virginiaisforlykoshes: 2011: Year of Growth

In this, the third annual retrospective on the farm, I was surprised to find how much grew and changed this year. (With special thanks to Isaiah for his aid in taking photographs. While my heart initially sank at the 377 photos we took today, it is a joy to see his creative vision, to see the farm with his eyes.)

We have radically changed our animals from New Year's Day to New Year's Eve. Of the birds, we have the same Chanticleer cock.

We have our beautiful black Tux.

Otherwise, other than the lone remaining guinea, we have an entirely new set of laying hens.

Incredibly productive, the White Leghorns might actually earn their keep: the first of our animals to do so.

And we have two faithful ducks, Mrs. Mallardy and the Welsh Harlequin.

Of the sheep, we have culled to just six. Of those six, I suspect two may be long-term residents on the farm. After two years of heart-rending lambings, we have no plans for lambs in 2012. (The garden, behind them, disappointed us. But it will be great, one day!)

Our cow herd, though, doubled, from seven at the start of the year: two calves, three heifers, and two cows.

To fourteen now, with the addition of our bull, another cow and calf, and four calves. Our milk production has dropped to nil, however: until this mama finds more time, and the milk cows have feed enough to make their milk quantity worth my while, the Lykoshes continue a water and kombucha family. One day.

And though we bought and lost a Jersey in the space of a month, we persevere in cattle because we love them, and we love what they do to the land. And we happily have management of the pasture to the north and south of us now, too. We went from three months of pasture-feeding last year to six or more months this year. In 2012, I'm hoping that once the spring flush hits, we'll have no more hay feeding—ever.

Though I had to combine hives, I ended the year with one, hopefully healthy hive. Infinitely more than last year. I love the bees.

I do plan to move their hive about 30 feet, though, into this sweet moon-shaped flower bed next to the driveway.

And we added sweet Bit of Honey, or Bitsy, for short.

The apple orchard grew, and we even harvested a dozen or so fruits from the most precocious of trees.

For the rest, their branches reach eight feet; some more.

I noticed there were a few red leaves still on the trees. On closer examination, they were all water sprouts: branches that grow vertically out of "real" branches. I'll need to prune those soon.

In the rows we tilled and seeded, the cover crop came in well.

In the stone fruit orchard, we removed the cherries, and transplanted the peaches on contour, with swales for water retention. The aesthetics improved immensely.

The peaches, for the most part, have done well.

We hope for even better things to come, both from those in the ground, and from the future trees we plan to plant.

My kitchen garden moved entirely. The truck can now park where the vegetables grew.

We planted almost 10,000 daffodils around the bases of the trees, and now are finding creative uses for the plastic crates.

I planted a couple hundred hazelnuts. Although less than half survived, those that did look great. Some of the male plants are now putting out catkins, the male flower that will (hopefully) pollinate the females.

Down in the lower pasture, Phil cleared some more trees. He milled lumber which we've used all year.

And, going forward, there is plenty more to clear and plenty more to mill. Plenty of uses for the lumber, too.

We are blessed to have so many large trees to use.

From a construction standpoint, the farm looks different now. We started with the little greenhouse back in February. It served us admirably for the intense time of seedling starting. But, since we're unlikely to do that again anytime soon, the greenhouse now is Phil's shop, for now.

We also have the big greenhouse. Mostly up, it needs more board feet of lumber for the base, and the cover put on, after the soil has had a winter to leach away the excess sodium. (Directly downslope is the green manure crop, just waiting the spring planting of blueberry bushes, and below that, the asparagus.)

Phil also carved out a little level section for the trampoline. The boys have used it both on top, for jumping and reading, and underneath, for intricate canals and pools.

Phil made himself a butcher block, and butchered four or five pigs and piglets on it. (And we've used bright flags all year: to mark swales, future trees, future bushes.)

Phil built an outdoor storage area for our animal feed (currently surrounded by the purchased compost we haven't yet spread in the orchard).

And he built a new compost area, away from our direct line of traffic, closer to the woods. Much preferred, aesthetically.

And although we bought a metal building, it remains on the ground.

The pad for it, though, has been of much use to us as a parking lot. (And the trailer has been of much use to us as we move the cows from paddock to paddock. It's not, perhaps, the most efficient, but it allows us to water the animals on land that has no well.)

I laughed to read that, a year ago, we had plans for placement and purchase of a yurt. How long ago that seems. This year, we're liking this spot, closer to the bottom of the finger.

And the idea of a yurt is long gone.

Interpersonally, the boys have done well this year. Phil and I were glad to see Joe and Abraham, not usually much interested in books, quietly looking at books this morning. Both resting their cheeks in their hands, identically. (I suspect Joe watched his brothers at some point, and learned that that is the proper posture for perusing pictures.)