For the love of Clouds

We've had some pretty amazing skies the past few weeks on the farm, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite photos. And just because you wanted to know, I'm sitting here writing this on the porch, on a cool pre-fall night, listening to a soft rain. You're jealous. I know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Day in the Life

Just Ramblin'

As we approach the end of our first year as farmers, I've been reflecting a lot on the past year.
It's amazing how living this life can change you. A little over a year ago, I had regular pedicures and manicures, visits to the salon every 8 to 10 weeks. Now, my nails are always dirty and my hair has that hippy woman, frizzy gray highlighted look. And I love it. I've spent my whole life heading to this place, and I have arrived! :)

Looking back on the past year, here is a nice little list of lessons I've been smacked over the head with:
-I can't do it all.
A huge garden and a billion animals looks so white picket fence on paper. I've never had a garden. I've never owned a chicken. I've been smacked in the head with the fact that  I need to slow down, and listen and learn.

-Books can lie
There are some really awesome books on the market that have played an enormous part of my learning process.
We've met some of the nicest people in this area, and they are always more than willing to stop and talk and answer just about any question I have, but I catch myself thinking, "That's not what the books say".
They've been doing this a lot longer than me, so I need to zip it and listen.

-Squash bugs are the devil
I know we're not supposed to hate any living creature, and I'm trying. Those things are of the devil himself. I was spending hours everyday picking those little buggers off of my plants, and they were breeding faster than I could drown them. I'd get it under control, and along would come a good rain, and BOOM! There were a million of them again. In the end, they defeated me. I lost all of my pumpkin plants. Devils...

-Chickens are the bomb
I love them. Really. I think I've become addicted. I can never read enough about them. I could sit out and watch them for hours. They each have their own personality, and are quite entertaining if you just sit quietly and watch them. Chickens get a bad rap. The polish breed we have are nut cases, but because we sit with them everyday, they are used to us being around and respect our space. I have another one who apparently didn't get the memo that she isn't of the canine variety, and jumps up in my lap and stretches her neck out for a good chin scratching. Who knew?

-Don't judge a book by its cover
Ducks are cute. Turkeys are not. Ducks are nasty, noisy, ridiculous animals. Turkeys are not. They're very graceful and shy. Turkeys communicate with their eyes. It's very sweet really. Ducks just yell at you. I swear they curse me at least four times a day. The other day the biggest one yelled something at me that sounded very similar to the synonym for a female dog. Just goes to show you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, or the early bird gets the worm...or one of those cute catchy phrases...

-There are things creepy crawling EVERYWHERE
I'm still stuggling to get over the shock of coming up on a snake. Or a little mouse scampering out of the barn.
Everywhere you look, there is some little creepy crawly thing lurking around. There are perks though. My son and I have an awesome bug collection to study and dissect for our upcoming school year. A few months ago, we came across a royal walnut moth, and put it in a jar. I'd never seen anything like it, and it turns out to be a pretty fascinating creature. She laid eggs in the jar, so now we are watching her babies grow through every stage of their lives. Pretty cool indeed.
Check her out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citheronia_regalis


I'd like to close this ramble session by sending a shout out to a few dear friends who are individually starting up their own thing. Here's to the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Peace and rice cakes!

The Ugly Face of Farming

We are quickly learning that all things farming aren't streets paved of gold. I try to keep my posts light and cheerful, but in all fairness to those who are dreaming of living this life, I feel the need to share the dark side. Yes Luke, I am your father.

I've written before about the batch of baby Americauanas we lost. The first few were heartbreaking. After that, the effect of finding a dead baby wasn't as stinging.
Last week, Tom the turkey got sick. If you've read my previous blogs, you know how much we love that goofy, handsome boy. I was scared, because I realized that if we lost him, I'd have one of those "can I really do this" moments. I also knew I had to suck it up, so I quarantined him and got him on some pretty potent antibiotics. I am very happy to report that he fully recovered and is back in the great outdoors being his studdly, happy self.

The heat over the past few weeks, it's been almost unbearable. Most days the heat index is around 110. Try walking 8 acres in the blaring heat of the day and not break a sweat. Go ahead, I dare ya.
It's been really rough on our birds. We are constantly replenishing fresh water and food. I wash the waterers everytime I give them water to keep yeast out of their systems. I go out and sit with them so they know we still love them and aren't trying to roast them slowly. We've lost two of our turkeys to heat stroke.

This morning I went out and found one of our Buckeye girls dead. We've had great success with them...no sickness, no deaths, nothing. Unfortunately four of the chickens we thought were girls were not.
Six roosters on nineteen girls is not a good thing. Whichever girl one rooster picks, the others all want. I'm afraid that's what caused the loss of this one. We locked four of the roos outside tonight. This will fix the problem temporarily, but unfortunately means it's time for us to cull them.

We knew going into this, that this day would come. It's the reason we set out on this journey. To humanely raise our animals for food, and to give them all the love and happiness they deserve in exchange for giving their lives for us. It still doesn't make the realization any easier. But as with the babies, it will get easier, and won't bite so hard.

This life is a lot harder than I ever imagined it would be. It's tiring, draining, frustrating, heartbreaking, and mentally exhausting. Other than being a wife and mother, it's the most rewarding thing I've ever done. Never in my life have I felt such a sense of accomplishing something when I lay my head down at night. I say to you, without a doubt, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Zucchini on Steroids

It's been a little while since I posted a new blog, so I figured I should take a break from the nightly visit to the Family Guy and catch you up on the happenings around the little homestead.

Since my last update, our little stud muffin Tom the Turkey has graduated from teenager-hood to full blown big boy. He's tall...knee height to me...and handsome and proud. We lost one of the two hens that came with him to unknown causes a few weeks ago. Tom mourns her I think, and cuddles and protects the one that remains. Gwendolyn, his remaining girlfriend is a princess. She's very girly and dainty, and loves to be petted. If you ignore her, she'll just follow you around until you give her a little love. I have mad love for turkeys.

One of our four little bourbon red turkeys starting going down two days ago. We lost 19 of our chicks to a viral attack a little over a month or so ago, so I knew the signs. I pulled her out of the pen and put her into our "quarantine" brooder and starting medicating her. I'm happy to say she was well enough today to go back into the pen with her friends. We had just released the babies into the great outdoors the day before she got sick, so she was a happy little girl when she got to go out and sunbathe. Ever seen a turkey take a sun bath? It's a funny sight to see!

Our buckey chicks, who are now fully grown, are a whole other breed of cat. The males have recently discovered their, um, manliness. Those horny birds are harrassing my girls relentlessly. You hear them screeching in terror all day long, and sometimes into the night. The cocky little rascals have also formed a quintet of nonstop crowing. One starts, the others join in, and it continues all day. And sometimes into the night. All this nonsense, and still no eggs. These darn animals are going to be the death of me. :)

The summer garden...whew. After having such a success with my winter garden, I was thinking myself a gardening goddess. With the exception of loosing two plants to cutworms, everything I planted did extremely well. We were eating fresh salads everyday, and thanks to the over abundance of lettuce in our garden, so were our neighbors.
Summer gardening is a different matter entirely. I will admit to getting in over my head. We planted twelve raised beds, plowed and planted one 10x200 ft garden, and plowed and planted another that is about 50x100. Too much for a first year gardner don't ya think? I must not have thought so in the winter. I have changed my mind.
The corn and green beans were epic failures. The squash has done fair (squash bugs are the devil). Tomatoes, peppers, potaoes and cuccumbers have done really well. The sunflowers are over 10 feet tall. Pumpkins are struggling, picked a few melons, with a few more growing on the vines.
The zucchini... I think the corn stealing deer must have been urinating steroids on those darn plants. I have never seen that much zucchini at any one given time in my life. I've given away grocery bags of it. I've stuffed it. I have 15 gallon bags of it sliced and frozen in the freezer.  I've shredded and froze enough to make 26 loaves of zucchini bread. I've cooked and canned it in several quarts of veggie pasta sauce. I've made 36 pints of zucchini jam in a menagerie of flavors. There is still more zucchini in the basket on the counter, and more coming in on the plants. If you're on the market next season for monster zucchini plants, I'm saving seed.

It's My Birthday and I Can Be Lazy if I Want Too!

Holy hot pants Batman! What is with this heat? I think Mother Nature was feeling a little impish and just decided to skip spring all together. My poor birds are panting like dogs. The temperature in the barn was 103 at lunch.

Since today is the day I descended upon this unsuspecting world 39 years ago, I finished up the paint in the dining room and have done NOTHING else and loved it all day! As amazing as this new found farming life is, sometimes you have to stop and celebrate just being. SO I've done that with lots of bad food including onion rings and chocolate cake. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do sometimes. Happy birthday to me!

A few pictures of the dining room:

Tom the Stud Muffin Turkey

Yesterday Tom, one of our turkey teenagers, discovered his natural ability to strut and show his stuff. If you've ever seen a male turkey show off his manliness, you have witnessed first hand unadulterated male pride. They fan out their tails and move slowly from side to side, so that anyone present can (and must) admire them. They'll give a little shake occasionally just to make sure they've not lost your attention. Our poor Tom is in that faze between being a soft, fuzzy little baby, and that teenage acne and braces stage. He still has fuzz under his wings, but is bald in other places as his feathers come in. He walks around the girls and stretches out those awkward feathers as if he's as handsome and manly as the big boys. Teenagers...

We are quickly learning that not all breeds of chickies are the the same. The polish babies are spunky, whereas the Buckeyes and Americaunas are more laid back. They're very sweet natured and love attention. The polish on the other hand, are bonkers! The day we brought them home and put them in the brooder, they immediately starting burrowing holes in their bedding and burying their heads. Our other chicks didn't do that until they were a little older. Compared to the other babies, they act much older than their age. At a week and a half, they are already starting to fly, and challenging each other by doing that wacky chicken dance.
Today we decided to move them into the big girl house with the teenagers, and they immediately starting challenging the older splash Americaunas to a duel. And wouldn't you know, as soon as their little feet hit the ground, Tom strutted over to show them his manly glory.

With so much rain and warm weather, the summer garden is really taking off! A big majority of the seeds I've planted have sprouted and seem to be growing strong. Since this is our "learning year", I've kind of been winging it as I go. Through trial and error, and a few ideas that I am sure will be epic failures, we're gardening totally organic. I read online that slugs destroy tomatoes, and quickly. Many online organic gardeners recommend placing a ring of eggshells around the plants to deter the slimy monsters.
When I placed them in the garden yesterday, I spotted handfuls of little green tomatoes! Pasta sauce, here we come!

After spending most of the winter studying gardening methods, we decided to use the three sisters method for some of our summer veggies. The "three sisters" was a planting method used by early Native Americans, and the method they taught the colonists to farm with. By mounding circles of dirt, they utilized the benefits of certain plants to the benefit of others, the "three" being corn, beans, and squash. Corn needs nitrogen to grow healthy and strong, and the beans provide it for them. Corn in turn offers support for the climbing beans. Squash, zucchini, and pumpkins help control weeds by shading the ground, and deter pests such as rabbits and deer, because they don't like the prickly stems. Pretty ingenious I'd say.







I'd like to dedicate this blog to my dear friend Jennifer, who is taking off on an endeavor of her own, into the scary world known as living your dream. I know first hand how scary jumping in head first into the unknown is. Making a dream a reality requires a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Sleepless nights...and more tears...but at the end of the day, the sense of accomplishment is so worth it. I have total faith in your success, and I admire you for taking the leap. Do your thang girl!

Kitchen Concoctions

As the amount of food we harvest continues to grow, I try to come up with new recipes so that my boys don't get tired of eating the same ole same ole. Today I harvested an over abundance of spinach, so here is the recipe for today. It's very similar to a quiche.

Spinach Sausage Pie
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 tsp spicy brown mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chili powder
10 oz fresh (or frozen) spinach
1/2 lb breakfast sausage browned and well crumbled
1 9in unbaked pie shell

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a blender combine spinach milk and eggs. Pour into large bowl and add 1 cup cheddar, onion, sausage,salt, mustard and chili powder. Stir to combine well. Pour into pie shell and bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until knife inserted between center and edge comes out clean.

Here's a tasty and very easy chicken salad recipe from last week:
3 baked boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 stalks celery
1 apple peeled and cored
1 medium onion
1 cup pecans
ranch dressing
salt and pepper to taste
Combine chicken, celery, onion, apple and pecans in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
Add enough ranch dressing to get the chicken salad to the texture you like. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve on wheat bread.

It's the End of the World as We Know It

Boy how things change in a year. A year ago we were living in a townhome in the center of a thriving community on the outskirts of a big city. We could walk to the grocery store, the drugstore, Starbucks, and just about any other handy dandy grab it quick and go place that you can imagine. Our yard was, well, not even worthy of being called a yard. It was more of a 10x10 square of grass.

A year later, we are living in a big ole beautiful farmhouse, in need of much love and repair. The hubby now has 8 acres of grass to cut. There are holes in the barn, and fences to paint. I find bugs daily that look as though they jumped right out of the Sci Fi channel. There are hordes of ants and nats and spiders and flies. We've taken out three snakes this week. I found a four foot snake skin hanging in the tree from whence our farm gets it name. There are birds singing songs more beautiful than any music I've ever heard. We have a porch swing where we sit on nice nights and listen to the frogs and crickets singing their heart song, while the soft night breeze blows. We roast marshmallows with friends and family, and chat by the fire. It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine.

The winter garden is just about spent. The cabbage and peas are ready to harvest. All of the lady finger carrots are out of the garden. I just started cutting back the spinach last week. The strawberries weren't supposed to fruit until fall, but I've found a few surprises! And since there aren't enough to preserve, I feel no guilt at reaching down and plucking one right off the plant, wiping it off on my shirt, and eating it right then and there. I can't even describe the sweetness of eating a strawberry as soon as it ripens. Oh my.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our first year summer garden does as well as the winter one did. For a first time gardener, I'd say I didn't do half bad! I'll definately add more peas and plant a LOT less lettuce. I'll also have a better garden plan before I plant the beds again in the fall. It kind of makes me sad to see it go.

I am however getting very excited about the summer garden. I think if everything does well, the quantity of food we'll grown will be a bit overwhelming. I think I'm going to invest in another pressure canner. It would sure make putting up food go a lot faster. Thus far we have corn, beans, squash, zucchini, eggplant, three types of tomatoes, five types of peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe,several hundred sunflowers, and several herbs sprouting.

Despite all the happy things going on here at the farm, we learned a sad hard lesson this week that all things farming aren't all fuzzy peaches and warm tacos.
Sunday we had a family day and picked up another batch of Americauna chicks. One of the bunch didn't look too healthy when we picked them up, so we brought them home and starting giving her electrolytes. She unfortunately didn't survive past dinner. It broke my sweet son's heart. We had a little burial for her and put her to rest under a tree in the pasture. We've lost eight more over the past six days. Out of the batch of eighteen, only nine remain.

We have made up for that loss! On Saturday, we took some dear young friends and our son to a chicken swap. Our flock has now grown to 25 buckeyes, 2 easter eggers, 5 broad breasted turkeys, 8 heritage turkeys, 5 splash Americaunas, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 8 crested polish of various colors, about 40 True Americaunas, and 10 ducks. No more chicks for a while. You hear that honey?

I would like to dedicate this blog to my sweet, bouncy, giggly little girl who turns twenty today! You are the light of my life. You can make me laugh even when I'm mad. I love you for the little girl you were, and the woman you are growing up to be. I love you always....and welcome to adulthood! :)

We Be Jammin'

Dandelion Marmalade
Makes 3 pints, or 6 half pints
3 oranges
1 lemon
1 cup dandelion flowers - no stems
3 tbs Ball Real Fruit Pectin - low sugar
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups water

Peel oranges and lemon. Chop rind into small pieces. Add water and peel in a large pot and bring to a boil. Simmer 20 minutes.

Chop oranges and lemon into small pieces. Remove any remaining rind and seeds. Add to rind mixture. Cook 15 minutes.

Mix pectin and 1/2 cup sugar

Add pectic/sugar mixture and dandelion flowers to citrus mixture. Cook until boiling, stirring often.

Add remaining sugar, stirring constantly. Return to full boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Ladle into hot sterilized jars and process 10 minutes in a water bath canner.

Very Berry Cherry Preserves
Makes 2 pints or 4 half pints
1/4 cup pitted black cherries
1/2 cup mulberries (or blackberries)
1 cup crushed strawberries
2 1/4 cup blueberries
4 cups sugar
6 tbs Ball Real Fruit Pectic - Classic Pectin

Crush all fruit together, add to pot and slowly add pectin. Bring to a full boil that you can't stir down.
Lower heat and add all sugar at once.
Return to a full boil and boil for 1 minute.
Test by using the spoon method. (if the jelly sticks to the spoon and doesn't run off, it's ready)
Ladle into hot jars and process 10 minutes in a water bath canner.

Talking Turkey

Turkeys aren't the first thing people want to add to the barnyard as pets. I mean, let's face it, the toms have beautiful plumage, but have downright ugly facial features. The females are a little more pleasant to look at, but only a little. They have a reputation for being stupid, stinky creatures.

Today the hubby and I picked up the remainder of our last order of Americauna chicks. On the way home, we decided it would be best to stop by Tractor Supply and get the items we needed to add another brooder to the barn. We were worried that the older chicks, who are now three weeks old, would bully and possibly kill the new babies. These little munchkins are only two days old.

I thought it might be a good idea, once the new fuzzy butts were settled into their new home, to introduce one of the turkeys into the mix. By adding one of the bigger kids, it should help the little ones to not be so intimidated by their bigger size, and not be so nervous when we ship them off to kindergarten.

The turkey wasn't thrilled at first to be pulled away from his new little family. He squeaked and called them for about five minutes. This upset the babies, so THEY started screeching and crying. Once the turkey realized he wasn't alone, he started mothering the chicks! It was one the sweetest things I've ever seen.  All the babies would crawl under him and cuddle. He sat there like he was the king. When they would wander around the brooder, he would scoop them under his body, and settle down for a nap. Absolutely precious.

The honey bees are a buzzing! They've started chewing the wax in the hives, which means we could possibly have honey this fall. I would elaborate more on the so on and so forths about the bees, but it's not my thing. I'm perfectly happy letting the hubby handle them. I am however, quite excited that we will have a few hundred pounds of honey...right out of our own backyard. I should invite him as a guest blogger. :)

It's been quite a busy gardening week here on our little farm. We added another garden plot, about 100x50, and planted about 150 corn seeds. Next week we'll add squash, zucchini, and beans. We also planted a row about 200 feet long, with 150 sunflowers, 40 pumpkin plants, 16 cantalope, 20 watermelon, and 16 honey dew melon plants. Late summer picnic anyone?

The winter garden is coming into full fruition. I harvested about 14 quarts of broccoli from half of a 4x8 bed. I pulled the majority of the plants out yesterday, and the remaining ones will flower and provide our seeds for the fall.
Our 18 cabbage plants have softball sized heads. The leaves are so big they look fake! The lettuce are all the size of basketballs, and the pea pods are filling out nicely. The potatoes are flowering and the strawberries are fruiting. And though it's taken a lot of work...and I say this quite proudly...we've grown all of our veggies pesticide and chemical free. We did have a few lettuce casualties, (may they rest in peace), but everything has grown big and healthy and strong. The only thing I've used as a pesticide is a garlic spray.
Here's how you do it:
Fill a spray bottle with water and add about 6 teaspoons of minced garlic.
Add a squirt of non-bleach dish liquid
Add about a teaspoon of olive oil
Shake well, let sit overnight and then strain

Well, I think that's about it this go round. I'm tired and think I've earned a nap! Good night all!

A Blessing for Peter Cottontail

About two weeks ago, I became an involuntary surrogate to a trio of baby cottontails. I have a soft spot for critters...babies especially. So when the hubby came in to inform me he had dismembered mama with the lawnmower, and had three little babies wrapped up in the wheelbarrow in the garage, I couldn't just let them die. I brought them in the house, put them in a box on a heating pad, and started bottle feeding them goats milk. Over the last week they have really thrived, and now look like miniature rabbits. For the past two days, they've been jumping at the sides of the box trying to get out, so I knew it was time to release them back into the world where they belong.

My son and I took them out this morning, and put them into a nice patch of high grass. We've peeked in on them over the course of the day, and they're just hanging around in the spot where we left them. They do run away when we get too close, so I have high hopes for them.


So here's to you little cottontails:
May Mother Nature guide you and keep you.
May you live long and prosper, and may the force be with you, wherever your lives may lead you.

The Little Farm Grows

It has been an amazingly beautiful weekend here on the farm. It was a bit windy yesterday, but warm enough to be outside and enjoy the day.

There's quite a bit gone on in the last two days...our animal number count is now up to 51! On Thursday my son and I drove to a little neighboring town to pick up our Amercauna chickies. We were supposed to pick up 8, but an unfortunate incident with a neighborhood cat, left us with only 3. (RIP fuzzy bottomed little babies.) Only one of those is a true Ameracauna, meaning she will lay all blue eggs. The other two are easter eggers, and they will lay eggs that are pink, purple, green and blue. So if you're on the market next Easter for real Easter eggs, well...you know where to go!

Friday brought us five baby Turkeys. I'm amazed at how cute they are as babies, knowing how ugly those poor sweet creatures are going to grow up to be. My heart bleeds for them, really. Three of them are a heritage breed, and if you can imagine what the offspring of a chicken and a zebra would look like, you get a picture of these babies. The other two are white turkeys. They've got attitude. They know they get to be cute  as babies AND grow up pretty. Shameful...

My sister came for a visit Friday, along with my two favorite little girls in the whole wide world.
The biggest downside to this farm, is that I'm further away from my family. I miss those little monkey faces (wipes tear). An upside to this farm, is seeing the sheer joy on their sweet little faces as they run around our farm. Little faces all covered in dirt...hair all in knots. Squeeling like it's the best day EVER. We even got a special tractor "quilt" ride from our precious neighbor.

After the girls left today, the neighbor called and asked if I'd like to go with her to pick strawberries. This was the first time I've ever gone strawberry picking. Perfect day for it. The sweet smell of that strawberry field...wow. I picked about a gallon of beautiful, fat, juicy strawberries. As soon as I got home, I baked three loaves of honey wheat bread, and made six pints of jam. Guess what was for dinner?
The house smells amazing. I wish I could pour that in a bottle and sell it. I could probably pay off this farm.

After all that was said and done, I headed out to the back five, to do a little foraging for blackberry leaves. I popped those in a cool oven to dry, and ran a loaf of bread over to the neighbors for being so sweet to my family this weekend. I told her I was drying tea, and she gave me a bunch of lemon balm to toss in with it. We'll be drinking blackberry lemon balm iced tea all week!

Tomorrow, we will wrap up our weekend with a trip to Goat Lady Farm. It's a big organic goat dairy farm, and from the looks of the photos, is just as beautiful as it is productive. We are all excited!