Frost and too many beans

Well we had been very lucky and escaped the early frosts. The beans seemed to know their days were numbered and they got busy. The Thai Red Roselle was a feast for the local bees. The flowers drew tame honey bees, bumble bees, all sorts of wasps and small bee I think were wild honey bees. I picked calyxs with a back ground symphony of buzzing. Oh and chicks underfoot.



October 27th had a frost forecast. Then we knew we were in trouble. You could feel the air. Frost was very close. Ralph tore all the bean plants up and put them in the shop. I chopped the Thai Red down with the limb loppers. They are a very sturdy bush at this stage. We saved the produce from the frost and made a lightning fast trip to Cabela's toget thenew dehydrator. It has been very busy. We had dehydrated Peppers, sweet and jalapeño. Wesalvaged as much of the That red as we could. Now I love the tea, it will be no where near enough for the year. I just had too much to do. Salvaging beans by freezing and canning was well worth it. We do have a wonderful assortment of beans for the winter. Blue Lake Several varieties of Roma. Jade, which are wonderful both canned and frozen.

I shelled the Horticultural instead of letting them dry on the vine. Then I pressure canned them with good results. Then bother sort of disaster struck....just as I was catching up on our own beans andthe like, Ralph went to the produce auction. A man with an itchy bidding finger.....a new dehydrator and a big all America canner. Yes you can see where this is going.

I have learned how to can Sweet Potatoes, grapes and layered mixed vegetable pickles. We have also jumped into fermenting and have a marvelous collection of crocks burping and bubbling away. Peppers, cabbage and green beans are acquiring new flavors and we wait with anticipation.

Ralph found a wonderful book called the Pickled Pantry. It is already looking quite well used. Today  30 quarts of plain tomatoes have been processed and the last shell beans are in pints. Tomorrow  more tomatoes and I will be getting Ralph to start moving jars to the basement. Yes there are holes to fill.

The grapes were a stroke of luck. There was a huge pallet of them at the second to last farm produce auction. We love grapes so we bought two of the big boxes full of bags of plump, firm green table grapes grown for Welches.

Far to many for us to eat so I researched canning them. We have a good winters supply of grapes, I love them and know I will have to practice self control.

Now off to take the last batch of tomatoes out of the canner. Do dishes and prepare for tomorrow and dealing with a temporary over abundance.


God Bless you all and enjoy the fall and all it brings you..

A long hard summer

I was horrified to realize I had not posted in so long.

Summer got away on us this year. The pantry is full of canned corn, Honey Select, Kandy Korn, Stowells Evergreen and Virginia Gourdseed. The yard is chewed down by the poultry. It was extremely dry until Harvey dropped a mere 8" of rain on us.

Ralph herniated a disc in his back. I learned how to run the Flail Mower on the Grillo. We had a dreadful experience with "Free" rabbits and relearned things are never what they seem. So no rabbits which I think was God looking after us.

The ducks took all summer but hatched 1 duckling that had 5 mothers. The hens went wildly broody and are such fun. Currently there are two with 25 chicks in a shared system of motherhood. One hen we call Terminator 4 has......4 very well protected chicks. One hen moved her babies to the Tobacco barn when they were tiny, they now live in a 'chalet' of bags of shavings in an empty until now boxstall.

No possum problems but snapping turtles seem to like the barn. We had to shoot one and saw tracks of others through the dirt ally way. A huge stray dog showed up one night. One of the biggest German Shepard I have ever seen. He barked at the front door. We let him in. He was friendly and polite. A old cut on his head that needed to be treated and a studded collar but no tag or name. We would have loved to keep him but called Animal control. He went to a no Kill shelter and the young man was sure he would find a good home.

Shoeless Joe, our best Rooster, a marvelous Australorpe got hit in the eye by a Turkey Tom's wing. He was very ill and I treated the eye. He lost his vision in that eye. I was so upset but he is a brilliant Rooster and after I lifted him onto his normal place on the roosts the first night, he learned if he ran to me, I would carry him past the roosters testing his dominance,  and safely put him on his perch.
He regained his machismo as he healed and maintains 10 hens as his own. However every night a call Joe Joe sees him running to be picked up and carried to his perch.

The saddest thing ever though was our wonderful tyrant house Chicken, LLFP.....or Peepers as we often called her, died quite unexpectedly and shockingly fast. She lay her egg in the morning, oversaw my cooking for breakfast, chased the cat, marched behind me all about the house, just her happy self all morning. After lunch I lay down for a short nap, she was beside me preening. She fluffed up and marched to the edge of the bed and jumped down, all as normal as can be. I got up to wash the floors [a continual job with an incontinent house pet]. She was laying by the side of the bed, near Ralph's slippers, one of her favorite places, she gave a funny shudder. I looked again and thought how odd, went to check her but she was gone. So fast and sudden I couldn't quite beleive it. She was hatched in May of 2016 and gave us so many wonderful moments. Her daughters are beautiful. I am so glad when she went broody last February I set her eggs under her. We have 3 lovely golden girls and a dark black and gold colored one that remind me of Peepers every day. Goldwing is a son and we are keeping him. I still miss the clicking of her claws as she followed me through the house.

Ralph's house chick, Rascal, was fast friends with LLFP. Rascal was quiet for several days and stuck to Ralph like glue. We have started to let her out with the main flock, she comes to the back door at night to come in. They are the worst house pets in some ways, but a real delight in others. I will never judge people with chicken pets again. God bless my ornery little chicken for all the joy she brought me.

Our new orchard looks wonderful, we did loose the cherry trees and two of the plum trees but over all the trees look awesome. We had 6 of our own fresh Cortland Apples. The Blue Berry bushes had losses but that was our own fault, we went cheap and bought younger bushes. The bigger bushes, Premier and Brightwell are doing very well. The Chicago Hardy Fig trees are looking good. The raspberry canes from our neighbor are phenomenal. Again the smaller cheaper varieties did not do as well.

We had septic problems.....never start canning season with a sink that won't drain. The plumber found the problem and we discovered a disposable shop towel in the line from the addition to the septic tank. This was one of those shop towels with the fine reinforcing mesh in them to make them last longer. It's funny because we don't have them and have never used them. It must have been here from the previous owners. Anyway it tool some serious roto rooting to get it our, then some ooohing and ahhing as we figured out what it was and how it had not broken down at all.

The Thai Red Roselle is my favorite of all crops. This year I have finally figured out how to use it as tea. It is marvelous sweetened with honey or, yes sugar, I am going to try sorghum to sweeten the next batch. The jam is wonderful in place of cranberries for turkey or chicken. However drying the calyxs led to the death of our dehydrator, TSM, the company we got it from was more than unhelpful.  No warranty on the thermostat which we suspected is the problem and no help at all to diagnose the problem. It was not that old and we had taken very good care of it. You expect a dehydrator to last a long time and be repairable. With two 60 foot rows of Roselle producing calyxs heavily, we are going to get a dehydrator at Cabela's. They have some very nice ones with a very good warranty.

Now I hope this gives you a bit of an idea of our crazy summer.....oh the Solar eclipse.....not terribly dark but quite interesting. The turkeys were extremely nervous and acting strangely, There were no birds singing at all, the cicadas stopped buzzing. It was still in the oddest way. Then as the sun returned to normal, so did the turkeys. They lay down around the picnic table where I was husking corn as if they had not been wacko minutes before.

Photos are in the works......God bless you all in these strange times. With the world going mad, take time with family and enjoy every single moment you can.

Zip.....June is gone...and July...

 It has been a crazy year so far, we have done much better in some areas and not as well in others. Turkeys have been a great joy and horrific sadness. I posted about Auntie Momma and her amazing hatching success and how everyone was doing very well. They were a joy to watch and she took great care of them. However success was not to be in the cards, Auntie Momma was killed by feral dogs. The poults were active and seemed to be fine, eating and drinking in all the places their wonderful mother had taken them too. They did sound sad though and would look around to see if their mother was near. They put themselves to bed and things were good for about 4 days. There were 10 poults and  they slept in the woodshed where they had been hatched in. Then suddenly there were  only three. There had been no ruckus from the poulty, they are awesome about warnings. It happened during the day. Just three sad poults left perched on the rake, two days later they were gone. We talked hard about fencing the birds in. This gets down to the basis of what we want for our birds. They are secure at night. They live free during the day. We have no sickness, no pecking just totally happy birds. Turkey's love to roam, they forage all over the farm. We call it turkey walkabout. They are in beautiful feather and fat. Do we build a turkey yard and pen them all the time, or do we let them live as turkeys live even if it means short lives? The fence crew is coming to evaluate our fence, we need to enclose the unfenced three acres at the back of the farm. The fence here is only 5 years old but 5 strand barb wire, fine for cattle is useless for small stock.We are going to get quotes about other types of fence. This is going to be expensive but will add value to the property so it is worth looking into. We want to let the turkey's walkabout. So wire mesh fence around larger areas of the land is the option we consider the most likely.

The other turkey disaster was both Sadness and Depression our lovely young chocolate hens from the Christmas hatch were killed. Depression got hit on the highway. Sadness was worse, she had gone broody, the chocolates biggest drawback is how completely stubborn they are. She simply would not use a nest box. She nested in the weed patch below the corral. Ralph was drum mowing the fence line and she flew out of her nest into the side of the mower. He brought her to me with a bad but  treatable cut. Then in looking for more injuries I found her leg had been broken. I have to admit I cried over that quite a bit. It was not a break I could splint. I am lucky Ralph is who he is, he can do the hard things. It was pretty gloomy here for a while. Then we watch the silly antics of the chickens or the adult turkeys who go everywhere with  us, are great watch birds and are so  much fun. It makes us realize they are worth the sadness.

 

We had our hay cut. Our neighbor who did it last year simply was too busy and had more than enough hay left from last year he did not want it. We found another couple who are cutting hay on shares as a business. They have invested in some very good new equipment. They did a great job of cutting it but then let it lay for a week, the quality of the hay just bleached out as it sat, it was ready to bale day two. It was frustrating to watch. We are now evaluating ways to use our extra grass.

 

The chicken flock is doing well, they always help Ralph if he has the Grillo out.

 The chickens continually make us laugh. The steps are a favorite  place. Ahh Fluffy butts...they are wide based chickens! Peaches, our one Red Comet is so narrow compared to Flopsy. The Dark hen is a Buff x Australorpe and they are quite wonderful crossbreds.

 Wherever we go there is someone strutting his stuff.

 Here is Mournful, he is the remaining Christmas poult. He was the tinest one of all when he was hatched but he has grown into a fine big Tom, he may be bigger than Spike his pappy. 

Donald always brings his girls to the best eating, we had mulched around the fruit trees with a mixture out of the breezeway in the tobacco barn, chicken manure and old hay. We put down old hay, Ralph throws a bit of scratch into it each morning, we let the poultry go through it for a few weeks then I rake it up and spread it around the trees that look a bit pale. It seems to work, the new fruit trees have good color and are thriving.

The corn is just staring to yield but I am going to be busy with canning it. I have been harvesting and dehydrating our onions, they are turning out very well. I ran a batch of dehydrated onion through the food processor and  it made not a powder but a very fine chopped onion mix. A table spoon in a batch of meatloaf is perfect.

Potato canning is going to be a new thing but its in the works and my fermenting crock has a batch of pickles in it.

The humming birds are going through a crazy amount of sugar, I counted 25 out there the other morning. The swallows are on their second hatching and there are NO mosquitoes!

Our experiment of managing the heat in the house without AC is going well. The temperatures outside are the same as last year but we find it doesn't seem nearly so bad. [Until we make a trip town and go into stores that have their AC cranked up]

So goes our adventure here, I would not trade it for anything in the world.

God Bless you all and keep safe.

Turkey Walkabouts

Just a quick note while we rehydrate from weeding the insane stuff that grows here, it seems like over night!
 I watched our four young turkey poults off and on while we weeded, I have no idea how commercial turkey breeders can have in good conscious raise birds as they do. I know consumer driven demand calls for turkey on demand in huge amounts but the birds were never meant to be housed.

Ours do what we call a walkabout. They start in the morning about 5:30 am...walking quickly, browsing on grass and bugs as they march around the farm. They come back to rest and get water and some scratch but off they go again. From the youngest tiniest baby's to the 'old' guys they must walk 4 or 5 miles a day. Happy and curious, dust bathing in the garden and gobbling at things in the grass. They eat bugs, chase grasshoppers and we think have controlled the Colorado Potato beetles this year.

As we weeded the four poults we had in the house were with us in the garden, over by the tobacco barn, up on the hill by the hay bales and over by the house, peeping happy peeps as they marched.

Happy birds, a joy to watch and a bright spot in our day.

Turkey Update

13....count them if you can see them in the clover. Auntie Momma Turkey, who helped raise chicks last spring, hatched 3 poults for us at Christmas has brought her brood out into the big world.

She had successfully hatched 14, 1 egg did not hatch and 1 poult died. We had put a turkey nest box in the woodshed when the turkey hens were wandering around deciding where to lay. Auntie Momma laid claim to it right away. We did have an incident with a chicken trying to share the nest. A couple of serious pecks from a turkey beak soon made her find a safer place.

Everyday during the hottest part of the afternoon, Auntie Momma made a fast dash to get water, then she ran by the feeder getting some food. She grazed and stretched her wings on the way back to her nest. The entire loop took all of 5 minutes.

So may we present "Turkey's 13"....the up and coming poults at our farm.

Now you ask...no white ones? Royal Palm are hatched pure white, it seems the white is recessive to the brown of the Chocolate Tom "Spike".

Then you say..."Are there black ones too?"

Yes, it seems Lilac, the only slate Turkey we had, was quite the layer. Sadly she decided to make her nest in the woods to the east of the farm and our Amish neighbor's son found her feathers.

Once a turkey hen gets an idea she is incredibly stubborn, we had tried to catch Lilac as she would sneak off to nest, hoping we could find her and lock her up. We had been saving all the turkey eggs and put some under Auntie Momma when she decided to set. We were very happy to see the black poults.

The tiny little things are going to drive Auntie Momma crazy, they do not follow like chicks do they go where they want to. It is a gift though to see them.

A video of them:

Now just one more Photo, I had not been able to get a good photo of the Rooster "Smoke". Today I  managed to snap  one of him as he was on hen lookout. He is the Australorp X Red Comet.

We think  he is a fine boy! Why did we call him smoke? When  he was a just small he had a very distinct gray neck. It has changed a lot as he matured.

God Bless and Keep you

The Bad News First- A Ralph Post

I went out to the barn this morning to take care of the animals. History. We have three barn cats we feed. They are a Mother and her two daughters. We were/are going to get them fixed. Too late. We got twelve kittens from them. Cute as can be! 

The Grandmother, Auntie, and Mother all

take care of them to varying degrees. Some more so than others. The Grandmother and Auntie had combined their flocks for mutual care. The Mother kept hers separate. The Mother moved hers a couple of times.

I took the Grandmother and Auntie’s kittens to the back right of the barn and put them in the cat house. (Fiona says that name is technically correct, but she doesn’t like it.) There are eight of these kittens. They are leaving the nest and are all over the barn.

The Mother moved hers and we haven’t found them or seen them. Most of her kittens are calico. Two stood out. Helmet Head is dark and white with a yellow, round “helmet” between his/her ears. Calico equals female? And then there is Bat Ears! Bat Ears is yellow and white. He has the largest ears and a long tail. Can you say “a room full of rockers”?

We haven’t seen Mother’s kittens in several days. Bat Ears was laying on the ground to the side of bay 2. He was just barely moving. He couldn’t raise his head. He was just barely moving his legs. I finished up chores quickly and came back to the house. I told Fiona I had some good news and some bad news. I told her she was a new Grandmother. Turkey number 2 is hatching. At least two poults are out from under her and appear healthy. Then I told her about Bat Ears.

She has say around here on whether I eat or not and of life and death. (Sometimes, the same thing!) I described my observations on Bat Ears. I told her of how feeble he was. I asked if she wanted me to kill him or did she want to go through the possible heartbreak of trying to save him. She said “You know we’ll have to bring him in to the house?” I told her that I expected so. I told her if she didn’t want to try, to not worry about it, we had eleven more backups. She told me to go get him. She isn’t always successful, but usually is.

I went and got Bat Ears. He was cold to the touch. She opened a can of condensed milk. She wet her finger and put it to his lips. No reaction. She worked it in. After several fingers, he started opening his mouth a little. She switched over to a Q-Tip. Then she had me to start heating towels (and the milk) in the oven to wrap him in. He was opening his mouth a little better. She switched over to a syringe filled with milk (no needle). He started moving a little more. He was raising his head and moving his legs. He still couldn’t stand.

We put a heat lamp over a box and put him in it. She gave him more milk. Eventually, he raised up on his front legs. Shortly after, there was a wobbly stand. We were still keeping him covered under the heat lamp. Several minutes later, he crawled out from under the towel and walked a small amount. Minutes later, he was climbing out of the box.

He is still very weak. He won’t stay under the lamp (too hot? - we had raised it, but he still wanted out of the box). Fiona wrapped him in a towel and took him in to the bedroom. She laid down with him held close. I just checked on them. She pulled the towel back. He was dead to the world, laying flat and all stretched out. Sound asleep? She said he seems to be breathing normally. She just won’t let anything die in peace. She has to save it. And usually does.

We had a black hen hatch seven chicks. She ran them all over the place, usually around the barn and the surrounding grass and hay. About ten days ago, the chicks were alone, no Mother. The chicks were still moving around the familiar areas their Mother had shown them. These were the Super Seven. They continued to sleep in the Trophy Room with the ducks (in their own area behind a sheet of plywood where their Mother had kept them. In the mornings, they come out on their own (under the feet of the ducks - they need to get to be faster, or wait). They head on down to the barn and feed. They spend their day in and around the barn. At night, they bring themselves back to the Trophy Room and bed. All on their own. And we still have all seven. At least for now.

About a week ago, we were giving some chickens a treat. I noticed one black hen with a bad cut. I caught her. There was a three inch cut on her back. Fiona doctored her. We doctored her the next day. And I put her in a crate. The next day, she wasn’t moving. I called Fiona and told her to bring her doctor’s kit. I handed her the chicken and went to do some things. Two or three minutes later, I looked over and Fiona was crying. I asked what was wrong. She said the hen looked up at her, quivered a couple of times and died. She doesn’t save them all. And she takes it hard. Hence, my fears with Bat Ears.

About two or three weeks ago, turkey number one hatched out. We don’t know how many. She was on top of a roll of hay in the loft of the barn. Two had fallen off and died. We don’t know if there were more we didn’t find. We brought her and eight poults down to ground level. The next day, three were under the pickup. We captured them. Mother was gone. The three came in to a box in the house. Two days later, I was mowing weeds in a field. I flushed the hen. She was still alive. I searched around for the poults. I could hear poults in the weeds. I found and captured two. I found one of these about two inches from my foot. I had almost stepped on it. I brought them in and added them to the three. I went back and listened. I could hear poults calling, but couldn’t tell how many. When I would get close, they would move in the weeds and go quiet. It was hide and seek. It got dark. I went back. I could hear peeps from various locations, but couldn’t tell how many and couldn’t get an exact location. I found one and caught it as it was moving in the weeds. I brought it to the house. I went back. Eventually, I found one more and caught it. I kept listening and hunting for them until almost midnight. We think she had five poults out there with her. We got four. They were cold. The next morning, three of the seven we had were dead. They were brought in because the Mother would not go back to her poults.

It appears we have three male and two female poults. We built a pen out under a maple tree for the poults during the day. They love it out there and have really been growing, mostly in the legs. They sure are getting tall. We can’t put them out today. There is severe thunderstorms in the area. This is the same storms that has been killing people. The three toms have gotten out of their box and came in to say “hi” and to talk to me. One of the hens is small for her age and as compared to the others. I call her “Cumquat”. Fiona calls her “Little One”. They sure are talking. Lots of various sounds.

Day before yesterday, there was a ruckus down at the barn. I was in the east garden working. Fiona went down. All the chickens were in the barn and looking down to the south. Fiona looked out and saw something. She went around and down to it. A juvenile Bald Eagle had one of our large hens and couldn’t carry it off. She walked up to within ten feet of it before it flew off. She knows the difference between hawks and eagles. It was definitely an eagle. She said it didn’t have the white head yet, therefore, juvenile. The eagle had hit the head. It was a large hen. The eagle didn’t get his dinner. We had chicken hen for dinner. The meat was unharmed. He had bitten off more than he could fly off with.

These are things you experience on a farm. Not particularly nice or pleasant, but part of life.

We have planted twenty-three rows of corn of various maturity dates. The rows are 60 feet long. If all goes well, we will have lots of canning over an extended period of time. About the first few days of June, we will go back through the corn and plant beans, squash, cucumbers, etc. into the corn rows.  We want clover or such underneath for a cover crop and nitrogen fixing. The north row has onions planted on the outside edge for scallions. Beans will get the center of the row after I hill it.

We are late on getting most things done. We are hoping to recover.

Between the utility building and the west garden, we planted 34 fruit trees. Along with the 8 from last fall, that gives us 42 new fruit trees. And the 3 old apple trees that were already here, we now have 45 fruit trees, if they all live. We have plums, peaches, pears, apples, and cherries. Maybe next year, we’ll add mulberries, apricots, nectarines, and...

And we have planted 8 grape vines, 4 kiwi, 4 figs, 4 goji berries, 9 aronia, 31 asparagus, 7 jostaberry, 7 blackberry, 4 boysenberry, 12 gooseberries, 18 raspberries, 170 strawberries (from Tractor Supply - most were rotten, mushy - we won’t get many plants to survive).

And a neighbor had a patch of raspberries he wasn’t happy with (they were interfering with his blackberries). He was going to plow them under. He said if I wanted them, I could have them. We dug up 42 unnamed raspberry plants and brought them home. A couple may have been blackberry shoots. We planted them. We have had two die. A couple more may die, but most are looking good. We just couldn’t pass up on such a good deal.

Last night, we had a very confused turkey tom. He was roosting on the deck railing. He had his head all twisted around while looking at his tail. He had a lightning bug on his tail and it was turning on and off. He didn’t know what to make of it. And, on “His” tail, no less! Eventually, it flew off, much to his relief.

Ahh. Lightning bugs! We have fields on all four sides. The ones to the east and west are most readily visible. And, ohh, the light show! Any field you look at, there is an explosion of lights! They are on, and then off. They are up in the big oak tree. They are in the yard. They are in the fields. They are on you. They are everywhere. No matter what direction you look, there will be at least fifty lights on in your field of vision. And as one light goes out, another comes on. It is just spectacular! So many lights.

We have our sorrows. But we still have God’s joys! May you have the pleasure and joy of God.

Ralph and Fiona


PS: Bat Ears seems to be holding on to life. He is exhausted after his turmoil. He is sleeping like the baby he is. And there is no holding the poults down. They are exploring. Oh, what are we going to do with all this “wild” life. And the two poult hens have joined the toms under my chair. Even Cumquat. It is between a peep,peep and a whistle. Turkey baby talk!

Photo parade: 

A Buckeye  x Australorp hen

 

 A Honeycrisp Apple tree blooming

A tulip Tree Moth  

  Donald and his hens

Ralph working on the mulch layer, a million adjustments.

Austrian Pea Cover Crop

Atticus our Buckeye x Australorpe Rooster

Depression, the second chocolate hen from the Christmas poults

And the very best of all. Three of the chicks LLFP hatched in February, the two gold pullets are her daughters! All 10 of them are just fine and growing really well. They love the old orchard and go there every day early and come back late!

It's about time

    April vanished. However we are not as far behind as I thought we would be at one point. The new orchard is planted and needs mowing again. The young trees are doing well and we might even get the odd apple. The cherry trees, Bartlett pear and young Santa Rosa Plums were slow to break dormancy but now show signs of leaf.

The spring garden has been providing us with greens, the Broad Windsor Fave beans are looking very good and all the potatoes are up, some still need to be hilled but wet weather has slowed that somewhat.

Three turkey hens went broody, we had a horrible few days when they came due to hatch. The weather was terrible, cold and windy. The turkey hen that had the most success escaped and took her day old poults out into the worst weed patch on the farm. We managed to find five of them in knee high thick weeds and got them inside. The other hen lost 4 of hers, we got three to the house but they were just too chilled and died. We think the other one got stepped on. The third hen is in her box in the woodshed ad should hatch in about two weeks. The back yard has a turkey pen for our five survivors and I am typing this as I turkey sit them.

A hen hatched 7 chicks and took them all over the place, then got attacked by a young rooster and left them quite young. We call them the super 7. they sleep in the trophy room at night and head out to the wilds all day. We see them now and then as they get water or some grain, then out to the deep grass they go.

Three more hens are setting.One is a young hen we call Marylyn, she is a Buff x Australorp and extremely grumpy. We are looking forward to having chicks again. The lawn has been mowed, fenceline weed whacked, Herb garden power harrowed and things look good for the next planting.

No broody ducks yet, but lots of duck romance. The three poults born in December are lovely young turkeys, two Chocolate Hens called Sadness and Depression, the young Black Tom is Mournfull. The are the saddest sounding trio you could imagine but come running as soon as they see us.

The new rooster set has earned their names as well.
Shoeless Joe is still top rooster but he is helped by a fine bunch of new guys. The Donald, a Buff x Australorp.  Henry, a Buckeye x Australorpe. Smoke, our white rooster, he is an Australrope x Red sex link. [our one misfit chick, Peaches and Cream is his mother]. Atticus, a Buckeye x Australorpe who has a select flock of hens, all are dark colored and we are fairly sure Buckeye x Australorpe as well.

So goes it. I am taking photos of everything and will do a photo post very soon.

God bless all of you and be safe.

Rain, Grillo repairs, Fruit trees and a Fresh Egg

We have been busy, it has been an odd spring starting with the fruit trees from last fall blooming in March, way to early and despite blankets we lost the chance of fruit from them. They are doing very well though and have all leaved out. The Keiffer pears are lovely, after looking very tall and spindly, then looking cut off too short after pruning, they now have great leaves and are showing signs of the pretty trees they will become.

The broad beans are up and looking like they are quite happy where we put them, in the house garden, in the area where the corn was last year, the gravel does not seem to bother them.[The old road bed goes through  section of the garden].
 The Blue potatoes we planted out in the west garden are up and look great, we also have a mystery row of potatoes from last year when we simply lost the potatoes to rain and insane weed growth. The scallions will be making their way into omelette's this week and we have just planted all sorts of collards, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.

All this was delayed by a trip to Earthtool to get a problem with the Kohler diesel engine on the two wheeled tractor dealt with. The most frustrating thing we have had to go through. The Grillo now is wearing a 13 horsepower gas motor, a Honda. Sadly the kohler diesel with its perfect torque and superb power is not suited to field work. Stationary power sources yes, as in a pump or generator. The dust from farming was playing havoc with the motor. Ralph has found the change good in some ways and frustrating in others. The gas is a very good engine but it simply does not have the torque and power for running the flail mower. The flail mower is a heavy implement and we cut a lot of brush with it. The diesel made light work of it, the gas has to work harder. It does a good job but not quite the same.

The west garden was tilled and furrowed with ease and now it is full of all sorts of things.
FRUIT bushes and canes...we are so excited. Raspberries, Blackberries, Aronia, Goji berries, Gooseberries, Fig trees, Logan Berries, Jostaberries, Strawberries and Blueberries.

The odd shaped corner of field next to the west garden, by the utility building is now sporting the start of our new home orchard.
Bartlett Pears, Montmorency Cherries, Dwarf North Star Cherries, Majestic Peach, Reliance Peach, Red Haven Peach, Yellow Delicious Apples, Red Delicious Apple, Cortland Apple, Honey Crisp, and Jona Mac Apples.
Byron Gold Plums, AU Rosa Plums and I am sure I have forgotten someone.

It is so exciting to walk through the young trees and see our very first potential peaches and plums. There are bees from somewhere and butterflies are flitting about them. The ducks already like laying in the grass around the trees. I have to mow the grass and am looking at a grass mix that will make a uniform pasture to have under our trees.

The Austrian peas Ralph seeded as cover crop are doing amazing things, they have continued to grow and the poultry is still browsing through them. We are leaving them to grow and fix nitrogen along the north section of the west garden, this area will become our fall garden after we work the peas into the soil.

Today we are getting much needed rain, the newly seeded plants will enjoy the cooler temperatures. The poultry is not so happy and as I type I see disgruntled hens staring out of the door of the trophy room. They want to be out gathering bugs and bits!

I should say not all hens are disgruntled. I have a very busy little gold hen at my feet. The House chicks are on their own, they live in the old apple orchard and happily put themslves to bed at night, in their box, in the trophy room. LLFP came home and has started to lay her daily egg in her chair. She rules the house as before and feels relieved to be her own boss.

Now thats about it for our news, all is well and we are looking forward to the next stages of the garden and projects here.

God bless all of you and Have all the blessings at Easter.

The tale of a Chick

Peep, peep, peep...just where was that noise coming from. Ralph heard this sad little peeping on his way to the workshop.There in the middle of the yard was a tiny, yellow fluffball, we had not had truly broody hens and this was a surprise. No one wanted her and no one was on any of the nest boxes, but here we had a chick.
 She was tiny, bright yellow and loud. We brought her in the house and set up one of our bio-dome on the plant mats for her to live in. She ate and drank right away and promptly made herself at home in my heart. I always laughed at people who had chickens for pets until I started to raise this one little chick.

She was super feisty and loud, she would jump up and down in the bio-dome to get me to pay attention to her, but she would sit quietly on my lap as I fed her tidbits. She followed us everywhere given half a chance. There was a continual peeping and chirrping when she was awake!

 

She was not too much trouble, if we went to town or outside we would put her back in the Bio-dome, listen to her complain until we gave her fresh food, then we would sneak out.

However, every now and then we go on Sunday drives to see the country and Ralph has places he would like me to see from his days as a truck driver. One Sunday he wanted to take me to see the Ohio river and cross it into Illinois and Indiana. Now this is a full day trip and I realized we could not leave LLFP [Little lady Fluffy Pants] alone this long, the bio-dome was getting too small. Ralph said we could take her...I thought he was kidding but oh no.

I set up a box with shavings, a dish of food and some water. I grabbed a roll of paper towel and broke the news to "LLFP"! It was really quite ridiculous but what the heck we have never done anything normal so why start now.

She settled in incredibly well and happily perched on Ralph's arm. She would come over and sit on my arm and look out the window, occasionally she would perch on Ralph's shoulder. The trip was very much enjoyed and we saw a lot of beautiful country, shared snacks with our chick and just had a great time.
However, just like any small traveler, child or chick she got tired, really tired, but she tried so hard to keep her eyes open....she failed!

When we got home we put her in the Bio-dome for the night, no fuss, she went right to her favorite corner, rustled down and promptly went to sleep.

As she grew we knew she was never going to be a really big hen but she was going to be feisty hen. She ruled the house and our cat respected her, but they became friends and though, they would never sleep together, could be found together.

LLFP loved it when she was big enough to go outside. We took her with us to the gardens when we were planting and she would stay under the garden cart and eat clover and scratch for bugs.

When we would go back to the house she would run after us and hop up the stairs, marching into the house and looking for her food dish. She was now enjoying both indoor and outdoor life. Getting used to the other chickens and adventuring on her own. She was growing into a sweet hen and still enjoyed visiting me in the morning. She had outgrown the Bio-dome and now perched on the back of an old wing chair we rescued from Goodwill.

Morning often saw her waking before us and coming to the bedroom, hopping on the bed to let us know time was wasting.

She thrived with the outdoor life and rambled everywhere, but every night she would be at the back door, ready to come home for the night. We did have a few issues with the place she waited...yes she flew from the deck to the deck rail, then from the rail to the yard  light. There she would sit until Ralph reached for her and brought her in. Then it was a quick march to her chair.

She did have strange hours for a chicken when winter came along. All the regular chickens would go to bed at dark....LLFP would come in at dark but then would enjoy our company and house light until our bedtime. We think that may have had an influence on her next stage of development.

 

She had developed into a typical buff hen. The lovely color and fluffy bottom, the sweet and friendly nature [most of the time but she was bossy]. I just loved to see her and was so pleased to watch her grow up.

Then one morning she did not come to the door to be let out for the day, we looked at her chair....

She was tucked in and laying there in a nest she had made. Humn....it seemed she had grown up and yes, she was laying her first egg!

It was a tiny egg and she was very proud of it, her loud clucking scared the cat half to death and even the outside poultry was clucking back!
So all winter, 5 to 6 days a week, we would have one ultra fresh egg. She still loved to go out and every day she would appear on the deck, at the door asking to be let in, she would lay, brag then want out. [Unless it was really cold]. She laid her first egg in November. In Mid January she started to get really crabby. I mean REALLY crabby!

I asked Ralph if she could be going broody as young as she is. He replied...she is a Buff! Sure enough she had raging hormones and decided to set. We let her keep two of her eggs and added more. She was settled in for the duration. Feb 2nd was marked on the Calendar with the 22 to 24th a hatch date.

I fed her boiled eggs, the yolk crumbled up and gave her little drinks of water. She set well, only coming off the eggs for the briefest times.

Feb 23rd we had peeping.....11 chicks were soon hatched, one egg partially pipped but  the chick did not survive. LLFP was beyond proud and so careful!

I have to admit I was really glad we have linoleum flooring. We had a good sized box for the family to begin with, then we turned it on its side when they needed more room. It sat in Ralph's office and the chicks entertained us to no end. We used a small, broad based, cat food dish for chick starter. The chicks could scramble in and eat and LLFP could scratch with out it tipping over. 

They were brave right from the start and ran everywhere. We had to be very careful not to step on them. They soon started to realize how nice and warm the floor was by the stove and we would find the family sprawled out, soaking up heat.

It did not take long before they were far too big to have in the house. Setting up an area in the utility building took no time and soon we moved the family out of the house.

It was suddenly quiet...no skitter of little chick feet, no sound of come to food clucking, no having my ankles attacked if I got too close to the chicks. It had been a very long time since we had a chicken free house. LLFP made the move bravely and now has her rebellious brood rambling all over the yard. She has decided when they are big enough to climb the steps  of the deck she wants to bring them home.

It has been a wonderful adventure with our little lost chick. I hope all her chicks are hens but we know how that goes. There is one little blonde bundle of feathers that I  know is the next generation of LLFP..she is a fierce little thing and just like her mother!

So as I type this I am watching the "Peepster's" as they run across the growing grass and forage, their mother all fluffed up like a basket ball and I miss my house chick. Its wonderful though to see them being real chickens and starting the next generation of our poultry!

Happy Spring and happy adventures ahead with your life and endeavors, God Bless all of you.

I Need To Buy Some Stock In Red Solo Cups

Well, I’m still an idiot. That old “out of sight, out of mind” is me.

I use plastic cups for seed starting. I usually use Solo, but last year, they were out of Solo. I got Hefty instead. For me, I consider that a big mistake. The Hefty is thinner and more flimsy. The lip is not as strong. The Solo is thicker and more firm. When I pick up a cup with a seedling, the Solo doesn’t collapse. The Hefty collapsed several times, spilling potting soil and seedling. A few choice words, pick everything up, tell myself to never get Hefty again, and go on with my work. 

Last year, I collected my cups and put them on the shelf in the workshop to clean for use this year. Guess what I forgot about. So this spring, I have had to do what I was going to do last fall.

I use the largest cups I can get: usually either 18 ounce or 20 ounce. I use a drill bit, a screwdriver, a knife, or whatever, to put one to three holes in the bottom. The purpose is to get good drainage. This is no beauty contest. It doesn’t have to look great. It just has to work for your new seedlings. Burrs, flaps, whatever, is fine. Just as long as it drains is all that matters. If you tear up a couple of cups before you get the knack, it is no big deal. You’ll get a technique. You’ll make it work.

Once I have holes in the bottom of the cups, I move over to the 15 gallon muck tubs I have. I usually use two muck tubs, for convenience. I fill both muck tubs with potting soil. I now take the cups with holes in the bottom over to the tubs and fill them with potting soil. Note: If the potting soil is dry, I add water and mix by hand until I have a damp (but not wet) potting soil. I fill the cups with the damp potting soil, but leave about 3/8 inch to 1/2 inch space on the top (like in canning). I sit the cups aside. When I have enough cups done (or I run out of space), I stop filling cups (for now). I then take my seeds and plant the cups. Depending on the age of the seed and what it is seed of, I plant what I think is the proper amount of seeds over the top of the potting soil. It is usually at least 2 seeds and may be 6 or 7 seeds. It is my choice and decision to meet the circumstance. It does not necessarily meet what everyone says is the “proper number of seeds per cup”. It is my cup, my seeds, my decision. Then Fiona tears off a strip of Saran Wrap to cover the top of the cup. She pulls it down firm and smooths out the wrinkles. I then put a rubber band over the Saran Wrap and down over the cup to hold the Saran Wrap taunt. This is now a mini greenhouse. I hand the cup to her and she updates the name on the cup (most are reused and already have two or three names on it). 

Solo cups with seedlings and saranwrap covers.

Note: I use two muck tubs so I don’t have to stop and refill a muck tub. When both are empty, I stop and refill both of them. If I don’t use all the soil in the two tubs, I sit them back in the workshop until the next planting session. The potting soil will dry out, but is still good. And it is sitting there ready to use. All I have to do is add water.

Note: From above, we have a bunch of mini greenhouses. We put them in flats on a grow mat. This provides bottom heat (adjustable). Then we TRY to bide our time until the seeds come up. The Saran Wrap makes a nice window to view the seedlings (hopefully they come up). The head space is to give the seedlings room to grow out of the soil. When we see a seedling coming up, we remove the rubber band and Saran Wrap. There may be even more seeds coming up. After a week or so, we cut off all the seedlings (or transplant them) except for the strongest one. 

Solo cups with seedlings hardening off.

Note: What I like about this method is the cup. When you get a plant front the nursery/big box store/whatever, it is in a small “plug” and is root bound. With the cup, I have more time (and potting soil) before the seedling gets root bound. The seedling is healthier and more ready to grow when planted out into the garden because they are not root bound. They don’t have to recover, they just keep growing. No acclimation for them from the cup to the garden.

Draw Back: This method uses up a lot of space compared to a six pack or four pak. But it results in a much better plant. Don’t let the seedlings dry out in the cups!!!

Note: Cups: You can’t have too many! We stack them on top of each other and put them in a box. I have two boxes of cups: one of new cups and one with prior usage cups. The new box has 318 cups (270 still in plastic and 48 loose). Most (if not all) are Hefty. I got all they had last year. My mistake - live and learn. The used cup box was not counted. There are 500 to 700 cups in there. These are the ones I had to wash. Job done now. Should have been done last fall. If a cup splits or gets crushed or something, throw it away. I have plenty of replacements. And the store has more of them. Solo this time! I used Terrior Seeds advice from their Gardening Almanac. I used 9 parts water to one part bleach for cleaning. I then air dry them. 

Burner with washtub of heated water

So, back to me. We have a stand alone propane burner for large Cajun pots. I have a #2 wash tub I put over it. We use this tub for dunking roosters. I bring the water up to 100 degrees F. to 105 degrees F. I put in about 50 cups loosely. I rinse and scrub as necessary. I put them in a muck tub (we have a bunch of these things). I don’t bother rinsing. My hope is that the bleach will kill any bad organism and rinse/dilute as I water the seedlings. I guess I will find out. I’m not expecting any problems. I may even do a rinse later before using them. Anyway, we finished cleaning all the used cups. We used the muck tub to carry them out to the utility trailer. I turned them upside down across the floor of the trailer to let them air dry. 

Spreading cups out to dry. 

Muck tub to carry washed cups

Helpers

 

Supervisor

We use these cups for spring cool weather crops and summer crops and again for fall cool weather crops.

For tomatoes (and anything we can’t get planted before they get root bound), We have 6” x 6” x 8” high pots we got from Greenhouse Megastore. I think they were Belden Seniors. These will hold a tomato for a long time before it gets root bound. We still start the tomatoes in the Solo cups. When the roots are starting to show on the sides fairly heavily, we transplant them to the Seniors. When weather warms up, we pop them out of the Seniors and plant the tomatoes into the garden. It gives them a nice head start. No transplant shock. Expensive on potting soil. We use the good stuff. It is worth it in the long run. Stronger and healthier transplants are the result.

I have potting soil bought last year at the end of the year on closeout. Before long, I am going to have to start filling those cups and putting seeds in them. It is a lot of work, but I am so looking forward to it. Garden dreaming!!! How’s your dreams?

May God give you your dreams.

Ralph and Fiona

PS: Fiona and I were discussing the bleaching of the cups. It is recommended that tap water sit for twenty-four hours to let the chlorine and fluoride gas off. Bleach is a chlorine product. I went and rinsed the cups to get most of the chlorine off of them. That was my mistake. I should have remembered that earlier.

Bio-dome

PPS: I didn't mention the Bio-Domes from Park Seeds. With the cups, the Bio-Domes aren't really necessary. But I DO have them, and I like them. I do still use them. They are just an unnecessary added expense, just nice to work with. They use a plug format. The plugs are an inverted pyramid with a small short hole in the top (base?) of the pyramid. Remember, the tip (point) of the pyramid is down. These plugs drop into a Styrofoam "frame" with holes for the plugs. The styrofoam "frame" plug hole goes all the way through the styrofoam to the water.  The "frame" floats in water. Then you drop a seed or two or three into the hole in the plugs in the "frame" . The styrofoam is floating in the water with the tip of the plug in the water. Therefore, the plugs siphon water up into the plug to moisten the seeds. There is a dome that fits over the tray to hold humidity up. The dome has vent holes to release excess moisture. When the seeds germinate, I remove the dome. The water can have fertilizer added to it for the plants to use. As long as you keep water in the tray, the plugs have water. I put the trays on grow mats for bottom heat. The system I have is an older system. It has two "frames" per tray maximum. There are three sized holes (and corresponding plugs). They are small, medium, and large. I think large is called jumbo. Some such names. The "frames" are the same size. There is just varying size holes. The small holed ones have 60 plugs (120 per tray). The jumbos are 18 plugs (36 per tray). The mediums are somewhere in the middle. I can mix the "frames". I can have one small and one jumbo together in a bio-dome. The jumbos handle larger seeds like pumpkin/squash. Because the plugs are so close together, they will get crowded quickly. I can and have transplanted from the trays to cups. But I can also go from the tray to the Belden Seniors or straight to the garden. Or, to a huge twenty-four inch patio pot. Again, I plant extra seeds, then snip off the weaker seedlings in the plugs.