Hello hello!
Thank you so much for sharing space, time, and a good, hot beverage with me today!
How wonderful it is to see you! I thought we might sit in the front yard and watch the baby chicks run about in the warm sunshine, what do you think?
I’m enjoying black tea with milk and honey (per usual), but we have coffee and a variety of herbal teas I can happily brew for you, if you’d prefer. What would you like?
How’s your week been? Your family? Work?
If we were having coffee I’d ask what your favorite moment from the week was?
I’d be a bit pressed in my own reply because some weeks make it really hard to choose just one!
Favorite moments for me could include our quiet time spent by the Pecos River last Sunday…
And my trip into Santa Fe with Ember where we visited The Acorn at the Audubon Center before running errands (groceries, new shirts for our fast-growing girl, and some yarn for my Temperature Blanket)…
And handing off a clutch of eggs for a Kindergarten teacher to incubate with her students…
But I also really enjoyed making lemon dandelion cookies with Ember.
It was, indeed, a good week.
If we were having coffee I’d ask if you’re growing any of your own food this year?
I spent a good chunk of time this week planning out our Kitchen Garden based on the seeds I’ve started and the seeds that will be directly sown within the next six weeks or so.
Despite our continued warmer-than-normal and super dry weather, I’m hoping for a banner year with ~50 different veggies and varieties planned for the garden in addition to the corn, potatoes, and squash that will be planted in their own small plots, what’s sprouting in the herb garden and established with the orchard and berries.
Now we wait to see if the orchard fruit will survive the frosts that are sure to strike between now and the end of May.
How’s your growing season lining up?
If we were having coffee I’d ask if there is any change afoot in your neck of the woods?
I’m asking because, speaking of fruit, big changes are intended to come to the farm this summer!
Our landlords have decided to put in a second home on the property so they can spend more time on the farm enjoying all the life we’ve helped to cultivate and sustain here. After much deliberation, they’ve decided to put their casita at the end of the orchard which means that six of the 18 sections of berries have been dug up and transplanted into a new row in an effort to save them. Some of this was done by hand, some of it was done by our neighbor who is a tractor master.
Time will tell how the shock of transplant will affect these berries, but we are hopeful it’s still early enough in the year that they’ll get their roots under them and be OK. They may not give us fruit this year, but hopefully they’ll make it through and thrive again soon!
The construction will undoubtedly be a trip over the next several months but I trust it will be best for everyone in the end and am grateful that they’re so happy with our caretaking that they not only want us to stay, but they want to share in the abundance in a more hands-on way going forward.
If we were having coffee we’d share some small talk about things that have caught our eye recently…
I’d tell you about this C2C crochet project that I simply adore and just might have to take on next year since I loved my last C2C project but really can’t take on more than one crochet project at a time 😉
Or I might ask if you’re familiar with ancestral diets and have any (Northern European) cookbook recommendations as I work to shift our eating habits in a more intentional way?
And I’d listen as you shared your own ideas, inspirations, and observations so please, do tell!
If we were having coffee it would be time to say goodbye… for now.
Thank you so much for sharing space and time with me here today! I hope you have a lovely rest of your day, weekend, and week ahead!
Let’s do this again soon, OK? Say, next week? Week after next? As soon as feels good and possible, ok?
Until then, please pop over to Natalie the Explorer’s space, where she hosts this lovely virtual get-together and you can find many other, similar sharings.
Until next time, take good care of yourself and enjoy every moment you can.
xoxo,
M
I’m so far behind commenting from last weeks coffee share..lol. That is pretty cool that the landlords want to be a part. I need to read more about your farm. That is such a cute crochet project! Perfect for a farm. I’ve never crocheted. I’m hoping to do some growing of vegetables in containers, but we’ll see. I had to replace my blueberry shelter so I’m not sure how much extra $$ I’ll have.
Sometimes life takes up the “extra” time we thought we’d have for blogging 😉 No worries at all. Thank you for your kind words about the farm and my crochet project! I love to keep my hands busy in one way or another 😉 I do hope you get to grow a couple of things this year, every little bit counts 🙂 Hope you’re enjoying a lovely week!
I hope your berries deal well with the move! I had a small plant of blueberries but the birds kept eating it :-/. One day I’ll have one again.
Oh yes, those birds will eat all.the.berries if they can! I do hope you’ll have another chance at point in the near future, there’s nothing like fresh berries!
Those are some big changes. It could turn out to be something wonderful having more hands available at the farm. I hope the transition to having your landlord living there goes smoothly. I love what you’ve done to the place, and shred with us. All the ideas that you turn into reality, that is admirable. What type of veggies are you going to add this year?
Hi Maria, yes, change abounds! Luckily the landlords won’t be living here full time, just the odd weekend and extra during the warmest months. This will be like a second home/getaway for them as they live full time an hour away. We are growing about 50 different veggies and varieties this year, all the usual suspects: tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, etc. plus luffa (hopefully), artichoke, and herbal medicinals. The full grow list is in my previous post, 2022 Garden Prep & Planning. Hope you have an awesome week ahead, Maria! As always, thank you for the visit!
Hi Melissa – so many things to love! Firstly can I just say that Ember is such a pretty name (I was very tempted to call our daughter Amber – but wasn’t sure whether she’d be a redhead and that might have been a bit weird). The chickens are very cute and that crocheted rug is just amazing. You’re so very talented in all that you do.
Hi Leanna! Thank you so much for your kind words! Names are such an interesting thing to decide on, aren’t they? So many considerations! Little did we know when we decided on Ember that we’d have to add “with an E” to nearly every introduction we make of her 😉 The farm C@C blanket took forever but I’m so very pleased with how it turned out. I am so grateful to have a craft that keeps my hands busy. Hope you have a great week ahead!
Great to have all the fresh fruit and vegetables in your backyard. The blanket turned out well. Good luck with your crops and harvest.
Thank you so much! Fingers crossed for a banner year! Hope you have a great week ahead!
Wow, that is a lot happening for you and where you live. I hope it does all work out for everyone with the changes. Take care.
Denyse #weekendcoffeeshare
Hi Denyse! Thank you for popping over and for sharing your well wishes! We are very busy, but also very happy…win, win! Wishing you a wonderful week ahead!
It does sound like you have a lot going. To me it would seem weird for the landlord to decide to move back into the lot, but cool that they are letting you continue what you are doing. The gardening and such sounds good. We might have a tiny garden, but not much. We do plan on joining a CSA again this year, but not sure if we missed the deadlines. I hope you have a great week!
CSAs are a wonderful way to incorporate local food into your diet! I do hope you haven’t missed the sign up 🙂 Not to worry about the landlords, the house they are planning to build will be like a second home that they intend to spend the odd weekend in. Their lives are fully immersed in the city, this property is just a getaway for them 🙂 Hope your weekend rounds out wonderfully, Trent!
Oh I hope the fruit trees do well in their new home! I’m hoping to grow a few veggies and things in containers on our deck but it’s much too early and cold here for that just yet.
I’m so glad to hear you have plans for growing a few things! I hope they all offer you joy and delicious abundance!
Great coffee share. The highlight of my week is working on creating a bookmark to accompany my book release. Thanks for the virtual coffee.
Writing Sparkle recently posted…Headache
Oooohhh…what an exciting project! Thank you so much for popping by and sharing a bit of your joy! Hope you have an amazing week ahead!
Thanks Melissa, I hope you have a great week as well.
Writing Sparkle recently posted…Headache
How lovely to grow your own food. You have a lot going on there. I have plenty of tomato seedlings growing in the kitchen and in my office, and I plan to grow leaf salad, rocket (in progress since last year), radishes, and lots more that I haven’t decided yet – I’ll see what fits in my boxes.
I wouldn’t worry about the raspberries if I were you – they are very hardy and stubborn plants! I planted two shrubs and the next year they filled the entire bed! I had to dig them all up, give some to friends, and now I plan to buy a plant or two and put somewhere in the lawn where I cut frequently and can keep them at bay. I don’t know how they behave here but in Sweden they were crazy!
Oh I’m so glad to hear of your plans to grow an abundance of veggies! There’s nothing like food picked from your own garden 🙂 Thank you for your positive words about the raspberries! They’re in good soil on drip irrigation so their prospects are good! Fingers crossed!
Cute chicks! And yay for garden plans and all those kinds of veggies. I miss having a large garden.
What’s your elevation? I gardened for 6 seasons in Flagstaff, AZ, at 6900 feet, which was… interesting. High desert is a challenging environment.
We are at ~5900 ft here and yes, high desert gardening/farming is definitely interesting. So many wild challenges. Thanks for popping by! Hope you have a great week ahead!
Melissa, I enjoy reading what you grow on your farm. The chicks are adorable. I hope the berries survive and thrive. You’ve made a beautiful blanket. I used to crochet so I understand the work that goes into a blanket project. Thank you for your weekend coffee share.
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Thank you for popping by and for your kind words, Natalie! Hope you have an awesome week ahead!
Hi Melissa,
Sadly, we no longer have a garden. For the first few years when we bought this place, we had a great protected corner that was all set up fr gardening by the previous owner, but slowly things began to fail back there and finally I realized that it was the nearby trees that grew so much as to block almost all direct sunlight leaving the whole corner in full day shadow. It made a huge difference to most of our plants. It was the only suitable place for a full garden so I’m down to just a few pots of things now although a few years ago I did a big experiment with spaghetti squash raised from seeds from a store-bough fruit. We pulled more than 30 squash fruit and could not eat and give them away fast enough – but they sure were good.
Sounds like a great summer is coming your way.
All the best.
Oh goodness! Yes, we know all about how invasive tree roots can be in the garden… especially in the city! I’m glad you’re still growing a bit as you can, there’s really nothing like homegrown food 🙂
Lots to love in here. Here’s hoping the berries survive their replanting. Mostly though, those chicks! How adorable! By the way, mine is a black tea – no milk, no sugar…for future reference, of course…
Thank you for popping by, sharing a cuppa with me, and sending along your well wishes! Hope you have an amazing weekend ahead!