May, Wet and Busy

As the days came and went, so did the rain, not flooding just rain, making this May the wettest May in Virginia since weather data has been recorded.  The water table was on top on of the ground for a few days.  The runs were sprinkled with DE to keep the smell down.  Raised beds in the garden really paid off.  There was run off from the garden going through the pasture and going to the bottom land creek.  We will be working on repairing the damage of the water for a long time.  A wrecker came in to deliver a piece on equipment and it needed help getting back to the roadway after unloading.  This was not a problem as we had a truck which was able to assist with moving the wrecker.  I spent almost every other day going around draining water out of things, thinking I will need to do this tomorrow, why, am I doing this today.

With all the cloudy days, I lost a number of bedding plants, this year the grow lights were taken down early as the temperature was warm and things were growing well in the greenhouse, then we went into the cloudy, damp season for about 15 days and it took it's toll on my bedding plants.  We managed to find enough volunteer plants in the garden to finish planting the early garden.  I have started more plants for the late garden, and maybe the season will improve.  

The goats are all expecting and June should see the delivery of 2 of our does.  I do hope the heat holds back and they do not have deal with super hot days.  The baby chickens which arrived in January have become hens, and 1 of them has laid her first egg.  The young chicks are so active and cute.  Mr. Bootsie did build a new chicken tractor using some PVC from another project.  This has been a good place for the little chicks to stay in during the day when it is not raining.

We have had an number of eggs and I decided to try my hand at dehydrating eggs.  Link to the recipe.  There were duck eggs and hen eggs.  So I did a batch of each.  I have not used my eggs and the recipe says they will keep for up to a year, I may not experience a shortage of eggs for a while, but if I do that will be the time I will pull the dried eggs from the cabinet and see if they were a success or only the chickens will eat them.  I am thinking I can use them to add protein to some of the dishes I make.

Eggs ready to go into the dehydrator

Clover blooms were everywhere, pink and white.  now is the time to make clover jelly.  I picked only the white clover blooms as I was not sure about the pink, still researching pink clover.  We like our jelly soft so we can use it on pancakes and this turned out just the way we wanted, so next year maybe I will make more clover syrup.  White clover jelly recipe, I have been using my time when I could not be outside doing some much need research.

The garden is producing this spring, in fact, it is producing more than we can use.  I do plant somethings for the chickens, ducks and goats.  Lettuce is a winner with all of babies, spinach, chard, turnips and kale go to the pasture crew, also.  Austrian winter peas are producing, these will be pulled up and fed to the goats.  I do pick the peas from these to go into stir-fries.  This is one plant I really do enjoy seeing grow, the blooms are quite pretty in the springtime.

The squash plants are showing promise this spring, this is one plant which only time will tell.  There are several different varieties of squash planted.  I am concerned because I am seeing bush squash plants where they should be climbing plants,  this may be another season of what do we have.  I did buy all new seeds hoping to get true plants this season.

I added several new (to me) varieties of turnips to the garden this spring.  I have really enjoyed watching the
quickness of the  shogoin, which we are harvesting, the golden ball is 60 days to harvest  which will make it a later turnip.  Most of the garden is planted and now with all of the rain our crop of unwanted plants is growing in the garden.  A lot of time will be spent hoeing and weeding around the productive plants.  As for the invaders, many of them will be history.  The tomatoes are blooming and that makes this farmer happy, nothing like the first tomato sandwich.  Well, that is still a while away.  So memories of tomato sandwiches of the past and dreams of baby goats will keep us going for while.  The farm is ever changing and life on the farm is always interesting.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit, Until...