Summer Chores

Ah, summer! The farm gardens are at their peak and the stand is loaded with beautiful produce. I even picked up corn today — the bears didn’t get it this year! But as we enjoy swimming and boating with the loons in Squam Lake (okay, loons don’t boat), we are ever aware that pumpkin spice season is right around the corner. And so, there are chores to be done.

The sheep will need roughage over the winter. That’s Todd feeding bales of lovely green hay (fresh from a Sandwich field) to Farmer Steve up in the little barn hayloft. It’s hot, prickly work. I remember the days when Peter mowed hay with his horses. We’d load cartloads of hay into a neighbor’s big barn, and then we’d sit up in the hayloft and eat ice cream. Now that’s a good memory. (Click here to read all about Peter and his horses.)

The chickens are sure to make their way up into the hayloft to lay eggs. They are truly free range hens, which can make egg gathering quite an adventure! Here they are at the compost pile with their chicks. And yes, there’s a duck trying to blend in.

Two new piglets joined the farm family, Chipmunk and Sue, which called for a new name plaque for the pig house. (It’s an an a-frame!) There’s Chipmunk peeking out. The two of them love charging around in the tall grass in their paddock, and they relish the food scraps that come their way. (I happen to know that they enjoyed scones a few weeks ago. Not sure if it was at tea time.)

Summer is also the time to restock firewood. The two farmhouses are heated solely by wood, and though our Little House has a backup propane furnace, we also heat with wood most of the winter. Todd keeps our house stocked, and Steve provides the wood for the farm. This summer Steve and Diane built a nifty little bike shed off of Diane’s woodshed. Of course, there’s also wood in the bike shed.

Most recently, Steve’s been splitting boards for ”sugarwood” — the thin, long planks that are fed into the firebox that heats the evaporating trays in the sugar house. Yep. That’s where maple syrup comes from! (If you’d like to read about sugaring, simply click on any of the following posts: ”Maple Sugaring,” ”Signs of Spring,” and ”Let it Flow!” Also, my very first post, ”Mud Season & Robert Frost” includes sugaring.)

And finally, here is a picture of happiness — farm peaches and corn delivered to our porch by the farmer himself. No doubt about it, we are blessed!