I felt like a real farm girl Saturday.  Let me tell you all about it (well maybe not all, that would be a bit too unpleasant) About 6 months ago I did something I hope I’m smart enough to never do again.  I ordered a straight run of chicks.  A straight run simply means I purchased a bunch of chicks and I wouldn’t know tell they got older if they would be hens or roosters. I was buying these chicks to resell once they became older to people at our church who want meat that’s not soft like what we buy from the store. They’re from the Phillipines and Africa and they want their chicken to be more chewy. But I didn’t feel good about…

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I have wanted to write this post for months because I am quite excited about the thought of growing a garden year-round.  Never mind the fact that I am not entirely successful with one season, I want to grow in all 4 seasons. This past winter I decided to experiment with an idea I had read about in Eliot Coleman’s book The Winter Harvest Handbook:  Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses. Eliot Colman lives in Maine and has produced organic crops commercially for several years. I haven’t read the book from cover to cover but what I did gather was that you can harvest cold-weather vegetables in the middle of winter with an unheated greenhouse. (I really did read more…

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Leaving Ohio for several days, Seth and Serenity went to Illinois to visit my mom and dad and I just had to show you their garden.  This garden isn’t a gazillion flowers but an edible garden and one that I find lovely as well.     My dad, never one to do anything small, planted a garden that was probably almost an acre in size, just for the two of them.  Of course, there was so much produce that mom would not/could not let go to waste that she ended up canning and freezing enough to feed her 3 daughters and their families.  Whenever I can produce (which is not frequently), I always think of mom and marvel that she had the strength to do it.  Amazing lady! Dad has always loved…

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I thought it was about time for an update on the farm. My gorgeous and fruitful garden that I planted May 25 has been producing for a short while. I don’t feel that it has produced as much as it should have but my kids think I ought to be pleased. My Mormon neighbor (aren’t they supposed to be good gardeners?) told me all her tomatoes died this year because of the heat. Mine are all living, so I guess I should be quite grateful and thankful! It is so pleasing to walk out to the garden with my little basket and gather bunches of mint for tea or to gather tomatoes as they ripen from day to day, or to pick green beans for supper (I’m…

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I finally got the garden all planted… well, mostly.  All that will probably get done this year.  With Zach gone, it fell to me to be the Master Gardener around here.  I really should take a lesson from Lily (have you read her blog Bountiful Blessings yet?  if not, you should) and get my kids to work with me.  Justus & Audrey did for a while but I think it would be better if we did the whole garden all together. I find the garden to be so soothing and I’m hoping it will be rewarding me with bushels of veggies in several weeks. I picture something like Lily’s garden…   or the Strite’s garden they have in their greenhouse… Beautiful but sadly, my garden may look like…

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A little update on what’s happening here on the farm. Our mama goats have kidded. The little kids are the cutest things and we have 6 that were born in November.   Serenity got her lamb for 4-H in October.     Wesley now has his 4-H pig, too… brought home in a garbage can turned on its side and with the lid tied down with a bungee cord.  Yea, we’re a little unorthodox sometimes. But he seemed quite content.   Mom and Dad arrived in town Friday night so you might be seeing a little less of me this week.      

A few days before Zachary’s accident, we went and checked on his bees.  I’ve been taking care of them since he’s now working in Sierra Vista.  I have to give them sugar syrup every day since Zachary purchased his bees after the nectar flow in the Spring. If you take all their honey, if there’s not a good nectar flow or if you miss it when you first buy your bees like we did, you have to give them food, or they’ll die. Both hives are doing well. Hive #1 had a lot of stores (food being stored up for hard times) and quite a bit of capped brood which means, bees in the making.   Notice the honey stored up in these cells?   This is…

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Every year around this time, a black beetle shows up on some weeds in our yard.  This portends the arrival of many more of its kind.  Our garden seems to be a favorite place to fill up their little stomachs and they don’t waste any time but get right to work – decimating an entire tomato plant in just a few days. This year I am determined that they will not get my 4 beautiful tomato plants so as soon as I saw the beetles had arrived I became proactive and covered my tomato plants with row cover.  Going out to the garden yesterday I found the little pests on my bean plants.  Not good.  Not good at all.  I then started catching them in a cup and feeding them to my chickens. …

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Things are going to be a little different around here this summer.  You see, when we came back from Ohio we left our oldest son there to work for the summer (he’s done this for 3 summers now) and then Zachary, my second born, has went to Sierra Vista to work for the summer on the military base.  Gardening Help What do you do when you gardener leaves?  You get desperate and start learning how to garden yourself.  I’ve been reading a book called Small Plot, High Yield Gardening:  How to Grow Like a Pro, Save Money, and Eat Well by Turning Your Back (or Front or Side) Yard Into an Organic Produce Garden.  This book is very informative and I’ve learned a lot from it. …

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Zachary has had his bees for a little over a month.  You can read about that here.  After your bees arrive you leave them alone for about a week and then you can start inspections to be sure the bees are doing well. Inspecting the Bee Hives First you need to get your smoker ready.  The smoke disorients the bees and therefore, they do not try to sting you.  We like that! Zachary has 2 hives about 15′ apart.  When he opened the first hive, he found that things weren’t progressing like they should.  You see, the bees cap each of the cells as the larva is deposited into them and almost none of these cells are capped.   There is also a build-up on the frame, which…

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A month ago we enlarged the chicken coop.  The chicks and the hens are quite happy with the set-up, having plenty of room to scratch around for poor hapless insects.  But there was one who would not be content and who became clever to the fact that she could fly out whenever she so pleased.  Life on this earth would not have had a happy ending for the little black hen if our dogs would have found her before I did on 3 separate occasions.  Clearly something had to be done.  That something was to clip the wing of the chicken. I enlisted my resident farm hand, Zachary, to assist me in the task. First we had to catch the thing.  The key to catching a chicken is speed. …

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I mentioned to you on Monday that I had a few boys here visiting and decided to put everyone to work enlarging my chicken enclosure.  I am so pleased with how it turned out.  First, I’ll show you our enclosure then our chicken coop.  I have the most adorable little chicks, purchased a week ago.  They are Buff Orpington’s and Rhode Island Reds. I had ordered through the mail, Auracanas & Black Australorps. They are 3 weeks old in this picture. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to mix 3 day old chicks with these 3 week old chicks but it was no problem. The older ones did not hurt them in any way. I love my chick enclosure that we built. Two of the metal roof…

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!!WARNING!!  If you don’t like to see pictures of little goats that are dirty and are just being born… you might want to skip this post.  But if you’re not bothered by all that’s squeamish… continue on. I had never seen one of our goat kids being born till last week. What an exciting moment for me and Justus. Sugar, the momma, had already had 1 kid before I arrived. When I came into the barn, here is what she looked like.  She started to make some low maaing noises and then… out came a kid in its sack. Sugar proceeded to clean it before she had her 3rd baby.  All 3 were healthy.  Sweet Sugar.  She’s a great momma. Here are just a few of the many…

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Yesterday was a day of firsts for me since I’ve only recently became involved with our goats.  I’ve always enjoyed our farm animals but have wanted my kids (children not goat kids ) to do the farm work for the experience as well as the wholesomeness of it all.  I think it’s good for them.  I’ve found it to be good for me, too.  It’s quite therapeutic to be outside and care for the goats.  It’s so easy for me to stay inside since it’s more comfy and because there’s always plenty of work to be done.  But now I have to get out there and feed the goats and I’m really enjoying it.  I have learned a lot just by watching them everyday. It’s…

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