the tomatoes are in

this weekend i:

mowed the yard
worked on the calf pen until my batteries ran low on my drills.
made a bunch of mulch from the old bale of wheat hay.
spread compost in the garden.
roto-tilled the garden.
repaired and installed soaker hoses.
helped tabitha plant a bunch of tomatoes, eighty or so.
turned the compost.
shored up the fence and cut the opening for the calf pen.
delicately put mulch around the new tomato plants.
mowed the winter wheat in the top part of the garden.

we have been eating fresh salad from the garden every night. tristan loves it. he can recognize the different leaves. his favorite is tatsoi. kassi likes the salad too. she is really good at picking the leaves from the row. she is going to be a big help this summer. ahh, the joys of a spring garden.

we have shuffled our garden plan slightly. i haven't had time to make the changes in the document. the beets are starting to make. their little roots are just starting to fatten up--pencil width. the garlic and onions seem to be doing very well. i need to get a soaker hose on them as soon as the spring rains slack off.

the area where we planted the tomatoes has wonderfully rich, loamy soil. compared to last year i hardly recognize it. my composting efforts are really making a difference.

i didn't get new compost bins built. i need a few pallets yet. my current system is too small and i'd like to move the entire process to the outside of the garden. if i manage to build it as planned it will be too large and garden real estate is valuable.

the goats seem to be doing well. the little one is growing so fast. tabitha has been getting about a half gallon of goats milk each day. the kids drink almost every drop. the cow seems like shes getting much closer to calving. i can't wait until we start getting fresh cream again.

we are slacking off from tv. the nightly plop down in front of it until we go to sleep has stopped. the kids still watch some pbs in the morning. there is simply too much to do each day and having such a waste of time using up precious hours seems rediculus. we'll see how we fare this time around on the no-tv merry-go-round.