Farm Update

It has been awhile since I updated what is going on here at the farm.

Things here are going well. The critters are all happy and healthy and the tomatoes are FINALLY ripening in the garden.

Our bourbon red turkeys are happily free ranging.  When they take their afternoon nap, the tom keeps a watchful eye out for predators.  They stick together and it is all for one and one for all. You always see them together.

 Here is what the field looks like. It is full of grazing sunflowers and many other plants.  It is really pretty and it is feeding our soil.

The chickens in the back are also totally free ranging.  They sleep in the chicken tractor and then run around the rest of the day.

Here is the alpha black jersey giant rooster.  He is a big boy and is still sweet.  The other rooster decided to take on the smallest turkey hen.  He huffed and puffed - out his feathers, and got in her face.  She puffed out her feathers, and just kind of looked at him, Like " What is your problem, son?" Then he really went into overdrive and puffed his feathers even more and started to chest bump her.  Within seconds the big toms came over and stood on either side of her, the other turkeys lined up behind them.  The rooster took a look at them and took off running.  The turkeys chased him around the chicken tractor and he kept running until he got out to the pig pen.  Now he takes his little harem out by the pig pen every morning and does what he can to avoid the turkeys.

This is the big feeder in the tractor.  We fill it up only occasionally as it stays full a long time.

The water supply is collected off the roof as it runs into the gutter and then down into the water barrel.  The tube then has the little nipple waterers for the chickens.  The kids like it as they have not needed to fill it up as we have had regular rain.

Our pullets are starting to lay.  They are still trying to figure out where to lay.  The nesting boxes have not been the most popular choice. They even lay them on the edge of the feeder.  Talented birds.  Not sure how they did that.

The chickens do most of their drinking from the pond.  The rooster supervises and protects them as they drink.

We have currently got all the roosters isolated.  They were bothering the hens and the result of that is that the hens lay less and the roosters are slow to gain weight.

Paul repurposed the rest of the old awning as a rooster shelter.  He put it on skids so it was easy to move.  on the inside there are some roosting poles and a hanging feeder.  We have an electric fence around them to keep them contained.

Here is what the back of the barn looks like.  There is a mobile hoop coop back there and a fence that gets moved to keep all the chickens contained.  The old hens still reside in the run-in coop.  They will be moving on to the freezer in a couple weeks.  They have stopped earning their keep.

The white broad breasted turkeys are now free ranging as well.  They are growing fast.  They stay close to the outbuildings and don't go near as far as the bourbon reds, but I am happy to see them eating bugs and grass.

I forgot to get a pig picture on here, but they are doing well.

The garden is coming along well.  Here you see the kale, some eggplants and ground cherries.

I really like my herb spiral.  The herbs are doing well.  They have established and are growing.  Almost all the herbs in here are perennials except for the cilantro, parsley, and dill, which are really good at self seeding.

Here are the sweet potato beds. and the boxes in the back have our white potatoes.  They seem to be doing OK, but the proof will be in the digging.

The tomatoes look fabulous and haven't started dying back at all.  They must not realize that it is September!!!  I didn't pick my first ripe tomato until the last week in August.  It is September now and the tomatoes are coming on like it is July.  We haven't had any problem with wilt or other disease for which  we are grateful.

Our cabbages have done terrible!  The bugs have destroyed them.  Such a bummer.  We have gobs of eggplants and basil.  We have been enjoying our pesto! Pesto and tomato are such a wonderful combination. Got to go and make a batch of Nanna's chili sauce.  Enjoy the rest of the summer!

This Week in Review

The week started off with a graduation ceremony/service at church.  Different men shared advice and biblical truths with the graduates.  

At the end of the service all the men came up front and took turns praying for the graduates.  It was a wonderful service.

We have a very large hop toad that lives in the driveway or on the manure pile by the shop.  We see him frequently.  Nothing bothers him, not cats, dogs, or chickens!

Michelle and Thomas

Michelle has been busy putting together her stuff for her graduation party this weekend.  She has been looking at old photos.

Paul has spent several days on the tractor discing the fields and planting them.  He has been very diligent.  We have been very grateful for our neighbor loaning us his tractor.

Michelle is decorating in a 'shabby chic' style for her party.  She has been very busy with the spray paint.  Painting picture frames and putting together photo displays.

Making message boards with blackboard paint.  People need to know what the menu is!

Raiding the barn for old furniture that was left behind when the previous owners left and then painting it.

Elizabeth and Grandma M have been spending a lot of time on the front porch reading.  Elizabeth was pretty pleased that the cat likes her well enough to climb up on her lap.  Marbles seems to be gradually recovering from his fight in the barn.  For awhile I thought he might not make it.  He is an old man, at least 15 years old.  Some echinacea and egg yolk with fresh milk has him back on his feet. He was doing well enough to hunt down all the baby squirrels.  This left me with mixed emotions.  

My dear Mom-In -Law came to visit us for a month this past Wednesday.  She is doing really well for someone past 85!  She gets around well, and is still mentally very sharp.  She likes to read and do puzzles.  We are so glad she is able to come visit us on the farm!!!

The fishline strung between poles and around the outside of the garden seems to be working very well.  I have only seen one bird in there since we put it up. That was such a relief!

Here is what the seed mixture looks like that we are putting on the fields.  It is a blend of about 15 different seeds.  It has gone on very well, even using a spreader. (It is spread out on the floor like this thanks to a raccoon in the barn who was curious.)

Here is the compacter that we run over the fields to increase soil contact with the seeds.  The neighbor loaned us all the equipment!

The tractor.  We are racing to get done before the rain starts.  A storm is on the way.  All last week the weathermen kept predicting high percentages of rain, but we didn't get any.  The upside of that was that we were able to disc and get the seed in the field, the downside was that we did have to water the vegetable gardens.

Another beautiful week on the farm!

Another Country Adventure

My DH arranged for a neighbor to deliver a dump truck load of manure.

We debated awhile as to where to dump the dirt.  I was hoping to have it close to where the garden will be.  To save on carrying.  The driver walked the yard and decided that he could do it.  He knew if he went too far he would get stuck.

To a country gal, a dump truck full of manure can be very romantic!

Alas, the driver had gone too far and had gotten stuck.

We called Earl the Pearl, and as usual he came to our rescue right quick.  He brought a tractor to pull the dump truck out of the yard.  It turns out that Mike the truck driver and Earl knew each other.  Of course, in the country, most everybody knows each other.  By the time the truck was pulled out, Mike had bought Earl's other hay baler.

Paul raced off to the barn to get a big chain to attach the rope to the tractor.

The guys attached the rope.  It was really an old firehose, with the ends sewed into loops.

Everything was set and the tractor easily pulled the truck out.

Now our yard is decorated with dump truck tracks, and beautiful manure.

The driver dumped out the little bit that remained in the back on our other manure pile.  The chickens were happy to have a new buffet.  

Another country adventure successfully completed!

This week on the Farm...

JoAn and Elizabeth were a big help with the shoveling

This week my dear brother delivered us a nice load of aged horse manure.  Now if you don't live on a farm, that may not impress you.  It made me ecstatic!  He even delivered it!  I need bunches of it to set up my garden beds.  It is a start from scratch process for us here.  One of the neighbors did say that the last owner had her gardens over in the side yard, but that was years ago!  A big shout out of thanks to my best bro!  (And if you are inclined to bring more, I won't say no!)

The chickens were so excited about the manure also.  It is loaded with worms and they treated it like a fat man at an Old Country Buffet!

We loaded up the manure into a garden cart and pulled it with the ATV.  The hens wanted to go for a ride, not, it only looks like that.  They were actually just going through the manure that we had shoveled into the cart.

On the gardening front... I did get my shallots planted.  We had the two boxes from the old house's gardens.  I filled them with the manure and then I sprinkled them with ashes.  That is what the planting instructions on-line said to do.  It keeps away worms and whatever else wrecks shallots. We love shallots.  Using them allows us to feel like real chefs.  I heard one old saw say that the difference between an excellent home cook and a restaurant chef? Shallots.

I have been reading and studying the book, 'Gaia's Garden' by Toby Hemenway.  It is such a practical book on home-scale permaculture.  I have followed his directions in setting up my beds.  It is a no-till philosophy.  I am trying to set things up on the farm that we ( My DH and I) will be able to maintain for at least the next 20 years.  We need to be able to do it even when the kids are not at home anymore.

The first step is to figure out the size of the beds you need.  They say to figure 25 sq ft per person.  That meant that we need about 200 sq ft.  The first thing you do is put down cardboard where you want the garden to prevent weeds growing up through it.  Then you soak the cardboard with water.  We are blessed to have all our hose water to be pumped directly out of our spring fed pond. Gives a little nutritional boost, but you definitely don't want to drink out of the hose!!!

This is what it looked like when it was finished.  Michelle thinks it looks like a grave for a super thin giant.  Anyways,  we put down a layer of manure ( Harvested from our chicken coop) about 2" thick.  Then we put old  hay from the barn on top in a layer about 4-6" thick.  You soak all that with water and then cover the top with an inch or so of top soil or in our case, aged horse manure.  We then seeded it with lots of different varieties of lettuce, radishes, beets, turnips, chard, spinach.  The idea is to pull the plant when you harvest it and then plant something else in it's place.  We still need to add some herbs in to it.  Later in the summer, we will put in our beans, broccoli, and other plants we have started.  If this works, it will definitely be the way to go.  Really simple and you don't have to till.  Each year you work some more manure into it and at the end of the year you bring in your 'chicken tillers' and let them clean out the weeds and fertilize.  Those birds need to earn their keep!

Someone gifted me some blueberry bushes.  I planted them right by the pine trees, on the south side.  That way they get to enjoy the acid soil and they still get sunshine.

One part of living on a property for the first year is that you get to discover what the previous owner had planted.  A lot of the spring flowers had overgrown too closely and so aren't flowering.  We will have to divide the bulbs so that we get more flowers next spring.

You never know where you will find a chicken hiding when you walk around the farm.  That will change soon as, buying fences, is on my to-do list for this week. I can't have them cleaning out the garden!

This is the start of my hugelkulture bed.  Potatoes are supposed to do well in this kind of bed.  We shall see.  I want to get them in the ground soon.  They arrived in the mail a couple weeks ago and sitting is not making them healthier, even if where they are is cool.

The chicks continue to get bigger.  The boss has been so busy working that he has not gotten to the mobile chicken coop.  We need to get it done soon so these guys can get outside.

The black Jersey Giants look like crows in amongst the pretty hens.

 This week I got my real farm boots.  They fit well and are so much better for going through the muck.  This is going to save my shoes a lot of wear and tear! I needed something with good support for my feet and these do the job well.  Now I really look like a farmer when I am out in the barn!

The sadness in the back field was that something got the Killdeer's nest.  They broke and removed one of the eggs, and the parents have moved on.

It has been a good week on the farm and we are really enjoying the spring weather!  I trust it is nice where you are too!