January- Like a Thief in the Night

A week into January and we have chicks promised for February, a season's worth of seeds in transit, and a clock reset and already ticking down the minutes of another year here on the farm, tocking away the hours slipping into the past.
There's much promise in this year...though I can't help but feel like January came while we were sleeping and took from us our wallow where we waded in another cycle's end, taking in a year under our belts. January has extracted and plopped us back on our feet to hop into another quarter of school, a seeding for our next round of high tunnel vegetables, the compulsion to right the shop in the barn, and the ceremonious itemizing of all those trips to the hardware store. So be it! Who am I to think I'll be the first to appeal to Father Time and be heard?
Seeing my comrades in arms jump in has me inspired to play by time's rules. New menus being eaten around town, novel ideas being manifested...let's play. A testament to our readiness lies in our squeezed-in brainstorms, wedged between trips to pick up the kids from school and farm chores. Rich's excited peeping over the new varieties of vegetables he intends to try, and my fits of writing to capture fleeting thoughts...the light is on. There is also ample inspiration to be found in what we have built here already. A place which to the surprise of some sustains our family and more obviously feeds our curious minds.
Another year, another chance to operate less foolishly, humble in our abilities with what we have on our plates and the reality of our lives as young parents and business owners. The more grandiose dreams of growth for Foxhole drive us, but shall remain where they belong in respect to our family's growth. Sweetly, we are still so important in our kids' young lives...something which that thief will likely rob from us too as they mature into independent versions of their free spirits. And haven't we sacrificed so much earning this ability to be the ones to fulfill their dependency? Our brainchildren farm projects shall stay in their places in our imaginations and notebooks until it is their time to be borne.

And what about the universe's ideas for Foxhole? Just as we scheme and forecast the climate of our 2025 when the kids are both in full-time school, there are other forces at play, opportunities undiscovered, and evolutions of ourselves which we haven't accounted for. Unknown brilliant minds may become a part of our story, or a more active part of our story...May already aspires to tend enough berries to fill a market table with and to "bring to friends". Jack, who knows...if I were to ask him, he probably has intentions of restoring old tractors for community hay rides or something :). The gift of more time will be received and maybe I'll be able to write more than an essay, as those impatient ideas tap their feet in the recesses of my mind. I'm so eager to see the mad engineer/scientist/man in Rich be set free too.
In the present tense, we are ready to play ball in the field and at market here in Dayton, Ohio. So many wee ones to be tucked into the soil. The soil! That web of life to be fed,then watered by the winter and spring rains in anticipation of that day when the conditions call us to plant. The farmhouse kitchen is ready for another year of Friday transformations into a bakehouse. And our bodies are well fed by the holidays and will slowly acclimate to our increased work load, encouraged by longer sunlight exposure.
And in our little corner of the world, we will become inextricably involved in another life cycle on the farm.

January News from the Farm:
-Filling Winter Orders: We are really into winter now. We will continue to harvest shoots and microgreens and bake all winter. Our menu may dwindle until our spring planting is ready for harvest in April. If it dwindles too much, we may take a few weeks off. For those of you who are on our order reminder email list, stay tuned.
-Adolescents: The sister pups we adopted in October are adolescents now :). They were both spayed, have recovered, and are well on their way to understanding how we all coexist here. The beagle in them has them exploring the far reaches of the farm. A little more boundary training perhaps...
-Lamb :): We are taking in our first batch of lambs ever to a local butcher shop. We will be so thrilled to finally offer fully pastured and grass-fed lamb via our online shop and at market. This has been such a long time in the making, and we are quite proud of building our flock to this point. The sheep are an integral part of our farm...rotating to fresh pastures almost daily to bring fertility and light disturbance which is growing 25 acres back into a healthy ecosystem. What once was conventional corn and bean tilled land now sequesters carbon and houses so many native species of plants, animals, birds, and even our resident fox :). We are very happy with the life we provide for our sheep and the interdependent relationship we have with the land and these animals. We expect to have lamb for market by May.
-Chicks/eggs: We raise chickens for the joy of chickens/for eggs for our house. We sell extra at market, but still do not have the time to dedicate to expanding on the layers this year. The chicks which we will welcome to the farm will not mature to egg-layer age until August. Thus, we expect to have about the same handful of cartons to sell each week at market when they ramp up again. I would like to expand on this in the future. But I've learned my lesson and until we have more time to give, we will stick with our smallish flock.
-2024 CSA: We will be running our CSA Membership program again this year. I'll be sending out an email and announcing it at large next week. We enjoy running our csa and find it to feel a bit like an extension of family. We also feel great offering regular customers a bit of a gift ($20 extra worth of credit) for signing up with us at the start of our season, when we incur a bulk of our costs for the year. Keep your eyes peeled for more information.
-Local Pick Up: One of our conundrums has been how to get our goods to local folks (Brookville/those north of Dayton). We are working on a local partnership where those folks could pick up online orders on a weekly basis. Logistically and mentally we are not prepared to offer farm pick up. We will keep you posted on this!
Thank you for reading :).
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