Found My Thrill on Blueberry Hill

Saturday was a no-farm day because if the rain, hail and wind. We went to a friend's house for dinner in Bolivar that evening. The discussion was "what does each family have that can be shared as a group this year".... i.e., we hopefully will have organic vegies, others have eggs, chickens, cows, lamb.... We all plan to either trade or buy each others items to try to eat local instead of going to the store and buying the items which came from who knows where, and not sure what was sprayed on them or if they are GMO etc... The goal is to consume locally and know your grower.

Sunday was nice but the wood on the barn has to dry out from the rain so we planted our blueberry plants. This took all day..... I think we were more tired from planting the 25 blueberry plants than when we work on the barn. The main reason it took so long was the battery on the tractor is near death so we had to jump it about 15 times throughout the day. It will have a new battery next week.

The other problem was someone (Cris) forgot to bring the keys for the atv, tractor etc. He said the keys should be left in the truck at all times but I don't think so and I put them in the kitchen....which is where they were when we discovered we did not have them, one hour away from home at the farm. Alex went back in my car and picked them up (bless his heart). While he was gone, Cris was able to start the tractor with a screwdriver.... he's handy sometimes.

Even with all the rain we had, the ground is still pretty hard; it is a clay type dirt. Cris first plowed a strip, then used the harrow, then the box blade to flatten it. After that, he dug the holes while I planted. You can't buy all the same varities of blueberries because they need other types to pollenate them. So we have 4 varities planted; Rabbiteye Bluebelle, Rabbiteye Climax, Highbush Coville and Highbursh Jersey. We won't see any crop for at least a year, maybe two.

The blackberry bushes are growing nicely in their pots at home. We are going to plant those in the ground later in the year when we plant the vegetables. The vegies are growing nicely in the trays at our house but aren't ready to be planted in the ground yet.

Next week, weather permitting, we will finish the roof of the barn and start on the walls.