It has been awhile since I last
wrote in my blog but that’s not because work has not been happening! This
winter was harsh on all of us; I have never seen so many social media friends
write for status updates of never complaining of the heat again!
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| Newly planted beds |
First of all the garden beds over
the winter were fortified with coffee grounds; our college coffee area saved
the grounds for myself another instructor. I dumped so much coffee grounds on
each of the beds I finally had to stop or it would have been way too much for
the garden to handle! The grapevines all
survived (51 of them) and managed to handle the harsh cold. From what I have
heard a lot of older vines did not manage as well. We also got up to them as
soon as we could this year and managed to prune them, feed them and add mulch.
We will now be adding the post needed to get the vines to climb straight. Originally
I wanted to add another 50 vines but opted to wait another year and make sure
the ones planted last year are established before taking on another 50.
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| New arrivals to the farm |
The newest addition to the farm
this year was our purchase of 25 chickens or as we affectionately call them,
meat birds. We lost one in shipping another died due to injury in shipping;
otherwise we have 23 chickens to butcher in the next couple of weeks. We needed to move our hens to the outdoor
coup to make room for the chickens; this proved to be a chore! In order for us
to move the chickens into the winter coup we needed to clean out the coup. This
became more fertilizer for the garden; we hauled six tractor loads up to the
garden (who would have guessed 5 hens would produce so much in one winter
season). We did lose one of our hens
just before the chickens moved in, not sure as to why? We have had the birds
for two years; this would have been the third summer. The breed of chickens we
purchased called Cornish cross or red have some quirks! Apparently they will
eat so much that if you are not careful you will have chickens croaking from
heart attacks! We were told to make sure they had to stand to eat and walk to
get water. To do this I built a feeding
trough from an old rain gutter; I built two of these, the first one was the
smaller version, which they quickly out grew, and the second one a much larger
piece of the gutter. The birds show no
grace at feeding time, they climb over each other, climb on top of the feeder
to eat! We had two smaller waters and they have quickly outgrown them; we now
have a 5 gallon water feeder along with the two smaller ones. They have about two weeks left before we turn
them into fried chicken! This is the crucial time and it will be important to
make sure they have plenty of water and we will need to keep our eye on them to
ensure they are not dying of heart attacks!
We also decided this year to have
our quarter horse (Babu) trained by a local trainer. The young man, Jacob, has
a great connection with horses. He has a
true passion with horses and seems to understand them and if Sara was okay with
this, I was definitely okay with the idea. The training was going well and we
even went on a trail ride with Jacob riding Babu! Things were going swimmingly
until one of Jacob’s mares went into heat! Typical guy thinking with his junk,
despite not having the ability to do anything, he decided he needed to meet the
lucky lady! Babu had been training at Jacobs when he got the call of nature
from the mare. Babu rain through a fence
to get to her and in the meantime managed to gash his hind leg in two places;
the cuts were deep enough for us to call a vet! Initially Sara and Jacob
managed the wounds but decided we should have the vet come out and have him
checked out. As it turns out Sara’s treatment plan was working and addition the
vet gave us antibiotics for Babu. Sara brought Babu home and we have been
hosing, cleaning and treating the wounds.
They are healing nicely.
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| Babu's gash! |
The garden thus far had received
large doses of nitrogen from the chickens and coffee grounds but was fortified
with more soil from our woods. I brought
up numerous loads of soil from our woods to complete the task of stacking our
beds with good stuff! I choose soil from
areas where we have dead tree stumps and the soil and wood had decomposed to
become some awesome soil! The beds have also been rotated and the items planted
in one bed our now planted in another bed.
The rotation is good for the soil and the plants. I was able to get the
beds planted in just a couple of days.
Our son William helped with one of the beds planting some seedlings our
daughter, Dawson, had brought home. The cool thing is that literally within a
couple of days the garden is springing to life! Literally everything is coming
up!
Some of our projects for the summer
include having our neighbors bring their goats to our woods and do some
cleanup. Goats do a great job of eating weed trees and other unwanted growth.
Once we finish the cleanup I am going to build some jumps in the woods for Sara
and her horse. The benefit will also be in creating new trails through the
woods, thus easier access during hunting season! Our woods also have a number of trees that
need to be cut up and hauled out; unfortunately the woods have been neglected
for the most part over the years. The
problem with neglecting the woods is the evasive species that has taken over
much of the woods, including poison oak.
The storms over the years knocked down trees and some are sitting up
against good healthy trees, thus causing more damage. The goal is to take on small quadrants and
cleanup those areas, moving on to the next area when we have cut away unwanted,
dead or down trees. Eventually we want
to come back and plant more trees and replace the trees that have either fallen
or died.
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| Some of the cleanup needed down at our woods |
Finally we have been eating a lot
of asparagus this spring! Sara is the Queen of asparagus finding; zeroing in
like a heat seeking missile, Sara can spot a stand of asparagus from her car
while driving along our country roads.
We have made quiche, strata, salads and many other dishes from the
asparagus this spring! Good stuff and typical of any growing season we are
ready to move on to the next harvest!
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| Asparagus and violets from our foray into the country road by our house |
