Bees

The chickens are here

Yesterday morning I got a call from the post office letting me know that the baby chicks I had ordered arrived. Twenty-eight baby chicks, less than a week old, arrived from central NM in a box smaller than a shoe box. It was a long and scary ride but most of them made it through in good shape. Right now they are living in our basement on a bed of wood shavings under a heat lamp. They are destined to live on the farm and graze in the fields, the good life for a chicken. I plan is to have a mobile chicken coop built for them within a few weeks.

Journal entry, May 12

Sitting outside on the farm, watching and listening to the night begin. It is the darkest part of dusk, but the day has not yet ended. There is still light to see across the fields. The day ends with a roll call of all the creatures up and down the Rio Grande. The dogs and coyotes start it and today it travelled north past me just before I saw the first bat come out. Along the way guineas, roosters, and anything else that feels like it chimes in. I think they are proclaiming their territory.
Then the first star comes out and the night begins...

The Farm

There are two greenhouses which we are emptying right now as we fill the fields with little baby plants.

We have lots of tomatoes to transplant.
Ladonia, the farm cat, enjoys laying around all day and posing for the camera.
This is a view of a shade tent which is full of lettuce.
Our estate has many huge cottonwood trees which provide good shade and a wind break.

This a view of the farm looking east with the Sangra de Cristo Mountains in the background.

One of my fellow interns, Daniel, enjoys romping in the carrot beds on the weekend.
On the weekends we have free range on the farm and enjoy looking at the pretty flowers to pass the time.
A ground level view of the strawberry beds.
The views from the top of the hill are spectacular.

Another view of the Sangra de Cristo Mountains from the farm.

The perennial garden in the background will be full of flowers this summer.