What I Found In the Garden....

Yesterday was just like summer - I think I even got a sunburn. If you can believe it I had to drag out the hoses and run the sprinkler so my seeds would start. It was an amazing day.

More Yukon Golds went here - I'm getting different varieties this week.

But what was really amazing is what I found in the garden. I'm still doing a ton of prep - so not much to see except some of the treasures I dug up or tilled over. I found a couple of sprinkler heads and some other hose attachments but what really set me back on my heels was this.....

The Biggest Parnsip EVER.

Parsnip of DOOM!!!!! Yes, DOOM I said!

I was thrilled for a couple of reasons - one because...well.. how wicked cool is that parsnip? Plus this means all my work to improve my bad soil is working. These root veggies are actually growing down thru what was hardpan. It gives me a lot of hope and inspiration to keep on trudging up there with trolly-load after trolly-load of chicken litter and other assorted poop and compost.

I also found this happy face...
  

Lucky loves to "help" me garden - actually he just loves the dirt. Both Dog#1 and #2 love freshly tilled dirt - so much so that I have a command "Get out of my Dirt!" and they know go get out of the dirt and get their huge paws onto grass.

But this happy dog snuck in behind me and rolled all around in my fresh dirt and got it all over his face.

Some folks have been asking why Lucky hasn't been featured much on the blog or in our Adventure Tails. It's because he's been having some health problems so pretty much he's on light duty. He's been appointed Master of the House and spends a lot of time holding down his dog bed. But that makes him happy so it's OK. The vet will implement a treatment plan for him and he'll be just fine. Yesterday he just loved being in the upper garden and rolling all around.

Happy Wednesday everyone! Have you found any garden treasures?

Canning beans and planting notes

Happy Tuesday everyone! Was everyone outside yesterday?

I got the last one.

Good thing I raced right down to the feedstore right when they opened. The seed potatoes were flying right off the shelves. I got the last 10 pound sack of Yukon Golds. Yesterday I worked on the upper garden.

I finally wised up and cut the finger tips off my gloves so I could handle the seeds.

Most of the day was prep work but I got some purple onions, Yukon Gold potatoes, peas, radishes, and lettuce planted and covered. We are expecting 75* today but next week who knows if it will snow or just be a cold rain. My row covers continue to work out perfectly.

These taters are going right next to my garlic - it's going like gangbusters.

I also got caught up with canning - we were down to our last home canned jar of pinto beans which is a crisis around here. Why can beans when they are on sale for $1?  Are you kidding? It's the best value out there! I went on down the the Dollar Store and got a 2 pound bag of pinto beans and a one pound bag of black beans for less than $5.

When the steam cleared I had 21 pints of beans ready for whenever we need a quick supper. For those you don't like math - that's less than $0.25 per pint!

But what about all that time wasted in the kitchen? Wasted? What? Are you kidding? I quick soaked the beans while I was out doing chores, then simmered them for 30 minutes while I did some laundry, then ate lunch and got caught up on 'the facebook' while they were in the pressure canner. What time was wasted?

This is a great project to get started on canning - the jars almost always seal, it's easy and fun, and wow does it pay off!

When we want nachos we just grab a can of beans and a frozen bag of chicken (from when I made stock) and there you go. If we have a snack attack we mix up some of our home made salsa, a can of black beans, and some frozen corn that was roasted on the grill that summer - how's that for fun and easy - and cheap?

No sir, no time was wasted at all yesterday. Home canning beans is a great value and a couple hours one afternoon gives up just about all the beans we'll need for the next 4 or 5 months. Of course, now all I want for lunch is a big chicken and bean burrito...But first I have the rest of the taters to plant.

Happy Tuesday everyone! Now get out there and can some beans, plant some radishes, get some taters in the ground, and enjoy the day!

Hoopin' it up!

What a great weekend! I spent almost all day on Saturday hoopin' it up!  Since you know I'm not a sports fan I'll let you know that I'm talking about garden hoops - little row covers to protect the seed sprouts from frost. And chickens.

Baby goats - adorable yet very distracting.

I've been doing a lot of tilling the last several days, in between watching adorable little goats, of course. Since the soil was prepped I wanted to do some planting but I just can't keep up with our crazy spring. All last week I lived in fear of crushing frosts and freezes and this morning it's over 50*. Not knowing what is going to happen next week I decided to put up some quick garden hoops.

True to my Appalachia-American-cheap ways I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I found a terrific row cover from Johnny's Seeds - this is the one I have (I'll list it in my Amazon store also). Next I needed to support the row cover so I took a look around and remembered how great it was to use half-round sections of field fence last year.

Half rounds of field fence keep chickens out and provide a hoop for covering rows.

I cut the fence in the center of each square so that I had "long tails" on each end - then just shoved them into the ground. It was easy to line up and center the Agribon logo on the row cover over the fence hoops. Then I just unrolled the fabric cover. I found some weirdly cut small sections of hog panel for each end and those sealed off my hoop row.

Voila! Now my little seeds are safe from chickens and frost. This worked out so well - and was so easy - that I'm going to do a lot more of this little hoop row this week.

Happy Monday everyone - anyone else hoopin' it up?

Vlad the Impaler

I don't think this name works for him...

Vlad the Impaler has never been so cute!

Happy Friday everyone!

Two... no... THREE!!!

You'll remember yesterday I was gonna get Nibs set up in Le Grand Palais - her swanky suite in the Turkey House  - to give her a break from Dahli and Deb in preparation for her April 6 due date.....

Guess what happened yesterday?

Talk about just in the nick of time. Nibbles was acting kind of weird yesterday afternoon and making funny noises. So me and the dog hurried up and got her bucket set up and a fresh layer of straw down in the newly cleaned out and rat free Turkey House coop. But when we went to get her, Nibs didn't want to get up. We drug her kicking and screaming and raced her right over there. A few minutes later and we wouldn't have made it.

My Good Shepherd looks on - he always takes care of me.

Of course nothing goes like it's supposed to around here - so there I was alone with Nibs about to pop. Well, I wasn't alone - I had the chip on my shoulder and the dog with me. He gave me encouraging, if not slightly worried looks. I patted Nibbles as reassuringly as I could knowing The Good Neighbor Mom was racing home.

Comparatively these are huge babies! How cute are they?

Then everything got whoozy and I woke up later with Dog#1 licking my face and Nibbles licking two perfect little buckings. One with enormous ears and one splashy kid with tiny little La Mancha ears.

 Are these ears hilarious or what?

About that time the Good Neighbor Mom got there and after a while we decided that Nibs was done and all was well. The only thing to do was go in the house and drink. So I did.

This splashy little kid has tiny La Mancha ears - adorable!

Later, after laying on the floor in the house with the dogs for a while, and reciting about 1,000 reasons why dogs are better than goats, I figured I should go out there and see how Nibs and the two were doing. What a surprise for me!

What was that!?!?

Baby Trey or Sneaky Pete - came out of no where. What a surprise!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you with..... Tres... I mean.. Trey. Or however you want to say "three."  I actually suggested the name "Trey" to some folks for their surprise third real baby - they didn't think it was funny. Come to think of it, they didn't take my other suggestion which was Vlad the Impaler either.... in fact they asked me to stop suggesting names for their children altogether. Anyway.

So there you have it. While I was out there laying in the straw it occurred to me that I need to get my act together - our milking season has begun! So today will be about getting our milking area into tip top shape and making sure Nibs stays calm and takes care of the babies as long as she will. You'll recall she normally gets an F- in being a mommy. Oh, and I'd better get my cheese making supplies ready. This is gonna be a bang up year for home made goat cheese!

Happy Thursday everyone! Anyone else have some surprise babies!?!

Mo Derp

I got off farm yesterday - it was fantastic. I had a terrific time and a darn good meal.

Mo was a little derp-y yesterday. His little tongue hanging out slays me

Today I need to set up The Grand Palais for Nibbles.... she's looking extremely large. I understand her arch rival - Gidget - had quads so now Nibs is gonna have five babies just to show her up. Goats = crazy.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Holy Buckets of Bacon!

It's a bacon overload! It's a ham hysteria!  I went and got our bacon and hams from the butcher yesterday. It was glorious.

A huge ham haul.

I really like our butcher - he started laughing right when I walked into his office.  It's not entirely unusual for folks to greet me like that so I wasn't surprised.  You'll remember that we've had a laugh or two before.

A bucket of bacon.

Turns out he gave us a deal on my extra big bacon. He had to trim off part of it to make it fit into the slicer.  This is how the "good" end of the bacon turned out:

He said he felt bad because that what the fatty end and he didn't think it was much use... but I didn't mind at all. This was the "bad" stuff - are you kidding? It's perfect! This is great for chopping into chunks and using to make beans - or cook up some onions.

I'll use that for when I need bacon and fat as the base for a stew or meat sauce. It worked out perfectly for me. So I happily drove right home with my huge ham haul.

That's my regular sized skillet - look how huge the bacon slices are!

We might, however, need another freezer..... or I'll just have to keep cooking up skillet full of bacony goodness.

Happy Tuesday everyone!