My 1500 strawberry plants. Well, everyone who said they wanted to buy some turned into just a couple. So now I have a lot of strawberry plants. They are beautiful with leaves and they look like I wish they had a few weeks ago when customers would take one look and reduce their order. They didn't quite get the potential that those ugly little plants had.
The cow is less depressed these days. He got out on Thursday. I had a visitor and the phone rang. I thought I would just check and see who it was. It was Mom. I was going to tell her I would call her back, but the first words out of her mouth was that there was a cow in my backyard! Anyway, with some help from Dad we herded it back in the pasture and figured out where he had gotten out. After some fence repair and a gate adjustment that Dad was so kind to perform, everything was back to normal. Turns out that the breaker was flipped in all this rain and the fence hadn't been on. The cow figured it out and began pushing on the fence to get to grass. At some point he broke the wire and pushed so hard some poles were moved around. this resulted in our gate being unable to latch anymore since the pole it latched on was to far away. It blew open in one of the storms we've been having. So the electric wire was repaired, the breaker was flipped back on, Dad and I discussed some repairs to the gate and poles that would make it less likely to move if a 6-700 cow were to push on it again. My husband was going to have to do the repairs when he got home, but Dad offered to do them, which I really appreciated since its soccer and softball season and time for these projects on weeknights is short.
We planted the broccoli and Bok Choy in the garden yesterday when the rain let up a little. It was getting burnt in the greenhouse from the hot days.
I transplanted the rest of the tomatoes into bigger pots. they were getting to big for the 4 packs they were in. I've notices with plants that they will grow to fill the pots you put them in. So because we want really big tomato plants to put in the ground in a month or so they needed to be transplanted!
I'm excited for the gated pipe in our pasture. The irrigation water is on now and in a few weeks we will start watering. We could start watering now, but our little neighborhood irrigation group has a field of alfalfa (sometimes corn) in it. The agreement that was in place before we moved in was that the field gets water the first week or so of irrigation. Thats not a big deal since spring rains (especially this year) make watering unnecessary.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Whoa
Bubba died. We found him bloated next to the chicken coop on Saturday morning. We are not sure what caused it. We initially thought it might be the freshly mowed grass we dumped in the pasture, but after talking about it, we all agreed he didn't eat more than a bite and then turned up his nose. There is speculation that he was sick before we got him, or maybe he ate some hardware we missed when we checked the pasture, who knows.
We had to wait until Tuesday morning to get him picked up. The kids had to walk by his bloated stinking body on their way to and from school When his body was gone everyone was happy. But he was a nice cow, and we lost our initial investment in him almost right away. So that hurt.
His pasture - mate is doing ok. His name is Stinky. He is skittish and doesn't like to be near people. We make him bolt. If he feels cornered he will run away as fast as he can. He needs a pasture mate I think. We don't know what we are going to do yet.
The chicks are rapidly growing. I think we are on schedule for them to start laying in July.
My strawberries have been selling slowly. I speculate that I will end up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 to 1,100 plants left in my garden when all is said and done. Don't know if I will do that again. But in the end I spent around $80 for that many plants so I got a great deal there. Just have to figure out where to put them all.
The garden transformation is almost done. The 9 4x4 beds are in and the sprinkler systems are all attached. The end of the garden has been rototilled and gated pipe has been installed there and down the length of the pasture. I'm pretty excited about that since we will be able to more efficiently water the pasture. I just hope it all works the way it should.
In the garden we have peas and onions as well as lettuce, various herbs, and lots of strawberry plants. The greenhouse is overflowing with plants all in need of repotting! Our squash is looking awesome! They are truly huge and already need transplanting from the 4" pots. I'm a little worried that we will be drowning in zucchini from late June on!
I will try and include some pictures next time.
We had to wait until Tuesday morning to get him picked up. The kids had to walk by his bloated stinking body on their way to and from school When his body was gone everyone was happy. But he was a nice cow, and we lost our initial investment in him almost right away. So that hurt.
His pasture - mate is doing ok. His name is Stinky. He is skittish and doesn't like to be near people. We make him bolt. If he feels cornered he will run away as fast as he can. He needs a pasture mate I think. We don't know what we are going to do yet.
The chicks are rapidly growing. I think we are on schedule for them to start laying in July.
My strawberries have been selling slowly. I speculate that I will end up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 to 1,100 plants left in my garden when all is said and done. Don't know if I will do that again. But in the end I spent around $80 for that many plants so I got a great deal there. Just have to figure out where to put them all.
The garden transformation is almost done. The 9 4x4 beds are in and the sprinkler systems are all attached. The end of the garden has been rototilled and gated pipe has been installed there and down the length of the pasture. I'm pretty excited about that since we will be able to more efficiently water the pasture. I just hope it all works the way it should.
In the garden we have peas and onions as well as lettuce, various herbs, and lots of strawberry plants. The greenhouse is overflowing with plants all in need of repotting! Our squash is looking awesome! They are truly huge and already need transplanting from the 4" pots. I'm a little worried that we will be drowning in zucchini from late June on!
I will try and include some pictures next time.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Around the place
So much going on around our place. I can't really call it a farm because we are only on one acre. So that would be a joke. Truly. But we do what we can on our property.
We currently have 22 hens. I purchased them through the mail for the first time ever and it has been a great experience so far. They were hatched on Feb 5th and shipped to us from Ideal hatchery. These seem like some of the nicest most friendly hens I've had. We ordered 10 Red sex link and 10 Rhode Island Reds. They sent us that and 1 additional of each breed. So we have 22. They all seem to be hens, but sometimes its hard to see a rooster until later (or until they start to crow) due to the large size of the flock.
We started them in our small greenhouse and after they had feathered out (and we couldn't stand the stink anymore) we put them outside with a light for heat. The have done well. They are growing at a surprising rate and we look forward to eggs around July.
I am trying something new this time around. We are trying chicken nipples. What are chicken nipples you ask? Well they are these neat doohickies that you put on the end of a bottle or other contraption that allow the chickens to drink. Almost like a baby nipple. Thus the strange name. The nice thing about these is that instead of an open bucket or waterer that chickens just love to poop in (and occasionally jump into if you are trying to catch them) these are closed, so the chickens get clean water instead of poopy waterers that are nearly impossible to keep clean. Right now, I'm using them on the end of a water bottle I've strapped onto the side of my coop. I will be going bigger with that, but since a redesign of the chicken coop will be happening soon, I am waiting.
They look like this
http://www.thegardencoop.com/images/chicken-drinking-waterer.jpg
Its the time of year to get cows if you are the kind who does that. In the past we have purchased them from a (somewhat) local auction. That was really hit or miss though. You would see the cows for a few minutes and then decide if they were what you wanted and bid and then pick them up in a few hours if you won your bid. The problem with this is that the cows are highly stressed. They are in a small arena and are highly uncomfortable. They tend not to act like themselves. That is how we ended up with crazy cows the past few years. Those cows got out a lot last year and one time we even had them get out in the middle of the night and had to spend the whole next day tracking them and thankfully found them (but that is a whole other story).
My husband has a buddy at work who raises way more cows than we do at a time (like 15-20) and then sells the beef when its slaughter time. People do this because unlike the stuff you buy at the supermarket, this stuff doesn't have all of that hormones or whatnot in it. This guy can tell you what shots (if any) he has given to the cows. He can tell you what he's been feeding the cows and where he got the feed. And I'm sure if he needed to, he could find out if that feed had been sprayed with anything, and what.
So, this buddy was nice enough to introduce us to his father. His father gets young cows in the summer/fall and feeds them all winter (which most people don't want to do, its a lot of work) and sells them for a profit in the spring.
He was willing to sell us 2 cows at the same price as what he would get at the auction. The benefit to us is that we were able to visit his place and choose the cows. My husband's buddy went with us and pointed out a few likely cows that he thought would get along well on our smaller property.
What we ended up with are 2 very nice cows. Almost to nice. One cow must have been a bottle baby (its mom wouldn't feed it or couldn't feed it and the cow was raised on a bottle with formula). It likes to have its ears scratched and in the beginning would come over and nudge you with its head to get you to scratch its ears. sounds fun right? Well, how would you like a cows slobbery nose on you? This has slowed down as the cow has gotten used to us. Now it will let you come close and scratch its nose, but it doesn't typically bother you. This could be because we opened up the larger pasture and now it has more space to roam, I don't know.
The other cow is nice enough. It doesn't like to get close. Even my 3 year old can scare it by walking more than 30 feet away. But the nice cow seems to be a calm influence and so far everyone is happy with no escapes.
We named them Bubba and Stinky. We usually go with names like T-bone and Hamburger (Hammy). This year we may have gone with names that are to pet-like. We'll see. We will have them until about Fall of 2015.
The garden is going well. My husband is doing a complete remodel that he started last year. It involves cinderblocks and a gated pipe. We are very excited to have it finished in the next few weeks. I'll have to put up pictures when it finally is done.
The greenhouse is full of all sorts of flowers and vegetables. they are all doing well. A few haven't come up yet, but I haven't given up hope.
We bought 2 bare root grape vines yesterday. We will be planting them in a few weeks. right now they are in a pot of dirt getting watered with the greenhouse.
I did something, unusual the other day. I bought 1,500 Quinalt strawberry plants. Yep 1,500. I plan on selling most and then planting the rest. We love strawberries at our house. They are supposed to arrive next week.
The nectarine tree will be blossoming soon, and it looks like the apricot trees have frozen yet again. I haven't checked on the peach tree yet this year...
The cherry tree that we planted last year looks good. I don't know if we will have a crop this year, but hopefully it will have enough blossoms that the older cherry tree will have a crop.
The adventure with the Honey Crisp apple trees is ongoing. We started out with 2 about 5 years ago. Got a crop 2 years later (small) and then lost one of the trees to a bore. We replaced the tree. Last year we lost the other tree to fire blight. We bought 2 trees this year (in hopes of ensuring an eventual crop) and planted those. We now have 3 trees. Here's hoping to a crop in a year or so!!
We are busy!
We currently have 22 hens. I purchased them through the mail for the first time ever and it has been a great experience so far. They were hatched on Feb 5th and shipped to us from Ideal hatchery. These seem like some of the nicest most friendly hens I've had. We ordered 10 Red sex link and 10 Rhode Island Reds. They sent us that and 1 additional of each breed. So we have 22. They all seem to be hens, but sometimes its hard to see a rooster until later (or until they start to crow) due to the large size of the flock.
We started them in our small greenhouse and after they had feathered out (and we couldn't stand the stink anymore) we put them outside with a light for heat. The have done well. They are growing at a surprising rate and we look forward to eggs around July.
I am trying something new this time around. We are trying chicken nipples. What are chicken nipples you ask? Well they are these neat doohickies that you put on the end of a bottle or other contraption that allow the chickens to drink. Almost like a baby nipple. Thus the strange name. The nice thing about these is that instead of an open bucket or waterer that chickens just love to poop in (and occasionally jump into if you are trying to catch them) these are closed, so the chickens get clean water instead of poopy waterers that are nearly impossible to keep clean. Right now, I'm using them on the end of a water bottle I've strapped onto the side of my coop. I will be going bigger with that, but since a redesign of the chicken coop will be happening soon, I am waiting.
They look like this
http://www.thegardencoop.com/images/chicken-drinking-waterer.jpg
Its the time of year to get cows if you are the kind who does that. In the past we have purchased them from a (somewhat) local auction. That was really hit or miss though. You would see the cows for a few minutes and then decide if they were what you wanted and bid and then pick them up in a few hours if you won your bid. The problem with this is that the cows are highly stressed. They are in a small arena and are highly uncomfortable. They tend not to act like themselves. That is how we ended up with crazy cows the past few years. Those cows got out a lot last year and one time we even had them get out in the middle of the night and had to spend the whole next day tracking them and thankfully found them (but that is a whole other story).
My husband has a buddy at work who raises way more cows than we do at a time (like 15-20) and then sells the beef when its slaughter time. People do this because unlike the stuff you buy at the supermarket, this stuff doesn't have all of that hormones or whatnot in it. This guy can tell you what shots (if any) he has given to the cows. He can tell you what he's been feeding the cows and where he got the feed. And I'm sure if he needed to, he could find out if that feed had been sprayed with anything, and what.
So, this buddy was nice enough to introduce us to his father. His father gets young cows in the summer/fall and feeds them all winter (which most people don't want to do, its a lot of work) and sells them for a profit in the spring.
He was willing to sell us 2 cows at the same price as what he would get at the auction. The benefit to us is that we were able to visit his place and choose the cows. My husband's buddy went with us and pointed out a few likely cows that he thought would get along well on our smaller property.
What we ended up with are 2 very nice cows. Almost to nice. One cow must have been a bottle baby (its mom wouldn't feed it or couldn't feed it and the cow was raised on a bottle with formula). It likes to have its ears scratched and in the beginning would come over and nudge you with its head to get you to scratch its ears. sounds fun right? Well, how would you like a cows slobbery nose on you? This has slowed down as the cow has gotten used to us. Now it will let you come close and scratch its nose, but it doesn't typically bother you. This could be because we opened up the larger pasture and now it has more space to roam, I don't know.
The other cow is nice enough. It doesn't like to get close. Even my 3 year old can scare it by walking more than 30 feet away. But the nice cow seems to be a calm influence and so far everyone is happy with no escapes.
We named them Bubba and Stinky. We usually go with names like T-bone and Hamburger (Hammy). This year we may have gone with names that are to pet-like. We'll see. We will have them until about Fall of 2015.
The garden is going well. My husband is doing a complete remodel that he started last year. It involves cinderblocks and a gated pipe. We are very excited to have it finished in the next few weeks. I'll have to put up pictures when it finally is done.
The greenhouse is full of all sorts of flowers and vegetables. they are all doing well. A few haven't come up yet, but I haven't given up hope.
We bought 2 bare root grape vines yesterday. We will be planting them in a few weeks. right now they are in a pot of dirt getting watered with the greenhouse.
I did something, unusual the other day. I bought 1,500 Quinalt strawberry plants. Yep 1,500. I plan on selling most and then planting the rest. We love strawberries at our house. They are supposed to arrive next week.
The nectarine tree will be blossoming soon, and it looks like the apricot trees have frozen yet again. I haven't checked on the peach tree yet this year...
The cherry tree that we planted last year looks good. I don't know if we will have a crop this year, but hopefully it will have enough blossoms that the older cherry tree will have a crop.
The adventure with the Honey Crisp apple trees is ongoing. We started out with 2 about 5 years ago. Got a crop 2 years later (small) and then lost one of the trees to a bore. We replaced the tree. Last year we lost the other tree to fire blight. We bought 2 trees this year (in hopes of ensuring an eventual crop) and planted those. We now have 3 trees. Here's hoping to a crop in a year or so!!
We are busy!
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