We survived our first stretch of ridiculous, hot weather here on the farm! For about a week temperatures in Central Maine reached 95 degrees at the peak of the day and only getting down to 75 at night.  It. Was. MISERABLE!  Hurricane Arthur came through and brought some much needed rain, cooling everything off and watering the gardens!  When it’s hot like that, it’s essential to get up as early as possible and get the watering, feeding, harvesting, weeding, seeding, planting and mowing all done.  Of course, a list like that you’re guaranteed to be working in the hot sun.  Water and popsicle breaks helped us through it!

We’ve definitely been keeping busy the past month!  In addition to the everyday chores, we have been selling our produce at the Dover Cove Farmers’ Market (Tuesday’s from 2-6pm and Saturdays from 9-1pm).  Last month our Summer CSA Shares began and we have been delivering our members weekly shares to Mountain’s Market.  Planning and putting together the shares has been so rewarding as we harvest and distribute the fruits of our labor to local families!

Our baby chicks arrived in the mail a few weeks ago!  We purchased 25 Black Star laying hens and 50 Freedom Ranger meat birds from McMurray Hatchery. They are packed in a nice box as soon as they hatch and are shipped overnight.  Before chicks hatch, they draw into their abdomen the yolk sac which will provide plenty of liquids and nutrients for a few days.  They were supposed to arrive on a Monday, but Sunday evening a postal worker at the sorting facility in Hampden called to let us know the chicks were there.  Dustin drove down and got them, to the relief of a sweet USPS woman.  Once they got home we picked up each one and gave them their first drink of water before moving them into a warm box under a heat lamp.   We’re happy to say, they’re doing great and growing bigger everyday!

And in other news, Natasha became a member of the Piscataquis County UMaine Cooperative Extension Executive Committee!  The Extension is one of the best agricultural resources around and we are happy to have it for our area.

Here’s some pictures from the last few weeks. With a new week comes new goals, one of them is updating this more often!  Enjoy!