go go garden.

I totes can't believe how quickly everything is growing in the garden now that it's gotten started. We have almost all the transplants in, with only a few more basil and pepper plants to go, then a bit more direct seeding. I transplanted about 24 winter squash and melons today, and between today and yesterday Judi and I put in about 80 tomato plants. We are gonna have some damn fine eating. I'm stoked on the amount of gardening time I get in with Judi, because she's a lot of fun to work with and an exceedingly valuable source of gardening info. So, yeah, everything is pretty much just exploding in the garden. I wish I could keep on the weeding and thinning a bit better, but all in all it's looking pretty amazing. Things seem to be coming together in terms of who likes to do what in there as well. Devo is admirably obsessive about keeping things tidy looking which I suck at, I really like doing some of the prep work like forking the beds because it's a good workout and makes me feel tough, and Judi can transplant like a race car.

The new batch of meat birds arrived at the post office in Castlegar last night. We picked them up and got the dubious pleasure of driving home on a hot night with the heat on and the windows rolled up (better to contain the bird smell and manic peeping noises). These guys look a lot better off than the last batch, who were pretty miserable. They have bounced back now that they're out in the pasture in their chicken tractor, but they were pretty wretched for awhile. It's good to start fresh (even with the hours I spent shovelling chicken shit out of the garage to get to said fresh start) and to actually see how things are supposed to work for the meat birds. With them showing up chilled and sick last time it was hard just to keep them alive, let alone anything else.

The pigs are doing exceedingly well also. They are a bit sunburnt still, but seem to be learning to stay out of the sun quite so much. They are growing really fast already, and seem to be uber healthy. They are getting pretty damn fine feed as well, between the organic starter we have them on, and the top quality table scraps (certified organic spinach and radishes, for example). Judi had some raspberry pulp left over from juicing the other day and some buttermilk that was almost off, so they got a meal of berries and cream, which is pretty style-y by human standards even. We are still trying to figure out a price for them, so if anyone happens to be in some sort of fancypants supermarket and can remember to take a look at the price of organic pork, please let me know.

I am getting really stoked to hit up Victoria in June .... it will be uber rad to get to see everyone and get a little more social time in than my life has contained of late. Still, I feel pretty damn settled in here. I feel like there was an initial stage of feeling like I was on a schmancy country vacation, a middle stage of feeling a bit restless w/ spending so much time on the farm, and now I like the work and the area more and more with every day. Basically, farming seems to have everything I want to do ... hard work that relates to food and lets me spend a ton of time outside and around rad animals. Pretty damn perfect, I'd say.