As for what's been going on, on the farm; well...RAIN.
It has been a very wet and cold, rainy couple of weeks, with no real, long term end in sight. With about .5% of the crop harvested, I am surprised that Mark is not more anxious/annoyed than he is, but he has the construction of that grain tank to finish up. We bought it second-hand, dismantled and it seems that with each new step of putting it up we find another problem. In any case, it's a welcome distraction to the lack of combining.
On the livestock front, I have sold a few more ewes and am done saying goodbye for now. Have had some good lamb sales and am feeling better about being a livestock farmer, but after looking at the books have been doing some careful weighing of priorities in determining whether we downsize or get out completely. With sheep production on PEI seeming to take a giant leap, I am concerned that markets will be getting smaller and harder to penetrate, organic or not. I don't know if I could ever let them go completely, but keeping a few is more costly than keeping a larger flock (damn agricultural economics!) so reality must set in at some point.
The chickens are doing well (as usual) and the last batch goes out on the 29th. I am really hopeful that the rain will have dried up by then since catching chickens at 5:30 am in the dark is already at the bottom of my 'favorite activity' list; the rain wouldn't help.
Hope this finds you dry and cozy wherever you may be. Warm (stiff) drink in hand perhaps?
-Sally
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