Trails, Orchards, Pastures, and Garden beds…
I trail run a few times a week tomorrow morning is an 11 mile run in the most beautiful moss covered forests… I am anxiously awaiting my garden with Spring approaching right now it is protected with mulch while I patiently wait for the moment I can transplant my green seedlings into the ground! 60 new chicks I love going out and watching them they sleep they are so relaxed and little do they know the hundreds of tiny ovule inside them that will bless many with eggs.
- I love being against the foothills and even though it rains alot there are beautiful rainbows
Hearing ‘nothing’ is the best chorus one could have. I try turning on the radio sometimes outside and it irritates me after 20 minutes. I have been pruning the 12 trees in the orchard that my grandfather planted about 20 years ago. I had to take down the pie cherry tree today as it had too much rot in it to save it. I know that I will plant more new and beautiful trees but I was still bothered by removing history of the family. All those teachings as we grew up one door closes another one opens and many other sayings we could go on and on with a post. What I know is that I’m 45 years old and I have just figured this stuff out and I’m so grateful for all of the lessons and trials I have had. I finally got it at 45 can I have another 45?! Please!
Life on the farm is good. ~j.
a mile in my shoes…
I love that saying if you haven’t walked a mile in my shoes…
Farming is a tired job of the feet, but such a rewarding job of the heart…
I don’t even consider myself a ‘farmer’ yet.. I have not sold anything except my wonderful eggs.
I’m a farmer in my passion, my heart and my strength… there are no monetary riches in small sustainable farming…is there? My riches come from the rewards I have from working in the garden, watching the visitors at the farm, preparing ground for new growth, or just looking over the new 70 chicks I’m nurturing like a mother hen.
My 11 grown lady hens already follow me everywhere… I talk to them and love watching them they give me 10-11 eggs a day.
Today I again am learning to wrestle a 12 foot pruning ladder with my 5’2″ frame I think I could have won a reality show today as many times as I was almost a horizontal with the steps of the ladder. After much dancing the 3 legged ladder I have 4 trees pruned and only 6 more to go! Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully the rain will give me a few hours of good sky right now the rain has been pounding great sounds on my roof with the wind as the cheering audience! I love listening to the weather when I go to sleep.
Growth at all phases seedlings, hens, and chicks, open skies and worn out slippers…
growth at all phases seedlings, hens, and chicks
Fine landscape photo ….
I attended our local wine and chocolate fest this past weekend.. which is always fun. My son had stopped at the photographers booth as he loves wildlife photos… low and behold he was so excited to see our pasture in this landscape photo – which we couldn’t pass up after that! Here is the link to the photo, the very green ‘strip’ is our back pasture. You can’t see the house in this one but I’m happy just to see the green grass and no one else would really get this picture.
http://www.justan-elk.com/photos.aspx?folder=Landscapes
chick chick chick at the post office!
today I picked up my replacement chicks from the 12 that died last week by day 2. the hatchery sent me 27 more! yikes my mobile coop plan will need some expansion!
Always blue skies above the cloud layer…
Whether we remember or not – elevation is the key to getting out of the clouds! I can drive 10 minutes up the mountain to go for a trail run be amongst the silence of birds, rivers, and forest mud and be in the sun and clear skies while the below city has not a clue. On the Plateau it has been still cold here 32 to 36 degrees in the morning not rising to more than 40 all day in the fog but I still love to be outside… I just feel a bit less productive slower but if forces me to listen to the chickens, dogs, the new seedlings in the greenhouse.. projects that I have waiting me.
Orchard side – I’m restoring or trying to the 9 fruit trees that are about 25 years old and to help me I am the proud owner of a new 12′ orchard ladder now which I am grateful to be able to get right up there with the top of the fruit trees! After my small pruning class understanding the main tree base like a river flowing through and feeding the branches i spend more time watching, looking and seeing what needs to be pruned away to allow more life into the tree. I on the other hand am 5’2″ and this is a 12′ aluminum ladder with a wide step side and a leg that it’s purpose is to shoot out and reach over the tree trunk to get you right in the middle of the tree.. Here I am picture this walking backwards the weight of a 12′ foot ladder leaning backwards and then I realize how the heck am I going to get that third leg out and over the tree and continue to push the ladder back up while keeping the third leg extended… somehow I think the engineering behind this was not thinking about a woman handling this ladder! If I can rig up some pulley system and pull to release the leg outward while the ladder is horizontal practically on my chest I will be able to finish pruning the way I should otherwise I keep moving this large ladder around the tree without really being able to get it in the center where it should be… I know my neighbors are watching me and laughing….
The people around me are used to this scene and probably just wonder what I’m up to now like when I rented a boom to go 45′ up and put lights on the only living Christmas Tree this year my grandparents planted in 1980 in memory of John Lennon… me driving a boom myself for 5 hours and only getting 4 strands around this beautiful noble fir tree. i will try to post some pictures and links to that event this past year 32 years ago December 8th 1980 for John Lennon… now outside my living room window stands this beautiful tree with many of our own deceased farm family below the branches even the last 12 chicks i lost in this first shipment. Tomorrow I get the 14 chicks to replace the 12 that died the first 2 days from the McMurray hatchery – they were very good to me on replacing the dead chicks… I just hope the new guests are treated right by their existing group of sorority girls! 
seedlings a sign of Spring
tiny little bits of life are starting to pop our of their little dirt beds, everyday a little mist and talking to and I see them reaching out with excitement!
New chicks and new growth on the farm!
Chicks are finally doing well after their journey here! i lost 12 the first 2 days! Thankful the hatchery is sending 14 replacements though…
Mason Jars….. family
The way I came up with the name was very natural to me. I’m still working on a logo (other than the obvious) I moved onto the farm which was my grandparents for 35+ years and our upbringing was as a family canning, fruit picking, and eating! I love that when I see all of the old jars just here on the farm I remember times I hated picking the fruit in the fields of Yakima WA for hours on end as a youth but in the end these memories taught me so many things which I could talk about for a long time but won’t now.. I look at a jar from anywhere and know that so many other families have experienced what I have in the processing, harvesting and consuming the jars contents… the stories around the table the feelings are a part of history that I cherish and I feel so many others do to. I’m 45 years old and have lived “life” experienced many things and finally I feel at this age I’ve maybe figured out what’s important and what’s not and just to breathe, enjoy, be present, and live… I really want more time… now that I’ve got there… Is that possible no not really we don’t know our destiny… we work to live and live to work… how about rising to live… being present… I don’t always practice this but I am grateful for every day I wake and smell, see and feel the earth, the people, the connections I experience and want to pass on and share whatever I can to show a positive light on what just a day or “this” day means… I feel connected to the earth daily as I work small chores and major things of the farm I’ve now chosen to make farming my career… Your gut instinct are the most important sometimes we are afraid to hear them and we don’t so we fall and we get up and we learn again. . Something like faith you don’t see it but based on your upbringing your thoughts, your sculpted life from so many others you have an instinct… honestly it is not truly ours because all of our lives it has been molded by people, experiences, and events…
New baby chicks….
New babies I received today 50 laying ladies…
The Mason Jar Farm 