans and tomatoes, peas and cukes, onions and carrots, and everything in between (in addition to the garlic we put in last fall). It will have to be fenced in to protect it from all the animals, but that’ll be fine as it’ll be right next to the orchard which needs to be fenced anyhow.

Speaking of the orchard…it needs pruning and amending and the apricots are already jumping out of their skin. Pretty, but not sustainable with two full months left before we’re out of the Frosty Woods. It’s OK, though, because despite my true adoration of Apricots, there will still be hope for the other 60+ trees holding the potential for peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, plums, and cherries.

Additionally, there’s been talk of a large crop of green chile and some blue corn on the upper field.

Crazy.

I have to say, with our insanely warm and dry winter here, I’m so grateful for the water running in the acequia and so hopeful that we’ll either get some good snow in the next few weeks or some gentle rains to sustain us through the summer. Everyone is worried about water and so, despite our fantasies about copious amounts of hand-tended fruits and veggies, things may be a bit sparse this year after all. Again, only time will tell.

Unshown

• Long story short…We moved and everyone survived! Really, and truly, that’s what it all boils down to 🙂 But it must be said: Moving sucks and moving a farm sucks even worse.
• One cannot move a farm (and the 44 farm animals of said farm) without getting poop everywhere. So gross. I kid you not, I had poop on every layer of clothes I was wearing, there was poop on every surface you can imagine, and at one point I even had poop flung into my mouth by an angry duck. Literally, poop everywhere.
• Wind Events are apparently a thing out here. Massive, insane bouts of wind that whip and whistle and then curl up and burst forth across the Valley with devastating results for our temporary shed (a 20×10 tent which was staked into the ground), temporary chicken coop (which took flight and landed in two pieces, one on our neighbors field and one a whole other property over). Plans B & C are currently being imagined.
• When moving a farm and settling in, patience is imperative. Patience with each other, patience with yourself, patience with the process. Luckily, Kim and I tend to have our breakdowns/stressed out moments at different times which allows us to lean into each other when things get rough/overwhelming. That being said, I’d be happy if everything that needs to be done was already done yesterday, thankyouverymuch, which really isn’t realistic when you move, period, let alone when you move a farm. I’ve learned that, when you move a farm, everything under the sun takes longer to complete despite any prep or best-laid plans. The barn we worked so hard on? Still not fully complete. Functioning and awesome? Yes, and as of Tuesday, finally has handles on the front door 😉
• Remember the fences we worked on for days? Well, the electric took two solid days of noodling to cover the perimeter of the top of the property…which meant the dogs spent a ridiculous amount of time either with us directly or in the back of the truck while we worked to figure it all out (we needed another grounding rod…but we didn’t have internet to google that shit nor past experience to pull from).
• You know the electric netting that held in the bucks for the past two years? It miraculously doesn’t hold Ricky anymore. He found a new sense of vibrancy and inspiration and simply leaps over it without a problem. And so a new Buck Area was established against a small hill with actual stakes in the ground, wire fencing, and an electric wire run along the top.
• Mama Mello is showing signs of labor and I’m both elated and a bit scared due to last year’s trauma. She typically blows around day 148, which just so happens to be today.

All of this and I haven’t even mentioned the Blue Slate Turkeys that will be available at the Feed Store on the 29th or the package of bees that will be picked up in a week and a half.

Yes, life is full.

I am exhausted and inspired and exhausted…and so deeply grateful to be on this crazy journey of ours. Still and forever.

xoxo,
M