What The...

These two dudes are 10 months old today!!

I cannot imagine life on our little farm without these two goofballs! 

We have figured out that Mr. Lenny is the kinda serious big brother. Mostly because of his size and not his age (they are afterall the same age).  He is quick to alert the group when snacks are being delivered (from neighbors) - which means he "yells" at everyone to stand aside while he goes through what has been offered. Once he has decided he is done with the treats he lets the other have what's left. He will also jump into action if he feels that there is discord in the Hen Pen - mainly when Thor is doing his thing. He really like the pullets...not sure why, but he just likes being around them. Also, he loves his human momma. He will cry out...very loudly whenever I come onto the scene. When he starts his honking I feel bad for the neighbors who have to listen to him. And since he is a bird, he doesn't understand "SHHH....BE QUIET." So we must endure until he gets over the fact that they are going for a trip out of the pen or that we are just passing by. I don't know why, but he was my favorite as a gosling...more so than Shelly. That might be because Shell was so darn squirmy as a duckling.

Shelly - he is the clown for sure! As a duck his main concern is digging around in the swampy areas around the property or in the dirt, grass, etc for the soft squishy snacks known as worms. Last week I decided to start digging in the beds for worms and he understood very quickly that the treats are coming...so we hunt worms together. It's all a very exciting time....for Shelly. The other thing that is so very funny is when he "races" Tom up and down the driveway! The one thing about Shelly is that he cannot be without his big brother. If he gets left behind when we are walking away, when he finally realizes that he is alone he will literally sprint behind me, Tom or Lenny until he catches up. All the while looking for snacks along the way. He has his priorities straight you know.

It's hard to say which has the bigger personality. All I know is that they are loads of fun to have as part of the flock. How could we have ever known how much fun they would be? 

There is something special about a mud puddle in the driveway!

Happy 10 Months of Life to the two hooligans!

If you want to see more of these two go to @the_goose_and_the_duck on Instagram.

When to Plant

My Seed Savers Exchange order was delivered in today's mail (YAY). As excited as I am about that, I knew that I needed to start thinking about when seeds need to be started. I have discovered that I am not good at planning.

The Hidatsa Red and Bee Feed Mix seeds were free

Going back to the Beginning with these collections

Last year I sat down and read through each seed packet and even had a calendar to find dates and move backwards to the date to sow seeds. The ONE time I actually do this and things did not go well...that figures.

What did we (or I) learn from this catastrophe? All the planning in the world isn't for sure.

My solution for this year? Fly by the seat of my pants and just start seeds whenever? Sure, that is doable, it has worked in the past. Even so, from that method, some of the plants weren't quite ready for the garden when I thought that maybe they should go out. Other plants were getting so big that I didn't really plan a space for them.

So, do I go ahead and go with the willy-nilly approach? That was my thought for about a second after I got my seeds. However, a little later in the day I got an email from Shorty's Garden Center. Usually I just scan the email quickly to see if there is anything interesting. I rarely look any further than what is in the email. However, this time I decided to scroll the whole thing and what did I find?! A handy dandy planting guide HERE.

What should I be starting indoors? Well, how about cabbage, kohlrabi, onions, lettuce and tomatoes? Let's do this!

Oh, noooo...not just yet...I am out of potting soil. DANG! I guess it's time to get some supplies other than seeds.

Minor detail.

Throw Back Thursday - February 18, 2017

The freebies that I got a month ago

Just over a year ago I was looking at seed catalogs and thinking about the things that I wanted to get into the garden that season. Go HERE for that episode :) Last year's garden was a fail on my part, but I'm not going to dwell on that, I'm going back to the basics.

This past Tuesday I placed an order with Seed Savers Exchange and it has shipped! I should be getting a box in the mail tomorrow!! Alright!! So excited - I'm going to go a little more simple and do the things that have worked in the past - I may have tried too many new things last year.

What will be featured in this year's garden? Here are the two collections that I have decided to go with:

The Cut Flower selection:

• Amish Cockscomb - this one hasn't made it into my flower garden - so this is a first.
• Blue Boy Bachelor's Buttons - I love Bachelor's Buttons and so do the bees!
• Love-in-a-Mist - another new one for the garden
• Globe Amaranth - I am pretty sure that this one was in one of my first gardens when I chose a bunch of flowers for dried arrangements.
• Spider Flower Mixture - First time for this one!
• Sensation Cosmos - These are a favorite and I have had them in almost every garden. Love them!
• Summer Pastels Yarrow - Another new flower in the mix.

So, as I was going through the list (as if I didn't realize before) it appears that there are more "new" flower varieties that I have not tried before. I'm not going to let this get to me though, I will succeed this year!

The Beginner Gardener Selection:

• Provider Bean
• French Breakfast Radish
• Green Arrow Pea
• Velvet Queen Sunflower
• Early Fortune Cucumber
• Black Beauty Squash
• SSE Lettuce Mixture

All of the vegetables that are coming are not necessarily new. Like I said before going back to the basics. 

And, because I wanted to try at least one other thing got some Good Mother Stallard beans. A couple of years ago I planted a short row of drying beans and they actually grew and I got a few beans. Not enough to do anything with, but they worked! Planning for a bounty of beans to store for winter.

AND as a bonus, orders that were $20+ would also include a Bee Feed Mix for free. I like free!! I have plans for that packet...so many places to choose from. 

I love seed catalog season and ordering seeds to grow special vegetables and flowers!

Today my happy quotient has been filled!

Life Before the Farm

For the first few years living in our house I didn't have any aspirations to do anything other than grow a garden. A big one. All the while, not really take advantage of all of the produce that we were growing. I am pretty sure that we ate a fair amount of the tomatoes, beans cucumbers, zucchini...but at that time I did not really have the time or energy to preserve anything. So we just ate what we could and gave some of it away or composted a lot. When we lived at the last house I did make the effort to freeze a bunch of green beans - there were so many...the freezer was full of beans! At least I know that I can get it done. 

Anyway, I always had flowers in the garden. This was before it became a thing to pay attention to the pollinators in the garden. Well, maybe it was a thing, but it sure wasn't with me. There were so many flowers one year that someone stopped and asked if they could harvest some of the Cosmos for an upcoming event (it may have been a wedding). It was so surprising that someone would ask...I said yes, of course. That may have been the time that I thought about doing a flower market garden. I even had books and everything. 

I had a little obsession with Dahlias!

So we continued on spending the summers working the garden growing food and flowers and the winters indoors doing indoor stuff. 

After a few years my life changed in a big way - I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Dealing with that took away a lot of my desire to grow a garden. We continued with gardening though, but it wasn't as enjoyable as before. Actually, my focus was to get through the surgeries and the treatments that followed. It was all of the energy that I could muster and continue to work through all of the cancer stuff.

During that time the size of the garden grew smaller and my mentality turned to keeping active by cycling. Then after some more time, we were running...and the garden still continued on, but now in boxes that we had built during one of my fall vacation times. 

That seemed to be the turning point and I was starting to get interested in growing food and flowers again. I can't believe how long ago that was! It was September 2008, which would have been four and a half years after my diagnosis. Go HERE for the mini post of those boxes. Since then, the garden started to get bigger again and I started looking at different places to grow things. I have four garden boxes in front of the garage and have been expanding ever since! 

During those years from the first big gardens to what we have now we did a lot of cycling, a little bit of traveling - nothing exotic - then running. My days were spent working Monday thru Friday like everyone else. On Thursdays we would ride the Bicycle Club time trial series and a lot of days I would bike commute to and from work. Saturday was our long ride to somewhere day, anything over 10 miles usually. Running entered the mix a few years ago. These days we still try to get out early in the morning, but snow...and my bad back. Not to mention a lack of motivation. 

Now I'm dreaming again. This blog was created when those dreams of having a hobby farm full time started to fill my mind again. I knew that I needed to start a blog as a journal of sorts to see where we started and how far we are getting along in our dream. 

When this garden season comes around I'll be pulling up the Winter crops and getting the boxes prepped for the Spring veggies. This year I am planning to focus on vegetables that we can grow a lot of to preserve or store.

Waking up to mornings like this helps me to remember that there is a lot of time to plan and to consider what will be happening on our farm. 

I'm so glad that the snow really doesn't stay for long! It sure is pretty to look at though. 

My ButcherBox Review

Buy ButcherBox and get a bonus! Yep, if you want great tasting meat...go for it! You'll get free bacon and a discount on your first order!!

Just to get an idea of what this ButcherBox thing was all about I went to YouTube and searched for some videos, but quickly became bored because the people making the videos were so lame and I didn't get a sense of what they chose because they never said so. The one video that I did watch was some guy who said that he and his girlfriend ended up cooking up their meat all in one week...so it wasn't worth it to him.

Okaaaay...ever hear of portion control?!

I ordered my first Butcher Box last week on Valentine's Day and received it over the weekend. To be honest, the best thing besides the meat is the insulated bag!

The box that I ordered is the $129/month box and will contain anywhere from 8-11 lbs of meat. You have choices! Mixed Box (Chicken, Pork, Beef), Beef & Pork, Beef & Chicken, All Beef and Custom. Then you choose how often you want to receive a box (once a month or every two months) and how much meat you'll "need" anywhere from 24 to 48 meals. Here's the cool part - Add-Ons: From burger patties to steaks, you get to add up to two each of the add-on packages of meat(s) of your choice. This adds anywhere from $7 to $25 depending on what you choose and the quantity.

I went basic, because I'm skeptical that way and wanted to see the quality before jumping in and going crazy. Within the ultra-cool insulated bag was a variety of items - I went with the mixed box of Beef, Chicken and Pork.

The goods

Cool Bag!

Our box contained:

2 pkg of Pork Chops (each had two chops)

2 pkg of Strip Steaks (1 per pkg)

2 pkg of I don't remember the steak cut (1 per pkg)

2 pkg of Ground Beef (1 lb each)

3 pkg of Boneless Chicken Breast (2 breasts per pkg)

1 pkg Smoked Uncured Bacon

Once I got the box opened I found that the meat was frozen solid and I was pretty impressed with the amount of meat that was included in our box. It was more than I had expected. The Primal Pastures box, although it was good, did not have as much, so to me it cost a bit more for the amount that we received. If I'm going to do this subscription box thing, I want to get the best deal for the money that is being paid out. So far...ButcherBox is a good deal. It helps that an acquaintance of mine gave me the low-down before I made the big decision. The other thing about the ButcherBox is that there was only meat. Primal included a quart of bone broth and a can of wild caught tuna. All of the meat from Primal is gone now, but I have yet to thaw the broth and use it. Mostly because I have so much broth in the freezer right now. Don't get me wrong, Primal Pastures is great and you can order whatever strikes your fancy off of their website. As far as box options go, I'd have to say ButcherBox is better if you are  going to choose the most basic option.

If there wasn't a special offer right now, I would not have ordered this box. A $20 discount AND a package of bacon for the first order...SCORE! When I placed the order I opted for the Every Two Month delivery option with the thought that I would cancel my subscription. Now that we have cooked up some of the meat I would have to say "We'll see." It's pretty convenient getting a box of meat delivered to your door! This along with the Imperfect Produce that we get every couple of weeks makes it less daunting going to the grocery store.

Until we get the meat chickens going AND the pigs, buying meat this way will be a temporary thing. However, until then, I will enjoy the tasty cuts of meat that arrive on the back stoop.

Go HERE if you want to try a box yourself! Think Bacon...mmmm BACON...

According to the website the meat is:

"ButcherBox delivers 100% grass-fed beef, free range organic chicken and heritage breed pork directly to your door. Think of us as the neighborhood butcher for modern America."

President's Day Snow

Yesterday's weather forecast was for snow. There wasn't much during the day, not enough to cause any problems. However as we were heading home from our mini small group meeting it was starting to snow steadily still not enough to be concerned about. This morning we woke up to a "skiff" of snow on the grass...just enough to change the landscape. I took a look at the 10-day forecast and it appears that there will be several days of snow/rain mix. Swell.

Back to this morning...the chickens had NO interest in "playing" in the snow. The two hooligans, on the other hand...well...if they get a chance to get out of the hen pen, they will gladly take the opportunity. For those two it is business as usual foraging must go on! So, Lenny & Shelly went touring around the yard and had a grand ol' time. When it was time to return to the chickens they (Lenny) happily returned without much coaxing.

Before there were chickens and a duck and a goose, I spent very little time outside. The only time I would go out was when the the weather was decent or at the very least not raining. The only other time I would head out in poor weather would be when we were running more regularly.

Since adding the girls and dudes we spend more time doing outside stuff, almost like we live on a farm of sorts. Most weekends I find all sorts of things to do while letting Lenny & Shelly forage fresh grass.

Now that the days are getting longer again we (I) let the dudes out one last time after I arrive home from work. They like to go into their pools and splash around while Tom and I will chat about the day we each had. As far as the weather goes, I find myself outside even if there is light rain.

These days make me long for this farm life more and more. One day, sooner than later, I hope to be home full-time running our small hobby farm with chickens, ducks, pigs and the Goose of course.

When we add the girl ducklings and the pigs I might have to start camping outside...

Yep, We Did It Again!

We got baby chicks again! When Tom went to Wilco Farm Store earlier this week and sent me a couple of photos of the chicks that were available. The Mottled Java was one that was available and I knew that they would be coming home to our farm. 

Last spring when I was researching what breeds were available the local feed stores, the MJ was on the schedule for one of the stores. I would later find out that some of the chick shipments were cancelled due to slow sales.  So we came home with the Jersey Giants instead and then supplemented the flock with the Australorps. 

With 10 hens and one Roo and several people interested in fresh eggs from pastured chickens I have been planning to add a few more pullets. 

So, off to Wilco we went and the moment I walked into the store I heard the sound of Spring in a farm supply store! It was fun looking at all the little fuzzy days old chicks...but I only wanted one breed! There were quite a few people gathered around the tubs so it was a few minutes before I got to the chicks that I wanted. In the process I chatted with a woman who wasn't sure which chicks she would be going home with so I told her that the Aussie chicks are good layers...I doubt that she ended up with any since her kids were picking out an assortment. 

So why did I just come home with one breed? When the girls get older and it's time to start culling the flock I will know which of the girls are the oldest and ready to be turned into stewing chickens. It will be easier to keep track of groups of breeds instead of tagging them or whatever. However, that is a few years down the road. So, we will have lots of egg gathering seasons from our first flock of layers.

Livestock Conservancy Java chicken facts:

Conservation Status: Watch

Uses:  Eggs & Meat

Egg Color & Size: Brown/Large

Weight: Male 9.5 lbs, Female 6.5 to 7.5 lbs.

Temperament: Hardy, Calm - Excellent Forager

Three Days Old

Adult MJ

Java Hens are not great layers - they average around 150 large Brown eggs. Even though I wanted a 200+ egg layer, I'm excited that we have one of the breeds that I REALLY wanted.

Here's to making our flock a little more diverse.

More Ugly Food

This is my second box from Imperfect Produce. This box was delivered at a more reasonable hour - around 3:30pm not 9pm. I've opted to receive a box every other week. Which is just about perfect...we used quite a bit from the last box - all of the potatoes (regular and sweet), the avocados and onions. I believe that we had some leftover apples and a lemon or two. I'm a little more excited about this box. The Romansesco is kind of a bonus as I have never seen it for sale in the store, but I have heard of it.

If you are interested in trying out a box of Ugly Produce go HERE - this link will give you $10 credit and I'll get credit too! It's a win-win!!

Go ahead give it a try...you know you want to!

https://www.imperfectproduce.com/register.php?referral=309265

Another GAFT favorite

The Great American Farm Tour. How I ever sat myself down almost everyday to watch the daily video from Justin Rhodes is beyond me. We did it though, although, there were a couple I just couldn't sit through. Otherwise we watched them all! Some of them a few times even.

The farm feature was waaay back in May of last year. The Farmer is John Suscovich. The farm is Camps Road Farm in Connecticut. The book is Stress Free Chicken Tractor Plans.

The first video that was featured:

The moment he kneeled down to help out Mr. Brown - I knew this guy would be awesome! 

Then there was this video:

By the time we had watched these videos we already built the Justin Rhodes Chick-Shaw. The chicken tractor with a million pieces...hahaha! Actually the chick mobile is awesome! It did take some time though. When I found out that Farmer John had a book I HAD to check it out. Not only that I ORDERED it and we have been studying it and will be building one of these bad boys soon.

Everything about this guy...his experience kind of clicked with me and I understood what he was saying. The way he farms, the way he learns while doing stuff and then makes adjustments when things don't work out...boy I get that. He is for real people...a farmer, husband, father...YouTuber. He is a farmer...not a homesteader. We all know how that word has no meaning to me. It is over-used. Enough said. Also, not that I would do this, but he toured the part of the US on his bike, visiting farms along the way. What a life! There was a time that I thought I might want to do a bicycle tour, but that's an unrelated story.

We had the chickies before we saw these videos, but the video about the chicken tractors got me thinking about raising meat birds. Something I wanted to do last year, but let's face it, with the new chickies (gosling & duckling included) and trying to keep my pathetic garden from totally dying off I don't think that a batch of meat chickens would have helped. What we did end up doing is processing three of our extra cockerels at approximately 19 weeks old or so. That was quite the experience - one that I am happy to say I survived and didn't get totally freaked out about. Go HERE for that post.

Last summer he did a few videos on raising pigs and how beneficial they are to the land. Our property was once part of a much larger cattle farm operation years ago and our plan is to add a breeding pair of American Guinea Hogs that will help make our property healthy again. All we have done for nearly 20 years is mow the grass. Only last year did we actually introduce the chickens to part of the pasture. I have plans to keep the pigs moving around the property and increasing the food growing areas. Fruit trees, berry bushes or gardens, I want to add them all! 

What else about this guy...he is all about sharing information on YouTube - all free which is a bonus. He does have a "store" on his website, Farm Marketing Solutions. If you are looking for suggested reading, he's got a list of books. Apparel, yup. His published books...oh yeah. Like I mentioned before I got the chicken tractor book. There's a new book in the works that I'm planning to order to get our market going. 

In the time since watching these two videos, I have started to follow his channel - SO GOOD! I've commented on his videos and sent him an email of appreciation (and got a reply!) - he is seriously cool! 

Go on...check the videos above and check out his channel on YouTube. I'm going to start planning again...

Little Fuzzies

It's that time of year!! The chicks and ducklings are starting to show up at Wilco!!  Tom was out in Battle Ground and stopped in at Wilco to check out the chick situation today and sent a couple of photos - the chicks and what they will end up looking like...

The Barred Rock

   

Breed Information:

Use:  Eggs, Meat

Egg Color & Size:  Brown, Large

Market Weight:  6-8 pounds

Temperament:  Calm, Docile

Characteristics:  Early Feather, Cold Hardiness

The Mottled Java

 

Breed Information:

Use:  Eggs, Meat 

Egg Color & Size:  Brown, Large

Market Weight:  6.5 - 8 pounds

Temperment:  Hardy, Calm, likes to range

Characteristics:  Excellent Forager

These were the only two breeds that Tom sent to me. We'll be making a trip out there on Friday to check out all that they have available. 

I would really like to get some chickens that are good layers - that lay 200+ eggs per year. From some of the research I have already done, the Mottled Java is an okay layer with approximately 150 eggs per year. The Delawares can lay up to 280, Dominique - 230, Barred Rock - 200. I REALLY love the look of the Java though; might have to add them because they are cool! If I could find a place that has Dorking chicks I would get those just for fact that they lay white eggs. That would be an easy way to know when they are laying! A dead giveaway. 

I'm thinking of egg production and not really having to buy eggs from the store. The last dozen we bought might have been in August. Also, when we have surplus we will either sell them or give them to friends and neighbors. We have quite a few neighbors across the street, some of whom have had our eggs and they are happy to get the eggs when we have extra! Got myself a pretty easy market going here...hmmm...more chickens please!

Right now we have Black Jersey Giants and Australorps. What we need is some color diversity. So the next batch of chickies will grow up to be something other than BLACK. Why not switch up the color palette? White...Brown...Buff or Speckeled??? I'll be researching on the go as we head out to Wilco this weekend.

Oh...how I want to see the chickies! Hashtag who loves baby chickies?!

Maybe I am going to be like my mom...I now understand why we had so many chickens!

When It's Time to Move

Moving day (Saturday) is always a fun day. We are getting to the point where we are getting the fence set up a little quicker each time and then relocating the shelter, water & feed pans and of course the chickens.

This month they will be situated in the backyard. Now that we have over two hundred feet of fence we are able to give them a fairly large area to explore. I do have some garden space that I'm hoping they will scratch and till away at.

Some fun contours for the feathered creatures

Girls trying to figure out which box is their favorite

Once they are situated and released they run around like crazy, checking things out...usually looking for food. Moving day is the one day that I do not feed them. I want them to forage and find food in their new space and not rely on the feed. Honestly, these girls are a little chubby, so I really don't worry about them too much. Just because I'm not a total ogre, they do get a little bit of scratch in the evening and as usual they attack it as if it were their last meal.

The girls get so excited that egg laying is the last thing that is going to happen. Moving day is the day where the girls hardly lay - this time there were only 3 eggs as opposed to the 7 eggs that we got yesterday. 

Two of the Jersey's contemplating laying an egg

These girls have been in the field and in the free-range garden and in the yard. The one spot I wish I could feel okay about is the front yard. Where they were the last couple of months was as close as I would like them to be to the road. Also, having them up there made our house a spectacle. Which is okay, but at the same time, people don't need to slow down and gawk...move along people...there's nothing to see here. 

The people who bring the treats will not get the customary greeting from Lenny since he won't see them until they arrive at the hen pen. I'm sure that the neighbors won't miss hearing him squawking so stinkin' loud!

Get to work little ladies! One month will go fast!

Friday Fun Day

Today is just a video post...not feeling creative...

A video of the two clowns in the field.

If you want to see more of the dudes go to their Instagram:

The Goose and The Duck
We are brothers from different mothers.

I started posting photos and videos a couple of weeks after we brought them home. The photos were daily for quite a while, then after they were a couple of months old I decided to post occasionally and then on their monthly milestones. 

Throwback Thursday - April 30, 2016

Three gardening seasons ago we started the very early beginnings of a community kind of garden. With a friend of mine - go HERE to check that out.

This year will be year four of having Mary gardening on our property so now we'll be adding neighbors. I've already got one neighbor on board...just need to connect with her in person so we can get the details all worked out. It's easier to extend an invitation when you already know the person - agreed? I might just ask one more neighbor for this year and call it good. However if we had more, we could have more of a collaboration on how we want to work our gardens out together!

If we are going to invite more than two households, we better get on the ball soon. Our people will need the time to construct their own garden box - very simple or very elaborate and get things ready for the growing season.

My hope is to have something like -

Not necessarily the garden shed, but some garden boxes that are overflowing with homegrown veggie goodness!

This is a shot before the fence was extended...it looks much better with the fence! The space that I'm leaving for the new gardening peeps is the grassy area between the free range garden and the road. 

We'll see what happens. If there is time I'll be visiting some of the neighbors this weekend. 

Let the community gardening begin!

Partly Cloudy Skies

The days have been pretty decent since the weekend. There really hasn't been rain...maybe just a sprinkling here and there. The typical Pacific Northwest winter weather has been missing in action. The 7 day forecast from a couple of local TV stations. Looks good to me!

 from KGW.com

from  KPTV.com

Sometimes a long range forecast can make a person think funny things. Like scheduling my floating holiday (One of the benefits that I get have at work). So after looking ahead at the forecast (because we know it won't change...) I decided to schedule my floating holiday on the Friday before President's Day. That will be a nice long weekend! It will be nice to have some down time. Sometimes work can get draining and I need to get away from the crazy! Even if the weather does turn, there is always something to do around our farm, so the day will not be lost.

The other thing that I am contemplating is taking a week of vacation time in March. March is pretty quiet at work and I usually take my spring vacation in March or April. With so many things that I want to start and with such great weather lately it's hard to not think about taking a week off from work.

There are a couple of projects that we need to do...hopefully we will finish them during that week. At the very least we'll get the shelter ready for the American Guinea Hogs. I really would like to work on the chicken tractor, but that might not happen. It will be started, I know that.

The shelter I would like to build:

The shelter that is more likely:

I think my vision of this style will look much better.

The chicken tractor that we will build:

This is a John Suscovich chicken tractor

I'll post more about this guy in the next week...but this chicken tractor looks easy to build and it might not take nearly as long as it took to build the Chicken RV which we worked on every single day of my vacation last March. Even then we still didn't get it done!

Here's hoping that the partly cloudy skies last until my vacation in March. That might be a bit much to ask for. So we'll just have to take it one day at a time and enjoy the day and not look too terribly far into the future - but sometimes we just gotta know what the weather might be. 

I am looking forward to longer days though, so partly cloudy skies help out! Especially since the two hoodlums (Lenny & Shelly) get to leave the Hen Pen and forage before the sun goes down.

Leonard the Embden Goose

When Lenny was not yet a week old.

When we decided to raise some chicks we also decided to follow the Justin Rhodes model of getting a goose as a guardian. What I had hoped for was a gosling that wasn't too young and would grow up with the chicks. Well, as it turns out, this guy (and his buddy) were two almost three weeks younger than the chicks and the chicks had already grown quite a bit and were already a bit aggressive with each other. To introduce a young fuzzy gosling and his duckling buddy would not have been the best idea. 

Right now this guy is nine and half months old (almost) and is very much a protector. Example, he does not like it when Thor (cockerel) approaches one of the little ladies for a little special time. Lenny is not a fan of any kind of commotion - and if anything goes on he will investigate AND reprimand the offending party, in this case Thor. I think he feels like he needs to look out for the girls. Which is kind of nice since the Australorps are little girl chickens. Another thing he doesn't like - when his pal, Shelly, is playing/racing Tom up and down the driveway. The first thing he'll do is run after them and then "scream" at Tom. Then the next thing is making sure that Shelly knows that what he is doing is unacceptable. The crazy thing is that I am the one person who is allowed to do whatever I please without any sort of repercussion. I guess I'm not that much of a threat.

Lenny does like the hens though and when the girls and Thor go in for the night Lenny and Shelly will often times hang out at the rear of the chicken RV to be close to them. They never got used to going into the coop at night so they just stand behind it. Things might change once we get some friends for Shelly, but that is a future problem.

Overall, he is a little more reserved, except when snacks are coming from the neighbors or from a friend of ours. Those times are the BEST if you are a resident of the Hen Pen. When the snacks are coming he sounds the alarm and he can be LOUD!! The squawk is the same, but he has two volumes, loud or LOUDER. At least we know if something is amiss.

Other breed information:

Main use:  Utility - Meat
Eggs:  10 to 30 per year.
Weight:  Gander 26 to 33 pounds(!); Goose 22 to 28 pounds.
Temperment:  Calm (except when snacks are coming)

Lenny turned 9 months on January 26.

Life on the Hoeve would be fine without this dude, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Homesteading...

Homesteading...seems like there are all sorts of people homesteading. It became evident while watching video after video after video on the Great American Farm Tour where the Rhodes family traveled the entire United States - including Alaska & Hawaii to visit farms...many of them being homesteads. There were a few that were farms, but too many claiming to be homesteaders.

Here is the bottom line. I don't like the term homesteading...that's not to say that I don't like the idea of homesteading. There just seems to be as many different definitions of homesteading as there are homesteaders. Well, maybe not...I don't know. Go HERE for a more coherent explanation.

ANYWAY - I have decided to find another term to use for our own situation. We live on a small portion of what was a farm years ago. Our property actually has the old house and outbuildings of the old farm. So, after a little bit of research came across:

Farmstead:  a farm with its buildings. 

Okay, that's better, I guess. However it still feels too close to Homesteading. Yes, I guess I do have a problem with that word...hmmm...

Over the weekend I decided to search for a word in the language that was spoken at home all through my growing up years, Dutch. A quick search and voila! I have the name of our non-homestead.

Hoeve (HOO-vuh): simple put, Farmstead.

Somehow this just feels right. I still feel a connection to my Dutch-Indonesian roots. Since the Netherlands has quite a farming history check that out HERE I wanted to use a word that reflects that. With all of that reclaimed land from the sea and cows how could farming NOT be a thing? Let's not forget the tulips and other related bulbs.

Now that I have found a term that I can be happy with and connect with I'll be changing my blog name soon. The Hoeve...I like it. The other term I found was boerderij (farmhouse, homestead, farmstead etc). I understand it and also know how to pronounce it, but no one else would get it and it would take too much to explain. We will keep it simple.

From the Google - Schinvelder Hoeve

Yeah, this was just a rambling post, but hey - if you made it this far, it must have been okay!

Imperfect Part 2

Yesterday was delivery day! I was hoping that the box would have been delivered before I went home, but it wasn't. The delivery window was quite wide... 3pm to 11pm.

Okaaaay...got home and we sat down to eat dinner and I kinda hoped that the box would be delivered while we were in the kitchen...NOPE.

So we just went about our regular evening routine which included watching the videos that we follow on YouTube and watching something on Amazon Prime Video. Around 8pm Tom went to bed I stayed downstairs and thought maybe the box would be delivered sooner than later.

A little before 9pm I received a text that said that my box was approximately 4 minutes away. And to watch the driver's progress all I had to do was follow the link. That was pretty fun! Watching the dot heading down one street in our general direction. I continued to watch until they were getting close to our house and I went to a different room to watch them arrive.

They went past our house! To be honest, I don't think that many of the homes on our street have their house numbers visible - although our address is on the mailbox. So I went back to the app on my phone and watched as the dot hovered down by the private road then it made its way to our driveway.

This is where it got funny or a little creepy...our goose was sounding the alarm and he was so, So, SO LOUD!! It was almost as if someone was being killed or something. I kinda feel bad for the driver...that really is no way to be welcomed.

Once they left I got the box and proceeded to open it up...

What a cute assortment of fruits and veggies!

Really, the only thing that I would consider flawed with these fruits & veggies is that they are on the small side, not much in the way of scarring. The descriptions offered on the order site was accurate.

I have no problem with this first box. I feel like the red onions might be shallots or maybe they are onions...hard to say. I already have a plan for the sweet potato and the potatoes will be mashed for a side dish sometime in the next week. The apples look good...no bruising that I could see. One of the lemons had a blemish on one end, but that won't affect the inside of it.

The Heart Shaped Potato logo

Whaaat?! Food to a local Food Bank?

Fun story!

Click HERE to try a box for yourself - and save $10 in the process!

Throwback Thursday - February 1, 2018

Before Tom chewed up the front yard in 2016

Another good size garden space.

Evidently, my February from a year ago was not very interesting...or creative since I have few posts from then. So we are going to jump back to the beginning of this blog...April 2016! My "thinking out loud" post.

I'm still not sure where we are heading with this farm endeavor, but the plan is to add more laying hens as I have all sorts of people who want farm fresh, no funky stuff eggs. With the days steadily getting longer the girls are starting to lay more eggs.

We are also going to add a breeding pair of American Guinea Hogs. To grow meat for ourselves and sell the piglets or offer grown hogs for meat. We'll see - that is an idea in progress. All I know is that I LOVE the American Guinea Hog!

The other thing that is in the works...inviting the neighbors across the street to grow a garden of their own on our property.

Everything is a work in progress. When I get ready to leave my job behind I am hoping that there will be more of a plan to work with and not just ideas.