Missing Willow Farm

I won’t miss the construction chaos one bit.  A neighbor saw the porta potty in the driveway and asked if we were planning on staging a concert.  It would be a small concert!  The deck should be finished today, then the fun begins.

My friend Lora and I share a spot at our local farmer’s market.  I bring lamb and eggs and honey and goats milk soap, she brings really awesomely yummy stuff like this giant chocolate cupcake.  You really should stop by some time.

On day 1, Brian and I pulled up the original decking.  The contractors extended the floor joists out another 12 feet, put roofing support beams in place and started adding new decking.  The far end of the deck was extended another 4 feet.   The slope of the yard precludes it from going out any further.   Awesome progress!

I found our first cucumber this morning.  I use them solely for making dill pickles but never have dill heads available when it’s pickle time.  This year, we planted dill back in November in the greenhouse and it appears they’re going to ripen at the same time.  As a backup, I do have dill heads from last year’s garden in the freezer.  Of course. 😀

Our back deck is an oddly shaped two-level eyesore.   The hot tub is on a weird trapezoidal elevated section.  The bottom section, which is at door threshold level, is barely wide enough to sit a dining table on.   We’ve been talking about having it redone since we moved here and finally called a contractor whose work we admire last Friday.  He came over yesterday morning with a contract and his equipment started arriving.   It seems we caught him just finishing up a project nearby and willing to fit us in before he moved to another one up the mountain.  Brian and I spent the entire day in the rain ‘clearing the deck’ and ripping out rails and flooring.   Yay!

Our garden is almost completely planted.  There’s just one raised bed left to repair and Brian is taking care of that today.  We have garlic, soybeans, sweet peppers, hot peppers, potatoes, cabbage, leeks, zucchini, carrots, cucumbers, cilantro, parsley, beets, lettuce, spinach, asparagus, horseradish, cress, rhubarb and a ton of tomatoes planted.  We still need to plant pumpkin and melon seeds.

Our apple trees are blooming.  So pretty, I love this time of year.

Spring garlic and some fresh asparagus.  This is looking like it needs to become  a quiche.

It’s a beautiful day.  The goats are milked, the sheep are moved to greener pasture, the eggs collected, the dogs fed, the gardens watered.  I need a nap…