Farm Calendar

January

  watch it rain

  fix all the stuff we broke last year

  feed the animals

February

  watch it rain

  rework all the fixes done wrong in January

  feed the animals

March

  watch it rain

  pay somebody else to fix the things we did wrong in February

  feed the animals

  order pumpkin, squash, and sunflower seeds

April

  hope it stops raining

  turn out steers on winter cover crop of beans and vetch

  apply natural soil amendments (composted manure and stuff)

  add new poultry, piglets

  feed the animals

May

  wait for soil to dry enough for tilling

  till the soil   

  plant pumpkins, squash, sweet corn

  feed the animals

June

  plant the corn maze (cow corn), plant more sweet corn

  plant sunflowers

  start weeding before it's too late

  apply side dressing (fertilizer) to small pumpkin plants 

  buy and store next 

  winter's grass hay supply

  feed the animals

July

  started weeding too late,

  weeding, more weeding, even more weeding

  (Did you know California has a law forbidding pulling weeds by hand?)

  start collecting manure from the goat dairy, livestock yards

  irrigate corn once (set and move 500' of pipe ten times)

  cultivate corn  feed the animals

August

  weeding done, plants are on their own

  collect more manure (dump truck, tractor loader ... this is fun

  irrigate corn twice (set and move pipe twenty times)  

  check steers to see if they're ready for market

  feed the animals

September 

  watch pumpkins balloon in size and ripen

  collect more manure  prepare pumpkin patch for next month

  sell steers to market, local family buyers

  be amazed by how much the pigs have grown

  feed the animlas

October

  you gotta see this ... kids, cars, crazy busy, great fun!

  pumpkins fly out ... the maze gets a workout  pray the rain holds off

  feed the animals