Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Yes, we were actually thinking about building a small fruit or produce stand – something that is somewhat temporary, not trashy looking, won’t blow away on a windy day and could be stored away for the winter.
We do have lots of left-over building materials:  roofing, 2×4’s, pressure treated lumber, regular lumber and even some plywood sheeting.
So we googled some images and sketched up some rough drafts – not sure yet if we are going to actually do this, but it has been fun thinking about possibilities.  (It could always be converted into a playhouse)

Every evening we check the grape vines to see if the buds are opening yet…anticipating “bud-break”.  This evening we noticed a Robin’s nest for the first time.  Not even hidden a little bit, but out in plain site, on our first trellis post of the first row of grapes. We were either oblivious to this nest, or we have a speed-nest-builder in the grape patch.  Regardless – Robin’s are a sure sign of Spring! 

It’s been a while since I edited our website.  This evening I was updating the recipe section (after I finally figured out how to make the pull-down menu work).  I also found a new widget that I thought would be fun to have:  it’s a countdown to a major event widget.  I assume this is geared toward wedding websites or grand openings, but we found our own use:  the website count-down is for the expected first day of blackberry harvest and it is now on our home page.  We’ll change it for the grape harvest countdown in mid July.

Jeff cut down the last of the rather invasive, pond-water-sucking, twisted willow trees today.  We hope that this is the last of it and that no more little ones will sprout on the pond edge.  It took over 2 years to clean up the bank, where the trees did quite some damage.  We  actually really like willow trees – but only a safe distance away from the water.  Last year, we planted a young weeping willow, which hopefully will grow into a graceful tree.