So It Goes With Gardening

My beautiful cabbage.  The cabbage I tended in the green house for months, handpicking the green caterpillars that wanted to devour it, then spraying regularly with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to protect it, then finally harvesting, slicing, and attempting to turn into sauerkraut.  

I say attempting to turn into sauerkraut, because something went wrong, and my vat of fermenting cabbage turned gray and moldy, and we were afraid to eat it, so I fed it to the compost.  Even the chickens didn't want it.  So it goes with gardening, right?  

This photo of the tomato plants is from a week or so ago, and already they are so much larger that there is no space to walk between the rows.  We thought we were so careful to give each plant enough room.  Ha.  Look at that monster sized plant in the row on the right!  It's twice as large as the other plants.  If it make more tomatoes that the other, I want to save it's seeds for next year.  

I was beginning to wonder if these tomatoes were going to be all leaf and no fruit, but when I look closely into the green jungle, there are green tomatoes in there.

These are the Rutgers type tomatoes that were requested by Brandon's brother.  Brandon ordered a pack of seeds online for a dollar, I started them in the greenhouse in plastic salad box planters, and the whole family worked together to plant them, mulch them, and create cages from fencing for each.  Brandon watered them daily while I was working out of town, and twice I watered them with compost and manure tea, and put down more hay mulch to hold back the weeds.  These are team tomatoes, and hopefully it won't be long before the team gets to pick and preserve them by the bushel.  

Inside my garden fence, behind the tall weeds, feral zinnias, and wildflowers, are two rows of green beans and corn plants.  This weekend I used my trusty garden shears to cut back the tall weeds so the corn and beans can get more sunlight, and used the trimmings to mulch around the plants.  I like that my garden generates it's own mulch.  Brandon entered the garden to help me install some tomato cages for the beans to climb up, since the corn is still so short, and when I kept reminding him to watch his step before he killed all the small sunflowers, he complained that my garden was impossible to work in.  He said no one else has a garden like mine, and he can't tell where to step.  I agree it's a challenge.  It takes balance (don't stumble, it's not level), strength (watch for the logs hidden in the grass), situational awareness (watch your feet - that's a plant!), plant identification skills (obviously, that's a sunflower, not a weed),  and courage (check for ticks).  I like to think it's a garden that promotes mindfulness.  Brandon is not convinced.  

I forked compost around the beans and corn, and hope to do the same for the sweet potato plants too.  The sweet potatoes were mulched with old hay and compost when they were planted, but they haven't gotten any other special care.  I was glad to see they are still alive.  I have several small pepper plants which are holding there own in the garden, but the egg plants have been devoured by flee beetles.  The Japanese beetles feasted on the kale after they finished eating all the leaves on the fruit trees.  Doh!  I've armed myself with some Neem oil spray.  Stupid beetles.

Speaking of Hay

I brought the goats out of their pasture for a short stroll and munch yesterday evening.  I've missed hanging out with the goats lately.  With all the out of town field work, holiday frivolity, and so much of my time and thought focused on our elimination diet experiment, the goats and I barely find time to say hello while I dish out their food and water each day.  It was nice to spend some time playing goat herd and practicing my goat photography.  

Nobody likes to have their picture taken when they are chewing a mouth full of food, and goats always have their mouths full!

I even made a movie of Light River eating a poison ivy vine.  He seemed to really like it.  Remind me not to pet the goats after they've rubbed their faces in poison ivy.

 

I think the goats look like they have a healthy weight, but sometimes I wonder if they get enough exercise.  They have lots of tall grass and weeds in their little pasture, and sometimes I see them out nibbling on plants, but mostly they like to lounge in the shade in their stall and cry for me to feed them more hay.  They love hay.  I'm not sure why the same vegetation that stands in their pasture is so much tastier when it's been cut and dried, but it is.  Plus, those lazy goats don't want to bother walking out and helping themselves, they would rather I bring it to them!  

I like hay too.  I like the way it smells, and they way it feels all fluffy and clean.  I even enjoy using my muscles to lift a pitchfork full, and I like the happy contented feeling that seems to come over the goats and donkeys when they are munching it.  I like spreading it around and making the chicken coops and area around the barn seem clean and nice to walk on.  I'm pretty sure Brandon enjoys riding his tractor and cutting the hay.  He likes the clean look of mowed fields.  I even think he enjoys using his home made hand baler, and the feeling of accomplishment we get when we pile up all those home made bales.  

Our hay making system has advanced this year.  Instead of raking all the cut hay by hand, like we did last summer, we borrowed a hay rake from Joe, and use the old jeep that my parents gave us to pull the rake around the field and pile the dried hay into rows.  The hay rake has wheels that turn the raking mechanism when it's pulled along, which is pretty cool.  We laugh when we see our neighbors slow their cars when they pass by and see the jeep out in the front field, raking up the hay.  Who needs a tractor when they have a jeep, right? 

We've piled our hay bales all the way the ceiling now, and we're talking about ways to store more hay in the dry.  Of the seven big giant round bales that we got last fall from the neighbors field, I have four left, but only one of them was covered by a tarp and kept dry.  Now that it's warm weather, three of them are getting moldy and brown from being rained on, and the goats won't eat it.  All fall and winter, I was generous with the hay, and the goats had plenty of extra to pile up and make a deep bed to lay on.  I used up three giant round bales for four animals.  It was full of blackberry brambles and broomsedge, but I heard no complaints.  I'm not sure how many homemade square bales of good hay make up one giant round bale of weedy hay, but I want to put up as much as I can, and hopefully I can get some more from the neighbors field too, before winter.  

Speaking of hay appreciation - even the chickens like the hay for their nests!  

Goodbye Roosters, Hello Chicks!

How appropriate that on the last day of the frying pan specials, eight new chicks were hatched right here at home.  Eight birds go in the freezer, and eight new birds take up residence in their coop.  It's so perfect, I wish I could say I planned it that way.   

This buff Orpington mamma was found sitting on a bucket of eggs with that determined look in her eye.  Last summer when she went broody, every time I tried to move her from the nest box to a private location, she wouldn't stay put, would stop sitting on the eggs, and kept returning to her old nest.  This year, I waited until after dark and quickly moved all eleven eggs to the animal crate, and placed her inside and left the crate right next to her chosen bucket.  She took to it smoothly, and managed to get eight of the eleven eggs to hatch.  

I moved her and the chicks to the coop that was the home of the frying pan special roosters, and they've made themselves comfortable.  They have as much chick starter as they want, plus the mamma spends her time digging in the bedding and teaching them how to search for tasty bits in the old hay.   

Cogburn, our flock rooster, has been one busy dude lately.  Not just because he has eight new kids, but because he had his hands full managing all those idiot frying pan special roosters.  Once again, I'm convinced that roosters are the perfect meat animal.  By the time they are butchering age, they are noisy and always causing trouble in the flock, and I'm ready for them to go.  They fight with each other and pester the poor hens to the point that they have to hide or risk getting pounced on by a whole gang of randy roosters.  They were beautiful birds, but I'm glad they are gone and we can get back to a peaceful flock life.  

This is our new rooster, who has yet to be named.  This is the one rooster smart enough to escape during the butchering, so he's our lucky bird.  He was not Brandon's favorite because he was one of the roosters that always roosted in my barn, and had to be carried into the coop each night.  He does not enjoy being grabbed in the dark and relocated from his chosen roost, so he struggles, squeals, and even bites!   I have scars from his beak on my arm.  But, he's a pretty rooster, and I respect a fighter.  If he can learn to roost in the coop, he's welcome to be our back up rooster.  It's no trouble for Cogburn to keep one extra rooster in line, and I like having an extra set of eyes watching for the flocks safety. 

I think the new rooster and this hen are silver laced Wyandotte's.  They are very pretty, with feathers that are white with black edges.  This hen and two rhode island reds are our newest female flock members.  They've gotten used to hanging out in the top of my corn crib, probably to escape all those randy roosters.  Now that the rooster population has been cut back, these hens need to get out of my space. Stop pooping on my table!

A Big Deal About Food

As I said before, Brandon and I have started an elimination diet with the hope that if we eat a completely clean diet for a while, of only foods that most people are tolerant of, we can make sure our bodies aren't constantly in a state of irritation and inflammation.  You know, for our organs. This means that for a few weeks anyway, we aren't eating stuff like bread, milk, eggs, red meats, citrus, and nightshades (potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes).  Don't worry though, this doesn't mean we are starving.  The foods we can eat, like beans, sweet potatoes, vegetables, rice, quinoa, fruits, turkey, chicken, fish, and lamb, don't come from the drive through window, but they do taste delicious!   The photo above is last nights dinner.  We mixed some chopped onion and summer squash with ground lamb and cooked burgers in olive oil in a cast iron skillet, and served it with a bed of salad greens covered in black beans, avocado, and some home made dressing made from apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, honey, and basil from the garden.  We had fresh fruit salad topped with raw honey on the side.  

The night before, we had a big salad full of fruit, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds, with chicken sausage made by putting organic boneless chicken thighs in the food processor with an apple, onion, and some herbs from the garden.  We cooked them in the skillet with some coconut oil.  It was so good!  Like a giant chicken nugget, for adults.  

For breakfast this morning we had quinoa cooked with raisins, and topped with sliced banana, strawberries, and a drizzle of honey, plus a giant glass of fresh juice made from apples, celery, carrots, beet, and kale.  Lunch is left over lamb burgers from dinner the night before, plus beans and salad.  Snacks are fruit and dried fruits, plus salad and beans.  

This is only day three of the elimination, but so far the challenges are just what you would expect - the amount of time it takes for food preparation, planning ahead for lunches away from home, numerous trips to the grocery, and the cost of all those organic ingredients.  I've kept the instant pot going constantly, making chicken broth and beans cooked in the broth.  Which means I'm trying to always have the next round of beans soaking so they will be ready to cook as soon as the instant pot is free. 

I think we can do this.  We're finding new rhythms in the kitchen as we work together.  Brandon works hard, physically, every day, and tends to crash when he gets calorie deprived, so it's a challenge for him because he can't grab a quick bite from a restaurant or make a sandwich when he's running low on energy, but he's figuring out how to prepare for his day.  He said he feels like all we think and talk about is food, and that this is more of a challenge to his identity and his emotions than he expected it to be.  Food is a big deal, isn't it?

Two Armed Face Hugs

Did you know that donkeys can fix back pain?  It's true!  I felt that old familiar twinge yesterday morning, and by the time I got home from work, my back was twanging and I was starting to hobble.  Luckily, the donkey's need their yard mucked out regularly, sore back or no, and after scooping, raking, and tugging my little cart to the garden to dump the harvest, I was all loosened up!  Thank you Rufus and Hattie!  Maybe it's not the physical work, but all those donkey face cuddles that make the difference.  Hattie and Rufus are inseparable these days.  Rufus never brays any more, and even though I miss hearing him call to me, I'm so glad to know he isn't lonely when I'm away.  Hattie and I are still learning to trust each other, but I can tell it won't be long before I can put a halter on her.  She has the softest fuzzy face hair, and likes to have her face hugged.  It's lucky for the donkeys I have two arms, so I can give two face hugs at once.  

Lately, I've been keeping the donkeys locked in their yard during the day, and only letting them out on their pasture for a few hours at a time, after they have been fed some hay.  Each day, when I give the goats a small serving of pellets, I hand feed both donkeys a nibble of goat pellets.  They get really excited for their nibble, and stand somewhat impatiently with their heads over the gate, waiting for their bite.  Rufus is very gentle, and can snuffle up each pellet from my palm without losing a crumb.  Hattie rushes in for her bite, doesn't seem to understand that it's not necessary to put my hand in her mouth, spills half of her serving, and sometimes uses her teeth on my hand!  Silly baby.  Will she ever learn?  They love to play with their water buckets, so most days I have to refill them several times after collecting them from strange places.  It may be time to attach them to the barn.  

A few days ago Brandon was on the tractor cutting hay when he disturbed a nest of bumble bees.  He noticed the swarm of bees in the air before he made a second pass near them, and when we later walked to the edge of the field to see if we could pin point their hive, Wendigo got too close and was stung on the nose!  I yelled for her to run, which she did.  She was shaking all over, and her nose started to swell right away.  She was nervous the rest of the day, and that evening, we noticed that she was dodging the lightning bugs like they were dangerous, and tip toeing through the clover to avoid the honey bees.  

The next day, she spent most of her time cowering in her dog house, and when I coaxed her to come to the barn with me, a fly buzzed past her and she tucked her tail and ran away!  Some guard dog, right?  She's afraid of bugs!  It's been a few days, and she seems to have calmed down now.  I know how she feels.  I've been stung three times already this summer, and it hurts. 

Puck is so brave, he eats bees for dinner.  

Farm Food

Brandon and I find ourselves talking about food more these days.  Not just because we are trying to grow some of our own food, but also because the consequences of our food choices have more direct impact on us than in days past.  Do you remember the good ole days, when our internal organs ignored us as much as we ignored them?  These days, we're getting feedback from some of our organs, including a gall bladder that has decided to finally protest the years of being ignored.  Since this irritated gall bladder has limited language skills, we've been trying to guess what it's problem is, which hasn't been working very well.   The doctors, when asked, get a gleam in their eyes and start sharpening their surgical knives.  Eek!  It's time to get serious about this, so we're opting for an elimination diet in the hopes that we can calm it down, and figure out which foods are causing the upset.  I haven't read the book yet, but I get the feeling we're embarking on a two month food journey that's going to keep us busy in the kitchen.  

Thankfully, the elimination diet we've chosen to follow doesn't put garlic on the "no" list.  I harvested a whole basket full from our garden this week.  We also have plenty of kale and chard, and have green beans on the way.  When we saw that tomatoes are not on the list of foods that can be eaten during the second phase of the elimination diet, we laughed at the rows of beautiful tomato plants in our garden.  Oh well.  If you want to see the yes and no list of foods for the detox phase, click here.  

Unfortunately, we suspect one of the foods that gets the gall bladder riled up is eggs.  Doh!  Since Brandon hasn't been eating eggs, and I have ten laying hens, I had fun boiling a bunch and pickling them with salt, vinegar, onions, and dill.   They should be ready in a few weeks.  Not that we get to eat them...stupid gall bladder.

One food that we have produced on our little farm is chicken.  The frying pan special roosters are at the right age for harvest, and Brandon and I put six of them in the refrigerator recently, and have nine more to go.  

I spent more time butchering the meat into separate cuts this time, which makes it easier for meal planning when I don't have to cook an entire bird.  These birds were raised on half organic chicken food and half the regular, toxin coated kind.  The elimination diet encourages using all organic ingredients.  We've decided to eat our own chicken, but I'm encouraged to grow the next batch on all organic food.  I need to learn to grow my own chicken food, right? 

For the first time since we began learning how to grow our own meat, we were able to eat a chicken dinner on the same day we butchered.  I'm not sure what kind of progress we're making, but I think it's progress!  

Chard cooked with onions in a little coconut oil is one of my new favorite side dishes.  I have just a handful of plants growing in the greenhouse, but they've been very generous with their leaves.  

I consider the herb spiral garden that is right outside the back door a total success!  It's so much fun to step right out the door and pick a handful of herbs for our meals.  Thanks to generous friends and some success with starting my own plants from seeds, I've got basil and holy basil to spare, and even enough sage, thyme, and oregano to play with.   

Building Buildings

Brandon has not been idle in the past weeks while I've been away for work.  He's been building.  With a work space for making art, and a need for painting storage in mind, he made an addition to the shed barn where we store most of the farm tools and hay.  Working alone, he's managed to nearly complete the "studio," which has a plywood floor, metal roof, and even a nice window, that was given to us by some good friends when it was left over from their home renovation.  Since he texted me the photo above, he's framed in the front wall, so all that's needed to keep the chickens and dogs out is a big door.  He has plans for chicken wire additions to the neighboring bay, which will allow us to store finished art works in the dry, without fear of farm animal contamination.    

When I would get home from work, it's always fun to see his progress.  In this photo, you can see how the new addition is attached to the old shed.  Some of our artist friends have such nice studios.  Immaculate spaces with display rooms and white walls, even.  Brandon assures me that the way he works, he would destroy those clean spaces, and that working at home with the doors thrown open, near his wood shop and barn suits him just fine.  He also has a nice studio at the university, that's temperature controlled, and has a giant skylight.  

Stormy skies over the new building.

Not only has the studio and painting storage project made significant progress, we are nearly pig capable!  Jamie and Brandon were able to sink wooden posts in our back field, to create a small pig pasture.  Most of the posts were harvested cedar trees from our friends farm, and a few have been re-purposed from places around our farm.  

The wooden gate that used to be on the old shed has been relocated to the pig fence.  It hasn't been hung yet, and the fence hasn't been stretched, but we're closing in on it!

To create a shelter for our future bacon pigs, four posts were sunk in the dirt, then framed in with two by threes, and the whole thing has been clad in sheets of old metal roofing.

The long metal pieces for the roof were purchased from Craiglist, but the siding was recycled from our shed.  We added it up, and this is an eighty dollar pig house.  Not bad!

I like the different colors on the old metal sheets.  It's seems rustic, and appropriate for a pig shed.  We located the shed along the back of the fence, as far from the garden and house as possible, and placed it so it gets shade in the evening from the adjacent tree line.  Our hope is that it will provide shelter from the sun and the rain for at least four pigs at a time.  We don't plan to keep pigs through the winter, so hopefully it won't matter if it's a bit drafty.   I hope they like it! 

Armadillos, Snakes, and Red Bat

Silly armadillos!  We saw two groups of four armadillos recently, while working in west Tennessee.  I've read that armadillos have migrated their way to Kentucky lately, but I've never seen any.  When we first spotted these guys, we tried to be very quiet while we stalked them as they snuffled under the leaves and rotting logs.  They would frequently find something tasty, and stop to briefly chew and swallow before busily resuming their pig like search.  It wasn't long before we realized there was no need to be sneaky while we spied on them.  They must have terrible sight and hearing, or they are not afraid of humans, because we could talk and make noise and they didn't even notice.  Only when I reached out to touch one did it scurry under a log.  The tail I touched felt like a tough leather shoe.  

Google tells us that they have litters of four identical twins, so maybe the two groups we saw where all brothers or sisters.  They are known to eat ground nesting bees, like yellow jackets.  Hooray for armadillos, right?

Watch this short clip if you want to see the armadillos in action.  

Here's another shot of the rattlesnake from my video.  When I showed my boss the video of the rattlesnake, she said she took back the thoughts she had when she approved the request for snake gaiters for this job!  

Last week, during four nights of bat catching, this was the only bat we managed to catch in our nets.  It's a pretty red bat, which is one of the most common species.  Each night that we are surveying, we stay near our nets for five hours after sunset.  The nets get checked every ten minutes.  Five hours a night for four nights with only a single bat makes for a long survey!

After a rattlesnake encounter, all the other non venomous snakes seem so friendly!  I think this snake may be a black racer.

His tongue makes a cool shadow.  

"Rain, you're a nutjob!"

I have lots of fun photos to share with you.  Bats, snakes, armadillos, and even the cactus I had for dinner yesterday.  Hopefully I'll be able to get a handle on my technology and share them with you.  In the mean time, enjoy this video of the rattle snake that we encountered last week.  I'm laughing so hard the camera is shaking because not all of my coworkers had the same kind of excitement I did when we spotted it crossing the gravel road in our project site.   I immediately put the truck in park and jumped from the drivers seat to take it's picture, but a few of my colleagues stayed safely in the truck and added good commentary to the video - "Rain, you're a nutjob!"  Ha!

As you can see, this was a very well behaved timber rattlesnake.  He made his body small and loudly announced his presence when I approached. He was clearly saying "don't step on me!" I kept my distance, but he made no moves to strike.  We were informed ahead of time that our project area is the home of rattle snakes, and diligently wore our snake gaters while trampling though the underbrush.  I would have been disappointed if we hadn't got to see at least one before we left.  It's been a long time since I saw a live one in the wild.     

Out and About

So far this bat season, I've been traveling the perfect amount to feel like I'm out and about in the world, without losing all touch with home.  Last week, I was working in Tennessee again, and accidentally captured this Indigo bunting in my bat net.  We try not to have our nets up during the day-light hours, so we don't capture many birds, but this little guy must have been out late and managed to get caught.  Untangling birds from mist nets takes patience, especially when they are struggling and fighting like this one was.  Once he was free, he was kind enough to pose for a picture before flying away at top speed.  

We captured a pregnant tricolor bat around midnight.  She was so pregnant that she looked like she swallowed a couple of marbles.  She weighed in at nine grams, which is heavy for a bat like her, but nine grams is about the weight of a quarter and dime.  As tiny as she is, she will probably give birth to two pups, and nurse them for about a month before they are old enough to fly and forage on their own.  

While working in this small town, we dined at a restaurant associated with a giant metal sculpture.  We were standing in the parking lot, gazing at the art work and reading the various words that are incorporated into the piece, when a laughing local lady getting in her car commented that we were working awful hard at it.  This art was obviously years in the making, and had recognizable objects and symbols throughout.  I asked the lady "What does it mean?" and she said, with confidence, "It don't mean nothing." Ha!     

Vibrant blue birds, pregnant flying mammals, massive sculpture hidden in small towns, and brilliant pink sunsets reflected in farm ponds - sometimes it's good to get out and about.