It's a hatch! Meet Red

I had just about given up on Floppy - the little hen who's been setting for a while now. In fact I was on my way inside to figure out if she was past due when I heard the cutest little sounds in the hen house. Yep! Its a hatch... here is one of the latest arrivals. Meet Red:

Golly -  is he a cutie or what?

I think she has three chicks so far and another 4 eggs under her. So here's hoping for a full hatch!

But the cuteness didn't end there.

The goats were more fussy than usual up on the milkstand and I couldn't figure out why. Until, that is, I noticed Bianca fussing around on her nest.

Bianca, or Pig Pen as we are calling her, is a little white "micro duck" that I snatched out of a buddy's barnyard. We lost the only micro (or dwarf) duckling we'd ever had...and Bianca was so cute.. so she came home with me. If the full sized lady ducks weigh about 4 or 5 pounds, Bianca weighs about 3 pounds at most. The other ducks were giving her a hard time so I let her start a nest in the garage near where I milk the goats. This way I could keep an eye on her. The barncats don't pay her any mind and she is happy there.

So this morning she was fussing all around and...there it was. The reason the goats were hopping all around.. I had to listen close but  I could barely hear little peeping! So I looked and sure enough there was a little face looking out at me from inside her shell.

That full moon we've been having sure does have its way with things.

Happy Sunday everyone!

A lovely basket...and a cool morning

I took these up yesterday and thought the colors were just lovely....

The huge ones are the oxhart tomatoes and all the little green things are tomatillos

And without fail it has to be salsa day....after, of course, I put up the rest of the plums...and the peaches... and then start two cheeses and.. and... and... you see how it goes sometimes? All in good time.

We finally have had some cool mornings. Everyone out in the barnyard is just pippin' and poppin' and flippin' and flyin' around. Vita and Debbie, the full sized goats, are out there chasing each other and butting heads. Not in a mean way - they are just goosin' it up and enjoying the cool weather.

But I'd better get out there -- Debbie is so full her udder looks like its going to pop!

Happy Saturday everyone, hope you are enjoying a cool morning.

Vita, chillaxin'. And cover crops.

So we learned the other day that "chillax" is now a real word and in the Oxford dictionary. Hum. Well, I'm not hip, urban, nor superfly but I do like modern lingo so....

Here is Vita, chillaxin'...

Yo Vita! How's that chillax goin?

And now something entirely different.. cover crops.

The other day Tammy had a few questions on the cover crops I planted this spring over in the comments on this post. So I thought I'd just answer them here as we are getting into the fall planting season.

Q: I keep reading about them, but don't really know exactly what to do with them.
A: Easy peasy! Call up your local extension agent and ask them what would benefit your soil for your area. Or just ask an old timer. Whatever you do don't ask at Home Depot or some place like that. They will look at you like you are out of your mind. Don't ask me how I know this.

Around here the best thing is to plant winter wheat in the fall. It grows even when the temp is barely above freezing, then really comes on in the spring.

There are whole sciences on the "right" cover crop. But really - any legume will add nitrogen to your soil...and just about anything that grows will provide root systems to help the soil. The wheat works really well here. We also planted buckwheat in the spring because it grows well in our bad soil (mostly clay) and its good for the beez.

Q: Did you just turn it under into the soil?
A: Well, we had to whack it down first. We let it grow out so it was pretty tall. But then we just weed whacked it...and I just used clippers to get some of it up...which I then fed it to the goats (small amounts, in the afternoon AFTER they had their own hay so as not to cause bloat.).

Once it was down to the stubble stage I used the tiller to grind it all under. A determined (or cheap, as I was before I bought the new tiller) person can just use a hoe. But there is a lot of swearing involved in using that method. Then I just went and got the darn tiller. Best money every spent.

Q: How far in advance of planting did you have to turn it under?
A: Six weeks is supposed to be optimal. Any earlier than you'll risk not having the nitrogen available for the new plants - or have it sucked out of the soil trying to break down the new organic material. Any later than that you'll be wasting growing time. You can also just let some of your garden go "fallow" - just don't do anything to it and let it grow wild. Its a good strategy for rotational gardening.

Q: And did you have any trouble with it growing back as "weeds" in your veggie garden?
A: No more than any of the other stupid weeds! Dang it was a bad weed year. But really, nope most of it just crunched down in the soil. I was actually really impressed how well it did.

Q: If you have any good links to refer me to that would be great!!
A: Oh golly I love Gene L's work over on http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/ and also any of his books including "Small Scale Grain Raising." I also really like John Jeavons work in "How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits...." Mother Earth News also has some good articles that you can search on their site.

I guess the big thing is.... don't let it overwhelm you. I was a nervous nelly for the longest time about the whole thing and it was hard to find the "real" cover crops at garden centers etc. And expensive to have shipped to me. So I just marched into our local feed mill and asked if I could have 5 pounds of buckwheat? Sure, they said, and it cost me about $4. For heavens sakes. Much better results than the deer in the headlights look I got from that guy wearing the orange apron, for sure.

Now get out there and get your cover crops going! Happy gardening!

The Good, The Bad, and The Broody

You can always tell when its a full moon around here - everyone goes absolutely nuts. Couple that with our sudden, extra cool weather, and friend... the nuttiness is off the chart.

First, we have The Good - also known as Who's Cute Today...seriously... how adorable are the little ones?

Neo - Mrs. Beezley's single chick

Miss Duck's Surprise Ducklings enjoying the sunshine

Mrs. Dowlrimple and some of The Bugs

Then we get to The Bad.

The Rooster Crew, formerly part of The Kindergarten

Yesterday was a series of small miseries... each more of a pain than a drama but still altogether very disappointing. First, two of our three turkey hens got up off their nests...so we aren't counting on any more poults. Our third hen has eggs that probably aren't viable... she was a long shot for sure.

The Rooster Crew is responsible for running one of our turkey hens off her nest. They are getting aggressive and will very soon be renamed "Stew." 

We rallied from that blow but when we went out to milk and put everyone up for the night... oh geez... no mistaking that horrible smell. We had a bad egg explode in our hen house. We could smell it from 20 feet away.   We thought our chores would be quick and easy? Nope, smelly and took much longer. It was almost dark when we got the last of the Rooster Crew rounded up for the night.

The bad egg was under one of our ridiculous banty hens... so we get to The Broody.

The Broody

We have two of these silly little hens who have not hatched anything, but my bad attitude, all dang summer. They sits for a while - then get up, then sit on the wrong eggs so the clutch that hen had been sitting on for almost a week would never hatch...then she sits on new eggs...and heaven forbid I move either of them to one of the broody coops.. oh no, won't hear of that at all. For heaven's sakes.

In the meantime the other layers are all in a fit and are hiding their eggs.  So we took drastic measures - we dunked one of them.

Yep. You know that old expression "as mad as a wet hen"? Well, I couldn't figure out what it meant because our hens are always outside flapping around happily in the rain. But here is why the wet hen is mad - dunking her in cool water is one way to stop, or "break", their broodiness. A plunge in cold water is suppose to lower their body temperature which stops the broody cycle. Broody hens have a higher body temperature to make sure the eggs they are setting are warm enough to develop. So the theory is, lower the body temperature and you'll snap her out of her brood cycle.

Is this mean? Not really.  Folks who show chickens bathe their birds all the time. And frankly - once they figure out you aren't trying to drown them, they kinda like it. If you are wondering if its mean to break their brood... well, remember that setting a nest takes a lot out of a hen. Some of them even die while on the nest. And this little gal has been on and off for at least 2 months. So her time is over.

She's out there in a wire cage without anything she can make a nest out of and in the shade so she's nice and cool. Hopefully I can just let her roost with everyone tonight. The old timers say to keep her in a wire cage for 3 days so she won't try and nest again. So we'll see.

So that's The Good, The Bad, and The Broody. And now... back to canning.

Tom-A-to, tom-O-to.....

Tomato, tomoto.. cat's paw.... hey! NICHOLAS!!!

One of these things does not belong. Oh yes... I always have help in the kitchen.

Those of you with cats are laughing, those without are not.

Yesterday was a record breaking canning day. But since I've only really just started..well, that's not saying much. But I did get 12 quarts and 5 pints of tomato sauce put up. I also got a cheese started and that requires a lot of futzing around. The most irritating step is "stir continuously for 20 minutes."Sheesh! And none of these cats will help with that.

I need most of today to shovel out the kitchen and get some things done outside but honestly... when the dogs and I did our walk about this morning it looks like there are more maters and peppers coming on. If not today then tomorrow will be a salsa day.

Canning Report:
* 12 quarts and 5 pints of tomato sauce
* 12 quarts of green beans (from the other day)

Farm Notes:
* That whole "summer" thing is definitely over. A few leaves have even fallen off the trees. Sure we'll have some warm days but I've never seen anything like this. An early fall is here. We need to start working on fire wood.
* Our turkey hens are a disaster. Turkey Momma got up and she only had one egg left under her. Stormy is a demon and we cant get near her to evaluate how her nest is doing. And Bramble... who knows.
* Now that the weather had cooled the goaties are back to full milking speed. I ordered more cheese making supplies so we can take advantage of the extra milk. I'm still shocked that most forms of cheese are just rotten milk in various shapes. Hum... if people only knew....The wine fridge as our "cheese cave" seems to be working.
* We'll be looking at a butcher day here pretty soon. The roosters formerly known as The Kindergarten are like a gang of bandits out there terrorizing the countryside. We have a few good hens out of that lot. My favorite is Silver - who is all black (including her comb!) except for a few silvery feathers around her head. She's a keeper.
* Mrs. Dowlrimple and The Bugs continue to amuse.  They hide in the weeds and when you get close enough you can hear them all happily singing and peeping. So cute. 

And now I need to get to it. Happy Tuesday everyone!

I stand corrected

For heaven's sakes. I stand corrected. We will have enough tomatoes. Here I was complaining about how we wouldn't have enough and all the while greater forces were at work.....

I just brought home this trolley full of tomatoes:

Talk about a "net breaking, boat sinking" haul!

Not only did our Good Neighbors give us fixin's for at least 3 suppers... but they sent us home with all these lovelies. And then..... our other neighbors (an older couple who doesn't really mind our guineas running across their yard, we hope) filled us up even more!

Some times these little miracles are the best. Thanks, Good Neighbors!

What's in your sink? 'Maters. Lots of maters.

Guess what I'm working on today?

I'm making sauce today - canning tomorrow.  The biggest tomato in the right of this pic is a Pink Oxhart. The rest are Romas, except for the smallest ones which are the Amish paste tomatoes.

While this has been an abysmal year for tomatoes.. I actually got quite a few today. Our weather has not cooperated at all... and then I've been on the sick list...and now we are feeling fall getting closer and closer... We won't have near enough tomatoes for our needs. But we'll savor the ones we have.

A few garden notes.

Remember I was complaining about those small and useless Amish paste tomatoes and I should never grow them again? HA! They turned out to be the most prolific and most disease/weather resistant of the whole lot. I'll be saving the seeds like gold for next year. The few plants that I let grow bloomed and fruited well - and were true to last year's plants. Never say never.

At least one experiment went right. I grew winter wheat and buckwheat as a cover crop in the upper garden to help the soil. I wasn't convinced it worked until I bushwacked thru the weeds and found these beauties:

The two on the right are from the improved soil

These are Romas - from the same tray and seed packet. The one of the left is from the lower garden where I thought the soil was better. But as you can see the two on the right from the upper garden were bigger, meatier, and more lovely. I'll be buying winter wheat and buckwheat by the wheelbarrow load for this fall/next early spring. Wow what a great result!

Happy Tomato-ing for the folks who have 'em... I feel your pain, for folks who don't. Whats in your sink today?