The Daily Grind

Its been a while since I posted. In fact, its been, what, three or four years since I posted with any regularity.

Life gets in the way. It seems like things should be less complicated these days. I am no longer working. Our kids are all launched; Mary headed off to university this spring, and, although she's home for the summer, she's working. So that part of our life is in the past. (I can't say, "Over." It hurts too much.) I am back to the original role I had in this marriage; that of housewife. I manage the house, and the yard, but, other than that, my time is my own.

So it seems that I should be living what my mom called the "life of Reilly"; lazing around in a spotless home, enjoying bon bons and shopping.

But, no. I have lots to keep me busy. I took on extra animals this year; we have probably 100 various chickens and turkeys, 4 sheep, 4 goats, a horse, and 6 pigs. Oh, and 2 dogs, and 3 cats. This summer we sent Henry off to live with his boy, but I picked up a Border collie puppy. Molly is 3 months old now, and, little does she know, will be my sheep-moving companion at some future point.

So the feeding and cleaning are endless. Then there's the mowing. We had a tremendously wet spring, which meant the lawn was not an issue until sometime in late May. Not that it didn't need cutting; it did, desperately. Bt it just couldn't happen. I even tried staining the deck; couldn't get 4 dry days in a row from mid-April until the end of July!

The house needs care, too. Beyond the daily cleaning, groceries, and laundry, we haven't done anything to this house in 18 years. So, this spring, we decided to redecorate the. Whole. Thing. We're starting with the basement, and my May and June have been spent packing up all of our stuff and taking it to a storage locker. We're doing ceilings to floors, and I just didn't want stuff in the way. Sadly, no work has yet begun, although we're supposed to be unloading that storage locker Labor Day weekend! With all the animal and yard stuff, the packing has not been finished. Packing is further complicated by decluttering; I'm getting rid of things we no longer need/want.

And we still have family to care for and about. My dad likes to get together for meals 3 times a week. You'd think that would be easy; you gotta eat, right? But logistics are never simple, are they? Grandchildren come to visit, kids come back in and out from time to time. Keri's nieces have been visiting her from California this summer; time was spent with them.

In short, this "retired from parenting and working" life is NOT retiring, in the sense of less work and responsibility. The "life of Reilly" is probably unattainable. But its keeping me young and fit and out of trouble. I guess the world should be glad for that last bit!

A Day in the Life

You know, when you think about living on a farm--even a small farmette, like ours--it seems so...bucolic? Romantic? Idyllic? Let me tell you about my day.

So, I wake up around 6:30, have a cup of coffee, feed the dog. Mind you, at this point, I'm already half an hour "late." How can I be late, you ask, if its my home, my day, my routine? Because critters don't let you have a home, a day, a routine. It starts with feeding the little goats. I have a rule; I do not eat breakfast until everyone else has theirs. But NOBODY gets their breakfast until I have my coffee! So I drink the elixir of life, check email and Facebook, and then head to the kitchen to mix goat formula.

The little darlings are bleating to beat the band when I open the door. Porter, who has figured out how to drink out of a tub, (he never did catch on to drinking out of a bottle, but that's neither here nor there) jumps at his milk so enthusiastically that he spills a third of it on the ground. Lego and Teddy tuck into their bottles, sucking them down in about 2 minutes. (We're talking a pint each, here. That's FAST!) I give them a bit of grain, and head to the barn.

Gimpy wants OUT, and right NOW! He lives in our barn at night, but has free run of the place most days. If we leave for the day, he has to stay in his stall, which does not make him happy, but it does keep him off of the highway. Once I let him out, he takes off after Skye, who is afraid of his horns. A sheepdog afraid of a goat. --hangs head in shame-- That's OK; Skye's been bringing me a Jolly ball to kick for the last little while, and its really starting to annoy. (Yes, a Jolly ball is a horse toy, and our dog plays with it. That's OK. I bought it for the pigs, originally.)

I get some hay out for Wakiya, who meets me at the gate with a whicker and a whinny. She'll be staying in our dry lot until mid-May, when the pasture is ready for her. She doesn't like it, but she's a horse, and (mostly) has no choice. I have started putting her on pasture in the evening, for an hour or so, to get her used to grass. If she starts too fast, I'm told it can cause problems. I've never seen those problems, and I don't want to.

I head back to the barn, measure a bit of grain for the sheep, and deliver it to them. The chickens have been watching all of this with interest, but they don't get fed until evening.

Son #2, whose drywalling job has nothing for him today, shows up to do farm work. I set him to cutting brush and trees from the shoreline of our pond. It's been ignored for at least 5 years, so it's a mess, and we want to reclaim it this year.

I have decided to work in the garden until noontime, when my extended family gets together at a local restaurant for lunch. But...the phone rings. Farm and Fleet calling, with an urgent message that my new chicks are in, and I NEED TO COME GET THEM IMMEDIATELY. Almost two hours later, I arrive home with the new kids. F&F and I have different meanings for the word "immediately; theirs involves having me, the customer, wait around for my order, after telling me to HURRY UP AND COME GET IT! I'll get over it, someday.

I fuss with extension cords, trying to provide electricity to one of our chicken huts, so I can put the little chicks under a heat lamp for the first two weeks of their little lives. I can't get power to it; not with different cords, not with different plugs. Our cords being ancient, I even head out to buy a new extension cord, heat lamp, and bulb. No joy. A call to John reminds me that there are such things as breakers, and I may have blown one. Yep, I did. And now we learn that the same breaker that governs the power to the chicken house also governs power to my chest freezer. I want that changed! I fuss with this for so long that I miss the extended family lunch date.

After lunch, (which I do get to eat, just in my kitchen, instead of someone else's) son heads back to the pond, and I transplant some herbs into the garden. I am creating a redneck-themed garden area this year; that's another blog post on another day. But the herbs are set and doing well.

I stop, after planting, for a cup of coffee. I have to decide between cleaning the barn or cleaning the house. Decisions...Decisions...The house won. There wasn't enough time left in the day, so I'll do the barn tomorrow.

The house is clean...ish. Dinner looms. After cooking a lovely steak, I head out to feed animals. Bleating goats...skittish sheep...Gimpy gets grain, and knows it, so, until I do that, he's underfoot. Fetch Wakiya from her pasture time, put her back in the dry lot. Feed the chickens, and collect eggs. Head inside to do dishes.



So, where did I lose you? Were you tired after morning feeding, or was it later in the day? I lost myself somewhere between electricity and herbs. But, Scarlett, tomorrow is another day!

Where Did the Week Go?

Isn't it Sunday? I mean, my last post was on Saturday, and it can't be more than a day later, right?

Booger.

Seriously, the week had just flown by. There was cleaning done, and more cleaning. Goats were fed, and fed again. They had their "boy" operation, which meant a visit from our favorite vet. They've been having some...digestive issues, which is only to be expected, given their age, stress level, and the fact that they've increased their eating dramatically. But they'll get through.

The garden got rototilled this week. I've been letting the chickens out into it, so they can dig up any grubs and weeds. I'll think about planting next weekend. I have seed potatoes already, and I'll pick up some lettuces, spinach and carrot seeds, and herbs.

John stayed home today, and we spent the day preparing our pig pen for this year's residents. We expect 8. It'll be the most we've ever raised, and I'm a little nervous about it. I can hear those who raise dozens laughing at me...

I'm considering a momentous decision, which I'll talk about when its been made. Don't you just love vague statements like that?

I am so tired I can barely stay upright at my desk. Grandchildren are coming for a visit this weekend, and youngest son is moving into the house he and his fiancee will share come October, when they get married. Wow. I'd better get some rest.

A Night To Remember

No, not that one.

After writing an admittedly dull and commonplace entry last week, I was casting around for something a bit more interesting. How about a discussion of the little goats in the garage (yes, the garage) and their feeding habits? How about a forward look at plans for the vegetable garden?

Then Mother Nature threw a subject in front of me. Literally threw it.

Thursday, April 9 started out reasonably normally for northern Illinois. It was muggy. I told some friends on Facebook that, as I cleaned out a flowerbed, it felt like gardening on the seashore. I could even smell the ocean. It was in the mid-60s, having been only in the 40s the day before. Weird weather. A storm was predicted for the end of the day; it was shaping up to be a big one.

That evening, as John and I sat over the last bit of dinner, our phone alarms went off. That happens from time to time; usually warnings about heavy rain or snowfall, maybe a tornado watch. This was a warning, and it said, "Seek shelter now." Maybe you've seen this, which helps tell the difference.

In any case, that warning was unusual. So, being good, obedient folk, we...went out onto our deck. We wanted to see what was going on. It was dusk, and very dark from the storm rolling in, so it was difficult to see. But I suspected, from the amount of lightning, and the shape of the clouds, and the sound of continually rolling thunder, that the tornado which had been on the ground some 50 miles south of us was making its way thorough. John thought I was being silly; he thought it was just a really bad thunderstorm. Nevertheless, we spent some time in that basement that night. Power was out for about an hour, and water seeped into our basement. Our son and his wife, who have no basement, showed up at our door. We even let Mary's dog up onto the sofa; I had found her cowering in the far back of our basement, and wanted her to feel safe.

The storm passed, and we went to bed. High winds continued through the night, and it got pretty cold.
As is typical after a terrible storm, morning came clear, and fair.

In the morning, after chores, I walked around the yard a bit, looking for any damage. I found some. We lost a dead tree, and the tops of two others. A piece of the roof of our horse shed has disappeared, along with a large piece of the roof of the kids' old treehouse. I would share photos, but the cable from my camera has gone missing, and photos are trapped in my camera!
I headed into the house, and grabbed a cup of coffee. Looking out the back window, I saw a piece of debris I'd missed. Thinking it was just a piece of board, I headed out anyway, to pick it up. I found a memory.

This painting had a name on the back, and the note "1st period." I could tell it was a school project, and figured it blew in from somewhere. I was afraid it had blown in from someone's destroyed house. John, ever calm, said it was probably just garbage day somewhere, and it had blown out of the trash. I posted the picture on Facebook and my sister found a man with that name living in Rochelle, a small town about 35 miles from us, as the crow (or tornado) flies. (Although it would seem this tornado did not fly like a crow, moving back and forth in its path. But, I digress.)
Rochelle and a neighboring town, Fairdale, received the brunt of the storm. Two ladies were killed in Fairdale, which, essentially, doesn't exist anymore. Rochelle was also hit hard, although full reports on damage are not yet complete for either town. Its been a sobering end to the week.
I looked him up and found his place of business. I called and left a message. Minutes later, he texted me. With some deletions for privacy, this is how our conversation went.

I've been told I should contact news outlets about this, my little brush with fame. Its just as much fun to look at this little painting sitting in my dining room, and think about the trip it had. At least 35 miles, not including rotation, before it fell here. It has a bit of damage, and was waterlogged, but its in essentially one piece. I do think it would be fun to meet up with Matt for a coffee, give it back, and talk about the storm. I may find myself down that way, helping with cleanup, too. We shall see.
I do know that I'll be more respectful in the future of those warning notices on my phone. I'll head to the basement sooner, watch more carefully, and keep emergency supplies stocked downstairs. (We already did that, in case you wonder.)
I should ask him, too, if he's missing a special edition copy of Star Wars. It showed up about a mile north of us, in the yard of a friend of Mary's.

Just Another Day

It was a productive day, here on the farm. I managed an early coffee, got some laundry started, and fed the goats. Yes, I'm raising three buck kids. They will be the guests of honor at some feasts this summer, so I'm trying not to get too attached. Fortunately, they can be boogers, and make it easy to stay distant. Yes, that sounds cold. No apologies.

After feeding, I flipped the laundry and headed into the western treeline. We have ignored and neglected parts of our property over the years; this was one of the worst. Two trees even fell during storms maybe two summers ago, and we finally got around to cutting them up last month. There were still broken branches, twigs, bark, weeds, undergrowth, to be managed. We did some of that this weekend, and I finished the job today. 10 hours later, a lovely fire is still at the red-hot coal stage, and the treeline looks fabulous.

After showering off the burrs and woodsmoke (my favorite men's cologne, but not my favorite womens'!) I flipped the laundry, had some lunch and headed to that bastion of farmland; Farm and Fleet. I was looking for a windbreaker, and some kid replacer. "Kid replacer" is not what we use when we're tired of the ones we have; it is baby formula for goats. In our preparation for Easter Sunday, I had managed to ignore the replacer supply, and we ran out last night. We put together a suitable replacement (a replacement for replacer...wow) of the bit that was left, some cows' milk, and some goats' milk that we found at WalMart. Why not just use that, you say? They're eating 9 pints a day, and that stuff we bought last night was $4/quart. For the math challenged, that would be $18 PER DAY. Its important to get good nutrition into these little guys; but that's just too rich for my blood!

I took a nap, fed the goats, paid some bills, flipped the, well, you know. I talked to some folks about meat animals, including the family I'll be buying some lambs from next month. We'll have a cute little flock of lambs and goats for the summer. Then it was time to get dinner started. We had a sirloin from the steer we grew last year; yum! Dishes. John headed out to work the fire in the treeline. Now we're in and settling down for the night.

As I said, a productive day. Nothing that will make the nightly news, but I hope I did what was expected of me today. Night, all!

(Please leave comments below, and not on Facebook. I really appreciate each one.)

Busy, busy week and weekend, so no blogging has happened for a long, long time.

We've loaded pigs and taken them to the butcher. We then picked up their little white packages, and they are now "enjoying" freezer camp. There will a post about this in the not-so-distant-future.

We have a new grandchild! John Morgan Peterman V was born on November 7, and he's a cutie! I'll be headed to Michigan to visit him/them for about a week. There will be a post about this in the not-so-distant-future.

A good time was had with friends. Sadly, no pictures, so, no post. Just know there was wine and food involved.

A coyote grabbed up one of our chickens this morning. I heard the cackling, and he was gone before any of us could grab the gun. Mary and John headed out to the woods to look for him, but, no joy. It was a young hen, too.

Leaves have been raked and burned continually. I am hoping to finish that project today.

So I'd best get moving.

Saturday Farm Report, a Day Late and Without Very Many Pictures

I was busy enough on Saturday, that the Farm Report is late.

We have 13 turkeys left of the 20 I bought in the spring. They want to be fewer; they keep escaping their pens. Mostly they roost on top of their huts, but, often, they go walkabout. Henry the corgi found one about two weeks ago, and ate half of it before I could intervene. Poor thing survived, although I had Mary put it out of its misery. They was no way survival would be long term. The little jerk. (Henry, not the turkey. Although he did ask for it.)

Turkeys and chickens go to the butcher on October 19. I have about 45 of the 50 chickens I started with. They're basically too lazy to go walkabout. In fact, they sit as close to the food trough as they can, not even bothering to peck/eat the pen they're allowed. Take that, pastured poultry people!

Renovations to the chicken huts are proceeding. New roofs were installed in the past two weeks. They've been a little disappointing. Metal, they seemed sturdier than the pressed felt/asphalt roofing that had, admittedly, lasted 5 years. They ARE sturdier, and lighter, BUT they chill. This means that the birds' heat and the cold night air conspire to condense on the inside of the hut, causing dripping. The bedding was saturated two days after the first installation. We're going to try some foam insulation today, hoping that will help. Fingers crossed. I am thinking that a roof vent would be a better idea, but we'll do the insulation first.

The steer remains mellow. That is a good thing. He also seems to be gaining again. He had lost some ground in September, when the grass finally gave way in the main pasture. Now that he's on his own, he gets to eat it ALL without sharing with Wakiya, and it shows. Beer, some grain, and a little alfalfa in the hay can't hurt, either.

Pigs are HUGE. They look nothing like the little weaners we brought here in May. In fact, they were so small, then, that I planned to take them to butcher in mid-November, rather than October, which is our usual month. Well, sure enough, I had to call and change that appointment. They'll be going for their trailer ride on October 26. We are going to have freezers FULL of pork!

Dogs are happy. Cats are content. Our ancient cat, Dinah, is being spoiled. Her teeth are finally giving out. Well, after all, she is pushing 18. Funny, considering that, when we got here, we were told that she would only last 2-3 years as an outside cat, and that we were setting her up for poor health/early death. But here I am, buying soft cat food for an ancient cat who has few teeth. Well, she's been a good protector of our grain supply these many years. Time to pay her back, I say!


Next up; a rehab of the chicken coop, some digging in and for the garden, and removal of a few trees. Stay tuned!

Saturday Farm Report

Another lovely Saturday. Really, although its predicted to be only in the high 60s today (a record is expected; lowest high ever!) and mostly cloudy, it means that we've had some good rain this week, and we'll have a break from the heat. In general, our weather has been good this summer. Warm enough to grow things, cool enough to be comfortable, wet enough so things are really, really green, dry enough to enjoy the outdoors. Yes, we have mosquitoes, and flies, but we have Cutters, so alls good!

We've been eating green beans, basil and tomatoes from the garden. Potatoes are almost ready to be dug, at least some small, new ones. Flowers look nice, horse is grazing well, and poultry is growing plump and sassy. Speaking of sassy, a Jersey heifer of that name should be gracing our pasture soon! I am a little reluctant to mention it until its a done deal, because I want it to happen, but it looks pretty likely that, within two weeks or so, we will once again own a cow. A cow, no less, who will calf in the next year. -squee!-

Today I will be painting. We're moving bedrooms around, and that involves changing of colors and fabrics. It's a girl thing; you might not understand! This time around, because of our age and family situation, it seems like it may be "permanent." I'm choosing colors wisely, because I think I'll have to live with them until we can sell this place.

But I'd best get at it. I leave you with a view from my kitchen window.

Rain!

You know that spring has sprung when the rains begin. You know the old rhyme; "April showers bring May flowers." But, these past two years or so, our spring rains have been sparse. Thunderstorms rolled in this morning, and now we're getting a good soaking. We had some rains over the weekend, too. We are cautiously optimistic that this drought we've been having is breaking.

Too late for my little shrubs, though. I bought three last summer that purported to bloom throughout the season. I bought them late, when they were on sale, planted them, and then the rains stopped. I mean STOPPED. We got no measurable moisture until some snow in January. I didn't expect them to survive, especially since, after the school year started, I was a horrible gardener and didn't water regularly. I will pay for it this spring, when I buy more of these shrubs at full price. (Which, at our local garden store, was higher than that price quoted on the link page!)

I also plan to plant some new trees this spring. Our tree-cutting work of a few weeks ago left us with the realization that we've cut far more than we've planted. I'm looking at blue spruce, white pine and sugar maples. And maybe a plum or two. I have seriously considered replacing ALL our apple trees with peach trees. Our little orchard is sadly neglected, with those apples getting very little pruning, and almost no spraying. It always seems that, when I have time to spray, it's predicted to rain the next day or so, so I hold off. Of course, with the drought I mentioned, I should probably spray; that would ensure rain! But I don't. And our apple harvest shows it. Granted, peach trees only make it 3-5 years here, but, if I replace an apple a year with a peach, we'll have a steady supply and less pruning/spraying. (No, I don't spray peaches, either. But the fruit harvested in much better than unsprayed apples) This is the peach variety I buy. It grows well in our yard, and the fruits are the large, running-down-your-arm-with-juice type that make the taste buds celebrate.

So I started talking about rain and ended up with juicy peaches. See the connection?

Spring, Actually

I've been seeing these fly over lately. I actually saw some on the ground about a month ago.



I love cranes. I was having a particularly rough late winter day about 20 years ago, and I prayed one of those desperate "Dear God, HELP!" prayers. I actually said, "Show me some sign that something good is coming." I walked out of the house a short while later and heard the beautiful call of a flock of sandhill cranes flying right over my house. I didn't know what they were, but I found out, and I learned that, although they themselves are not endangered, they can be used as foster parents for the chicks of whooping cranes, which are. They seem to fly over our area early in spring, serving as one of my harbingers of gardening season.

Speaking of whooping cranes, I was driving past some large farm fields last week, and saw what I thought were swans sitting in one. They were white birds with long necks, so I slowed down to get a better look. One stood up, and I realized they were cranes. I was still driving past, so I didn't get a terrifically clear view, but I am reasonably certain they were whoopers.



It was a small thrill for me to see them. One of their migration routes is right over our area, and we are about 2 hours south of the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI. I read an article about a news outlet that ran video of what they thought was a whooping crane, and they did say they were wrong, that there is a sandhill crane that is lighter than normal. But it has a red head, like the sandhill, and these birds had black on their heads. So they were whooping cranes. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Yeah. A crane geek. -sheesh- (Not to mention champeen-run-on-sentence-writer!!)

Last picture for you. I have been looking out my window for weeks now, and, suddenly, yesterday, I saw this.



Of course, that's not quite the view from my window. I grabbed a camera, ran out, and got down on the ground for this shot. I'm kinda proud of that shot. It may appear at the fair this summer.

But for now, I'm going to enjoy spring. I think I'll finally be able to get in the garden this weekend. If so, asparagus will be planted!! And lettuces. And whatever "cold weather veggies" the local garden shop meant when they put that sign up out front. I'll stop by on my way home, see what I'll have to plant tomorrow, and let you know then!

Spring Break

This week is Spring Break. We've been relaxing on a warm Southern beach, enjoying some time off.

No. Strike that.

We've been working busily on and off our farm. Off the farm, we bought a "new" garden tractor and a "new" car. Both were desperately needed, and are welcome expenditures.

On the farm, we've been cutting 3 years' worth of dead and downed wood. Scheduling, illness, and just plain denial have kept us from this. But finally, finally, it is getting done. I'll share some photos with a smack upside my head. I should have taken a Before picture so you could see how wonderful our pasture looks right now in an After shot. The tree line is clear of dead things, low-hanging branches, which endanger critters and humans alike, are gone, and it almost looks like we care about this place.

But I didn't. So please just enjoy these shots of hard work being done. (The young man in the photos is a Boyfriend. Scary times.)

Saturday Farm Report, And So it Begins Edition

I covered the garden with a tarp today. And the compost pile. Just 30 more days, and I will be able to move compost to the garden and plant asparagus and lettuces.

Saturday Farm Report

It is mid-January, and, at this time of year, a girl's heart turns to thoughts of...

Yep. Gardening.

Last year was one of the worst gardens we're ever had, in terms of what got used in proportion to what got planted. Part of that was due to the drought that came through last summer, and part of that was due to that job-thing I found for myself.

I usually peruse the catalogs in January, buy some seed that looks promising and exciting, and also some that I've used before and enjoyed. This year I can't really start seeds inside, as my usual spot, our breezeway, has become a cathouse. Now, before you call the police on me, we have no red lights in our breezeway. We do, however, have 5 cats who spend the night in there, toasty warm. And they eat plants. So my starts would be doomed.

This year I'll be hitting the garden centers and even WalMart for my starts. It will limit the varieties I can use, that's true. But, on the other hand, some of my favorite veggies have come from starts I bought on a whim. For example, Paladin peppers. I found those in Farm and Fleet 2 summers ago, and they produced the biggest, blockiest, yummiest green peppers I've ever grown. Juliet tomatoes; not quite cherry tomatoes, not quite grape tomatoes, but delicious! Stay tuned to see what I find this year!

This weekend we have a houseful. Jay, Kris and the kids will be here for a post-Christmas party. We didn't get to see them for Christmas, so this will be fun. Ethan and Brandy are here for the weekend, although Ethan is spending the day at a CAP class. Ryan is here for the day, and Rundi is off with his family. (He has an aunt and uncle about an hour away from us.) We're still hunting for a host family for him. Matthew and Keri return from California tomorrow.

The weather is decidedly spring-like, which is just wrong. We have geese flying overhead, and I think I even heard sandhill cranes this morning, which usually means spring to me. I hope we're not in for more bad weather this year. that does not make for happy hobby farming!

Saturday Farm Report

Honestly, that title for my semi-regular farm posts is a little misleading. This is no more a farm than my kitchen is, unless you count the fruit flies growing in the yucky bucket. (That's the family term for the bowl of veggie trimmings that gets taken daily to the chickens) Right now, our little farmstead barely resembles a farm. We have a run-down little barn-thing, actually a one-an-a-half car garage, converted, that houses some animals, sometimes. We have a run-down little chicken coop that needs some major renovation. We have a saggy, baggy tented structure that holds our hay. We have a scruffy, scraggly lawn over most of our property that was mowed once this summer. We have a mostly neglected garden that needs a few days of work.

In other words, not the tidy little homestead I pictured when we moved here.

I'm hoping to change that in the spring. I need to hire a farm boy or two, and buy a tractor/mower. Then this place will be the purty, efficient place it needs to be.

Hahahahahahahaha!!!!

Saturday Farm Report

Beautiful, sunny day. Cool, crisp fall air. A trip to the apple orchard is in the works, and it's a perfect day for it. Sadly, I'll be home, taking care of things here, while Mary and Ryan play in the autumn sun. They'd just better bring me home some cider and doughnuts!
The farm itself...well, it's in awful shape. There's just no way we would be able to accomplish what we did this year and still have it all look lovely. It's ragged and unkempt and we've lost animals to predators because of it. We started with 10 turkey poults; we'll take 4 to the butcher this Thursday, and none of them died young. They were all victims of dogs or coyotes. It's embarrassing.
Also embarrassing is the vegetable garden. Nothing has been picked in the past month, and I'm sure lovely tomatoes are rotting on the vines. I do have beautiful, full Brussels sprouts plants. Full of foliage; not a sprout on any of them.
OK, so I'm done running myself down. Must get to work. Have a good week!

Saturday Farm Report

Today dawned bright and sunny. And humid. It'll be in the mid-90s today. I am going shoe shopping in a nice, cool shop.

But first came a trip to the feed store, where I learned that my favorite feed is "too hard" to keep in stock, so I may be looking for a new store. Something local-ground, or even, dare I say it, organic, would be appreciated. I also visited the farm stand and bought some beautiful cantaloupe and watermelon, and corn. Corn is one of those summertime treats that I thought we would not be enjoying this summer. The drought, I thought, would make that impossible. Well, the ears aren't as fat as I'd like, but they're lovely. We'll be having them with a nice ribeye tonight...

We're down to one goat. Mary sold Hoss at auction last night. She didn't get as much as she'd like, but she sold him for a little more than the average price, and more than I usually sell them for, so I'm happy. Only Jack, the little black goat, is left, and he will have a date with destiny sometime this October. We lost a turkey this week. I think one of the dogs "played" with it. Playing with dogs is not healthy for turkeys.

Our garden is overgrowing since the rains. The tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, but most of the Romas have blossom end rot. Makes me grumpy, but makes me realize I should test the soil. We have some potatoes from the garden last week; yum! And the cucumbers have begun to produce. And the zucchini. Not that I told you that. So, if some zucchini should appear on your doorstep one morning, it was NOT me. It was NOT.

Have a good Saturday!

Double Edged Sword

More rain today! We're so glad to see things greening up and growing again. I really have been worrying about our garden. Not the veggies so much, although our crop will be small this year. I've been worrying mostly about our shrubs. Some have already died; some are so brown and dry that I wonder if they can come back.

The lawn has been brown and crunchy. It is beginning to show signs of life again. This is the double edged sword. Our mower met it's end last year. You may remember how. Because we are fussy, and want what we want, and because our bank account is anorexic, we are doing without a lawn mower this year. Our plan is to save and buy the one we want next year, rather than settling for something less and hating it. As a result, we haven't been complaining much about the lack of rain. Now, as the grass begins to come back, we're going to have to scramble.

Because we're sitting on a double edged sword.

Saturday Farm Report

Some gardening done this week; potatoes and beans planted. We've had good rain, and I've been grateful.

We had our first harvest this week! Radishes, asparagus and rhubarb. The radishes were hot, hot, hot! I planted French Breakfast radishes, because they've been sweet in the past, but these were speecy-spicy. They were a good snack, though. The rhubarb will go into a rhubarb pie or crisp today, and the asparagus into an omelet. There wasn't very much of that, since I dug out my asparagus bed last fall. I plan to re-plant it this spring, but finding paying work has put a crimp in that plan. It'll get done, but late.

Today we're off to my dad's to help with final packing. He moves next week. Best get to it!

Poop

I thought long and hard about what to call this post. In the end, I figured I'd just go with Honesty.

Poop is a given on a farm of any kind. Critters just don't understand toileting like people do. Horse owners, like us, are often called Pilots. That's because we pile It here, we pile It there...you get the idea! On our little hobby farm, we have quite the collection of poop. And we do collect it. We have no choice!

We have three compost piles next to the barn. We have one in the horse pasture. And we have one above the garden.

The ones next to the barn are actually one pile, divided. In the first section, we have the brand-spankin'-new, just outta the critter poop. When that gets full, we dump it into the second section, turning it as we do so. Turning compost allows air into it, which speeds the decomposition process. (If you want to learn more about composting, here's a reasonable place.) When it's sat there for a few months, we dump it into the third section, where the composting process finishes. We usually then pull that compost out of the third section, dumping it on the garden or flowerbeds and leaving section 3 open again for the stuff from section 2, when it's ready. We move compost to the garden or flowerbeds in the spring and fall.

The compost pile in the horse pasture is turned in "halves," moving it a little bit forward as we do so. Then it, too, goes on the garden or flowerbeds.

The pile above the garden is a stationary thing. I've been tossing weeds, trimmings and prunings back there for a while. Since our garden is at the bottom of a short slope, I'd like to build up the back a bit so I can build some sort of retaining wall. As it is, right now, mowing back there is difficult; the mower ends up slanted. A riding mower can't always handle going up the slope. So I have longer grass and weeds beginning to take up permanent residence there, and, then, encroaching into the garden. I thought if I piled vegetable garbage and poop back there, soil would eventually form. Then I could dig into it a bit, build that retaining wall, and continue putting yard refuse there until it was a level surface for mowing. My evil plot seems to be working. This summer or next I'll be able to put in that wall.

And that, dear reader, is the story of poop at our farm. I hope you enjoyed it!

January Snowfall

So, I mentioned snow. I headed out during the beginning hours to get some pictures. I think I'll be retiring my point and shoot. Enjoy these as best you can!


The horses, walking away. you can see how the cold and snow have turned them into beggars, pleading with me to bring them in out of the weather.

Even though they have to paw through the snow to eat.

Henry found something yummy.

Here's where he found it. Can you guess?

Yes. It's a poopsicle.