We don't watch a lot of TV. There are shows that we enjoy watching so if we happen to have downtime and it's a time when the show is on TV we'll watch it. Like right now I am liking the Masterpiece and ITV shows (Grantchester, Downton Abbey etc). On network TV we try to catch the Big Bang Theory. Yeah, that's how we came up with the names for the goose (Leonard) and the duck (Sheldon).
However, when we are done with dinner or our chores we like to sit down and watch our favorite YouTube videos.
Here are our faves:
1. Justin Rhodes (abundant permaculture). He's and his family homestead in the mountains of North Carolina. He and the Beautiful One have 4 kiddos and they are currently on what they are calling "The Great American Farm Tour." Check them out HERE.
2. Art & Bri - Another Homesteading family in North Carolina and friends of the Rhodes family. We started watching their videos back when they were really just getting started with their journey. So much has happened in the last year! Go HERE to check them out.
3. Sew the Land - a family of three who left Southern California to move to North Carolina to start a homestead. Their story is so inspiring as they left the life they lived for so long to do something entirely different. This just proves that you can do anything you set your mind to. Especially if you have left behind all of your friends and family. Go HERE for more.
Are you sensing a trend here? North Carolina is a hot spot!
4. John Suscovich - Okay, this is where we diversify! This guy and his wife manage Camps Road Farm in Connecticut. Now this farm is interesting to me because it is diverse. In addition to growing vegetables, he is big into growing chickens for meat as well as pigs. There is also a brewery on site as well as a brand new tasting room/farm store. Yeah, if we lived closer I would be visiting this farm for sure! Check out his video channel HERE.
5. Diego Footer - The host of Permaculture Voices. He has a YouTube channel that we try to watch, but to be honest it is hard to get in all of the videos I like to watch before it's time to call it a night. He is very much a food grower in a neighborhood setting. Also, he is in Southern California. Check him out HERE.
There are other channels, but I just wanted to list my favorites and channels that are farm related. Check them out and let me know what you think - OR - share what you are watching.
Monday, July 17, 2017
Friday, July 14, 2017
A Day In A Life
So, our days get pretty full and by the end of the week I am ready for the weekend for sure!
This is a run down of the day - keep in mind we are now training for a half marathon, so the training runs are happening in the morning which just makes the time at home jam packed until I leave for work!
What our day looks like:
0415 - usual waking time. It makes sense when we run, but otherwise it's just plain silly. Waking up is a process for me, so I need a little time to make friends with the day - which includes a cup of coffee and playing on my phone and kindle checking email and checking what's "trending" on facebook and Instagram.
0457 - the Dude alarm goes off - Time to feed the cat! By this time we should be ready to head out the door.
0500 to 0510 - we leave separately for the current run training. We run separate as it motivates me more to keep going. It really is a little creepy to be out so early on my own. At least Tom and I cross paths at some point.
0530 to 0600 - depending on the distance we return back to the house.
0545ish - this is the usual time to go and start the chicken chores. Give the little ladies and little roo's their breakfast and let the two hooligans (the duck and the goose) out for pool time and their own food time.
0615 - Tom gets into the shower.
0630 - I get into the shower and get ready for work.
0715-0725 - head out to a well known coffee spot for ANOTHER coffee, sometimes breakfast and a visit with whoever might be lurking about.
0745 - time to go to Hazel Dell.
0800-1130 - work, Work, WORK!
1130 - 1230- Lunch time!
1230 - 1700 - More work, Work, WORK!!
1700 - done at work! Time to go home!!
1715ish - arrive home.
The rest of the day consists of eating dinner, conversation on my day and Tom's day, watching our favorite YouTube videos.
THEN
Anywhere from 1800 to 1900 - we start the evening routine of getting the chickens fed and the hooligans watered and fed. This includes pool time for the duck and the goose. They like to wander around the property to forage on weeds and grass.
By 2000 - the boys need to be led back to the chicken corrale and I have to get my garden stuff done.
Yes, I have a garden too. If you look at my last post you'll see that it's mediocre at best.
So, yeah - this is a typical day. However this doesn't even include the extra stuff that comes up like appointments and friend time and stuff like that.
Now that we are running regularly again (this week) I'm pretty tired by the end of the day. I try to maintain, but sometimes a girl's gotta have a little downtime, but WHERE would that fit in?!
We are following a 10-week training plan for the ONE event that we will be doing this year. We are only finishing up week one. The mileage ramps up quite a bit, so I'm not sure how we will accomplish all that needs to be done (training runs that are more than 4 miles) in the already jam packed first few hours of the day...BEFORE work!! Oooh...a challenge. Just what I need!
Well, at least we are living life to the fullest...I think I need to nap :)
This is a run down of the day - keep in mind we are now training for a half marathon, so the training runs are happening in the morning which just makes the time at home jam packed until I leave for work!
What our day looks like:
0415 - usual waking time. It makes sense when we run, but otherwise it's just plain silly. Waking up is a process for me, so I need a little time to make friends with the day - which includes a cup of coffee and playing on my phone and kindle checking email and checking what's "trending" on facebook and Instagram.
0457 - the Dude alarm goes off - Time to feed the cat! By this time we should be ready to head out the door.
0500 to 0510 - we leave separately for the current run training. We run separate as it motivates me more to keep going. It really is a little creepy to be out so early on my own. At least Tom and I cross paths at some point.
0530 to 0600 - depending on the distance we return back to the house.
0545ish - this is the usual time to go and start the chicken chores. Give the little ladies and little roo's their breakfast and let the two hooligans (the duck and the goose) out for pool time and their own food time.
0615 - Tom gets into the shower.
0630 - I get into the shower and get ready for work.
0715-0725 - head out to a well known coffee spot for ANOTHER coffee, sometimes breakfast and a visit with whoever might be lurking about.
0745 - time to go to Hazel Dell.
0800-1130 - work, Work, WORK!
1130 - 1230- Lunch time!
1230 - 1700 - More work, Work, WORK!!
1700 - done at work! Time to go home!!
1715ish - arrive home.
The rest of the day consists of eating dinner, conversation on my day and Tom's day, watching our favorite YouTube videos.
THEN
Anywhere from 1800 to 1900 - we start the evening routine of getting the chickens fed and the hooligans watered and fed. This includes pool time for the duck and the goose. They like to wander around the property to forage on weeds and grass.
By 2000 - the boys need to be led back to the chicken corrale and I have to get my garden stuff done.
Yes, I have a garden too. If you look at my last post you'll see that it's mediocre at best.
So, yeah - this is a typical day. However this doesn't even include the extra stuff that comes up like appointments and friend time and stuff like that.
Now that we are running regularly again (this week) I'm pretty tired by the end of the day. I try to maintain, but sometimes a girl's gotta have a little downtime, but WHERE would that fit in?!
We are following a 10-week training plan for the ONE event that we will be doing this year. We are only finishing up week one. The mileage ramps up quite a bit, so I'm not sure how we will accomplish all that needs to be done (training runs that are more than 4 miles) in the already jam packed first few hours of the day...BEFORE work!! Oooh...a challenge. Just what I need!
Well, at least we are living life to the fullest...I think I need to nap :)
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Wait...WHAT?!
Wowie! June is gone and it's now July 12th?! My last post was on June 8th?!
To be honest, the garden has been somewhat disappointing. I've been busy being a chicken, goose & duck mom - which means the garden falls behinds just a little while we get the chickens raised up.
The Garden Boxes - These have been doing really well! I rotated where I plant certain things and all is happy. At the beginning of the season I had two boxes readily available (after some weeding) to plant. One box has my greens and the other peas and carrots. One box is still full of the cover crop that went in last fall - crimson clover and the other box contains leeks. The leeks, once they were rescued from all of the weeds, are doing well. They are on the small side, but will be easy to use in whatever recipe calls for leeks.
The rest of the garden and all it's glory has been hit and miss. I know what needs to happen...compost and/or cover crop to amend the soil. If I did a soil test that would be helpful...hmmm...maybe I need to get on that.
Potatoes (Yukon, Red Norland, Fingerling and purple) - This year's experiment includes growing the potatoes in laundry baskets. It took a few weeks, but they all sprouted! We'll see how that experiment turns out. Right now, I'm not terribly impressed so this might just be the only time we use the laundry baskets for this purpose. As I only put one layer of seed potato pieces in each basken we had TONS of potatoes pieces to plant in other parts of the garden. So yeah, let's just say that we might have a pretty good harvest of potatoes this year and we won't be running out as quickly as we did last year. There probably will be enough to share with friends, family, neighbors...passer's by on the road...anyone who dares to make eye contact!
Green Beans (Bush) - Even with the poor soil the beans were doing good until a critter got to them. Every single one of the bean plants was topped off. I'm guessing it was a deer, each plant was missing its true leaves. Fortunately, there are still buds that will sprout and there will BE plants, they will just happen later. DANG! My plan is to plant another row of beans and try this succession planting idea that I have read about in different books and magazines and on the interwebs. It's experiment time!
Green Beans (Pole) - Tom decided to plant some beans in the front yard that has been transformed into a garden. I want to say that the pole bean seeds were old seeds and that they were past their prime. There were only 4 or 5 seeds that germinated. He has his own critter problem in the front - bunnies. They nibble on everything! Again
Tomato Plants - Fifteen plants were transplanted and one was topped by a critter. Not bad for the tomatoes. It has been awhile since I had non Cherry Tomato plants in the "free range" garden so this is almost like an experiment. So far half of the plants are doing pretty good, but the others are still sad looking. In an effort to help them along I added some mushroom compost to the anemic looking plants and half of those are not looking nearly as sad. We'll see how it goes. Tomatoes may go into a low tunnel or hoop house next year.
Flowers - I am extremely disappointed with the flower seed situation. I decided to do Cosmos, Bachelor Buttons and Sunflowers. Some of the cosmos germinated a couple of the bachelor buttons and NO sunflowers. How is it possible that the flowers are doing so poorly - I better do a soil test.
I know that I need to amend the soil and I am hoping that we might be able to get some compost to apply to the beds that are sucky and use those for my fall garden. Maybe we are just trying too many different things. If that is the case our little hobby farm might just be the Bean, Tomato, Potato, Egg farm. It wouldn't be the end of the world, but I do like to try new things and hope that this problem will be corrected before the next planting.
Back to the books!
Once the poultry routine is not as extensive we have settled into a reasonable routine life will be more than just working on the hobby farm. Although, there will ALWAYS be something to work on.
This life is a good life and we'll keep at it for as long as possible!
Now, back to that garden, but first...look at this guy!
To be honest, the garden has been somewhat disappointing. I've been busy being a chicken, goose & duck mom - which means the garden falls behinds just a little while we get the chickens raised up.
 |
| A sampling of what is growing in the boxes. |
The rest of the garden and all it's glory has been hit and miss. I know what needs to happen...compost and/or cover crop to amend the soil. If I did a soil test that would be helpful...hmmm...maybe I need to get on that.
Potatoes (Yukon, Red Norland, Fingerling and purple) - This year's experiment includes growing the potatoes in laundry baskets. It took a few weeks, but they all sprouted! We'll see how that experiment turns out. Right now, I'm not terribly impressed so this might just be the only time we use the laundry baskets for this purpose. As I only put one layer of seed potato pieces in each basken we had TONS of potatoes pieces to plant in other parts of the garden. So yeah, let's just say that we might have a pretty good harvest of potatoes this year and we won't be running out as quickly as we did last year. There probably will be enough to share with friends, family, neighbors...passer's by on the road...anyone who dares to make eye contact!
Green Beans (Bush) - Even with the poor soil the beans were doing good until a critter got to them. Every single one of the bean plants was topped off. I'm guessing it was a deer, each plant was missing its true leaves. Fortunately, there are still buds that will sprout and there will BE plants, they will just happen later. DANG! My plan is to plant another row of beans and try this succession planting idea that I have read about in different books and magazines and on the interwebs. It's experiment time!
Green Beans (Pole) - Tom decided to plant some beans in the front yard that has been transformed into a garden. I want to say that the pole bean seeds were old seeds and that they were past their prime. There were only 4 or 5 seeds that germinated. He has his own critter problem in the front - bunnies. They nibble on everything! Again
Tomato Plants - Fifteen plants were transplanted and one was topped by a critter. Not bad for the tomatoes. It has been awhile since I had non Cherry Tomato plants in the "free range" garden so this is almost like an experiment. So far half of the plants are doing pretty good, but the others are still sad looking. In an effort to help them along I added some mushroom compost to the anemic looking plants and half of those are not looking nearly as sad. We'll see how it goes. Tomatoes may go into a low tunnel or hoop house next year.
Flowers - I am extremely disappointed with the flower seed situation. I decided to do Cosmos, Bachelor Buttons and Sunflowers. Some of the cosmos germinated a couple of the bachelor buttons and NO sunflowers. How is it possible that the flowers are doing so poorly - I better do a soil test.
I know that I need to amend the soil and I am hoping that we might be able to get some compost to apply to the beds that are sucky and use those for my fall garden. Maybe we are just trying too many different things. If that is the case our little hobby farm might just be the Bean, Tomato, Potato, Egg farm. It wouldn't be the end of the world, but I do like to try new things and hope that this problem will be corrected before the next planting.
Back to the books!
Once the poultry routine is not as extensive we have settled into a reasonable routine life will be more than just working on the hobby farm. Although, there will ALWAYS be something to work on.
This life is a good life and we'll keep at it for as long as possible!
Now, back to that garden, but first...look at this guy!
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Updates
Okay so this working full time and trying to do the chicken...garden thing...and life thing is making this girl tired. I love all these things, but my almost 52 year old body and mind are a little tired.
The Chickens
In April we started with 10 little ones, Jersey Giants, that were one week old. As they grew and we started figuring out which were roosters (5 total) we ended up adding 6 more little ones...
Last week there was a casualty. We aren't sure what happened, but one of the Jersey Giant's carcass was found in the chick mobile. While I am sad that we lost a chick - my first question after Tom found the body was "How many roosters do you see?" As it turns out, it was one of the little roos. Not 100% sad about this. However, we invested 7 weeks worth of feed into that little dude and the hope was initially that we would determine which rooster we would keep and then process the others at the appropriate time.
Oh well.
Other than that all of the others have been very healthy and spry. Still trying to figure out which of the 4 roos we'll keep.
Last night one of the little girls was being quite elusive and didn't want to be caught and go in with her sisters for the night. We finally got tired of trying to catch her so she was left out for the night.
Here she is hiding out underneath the chick mobile. I thought if she survived the night fine, but if she didn't whatever - we don't want defiant chickens...hahaha...This morning she was still okay and was reunited with the rest of her brood.
The Goose and the Duck
The weather only improved a couple of weeks ago, so pretty much EVERYTHING has been planted/direct sowed since then. I am hoping that this growing season will go longer since we had rain for most of the first 5 months of this year. The other thing that I am hoping for is that there the heat will not be unbearable which makes for an unhappy gardener in me.
All thirteen of the raised beds have been planted and we are in waiting mode. The peas and carrot seeds that were sown a month ago(?) have been doing great and we'll have a nice crop in a few weeks. Everything else is just plugging along right now. This year I direct sowed most of the seeds and I have a couple more items that need to go in. I spied a potato sprout in one of the laundry baskets and some green onions in one of the tomato beds. Hoping for a lot of squash, beans and tomatoes this year. I'll be experimenting with the Three Sisters method just to experiment...corn has been planted, need to wait for something to happen with that before the two other items go in. It's possible that this will only be two sisters...haha.
Antoher thing that we are adding are rollerhooks those on order through Johnny's Seeds. This item will make the vining/climbing veggies happy and maybe even a little more productive. Can't wait for those to be delivered!
Changing Focus?
For the past couple of weeks I have been thinking that maybe I should go back to my original dream of being a flower farmer and doing vegetable garden as the secondary biz.
The gardens from pre-brain cancer were planted with a lot of flowers for cutting and dahlias and favorite veggies. In fact, there was a year that a random person driving by stopped and asked if they could clip some of the cosmos for an upcoming wedding. Of course - YES...Help yourself! That was a pretty cool thing that happened!
Another thought - grow a neighborhood pumpkin patch. With so many kiddos in the subdivision across the street I think it would be fun to have something available for these families without having to travel so far away. Far away would be the Brush Prairie area or Sauvie Island or even Woodland. I think that the farm in Woodland will no longer have a pumpkin patch. We know that pumpkins grow well on our property based on past parties we hosted the first few years we lived in this house. The last party was in 2003. We always had so many pumpkins to offer to our guests and everyone had a great time carving!!
Slowly but surely I decided that I wanted to grow a garden again and then things took off in my brain. I've been thinking that it's time to get some sort of business happening on our property. So many ideas, but no clear vision really. My main reason for doing something more with our property would be because of the people that live across the street from us, an easy market, but also a way to connect to people that we wouldn't normally connect with since we are not a part of any neighborhood.
While I continue to move forward with learning through experimentation I trust that the Lord will reveal the way that I should go in - even if that way is not what I'm dreaming.
Dreaming Big...
The Chickens
 |
| First experience with compost |
In April we started with 10 little ones, Jersey Giants, that were one week old. As they grew and we started figuring out which were roosters (5 total) we ended up adding 6 more little ones...
 |
| These little girls were 4 weeks on May 15 |
Oh well.
Other than that all of the others have been very healthy and spry. Still trying to figure out which of the 4 roos we'll keep.
Last night one of the little girls was being quite elusive and didn't want to be caught and go in with her sisters for the night. We finally got tired of trying to catch her so she was left out for the night.
The Goose and the Duck
 |
| Lenny is a very proud goose |
The boys are 6 weeks old!! It's hard to believe that we have had them since the end of April! They have grown so much and seem to change every single day. As I mentioned before I wanted them to be a protector of the flock, but they have definitely bonded with the humans - both of us, but mainly me. I'm so glad that we have them, but they are destructive little dudes and stinky too! Despite their stinkiness and their desire to eat all new growth (in the garden) they are a lot of fun and Mr. Lenny (goose) is very sweet. He likes to talk to me a lot and tug on my clothing and "chew" on my garden shoes. He'll also follow me all over the place. So I have to be careful when planning my garden work. On the weekend they don't mind hanging with the chickens most of the day, because that is what they are used to, so that makes doing my garden chores less of a chore. In the evenings I like to have them out and roaming around before they get put to bed, so I either have to be stealthy with my watering and other stuff or wait until they are in for the night.
The Garden
The weather only improved a couple of weeks ago, so pretty much EVERYTHING has been planted/direct sowed since then. I am hoping that this growing season will go longer since we had rain for most of the first 5 months of this year. The other thing that I am hoping for is that there the heat will not be unbearable which makes for an unhappy gardener in me.
All thirteen of the raised beds have been planted and we are in waiting mode. The peas and carrot seeds that were sown a month ago(?) have been doing great and we'll have a nice crop in a few weeks. Everything else is just plugging along right now. This year I direct sowed most of the seeds and I have a couple more items that need to go in. I spied a potato sprout in one of the laundry baskets and some green onions in one of the tomato beds. Hoping for a lot of squash, beans and tomatoes this year. I'll be experimenting with the Three Sisters method just to experiment...corn has been planted, need to wait for something to happen with that before the two other items go in. It's possible that this will only be two sisters...haha.
Antoher thing that we are adding are rollerhooks those on order through Johnny's Seeds. This item will make the vining/climbing veggies happy and maybe even a little more productive. Can't wait for those to be delivered!
Changing Focus?
For the past couple of weeks I have been thinking that maybe I should go back to my original dream of being a flower farmer and doing vegetable garden as the secondary biz.
The gardens from pre-brain cancer were planted with a lot of flowers for cutting and dahlias and favorite veggies. In fact, there was a year that a random person driving by stopped and asked if they could clip some of the cosmos for an upcoming wedding. Of course - YES...Help yourself! That was a pretty cool thing that happened!
Another thought - grow a neighborhood pumpkin patch. With so many kiddos in the subdivision across the street I think it would be fun to have something available for these families without having to travel so far away. Far away would be the Brush Prairie area or Sauvie Island or even Woodland. I think that the farm in Woodland will no longer have a pumpkin patch. We know that pumpkins grow well on our property based on past parties we hosted the first few years we lived in this house. The last party was in 2003. We always had so many pumpkins to offer to our guests and everyone had a great time carving!!
Slowly but surely I decided that I wanted to grow a garden again and then things took off in my brain. I've been thinking that it's time to get some sort of business happening on our property. So many ideas, but no clear vision really. My main reason for doing something more with our property would be because of the people that live across the street from us, an easy market, but also a way to connect to people that we wouldn't normally connect with since we are not a part of any neighborhood.
While I continue to move forward with learning through experimentation I trust that the Lord will reveal the way that I should go in - even if that way is not what I'm dreaming.
Dreaming Big...
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