This article is a weekly recap of some of the things happening in our lives, on our new farm, and is a behind-the-recipe look at the day to day of raising a family in Southern Utah. Enjoy!

As Thomas and I were shoveling dirt back into an 80 foot long trench last night we got talking about this stage of starting something new – the infrastructure stage. It’s fun to be working on things, the changes seem to be apparent and big, but you still feel really far away from your goals. We have so many things that we need to set up, build, and create before the actual production, growing, selling, and maintaining happens. We decided that this infrastructure stage is what makes or breaks most new adventures because it’s a whole lot of work without much return at this point.

We talked to the kids a lot about this stage this week, the one that looks like showing up and working when you don’t really want to do. Thomas told stories about building the grocery store with his dad when he was 13 and we told them about building the house they live in. Both of those endeavors were so hard and have had such huge returns on the time and work.

It’s been fun to talk and listen to “talking books” (or audio books, but I still call them that like my Grandma) while we are outside. The weather has been cool and windy and beautiful.

We got our first 20 feet of raised bed in! There’s still 60 more feet to this bed to go. It’s a long 80 foot living fence of sorts that will separate my yard and my mother-in-law’s yard. It’s going to be filled with berry brambles. I planted Logan berries (a cross between a blackberry and a European raspberry, supposed to do really well here) and yellow raspberries so far. I’ll fill in the rest of the 60 feet with traditional red raspberries and blackberries hopefully this week. It was SO exciting to plant something permanant!

We also finished getting the kids trees in the ground early this week and took their pictures with them before adding some fencing around them to deter the deer that found them within a few nights (I don’t think the nibbling they did did too much damage). My neighbor also gave me plants to put at the bottom of the trees! I added comfrey, garlic, and garlic chives around the little trees. Look up “fruit tree guilds” if you want more info; it’s a neat idea where you plant beneficial plants together to support each other, making more of an ecosystem around the tree.

The turkeys are growing so well. If you thought chickens looked like mini dinosaurs, get some turkeys! They look even more reptilian than chickens. They have kind bright eyes though and seem to like us. My 9-year-old is the turkey tender and he’s done a great job. He’s currently experimenting with growing some wheat grass to see if they’ll want to eat it.

We struggled through school this week and took off way more days than I planned. We are all going to be excited to take a break from it. With so many other things we want to get done and learn and do, it feels like a ball and chain to have lessons to go through. But the kids are only a week or two out from completing this years work, so we’ll muddle through and finish what we started.

The postal service doesn’t deliver mail to our house, we have to go to the post office and pick up our mail. I only go about once a week and that was to my detriment this week. For some reason my Logan berries came to the post office and sat there for over a week before I went and checked my mail. Two are in rough shape but I’m hoping with some time in the ground the roots can recover. You live and you learn!

Puppies turned 11 weeks this week and they are getting so big. They are doing great with coming when called and are still puppies when it comes to house training. We’ll go days with only a puddle here or there and then they’ll have a day that there’s a mess every time I turn around and I’m convinced they’ll never learn. Tis the season! They’re such smart dogs though, it makes working with them fun because you know it’ll click eventually.

Thomas was out of town for a few days at the end of the week which meant that the kids and I had lots of work to do. One morning I was slow getting out to the cow and the kids had bridled the calf, got Millie in the stanchion, had set up their station, got things cleaned up, and started milking. I was AMAZED! It was one of those moments that you could see the value of the work we are putting into together paying off.

We also painted the metal frames for the next 60 feet of our berry garden box without him. Have you ever painted with 5+ kids (we had friends over who helped both days), it’s such a mess! Oil based paint is so hard to clean up when kids aren’t involved. We were still a bit speckle splattered at church today. But they did so well and it was so helpful. We are going to ignore the texture added from all of the dirt they picked up on their wet brushes and then painted into the frames, and enjoy the fact that they are literally helping build our family’s future. I did do my due diligent and got paint smears off my tub and vanity though… I’m trying not to think about where else it might be.

And I think the last update for the week: starting seeds. Man alive have I worked hard at getting seedlings started this year. I would consider it a major flop. The internet assured me any lights would work as grow lights but I’m not convinced, I just pulled some lights out of our garage and they just didn’t seem to work well. Things have stayed small and I’ve been carrying two plastic tables of seedlings in and out of the basement every day. A few times with it being so windy they’ve gotten too dry and I’ve slowly killed the bulk of the 720 plants that I had going. Today was the nail in the coffin. It was extremely windy and I didn’t realize it and it flipped some of my flats and pots straight off of the table. Seriously, if I have a few dozen things at the end I’ll she shocked.

I won’t do this again unless I have a greenhouse to work in, it wasn’t worth the effort! BUT I did some seed saving last year and what I planted that I saved came up. That was nice to know the methods that I used worked.

This week we are hoping to get the ditch next to the berry area filled, the beds for the berries done and filled, and my brambles all planted. It’s supposed to be cold and rainy so we shall see.

We’re enjoying this adventure so much!