A tale of two cities, and the agricultural endeavors taking place therein.

Hey farmers, it's Dan. I'm living in Chicago now, in the attic of an old man's mansion for the time being. I'm working in an upscale flower shop, which is strange, because it's like I'm working with plants all day, but for the most part they are plants that have been bred to not act like plants, and have been shipped in on the morning flight from Mexico or Colombia or the Netherlands. Also, I'm taking a crack at a bucket garden, which so far consists of three tomato plants, some kale and spinach which I planted from seed yesterday, and some basil which is having trouble because of rain and cold. Does anyone have bucket garden experience? I would love to hear about it and get get tips either here or in email.

But anyways, enough about me. I'd really, really love to hear about what's going on at the Farm. Who's there these days? How are the chix in the chicken tractor? How are the laying hens? How is the garden? What's in it? Are the deer staying out? Has anything happened with the windmill? Is the wild mint coming up in the marshy area down by the dock? Has anyone taken the humanure system for a test run? Like, what's a day-in-the-life of a farmer like these days?

I really hope that we end up using this blog a lot, partly because there are a bunch of farmers who already miss that place and want to know how things are going. More importantly, though, this blog is a really good place, as Miriam noted in the first post, to exchange and store knowledge. It can be a place for current farmers to pose questions they might have to a lot of people at once, and it can also be a repository for information generated by the answers to such questions, as well as other information.

At any rate, I don't mean to butt in too much, I just wanted to give a quick update on me and also state my hopes for the blogalog.

I hope everyone is well, and I miss you all a lot.

Love,
Dan

P.S. If anyone with a car is going to be in chicago soon and then traveling to richmond, let me know. My flower store is throwing out about 20 four- and five-gallon buckets, and I know that the farm can always use buckets.