Settling In

We’ve been down here for six weeks now and are largely but not completely settled in. There are still several piles of stuff to be put away, but I’m making a point to nibble at them every day. In Marlow there were boxes that sat on the floor of my office from 1999 until 2012. I’m not letting that happen again. A big issue is winter clothes. We used to wear them 8 months a year, and our closet shows this. OTOH, they still have some utility down here. Almost every year from what we’re told.

Day old Icelandic chicksAfter the late Spring, moving set us back even more on shipping chicks and eggs. It took the chickens and ducks a couple of weeks to resume laying, but they now are, and we are catching up on the chick shipping. We’re expecting ducklings any day. Unfortunately, the geese decided not to try again, so we will have no goslings this year.

TomatoesLisa has a raised bed down at the restaurant. She picked up a bunch of herbs and tomatoes for a buck a piece, and they’re doing quite well. I placed a minimal order with Jung yesterday to fill that bed and start some beds here. Jung’s charges just over half of what Johnny’s and had cleaned up their website so that I only saw stuff that is still in stock. The Maine Potato Lady is the only source I could find for seed potatoes now. I’ll be giving her a call tomorrow to see what she has left.

There are a couple of cultural difference that I didn’t quite expect: We were definitely living on “country time” in New England. Nothing was ever the hurry it would have been in Boston, let alone NYC. However, the average yankee farmer would be a type A personality down here. The other is “Winter is NOT coming.” After 25 years on a New England hill farm, my response to that GOT tagline was “well, duh, why do you think I’m cutting firewood in May?” Actually, I suspect that difference may explain a good chunk of the more laid back lifestyle.

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