Fall is Upon Us

First things first, you remember how excited I was to have 8 pullets who would be laying for us, well, things have changed.  I have 8 pullets but now only 2 are laying.  They were doing so good, I had eggs, more eggs than I could use and boom, it all stopped.  At this point I am blaming myself, because I changed their feed a bit and I am not sure they were happy with the change.  We have had more cloudy days than we need and maybe that has had an effect on the girls, but whatever, I am not collecting eggs.  One day we get 2 eggs and the next day 1 egg.  I am working hard to get them to laying again but I am not sure it will happen.

We made a change in the feed for all of the pasture crew, we were gifted a bag of new feed and all seemed to like it.  I decided to try using this feed and with my first bag I saw a problem.  When the fermented feed was opened it was very clumpy but I had been told I need to break it up.  The gift bag broke up easily so I knew there was a problem.  I read on the bag and it said it was good for some time, however, this stuff just did not smell like the first bag.  Digging down into the bag of feed I found the problem, there was mold.  I threw the mold clumps into the chicken yard to see what would happen.  After 2.3 inches if rain from the hurricane, Matthew, this stuff was still clumps, and a week later it is still clumps, The chickens have no interest in it and it is heading into the compost pile and I am not sure about that.

Mr. Bootsie filed a complaint with me from the barn crew, I was told they were not eating and trying to pick through their food bowls, decision, we will return to the way we were feeding.  New is not always good.  I was thinking it may be a good time to try something different as we are no longer milking Belle and the little ones are growing but my choice was bad and now I must pay the price by not having eggs as the feed doesn't seem to be of value to my chickens.  I told the person who supplied me with the feed, I could stop feeding layer grain but I knew to keep them laying they need the layer grain.  The new feed may have lowered the ratio too low to keep the girls laying.  Lesson learned and now I must pay the price.  At this time I will be surprised if any of the girls return to laying during to winter but I am hoping a couple of them will.  I know chickens do not like change and I was in question about making this change from the time it was suggested to me.  My mind was telling me no but I have respect for the person advising.  I shall keep you posted on this, as I would not want any of you to make this mistake,  learn from my being influenced by others and not sticking to what I knew I should do.

The last weekend in September we went up to Rappahannock County and did the farm tour.  It was a very interesting day.  We found an orchard which sold the not so perfect apples at a great price reduction.  I came home with a bushel of Grime's Golden Apples for $12.00.  This was a super deal for me.  I simply adore Grime's Golden Apples.  I remember them from my childhood.  There were fried, stewed or baked apples in the kitchen most of the time.  There was a tree of summer apples which was the first we harvested and I would love to find someone growing these summer apples, but I have no idea as to the name of them.  When I saw the Grime's Golden at the orchard I was excited.  Mr. Bootsie sometimes looks at me as if I have fallen out of the trees and this was one of those days.  After a few days I peeled and made stewed apples, no longer does he look at me that way, he picks up his knife and helps me peel the apples.  We have been eating  stewed apples and making apple butter.  Best twelve dollars I have ever spent.  6 pints of apple butter in the pantry, one has been eaten,  so many pots of stewed apples and dehydrated two quarts.  I am so pleased to say the ugly apple tastes as wonderful as the pretty apple.

It seems these past few weeks have been an adventure for me, I am just so excited to have over 4 quarts of lard rendered in my kitchen.   If you missed the blog about "Lard Rendering Day" just click here for the link,  I know I will enjoy making pie pastry with this lard as I feel lard is the best type of shortening to use when making pie crust. I also use lard in the quiche crusts I make. 

We have been working on planting the tunnel for the fall.  The last week in October the cover went over the tunnel, the weather has been so mild, the ends remain to be put in place.  There are turnips, lettuce and leafy greens  planted, I am hoping for a good crop this season.  Planted collards in the garden, did not cover with row cover and someone had dinner.  I had a few to replant and then covered with the row cover.  I am planning to remove the row cover when the plants become large as the winter cold is good for the collards.  

  

You can tell the night time temperature is starting to drop and with the change in the weather we add the chore of wood for the wood stove to our chore list.  I found a couple of dead large oak trees in our woods and Mr. Bootsie has felled them.  They are being added to our wood racks, with our supply of wood they will have time to dry.  The way our wood rack looks we should have enough wood for the winter.  These oak trees were just a nice addition to our supply.  

The brisk air seems to have a bounce in my step.  Our garlic crop is in the ground and growing.  We are mulching the garlic with wood chips, we have old chips and they are excellent mulch for the garlic.  The walking onions need to be weeded, some replanted where I have harvested,  I will be using a goat manure mixed with chips for the mulch.  This way I will be adding some richness to the soil as well as preventing weeds from growing.  Speaking of weeds, the chickweed is growing, Mr. Bootsie pulls the chickens a bucket full quite often.  I gather some of the chickweed to go into our winter salads, it is so healthy for you and I have plenty to share with all of us.  I will plant a couple of pots for the hard winter and put in the greenhouse.

Fall is in the air, leaves are falling, we went for a look around the property, hearing the crunch of the leaves under our feet was such a nice sound.  I enjoy the woods during this season of the year.  The winter wild flowers are starting to bloom and the woods are calling me.  Running cedar is greening and reminding me of days gone by when Momma would send us out to gather running cedar to decorate for the holidays.

Many chores are on my list and I must be on my way,   Thanks for stopping by our little farm.

Lard Rendering Day

Quite often as I walk do the aisle in the grocery store, my mind will go back many years ago, Momma did not buy vegetable or corn oil, nor did she purchase shortening.  I remember where our baking grease came from and it was a timely process.  First the hogs were slaughtered, all of the meat processed and the final task was making the lard.  Of course, when the lard is made you get a reward, the cracklings.  It did not matter how many hogs we processed all of fat was made into lard.  This was a woman's chore and even as a very small child I remember cutting the fat into cubes to be cooked for a very long time.  You would find me snacking on the cracklings as soon as some were strained from the liquid.  Momma would store the lard in tins and placing them in a room which was cool, but you must remember most of our home was cool or just cold during the winter because there was not any central heat.  The lard would keep  for a long time and Momma made everything with her homemade lard, fried chicken, biscuits, pies and cakes.  Those of you who were lucky enough to have a meal at Momma's table will remember her rolls, yes, they were made with her lard.   I can see her putting a spoonful of lard into the pot of green beans aka snaps as she felt she did not have enough meat in them to flavor the beans the way she wanted them to taste.  

I have often thought how I would like to make/render lard.  Having accepted the fact that this would be almost impossible I just do not talk about making lard.  Well, when you get out of bed in the mornings, here on Triple Creek Farm, you may think you know how your day is going to end.  Quite often, things change so quickly, I really can't seem to grasp what is happening so I just go with flow.  Mr. Bootsie and I were down in the pasture lot and we heard voices,  the Farmer and her girls.  We headed back to the kitchen and made some tea and coffee  while everyone is catching up, I saw on Facebook, animals were processed the previous day.  We talked about the processing, knowing the farmer is quite a good butcher, it makes me so happy to see her teaching her daughter the proper way to process meat.  As they were leaving I asked if they processed a hog with a bit of fat, I would really like to make lard.  Well, come on out to the truck, too much fat on this hog and I was not sure what I was going to do with it.  In just a few minutes, I was back in the kitchen with of bowl of pork fat.  I was pass excited to have this treasure and could not wait to start the process.

I cut the fat into cubes, and as I was setting on my stool, my mind drifted to days gone by.  I was a child setting in Momma's kitchen. " You be careful with the knife, cut into even sized cubes, stay away from the stove and do not grab any of the pots on the stove".  How many times I had heard these things said as the lard was processed.  But there was a flash in my mind, standing in front of the wood cook stove was Momma, wearing her apron and opening the stove to add more wood.  "We need to keep the fire going all day to cook down this fat."  "I need someone to go the wood shed and bring in more wood."  This was the one day when I knew there was work to be done and we must work together to get this chore complete.  My sister was off for more wood and I happily continued to cube the fat.  

Time for me to realize, this is today, the kitchen is my kitchen and I am rendering lard.  Things are just so much better today, I have a crock pot filled with pork fat and it is rendering, I can see the clear lard coming up in the pot.  I will strain the lard and store in jars, to keep it cool I shall store in the fridge.  I will be making pies, bread and using my lard in many ways, just hope somewhere in this journey I get a hint of the wonderful memories  which were cooked in Momma's kitchen.

 Bootsie, can you bring me the lard can?  There are some cracklings over by the bread box, bring them because if you do eat all of the cracklings there is going to be crackling corn bread for supper tonight.  

Sorry, I went down memory lane again, the bowl of pork fat which was shared with me, was memories, it was a gift which I will cherish.  So many wonderful things happened in Momma's kitchen and I have forgotten so much, but a bowl of pork fat bought back something so special and wonderful to me.  It is not how much a gift costs or how shiny the gift is...It is a gift that warms the heart, my friends, The Farmer and her daughter just had no idea how special and how many wonderful childhood memories were inside the bowl of pork fat, now lard and soon to be home made biscuits.

How can I ever say "Thank You" for giving me a look back into Momma's kitchen on lard rendering day?  

Link to the directions I followed to make the lard.

Welcome Fall

I have been farming all of my life, I helped my parents from the time I was able to move about in the garden learning to pick the red tomatoes and the filled beans but I have never seen a season like this summer.

It started for me in the early spring, there were lots of bedding plants growing and just about ready to plant in the garden.  We had moved a number into the unheated greenhouse and boom, it was cold, so cold the plants were stunted.  Now the largest part of bedding plants were not going to be productive and it was much too late to start over.  My pepper plants were installed and again we took another drop in the temperature.  Peppers, being a tropical, were not going to do well and maybe there would not be a harvest.  I had started the plants and I thought I may as well give them a try.  Some plants dropped off as soon as they were installed in the garden only to be replanted.  Cool nights are not good for the peppers, as the few that did begin to grow also began  to show signs of struggling.  I always say each year brings it's own challenges but this past summer was the most challenging I have ever experienced.

We did mange to can green beans, harvest lots of garlic and finally, the peppers are producing.  I have some nice castor bean plants but I am not sure they are helping with the mole problem as they seem to continue to burrow in the garden.  I did not loose as many onions to the moles this past season but they have taken their toll on my crops.  Green beans plants had their roots eaten, I tried a new way to plant my sweet potatoes at this time I have not dug them because I put the crop in late.  The plants do look good and I am hoping I will at least have a few to start next years crop.  The strawberries have been consumed by the moles and I may not replant them, with some things I am starting to accept defeat.

We have had lots to eat from the garden so this year was not a total waste of my time.  I have cucumber pickles and relishes for the winter,  Lots of winter squash, the  spinach, as always, produced and I have harvested an egg plant which was enjoyed.  I planted dent corn and we harvested enough to save our seeds and I plan to mill enough to make one pan of red dent cornbread.  The winter squash harvest was good and there will be some for the chickens, goats and the humans.

This is a new variety for our farm.  

All in all, even with this being a difficult growing season we were rewarded for the work we put it and will have some veggies to enjoy this winter.   I will be working in the garden next month, time to plant the garlic and plant the tunnel for the winter.

We now have 17 chickens,  sad to have to say this but one of the older girls decided it was time to leave us and she was buried in the garden.  Three of our pullets have moved to a new home and that gets me where I am happy with the number of chickens we shall be wintering.  There are 8 pullets who will be laying all winter along with 2 of the ducks.  The 11 older hens have already gone on vacation and I hope they return from camp beginning in February.

This winter, Belle with her 2 babies will be in the goat barn, the little ones are growing, time had come for the little buck to be banded and that process has just about disappeared.  Today, September 30th, the chimney sweep came and now, if we need to have a fire in the wood stove we know it is clean and ready to keep us warm.  Why it seems only yesterday we were putting in spring crops and now we will be digging our tomato hills, squash hills and opening corn rows from next summer.  They will be filled with manure and covered over with our good earth, mulched and waiting their crops to be planted next spring.

I have seen some of the largest acorns in the woods and the mushrooms are coming up everywhere.  Time for me to head to the woods and learn more about this wonderful place I call home.

Until    

The Chicken Days of August

August arrived, the heat did not leave with the change on the month.  The heat has began to take its toll on more than me, the garden is slowing down because of the heat.  Cucumber plants are giving up, so there were seeds put in the ground, it is always a gamble this late in the season but for a few cucumbers I will try and if there is success we shall munch the reward of late fruits.

I have been watching the pullets and I am starting to see the color come into their combs.  Bright combs means eggs are not far behind.  August 2, Annabel was not to be found when it was time to come in from free-ranging.  Mr. Bootsie went to check on the goats and there was Annabel under the equipment trailer, he began to coach her to come with him and into the coop she went, dropping her very first egg right inside the coop.  Mr. Bootsie found me, sharing the news of another green egg layer.  Now 6 more to lay their first eggs, I hope we can be as fortunate identifying the others.

In a few days there were new eggs in the laying boxes, we have no idea who is laying but there is a second green egg layer, Mrs. Thing, and the number of tan to light brown eggs has increased.  We should have 11 pullets to carry us through the winter.  The heat has brought all of the older hens into molt and the coop run has quite a large number of feathers laying around in it.  I have been cleaning lots of feathers from the coop as they seem to land in the corners and collect there.  One of the ducks has gone into molt, however, their molt is quite quick.  We should be set for eggs this winter, collecting 2 ducks eggs daily and 5 to 8 hens eggs will give us plenty with some to share.

I started milking the goats and it was time to make cheese.  I do not have a lot of storage room for cheese so the is a quick process for me.  I was making cheese every other night and I knew it was time to make some changes in the goat barn.  I made arrangements to move out Lacie, the farmer who has helped us learn so much was interested in adding alpines to her flock and I knew our Lacie would give her lots of milk.  The alpine milk is rich and there was about three inches of cream on top of a half gallon of milk.  This made some delicious cheese.  Scoot was a smaller alpine and this was her first fresh, I was in question about milking her.  The first morning she was a little afraid of getting on the milking stand, as the older does had never allowed her to mount the stand, we have windows in the barn and they can see out of the barn when standing on the milk stand.  So Scoot was prepared to be pushed from the stand.  Only to realize she was in the milking parlor with me and there were no other goats.  She began to hop on the stand and was ready to be milked.  This little girl was feeding her little boy and giving me quite a bit of milk.  I could honestly advertise her  as a milk goat, quickly found her a new home and she was able to take her little one.  Lacie was able to take her twins to her new home.  Our decision had been to keep Belle and her twins so in less than 2 weeks the goat barn was settled for the winter.  I was in question about our late breeding and arrival of summer babies, but things seemed to work out and I may take this road again if I should breed my girls later.  I have stopped milking as there is no need to keep pushing Belle, she is taking care of her twins and they are getting less and less milk daily.

The garden has been an experience this year.  I have gathered hardly no tomatoes, I have had a few to enjoy but the terrapins, raccoons, and squirrels seemed to think I was growing them for them.  With the long periods of hot weather the blooms did not set and there are now hardly any tomatoes on the vines.  There are blooms if we should have a reduction in the temperature there may hope for very late tomatoes.  The heat just cooked the late cucumbers and there will not be any in the garden, The corn did good, I was able to go the garden and harvest corn for a number of meals.  The pride, the corn gave me, when I came into the kitchen with an arm filled with ears was my personal win for this summer's growing season.  Peppers are starting to come in.  The butter beans have been productive.  Winter onions are coming up and it is time to prepare the tunnel for the winter garden.

 I feel I have learned quite a bit this year.  When the summer bought the heat I seemed to loose touch with the garden.  Some of the plants were suffering and others were excited to be in the hot, humid air.  I cut way back on watering to learn I have added enough natural material to build up the earth so it does hold moisture.  There was a flourish of weeds with our having such a wet season.  I grew turnips, green beans and squash, which if there was any excess,  they went into the goat barn and were a treat for the goats.  I am pleased to
 learn how to share the garden with the pasture crew as they enjoy things from the garden as much as I do.

Yes, this has been the chicken days of  August,  I have really enjoyed the chicks this year.  They are gentle and enjoy being handle by us.  Several come to visit in the goat barn and want to be carried back to the coop.  This is a new for me, the pullets just seem to want to be with us more than our older birds.  We have handled them more and I am sure that has made a difference.   Our collection of pullets are quite interesting, so when it came to names we began to have fun.  There are 4 who are the "First Wive's Club", this year we started naming some of them after the hosts of the cooking shows and, of course there are movie stars along with some leading ladies.

Fresh peaches arrived at the local orchard and we have been busy making and enjoying peach coffee cake and peach bread.  I developed each of the  recipes, they taste wonderful to Mr. Bootsie and me.  He is always asking me to make peach coffee cake as it is so moist and yummy.  Changes for peach under comments.

Sourdough Peach Coffee Cake

As the month of August comes to an end it is time to think fall, plants to move inside, cutting from plants to be made to winter over, bedding for the barn and coops.  We are entering my favorite my time of the year.  Things are just a little more settled here on our little farm, most of winter wood is gathered, the pantry is looking like it is ready for the winter and I am ready for a little time to rest.  You will find me setting in front of the fireplace, with a smile on my face as I know we have made it through another summer and I am dreaming of what will be in the garden next summer.  How many chickens will we raise next summer? I have no idea but I am sure there will be more chickens!!!

Thanks for stopping by, Until next time!!!!

July, Hot in the Garden, Kitchen and Cool in the Barns, Coops

Some mornings, working in the garden has been a challenge, I go out early before the sun comes up and work until around noon.  I water, weed, tie up tomatoes, pick beans or peas, plant seeds,  hunt squash bugs and beetles.  Return to the garden in the evening to cool off some of the plants, do some transplanting along with picking things I did not have time to pick in the morning.  Mr. Bootsie has been on bug and beetle control, weeding,  picking veggies and blackberries.

The garden is dumping out veggies, the goats are enjoying turnips, green beans, corn shucks, cucumbers and squash.  When it comes to cantaloupe, watermelon and lettuce goats, ducks and chickens are ready for treats.  For us, there has been many meals of corn on the cob, I had corn last year but this year it looks like corn on the cob, nice ears all filled, 9 to 10 inches long, I really feel like a farmer when I come in with a arm full of ears of corn.  Butter beans are just starting, last year I seemed to loose my whole crop to something that ate the blooms off as soon as they appeared. This year we are picking butter beans and I am hoping to be able to put some up for the winter.  I seemed to get things in order a little bit better as we are not throwing out any veggies, Mr. Bootsie's logic has always been if it goes in the compost pile it is okay, but my logic is I have a lot of time invested in the veggies and I really want to see someone or one of our animals enjoy them.

Blackberries mean I turn into the little ole wine maker and cordial infuser.  I did notice the shelf in the pantry is starting to fill up with bottles of blackberry brandy.  I have a couple of new recipes I would like to try this season to see if they should be added to our cabinet in the future.  I want to make several bottles of blackberry syrup and vinegar.

Belle decided to bring her little ones in the world all by herself.  Mr. Bootsie had checked on her, she showed no signs of labor, only her bag had dropped, he thought all was well and left her in with the other goats.  Only to find her a hour later with two little ones.  The first was completely cleaned and the second was quite clean.  She was quick to let us know there was no reason for us to try and help as she had this.  Every time I tried to take pictures she would come and try to get the camera, this thing was going to hurt one of her babies and she was not going to have it in the stall at all.  So no really good baby pictures.

All of the baby goats have been disbudded and they are eating hay, leaves and grain.  They are not babies for very long.  It is time for the decisions to be made who will stay and who will leave.  I am finding I really do not have the ability to milk as well as I did 2 summers ago,  my right hand will go into a cramp and that is all I can do.  I will be making a decision as to why I am milking and if I want to continue to milk.  I do want to have goats and I so enjoy them but milking may just be something that will not happen on our little farm.

The egg count is starting to drop off as the hot weather is having an effect on everything.  The garden has produced a number of cucumbers and I was able to make pickle and sweet relish.  I can see hot weather is going to begin working on the garden along with age of the plants.  I have begun seeding for the fall garden.  There were some record breaking days with the temperature and the heat index, some days we were over 107 degrees so for 2 older folks we paced ourselves very carefully.  We are concerned for the animals having water, there are several trips made to the barn and coop to check on water and all of our babies.

I am hoping there will be a few tomatoes to can and dehydrate, the temperatures have been so high no blooms have set in about 2 weeks, maybe the temperature will go down and blooms will set and I will have a late harvest.  There is plenty of food in the garden for us to harvest and have fresh veggies for quite a while.

I think I need a little loving, so I am going to visit the little goats, we have 3 little boys, 2 little girls and of course, our 3 momma goats.  I know the little ones will be all ready to play when I arrive at the barn.  So I am off to enjoy the babies while I can.

Lacie serving lunch to her twins

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...