Long awaited, Finally This Summer, Always worth the wait

Saturday, July 18th, I went into the coop, there I found an egg shell, Mr. Bootsie following me in was checking the nest also, words from the farm assistant, "Broken egg, not again."  My response was, "No, not again.  This shell has been opened by a chick."  I had already put some starter grain close to the Little Black Hen, so she could eat the grain.  After setting, they are so weak and need something to build up their strength.  You ask why is it difficult to sit on eggs and hatch them.  These hens, when setting, go into a trance and hardly leave the nest.  They eat very little and this takes a toll on them.

I went to prepare the chicken water and place it close so the baby chick could get a drink.  At this time all the proof I had was the shell and I knew it looked as something one had come out of it.  This gets Mr. Wonderful off the hook, as now I know he is not shooting blanks.  I was not sure as to how committed the other Little Black Hen was to setting on the nest when we were away from the coop.  She took some morning dusting breaks which seemed entirely too long to me.  This is the reason I allowed this hen to stay in the nest she had created and hatch the eggs.

It was time for me to continue my chores.  So off I went to make the grain bowls for the goats.  Mr. Bootsie comes for the coop exclaiming, "There are two babies and more eggs under her."  He is quite excited as he was the first one to see the baby chicks.  I decided to see if I could establish whose eggs had hatched.  I found the whole shell from one of the olive eggs, which we hatched last spring.  This will mean if this is a hen, her egg will be much darker in olive color as this is a second generation.  As she collected her eggs for the nest I have no idea as to what may be in this hatch.  This is one time the hen has out smarted me.

We have never worked with babies on the floor of the coop.  I have heard when the rooster is in the coop there could be problems or not.  Sometimes they protect their babies from the hens and other times the responsibility is totally on the momma hen.  I have all of the brooders close by if this is the direction we need to take.  I just am not sure how the Little Black Hen will react to being enclosed in a brooder and I do not want her to dessert the little ones she has worked so hard to produce.

This will be a learning experience for us, but each and every hatching has been a lesson in one way or another.  The little black hen's mother, Aurora was a wonderful momma hen and no one, not even me was able to get near her babies.  She was the smallest hen in the coop, however, when she had babies her size did not matter, the other hens kept their distance.  She would fly up and land on their backs if they bothered her little ones.  We did keep her in the brooder, only when the chicks were out getting sun, the other hens came to see what was going on.  If they came within two feet they had better look out because little Aurora was going to show them they should keep a distance.  I hope some of Aurora's mothering skills has passed on to her girls.  These girls came from eggs laid by Aurora, so only time will tell if this hen will be a good momma hen.

Monday, morning there was not a chick to be found, except the little one who did not make it through the night.  I was ready to break up the nest and then I heard the crunch of an egg, one more was coming.  By the end of the day there were 2 new baby chicks, they were struggling on the floor of the coop and I knew I needed to make a decision.  Wednesday morning there are 3 babies, Momma hen decided to go out and stretch her legs, only to be attack by the dame of the coop.  She ran back in checking on her chicks.

Mr. Bootsie showed up about the same time and I made my decision.  She is going into the brooder, the chicks can move about and we do not have to worry about snakes or the other hens attacking them.  I would find a little peace with this.  You know I always give him the worst job, he reached down and collected momma hen.  Walked over to the brooder, I began to collect the baby chicks and found only 2,  Mr. Bootsie had one baby, finally all together once again.  We knew it was time to get the eggs and see if Momma Hen would take them back, Mr. Bootsie candled all of them and there are 6 more possible chicks.
As Mr. Bootsie put the eggs in front of Momma Hen she pecked him each time and then rolled each egg back into the nest.  There she was setting on the 6 eggs and 3 little chicks hidden in her feathers.  I as not sure she feels as safe in her new home as I feel she is.

I had just about given up on having any chicks this year, but now there are 3 and maybe more.  All of the eggs came from my olive egg laying girls and the  Welsummer rooster.   Excited, yes,  there are babies on the farm.  Life goes on!!!!

Early Summer Update

With spring turning into summer, we have been busy.  The days come to a close much too early and there is always something left undone.  My to do list seems to grow and become longer.  And then it happened, the computer decided to go to computer camp.  After 2 weeks with no computer, I made the decision to just give all of this up.  Knowing with age it is difficult to accomplish everything you think you can in a day, I thought my time would be a little bit freer without spending time in cyber space.  I have no idea this would rattle Mr. Bootise quite like it did.  We need a computer and you have so many special friends who mean so much to you, I don't want you to loose those relationships.  We need to be able to research things and going to the library will take even more time.  The library is 16 miles from our house so I had to give in, start my journey of looking for a new computer.

With a new computer, I changed brands, there is the time of learning once again.  Everything old is everything new and I am struggling along.  I have learned how to load my pictures so I can share with you.  I  am trying to slowly move forward so I can retain what I am learning.  So, please bear with me.  I enjoy the time I share with you and I always have my blog to return to when I need to remember things about my farm.  After all of this, here goes, this is what has been happening!!!

Rain, we have rain, so much rain we now have mushrooms growing everywhere.  Ducks are eating mushrooms, are they safe for us to eat?  I have heard the stories all my life and I am very concerned about collecting and eating wild mushrooms.  But is seems such a waste not to have the knowledge to use this special gift.  If you have the time. the knowledge of how and why we have fungi, is very interesting, read about why they are here.  The farmer came by and she informed me there are mushrooms safe to eat around here.  She has been collecting and preparing them.  She shared a link with me about one she enjoys and we have them everywhere.  I find this so exciting.   link to information about mushrooms

Chicken hatching.  Aurora's daughter set on the nest for 28 days, no chicks, I destroyed the eggs by burying them in the garden,  I heard 3 of them blowup as I covered them with lots of garden soil.  I did not want to smell the rotten eggs.   I worked on getting her to give up the nest which I did accomplish.  About a week later I went into the coop and there was a new nest with a black hen on it, no, no she can't be doing this again, Mr. Bootsie came in later during the day.  He informed me, "She is at it again, what are you going to do?"  Next morning, I realized no she is not at it again, this is the other daughter.  So I decided to leave her on the nest, not moving her to the brooder box and let her have her way.  I need to know if the rooster is shooting blanks or what could have happened with the first hatch.  So only time will tell.

Berry season means I am at it again.  Making wine and framboise, my farm assistant is smiling from ear to ear.  What you have to wait 6 months for the flavor to develop?  Yes, now put that down.  The raspberries and blackberries are used to make these beverages.  I made my first raspberry wine this season, we are really excited about this.  I did not have a recipe and I did a little bit of tasting to see if I thought the sugar was in balance with the fruit.  Tasted good to me so maybe this will work.  Right now, this is bubbling away in the pantry.  I am planning on starting blackberry wine today.

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 Crops are coming in, we are harvesting more than we are able to eat.  I have been sharing some and preserving some.  This a new pickle for me.  I was glad the recipe was for 3 pints. Now I will return to some old faithful recipes and make them if we have cucumbers.  And by the way we should wait 4 weeks before eating these pickles.  Flavor development.

Each week Mr. Bootsie drops one tree and the wood yard is filling.  We both spend time in the garden picking and weeding.  New friends on our farm are two fawns born this spring.  They come to see us quite often.  We have really enjoyed having our personal wildlife preserve.Time for me to go, just heard this week's tree hit the ground. I have chicken to grind, as I as going to make chicken salad.  This was one of our birds, they are so good.  Stop by for a chicken salad biscuit with fresh tomato.  You know you are always welcome.

Alliums on our Farm

In October, 2014 I planted the garlic, the row was dug, the garlic broken into cloves was carefully placed in the row and covered with soil.  Last winter was a cold winter but I could always see the garlic foliage growing so I was in hopes we would have a nice crop of garlic.  June of 2015, the foliage begins to fall over, the bottom sets of leaves have turned brown, it is time for me to dig the garlic.  Pulling the first head from the earth I was excited it was a good year.  Nice full heads, they were easy to clean because I pulled them at the correct time, did not dilly dally around and let too much moisture get into the ground.  As of now, all of the garlic is dug, cleaned and on the drying rack in the pole barn.

I find pleasure in setting down, taking the time to braid some of the garlic.  It is with pride I hang it in my pantry and share with others.  This is really the best garlic crop I have had here on this farm.  The land has slowly improved with the adding of all natural ingredients.  I use wood chips, manure and lots of compost.  I am now harvesting sand from our creeks to improve the soil.  

After all the garlic was dug,  it was time to begin harvesting the onions.  It was another good crop.  I have my first onions which look like onions.  There are white onions large enough to slice.  How I have waited for this.  These are my storage onions, I have red salad onions, yellow sweet onions which do not store for a long while.  After loosing quite a large number of the walking onions to the moles in 2014 there were enough left to plant last fall.  I had a good harvest and now I will work on replenishing my walking onions.  

Onions are important to me.  I use quite a large number of onions in our kitchen.  As I look back I understand why I use so many.  My momma would cook a pan of onions anytime she was not feeling well, she felt the onions were healthful for her.  When I was a child we grew potato onions and storage onions.  The onions were braided and hung in the basement.  At was fun to go to the basement and see the braids disappear.  Momma put onions in almost everything she cooked and I do the same thing.  

On our farm, we grow many varieties of the allium family,  the leeks have gone to seed and I am hoping this year they will reseed in the garden saving me the work of replanting the leek bed, the green onions have gone to seed and new plants have been relocated in the green onion pots.  The chives have flowered and their heads removed, seeds planted along with some of the large clumps divided and planted, the garlic chives have reseeded and are coming up all in the bed.

We use all of the alliums we grow and I am always looking for more, the flavors add so much to our meals and I just enjoy watching them grow.

Late Spring

At this time of the year, we are thinking winter, cold, the need for wood.  Yes, the wood rack is filling. Mr. Bootsie felled another tree and the wood has been added to the wood rack.  Another section is filled, covered and waiting for winter use.  We know it needs to dry and this take a few months, hopefully this will work out and we shall have plenty of wood when it is needed this winter.  Along with wood for our stove, the goats have been eating all of the foliage and bark from the limbs.  There is no waste when a tree is felled on this farm.

Spring brings in the animals, we have been watching a nest of birds, they have now gone to flight school and left their nest.  There has been a deer coming very close to our house.  She has been feeding right out side the kitchen window.  We stand at the window and watch her, she shows no fear, I am hoping she has a knowledge of living in the woods as her visits to see us are just a little unusual,  I would not want to see her get hurt, you always wonder if humans have messed with the balance of nature.   The hummingbirds returned this week, we have seen them feeding on some of our plants.  Mr. Bootsie came in the house exclaiming he had just seen a fawn.  He saw the mother and sent the fawn back toward the mother.  Several days later, I was setting on the porch and the fawn appeared, no momma but after looking very closely in the creek there she was.  Momma allowed the fawn to come within 10 feet of me, this was a very special moment.  There have been several more spotting of all 3 deer, as one was outside the goat pasture when we went to feed one evening.

Along with the animals which excite us there are also those which do not please any of us.  When putting the ducks to bed one evening they froze outside of the duck house.  Mr. Bootsie went to check on the problem, copperhead, and I need help.  Well, this one is taken care of.  There have, also,  been several black snakes, babies and large ones.  Mr. Bootsie likes to keep all of the black snakes but he watching while we have a hen setting on a nest of eggs.

The garden always seems to surprise me.  I have been trying to grow artichokes for years.  I have purchased plants, started seeds and always for one reason or another I loose my plants.  This spring I made the decision I would give up my quest to grow artichokes, only to find one of my plants in the garden doing what I had always wanted to see.  I do not hear of many growing chokes on the east coast but this is one I wanted to try,  I now have a second plant coming up, I am so pleased I have decided to  let this plant go to seed as the seeds should be better suited for my area.  Only time will tell, but I am enjoying this new adventure  and  I will try again.

Things seem to be going good in the coop as Little Black Hen is setting on only 4 eggs.  I lost 2 eggs which were from my Eva.  She has been laying an egg with a very thin shell, I was trying because I wanted to see the mixed breed chicken they would hatch out.  Maybe next time things will work better. I have been feeding the girls sunflower seeds and Eva's shell has improved.  Much stronger.

Garden is growing, there has been quite a bit of rain so that means the weeds are growing as well.  I have a few tomatoes, snaps are starting to bloom.  So far we have picked a few peppers and zucchini.

For me, it is time to get ready to start pickling, canning, dehydrating and freezing.  I will be making a trip to purchase my supplies.  So until there is something exciting to share with you I will say," Happy Farming my dear friends."

Aurora's Daughter, Second Generation of Mother Hens

With patience I have waited,  one of our young girls is going to go broody.  I was hoping it would be one of Aurora's girls, as they have an attitude like their mom.  I was so smart to hatch 2 of her eggs in the incubator last spring.  There was never a broody hen on the farm last year, until very late in the summer and I refuse to have fall baby chicks, late summer is too hot for the hen to be stuck on the nest and when it is fall I may need to bring the chicks inside to keep them warm.

Wednesday morning, I found her, setting on 4 eggs, butt stuck in the corner and I told Mr. Bootsie, "We have a broody."  I went on doing my morning chores, and I saw him moving quickly to finish his chores.  By the time I came back to the coop, the brooder box had fresh hay on the floor, the waterer was filled with fresh water.  I was shocked to find things coming together without my having to do anything.  Are you going to move her now?  No, I will wait until tonight.  She should settle in better.

Now I must confess the four chicks we have from last year have not been named.  There were 2 of Aurora's girls and 2 of Blanches' girls which are cross breed to lay green eggs.  For some reason I just could never come up with a name that fit better than little black hens and red hens.  Maybe that will change this spring/summer.

When it was time to bed down the girls, I chose the eggs I wanted to put under my girl.  Every egg I have is crossbred at this time.  I like cross breeds, I think for layers they make a kinder, more gentle bird.  I choose 2 of my Eva's and 2 of the little red hen's eggs.  I would let her keep 2 of the 4 she had under her and maybe the adjustment will not be as much of shock for her.  With Mr. Bootsie close on my coat tail I made my way to the coop.  Put in the feeder and placed the 4 eggs in the nest.  Next it was time to go and get my girl.  Well, I was pleased she put up no fight, I was able to pick her up without any squawk or fuss.  She settle into my body as I carried her to her new home for 21 days.  I had picked up 2 eggs from her nest, they were placed in the nest for a total of 6 eggs, I set her on top of the eggs.  In the background I could hear someone saying, "Too easy."

Time for me to feed and get everyone to bed.  Things were going well, the goats had been out free ranging and they were ready to bed down after having their grain.  The girls were ready to come inside and decide where they would be roosting tonight.  The ducks were way down on the creek so I went to get them and direct them home.  After bringing in the ducks, it was time to count my girls and be sure all had come in.  Eleven and one in the brooder, well, at this time she was walking around the brooder having a discussion with the wire covering the brooder.  The brooder is covered with 1/2 inch hardware  cloth so black snakes can't get to her.  This is everything I can do to protect my girls while they are setting on eggs.

Thursday morning she had settled down some but later in the day, I found her setting in a nest she had made looking as happy and proud as her mom was when she was setting on eggs.  Thursday night when I went to feed she became chatty with me.  Now I do not talk chicken but I know she is pleased with herself.  Mr. Bootsie came in the coop and she chatted with him, as her food bowl was filled, she came over to see what we had bought her for supper.

My mind is telling me, we shall have a hatching of chickens. 3 weeks  from May 20 or there about.  My next obligation to this new family is a bag of chick-starter.  I will add this to my feed store list, so exciting to think about baby chicks and watch the Momma Hen raise her babies.      

Blackberry Winter, Warm Weather to Follow

Blackberry winter is here, that means the blackberries are blooming and I am cold.  There is just a chill in the air, no need for fire in the wood stove but a jacket is a welcome wrap for me.

Garden is growing, onions are developing seed heads, garlic scapes are showing up on all of the plants.  Time for me to go out to the garden and pick these.  I would enjoy harvesting large heads of garlic and onions so all of the seed heads need to be removed, the plant just can't make seeds and provide a harvest of large fruits.  I save the larger cloves of garlic to plant and planting the scapes takes about 3 years to make a sizable head of garlic.  I buy onion sets in the fall and spring, this year I also purchased plants in the spring.

There are butter beans, snaps, black-eyes peas, sugar snap peas, yard long beans and Austrian winter peas growing at this time.  The Austrian winter peas were planted in the fall, they made it through the cold winter, some in the tunnel and others in the garden bed. During the winter we used the pea shoots in our salads, delightful taste of spring in the the salads.  Now I am waiting for them to fruit, I have been enjoying the blooms in the garden. Later in the day I found a few pea pods and with the number of blooms there will be more coming.

The tunnel cover came off this week, and I am ready for the squash plants to cover the tunnel again this summer.  This will give protection from the sun for the crops in the tunnel.  I will be planting things under the tunnel which appreciate a little protection from the sun.

There was a time when my garden was not started until May 15th and this year there is already so much  progress.  Now some of the squash plants are 6 inches tall or more with tiny zukes just waiting for the bloom to come.

I tried the aluminum pie tin with cucumber slices in it.  My results so far, are no cabbage worms, I would like not having to spray my cabbage with bt, I have been looking for a way to get around this for years.  I put 2 slices of cukes in the pie tin and place under the cabbage plants.  I have some aluminum coasters from the 60's which we were going to recycle but now they are going to be recycled in the garden for holding cuke slices.  So far this has worked for me.  I really have only been doing this for about 3 weeks, I will let you know how things progress through out the summer.


We are trying to take the goats out to munch the woods daily, I was hoping we could let them free range but they seem to know where everything is that I would prefer they stay out of.  So the end result is I must walk with them when they are free ranging.  They seem not to care to go to the same area on a daily basis, this means I get to explore more of our woods.  This is a win, win for me but during this time of the year I feel I have loss a precious hour of time to work in the garden.  I will adjust as I so enjoy my time with the ladies.

Another large tree went into the wood rack this week, we also found some good wood felled by the winter storms and this was add to the rack.  There is still a lot of wood needed but we have a good supply to start the winter with, finding the dead trees and wood on the forest floor makes it easier for us, as the drying time is less.

The girls have been busy turning the compost and I am bringing it to the garden to start another new bed.  This week, I gave them one of the last of our squash from last year's garden and they ate all of the seeds.  I am finding in the compost lots of  seed coming up.  I do trash most of these as I am not sure what they are.  I thought they ate the bulk of the seeds but now I think they eat a few, everything seems to be cleaned up after they have a pumpkin, squash or cantaloupe but maybe they plant a few seeds in the compost.

Flowers are blooming, birds are setting on their nest, butterflies are dancing on the flowers and spring seems to be everywhere.  The sage is blooming and I will be picking some to dry.  I must start working the herb garden again, I miss not having the wonderful herbs  I can grow. This spring I did start a number of plants from seed and I am hoping to add more with cuttings.

The lettuce is a favorite of the ducks and I have planted some extra for them, however, the goats did manage to get into the lettuce bed this week.  The ducks spend their evenings out working in the woods and I had them come in last night with the blackest peaks, you would have thought they had black peaks.  Mother Duck is molting, her new feathers are so pretty and white, I am hoping after the molt maybe, just maybe she will begin to lay to a regular basis.  If not. no problem, she is my girl.

Things are moving forward, now that maybe all of the different little winters are over we can begin to look forward to the rainy seasons.  A rainy day may give us a chance to sit down, relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor.  We do enjoy something from our garden on a regular basis !!!

Dogwood Winter Update

Things were moving along, baby plants were in the tunnel being hardening  off.  I had 11 tomato plants already in the hills.  I dig my tomato hills in the fall, add a bucket or manure cover with soil, mulch and install the tomato cages.  When spring arrives, I take off the cage, pull back the mulch, add a scant handful of epsom salt working into the soil, plant the tomato, return the mulch and tomato cage. I do spray with a kelp mixture as I feel it is needed.  Lettuce was planted in the garden and then it happened.  For over 2 weeks the nighttime temperature had been safe.  The heat had not turned on during the night, we had no issues with redbud winter, and then I heard frost warnings.

The tunnel had been opened, about half of it and we had several gentle farmer's rains.  I was thinking I may go on and take the cover off the tunnel but I am so pleased I stopped at the half way mark.  I was over run with seedlings. I had started my snow peas in pots as this is the only way I can grow them.  The mole/vole will cut them off at ground level, I began last spring putting the seeds in pots and had none of the pea plants cut off in pots, the ones I had planted just in the soil were taken care of by the mole.  When taking the pots out to remove and replace the soil I could see they really did work.  The 1 to 2 mole tunnels came to the bottom of the pots and stopped there.  I am using 6 inch pots which I plant in the garden.  I also have pole beans coming up in pots and will be planting these pots as well.

After hearing the frost warning it was time for me to think through what I should do to protect by garden.  The tunnel cover was replaced, floating row covers were placed over the tomatoes and lettuce. The peas were safe as i pulled mulch around them and they can take some cold.  We are into our second week of cold nighttime temperatures, The heat is coming on in the house, we are building small fires in the wood stove.  Some evenings we just hunker down under a warm blanket and enjoy the brisk air.

This time has been used in the garden, most of the beds have all of the chickweed pulled as it is going to seed, walk ways between the beds have been mulched.  Some of the raised bed borders have been replaced with new trees, cedar which was cut last year so it is ready to hold the soil in the raised beds.  I garden about a third of an acre using only hand tools so this break in the temperature has been welcomed.  Squash plants were getting to the point they needed to be planted, as I had started a few in pots to get a jump on the early planting of them.  They were planted and covered with row covers.  My inspection after having the row covers on for a few days, as we had to secure the covers because of the wind, found the lettuce taking a different shape and a need to pull the covers in allowing the plants room to grow.

The brambles are all getting there leaves, and showing how much they appreciate the time which we spent pruning them this winter and early spring.  The herbs which were thinned are coming forth and I only have memories of thinning them as they are growing abundantly. There were over 100 buckets (5 gallon size) of mulch moved into the garden.

I am so excited about the condition of the garden this spring.  I see it coming to a place I have wanted for so long.  The lettuce we are picking in the tunnel is loaded with flavor, it has wonderful spring flavors, the ducks await any lettuce trimmings I have for them.  Just watching how excited they become when I bring a basket of lettuce to their run makes me aware of how delicious the lettuce is.  Using our mulch, manure and homemade compost allows me to have control of my garden space.

Tree felling became slowed as one very large tree decided to become entangled in another tree.  With the rain we have been experiencing it was much too wet to move some of the larger equipment into the wooded area.  Mr Bootsie had to wait for several days for the wood's floor to dry some.  The tree became free with the help of the wrench on the truck and is now on the forest floor,  The wood racks are beginning to fill for the coming winter.

I am hoping there will be at least one broody hen as I need some chicks to help us make through the winter.  I would enjoy seeing this happen soon, but they have a mind of their mind.  Maybe blackberry winter will bring a broody hen.  The end of dogwood winter is coming later this week.  I will be planting more tomato plants and pepper plants.  The seeds for the snaps, butter beans and black-eyed peas need to go into the ground, the corn is in the greenhouse in starter trays, the first planting.  Oh, yes, I can't forget the okra.  You know it is spring when the strawberries begin to bloom and they have, we are finding little berries on the plants.

I am heading out to the garden, I shall harvest some lettuce and spring onions.  Time for my favorite sandwich of the spring.  Homemade bread, Duke's mayo, spring onions loaded with flavor and lots of pepper.  How lucky I am to have a garden which rewards me daily.