A Greenhouse Salamander and Baby Basil

I flipped over a pile of old straw and donkey dung that's been stashed in one corner of the greenhouse, and accidentally uncovered this sleepy salamander.  At first glance, I thought he was a giant slug, so I squealed like a girl and nearly decapitated him with an angry swipe of my hoe.  Luckily for the salamander, I realized my mistake in time.  I remembered to wet my hands before I picked him up, so I didn't dry out his sensitive skin.  He was very cold, and could barely move, and I realized that he was hibernating in the center of that cold pile of straw.  A herpetologist friend tells me it's a streamside salamander (Ambystoma barbouri), which is a type of mole salamander.  I didn't want to disturb his rest, so I placed him back in the straw and flipped the pile back together.  I think this is the first salamander I've found at the farm!  I hope he eats slugs.  

I'm slowly figuring out what I want to do with the greenhouse. Weed seeds are sprouting in the warm soil, so I used the hoe to turn up the dirt in several small beds.  I think I'll leave walkways between the beds, and cover them with bedding from the goat shed, even though I know this will provide slug habitat.  I poured perlite left over from the rocket mass heater project into one of the beds that seemed to have tight clay soil, and used the hoe to mix it in.  I have plans to chicken proof the sides of the greenhouse so I can roll open the side flaps.  Until I do that, any seeds that get planted will just be chicken food if I have to open the flaps.  The recent warm weather makes me feel like I'm already behind with the garden, but then I remind myself that it's not even March yet, so I should relax.  

But then again, look how far along the weeds in the greenhouse are - dandelions are already blooming!   If I can figure out how to use the greenhouse wisely, I can see how much of an advantage it will be for growing food early and late in the season.  

The first of the herb seeds I planted have sprouted already.  Baby basil plants!  Also, a few very tiny thyme sprouts.  So exciting.

At night I place the salad boxes with the egg cartons of seeds on top of the chicken brooder, and the little chick's heat lamp keeps them from freezing.  In the morning I move the seed boxes to the table, and prop the greenhouse door open so it doesn't get too hot for the chicks.

I'm still excited each evening when I've taken care of all the animals and the sun has not set.  I walk around the gardens and flowerbeds with the dogs and make plans.  I'll never do it all, but that's okay, there's no rush, right?   

Practicing Dialogue

The leading character and the love interest...

"You want to go scratching for grains, Cogburn?"

"Sure.  What else is there?"

Mrs. Hall used her long pointed middle toe to peel back the top layer of hay, and then looked him right in the eye.  "We could search for worms in the compost pile," she said.  "There are always lots of worms to eat."

"Yes, worms.  I like worms."

"And then we could scratch in the manure pile, for dessert," she said.

"We could," Cogburn said, as he stretched one dark wing low to the ground and executed a perfect hop and skip in her direction. "But I've got a better idea."

"Squawk!"

A Flowerpot Story

I spent a few minutes recently looking at various methods on-line writers promote to encourage good writing habits.  There seems to be consensus that writing frequently, even daily, is good practice. There are websites devoted to writing challenges, and writing prompts - all with the goal of sparking the imagination so stories and ideas can flow freely from the minds and fingers of writers.   

One suggestion that popped up several times during my leisurely research, was to use a random word generator to give yourself a starting place for a story.  When I gave it a try, the word I was given was "flowerpot."

Rain's Flowerpot Story

Once upon a time, in land far, far away... well, actually, it was circa 1993, and I, a soon to be senior in high school, was in the gift shop of the amusement park called Kentucky Kingdom.  I didn't expect to have one of my greatest philosophical epiphanies while perusing the t-shirt rack after an afternoon of roller coaster rides, but you can't plan these things.  

My father's company would give tickets for Kentucky Kingdom to the employees and their families each year. It was like a company picnic, only with roller coasters.  My two younger brothers and my best friend and I, rode all the way to the park on a mattress in the back of dad's pickup truck.  The truck had a camper top on the bed, so we were comfortable back there, playing cards and looking forward to rattling our bones on rickety wooden rides.  We each had some cash to spend on trinkets and food, and when we needed more we knew to look for dad somewhere in vicinity of the beer trolley.  Good times were had by all.  

I'm getting to the flowerpot - so hang with me.  Over the summer, I'd been going to my job, driving my car, hanging out with my friends, and occasionally thinking about life after high school.  Like other teenagers,  I'm sure, I was planning my escape.  I was going to go to college, and was pretty sure that a college really far away would be good.  Somewhere cool and adventuresome.  You know, like... Wisconsin.  Whoa.    

On that day, as I flipped through the t-shirt rack, I stopped at a maroon shirt with an image of a flowerpot with three big blooms sprouting from it.  Under the flowerpot it read "Bloom Where You are Planted."  Cliche? Sure, but remember, I'm seventeen at the time and my exposure to one-liners was limited as meme's weren't yet invented.  I decided to spend my cash to buy the shirt, despite the fact that two of the big sunflower-like blooms were situated so they they fell neatly onto the peak of each breast.  

With my senior year peppered with college prep exams, campus tours, interviews, and even some information and calls from recruiters (according to the brochures, students in Wisconsin get to spend their days kayaking on gorgeous lakes with gorgeous boys wearing expensive outdoor gear, instead of going to class), and my parents pointing out the advantages of in-state tuition and the good state school only an hour and half away, it helped me to think about that flowerpot and the big blooms on my breasts.  I could just bloom where ever I got planted, right?  

I planted myself at the school in Kentucky, right next to Brandon, and we bloomed together.  I wore that shirt for so many years that it disintegrated, but I still appreciate the wisdom of the flowerpot.    

Herb Seeds in the Habitat

I still can't believe we actually have a greenhouse!  It's such a big space, I get carried away with my day dreams, but slightly intimidated by the actual use of the space.  I ordered seeds, and salvaged what was left from the mouse chewed box of seeds I accidentally stored in the barn over the winter, but when I spread out my bounty of seed packets with ideas of getting started, I can't seem to take the next step.  What is the next step?  And when do I take it?  

I decided to narrow my focus to starting some herbs in little pots, which has helped me take some action toward making plants in the greenhouse.  I have the brooder box full of baby chickens to keep me company, and this weekend, I spent a few nice hours working at a folding table, planting herb seeds.  During the day, it's bright and open inside the plastic, but it's also way too hot!  I've started propping the door open during the day, so the chicks don't get overheated.  This meant I had to scrounge up a fence panel to block the door so the big chickens and the dogs can't wreak havoc while I'm away.     

 

In years past, I've started seeds in newspaper cups, but this time, I opted for some paper egg cartons filled with seed starting mix and placed in plastic salad boxes.  If I can get any of the seeds to sprout, I might have to re-pot them into something bigger.  

Herb seeds are super tiny.  I planted sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, marjoram, basil and even some cilantro and parsley.  Some of these can take up to two weeks to germinate, so I'll have to be patient.  Last year I bought potted thyme plants, but planted them in an area with too much foot traffic and none of them survived.  At around four dollars a pot, it was an expensive mistake.  If I can get even a few plants from some of these seeds, I'll be saving money by starting with seeds - or at least not wasting as much if I kill them.  Hopefully I'll get enough that I can share.  

I struggle to get the soil to absorb water.  Do you have this problem?  I remember this from the last time I tried this.  After carefully arranging all the little seeds, I add the water and the soil repels it, so instead of soaking the soil it washes around and makes me worry that the seeds are getting displaced.  I finally decided to just put an inch or so of water in the bottom of the plastic box and let it slowly absorb through the egg carton.  

Now that we have the greenhouse, I feel like our little homestead looks like a planetary settlement.  It's a habitat structure, right?  To control the planetary atmosphere and manipulate it for our survival.   Cool.  I feel like Matt Damon on Mars.   

Animals on Wheels, Cedar Fence Posts, Missing Birds

I was told that having goats is like running a day care.  It does seem that if there's something to stand on, climb on, push around, tear up, or just generally create chaos with, then they want to, just for the fun of it.   And then they want to eat something.  Always.  Even if they just ate, they still want to eat something, and they are pretty sure I have it in my pockets or under my hat.  Light River even tried to chew on my ear!  Thank goodness they only have front teeth on their bottom jaw, so their nibbles don't hurt.  

The goats had fun helping me muck out Rufus's stall, and Wendigo had fun helping Brandon move the trailer with the tractor.  

She also has fun chasing her tail!  

Check out the stack of cedar fence posts that Brandon harvested on Sunday!  Our horse owning friend is clearing out an overgrown pasture, and offered us a many cedar trees as we want to cut down.  Brandon spent about two and half hours on Sunday with the chain saw, and got seven good sized cedar trees and three little ones.  

They each had numerous branches which had to be sawed off, so the posts aren't exactly smooth or round, but we hope they will work for a fence fit for pig.  They still have the bark, and the wood is green so they are filled with moisture and weigh a lot.  Our friend wasn't sure we would find it worth while to harvest our own posts, since it's very labor intensive.  But now that he's tried it, Brandon thinks it's worth his time, since a post of that size has a price tag of about eight dollars.  Seven posts in two and half hours is worth about fifty-six dollars from the store.  Store posts are treated, dried, smooth, uniform in size, and probably easier to hang a fence on, but still, we're going to see how many we can harvest ourselves and give it a try.  Like most of the project we want to do, we need either time or money, which are always in short supply.  

We have a stack of old tin roofing we purchased from a craiglist fella, and now a stack of cedar logs.  I have visions of bacon when I see these things!  

Poncho, our recently deposed head rooster, disappeared.  In his last days, I noticed he was doing weird things, like traveling out in the open pasture with the goats, far from trees or buildings so he had nothing to hide under when the chicken hawk was near.  He wasn't friendly to the hens anymore, chasing them away from food.  He was sleeping in my corn crib, and pooping on my table.  He would leap right into the food bins when I opened them, so I had to fish him out of feed bags so I could close the bins.  He lost all fear of me, so he was always underfoot.  Wendigo invented a game of trying to put her paw on him which added extra chaos during goat feeding time.  I was beginning to think he lost more than just his eye during his battles, and that his brain was damaged.  When I asked Brandon if he thought we should send him to the great freezer in the sky, he said "I'm not killing Poncho.  You have a pet rooster."   

I assume a predator took advantage of his loss of sight and strange behavior, although I never saw any feathers or blood or a sign of a fight.  A few days after Poncho disappeared, the baby guinea disappeared without a trace too.  I hope we don't have another fox.  

Chicks in the Mail

An entire box of cuteness!  I sneaked out of work early yesterday so I could get to the post office in time to pick up the box of little chickens that were waiting on me.  The last time I ordered chickens in the mail, the delivery lady called us before six in the morning and brought them right to the door.  This time, they didn't arrive until mid morning, and I was already at work.  When the mail lady called me, I could hear them chirping loudly in the background.  She assured me she would keep the box in the warm office until I could pick them up.  Once I finally arrived, she passed them to me with obvious relief.  The box was on a shelf right by her head!  She said they weren't driving her crazy, but I think she was just being nice.  

Wendigo and I were so excited to unpack our box of chicks that we tripped over each other as we scrambled to get the brooder set up.  Brandon had already helped me move the brooder box to the green house, but I hadn't yet cleaned it out and put everything together.  There were two holes chewed in the bottom of the brooder by the family of mice that we had to evict!  I hope these chickens have sturdy immune systems, because I swept up the mouse debris, blocked the holes, and sprinkled fresh woodchips, but I didn't sterilize.  

These are the frying pan special - twenty male chicks of whatever breed the nursery had extra's of, for only eighty cents each.  I also got ten female Rhode Island reds, which are supposed to be good layers that make brown eggs.  

I picked up each chick from the box, checked that it's backside was clean, dipped it's beak in the water dish, and then placed it under the heat lamp.  I imagine these babies went straight into the box from the incubator, so that first sip of water seemed amazing to them.  They would stand perfectly still under the light for moment while they experienced the sensation of something traveling down their throats.  What a strange but wondrous thing, they seemed to say, while they basked in the heat from the lamp.  It wasn't long before they were pecking at the food and helping themselves to more water.  Sometimes they would run in a big loop, just for the fun of it.  I guess when you start your life in a small dark box, moving to a big well lit box is quite an adventure.  

I think these red cuties are my new hens.

I seem to have three different types of boys.  Tiny brown ones with chipmunk stripes, fuzzy yellow chicks that would be perfect for Easter baskets, and some speckled boys with fuzzy nostrils.

I think I'm going to really like raising chicks in the green house.  Of all our outbuildings, it's the least drafty.  It was raining while I got the chicks settled, but it was comfortable in the greenhouse. I don't have as much worry that I'm going to burn us to the ground with the heat lamp either.

It was below freezing last night, but with the heat lamp and some plexi glass on the top of the brooder, the chicks didn't seemed stressed at all.  They weren't huddled directly under the heat, so I think they are staying warm.  I imagine I'll have to worry more about them getting too hot if we ever have a sunny day.  

Cookies for Your Health

It's says a lot about how my views on health food have changed that I now consider bacon and eggs to be a healthy breakfast!  Brandon is our breakfast chef, and we regularly have this breakfast - organic old fashioned oats and raisins, with walnuts, cooked in organic whole milk and water, with a giant pat of Kelly Gold butter, some sea salt, and drizzle of raw honey, topped with some strips of bacon and an egg, which was fried in bacon grease.  I've come a long way from my days of skim milk and cereal.  But, I'm happy to say that the results of my recent blood work came back with normal levels in everything, including cholesterol.  That wasn't always the case, and I give the credit to changing what we consider healthy food.  Plenty of healthy fat, meat, and eggs from healthy animals are now on the good list along with all the unprocessed vegetables and fruits we can cram in our bodies.  

Gone are the days of calorie counting.  Obviously, being fat was never enough of a deterrent to me to change my eating habits anyway, but letting go of that worry is liberating.  Now I just worry about cancer and heart disease.  Whew - what a relief, right?  You know me, when I get interested in something, like avoiding cancer, I tend to share my new knowledge with folks as part of conversation.  It wasn't long ago when I watched a Ted talk about how eating berries and tomatoes prevents cancerous cells in the body from being able to grow their own blood vessels, which means they never turn into tumors, and never spread.  I think of cancer being like a typo in our DNA.  Typos will happen, especially in an environment filled with toxins, but if you eat the right foods, the typos don't have to turn into tumors.  I was so excited by this scientific discovery, that I was telling a friend about it.  He asked "do you think about cancer every day?"  He asked it like it was a bad thing.  Like I was letting fear of cancer control me in some way.  

  

I've thought about the implication of his question.  I don't want to lead a fearful life, but on the other hand, if there's a way to prevent cancer - and all it involves is eating berries, then I want to eat berries!  I want you to eat them too!  Berries for everyone!  

And it's not just berries that prevent cancer and improve health, but all plants. I've come to realize that we should eat as many plant parts as we can, every day.  Leaves, tubers, fruits, beans, stalks, seeds - all the plant parts.  Eat them raw, cooked, juiced, blended, or whatever way gets them in the tummy!  We should cram as many of them in our Instant Pot as we can, and cook them up with spices and bone broth, and a can of salmon, and tell our spouses its chowder.  Who doesn't like chowder?  Or throw in whatever hunk of meat is on hand, fill the pot the rest of the way with plants, and call it a stew.  Serve it with a salad topped with even more plant parts, including avocado.  Add a piece of Daves Killer Good Seed Bread, toasted and slathered with heaps of butter, and it's a meal worth cooking! 

It's my new method, anyway, and we're doing good with it - we're feeling good and aren't overwhelmed with cooking chores.  And we aren't on a diet.  It's the opposite of restricting what we eat - we're trying hard to eat as much as we can.  I have a long mental list of foods that I should eat every day, and it's hard to get them all in unless I start early and don't let up (it's a metabolism boost!).  I have to go to the grocery more often, because whole unprocessed food without preservatives doesn't wait around.  If we don't eat it, something else will, like bacteria or mold. The more I think about food preservatives that are added to "maintain freshness" the less sense it makes.   I don't want to consume something that prevents life from growing - I want food that promotes life!  It required a lot of label reading to avoid preservatives and chemicals, but now I know where to go once I'm in the store and can fill my cart with foods to be proud of.  

Do you want to know our secret weapon for improving our eating habits?  It's cookies!  I mix up a batch of healthy cookie batter and keep it in the refrigerator, and in the evening I bake four cookies for each of us and we eat them with a glass of whole milk.  We don't feel deprived, despite our healthy dinner, because we get chocolate chip cookies nearly every day!  

They are almond cookies.  You should try them:  

Mix 1/2 cup organic and unrefined coconut oil with 1/2 cup of succanat 

Add and mix 1 egg and a splash of vanilla

Add and mix 2 cups almond meal, ~1/2 tsp sea salt, ~3/4 tsp baking soda, ~3 tbsp of chia seeds

Add and mix 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut, 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto baking sheet

Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes

Makes about 24 cookies (three days worth for two people)

You can mix and match with the chia seeds, raisins, coconut, and pecans, but I would recommend always using some kind of nut and, of course, the chocolate chips.   Go with organic ingredients if you can.  I've even added cocoa powder, and made them into chocolate cookies.  

Most of the ingredients in these cookies are on my list of foods to eat everyday, so these truly are healthy cookies.  

Herb Spiral

I got a request from a long time reader (hi, mom!), that I post about something other than a goat.  She said maybe a post about a chicken would be okay, but no, not really a chicken either, something other than an animal.  Something different.  Luckily, there is something I've been directing my thoughts to lately that isn't a goat.  I've been working on our back yard.  Brandon and I agreed - our back yard is ugly.  It doesn't help much that the siding on the back of the house turned green over the winter, and that that the dog spends her time chewing up sticks and old bones and trampling the grass so it looks like the home of cave men who are surrounded by a bone yard.  Add a muddy dog house, the ever present uncoiled hose, un-trimmed weeds, a tarp covered hot tub, a bucket of fireplace ashes, some strange ceramic sculpture, and a pile of dirt, and the resulting look is one that could some curb appeal, for sure.  

I spent some time recently, attempting to turn the pile of dirt into the herb spiral that has been it's destiny.  We dumped a load of top soil right by the back door when we were excavating for the swimming pool last summer.  In a desperate attempt to save a potted tomato plant from certain death through neglect, this pile of dirt became the home of the biggest most spreading tomato plant I have ever seen.  A single plant covered the entire mount of dirt and gave us dozens of tomatoes.  It was ugly, for sure, but I didn't want to disturb it last year so I waited to create the spiral of stone until now.  

The herb spiral is touted in all the permaculture books as a way to cram a lot of herbs in a small space which is conveniently located near your cooking area.  The long pile of dirt we generated when excavating the pool is sprinkled with big stones.  Now that the rain has helped the dirt pile settle and the vegetation is dead, some of the stones were exposed, and Brandon and I could collect them to use for the spiral.  

I covered the pile of dirt with donkey dung and old straw stall bedding, and then wheeled loads of rocks to the mound with the wheel barrow.  It didn't take much rock hauling before my winter muscles were exhausted.  I went to bed after the first day of this project feeling like I was getting the flue - my entire body ached and I couldn't lay still.  Why are rocks so heavy?!

I recruited Brandon to help with the biggest stones to place around the base.  I cut down all the dead stems from various flower beds, pulled a vine off the siding, and picked up the dogs collection of chew toys.  It already looks better to me.  I'm not looking forward to scrubbing the green off the siding, but I am looking forward to planting the herbs and taking a stab at improving the aesthetics with some landscaping.  What evergreen shrub grows in the shade, but isn't toxic to goats?  

When I asked Brandon if he thought I should line the edge of the flower bed around the cistern with stones too, he said he would like to wait to see how the spiral looks before he decides.  What do you mean?  The spiral looks like it looks already!  Ha!  

The Sun and Sky

I wish you guys could be here as the sun goes down so you could see these sunsets for real.  The sky is so... so... big!  And so colorful!  It's awe inspiring I guess, since I stand there and say "awe, goats - look at that sky!"  They take it for granted.  

I haven't been taking it for granted that my evenings now have daylight to spare.  My funny Shrek-like shadow is even back!  It doesn't last long, but every evening, there is a brief moment when everyone is content because they have that thing that they've been waiting for all day - their dinner.  To have that quiet moment, with all the little heart rhythms of this petting zoo in tune with content, and to have it with sunlight -  it is something to be appreciated, for sure. 

When I pull in to the driveway after being gone to work, the entire flock of chickens and guineas greet me at the car clucking and peeping, just to make sure I don't forget about dinner.  Peaches calls from the gate of her stall, and Rufus brays, just to add a little extra farm ambiance to my return.  For weeks, we've been doing our dinner routine in the fading light, and for a while even by flashlight.  But this week, everyone got their dinner and there was extra daylight for taking walks and playing. Finally, the world is tilting our way.  

The dogs and I scratch hay for the herd from the giant rolls of hay, and then we play fetch or lounge on the tarp that covers the hay while the sun goes down.  On Wednesday, the sky started off blue and purple with a pink center.  

Then turned orange with a yellow sun.  

It won't be long before we can play fetch without my toes going numb from the cold.  Just imagine, sunlight and warmth.  We will be spoiled.