Garden Check List for March

The weather has been absolutely beautiful and it has been such a pleasure to be able to get out and clean up the mess leftover by winter. My brother has put up the little green house and the garden will be tilled this Saturday.  The chickens are happily laying again and basking in the warmth of the sun.

Here is my check list for the things to accomplish this month:

• First and foremost, take a moment every day to take in all of the beautiful forms of new life around you.  The buds on the lilac and the babies in the nests. All of these beautiful things of spring are reminders of the precious gift our Savior has provided.  Spring is my favorite!

• Till garden and prepare for cool season planting as soon as the soil is dry enough to work.
• Plant new asparagus and rhubarb beds.
• Fertilize asparagus and rhubarb beds with a layer of mature compost.
• Sprout potatoes in a warm window, and then plant on St. Patrick's Day.  
• Plant peas and onions in the garden.
• At the end of the month broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower can be moved to a cold frame.
• Sweet peas, poppies and wild flowers can be sown at the end of the month.
• Finish pruning apples and grapes.  
• Plant new fruit trees and bushes.
• Scatter seeds from last years annuals. They will germinate as soon as the temperatures are right.
  
  
  
  
• Take note of your early bulbs and perennials coming up.  Uncover them before they get too large, and by the end of the month at the latest.  These early season plants can tolerate a little cold weather as long as they aren't blooming.
  
  
  
  
• Get the green house up an going.  I am starting cabbage, head lettuce, tomatoes and peppers, among other things.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

The Price of Bacon - Part 1

Up at my brother's place, we are keeping 10 little piggies.  Well, for now they are little piggies.  The plan is to butcher two, keep 4 to breed and sell the rest.  Raising our own meat is a project we have really just begun.  So far, it isn't really cheaper, but the end product has been so much better than what we find in the grocery store. Plus, it is really good to know that the animals we are eating were raised in an environment that cares and respects them as a living being.  It is also wonderful that we can teach our children about where our food really comes from.  Hopefully, when it is time for them to provide for their own families, they will have the skills to do more than pick something up at a drive thru.

My brother has built a lovely little pig pen complete with a large feeder, a feed trough, water pan, a three-sided wooden shelter and a warm little hay shed to keep them warm.  The fence and gate are new, as is the trough and water pan.  The rest are things that he has either found used or already had on hand.  Scavenging items that are not brand new have really helped to keep the start up cost down.

The most expensive part of this little operation, our labor.  Of course, if we had a little more experience this wouldn't be so costly.
So far, the ice and snow has caused the most amount of labor.
Riding out in the bitter cold, wading through the snow and dumping the ice out of the water pan is work!
Getting a call that one of the little girls is sick, then heading over in the dark to sort her out, bring her to the barn and administer the medication, after setting up the heat lamp and straw to keep her warm, well that's work too.
Chasing 6 little pigs, so that they can be loaded up in the trailer and be taken to the vet to be castrated, is work! Especially when you do it the hard way, by literally chasing them around the pen, diving, jumping and getting your hat stolen by one of the little stinkers.
Then pulling that trailer too close to the gate, so that it is easier to unload the poor little castrated piggies, and then getting stuck in the slick mud, in your dad's truck, well that is a whole lotta work!  Work that involves pigs escaping the pen, running around and around the pen, keeping the pigs in the pen while the brother goes to get the tractor, and then pulling the truck out and then the trailer out so that the gate can finally be shut.  Next time we just need to use the tractor to begin with!  I can promise we burned off lots of bacon calories that day!

So far, the bacon has cost a little bit of money and a whole lot of work.  Work that is pretty fun, except for the running part, and the cold part.  But hey, that's the price of bacon.  And bacon is good.  Totally worth it!