Saturday

Well, I missed posting yesterday. Mainly due to the fact that I was exhausted from not sleeping well for several nights and it finally caught up with me yesterday.

Today we are processing the Jenk's Hatchery FryPan Special meaties. I'll tell you what, I'm very ready to get this done and over with. These dudes take a very long time to grow out and my attention span is just over 3 months - the time it takes for the Freedom Rangers to reach harvestable size.

A lot of these dudes have started crowing and I'm not cool with that. Yes, I knew that it would happen, but still they started crowing weeks ago. Most of the time it's entertaining because they aren't good at it yet. There are a couple who I would say were over-achievers and were quite good and loud!

What we have learned about these meaties:

1. They are not especially smart. I suppose that's true for most birds, but it took these dudes to figure out the routine in the evening. The Freedom Rangers caught on fast and would generally be ready to be locked in. All without having to chase a few around the paddock to get them into the Chicken Tractor. 

2.  There are three different breeds in this FryPan special and they are all different. The light colored boys were mostly friendly and allowed us to pick them up and set them on our laps at time. There was one dark gray meatie who was just a bully. He would run around and pick fights with the other ones. And the speckled ones were very skittish. They didn't necessarily care if we were near them, they just didn't want to be grabbed. For any reason.

3. As I mentioned before - they are very slow growing. Today we are at 15 1/2 weeks. We could have done nearly two batches of Cornish Cross in the same time-frame. The Freedom Rangers were not nearly as long, but also were a much nicer meat bird which made it more enjoyable to grow them. 

4. Personality - these birds weren't mean, but they were super curious and would not hesitate to start pecking on your leg or arm or whatever after they saw something interesting. As they grew up with the turkeys, we would spend most evenings trying to console the turkeys because the meaties could be so spirited. The turkeys got over the meaties pretty quickly so it wasn't all that bad. 

We may be processing these guys a little early, but I didn't want to be out at the end of the month doing the job in what would most likely be the typical weather for the Pacific NW fall season - RAIN. It can be done, but nobody wants to be in the rain if they don't need to. So, really, we lucked out today - mostly cloudy with a small chance for rain or showers or misting. 

Today was also going to be the day that we promoted some of the laying hens to Freezer Camp. However, that changed when I took one of the ladies that had spent the evening out (bad girl!) and locked her in with the meaties. They immediately started to attack her. Okay, so I guess they get to stay with us a little longer, not much longer though - they are just hanging around and eating food and not laying anymore eggs! Just a bunch of freeloaders. They are sweet hens though, but have outlived their purpose on the farm.

Just for the sake of curiosity we are planning to grow a batch of Cornish Cross. We want to see how different they are compared to the Freedom Rangers and if it will make a difference letting them out on grass instead of confining them to a small space like those big commercial poultry barns that house thousands and thousands of chickens. 

Okay...I'm not going to get started because this is not the time for this subject. What it is time for is some more prep work for our day today!

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.

Saving Seeds - Saving Money

 Just in the last couple of gardening seasons I have started to save seeds from the plants that I had grown in the garden. Beans and Peas were the first things that I had saved. So easy too - just letting the pods dry out completely and then pop them open...Seeds Baby! Last year was my first big seed saving project. The veg that I saved seeds from: variety of squash, Glass Gem corn, peas, kohlrabi and some of my Tiger's Eye Beans. The only thing that I hadn't gotten would be the Provider beans. The geese were allowed into the garden after the season was over and they annihilated the beans. I let them, so it's hard to be upset with them.

Okay, so I may have gone a little overboard last year, but hey, I couldn't help myself. It seems a shame to waste such a precious resource. I can plant row after row after row of sunflowers if I wanted and I might just do that next year. The Glass Gem corn might warrant its own garden space. So many possibilities for the 2021 growing season. 

This morning I spent some time harvesting seeds from my spent Basil, Genovese plants. Also, I prepared the garlic that I saved from the harvest in June and some of the shallots that I pulled up this summer also. Over the weekend I plucked a Salvaterra tomato that was overripe and took seeds from it. There are still a couple of things that I want to get some seeds from a lone Delicata Squash and the Spookie pie pumpkins that came from last year's seeds.

Basil Genovese - Seed Savers Exchange

Mt Saint Helens Garlic - Territorial Seeds

French Shallots - Territorial Seeds

By setting aside some of these garlic and shallots I'm already saving nearly $40. With the seeds from like the corn, beans and peas those packets are $3.25 each. This is pretty typical when ordering from quality seed companies that sell organic, heirloom seeds all non-gmo of course.

My hope is to continue saving the seeds that I know that we'll plant in the future. Starting in 2021 with my retirement and the reduced amount that it will bring and Tom's retirement I think that our income will be more limited and we'll need to be mindful about what we spend our available funds on. We are going into this new phase of life with a lot of reliance on the God who made the universe and cares for each an every need that we have. Trusting that the Lord has prepared the way for me to be away from a full time job. Also, trusting that He hears us even before we realize that we have a need.

Farm Life is a Blessed Life!

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.