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Water Awareness

2010 Blog Action Day is for water and so I thought to add something here. I wanted to keep this a simple post though. Please read and keep these facts in mind every day.

Simple tips you can keep in mind and (hopefully) change in your every day life to make a difference:

- For hanging baskets, planters and pots, place those ice cubes that dropped on the floor or were left over in your glass under the moss or dirt to give your plants a cool drink of water and help eliminate water overflow.
- Avoid watering your landscape during the hottest hours of the day (10 am until 6 pm) to minimize evaporation.
- Plant during the spring or fall when the watering requirements are lower.
- Use the garbage disposal sparingly. Compost vegetable food waste instead to save gallons and use this organic material as a layer on the surface of your planting beds to minimize weed growth that competes for water.
- (For my pet lovers:) Wash your pets outdoors in an area of your lawn that needs water.
-Peat moss, composted leaves (leaf mold), composted manure, composted kitchen vegetable scraps and grass clippings will all improve soil structure and enhance moisture-retaining capabilities (add organic matter into your flower and vegetable beds, preferably 12"-18" deep)
- Divide your watering cycle into shorter periods to reduce runoff and allow for better absorption every time you water.
- Turn your sprinkler system off during or after a rainstorm and leave it off until the plants need to be watered again OR consider installing an automatic rain shutoff device on your sprinkler system.
- Adjust your lawn mower to a higher setting. Longer grass shades root systems and holds soil moisture better than a closely clipped lawn.

Shocking facts that will maybe encourage you to keep the above simple facts in mind:

- In the developing world, 24,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unclean water. (from here)
- 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people. (more here)
- Humans largely influence the factors that determine water quality, as they depose off their waste in water and add all kinds of substances and contaminants that are not naturally present. We now know more than 70.000 water pollutants. (from here)
- 17% of the world's population lack access to clean drinking water. (from here)
- The UN estimates that by 2025, forty-eight nations, with combined population of 2.8 billion, will face freshwater “stress” or “scarcity” (from here)

Some sites for you to check out
- Backyard Conservation
- charity water (one of my favorites)
- Global Water Awareness & Action Campaign
- Environmentally conscious agricultural practices by U.S. farmers would ease drain on world water supply, Cornell ecologists report

Make way for ... Ducks?!

I wanted to update on the adorable ducklings we had this summer and went to toss them some food the other day to get them all together for some great photo shots to share here. They came charging over, right with their mom like they have been all summer and I was surprised.


Just when I go to post on and on about how cute these babies are and prove it with updated photos, I find that they're not ducklings anymore ... they're ducks!

I'm absolutely astounded!

And, please, don't even try to make explain how...

this boy







and this girl







made this crazy combination!

Whatever they're adorable ... now anyone know how to socialize them more or, perhaps, even better, want to offer one or two a good (spoiled) life with you??

Closed for the season(?)

And so the time has come that we are now closing up our farm stand for the season... Sales started to slow, items to sell started to dwindle, the produce is mostly gone and, as you can see, we even dragged the sign up away from the road and back to the garage. Empty boxes and adorable Norman (one of our farm feral cats) definitely add to the sadness of this photo shot, I think.

Hope to see some new faces next season : )

This week

These week at the farm stand, we have...

- our own fresh chicken eggs for $2/dozen
- white sweet corn for $4/dozen OR $0.35/ear
- tomatoes for $3/6 OR $0.50 each
- cantaloupes for $1.75
- a qt of peaches or nectarines for $2.75
- seedless watermelon for $4
- blueberries for $1.75 each
- large sweet onions for $0.50 each
- fresh basil right from our garden for $2 a bunch
- fresh mint from our garden for $2 a bunch
- yellow squash or green zucchini for $0.50 - $0.25 each (lg or sm)
- qt of red potatoes for $2.25
- cucumber for $0.50 - $0.25 each (lg or sm)
- eggplant for $0.75
- local honey of various flavors for $2 - $5 per jar

Surprise, surprise!

Look what I found!
Yes, another baby! Olivia had twins. Mellie had her little black baby girl. So who does this little munchkin belong to? Patty! Yes, Mellie and Arthur's baby from last year had a baby this spring! Apparently at some point, Arthur got Patty pregnant and she had an adorable baby girl on the 4th.

I went out back and found a shakey, wet, little baby sheep with Patty running around it a little franticly. Poor Patty, I don't think she knew what she was doing. Not expecting any more babies, I was lucky the "bonding pen" was even still together. Sadly, it was moved at some point and right next to the horse pen. I picked up the little baby, placed her in the pen and then tempted Patty in there with animal crackers. Needless to say, the horses were really interested in the screaming little black ball right by their pen...

Big, black horse inspecting a teeny tiny baby black sheep - a favorite photo of mine! The baby (still unnamed) seems to be doing well, though Patty seems to still be a little lost as to what to do. She seems to be a little lost without being with her mom, Mellie. Patty is all worked up being separated from the others, but never have I known how important that little "bonding pen" is. I'm sure she'd be running off and away from her little baby if she were loose with everyone else right now.

Yay for another beautiful baby though! That makes for so far this year (twice the number from last year!) since Olivia had twins. What a fertile farm! :)

Our Farm Is Stand Open!

With everything in bloom now, "Wesh Farm's Farm Stand" is officially open for business!!

Right now we have our own fresh, brown eggs from our chickens, some flowers, herbs, asparagus and local honey in various forms, flavors & sizes. Since we're either working on stuff around the farm or at our actual jobs, we're going with the honor system for now ... though expect some actual "open days" soon where someone's down to greet you. We'll also be getting more fruits and veggies out there as they come into season as well.

Hope you can stop by soon to support local farmers & local food! :)

New Baby!

Born while I was at work, here's the brand new, sweet, unique, teeny tiny adorable new baby - Mellie had an all black baby girl. She was born just yesterday (Friday the 26th) and, in my biased opinion, is just too cute for words!

With Mellie and her new baby needing the "maternity suite", we let Olivia, Amelia and Franklin (have I mentioned we named the twins? My sister chose the names) out to romp around in the one section of our barn so that we could still easily catch them to kiss them, squeeze them, hug them, scratch their fuzzy chins, etc. They're so darn cute ... ugh, and that little Franklin is just so darn adorable. He's so hard to resist! I hold him until he really starts to scream and squirm :)