What A Difference A Few Weeks Make!

Spring has sprung and the weeds are in full forward march here.  We have been prepping beds, planting and rolling sod like crazy over the last several weeks.  Here is just a sample of the fun we have been having:

• Staked areas of yard to be used for garden, high tunnel and sand box/jungle gym
• Tilled this years garden
• Cut sod out of aforementioned staked areas
• Rolled sod for removal
• Staked individual garden beds and prepped them by raking and picking rocks
• Put up a 50 foot row of fence for peas
• Planted peas, lettuce, spinach, arugula, carrots, salad mix and beets
• Ran drip irrigation to all plantings
• Mulch, mulch, mulch!!!

Happy gardening to all, and to all a pest free summer!

After tilling, before sod cutting

Foreground is the future play area, garden in the background

Our little garden gnome

I'll Take A Little Violin With That

Elmo is a big hit in our house.  Pretty much all of the Sesame Street gang is popular here.  We watch the Sesame Street episodes that are streamable on that prone-to-stupid-decisions movie rental company, so they are a few years old.  A recent episode included an Elmo's World where Elmo was playing the violin.  Such a big hit this was, imitation ensued.  It is the most sincere form of flattery, right?!

We Are Official! (In ND that is)

There is much to starting a small business we are learning.  We learned the hard way that we need to register our business name with the state in order to operate legally.  Originally we had selected a different name for our farm, one that was not too easy to come across given our lack of innate creativity.  When getting ready to register the name, I discovered there was a agriculture chemical company with the same name.  Not good, back to the drawing board.  As previously mentioned, not particularly creative here, certainly not looking forward to trying to come up with another name

After a couple of long car trips, random ideas and lots of making things too difficult, we settled on a name that is special to us and more than likely completely confusing to any one else.  I think it is perfect since we are not exactly the picture of farmers and thus confusing to most too!  Roving Donkey Farm is an homage to two songs by a band that we love and an excellent representation of our family!

I registered our business name with the state and a few weeks ago we received a nifty little certificate declaring out legalness!

Cookies

We have been doing a lot of baking around here lately with our Avon Walk fundraising.  Most of the time I have a helper in the kitchen while I am working on cookies and/or bread so we bake together.  Usually the help is in the form of carrying measuring cups and spoons around or asking to see what is going on in the mixer.  On the day of this photo, I showed her how the light on the inside of the oven worked.  We were enamored......

First Haircut!

Like her mother, Ella's hair is rather unruly.  It has been growing in at different rates and is extremely fine so it has been fun to figure out how to keep it under control.  Time for our first haircut!

Before

Look at all the fun toys she has!

My new  best friend!  Thanks, Alexa

Easter

The Martin's ventured up to Grandma's and Grandpa's for Easter this year.  It was a bit on the chilly side so Ella's egg hunt was moved indoors.  There were some new clothes for her baby and some eggs filled with fun stuff from Grandma.

New party dress for baby!

How do I get these crazy things open?

After church, in our Sunday best

There was also some quality time spent with the family:

You are a good book reader, Grandpa!

 We hope you and yours enjoyed your holiday as well.

Green Things In The Garden!

My first winter in North Dakota was not a fun one.  It was long, cold and very, very white.  This winter is another story entirely.  We have been having very nice weather, especially as of late.  So nice in fact, we have weeds already.  We covered the garden plot with straw in the fall to protect the compost we trucked in and spread around.  All this nice weather warranted removal of said straw and so outdoor garden season begins.  I will say that the addition of straw to the entire garden will not happen again, not the most fun to remove.

When I removed the section of straw over the garlic patch, I was very pleased to see many of them poking their lovely heads out of the dirt.

Same for the strawberry patch.  Very exciting!!!!

Baking for Boobs

Some of you may already know that Kevin and I are fundraising for and walking in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer this year.  Part of our fundraising strategy, outside of blatant begging, has been to turn my baking habit in to fundraising opportunity.  I have been baking bread and cookies and Kevin has been selling them at his office.  I have been baking a lot lately thanks to my husband's excellent sales skills.

Today I made some whole wheat and thought I would share the process with you.

First we need to dissolve the yeast in a bit of warm water.

Add more water, salt, butter, honey, dry milk, wheat flour and bread flour

Mix it all up until it makes a nice, soft dough

Put finished dough in an oiled bowl and cover until....

It looks like this

Enlist child labor to roll out

Shape in to a loaf and let rise until....

They look like this

Bake and brush with butter

If you have any interest in bread or cookies, let me know! If you would like to sponsor one or both of us, click here for Kevin and here for Lori.

First Harvest

Things are growing here at Roving Donkey Farm.  It's pretty fun to wander in to the "greenhouse", smell the growing plants and feel the warmth of the lights.  We have broccoli, cabbage, thyme, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, arugula and several lettuces coming up very nicely.

Today I thinned the arugula to one plant per cube.  One does not need to consider this just for the compost pile, it is actually quite tasty.  I also thinned the red leaf lettuce a bit.  So, we enjoyed our first baby green salad!

Face Mask

We have been sick around here.  Ella was (and still is) on a nebulizer. I ended up with whatever she had and then some.  Kevin caught something that was nothing like what Ella and I had, but was miserable nonetheless.  Being the trooper that she is, Ella took to the face mask and participated admirably.  She would even remind me to give it to her after her meals.  Thankfully she is back in fine, energetic shape.  I am hopeful that I will soon follow.