Spring Lambs & Cabin Status

Good morning from Agarita Creek Farms. I wanted to take just a minute to post an update on our progress.

Cabins. Our first two cabins, the Behrends and Braeutigam cabins, each named after former owners of our farm, are almost complete. This week we completed the air conditioning and heating work, put in kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets and sinks (we are still awaiting one bathroom cabinet), and worked on general interior cleanup. This weekend the stained concrete floors will get their polyurethane coat. Next week plumbing will be completed and the stair and balcony rails will be up, and tile work will be completed as well. At that point, we will be ready to move furniture in, install window treatments, and generally make them ready for use. We should be able to post our website, www.agaritacreek.com, by then, and begin taking reservations. Our fingers are crossed. It has been a ten month journey.

Lambs. We have twenty-two lambs so far, including three bottle lambs that are a lot of work, but are actually prospering. At this stage, we are well into our lambing of Navajo-Churros, which we began breeding earlier than our Jacobs. So far we have twenty Navajos and two Jacobs. We should be near the end of Navajo births, and are just beginning with Jacobs. We will have lambs and probably ewes for sale later in the season, after lambs are weened. We will have them on our website, www.agaritacreek.com, as soon as it is up. We will also, of course, continue to post pictures and information on our available lambs and ewes on Facebook. It has been exciting thus far, we have made our first year mistakes, and are learning from them, and are eager to see how our Jacobs do. The Navajos came through with flying colors.

Garden. Essentially, what can be planted during winter is planted. We have mature lettuce, maturing spinach, carrots, and radishes. Our Chinese veggies have broken ground and appear to be thriving. Potatoes and English peas are planted. The real planting will, of course, begin as soon as we pass our last freeze date. We are racing to complete our deer fence over the next two weeks for this purpose -- around our new two acre garden edition. We misssed asparagus already this season due to the lack of a deer fence.

The wildflowers are up, and ready to burst into action any day now. The roses and fruit trees are healthy, and beginning to bloom. Winter is indeed, almost, finally over. Pray for rain for and with us. We have not had a good, heavy rain since July 2007. Watering will be a chore and a challenge if we do not get relief soon.

Okay, that is it for this morning. Thanks to all of you who support local food and heritage livestock. We are counting on you.

Tom