Livestock & Garden Report 2: Week 5 and 7

finally ~ the explanations to go with these pictures! i had finally taken the time on Saturday to sit down and write, and just as i hit publish, everything disappeared!

so now, i guess I'll try again. I'll give you both the explanation and the update, all in one fell swoop...

Dave turned our old "chicken triangle" into more garden space. last fall we laid mulch, and early spring Dave was out tilling the hay under. the soil is still fluffy (and rocky) but we're glad for the extra dirt.

A helped us plant sweet corn ~ 3 different kinds: yellow, white and bi-color. all will mature at different times ~ 63, 72 and 85 days.

although it's not enough corn to sell, we will have plenty for ourselves to eat.

the corn is now up about 2" and just this morning i was able to cultivate it for the first time. when it's early, and the dew is still on the stalks, it's easy to see the rows. as the day goes on, the rows just fade into the dirt.

the potatoes in the lower garden are all up ~ all 300 lbs of them! we definitely expanded our potato farming from last year, but it was such a successful crop.

both the kennebec and red Pontiac i was able to plant from our own potatoes, thus saving us the cost of buying more seed potatoes. with the exception of the 200 lb. of seed potatoes i bought ( 50lb. red pontiac, 25 lb. blue, 50 lb. superior and 50 lb. yukon gold), we have not needed to buy any potatoes for our family to eat for almost a year!

now that the potatoes are gone, however, we're on a potato fast until the new ones are dug, hopefully around the beginning of July.



the little high tunnel worked very well, and really gave a boost to the cauliflower and broccoli. the tunnel is off now, (we're using it for the sweet potatoes down in the lower garden) and the plants should be large enough to fend off a marauding bunny.

there are a few slugs, though, but early in the morning Dave takes the girls out to squash the slugs and snails. B is so cute as she earnestly hunts for slugs, and then shakes salt onto them with the saltshaker!

the chickens are coming along very well, and are nearly half-way to butchering day.

every once in a while one (or two, or three...) will get out, and the girls are happy to help put them back in the hoop house. since chickens absolutely do not herd well at all, they need to be caught. both girls know how to catch the chickens by the body so the wings don't flap all over. they gently put them back.

all three girls A, B and M help feed the chickens. (G feeds them in the morning) here B is hauling the feed sack down in her little wheelbarrow.

100 birds eat 100 lbs. of food in less then three days, so we're kept busy either running to the feed mill or mixing the soybean meal into the food.

the meat bird grower that we buy is 22% protein, but these high octane birds need 26% protein. so, for every 100 lbs. of grower, we mix in 6 lbs of soybean meal. since the soybean meal is 47.5% protein, that gives the food (and chickens) the extra boost that they need.

this is the first year that we've supplemented the meat birds food this way, so I'll be interested to see if it makes a difference in the butchering weight.

right now all 4 hoop houses are running on the garden, so the chickens can help eat up the winter rye that is still growing. however, now that the danger of frost is past, we will be tiling the upper garden this week, so the chickens will need to be moved somewhere else.

the peas in the high tunnel are finally producing! just yesterday we had 2 quarts!


i sold one quart, and the girls sat in the yard eating the peas fresh yesterday after their nap. i was pleased that the peas did produce, since originally i was worried that they would not be pollinated, but that obviously was not a problem.


A and B still go get the eggs together, and besides being sisters, they are best friends.

this is the parting shot of the Indian runner ducks. we had been keeping them cooped up, since they would most likely eventually get into the lettuce, peas or spinach.

we were feeling bad that they could no longer roam about freely, so we sent them to the auction. hopefully they have a good home, and weren't some one's Sunday dinner!


we had a hail storm, quite fierce, and the girls we fascinated by the little ice balls. no damage was done to the crops, thankfully!


the peas are much larger than this now (that's what happens when it takes so long to post!) G and i staked them with sumac branches. i like the way that looks, but next year we will probably just use wire and stakes.

this salad box (radishes, lettuce and spinach) is producing profusely, and it's nearly impossible to keep up with it!

A found a toad while planting corn with daddy, and after she and B were done looking at him, they set it free in the high tunnel.

hopefully he'll gorge himself on the slugs in there!

this little spring hole is handy for watering the animals. it was just a wet spot in the yard that Dave dug out, and the girls like to sit on the edge and play in the water.

these are the two 300 gallon water storage tanks that we bought at the farmer's auction.

Dave plans on hooking them up to the drainage system in the lower garden, and then we'll have an easier way to water the plants down there.

he's in the process of working on that now, and i should be able to show it to you by the end of the week.

Dave has the row of horseradish planted, and they seem to be establishing themselves well.

a neighbor showed up with a plastic bag of root cuttings, assuring me that Dave wanted to plant horseradish. somehow, though, Dave has no recollection of that conversation!

the pigs are getting bigger and fatter, which is a good thing, since the butchering dates in June and July are rapidly approaching. it's hard to tell in this picture, but the red pig is significantly bigger than the white striped one.

and the parting shot: B and i lovin' on the cat. see, we do take the time to smell the roses pet the kitty!

Livestock and Garden Report: Round 2~ let's just call this week 1

it's been a flurry of spring activity around here. the wonderfully warm weather this week has allowed us to be outside getting lots of our time-sensitive projects done. (as a matter of fact, the Things To Be Done As Soon As Possible List is nearly done! the only things remaining on that daunting list are find some turkey and duck eggs to hatch and start the strawberry beds. Dave is building the brooder box tomorrow.)

Dave plowed and disced the lower garden yesterday, so hopefully by Monday we'll be planting potatoes and maybe onions as well. I've been having trouble tracking down blue potatoes, but i haven't given up yet!

already in the upper garden i have red and white onions planted, as well as 1 row of beets. in a few weeks I'll plant more beets. I'm going to try to be more organized about succession planting this year. it's so easy to start off like gangbusters after the winter's hibernation, but harder still to manage everything efficiently for the long haul. we did hang up a black board in the mud room, and i have all my garden notes and reminders on that. i plan on also having a large calendar to write dates of plantings and projected harvests.




this week Dave and G finished the 2nd pig tractor, and none too soon! 4 pigs slamming around in one small space is very crowded. not to mention messy. and muddy. we've been getting plenty of slops from the local restaurant that is the favorite hangout of the gas workers, so that's why we decided to get 2 more pigs.


i didn't take any pictures of the pigs. i guess we've been raising pigs so long now that i figure if you've seen one pig, you've pretty much seen them all! red. hairy. smelly. curly tail. big. sound familiar yet?




the big push this week was hauling the dirt from our farmer friend, Jay. G and Dave built 12 raised beds, and we filled them all with a combination of our bottom land soil, the dirt from the cow pasture and vermiculite. if you've seen or read the book Square Foot Gardening, you'll have an idea of the general direction we're headed.





the best part of hauling the dirt was borrowing the farm truck from our other farmer friend, Doug. G got a kick out of the truck, too, and could be observed on more than one occasion with a big grin on his face as he drove it around to unload dirt.



oi vey! the stories i could tell! suffice it to say that it was a driving experience that will give me some colorful stories to tell my grandchildren someday~ the highlights of which would include wearing a garbage bag skirt to keep me dry while driving the truck in the rain. and the absolutely best part: using a fire hose to fill a gas tank that would prefer an eyedropper. the gas guys standing in line for their lunch time hoagie won't soon forget that.






the high tunnel is doing well, and has some lettuce and spinach ready to harvest. the cold frames are full, too, and hopefully we'll have continuous harvests of lettuce, spinach and radishes until the hot weather.

G and i finished raking the vermiculite into all the raised beds, and i have 4 beds planted with peas and carrots. i can honestly say that even after only one day of gardening in raised beds, I'm a huge fan! the dirt is wonderful, it's easy to pick out stones and plant the seeds, and since the beds are so small it does not feel overwhelming. (like the long rows in the lower garden often do)

we're doing a buffet of gardening techniques this year: raised beds, square foot gardening, traditional garden, small scale farming and wide rows. we're still experimenting to find the best combination of what works well for us, and what will help us to be both productive on a large scale and efficient.

we have 25 buff orpington eggs in the incubator, and they are all due to start hatching out the evening of April 21. this clutch is just a trial run, since we've never used this incubator before. (i can vouch for the convenience of the automatic turner, however, and can't imagine remembering to turn the eggs 2-3 times a day!) i plan on filling all 42 slots in the incubator to hatch out my new laying flock later this spring.

on Wednesday our first batch of 100 Cornish cross roosters are due to arrive, via the United States Postal Service.

so if we think we're busy now, just wait until then!

p.s. ~ i finally finished the post about the drywalling in the girls' room. so if you've been anxiously awaiting news about that project, be sure to read the previous post!

we have so much to do, that i think i'll take my nap first, just so i can cross that off my list....

* build another pig tractor. (did i mention that we got 2 more pigs?)

* build a 5X5 brooder pen for the 100 cornish X cockerels that are coming April 14.

* build at least 12 10'X4' raised garden beds

* maintenance and *fix* tiller

* buy seeds: beans, cukes, sunflower, corn, summer and winter squash....

* buy 250 lb potatoes: 100 lb. kennebec, 50lb. red Pontiac, 50lb. Yukon gold and 50lb. purple variety.

* buy 15lb. onion sets: 10lb. purple onions, 5+lb. white onions, and 5+lb. yellow keeper onions.

* drywall upstairs.

* finish wiring upstairs

* plan several quilt classes for BF.

* finish girls' room, so they can move upstairs in the spring after M comes home.

* clean out high tunnel

* build a few more chicken hoop houses.

* hatch out 42 buff orpingtons in Dave's incubator (Christmas gift) so we'll have a new flock of laying hens.

* find, and hatch out some turkey eggs. also some ducks.

* till, and plant cold weather crops in the high tunnel.

* plow and disc lower garden.

* buy, and butcher another (full grown) pig. our sausage is almost all gone, and we need (would like to have) enough pork to last us until we butcher again next December.

* get manure for raised beds. fortunately, I've lined up a (dump?) truck that we can borrow. this task will take several days, and many trips.

* start 2 raised beds of strawberries.

* Dave would like to plant raspberries this year.

exotic bird spotted at local birdfeeder!

this morning we looked out the window, and were amazed to observe a rare sighting of an unusual bird!

of course, it's just our pesky indian runner ducks gobbling up all the wild bird food. ironically, the ducks have the very same cracked corn in their little hoop house (seen in the background), but they seem to think that pilfered corn is much tastier!

Thursday's Livestock and Garden Report ~ Week 23

can you believe that it's week 23 already? almost half of the year, and I've been posting these weekly sporadic L&G reports! are you as tired of reading them as i am of posting them? could anybody possibly still be interested in the weekly blow-by-blow of our garden? most likely not- but thanks for being polite and reading anyway! the garden is winding down, so this should be near the end.

did i hear a big internets sigh of relief from all my readers?

yesterday we got our last 50 peeps, bringing our grand total for the year to 175 chickens. (25 buff orpingtons and 150 cornish cross cockerels.) we are still on a learning curve as far as the meat birds go. our last batch of 50 had the shocking and disappointing mortality rate of 50%!!!! hopefully this batch will not be so. some of this batch is for selling, and some for us to eat.

the pigs are growing well- as of this morning the larger of the 2 weighs approximately 250 pounds. come the cooler weather, i guess we'll be butchering! we've already eaten nearly all of the pig that we had butchered last April. just a few pounds of bacon and miscellaneous roasts floating about in the freezer. with that consumption rate, we're guessing that our family will eat about 3 pigs a year. (in addition to the 100 chickens that we butcher and freeze for ourselves)

I've finally and officially given up on the tomatoes. this meager spread is all the beefsteak that G and i were able to salvage. (although there may be a few more out there that we'll find when we pull up the remaining 2 rows of tomatoes this afternoon, this is truly the end.) all in all, a very disappointing year for tomatoes. however, we cannot count the tomatoes as a total loss, since we "harvested" well over six 5 gallon buckets of tomatoes to feed the pigs. at least we got some food value out of all that work!

next year the tomatoes will be planted in the lower garden, so we don't have to worry about the spores of the blight hibernating in the soil to attack again.

the cauliflower and broccoli is doing very well in the high tunnel- perhaps I'll actually harvest some?

the beans are very lush and green, and they are all flowering, leading me to believe (hope?) that we'll get more beans for the freezer. the buckwheat cover is doing well, too, here in the upper garden.

many of the potatoes are still in the ground down in the lower garden. we've still been steadily selling them in the produce stand, as well as giving some away. we're hoping to borrow a potato digger for the tractor~ there is probably over 500 feet of potato rows, between the kennebec, red Pontiac and yukon gold. neither G or i look forward to that much manual labor, so I'll try to nail down the rumor of a potato digger for the tractor.

we bought 4 more bales of hay for mulch, and between the hay, buckwheat and annual rye, we'll make sure that both gardens have an adequate cover of mulch/green manure for the winter. additionally, we'll have soil samples from both gardens tested to make sure that we're on the right track as far as the soil nutrients go. i have no problem trying to address the deficiencies in our soil's nutrients organically with mulch and green manure cover, but i am not opposed to some synthetic fertilizer, either.

so, except for some beans, cauliflower and broccoli, and a ton of potatoes, we're done! it's hard to imagine that it's been almost 6 months that we've been working at our garden! I'm tired just thinking about it, and i look forward to those long winter days to just relax. i can read to the girls, sew and maybe even knit something.

won't that be nice!

Thursday's Livestock and Garden Report ~ Week 21

it's been a busy week, with the garden finally starting to produce. i can brag about an impressive list of veggies that we've been harvesting: onions, peppers, summer squash, zucchini, tomatoes, beans and of course the old stand by, potatoes.

we've picked green beans several times this week, being diligent to stay current on the picking. the beans are of course much better that way. when the green beans/ground cover ripens in the UG, there will be tones of beans! probably way too many~ but we'll just sell the extra, and feed the extra of the extra to the pigs.

the ducks have fallen out of favor this week. although we enjoy watching them wander through the yard and play in the puddle, they did a very naughty thing. (as A would say!) i had planted my second crop of peas, counting on the cooler weather and delayed frost to harvest my own instead of buying. they (the peas) were coming up nicely, and all 6 of the double rows were about 3" high. one afternoon soon after i let them out, the ducks were observed eating straight down the rows of tender pea shoots! they were quite happy, wiggling their tail and muttering among themselves. almost as if they were saying thank-you! thank you for planting a row for each of us. thank you for putting them in such a neat and straight line. grrrr! well, fortunately for me and my family, the local grocery store had a sale on this week: Bird's Eye peas ~ 1 pound, 1 dollar. so my freezer is stocked with peas, and since that's what i set about to do, i guess i don't have much to complain about.

it was a rough week for the meat birds, too. we lost 13 or so, which was quite a blow. it's a combination of heat, water, crowding and stupidity. (of the birds, i mean!) that just reinforces to Dave and i that we need to take a much more active role in supervising the livestock and instructing in proper care. but we can console ourselves with a pithy little nugget that a farmer friend shared with me after church on Sunday: "if you have livestock, you're going to have deadstock." how true, how true...

we are harvesting tomatoes, although the plants are quickly dying off. they look really terrible in the garden, but as long as I'm getting some tomatoes, I'll let them suffer through. we've been eating fresh garden salsa and i even made some spaghetti sauce. I'll be able to make many more quarts of sauce, just not in the big quantities that i prefer.

N, G, A and B helped me transplant, mulch and water all the cauliflower and broccoli that we put into the high tunnel. I'm holding out hope that we'll be able to harvest these veggies, too! (we will not put the new plastic on the high tunnel until it gets much cooler, as the cauliflower and broccoli prefers the cool weather.)

this week we purchased 8 of the big round bales of hay for mulch. today G and Dave were working at spreading a layer of hay over the parts of the LG that are done. the LG is pretty much done producing, but alot of the potatoes are still in the ground, so of course we can't mulch there yet. the plan with the hay is to improve the soil for next year. some portions of the LG have had 2 rounds of buckwheat, and now the hay. hopefully next year we will see an improvement in the soil fertility.

which leads me to think that maybe, just maybe, we can work our way up to being a CSA, providing food for 10-12 other families besides ourselves. somewhere between Dave's pessimism and my optimism lies the reality. as we continue to work together to improve our little spot of soil, we learn and grow together. we've been inspired by this blog this week, and keep thinking, maybe we can do this after all! (and we cant' whine about living in zone 5, because they do, too!)

I'll leave you with a few recipes, so you can enjoy your own garden's bounty!

Spaghetti Sauce

½ bushel tomatoes (roma is best)

3 lb. onions

4 red peppers

2 green peppers

1 stalk celery

1-2 T parsley

2 T sweet basil

2 T oregano

1 ½ c. sugar

process tomatoes. (wash, cut out bad spots, boil and run through the squeezo) put onions, peppers and celery through food processor. combine with tomatoes and sugar and bring to gentle boil on stove. BE CAREFUL not to over boil, or your sauce will get dark and bitter. (don't ask me how i know this, just trust me.) if you're using dried herbs, you can add them at the beginning, but wait until the end if you're using fresh.

prep your jars and lids, and have your hot water canner already boiling. into each quart jar add 1 T lemon juice. hot water bath 30 minutes.

(this sauce is thinner than the store bought that has all sorts of nasty thickening chemicals added to it, but i often add 1 can of tomato paste, especially when I'm making spaghetti)

Garden Fresh Salsa

chop up a bunch of tomatoes. (about 2 cups) if you're using beef steak toms, squeeze out some of the juicy stuff in the middle. salt semi-generously, and set aside.

now cut up equal amounts of green peppers, purple onions, cucumbers and even summer squash if you're feeling particularly brave (or healthy)

drain the tomatoes and combine all the chopped veggies. add lime juice and chopped fresh cilantro. serve immediately with tortilla chips. yummy!

Thursday's Livestock and Garden Report ~ Week 20

Glory Be and hallelujah! my garden is finally starting to produce something other than potatoes!

my very optimistic late planting of summer squash is flowering! and look: there's even a baby squash gestating. we're doing a little happy dance up and down the garden rows!

the onion sets from Gurney's are done growing, and this week G and the little girls helped me pull them. we got about a bushel.

some were very small; hardly bigger than when we planted them back in April. makes me wonder what they've been doing with themselves these last 4 months!

we ordered and planted 6 bunches. hopefully next year we will have better fixed the fertility issues in the lower garden. I'll still plant more onions next year, but this is a good start!

the potatoes are growing like gangbusters! these are some big ones that i pulled out to show off, but i should have put something (like a coffee mug) next to them to show how big they really are. the biggest one on the right is bigger than 2 fists!

we dig fresh potatoes pretty regularly, and pack them in bags that i make from our multitude of feed sacks. 10lb. for $5.

the produce stand is bringing in some small, but steady income. red Pontiac potatoes definitely seem to be the favorite, so next year i plan on planting more than 50 pounds of that variety.

the honour system works pretty well in our rural county, and we've not had too many issues with stolen potatoes. (with the exception of one day last week when someone took 20 pounds of potatoes and left me 29 cents!)

the peppers are doing nicely as well. dare i say that we're being inundated with fresh produce?

the 5 ducks are quite happy. (the 6th died unexpectedly a few weeks back) every afternoon we let them out to free range, and they are quite comical to watch as they waddle (all in a row) where ever they go.

the morning glories right outside the back door have finally grown taller than the cherry tomatoes (it was a neck-and-neck race for the sunlight) and are cheerily blooming every morning.

A is quite proud of these sunflowers that she planted with the nasturtiums.

the chipmunks planted all the rest of the sunflowers. all over the flower gardens there are little sunflowers randomly and eclectically coming up. the goldfinches are enjoying them, and we like to see the diversity of birds that comes for a snack.

the cherry tomatoes are almost prolific~ A and B really like to go out to see if any are ready, and beg for someone to pick them a fresh 'mater. i really like having the cherry tomatoes right outside the back door, and plan on putting them there again next year. once they start producing, it's really hard to keep up with them. having the plants in such a convenient spot makes that task almost effortless.

we're getting a few tomatoes from the upper garden as well. it's really a horrible year for tomatoes, so the yield is disappointing.

again, A and B enjoy eating a fresh tomato just like you would an apple. (all my kids have done that)

the tomato plants themselves look horrible. they are all brown and dead from the bottom up, and the Florida staking system fell over after a recent heavy rain. we were busy cooking for the roofers, and i never got out to fix it.

that being said, i really like the Florida staking system and plan on using it again next year, just implementing the things that i learned from experience this year: taller and stronger stakes.

the broccoli and cauliflower in the cold frame is doing very well, and i plan on transplanting the seedlings to the high tunnel in the next few days.

due to the tomato blight, the tomatoes in the high tunnel were a total flop this year. nevertheless, we plan on trying again next year, applying the things that we learned: only 2 rows of tomatoes, plant indeterminate and train them up string, or longer and stronger stakes for the Florida staking. I'd also like to grow some cherry tomatoes in hanging pots, to better utilize the upper space.

our second planting/cover crop of beans is growing nicely. (lots of "growing nicely" in this post! but then again, it's about time for some good news!)

these are the beans that i planted around the tomato cages. they are training themselves right up, and are even taller than i am now. i really like having them on the tomato cages, and plan on doing that again next year, as well. (i thought up that idea myself, and I'm quite proud of it!)

these are the cover crop beans, and even though they are pole beans, i don't plan on staking them. they'll just have to produce despite the benign neglect, or just be tilled under!

look closely- you'll see the baby beans! Dave "took care" of the groundhog problem in the upper garden, so these beans actually had a chance to do their beany thing!


and look~ real, live beans! from our very own garden! we'll have some for lunch, and I'll freeze some, too. there should be another picking in a few days.

we still have lettuce, too. since it's been such a cool summer, that has extended far longer than we thought it would. i have the 4th planting in the second cold frame, and this time planted spinach, too.

we planted 10 pounds of onion sets, and while most of them did not get exceedingly big, they made a respectable showing.

next year I'll definitely plant more purple onions, maybe as much as 7+ pounds. i like to use them in recipes, just for the extra color.

the beets were a disappointment, but that was for several reasons. the lower garden is not very fertile, and compound that with the fact that i could just not bring myself to thin out the beets, (it feels so wasteful!) they did not get very big.

before bringing the beets to the house, we stopped off at the pigs and gave them the too small beets, as well as the tops of the beets we were canning.

we managed to eke out 12 pints of pickled beets. not too bad, considering that i don't' even like pickled beets! (the jar that i entered in the county fair won second place!)

I'll end this lengthy post with my recipe for pickled beets- just in case you want to preserve some of your own summer bounty to dislike on a cold winters day!

Pickled Beets

harvest whatever beets you've managed to grow and that haven't been eaten by the deer, woodchucks or rabbits. top them all, and scrub clean. put beets in large pot, covering with water. boil until tender. drain, reserving beet juice. cut off tops and root tap, and slip off skins. pack hot into pint jars. cover with pickled juice.

pickled juice:

2 cups sugar

2 sticks cinnamon

1 T whole allspice

3 ½ cups vinegar

1 ½ water ( use your drained beet juice)

simmer this for 15 minutes, and then ladle over your beets in jar, leaving 1/4" head space. remove air bubbles. process pints (and quarts) 30 minutes in boiling water canner.