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.


Monday, August 2, 2010

Monday Happy Snaps

A few shots from my walkabout this morning... tons going on and everyone is enjoying a cool morning:

The tomatoes are really starting to come on.. I'm guessing the first of the Romas will be ready in a couple days. Until then these little Sweet 100's are just the ticket. Lightly sauteed in olive oil, add eggs and scramble, a few fresh herbs, and finish with goat cheese - that's my breakfast today.

Have I shown you my Salmon Faverolle chicks? The dark one is Mr. Tibbles, he is the roo.  His gals are Eliza and Jane. If you zoom in you can see they have an extra toe! Creepy, but they are going to be beautiful.  They don't have a momma so I'm going to see if Mrs. Dowlrimple will allow them to share the big day coop. She might take them on. No sign of Mrs. Beezley's chicks - I hope they hatch.

A few sprouts - I'm going to get these beans in just under the wire..the last frost that is...

My bean ladder is doing great. I bought this ladder for $5 at a yard sale, used outdoor paint to spiffy it up, secured it with a tpost (with a screw thru one of the holes)...these beans should be ready soon.

Sunflower... bee.... moon... I just love these shots.


And the pigz. My hatred for them grows as they get bigger. I fix my eye on the hams and dream of bacon.

Happy Monday!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I roasted a pan of cherry toms this weekend - and ate half of them! Like tomato candy, yum.
You almost have me talked into Lamanchas with all your goat talk. I just have to convince hubby that we could keep them in the backyard - it's a big yard and already fenced.

Desert Mama said...

Hey OFG - I have been reading your blog for awhile and love hearing all your stories. My husband and I are considering buying some land in the country to start a micro-farm or what have you - gardening and raising animals for our family. I'm wondering if you could tell me how much land you have/how much you wish you had, and any other considerations you would make now in evaluating potential property. It will probably be winter or spring before we start seriously looking, but we are at the point of wanting to make some real decisions now as to how much land, etc. we are looking for. And if any of your readers have input, I'd love to hear that too. Thanks again - you are a real inspiration.

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Hi Javamama! YES! You totally need La Manchas...you can't go wrong. And don't forget that Nibbles is a mini-mancha....so the best of all worlds.

Hi Desert Mama! Well, golly if you are interested in Ohio do I have a place for you! Includes pigs and maybe OD!

Or you can check out this great article that my pal, k0xxx, listed in a recent discussion over at sufficientself.com:

http://eartheasy.com/blog/2009/04/choosing-land-for-homestead-living/

The article is the best overview of what to look for that I've seen. The only thing they didn't say is that you have to be on the lookout for restrictions (zoning and on the deed, covenants etc) on the property. For instance, some that we found were:
* no hogs
* no poultry
* no wire fencing.

We were shocked that deed restrictions even were legal! But they are and are really hard to get off the property. We looked for almost a year before we found this place which is zoned for ag, no deed restrictions, and is just over 15 acres.

I would have liked to have a heritage barn and fencing...but what we got is a new pole building, a newer house (which turned out better than I hoped), and heck - we can do fencing. I think water (and rights) are a must as well as neighbors with 4H kids.

If we had established pasture I would have run right out and gotten cows.. but our smallish (an acre??) hen/goat yard is good for our peeps. We worked really hard on getting the animal housing set up. We were able to rehab what was here but I would have loved to have more/better outbuildings.

After you check out the article (or the discussion on sufficientself!) let me know if you have other questions. You will love getting your own place and getting set up! I'd love to hear about your progress.
:-)

Chai Chai said...

Ok, there are more tomatoes in that one picture than we will get in our whole garden. Soil - terrible.

Do the pigs get names or just evil looks?

We are busy looking for 4H kids ourselves, what kind of bait do you use?

Ohiofarmgirl said...

hey CC! ha!

1. hang in there baby you'll have maters yet. or lots of fried green ones!
2. mean looks. i think we loosely call them "this one" and "that one." speaking of mean looks - did you see the searing gaze "that one" was givin' me!?!?
3. money. works every time
;-)

just kiddin. We love our neighbors and they are really really good to us. I dont know where I'd be without the 4H gal - she saved us many many times. And wow can she trim hooves! We're really proud of her.

Unknown said...

Well I went and did it - I found a mini-mancha breeder nearby. And I emailed her. And she has some available. DH is thinking on it...to be continued...
-Javamama

Ken Broadhurst said...

Glad you have tomatoes now. Ours are still a ways away.

Ohiofarmgirl said...

Can't wait to hear about the next step in your goat adventure, Javamomma!

Hi Ken! Always great to see you..and read your incredible cooking posts. But come on... you are probably thinking about how its county fair season here and are aching for some deep fried something or other, right?
;-)

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