Amy

I’ve lived here for 20 years although I didn’t start farming until 2004. In that time, our reliable frost free growing season has lengthened from June 1-September 1 to May 15-Sept 15.

We have also developed a pattern of cool wet springs, and long warm falls. The maple sap now starts running at the end of February instead of the middle of March, and instead of a white Thanksgiving and the snow lasting till Spring, we don’t get snow that lasts until mid or late December. Fortunately our white Christmas does not seem to be threatened yet.

Also, our winter lows seem to have ameliorated by about 10 degrees. When I bought this place (1986) , a normal winter hit -25F, and a cold one -30. We reached -20F last January for the first time since January 2000.

Fortunately all the climate change we have seen has been beneficial. We have moved from hardiness zone 4 to zone 5, which is a very big deal in terms of the number of plant species that can survive our winters. The extra month of growing season doesn’t so much increase the number of garden crops we can grow, but it drastically increases the yield of the warm weather crops. We can now expect six weeks instead of four of sweet corn, tomatoes and peppers. There does seem to be a pattern of more rain in the spring and less in the summer, but so far the pastures have held up, and we can water the garden.

Frank

Please feel free to email

My name is Maja Lewandowska-Anbar and I am a student at Cambridge College in Lawrence, MA. I am conducting research on the impact of climate change on Northeastern agriculture for my Independent Learning Project for my Master’s degree thesis.

As a local farmer, I was wondering if you would be willing and able to help me with providing information on this topic. I am particularly looking for opinions and observations that are supported by data over the past several years. I could also conduct an interview via e-mail so it could be completed at your convenience.

I am looking forward to your response.
Thank you very much in advance for your support,
Maja
978-521-1620

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanh/sets/72157623292270620/

We had such a great time with them and are thrilled with how they all turned out. I don’t know how much of it is how we raised them, the super puppy stuff we did in the first days of their lives, and just the quality of their parents, but it sure seemed to make some good pups!

We’ll be breeding Disa to another Black and White tri in January. Three of those puppies are spoken for, and I have started a list for the rest and you are number two on that list!

Are you on Facebook? I update pretty frequently there and all of the people who bought the first litter sometimes post pictures of them there, too.

http://www.facebook.com/mackhillfarm

Ethan Fithen

We should be able to start a batch for you late this week. The clutch in there now will be at 21 days on Tuesday.

Sincerely,

Steve Schaefer