June Did Burst Out

I am often reminded of a song when I think of June, my words would not be the same but June has been busy around here.  The January baby chicks are all now laying, pullet eggs are so cute but we must eat them.  One morning I was blessed with a pullet double yolk egg, it was quite a surprise to see 2 yolks come from the tiny egg,  Most of the big girls came on line this spring, quite different from last year as several never laid any eggs.  With 14 layers in the coop we are collecting 8 to 10 eggs daily plus 2 ducks eggs so there is no shortage of eggs.  The young chicks have blended into the flock, which went well.  There are 7 young pullets who will not be laying for a while.  These 7 plus the 4 early pullets should easily carry us through the winter.  I made it last winter with 1 pullet and 2 ducks.  I am sure there will be some changes in the coop before fall arrives.

The garden with the spring we experienced I really had no idea what to expect, but the garlic harvest was the best I have had here on this farm.

Garlic Braids

The blackberries have bloomed and there are small green ones hanging on the vines, August is when we should pick.  The squash plants are doing well, yellow summer fried with onion and zucchini bisque have been on the table for several meals.  Cucumbers are producing, now that I have had my fill,  pickles will be one of my projects.  We are in the squash bug war and Mr. Bootsie spends a number of hours on his knees trying to protect our plants from these little pests.  Green beans are producing and there are already beans canned for next winter.  We continue to harvest chard and kale.  The climbing spinach is just beginning to climb. All of the pole beans are planted and the tomato plants have lots of tomatoes hanging, it will be a while before I am eating tomato sandwiches.  

I did take a few minutes to plant some flowers this spring.  With everything going on here, I find there is not enough time to do everything so I try to balance and this is something I have never been good with.  I want it all and I should be able to work things out so I can do everything I want to do.  Maybe 30 or 20 years ago but not now, as I age it takes more time to get things completed and so I have to let some of my ideas fall by the wayside.  I have spent some time out looking for wild flowers and this is something I enjoy.  I am looking for mushrooms, some days walking the goats and looking for a plant I have never seen before.  This gives me an opportunity to learn more about our land and visit with the girls.

I knew sometime this month we would be having baby goats and we did, 3 babies have arrived and Belle is due in July.  June 25th, Scoot had her little boy during the early morning hours while we were asleep.  Mr. Bootsie arrived at the barn to find a clean little goat who had already had his first meal.  This was just too easy,  on Monday,  July 27th, we could tell something was about to happen.  Lacie went to one of our run-ins, but it was one she never goes in.  Thankful she decided to move to another run-in which is larger because she gave birth to twins.   So far there are 2 boys and 1  girl.  The Farmer wanted a little girl from Lacie and she did deliver.

Scoot's Little Boy

Lacie is ready.

June did keep Mr. Bootsie and me busy, we do look forward to Belle having a baby or babies in a couple of weeks.  We are trying hard to control the number of pests in the garden by hand picking bugs and eggs.  Green beans and raspberries are picked daily, along with squash and cucumbers.  Weeding is getting in front of us as the rains come.  The garden is lush along with lots of others areas around our property.   As we live in the woods, there is a deer coming to visit with her fawn, so there are babies in the barn and in our woods.  We do enjoy our little farm in the woods.  The month of June is past and now we look forward to what shall happen in July.

Until...

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...

Virginia, Springtime

It is springtime in Virginia.  The garden is producing spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce and spring onions.  I am looking at the green garlic and thinking I need to enjoy some of this also.  Spinach Chowder, is enjoyed as I make a pot weekly.  There are fresh salads using the lettuce and spinach.  This is a welcomed change to the diet we were having just a few weeks ago.  I personally enjoy spring onions as they are a reminder of my life on Momma's and Daddy's farm.  I remember the glass of water on the table which was always filled with spring onions.  We were raised eating onions and my family has always had a desire for onions in the spring time.  It becomes a staple on the springtime table.

The last week of April became rainy, chilly and my spring seemed to disappear.  On Wednesday afternoon I was out in the garden and saw the wild blackberries blooming, BLACKBERRY WINTER.  Now I totally understand what is happening.   I was no longer confused about building a fire in the wood stove as we do have fire every year during blackberry winter.

The malabar spinach is coming up.  I have always enjoyed watching the volunteer plants come up.  It is sign the soil is warm.  They have been as late as June.  I was completely shocked to see the leaves coming out of the ground on April 26th.  This is the earliest I have even seen them come up.  With the spring we have experienced I am almost afraid we may have another freeze and they will be gone.  I do have most of my garden in the ground at this time.  My mind is telling me it is time to move forward but my soul is saying, "Be Careful."

The late frost in April may have taken my wisteria tree.  It was loaded with blooms and I had enjoyed it for 1 day.  That night came with low temperatures and brown blooms.  That was alright but now I do not see any vegetation on the tree.  I have a great need for this plant as I grew up where there was a wisteria tree.  This one I moved from my previous home to the farm.  It will be like loosing part of our family if it doesn't survive. 

The goats are getting fatter and the  baby roosters are starting to make some noise.  The farm is moving forward,  Spring is an exciting time on the farm, in the garden there are changes almost daily.  You do feel as if you have accomplished so much as you see the plants develop.  The weather has been a challenge this spring and of course, the winter was strange.  I question how this will effect our growing season.  Well, as all of us know, only time will tell.  

April, What a Loin this has Been

Cold, freezing temperatures, snow, Mother Nature I question what month we are in.  From the beginning of April there has been a drop in temperatures, we had to pull the cover and close the tunnel and replace all of the row covers.  I know I played the gamble, this spring, and now I am concerned about the weather.  As a child I was told the time to start installing our plants was May 15th, but things have moved back and our final frost date is placed around April 15th and I am ready to go.  Peppers, tomatoes, peas, squash and cucumbers are setting here ready to be put in the good earth.

The cold nights with low temperatures took a toll on the seedlings.  I put row covers over all of the seedlings in the greenhouse and this was not enough.  I lost a number of plants; however, I have enough left to plant my garden and a few to share.  I did save some seeds, for the first time, from the climbing spinach plants, they were in the greenhouse and very tender.  They were covered with row covers, with no damage.  These plants do not come up in the garden until June, so it is always a guessing game as to what can handle the cold and continue to grow.

The tunnel has produced this season, we have had more than our share of spinach, kale and chard.  The onions were first picked from the tunnel.  Now about growing more onions from the roots.  I tried this in the garden as I was harvesting spring onions.  Dug the onions, trimmed the roots to about one inch and cut the bulb about a half of an inch above the roots, replacing the onion to the where it was pulled from.  Now I have my row filled with little onions about 2 inches tall.  I was a gardener who had to see this work to believe it and now I am seeing it work in my garden.

IN THE COOP

The 12 youngest chicks are growing, the 4 from the January hatching are beautiful chicks, they are going to be very large birds.  As soon as the temperature improved and the little ones had their feathers they were relocated in the coop.  I am from the old school and do not use lights on my chickens.

Egg production has improved with warm weather, some of the girls, who hardly laid last year, are showing improvement this spring.  I have 10 layers and some days I collect 8 eggs, Momma duck is also laying once again, I do not know how long this will last but I am enjoying her eggs while I have them.  I have 2 other ducks who are laying, the switch out worked really well for me.  One of the 3 ducks, switched, turned out to be drake, he may stay or he may return to the farm he came from.  Right now the duck run is quite and peaceful, I need to keep the duck run that way as this is the first stop for my young chickens.  The ducks are so gentle and seem not to care when they are invaded by the chicks, Momma Duck comes to the chicken run every morning to check on her chicks she has helped to raise.  I do enjoy Momma Duck so much.  We are collecting 3 duck eggs most days.

IN THE GOAT BARN

I saw teats on my Belle, the next day Lacy, called the farmer and she stopped by.  The farmer just looked at the ladies and said they were expecting.  I know they are eating us out of barn and home.  They are eating chickweed along with the feathered friends, all of chard stems we are harvesting, apple peelings, winter squash, hay and grain.  Just to add something a little different they forage for about an hour a day.

IN CLOSING

The damage the cold did to our flowering bushes and trees is very noticeable.  I do think I have never seen so much damage in all of my years.  Blooms were set because of the warm spring very early on so many of my plants and now I am hoping the flowering bushes will recover.  The poplar trees took a real hit and I am concerned for the fruit industry in our area.  My berry bushes are loaded with vegetation so I am hoping for a good harvest of black berries and raspberries.  Each year is a challenge, I learn something each season and try to have it help me with the next year.  I may have learned, this year, planting by the moon and the late cold snaps not to start my seedlings quite so early.  Only time will tell with this thought as I just need to see those little plants popping from the soil.

March Has Been a Lamb

As I sit here on March 31, wondering how this month will end.  Checking the weather report, there is rain and wind.  I do believe March over all has been a lamb of a month and you will not hear me complain about the outside conditions.

In real time, right now, the back door opens.  I hear someone coming upstairs, there is a voice, Mr. Bootsie. He is saying, "You were right, she is gone."  Off went the computer, I made my way down the stairs.  One of my babies, One who has lived with us for the last 8 years, went to chickie-bird heaven today.  She now has a final resting place in the garden.  There she is with other chickens who have lived on our farm.  The chicken journey began 8 years ago and some of my older girls are just getting tired,  They have had a good life as there is no concern about hawks and wild animals getting into the run or coop.  We try not to run out of food for them.  I chose this responsibility and have made it my mission to take care of my girls.  We are so grateful for the 4 little girls who are now 2 and 1/2 months old.  They have a place on the farm, but most of all  they have a place in my heart.  They made the adjustment from baby chicks to pullets so quickly.  They are in the hen house on the roosting poles at nighttime and in the run during the day.  This was the easiest time I have ever had introducing the chicks to the older girls.  Oh, they get chased a little but the little ones know how to get away.

 Rest in Peace Sweet Girl

Baby chicks are growing and I will moving them into the brooder as soon as the weather improves.  Two lows next week and I am hoping it will be time to move the chicks to the coop.  They will be able to spent the day in the duck yard and be outside, weather permitting.  I think I have learned a lot from watching a mother hen raise her babies, making notes and following her methods.  Yes, I said I learned from a hen, it was quite a lesson in how raise chickens.

I pushed the garden and there are chances of frost or freezing we continue to have covering in place if we need to use it.  Garden is producing onions, spinach and kale.  With the temperatures being so warm, the plants in the garden are growing.  As I wait for the next low on next Wednesday I decided to stop setting out plants.  There were wild violet blossoms picked to make jelly.  More blackberries removed from the freezer to make wine.  I may need to fill a couple of gallon jugs with water to go into the bottom of the freezer, I do this to keep the freezer filled to the top.

The goats seem to be getting along great.  They, so much, want to get outside and graze.  I want to start looking for mushrooms,  I think we can work together, goats walk and graze while Momma walks and searches for srooms.  We are learning about mushrooms, far from an expert.  Just fun for me to have one more reason to spend time in the woods.

I think March was good to us.  A lot of the garden is planted and up.  A number of transplants are waiting for the weather to say okay, it is time for you to go into the soil.  Flowers are blooming the red bud tree is loaded with blooms. Babies are growing all of this makes for happy, happy farmers.

I Think March came in like a Lamb

March, comes in like a lamb or a loin and leaves us like the opposite.  This is a very scary thought.  On March 7th, the temperature was in the 70's and it will improve during the week to the 80's and all of you know there are bedding plants going into my garden.  There are, also, row covers lying on the ground close  by which can be put over the tender babies if there is a need.  The tunnel was opened so there was air flow through the tunnel.  I know it is much too early to think about taking the plastic off the tunnel as we normally do this in early May.

With the warm weather we did see progress, in fact so much progress, Mr. Bootsie and I finished our day knowing we both had worked a bit harder than we should.  I began my day making a hardy breakfast of hash browns with onions, scrambled eggs with ham, onions and peppers, sourdough biscuits and kiwi.  Next was laundry and off course, I hung the laundry on the line.  Mr. Bootsie felled  several small trees and cut to size for fire wood.  Off to the garden for me, I pulled more chickweed from the onions and gave the pasture crew a treat of chickweed.  Worked a bed and installed lettuce plants in the late afternoon.  By this time Mr. Bootsie had everything ready to split the fire wood so off I go to help him.  This will be left on the wagon overnight and unloaded when morning comes.  He came to the garden while I was installing the lettuce and dug one of the new squash hills on the outside of the tunnel.  Now to fill this with manure, compost, sand and some of the original soil, which was red clay, this will be waiting for squash plants when the season is a little warmer.  The temperature of the air is warm but the soil is not and I have not gotten in a number of our cool weather plants because I have been waiting for the soil to dry.

It is time for the baby chicks to move into the outside world, the warm temperature is heating up the coop. March 7, they made their first venture outside, they were not sure about leaving the coop.  I have a small little bamboo stick which I use as a chicken herding stick, I took the stick and encouraged the little chicks outside, I had already tried putting them out, one at a time and they were back in the coop before I was.  Finally, all were outside and not sure why they had to leave their safe place.  I do not close the door to the coop when training baby chicks about the outside world.  The next day, in the early afternoon, it was time, baby chicks came out of the coop and I let them run about in their new world for about 15 minutes, they had explored down the side of the chicken run and letting my older birds know they were free to run about while they were cooped up.  I walked down to the duck run and opened the gate about 6 inches, those curious little chicks made their way into the duck run.  Mission accomplished, the duck run is a safe place for the chickens as the ducks seem to stay away and let them scratch, peck and try to fly as much as they want.  Staying in the duck run until roosting time, it was easy to open the gate, herd them toward the coop, they made their way to the food bowl and they were back into their safe place tired, hungry and ready to settle down for the night.

Moles, I am so angry.  All of the fennel plants plants have been eaten at the surface.  I had 4 beautiful plants last fall, they were started from seed and doing great, I was expecting fennel harvests this year.  Now, I have to reorganize and plant the fennel in large pots.  I was hoping I could start direct planting but the mole population seems not to be going down.  They eat strawberries, kale, cabbage, chard and broccoli off at the surface.  I will continue my planting in pots and planting the pots in my garden.  Last year, I found out they ate the Jerusalem artichokes, I purchased just one pot of artichokes at a plant sale.  I put these in a large pot with bird netting in the bottom, this year I was able to harvest the chokes.  There are ups and downs to what I am doing, downs are the planting time, ups are the fact that all of the chokes are contained in the pot and I am able to harvest all of the chokes.  I had a wonderful choke patch at my previous home and I know how they spread, one little tiny piece and if it had an eye it would be a new plant.  Now this is taken care of.  I am learning how to deal with the moles, just extra work for me.

My farmer friend came by to share more artichoke sets and we made a few plans, there are more baby chicks being hatched, I will have those as she left with all of the roosters from the first hatching.  She will be taking my ducks who lay eggs but the shell is not strong.  The next day, ducks arrived and 12 baby chicks.

The next morning, there was a duck egg in the nest which was strong, baby chicks making that sweet quiet sound in the kitchen as they are much to small to be in the coop.  We have collected a good duck egg each morning and I know we made a good decision about the ducks.  Momma Duck has settled in with the new group of three and is now teaching them the ways on our farm.  The pullets are spending their days with the ducks and everyone is outside together, ducks, chickens and goats,  for about a hour each evening.  When we are putting our feathered friends to bed, almost every evening, we hear the sound of the Canada geese coming over as they leave the pond.  Just the other day, the sky was active, turkey buzzards, one hawk and lots of crows.  

Spring time on the farm, a busy time, we shall return and share what happens in the last days of March.  Lamb or Loin?  

February Update

February, what a month this has been snow, rain, spring temperatures  snow and more rain.  The land is mud, you must be careful all the time.  With all the rain the coop run is slick and sliding down seems to be more than easy.  I have been moving leaves into the run to help with the moisture and protect myself from falling in the run.

The beginning of the month I could see the baby chicks have been growing, shortly they will have chicken feathers and be showing their true colors.  These babes are barnyard mixes, you are always in for a surprise when the flocks mingle together in the barnyard and this hatching is really exciting.

We did manage to get all 3 goats bred, we hope.  Reggie came over for a play afternoon on three different occasions and I think I read the goats correct.   We are counting off 150 days and hoping that we shall see

Reggie

baby goats.  This will be Lacy's  and  Belle's second time being a mommie.   Lacy was bred January 28, Scoot, January 29, and Belle, February 19.  We are planning on being busy the last part of June and into July.  I will be milking and making goodies with the goat's milk.

The baby chickens are no longer baby chicks, they have their big bird feathers.  I was planning on moving them into the chicken coop about March 1 but they were getting big and I moved them February 22.  They adjusted to the move into the coop with no problems, I was concerned about them getting cold as the weather has been cold and warm, not sure how they would adjust to being in the cold air.  It never slowed them down.  At night time, I did cover the brooder with a blanket and they would get in the corner which was on the inside of the building.  Each morning I would hear their little voices as I came into the coop, I would find myself wondering if all made it through the night.  One little girl is much smaller than the others.  I found out one evening, before covering them for the night, they put the small chick in the corner on the floor of the brooder and they all get on top of her to keep her warm.

 I love the way Mother Nature takes care of her children.  All seven are growing, showing their true colors and making me think about what color eggs I will be gathering when they begin to lay.  This will be about a 5 month wait.

Lots of seeds are up and we are beginning to up pot.  I am also beginning to install my plants in the tunnel.  The spinach and kale in the tunnel over wintered and it is beautiful.  I know it is time for spring plantings and the fall plants will bolt and make seeds.  We will enjoy the winter plants as long as possible.

The land has been much too wet to begin working the soil, so I feel we are all ready behind.  I need to get new hills dug for my squash outside of the tunnel.  I want to keep lettuces and greens in the tunnel, where they will be protected from the sun by the squash plants.  I would like another great harvest of squash this year as the goats and chickens had lots of squash during the winter.  They are a natural worm preventative for the flocks.  We, also, enjoy having squash on our table so this is a wining crop for us.

As the year flies by, I am thinking of my garden and the wonderful harvest we shall have.  Everything seems to move so quickly this time of the year.  There is so much excitement on the farm.  New varieties of some of the same old crops, I will be making decisions on which variety will be planted in the future after the harvest.  I spent a lot of time in the seed books looking for what I thought would be good additions to our garden.  By harvest time I may know if I made the right decision.  We will be keeping a close eye on the goats to see the progress and await our little babies.  Yes, you know there is never a dull minute, how I enjoy our little farm.  Such a special place!!!