Spring, Quickly
May 2026
What a difference a month makes. The world outside our windows has turned green and the daffodils, dandelions and tulips have added a pop of yellow to the view. Spring has sprung and the farm work has begun.
What’s been happening?
The peonies are back! It’s always exciting to see them poking their heads up above the soil, and it’s even more exciting to see how much size they’ve put on since last year. Their arrival has meant that we’ve already gotten the mower out to start cleaning up in-between the rows. For the first time since we moved to the farm, it feels like we’ve got our equipment in order for the spring. Looking forward to going for the slow and steady approach instead of the frantic catch-up this summer.
Along with the peonies, the raspberries, currants and apples have begun to leaf out. Beekeeper Ben stopped by and helped us put an orchard fence up. Now that we can (**fingers crossed**) keep the deer out, this summer will be about site prep for planting fruit trees in the fall and next spring. Now that we know the space that we’re working with, we can make a realistic plan for the orchard instead of just wishing for every kind of fruit that we can think of!
A successful turkey season came and went, and I’ve done a little foraging around the farm, picking ramps and nettles. If I can sneak way from farm chores and work obligations long enough, I’m hoping to return to the only morel spot I’ve ever discovered. It’s been five years though, so who knows whether they’re still there…
What’s ahead?
The sheep still need shearing, and our No-Fence collars have arrived. In the beginning of May, we’ll be training the sheep and goats to respect their collars. Hopefully a more fulsome update will follow in June.
In previous years we’ve practiced a variation on no-mow May (sometimes by choice, sometimes not), but this year we’re leaning a little harder into weed control, especially around the peonies. We still leave plenty of acres unmown, but the tractor and the flail mower are going to emerge from winter hibernation soon.
Now that we’ve been through the process with the orchard, we’ll be putting a similar fence up for the chickens. They’ll still get time to free-range the farm, but having a fence will allow us to keep them contained in the morning so that they don’t feel tempted to sneak off and hide their eggs from us.
The great bookshelf build of 2026 went on pause for April, but as soon as I can squeeze in a few hours here and there, I’ll be back building bookshelves for Herbert’s room as well as the living room and dining room.
We’ve noticed a number of sapling maple trees around our garage, and we hope to pot them up and plant them in one of the fields for future maple syrupping. Along the same lines, there are a number of raspberry plants to transplant up into the orchard as well as some stray asparagus and peonies that we’d like to consolidate.
What’s on our minds?
After Herbert and Sigurd went to bed last night, Julie and I started up an old show that we’ve been watching: All Creatures Great and Small. It’s a Masterpiece Theater adaptation of a series of books by James Herriot and centers on a rural veterinary practice in England during World War II. Like the books, the show is heartwarming and paints a sympathetic portrait of life before the agricultural industrialization that followed the war. As we watched, Julie remarked on how unhurried the characters seemed. Even though the show (and books) is a work of fiction and romanticizes English rural life, it made us reflect on how often we feel like we’re in a hurry on the farm, and how much we’d like to slow down the pace of our lives. We’re learning and relearning the lesson that in the long run, hurrying is counter-productive. Spring is busy, but it doesn’t have to be all work. Sometimes spring is about sitting in the sunshine with friends or getting up in the dark to watch turkeys fly out of a tree at dawn. And for those we things we are very grateful. We hope that you’re taking time this spring to find those slow moments, too.
Your contrary farmers,
Julie, Kristofer, Herbert & Sigurd (& Willmar the Labrador, too)