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!