Maple Grove Farm

Away From Home

I am away from home this week and DH is taking care of the kids, who are all sick.  He is doing a great job, but I am so sad not being able to see and hold my babies every day.  It just makes we want to be dedicated to my home and family.

My father called me last night and says he may have found a milk cow for me.  What a blessing that he has been keeping his eyes open for me.  After a year or so of research, I decided on a milking shorthorn.  The only ones I have found were very expensive and they don't come up for sale very often.  My decision is based on the fact that I want to be able to raise the offspring for beef.  I could have also gone with a holstein, but my research showed the shorthorn as having a higher fat content and being better for beef.  I taste tested the milk from others and think we will like the shorthorn.  Jersey was the 3rd option, but we don't like the taste as well and the calves are worthless for beef.

Our garden is coming along well.  Our little tomatoes are growing very well in the house.  We have peas coming up and I may have seen some lettuce poking through.  We have broccoli plants in as well as cabbage and celery.  Some onions were planted and we have more to put in this weekend. 

We need to put in a lot of potatoes.  I saw an estimate today that you need 225 feet of potates per family member.  Let's see 2025 feet of potatoes or 16 rows in our garden.  Um  . .  16 rows?  Where will I plant everything else.  Using my calculation method - 40 weeks of eating potatoes multiplied by 3 times per week times 2 pounds for each serving = 240 pounds.  Each planted pound should yield 10 pounds, so we need to plant 24 pounds.  Based on past experience about 2 pounds planted 1 row.  Therefore I need 12 rows.  Slightly better than 16 rows.  This is a significant part of our garden and I will have to time the planting to make sure we use space as wisely as possible.  I may also interplant the squash that need space to spread out on top and could spread amongst the potatoes where the underground growth is what is most important.

Oh, how I love gardening.  I think it is safe to say the majority of the sewing is done and put away for the gardening season.  I need to make a couple of more dresses for the oldest, but those will get done slowly but surely.  Over the summer I will start prepping the fall sewing by cutting out patterns and cutting out the fabric.