Ya'll!!!

OH

EM

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SWEET POTATOES BAY-BEE!

I have tried for the past couple of years to grow sweet potatoes - this was year three in my quest to grow these things and I finally got something that we can eat!!

My understanding is that sweet potatoes like warm weather to grow...we have warm weather, but I don't think it's warm enough, LONG enough to get a decent harvest. By decent I mean 4-6 good size tubers.

The first year I tried was in 2021. I may have started the process a bit on the late side. I think I thought about growing slips when spring hit so the slips weren't ready to plant until summer. That year I successfully grew vines with a few itty-bitty fingerling tuber. This gave me hope that if I started them earlier then I might get something more than just a bunch of vines and itty-bitty sweet potatoes. Last year I tried growing them in the hoop house. Slightly better, but not much. I started the process earlier in the year and probably got the slips into the hoop house before June. The plants thrived and I had plenty of vines, but still itty-bitty tubers. I think they may have been bigger, but not much. 

THEN...

This year I got my sweet potato into water way early (February I think)  and by early March I had a few slips growing and buy the time I decided to start getting my garden planted - in June I had so many slips! Before I planted I did get some of the slips off the tuber and into a pint jar of water to root. Some of the others that I was able to include roots from cutting were placed into pots immediately. 

My thinking for this year was to go ahead and grow them in the crop garden and do a kind of raised bed situation. Also, I thought hoops and some green house plastic would help the plants to grow better. The plastic would give the plants a perfect microclimate and it was easy enough to water from one side after lifting the plastic. Unfortunately, the winds can get a little crazy in the summer so the plastic eventually tore and I ended up taking it off of the hoops and just hoped for the best. The temperatures here in SW Washington state have been consistently in the 80s and low to mid 90s. So maybe the time the plants were under the plastic helped them to establish.

 Now I'm thinking about how to do even MORE next year :) So much to consider - how many plants to grow, should I create a special place for them for next year or ???? I do know that I'll be getting more green house plastic and figuring out a more permanent area to grow them. 

But first, it's time to cure them. We'll see how that works out. I don't have a very good place to cure them. So I hope that they will cure okay in the hoop house. I have them in a small storage bin with some water in a mason jar to keep the humidity up and covered with my plastic rain poncho.

More on that later!

Other than that, the week has been not as busy. Last week was totally spent in the kitchen processing peaches and tomatoes. There still is evidence in the kitchen and the dining room that I have been canning food. Since I'm planning to go to Long Beach to get more cranberries in a few weeks, I'm reluctant to store away my supplies.

It was also my week to take care of the Food Pantry Garden at our church. It's the end of the season and the plants are pretty much spent, so my goal will be to go and clean up all of the tomato plants and other plants that are languishing. The green bean plants have made a come back - some of them did at least, so those will stay just a little longer. Earlier this summer the team and I were talking about possibly doing to fall crops, but I haven't got my fall stuff in my garden yet, so I don't think that I'm going to get fall stuff in the pantry garden done. Overall, I think the garden was a success, just for a summer garden. Next season we'll start up again in the spring and plan to go into the fall. I also have another fun idea to get people involved in providing food for the pantry. More to come later.

There have been reports of an Atmospheric River coming to our area in the next few days...oh boy. It's going to get wet around here. I might have to get my garden work done sooner than later.

The Garden

 It's been time to put the garden to bed for quite a while. I would say since the middle of summer when I started to realize that this year's crop garden was just an idea. Or a dream...yeah, dream is more like it. 

The only thing that worked would be the Salvaterra Tomatoes. Even then, I wasn't 100% satisfied with those being in the big garden. Mainly because the bunnies were in and out and nibbling on pretty much anything that looked good to them. We do have a solution that we will put in place for next season. Tom was lamenting to one of our friends about the bunnies and she suggested using burlap. I did a little research and found a 100' roll of one foot wide burlap at Uline. Since there are so many other things to do right now that can wait until the spring once we get closer to planting some crops in there.

Once I can get that in I think I might be more excited about the garden and maybe, just maybe we will have things like beans. 

So long sad 2020 garden!

Today I spent some time getting some of the giant plants OUT. ALL of the Romanesco was overgrown and therefore no longer edible. Actually, I don't think that it was ever in an edible stage. Every time I would go and look at the plants there was nothing. Maybe I just got them out too late. Next year I'll have to try getting the seeds started early and then get the plants our once the frost has past. Hmmmm... Also pulled up the rest of the cabbage, cut open the pumpkins for the pigs and took out the T-posts that were used for a tomato trellis and the stakes that reminded me where the center of the squash plants were.

This year's garden was so disappointing. So much that I didn't really care to see how things were going with so many different things. I am happy that I had enough tomatoes to put several pints of sauce on the shelf and some tomato juice as well.

Next year will be different and I will have loads of time to work in the hoop house and in the garden in addition to taking care of the pigs and poultry. I think I've been wanting to leave my job ever since we added laying hens. That was just one thing in addition to the garden(s), but I could tell that I needed more time. Not to mention the rest of the critters that we have added to our little farm. 

Once I'm retired and settled into my new routine at home Farm Life is going to be truly the BEST.

Sunday Funday

Today, Monday, I am officially on vacation! A week away from work is just what I need!

This week might be full of all sorts of things that I think that I will get done. There are two things for sure that I know that we'll accomplish - First, Meatie Batch #2 will graduate to Freezer Camp on Saturday and second, I will be sowing a bunch of seeds (greens) into the hoop house bed. I would like to get the garlic into one of the garden boxes, but I will need help getting the fence back up around the box. The chickens abhor a nicely tilled/planted box. They would get in there quick and dig everything up! The netting wouldn't be a bad idea either, so that might happen as well.

The weekend went by pretty quick, as usual. Yesterday I got the rest of the Freedom Ranger chicken into jars and processed. BOOM - cooked meat on the shelf! This time around I had a little help from the hubs. It took me a couple of hours to part out the three chicken from a few weeks ago. I didn't want to spend too much time working on the last five from the freezer. The cool thing is that I filled 7 jars with legs, thighs and breast meat, just like last time...

Canned Chicken Meat!

The only thing I did differently this time is that I added water to each jar. So we have some broth to keep the meat tasty. 

Now, I have five carcasses that I will now use to make even MORE bone broth. I have so much broth on the shelf! More is not a bad thing though. As winter comes I'm sure that we'll be using the broth and some of the chicken to make soup. So easy!

It's lunch time on Monday and I've already gotten the greens seeds planted in the hoop house. I also took the opportunity to bring the Saffron Crocus planters into the hoop house. I'm glad I did as the chickens did jump into the garden box that I placed them into and started to scratch up a couple of the planters. I'm so annoyed, but I only have myself to blame. I should have known better - they will get into whatever has plain soil and start digging away. 

Today has been filled with enough outdoor activities, it's time to do some indoor stuff now.

Just a Slacker

My last post was July 20th?!

Yeah, I'm a slacker. There are days that I think that I'll pop on here and post something just to update a little, but it doesn't get done. I might have too many things to do.

So, what have we been up to here? Well, nothing and everything!

We FINALLY tagged Miss Bridgette's ear and I sent in the registration form electronically on Tuesday. We'll get her certificate in a few weeks - she is now officially counted in the AGH population. Before we could submit anything we needed to tag her. If we don't then it will never happen. Case and point - I have had the tags and the pliers for about a month. These both were moved out into the garage and as we all know, out of sight out of mind. So finally last weekend I decided to retrieve the pliers and at least bring them into the house. Plan A was to get her tagged before last weekend was over. However, the junior swine had both spent the majority of the weekend in the wallow since it was so hot and they both were muddy like all over! So, plan B - we wait until Monday and see just how much mud she still has. Fortunately, it wasn't as hot and they didn't mud spa a ton so it was time. Before we did anything, Tom watched several videos on how to tag a pig's ear (where would we be without YouTube?) We had eaten dinner and were ready to head outside for the evening and gathered up our supplies and got to it. Bridgette is a good girl, not real squirly at all and she let Tom touch her ear and use an alcohol swab and stuff. After he had cleaned her ear she plopped down on her belly. That was a good thing since I would be the one attempting to keep her from moving around. She didn't really move or make any noise until the tag was applied and then there was a medium squeal and then it was over. Tom DID it and Bridgette is now bonafide!

Our girl is officially Windswept Bridgette

Since my last post we lost one of the turkeys. My suspicion is that it was one of the males and it was sparring with one of the other males and somehow got tangled up in the netting and ended up strangling itself. This was a very sad thing since I LOVE the turkeys so much. They are so sweet and not mean at all. They are so curious and when they are happy and exploring a new place like my garden, they making a really cute chirping sound. This morning I saw that we have two lil Toms. DANG IT! I was really hoping that we only had one. They both were strutting around and looking for some sort of reaction from the girls. Just like real guys...right?

They spent a lot of the day in the garden. Surprisingly, they didn't destroy anything. They spent a lot of time picking at the weeds and taking dust baths. Plus, it's a good play pen for them. They just do their thing, chirping away and find a little shade when they get too warm. They are so curious, so when they see something new they will examine it and then proceed with caution. Once they feel safe then it's back to happy chirping and exploring. Everyone should have turkeys!

Oh, so let's address the garden. This year's garden sucks. BIG TIME. I don't know what happened, but it is so very discouraging. The only thing that is really doing well (better than decent) would be my Salvaterra tomatoes. With everything out of control everywhere else, why not my garden too? 

The bunny population has been higher than I've ever seen it in all the time that we've been here. Even the larger bunnies are able to squeeze through the fence and we suspect that they have been nibbling on the tomatoes that are lower on the plants and probably topped all of the bean seedlings. A suggestion from a friend was to attach burlap to the bottom of the fence to keep the bunnies out. It's worth a try, so we now have 100 yards of 12" wide burlap. We'll see if it is effective. 

Three pounds of tomato goodness

Even though garden boxes are doing MUCH better than the crop garden, there are still a couple of things that are not working out great. As soon as I'm able, I'll harvest the ripe veg and then pull up the plants that are in the boxes and get ready to do some greens for the fall and winter. I will still need to protect everything from the stupid chickens, but that a small price to pay for fresh eggs daily. 

While I'm completely disappointed with the garden this year, I think back and realize that not every garden was a lush and productive as last year. One year I couldn't even get flowers to germinate! There's always next time. 

Yesterday I did a canning project. My friend Lorna came over to learn and help and we had a wonderful visit. We talked and laughed and did enough work to get the jars filled and into the canner before she had to leave. She is a treasure and I wish that covid wasn't a thing anymore so we could do more stuff together. Maybe in the near future we could do dinner or something. She is far more comfortable with not practicing physical distancing - where I am not, but with her I'm okay with it.

Today, Sunday, might be another day of canning. This time I will get the pears ready for canning. Hopefully the pear that I picked last weekend are close to being ready. It should be a nice project for a not so hot day. 

I've decided to make a long weekend so I'll be home tomorrow as well. So far the whole weekend has been filled with projects and activities - today & tomorrow will be no different.

Farm Life is a Full Life!

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter!

For the first time in forever we are not celebrating Easter with our church family. Thank you COVID-19. Instead we'll be meeting remotely and separately as we tune into Felida's YouTube live session later this morning. It's a good thing really, we can only hope that unchurched people might land on the video during or after. It's not ideal, but it's what we've got right now and at least we'll be able to attend worship, but only separately. Sunday evening is our Small Group night and we have been meeting via Zoom. A handy tool to allow us to meet for a short period of time.

My weekend started on Friday and I feel like I've done enough that I don't feel like the day was wasted. Also, I'm trying not to beat myself up when I don't feel like doing the things that I say that I might want to tackle. Staying home is enough to keep me feeling down, so I don't need to set my expectations high.

Yesterday and Friday I did spend some time in the Hoop House getting things cleaned up and organized. Also decided to transplant some seedlings - even though they were on the small side. The only problem that I ran into was the fact that my seedling trays were mostly trashed and I had to get more. My choices: Amazon or drive to Wilco in Battle Ground. Because I don't like to go to Battle Ground I looked on Amazon first. After searching for a few minutes and kind of being interested in a couple of different offerings, I decided to drive to Battle Ground. This trip will probably be the last trip out there for a while. At least it is an option.

A mix of saved seeds and new seeds from Seed Savers

Both Friday and Yesterday were beautiful sunny days so I was happy to be in the hoop house and not out in the wind. Friday the temp reached 82 degrees out in there! Anyway, transplanted more than is pictured above. Looking forward to more days getting seeds and seedlings planted or transplanted!

The one thing that I wanted to do, which probably will happen today, is to get the tarp out and cover the garden for the next few weeks. The chickens have been moved out and it's time to start the prep with a period of baking for the next month or so.

This was taken March 10th.

My hope is to start planting in about a month. That gives me a few weeks to plan where to put my crops and how close I want to make the beds. The vining crops take too much room, so those will be planted somewhere else. Maybe in the space where I tried to do Three Sisters last year.

Lots to plan!

Late yesterday we went for a walk and as we were getting started we saw this:

These are the neighbors who live across the street from us. They were practicing Social Distancing and playing BINGO. I didn't notice them at first since I getting my Pokemon Go working. Then I heard someone yelling out B-11 or whatever. We are only acquainted with three of the families and it was fun to see them outside. This sheltering in place has caused people to think about relationships and this is awesome! On our way back I heard one of the men yell "The winner of the next round wins eggs from the neighbors!" Hahaha...I would have brought over a goose egg if I were feeling saucy enough. Next time.

And now it is after small group time and I've got a little time to finish this post.

This afternoon we DID get the tarp on the garden, but when I was out a little bit ago, the wind had blew some of the tarp around. We'll need to find some heavier weights for the corners I guess.

The only problem is that the garlic is in the big garden this year. I decided to try planting into the ground instead of into a raised box to see what kind of difference that would make. While I knew that I would be putting a tarp over the garden this year, that didn't stop me from planting the garlic. Note to self - plant garlic elsewhere this fall.

Also moved the fence around Fiona and piglet's area. It's only been two weeks with the piglets, but Fiona has been in the space a week more. Fortunately Fiona is the only one with full size pig poo. The littles still have itty-bitty everything! So, they will be okay for another couple of weeks.

Now my weekend is coming to an end and I'll need to get back into work-mode tomorrow. I'm certainly not looking forward to it as the project that I'm working on is very tedious. I am grateful that I still have work coming my way and that I don't have to worry about being furloughed or laid-off.

The only thing getting into the way of farm life is work :( Oh well, it's not forever and really farm life is still pretty sweet and I can't wait until this is my forever!

A Day Off

Even though working at home feels weird, because I'm working - mostly. I still need a day off. Besides, I've spent nearly three weeks at home now and it was time!

Amazon Prints has a fun thing they offer on the website - personalized mugs! So I've taken to creating a new mug when we get something new on our farm - and even have ordered a couple for gifts. I started this with Rex & Fiona when they were first here with us and the latest mug is of their offspring - the PIGLETS!

Other things that I got up to today would be working in my hoop house and getting some of my seedlings transplanted into pots to help them along.

This space is a little disheveled

I had some success and some half successes - I did get 7 Purple Kohlrabi seedlings and 7 Romanesco  seedlings, the successes. All ten of my Salvaterra tomato seeds sprouted, but not all were ready for transplanting, but since I was not on top of keep track of the seedlings over the past week many of the seedlings withered.

Overall I had a nice day off from working in the Dining Room which included a lot of hanging with our momma pig and her babies...

Going into the weekend with a much better outlook! Farm Life is helping :)

When the Garden is Done

The garden that produced so much for us and is still actually producing some stuff is finally winding down. Last weekend we started to pull up plants, harvest Sunflower heads, clean up some hardware and then let the feathered creatures come in and enjoy some gleaning.

For weeks, I had been trying to get Walter & Leona to come into the garden and root around for stuff. They had a chance to come in a few weeks ago, but found it too intimidating I guess because they wouldn't follow me in.

This was the one and only time this summer that we had waterfowl in the garden:

At that time they just hid out behind the Three Sisters corn and when it was time to get them to go, they showed how stubborn they can be, very stubborn.

The geese are so veggie-centric that I KNEW that they would have to stay out. Until now.

Gus & Greta can't believe their good fortune

When they first walked into the garden, they just stood there not understanding what they should do. Then they saw the bean plants and that was it...they started to nibble on the leaves. This is a surprising thing about these two, they are not 100% into the bean leaves, but they LOOOVE the beans. Lenny was the opposite, loved the leaves and couldn't understand that the bean was food too. Since the weekend they have been able to come and go into the garden whenever they please. Of course that is available while we are home.

The other day I suggested to Tom that they be corralled into the garden when he has to leave for an extended period of time. That works out well because it is a sad sight to see them in their house and when they are in with the ducks the ducks are unhappy. This is the perfect solution. Well, until the garden is planted again.

The only thing that I will put in the garden this fall is the garlic when it finally is delivered. The season between the fall stuff and getting the spring/summer crops in can be a little on the longer side. This way we won't have to put the chickens in the garden...not just yet anyway. The chickens do great at tilling and spreading things like compost around.

I do like to put tarp down over the garden to smother weeds that have come up and give the garden a chance to recover during the late winter, so the critters will have to stay out. I might put down some cover crop after all of the plants are out, but I haven't decided for sure just yet.

Anyway, the feathered critters have been enjoying their smorgasbord of leftover beans and some sunflower seeds and corn stalks. The geeses REALLY like the corn stalks. I'm not sure what it is...maybe they like the feel of the leaves. They are so weird...they try out everything!

All of the waterfowl including Betty

Betty and the duckies she hatched

There are a couple of Butternut squash still on the vine, so I'll have to wait until they are appropriately ripe before pulling up the three sisters plants. I would like to dry the corn stalks and maybe line the rest of the fence with them. We'll see.

This time of year is always a little sad, but I still try to grow something during the Fall and Winter. Then I'll start planning my 2020 garden!

Farm Life - growing food for people and animals!

Natural Pest Control

A couple of weeks ago I noticed some cabbageworm damage on my....cabbage - duh.

Besides geese that eat anything and everything and bunnies that squeeze through the fence the other pest we have in the garden would be cabbageworms. Rather than letting the little buggers continue eating my plants I decided it was time to fight back. Checked into Mr. Google-Pants and found a couple of different things that could work. One of the remedies required more ingredients than I was willing to put into the spray, but the other...well, it was the winner.

My search for Essential Oils and cabbageworms took me to MIGardener and an all-purpose garden pest control spray. This recipe only required three different essential oils, some dish soap and water. That's it! So easy! Go HERE to get more details on the recipe.

BUT...The real test would be how effective is the spray in action?

So I ordered up my inexpensive essential oils (marigold, peppermint and rosemary) each cost 10ml bottle was less than $10 - thank you very much Amazon. Received the delivery on July 3rd and mixed up the solution and sprayed my plants on the 4th. As I sprayed I made note of how many worms I saw and the damage that had already been done. At that time the damage wasn't extensive, but I'm sure that the worms would be back in no time to munch more of the plants. We gotta put an end to that! By the weekend I noticed that there wasn't MORE damage - ALRIGHT! The first spray was a little on the light side so I decided to spray the plants a little more. Couldn't hurt right?

It rained a little this week so yesterday I spray the plants a little more. Checking underneath most of the leaves I found that the damage didn't increase AND only found one green worm trying to make a meal of my plant. Sorry dude...spritz, spritz, spritz!

July 9, 2019

Now, the total cost of the essential oils was $25.47, but the solution is concentrated, so only a small portion would be used to mix up a gallon of the spray (although, I only have a quart size spray bottle right now). Essential oils are super powerful, so even the tiniest amount makes a difference. The fact that I'm not using chemicals in the garden is worth it though. If I don't spray this is what might happen:

photo credit storyblocks video

It's not a pretty sight, but it's also one that I don't want in my garden.

What kind of pest control do you use? Comment below :)

Farm Life is the best life - bugs and all!

Curb Appeal

Some people have nicely manicured front lawns. Maybe a flower bed or a tree or two. Or maybe you live out in the far reaches of the county and no one can see your front yard so you plant a car out there. Well, we were the people with just a tree and really sad grass and something that once resembled a flower bed. As much as I would like to have a nice front yard to sit in and watch the world go by, it's just something that we have never done. Sitting in the front yard sounds like such a nice activity...(sigh)

These days we have no grass and if there is anything out there it's the overgrown cover crop that should have been tilled under weeks ago. We don't even have a curb! Tom has tried to use the space as a garden for the past 3 seasons. There was some success, but mostly things that gave it a good try and then gave up. Plus it's the front yard - and we really don't spend time out there. Also, the tree that's in the middle doesn't help out much. Things that are planted around the edge of the yard usually does well. Most other things not so much. Although, there was a zucchini plant out there last year. Zucchini probably isn't too picky...just stick a plant in the soil and it will take off!

After a couple of seasons with chickens I have decided that it would be okay to go ahead and let the girls work the front yard garden. I mean really, if we aren't going to enjoy the space we may as well let the chickens hang out there. Up until this season I have been a little reluctant to have the chickens smack dab in the middle of the front yard. We are already a bit of a spectacle as it is. We don't need help in that area. In just the past couple of months the ducks and the pigs had been hanging out in the front yard for the cover crops which the pigs enjoy or what might be hiding under the fallen leaves. The ducks love to root around in the leaves!

The poor girls had a mud pit up until this past Monday

Now that it has been a few days, I'm okay with them in front of the house. They don't seem to mind much either.

The chicken's new space

The girls were patiently waiting to be set free to explore their new space.

 I'm not sure where we'll move them to next. We'll keep them out front at least a month, maybe a little longer or less depending on how much they tear up the mediocre lawn and the cover crop in the garden.

Whenever we can get the chickens (or any critter) to do the work for us, the better!

Farm Life is the best when you put chickens in the front yard.

Starting Seeds

Okay, so growing our own vegetables isn't entirely foreign to me. We have grown all sorts of gardens large and small over the years. Some were very elaborate like a potager garden - fancy for kitchen garden or very free form, which I like to call the free range garden. All of my gardens have been a combination of store bought plants and us starting seeds at home. Either way, I have always had a fair amount of success.

A couple of years ago the big garden on the street side of the privacy fence was a disaster. I couldn't get anything to germinate - not even flowers! It was extremely frustrating. How could I NOT be able to grow any flowers?! The things that did come up were celebrated one day and then a couple of days later I would find that they were eaten by a critter. Stupid deer. So the end of that garden season was very disappointing with few veggies to count as a success. Seriously...no flowers that year.

The following year we decided to run the chickens through the garden and let them "do the work." Hello permaculture. Last year's garden was FABULOUS! Most things were from seed. Those that I started in the hoop house a few weeks before transplanting. I was giddy! We tried new things and even the things that didn't do that great were minimal and I know to start certain things like the Three Sisters garden a little sooner than we did last year.

So, what is my beef this season? Well, my seed starting skills are not what they once were and I don't know why. By mid-March I had a few trays of seeds started, nothing terribly exotic. The success rate was mediocre at best. The things that did sprout were tomatoes. Which was great, but over the next couple of weeks some of the tomatoes started to wither. Which is fine, I always plant more just in case. I ended up with a dozen of pretty healthy seedlings which were transplanted into pots over the weekend:

Some of these looked a bit sad when I first transplanted them. I was hopeful that they would perk up and they did!

Here is an example of what didn't work:

Some of the seeds in this one came up, but I think that was somewhat accidental. The soil I used for these soil blocks wasn't ideal. It ended up being really heavy and solid blocks. Not awesome. I won't be picking up that soil mix again.

Another thing that I tried out for the first time ever was making little pots out of toilet paper tubes. I was getting tired of dumping something that could possibly be used somehow. After a search on Pinterest I found the post that led to this:

So they worked out pretty well. I think the key here was that fact that the soil wasn't totally packed into these little cups. These are Romanesco (left) and Kohlrabi (right). This part is the success part, we'll see what happens once they are transplanted into bigger pots or even straight into the ground.

Of the 5 trays that I prepared throughout the month of March only two were semi-successful. This morning I spent some time getting the cell packs out and ready for seeds. The one tray that didn't work included the free tomato seeds that were included in my order from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds and the Shishito peppers - a favorite and the really cool Royal Golden Watermelon. The other tray is all herbs and some squash.

In the transplants and the cell packs I used the cheapest potting soil I have ever seen and it seems so much better than the last stuff that we found at Lowe's. We are kind of experimenting here. We bought and planted three varieties of blueberry plants (one of each) into the yard bed along with the Olympian Fig that I got a couple of years ago. The blueberry plants along with the soil were from Walmart. I have never thought to buy garden supplies at WM - so this year will be interesting If all works out, I think I'll have to stock up on the soil. Anyway, we'll see how things turn out in the days to come.

I came to the conclusion that maybe soil blocks might be the better way to go for my fall crops. Which I will start by mid-summer. The hoop house get's a lot of heat, so I'll have to set up some trays in the garage so that they will have a little bit of a chance of surviving.

Growing a garden is my jam...it's what makes Farm Life the best!

April 1 - 6, 2019

We just love these two pigs!

This week was Washington's Spring Break. So my week at work was pretty slow and kinda tiring in a way. I would much rather be at home doing my farm stuff than sitting at work trying to get to the end of the day. Here are some of the happenings from the last week.

The Freedom Rangers:

The Freedom Rangers have been doing quite well out in the Chicken Tractor and have had a few opportunities to forage in their fenced area - which is new this year. Last Sunday - after we returned from church I relocated the two chicks that were injured to the outside area. They spent a full week apart from the others, but blended right in pretty quickly. So that's a happy thing.

Today was their first move while in the tractor and we are heading out toward the field now. This spot will be so much better for them - they started their first week on the spot where the ducks were before we moved them out near the pigs. So there was a lot of straw and nearly bare lawn ready for them to poop it up.

As of today we are at nine weeks to go. The time will go by quickly and before we know it we'll be off to pick up the poultry kit at the Conservation District in Battle Ground and getting ready to set up the processing area. We will move part of the processing into the garage - the evisceration area. I doubt that it will keep the Yellow Jackets away more, but I think it will be a cleaner area overall. I have a couple of people who have already said that they will help and I might have one more person. I really want to make sure that we get this done efficiently and more hands will help in that area. We'll see. In the end we need to be flexible and just go with the flow.

The PIGS:

Well, we had hoped that Fiona would be bred again, but she had a heat cycle toward the end of March. We don't know if Rex was able to get the deed done, so we are watching to see if she has another cycle this month. However just earlier this afternoon I was observing the pigs and Fiona has a look about her than might suggest that she is pregnant. Her teats are starting to look elongated and her belly is starting to sag.

Now, I don't know if pigs are like humans in that their bodies go into pregnancy mode after a few weeks in anticipation of starting to carry a baby or piglets in this case. So, as we are unsure of her status we'll just have to wait and see if she goes into heat again this month. Hope, Hope...

The Shelter:

We have a plan to revamp the old parking structure into a pig/storage shelter. With all of the other projects that has been put on hold. So Fiona could wait on being pregnant again so that there will be time to get a more appropriate area ready for her and Rex.

Here is the structure in all of it's dilapidated glory - this was in February. At some point we'll be able to circle back around to this project and get it going again. Like how I said "we'll?" hahahahaha. I'm only qualified to pass tools or hold the ladder or whatever. My hope is to turn the left part of the structure into a swine condo along with a farrowing room for Fiona. We have no idea what the room was used for, but it is perfect for our princess pig to give birth in. I also have a vision to incorporate a couple of stalls to try to keep the adults separated from the littles. They would also have easy access to pasture behind the shed to get out and graze a bit. There are a couple of other things that are happening that actually is more important and this project will be on hold for the rest of the month - most likely. That and it is April and the rains have started up this past week. Welcome Spring...Indeed.

The Garden:

Last weekend I thought I would broadfork the big garden. After a couple of passes I was over it and decided that the rototiller would be best. The garden is very compacted right now for some reason and it was difficult getting the broadfork to go very deep at all. Tom was planning to rototill anyway so he started with the garden and I dragged the silage tarp out and it is now covering the garden until it's time to plant.

In going through and ditching some of my old seeds I found an old package of peas that are the bush variety. They were from 2017 and unopened. I decided to see if they would germinate and now that it is nearly two  weeks later and still nothing. Okay, I'll have to figure something else out and plant the seeds that I saved from last years pea crop. They are one of the first seeds that I decided to save so I'm excited. In fact I'll plant the bean seeds that I saved from last year's beans as well. Both seeds came from Seed Savers Exchange.

Tomorrow I will be working on starting seeds again. The flower seeds that I sowed several weeks ago are doing alright so that's a good thing. There is one tray in which nothing germinated - which in itself is a frustrating thing. I think the soil that I chose wasn't a good choice as some of the seeds were from last year and should still have been viable. Other things did okay, but not great. So, I think I will be coming up with a new plan and see how it goes. There are a two or three other veggies that I want to grow, but I need to get the seeds first. I will probably spend some time in the hoop house tomorrow afternoon and maybe start a few extra tomato seeds and get some lettuce seeds sowed somewhere else in the hoop house bed. Maybe April will be a better month.

I always look forward to the days that I can spend time at home working on projects. One day this will be my everyday thing. One day.

Farm Life is My Favorite Life!

Will 2019 Be the Year?

It's New Year's eve and end of 2018 is coming quickly!

Tom spent Saturday with the Voyage kids at Winter Youth and they did a service project in Milwaukie. While they were there he spied this cool set up on the church property. 

These photos got me thinking about how we might get some people to garden with us...a small neighborhood community garden of sorts. All of these raised boxes are so cool! I can picture the area between the crop garden and the road looking like this!

We might have to just start building raised beds and charge rent per season - maybe that would be the way to go. Maybe build the boxes and grow stuff and sell the stuff? Donate? Make it a church project? All of the above, none of the above?

There are options, but where to start...hmmm...

I guess I'll see if anyone is interested and go from there. This may be one of those ideas that will stay on my radar for the foreseeable future.

Always dreaming and always planning. One of these days my dreams will come true.

Back to reality though...2019 will be awesome because I'm going to make it awesome!

Happy New Year!

Always Planning

My mind can't seem to rest. I'm always thinking of the next thing to do - whether the project is for the garden, chickens, ducks or pigs. Sometimes I think of other projects like for gifting (Christmas anyone?) or for Operation Christmas child - my latest idea is to crochet washcloths. We'll see how long that lasts.

So what am I thinking about right now? Well let's take a look...

Garden - A few weeks ago I decided that we should grow asparagus in one of the areas in the back yard. After some research I found that I will need a lot of space to plant 25 crowns. Oh, I plan to order from Territorial Seed company in Oregon. An order has 25 crowns. It's a good thing we like asparagus.

Hoop House #2. I'm hoping for a new and improved space to grow tomatoes and other veggies that like the hot temperatures. I already know where I would like it situated - just need to start building it.

Chickens - Well this is a little more involved area as I am also dreaming up the waterfowl situation. Let's start with the chickens I am dreaming about having an actual mobile flock to work different areas of the property. This flock would be for clean-up purposes (and eggs).

Along with this mini-flock I would like to include a pair of goslings to get the goose factor back on the farm. My hope is to having a breeding pair of Embden geese. We miss Mr. Lenny quite a bit and things are very different without him so we want to get the goose on the loose back.

The Chick Shaw MiniMe - this is a smaller version of the chick mobile that we built last year hence the name MiniMe. This will be for our mini flock of chickens and the geese (are you sensing the theme here?) This coop is 4' L x 4' W x 2' H. I've got wheels already - so that is one less thing to plan for later.

While we are on the subject of housing for the chickens, we have thought about building another chicken tractor. That way the ducks will still have something to live in and we'll have one for the meaties...

Freedom Rangers! Shooting for a June processing date so it's time to get the order in for a March pick-up in Tangent. It has been gratifying to go and pull out a chicken from the freezer. One that has been raised on pasture and contains no funky stuff. Truly happy chickens doing what chickens do eat bugs and grass and get to run free on pasture. Gotta get the calendar out and figure out the dates so I can get the poultry kit reserved. More meat into the freezer!

Pigs - We are hoping that Miss Fiona will farrow sometime in the next 6-8 months. Which means we need to keep an eye on what is happening with Fiona and Rex. We know that Rexy has shown interest in his partner. However we are not sure how far the interaction progressed...because there was something going on - if you get my meaning...hehe.

Next week we'll be heading to the farm where we purchased our pair 'o pigs and watch as the farmers process one of their hogs. This is a learning opportunity for us and I am looking forward to checking out how things are done.

There are so many other things that just go through my mind it can be a little crazy. What I need to do is set aside thoughts about the farm and focus on getting my Christmas projects done.

The year is almost over, but there is always some to dream about and plan for!

Farm Life is the BEST Life

Slowing down...

Now that fall is here and Daylight Saving Time has ended we are doing the bare minimum during the week and doing projects around the farm - weather permitting. 

Last weekend I was feeling extremely tired and actually napped. I did a couple of things outside, but then decided that rest was more important. Mostly because starting this weekend I'll be a little busy doing Operation Christmas Child activities. Go HERE to check out this Samaritan's Purse project if you are not familiar with it. 

Anyway...

I was able to get some veggies in a couple of planting spots. The garden has been mostly pulled up..still need to pull up the flowers. The sorghum that popped up is HUGE and I can't get the plants up now that they are spent. Also have a couple of cabbage left, the kale and a few onions. Hoping to get things cleaned up a bit while I am off work next week. Then the tarps need to come out and the sand bags. However, I could let the chickens do the final clean up before the tarp goes down. We'll see.

Another project I hope to accomplish is to move Rexy & Fiona to the other side of the former parking structure. I am hoping to make that old structure into their new home. Once they breed (and we are hopeful) it would be nice to give Fiona a space for her and her piglets.

Question of the day:  Have they mated? 

Well, just a couple of days ago Tom did witness Mr. Rexy putting some moves on Miss Fiona and she wasn't pushing him away...

We'll see - maybe it will happen before the year is over. Missy is now 8 months old and it's time for her to get to work...hahaha. I was told a couple of months ago to watch for signs of mating. Since I'm not home all of the time I wouldn't know. However, it was encouraging to me to know that Tom had witnessed something. Since I like to research stuff...the American Guinea Hog Association says:

"Males can breed as early as approximately 6 to 8 months of age. Gilts (young females) can come into their first heat (estrus cycle) as early as 8 months of age. When exposed to a male, females can farrow (give birth) near or shortly after their first birthday."

Since we have absolutely NO idea what to look for I'm a little anxious to know if they will actually breed or if they will just be lazy and just want food. Given that Mr. Rexy-Pants has shown interest in Fiona I'm not worried about his intentions. However, Fiona might just play hard to get...

While we are on the subject of pigs. I got a text from Farmer Jason about harvesting one of their pigs and one or both of us hanging out and learning how it is done. By one I mean Tom...although, I would like to go and check out the process as well - because for some reason I'm not freaked out by harvesting animals, feathered or furry. This is a great opportunity as option #2 would allow us to bring home a portion of the pork at a very reasonable price. I see pork in my future...

So, while we continue to slow the pace a bit, we'll be enjoying the weather a bit. This is the time of year that we would normally get quite a bit of rain and we did a couple of weeks ago, but it was mostly the weekend and during the night. This week is looking good though...wish I could get home before sunset to help with the chores though. I'm missing my crazy little quackers! 

Sigh....Farm Life...

Now That The Chickens Are Done...

What do we do now?

There is so much still that needs to be done and it appears that I am starting to run out of time! Well, that might be an exaggeration, but I feel that sometimes. The days a getting shorter and my To-Do list seems to get longer. That's mainly because I keep coming up with things that I could probably do with this, that and the other thing. There are two things that absolutely need to happen this month - within the next couple of weeks would be preferable.

First....Garlic. For the first time ever I decided to order seed garlic and since I didn't know what I wanted I went with a sampler.

I'm pretty excited about planting garlic. I tried to do garlic a couple of years ago, but then after a little research realized that garlic needs to be planted in the fall. Maybe I kinda knew that. Also, I used what store variety we had hoping that something would come up. I think a couple did - but that was it. Since then I decided to move on to other things. I'm ready to go back to it and give a go. More than that this needs to be successful - seed garlic is not cheap...well, it's not overly expensive, but for $25 I want some quality garlic coming out of the garden. That's not a lot to ask for, right?

The other thing that needs to be planted would be my Saffron Crocus. I'm still trying to come up with a space for those. I may have to just plop those into one of the garden boxes that are now officially mine. The only thing is these dudes are fall bloomers. So I'll need to figure out what will be okay to grow with these until fall rolls around. Maybe a box of pretty herbs and flowers...hmmm...

crocus sativus

What will I do with the Saffron? I have no idea. I just had the idea to put something special into the garden and see what happens. This will be interesting. What I do know is that saffron is an expensive spice. Either way, it can be quite spendy for the amout that you get and how long it will last. I got it once and I can't think what I used it for. So, this time next year maybe I'll have some saffron flowers blooming and then maybe I'll have a few strands of saffron to try out. I'll have to learn how to deal with these things so as not to destroy what I'm hoping to use in the kitchen.

Always trying something new!

Labor Day 2018

Is it really September...how on earth is that possible?

Just looking at the calendar this month is already going to be fairly busy with all sorts of appointments and vacation time later this month. I will be taking a few hours of sick time for various appointments one of them being my MRI that was messed up last week.

Anyway, what has been happening on the farm so far? It's that time of year when it's time to start harvesting and preserving food. We are slowly getting some of what we planted just a couple two, three months ago.

Last weekend I dug up a couple of potato plants to see what we had so far. The potatoes were on the smaller side which is fine, I just wanted to see where they were as far as size. So when I went back out on Sunday and dug up some more I was surprised to see how much bigger they were. Once I got started it was hard to stop. When I had a bucket full I needed to do something with them - oooh...hash browns!

A couple of years ago I had seen a pin on Pinterest (good ol' pinterest) for freezing potatoes for hash browns. We didn't have enough potatoes from last year to do that, but this year I made sure there would be a GOOD supply! Two big rows in the big garden and a couple more in Tom's garden in front of the house.

Sunday afternoon was my hash browns day - it's hard to tell from this photo, but there are 5 quart size bags with enough potatoes for either one serving or two. It's good to have options. Also, for every couple of servings of green beans I'll be blanching/freezing a package of beans.

So my plan from now until there is nothing left to pick in the garden - process a certain amount of potatoes and beans for the freezer and then eat the rest throughout the week. If I can figure out how to process the kale we have in abundance I'll do it. Since I haven't even looked anywhere I'm not sure that I'll actually do it.

ANYWAY...

My hope was to have paste tomatoes to at least make into sauce and throw in the freezer as well. That's a big fat no go right now. The tomatoes were the last thing to go in and the spot where they are has not been that great. This year I'll have even less than last year.

Oh well, gardening is a constant learning experience right? I have mentioned to Tom that I need a second hoop house just for tomatoes. The first year we had the hoop house we had all sorts of tomatoes coming out of there. That on top of all of the cherry tomatoes in the garden.

Oh well, there is always next year.

On Labor Day which was yesterday I did a few of projects just for the fun of it. The first was a big ol' pot of chicken soup with some the sweet potatoes from a couple of my Imperfect Produce boxes. What an easy soup too, chicken, sweet potatoes, fennel bulb and onions. Season with salt and pepper. That's it! This way we won't have to think about what to do for dinner for the next night or two.

Project #2 - Fermenting Cabbage & Beets

A couple of years ago I discovered fermenting cabbage (sauerkraut). Super easy and so good! That firstyear I only had enough cabbage from the garden to do one jar. So I've been thinking about sauerkraut since then. As I said before last year's garden was terrible and I got almost nothing come harvest time.

Earlier this season I got a good size head of cabbage from Imperfect Produce so more sauerkraut happened. Last week I got another cabbage and some beets too. So I found another recipe to ferment cabbage and beets together! We'll see how that turns out, should be good though so I'm looking forward to that!

My plan is to plant beets in the fall garden and ferment some beets when those are ready to go. Also, the filderkraut that I planted in June is starting to look like it's doing something, so some of that might make it into the pantry as well. These might be a good projects for sometime in November.

Project #3 - Herbed salt

Why did I even think about that? Well, thanks to Pinterest I had another fun thing to do with the Rosemary that has been growing like crazy.

Seriously, this couldn't be easier...snipped enough sprigs of rosemary to make up about a cup and a half. Washed, dried and then whizzed them up in the food processor. Added about a half cup of kosher salt and ta-da - herby salt. Tom used it to season our smash burgers last night. SO GOOD!

Project #4 - Snack Bars

A few weeks ago a friend of mine had a virtual Pampered Chef party on Facebook. After checking out the goods I decided on a snackbar maker. All I would have to do is keep the ingredients in the pantry and ready to go. I have had that thing for several weeks and didn't do anything with it until a couple of weeks ago when I found a Larabar hack on...yep, Pinterest.

This recipe is great! No funky stuff and makes just enough mixture for a dozen bars. This is only the second batch I've made, but since they are so easy, I can see myself experimenting with other flavors. Maybe even give them away as a gift at Christmas.

As much as I love planning and getting my garden going, I think that harvest time is also pretty fun. So many options to preserve for future meals.

Our next big project will be coming up in a couple of weeks when we process the Freedom Rangers. We might be harvesting them a little early, but they are growing like crazy so it might not be so bad. As this is our first batch and we had no idea what we were doing, we are going to get to processing day with 16 birds. Out of those 16 we plan to keep one. Just because she is unique and that was the plan from the beginning. We have the equipment reserved, we have at least one other person on board...possibly two. I'm looking forward to our first batch of home grown chicken.

I evidently cannot count because these chickies are 8 almost 9 weeks old!

Here's to the harvest!

As always...Farm Life is the Best Life!

It's Fall Garden Time!

It's that time! Just when you thought that the gardening season was winding down, it's actually ramping up again!

For me it's all about seeing what crops will grow during our wet winters. In the first Fall/Winter garden most things grew and the BEST crop was the Pac Choi! I had several Flower Sprouts which grew, but I think it may have cross pollinated with the purple broccoli that was nearby. Oh, we had a few bunches of purple broccoli too...it was awesome! The one item that I was not happy with was the chinese cabbage - it was eaten up by some bug/worm pretty good. Of course most of the greens did great.

Last year didn't really go well. I don't even remember what I tried to grow. All I know is that not much worked. So I just gave up on it altogether.

This year I've chosen to grow a couple of new things - Kohlrabi and Romanesco and some root vegetables. Turnips for the pigs and Beets for fermenting. Greens and I think that should do it.

I'm a little behind with getting the seeds started - it's been blazing hot which makes the hoop house a super oven. So it was time to clear a spot in the garden garage to set up my soil and trays. It's temporary though...I hope to be done with all of the trays by the end of the month. Who knows, I may look for some more seeds in my inventory.

The Summer garden is just now coming around and starting to produce a couple of veggies. I really need to figure out when I got the potatoes in so I can have an idea how much longer I need to wait before I can start digging. I love growing potatoes!

You never know how many spuds you'll end up with.

Insert photo of garden here.

My photo wouldn't load. So you'll have to use your imagination. Good luck with that ;)

It's time to end this post and start my evening routine!

Farm Life!

Really Trying To Post Daily Now

This morning I was supposed to head over to a friend's house to help out with getting a tree cleared from her driveway (?) Anyway, I wasn't one of the original people that was asked to help out, but since Tom would be going I thought I would tag along.

I decided to stay home because...

Woke up around 3 am this morning (again) after another terrible night of sleep and had a awful dream about how we only had 9 or 10 Freedom Rangers left and how I thought in my dream that it wouldn't be worth it to rent the equipment - blah blah blah. I'm so tired and have had a headache this morning. BLAH.

Since I'm not one to just sit around, I did a little bit of work outside so I would at least feel like I accomplished something.

I'll be starting some seeds for the Fall garden soon. This is something that actually should have happened last month, but everything is behind this year - and I'm still working on the summer garden.  So I cleaned up the bench in the garden garage and got some supplies all put together to start that later today.

Also did a little video of my reason for watering the garden the way that I have not been a fan of before -

I apologize for the lack of steadiness...I'm a newb when it comes to doing videos along with narration. Could this possibly be Vlogging?! I hope to get better...we'll see.

This year I also decided to try planting Three Sisters - corn, squash and beans. While I should have started this experiment sooner it seems to be working out okay. I can only hope that our summer will last a little longer. If it does maybe I'll get a few beans off of the plants that have started to vine up the corn stalks.

This is what I have done so far today. I may post again later this evening. Enjoy the day wherever you are!

Farm Life is the Best Life!

End of the Week...YAY

A few weeks ago a friend of ours who had just stopped by our house reported to me that there was a bunny in the garden.

oh fine.

I had specifically gotten a short fence to go around the garden. For a while it was working just fine. No bunnies that I could tell. There were deer, but there wasn't much for them to feast on.

Now that we were aware of the bunny I started to realize that I really would like to have a green bean harvest. The beans were really the only thing that was being eaten. I'm not sure if the bunnies were doing the damage or the deer.

Hmmm...what should I do?

Solution: Use a few of the bamboo hoop things and use some netting to keep the bunnies out. Ran into a problem though, I ran out of netting after covering up 4 of the plants.

Well , dadgum.

Off to Parkrose! A bag of popcorn and $10 later I was back in business....got home and finished up my project.

This should do it! The netting doesn't show up, but it's there. In the week that since I got this done the beans have been looking really good. There might even be some beans to pick for dinner this weekend.

Tonight was a no outside project time for me. Had a couple of friends come over for games, but we ended up walking outside and doing a farm critter update. Then into the house the three of us went - Tom stayed outside and did some work.

We shared a big bottle of Two Towns Hard Cider - so good! And spent about an hour visiting. Didn't get to that game after all. It has been a while since we last were together to just connect. It's just what we all needed.

In other farm news...

The remaining 17 Rangers are doing well, there are a couple of little ones, but they will perk up soon enough. They may just be late bloomers. I am hopeful that we'll make it to 11 weeks with 17!

Oh, during my lunch break with Tom our neighbor from across the street happened to come into Starbucks. We visited for a couple of minutes before I mentioned that we wanted to talk to them about putting his older boys to work and having them take care of the pigs and poultry so we could get away for a night or two sometime. He said the boys would love it and that when they come back we could chat some more.

SCORE! It's time to plan a coast getaway!

What would life be like if I didn't have to go to work 40-hours a week.

Farm Life is the Best Life!!!