Shut the Barn Door!

My new motto...When 1 door shuts...hire a kick butt carpenter to make you a few more to open!

To think last week I was blogging how I needed to find someone to make some barn doors for the farm stand. If you would have told me that in 3 days I would have 5 custom built doors completed and installed I would NOT have believed you!

But indeed it is true and here is just the preview...thanks to the handy work of:

Joe Rivera @ Right Angle Works!

My vision for the stand was to give it a barn look with big "X"'s in dutch style doors. Partly for style but also for the functionality...so I can swing upper half open on hot days, leave the bottom closed to help direct foot traffic through the main doors, or have all the doors open for a cross breeze in the summer. Really I just wanted style and options and that is exactly what was delivered. Here is a side single door installed :

The door below is the one directly facing the road and I am thinking of using the top swinger for some creative signage. May continue with the chalkboard paint idea. Think it would be fun way to have an price menu when I have seedlings or bouquets on the porch for sale...or maybe a great place to hang a big OPEN sign since you can see it from the street.

Back Door was set on sliding tracks from Southern States. Thank goodness they carry barn door hardware already in stock, so we didn't have to wait around for days on a special order.

The Front doors are my favorite.

You can imagine my face when I drove up to this for the first time!

Gasp! so pretty :) team of carpenters were on a roll, custom made windows and all. So used to looking at unfinished holes in the wall, it was a complete shock. The doors gave the stand instant charm and personality!

The "x"pattern was continued on the inside so when you swing open up the doubles they still rock the barn look.

After I finished dancing around, (was doing sun-drop girl dance in front field for a few minutes) I drove to the back pasture and spotted this gem.

The guys were really trying to butter me up with constructing one of these babies:

eat your heart out Joel Salatin :0 Heehee...another floorless chicken pen on the way, but bigger, better, and way lighter. The way I would want to do it, if i had any gift or talent to swing a hammer that is.

Roofing panels that match the stand roof are going on tomorrow.

Well as I finish this post, I can hear thunder rolling in from a small storm, a preview of the hurricane currently churning its way to Virginia Beach.

Just glad the stand doors are done locked down and secured before Hurricane Irene hits.

Thinking the stand is ready to battle the weather, but with 80 mph winds...just follow the trail of chicken feathers and Zinnia Petals to find me and the girls!

Friday and Sat will be spent preparing and tying everything down and moving the Eggmobile to higher ground! :)

Epic Summer 2011

"Hands full, still smiling"

(Photos from this post Courtesy: Matthew Williams @ Eye of the Shutter Photography)

This picture perfectly describes the summer of 2011

Yes my hands have been completely full handling this place by myself but..lots to smile about! For the first time - money was made directly off this land through flower farming! Don't get me wrong, it's not enough to quit my day job by any means, but thanks to my little honor system box installed out front, its been enough to cover the expenses of the supplies for row and irrigation installation, seeds, and a little extra to throw towards the money pit of farm stand construction. Might not be a ton but certainly has given me a taste of what is to come. I know there is so much more potential and so many more creative ideas on the horizon to tap into. This summer is just the beginning!

As the last weekends of August are upon us, I am filling my notebook full of ideas to apply for next season, what seeds to order, what color flowers were most popular, which were not, and lessons learned to assist planning of 2012.

Some of the notes include...grow more herbs...dual purpose ones for culinary and bouquet fillers...more fillers, more fillers, more fillers! print up a great pesto recipe to hand out to customers...more blue egg chickens, heck...more chickens in general...can never have enough eggs! Create handout with little farm tour with philosophy/descriptions/future vision for visitors, get labels for plant rows, expand spring seed swap party into the coolest farm networking event ever. Rent a chick was the bomb - need more coops asap so we can rent chicks every month of spring,summer, fall.

Will be busy using the off season to figure out the workshops and events to be held here, finding great people to partner with, as well as seeking local products to sell in the farm stand.

I have noticed neighboring farms putting their "closed for the season" signs up, and feel families mentally shift from their carefree beach mode into their back to school mode. Despite the visual signs, I've been steadily tending to my flower acre and expect blooms to still be going strong for another few weeks at least...

The "OPEN" for business sign is still up and the buckets of flowers are still rolling in.

In addition to the success of the farm, it was an epic summer emotionally for me. Temporarily blindsided by a unexpected and head spinning-ly swift divorce, I've found relief one day, one chore, one construction project, one to-do list at a time around here. I have come to realize that I can handle the farm as a suddenly single farm gal and everything will be alright. I'm already beginning to see its going to be beyond alright and in fact, so much better than it was before. Lots of help from friends and family to partner with, and customers feedback and encouragement has kept me going. Plus, a gigantic sigh of relief was felt when I got master carpenters on the speed dial.

Having a creative outlet of photography and blogging has kept me farm focused too, and its fun to help showcase the farm business and what it can and will offer. Started this blog with just a camera phone, remember a few months ago when I was too afraid to take this Nikon out of its box when it arrived. That was until I met Matthew, who owns his own photography business. Despite his hectic schedule in frenzy of wedding season no less, he found time to bring his family out to the farm, give me a photo 1o1 and sent me off to do my damage. :) Life through the lens was never the same. Very cool dude with much patience, knowledge, and also a great educational blog about what it takes to be a photographer www.eyeoftheshutter.wordpress.com

Well Matt preaches that every small business owner deserves some uniquely personal "about me" pictures for busting tail to make their mark on the world. Seems he could detect some tail busting and that it would be a good time to turn the camera on me to capture the moment. Thanks Matt for giving a glimpse of the new and improved spokeswoman to this farm.

One summer lesson's for sure: This farm is my baby, I'm gonna rock it!

Petals with a Purpose :)

A Display of the 11 Colors of Zinnia's

Growing Here on the Farm right now:

In my off time I have been meeting with local organizations around town to figure out creative ways to have more fun, invite more people out on the farm, share with others, and give back to the local community.

Last week I met with the Executive Director of Back Bay Restoration Foundation, Mary Tilton, their headquarters are just one street over from us on New Bridge Road.

Since this little flower farm sits directly on a tributary of Back Bay (canoe right out from the front yard) hoping to cook up some ideas of how my little farm biz can help their mission to preserve, restore and educate about the back bay ecosystem. They use funds to monitor water quality, run the educational tram tours of Back Bay and build wood duck boxes for the watershed. Visit their webpage at www.bbrf.org

Big Blue Heron Enjoying a Tributary of Back Bay that wraps around the flower farm.

In effort to help their mission, Back Bay Botanicals will be donating 40% of all flower sales on Fridays to Back Bay Restoration Foundation! Its date night so bring your significant other, family, kids or make it a girls night out to come pick flowers for a great cause.

Give my petals more purpose :) If you too have a great local organization that could benefit from a farm fundraiser, preschool, church or local group that needs some flower power, feel free to contact me at backbaybotanicals@yahoo.com.

A Step in the Right Direction :)

Finally a day that wasn't sweltering! In the garden I could feel the tilt of the earth this week as we shift into the downward spiral of summer. A much welcomed cooler crisp breeze, sun less aggressive and setting earlier, a much needed break from the unrelenting heat! Autumn is my favorite time of year for sure, can't get here too soon!

On the farm major accomplishments were had in a few short days. Thanks to some last minute creative networking with my buddies over at the home depot. Monday morning there was a crew of 3 guys working nonstop on construction - day 1 was handicap ramp...

They were on a roll!

Day 2 was Ceiling panels and polishing and sealing the slate floor...oh laa laa.

See that? oh yeah...Never have you seen a girl more excited to get a step in your life.

One small step for woman, one giant leap in the right direction for the stand!

Day 3 was completing the porch

I came home from work and drove up to see 70 ft. of a wrap around step! Couldn't help walking up and down them - Cartwheels of happiness! Finally its coming together.

Having more and more of these final pieces falling into place, its impossible not to see the future of people walking up these steps to join workshops, seed swaps, farm events, educational seminars, and happy customers walking out of the stand with arms full of flowers, herbs, locally grown products, farm fresh eggs, heirloom seeds, maybe even a peeping box of baby chicks.

And of course a handy place to display a few buckets of flowers!

Zinnias are still going strong mid-August

Well looking forward to lots of happy times on these country porch steps for sure. Gallons of sweet tea to be sipped and pungo sunsets to be watched! (ok now craving some rocking chairs too)

Well that's all for the moment. Now back to more networking...off to find a craftsman in pungo to create 5 custom built barn doors. You know the ones... Mr. Ed dutch style with the giant x's in the middle....

With as many horse farms around here shouldn't be too hard to find! :)

Summer Fun at the Farm

Dreams do come true! Business is off and running thanks to all the blueberry customers that stop by after their trip from the berry patch. The farm down the street is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday so I see my be$t days and foot traffic then. Even have started to recognize a few repeat customers! I must say its starting to feel official :) The edible herb bouquets are selling like hotcakes. Who wants to buy limp soggy leaves from the supermarket when you can have this deliciously fragrant 3-basil centerpiece on the table fresh from the farm? Yum, the scent will fill a whole house.

Peak of the season with Rows overflowing with every color of zinnia.Just grab a mason jar and some scissors to create your own casual arrangement. You are never alone in the garden either....August heat has Butterfly season is in full swing -
Good luck trying to take a picture of these beauties without a zoom lens though. As soon as you get close enough...they're off and flying -

So many flowers, so little time! Like to think I'm doing my part to help feed the starving butterflies. Speaking of not being alone, had this feeling like I was being watched and bumped into this critter cruisin' the basil patch tonight. Almost human-like way of swiveling its head with the huge bug eyes checking you out. Half expected it to smile and say "Hey, whats going on?' Creepy cool. Aliens do exist!Note to self - more queen's annes lace next year. Some to share with the caterpillars, more to cut. It adds elegance and lacy touch to arrangements and adds more of these:While not as large or colorful, these brown skippers are so numerous they are darn-right aggressive. They will bump into you in the fields and chase you down if you have a flower in your hand. The girls have been working hard mingling and hamming it up with all the customers. Egg production has been alittle slower in this heat though, demand is up and still in backorders. They crushed a much deserved watermelon treat in a matter of seconds tonight. Need more chickens, cannot keep these eggs in stock! Feeling a Rent-A-Chick order coming very soon....

Here is a young rooster showing off his stuff (can you hear the bee-gees singing the "stayin alive" song in background?) and boy does he stand out like a sore thumb in the crowd of cackling hens. Will be the ladies man for sure. Just breaking the 4 month mark and seems they snuck another boy in the batch. I say snuck but really whenever you buy hens from any hatchery they can only guarantee a 90% accuracy rate, unless you buy sex-linked chickens which have distinctly different boy/girl color patterns upon hatch, otherwise you will always risk ending up with a few in the bunch.

Not sure what I'm going to do with him yet. Last one was on craigslist the moment he started testing out his honker.

Unless homeboy starts laying some eggs... hoping someone can swap me a laying hen in exchange for this feathered alarm clock.

He is a Welsummer so he will be a handsome guy - just like the classic one you think of on the Kellog's cornflake box.

We will see what happens, depends on how early he gets up... :)

Fancy Chickens

Inspired.

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?

- Benjamin Franklin

Silver Laced Wyandotte - strutting her stuff around the farm. A heritage breed chicken that lays about 200 brown eggs a year. They come in many colors, buff, white, golden, even red and blue. They originated in New York in the 1870's.
I'm in love with their feather patterns. They are popular show birds and hens are known to be devoted mothers.
Only 4 months old, this pretty hen is one of the rent-a-chick flock. Can't wait til they plump up and really fill out quite beautifully. Just 2 girls out of the bunch were silver laced variety.

More of this chick variety on the way, if not just for pure farm art.