Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Farm notes: Hopefully last freeze/frost...some casualties

Quick farm notes (a reminder that this is where I do my record keeping.. sorry if its boring):

Things are much quieter without the mini-pops around. We are so glad they found a good home but they sure were cute. We're kind of relieved to be moving forward and out of kidding season. It was a dilly. 


Little Nibbles is turning into a good milker. I'm only milking her once a day in the morning. Its a compromise that will keep me from staking her down by the road with a sign that says "Free to a BAD home." More on that later....


* Dang that last, late frost/freeze last nite! 7am and still very cold, but Little Mo just wouldn't let me sleep in. The cats, of course, get up with the sun and remind me that I also need to get up with the sun.
* Most everything was covered and survived the freeze....but a few casualties. First the grapes seem to be done in.... which is a shame because I spent a lot of time getting them strung up on their new trellises. Next a few of the beans weren't entirely covered under the row cover. Also some of the buckwheat was killed off.  And a few potato plants were frost-bitten.
* We re-fenced the Upper Gardens (East and West) and its now one big garden and I LOVE it.. great space almost like a room. Worked on weeding and getting a few more rows of onions in the ground.* Potted up some herbs.
* Mollee is sitting on one lone egg, but bless her heart, she is trying.
* No geese are setting which is very weird, I don't know if we'll have goslings this year or not.
* Miss Dash has forgiven me and is doing a fine job with the dinner-mutt eggs. She peeps for me to open the brooder so she can get out for a stretch. She likes it if I'm on time. She's very fussy.
* Miss Duck won't be moved. For anything. We need to take up some of her eggs so we won't be drowning in ducklings again.
* One of the buckeyes is brooding! She kept trying to make a nest in the goose house - which is very dangerous for her. So I scooped her up and sat her down in the other hen house brooder. I'll give her a day or so then mound up the turkey eggs under her. Its musical nests around here....ducks on hens eggs, turkeys on hens eggs, chickens on turkeys eggs... sheesh!
* Chirper, the young turkey hen, still won't set her nest, but wow its a beauty. She really made it nice.
* The guineas are laying! A lot really, but they don't seem to know what they are doing. The eggs are everywhere and not in a nest or hidden anywhere as far as we can tell.
* Two younger turkey hens are trying to make a nest (part time, they won't sit still) in the main turkey coop. Not sure what that is about and, of course, they won't actually lay IN the nest boxes. For heaven's sakes.

So there is a lot of egg layin' and settin' going on. Gosh with all the news lately we're not buying gold... chickens are the new wealth!  How about the oil slick burning?

Happy Wednesday everyone!

7 comments:

Chai Chai said...

From what we have read it is a miracle that Guinea Hens are not extinct. They just lay eggs anywhere and then the predators feast on the eggs or the keets.

Frost will be our enemy for several more weeks, so no planting here as of yet.

You are growing grapes? OFG wine and (goat) cheese parties?

basicliving@backtobasicliving.com said...

I'm insane with broody hens this year too. For some reason they all want to be broody NOW. All but two nest boxes have broody hens in them, so they others fight with them all day to get in there to lay eggs. It's a mess! And it sounds like your situation is even kookier with all the different poultry you have! I know how frustrating these frosts can be :( I no longer plant warm weather plants until after our last frost date - and usually about a WEEK after it, because there's always that one last frost..... it sounds like you're doing great at keeping them all covered though.

Ohiofarmgirl said...

hey Chai Chai! (btw i still cant leave comments - dontcha wanna change the comment setup to this kind so i can????)

Guineas = crazy

Hey I hadn't thought about a wine and cheese operation.. but yep thats what I was going for! we are just about in the clear with the frosts. The warm days are great for prepping the garden areas...which is what I'm doing today
:-)

Ohiofarmgirl said...

DRAT! nope still cant put any comments on your site. I had to change mine to "Full page" under the Comments Settings option....which throws you here and asks to you choose an ID (which is defaulted to me when I'm logged in). Otherwise I couldn't even put reply comments. I'm guessing its the browser, but if I can't do it then other folks can't either ....and we all want to tell you what a great job you are doing!

WOLVES!?!?!? *passes out*

B2B - its totally musical broodies and i'm about to go out and switch a mature turkey hen with Chirper who wont sit down. And then I have to move someone else around because 2 turkey hens were trying to brood the same nest!

Crazy turkeys...

Chai Chai said...

Can you see the comments other folks leave?

I had no idea you could grow grapes in Ohio.

basicliving@backtobasicliving.com said...

Good grief, girl - I can't even imagine! As far as I can tell I have 8 broody hens right now, and they are about to drive me insane. Everyone wants to set on everyone elses eggs! And there are only two empty nest for the others to lay in - and naturally NO ONE wants to lay in THOSE two nests! I'm pretty sure these chickens will be the death of me.

HA! Word verification is "porkebe"! Reminds me of your freezer!

Ohiofarmgirl said...

B2B - if the chickens are gonna do you in, these turkeys are going to be my end. We have one hen down on the nest and the other up screaming her fool head off.

CC - yep I can see other's comments just can't post one. The same thing happened to my sis - she couldn't post comments on my site until I changed it (I thought she wasn't trying hard enough... hee hee hee).

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