how does your garden grow

This is a local high tunnel similar to the one I am planning to put up this fall. They have a wonderful mix of plants in each row - lettuce under broccoli and so forth - very inspiring.
The chicken complex, including a multigenerational triplex in the foreground with extensive covered yard area and a hen coop built by wwoofer extraordinaire Nick.





Well, inside the hoops, pretty well. I'm about two days away from full heads of broccoli and a week from the beginning of the great zuke fest - swimming in lettuce - tomatoes coming along nicely, even the basil looks slightly less pathetic than before.
We butchered the first batch of chickens today, and there are more coming tonight. It's crazy crazy days here on the farm. Crazy. But good crazy.
Mike and I spent the past couple days touring local hoop houses to see the different construction types. We are leaning toward a heavy-duty frame that looks more sturdy despite its size and using cables and turnbuckles to enhance that structure. We looked at the land a couple of days ago and it looks like putting it where the existing gardens are is the best idea. The only problem there, of course, is that the existing gardens are there. And will be. For months. So that means we won't be able to do the high tunnel installation until the garden is done. Which means late September or October, really. Which isn't the best time for all that since the snow is flying by mid-October, typically. But, we will just have to figure all that out as it comes.
The kids came back from a weekend with Matt today and welcomed 15 new baby peeps and a new Wwoofer, Olive, who is lovely and was immediately taken on the grand tour by both kids. It's so wonderful to watch them interact with all these new people coming through their lives. I think it builds big things to be a host to people with different experiences like that. Will it entice them into traveling themselves when they grow up, I wonder? Théa ate about a pound of chicken herself tonight, insisting not on chicken cut up into little pieces, but big pieces on the bone. Liam tried one piece. Hmm. Olive is a vegetarian. I think Liam might be moving in that direction. I hope he starts liking hard boiled eggs, then. Can 7-year-olds really be self-proclaimed vegetarians? I guess if anyone can, it's Liam.