These last 2 weeks have required a lot of hustle and endurance and lots of prayer.
We have started recieving our first bread orders; Artisan bread, Banana Bread and Pumpkin Bread. Our kitchen has smelled amazing over the last two weeks.
Jamie had to order a part for his tractor, and has to set aside time to do some mechanical work.
We introduced the Ameraucana chicks to pasture for the first time this week, and they are loving it!
We have Icelandic chicks hatching in the incubator!
We have been preparing ourselves for our first time butchering a large number of chickens.
The weather has been interesting, with 90 degree days in June. This makes sustaining life very difficult for poulty and livestock, but especially cornish cross chickens. They are not heat tolerant. We are constantly going to check on the chickens and trying to cool them off. I will probably be assemblying a pop-up tent to provide additional shade……the weather man was calling for clouds and rain today, which would have been a reprive…..but it is bright, sunny, and hot! I am thankful that we have several friends with farms that are able to help us in a great number of ways…..good advice and information is worth more than gold.
We took a big step and have invested in an irrigation system. We were looking for a more efficent way to water our plants than using sprinkler systems and running water hose everywhere (or watering the plot by hand when we ran out of sprinklers). We have 6 (soon to be 7 plots). It was taking about an hour to water each plot, and the water distribiton was not even. The plants in the center get too much water, and the plants in the corners are parched. With the irrigation system we would be able to water all of the plots at one time using drip line (getting the water to where the plant needs it….the roots) for about 1 hour every day and be done. Can we say labor savings! However…..after Jamie finished setting everything up….we hooked up the system and it didnt work properly….
We have determined that we don’t have enouch water pressure to run the irrigation system correctly. We have lined up a plumber to come and look at our well pump and tank tomorrow. We are putting together some info for him regarding our irrigation system and requirements so that he can better help us. (I’ll have Jamie follow up about all of the calculations he had to do, haha!) We will keep you updated on our progress. I’m hoping that we can have our irrigation system up and working next week and we can move on to our next large project!
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
-Audra