Friday at the Farm

We left for the farm early today. On the way we got a call from Mark Shepard letting us know that the apple scions we ordered (see here for the types ordered) were ready to pick up. So we took a little detour to Mark's 100 acre permaculture farm and picked up the scions and had a grafting lesson. It is still a little too chilly for grafting so we put them in the fridge to wait for a warmer weekend. We also decided to get a couple willow & poplar cuttings and 3 European Black Alder trees. The Alders I will plant tomorrow in the orchard area. They are great nitrogen fixers which is excellent to have in the orchard. The willow & poplar trees will be used for trellises, fencing and furniture.

Mia came with us this weekend for her first visit to the farm. She did great in the car and is now sound asleep in the chair in front of the fire. She has been on a kitty adventure since we got here. So many new smells and things to jump up on. She is in kitty heaven :-)

I went to town this afternoon while Steve took a well-deserved nap (after a busy week at work). I went to the headquarters for the Valley Stewardship Network and talked to a couple people about the CAFO siting. I found out that the Vernon County Board of Supervisors will be asked to request an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) should the county receive a permit request from Petry Trust to operate a CAFO. The meeting is to be held on April 21st which I plan on attending. Petry is still surveying all of his properties.There is an article in the Vernon Broadcaster which goes into detail about the EIS. It sounds like it is our only hope to legally stop him. I did find out that more farmers are against this than the hog farm a couple years ago. Especially because it is an "out-of-towner" trying to do this. This is such a shame that anyone has to deal with this. Our county is in the heart of sustainable, organic agriculture. That is what brought us here.

Before going back to the farm I stopped at the food co-op to pick up a few things & also bought red & yellow globe onion sets. I really have the itch to plant something, and soon :-)

Tomorrow should be a productive day. Planting trees, staking out the new garden area and working on more inside walls. Oh yea... and chasing Mia around the barn :-)