We are farmers now. We FARM. We have big gardens, and big rows to hoe and big equipment to dig around with. (Right?)

But we miss our raised beds.

We miss squarefoot gardening in amended soil that holds moisture almost 3-4 times longer than our kitchen garden did last year. We miss plants planted so close together you barely have to weed. Did you see those weeds we had last summer? Awful.

Raised beds just do it for us. It will take some time, but we are converting the kitchen garden to a series of new raised garden beds. So, this week I finished our first 22 foot-long raised pallet bed. Completely free except for the $1 nails I found on clearance and, let me tell you, I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

I get asked all the time if I'm going to setup the aquaponics system here at the farm. Truth be told, I cannot say with absolute certainty, but I hope to. In the meantime, we started a worm bin in our basement, I added some LED grow lights, and we planted some vegetables and herbs in the vermicompost. It's working out great and helps satisfy our desire to grow indoors while we figure out our future plans for the aquaponics system.

We will be canning and preserving as much as we possibly can this year. The kids and I got an early start and turned some dandelions into jelly this week.

I've also been pretty impressed with the new coops that are being built this spring from our free chicken coop plans. If you're building one, or planning on building a coop, make sure you check out a new video I shot this week on nesting boxes. They seem simple enough, but I've shared a few tips on how many you should have and how you can keep the chickens from sleeping in them. And keep those chicken coop pictures coming (Facebook is the best place to share them), we always enjoy seeing all the new coops going up.

Until next week, have a good one!