Friends!
The past days have been an exciting mix of projects and events and people.

Almost two weeks ago Ben and Oleh, a pair of WWOOFers, arrived at North Branch Farm. WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, formerly known as Willing Workers on Organic Farms, and is an organization that we have signed up with as a host site. People who are traveling and want to spend time living and working on a farm in return for room and board contact us and then come by for anywhere from a couple days to many weeks. It’s a very neat set-up, a big help to our farm, and something that both Elsie and I have done in the past as the travelers.

With Ben and Oleh, we’ve reclaimed many garden beds at the upper North Branch Farm (Chris and Jonathan’s place) that had been swamped by an early flush of annual and perennial weeds brought on by the unusually warm spring. They also have single-, or rather quadruple-handedly, stripped the asphalt shingle siding off the entire south side of the barn and most of the east and west sides. They’ve mucked stalls, put out transplants, mulched, milked, and cooked many a delicious meal. We are so grateful for their willing help!

Our cruising friends, Mick and Bee, were in town and recently sailed away heading Northeast for Canada–I mention them because they are some of our most loyal blog followers; they win the prize for Most Engaged Non-Biologically-Related Blog Readers, and their reliable ragging and berating has prompted more blog productivity than I’d like to admit.

Bovine report: Maple, our only milker at the moment, has been producing close to 3 gallons of sweet and creamy milk a day. She still kicks like the dickens without the use of some dairy-lore anti-kick methods, and last night we discovered that she has mastitis in one quarter (a cow’s udder is divided into four distinct quarters, each with its own teat). We’re putting her calf, Filet Mignon, back with her because apparently one of the best ways to treat mastitis is to prevent any milk from accumulating in the infected quarter. Unfortunately, this means he will be drinking ALL of our our milk for the next day or so, but it seems worth it to hopefully cure and prevent the spread of the infection. Sadie Rose is due any day now–she is “bagging up,” which means her udder is starting to fill with colostrum for the calf, so we’re now pretty sure she is, in fact, pregnant. But when will the baby come? There’s no telling. Based on her temperament and last calving, we’re likely to come out for chores one day and notice that she has a calf walking at her side that didn’t use to be there.

Ovine report: We are signed up to buy about 12 sheep! They will be for meat and wool, but we don’t know when exactly we’ll get them. All ewes and some ewe-lambs, and one solitary ram-lamb. Some of them are Coopworth/North Country Cheviot crosses. Talk to Elsie for details.

Caprine report: We don’t have any goats. This is very sad.

Swine report: Chris and Lucretia got us two little shoats, just weaned, about 6 weeks old, one boy one girl! They are total cuties, and that comes from someone who has beef (or pork?) with pigs. We have had them a couple weeks now and they have already grown tremendously.

Water report: The toilet’s connected to the septic tank, the septic tank’s connected to the leach field, the leach field’s covered with grass seed and hay! We can flush and shower to our hearts’ content. Simultaneously, H2O Well-Drilling showed up yesterday and put in the first twenty feet of casing towards our new well. Today they are back with more casing and have just set up to start drilling again. Soon we may have potable water! Below is a picture of the drill rig that Seth took just as they were starting to set up yesterday.

Baby Shapley-Quinn report: alive and kicking! 5:30am daily is apparently a great time for in utero aqua-aerobics, which is fine by me.

Garden report: After over half an inch of rain yesterday, eight acres of plowed and cover-cropped fields are starting to sprout up, the dry beans are coming up, and our transplants are glorying in plenty of hydration. Can’t wait to be eating more fresh veggies!