Lots of stuff

I spent two and a half hours of work outside today! I spent about two hours working on weeding the potato patch. The weeds there are more mature, and much more difficult to pull out. The rest of the garden was a breeze and went so quickly, that I thought I would be able to do the potato patch in one day… but I was so wrong! It’s going to take at least a week of weeding or more, or two people…, to get it done. I really want to pull all the weeds out before they grow any more or go to seed. Hopefully I’ll be able to make more progress this weekend. I ended up “uncovering” about 10 potato plants. We are going to have a lot of potatoes in our cold storage this winter!

We have a cat and six kittens... well, five now. We gave one kitten away yesterday. We plan on keeping most of the boy cats and giving away the girl cats. The kittens are almost eight weeks old. I carried in the cat food and filled up their food storage container this morning. Momma cat, Mouse, is looking so skinny these days. I think she’s feeding all the animals she catches to the kittens. But they aren’t eating them either. I have discovered at least three dead birds in the garage this week. I’ll be moving the kittens out to the barn tonight. Hopefully Mouse will start eating more again and regain her healthy weight!

I filled up the chicken feed container with scratch grains I purchased yesterday. They love eating the weeds, and I carried three (heavy) buckets of weeds out to their yard while I was working on the garden this morning, so they are happy today.

Finally, I planted eight more rows of corn. Farm Girl #2 helped put the seeds in the holes. She had a blast!

It’s a good thing Farm Baby takes looong morning naps, or I don’t know how I would possibly accomplish anything outside! She’s ready to be on the move, and has to be supervised very closely at all times. Maybe I’ll invest in a play pen this weekend so she can come out with us and I don’t have to worry about where she might decide to crawl  away to.

News

I heard from a neighbor about two domestic dogs that are running around from farm to farm at night killing the livestock. They had three goats killed. The dogs didn’t eat them, just killed them for fun. They climbed the six foot chain link fence to get to them! The sheriff’s department is working on hunting them down and finding out who the owners are. Hopefully they can catch them soon. It makes me very glad that we put our chickens inside a locked barn overnight. We plan on putting all of our livestock in the barn overnight in the future, as well, so hopefully we won’t have a major problem. But I think we need to get a gun. Aaah. It makes me nervous being from the suburbs and everything, but I guess farm life may require us to change our viewpoints a little bit…

I also learned that our 5-foot fence around the chicken yard won’t keep the chickens in if they get spooked or something. But the neighbor told us about clipping the chicken’s wings so they can’t fly over the fence. Ya learn something new every day, huh?

More weeding

I spent two hours outside this morning weeding the garden in the front. I finished weeding the “salad bar,” the second rows of carrots and onions, and the unplanted portion. The first rows of carrots and onions are doing well, and I didn’t pull any weeds since there aren’t very many there anymore… thank goodness. I also thinned the lettuce and spinach and we have a delicious fresh salad awaiting us for dinner tonight.

Frost! and planting and stuff

It frosted last night. Thank you high mountain desert! The potato plants all turned brown. After talking to some others, though, it sounds like they should survive. Hopefully after I weed that area I’ll be able to take better care of them.

Farm Boy and I planted the corn today, as well. We planted eighteen rows of corn with over 50 seeds in each row. We’re hoping to feed our animals next year on the grains we grow this year. We have about six hundred more corn seeds ready to plant next week.

The raspberries are starting to blossom. It looks like we’ll be harvesting a lot more than we had hoped when we planted them at the beginning of the season.

The strawberry blossoms are coming and going, which means we should be harvesting some strawberries soon, too. We planted 340 strawberry plants, so we should have an abundant harvest!

Weeding

Spent two hours outside weeding the first set of rows of carrots, broccoli, and onions. It went pretty smoothly as the weeds are still just seedlings. I pretty much just wiped them away with my gloves, and it pulled the roots out, too. I also weeded the area where I planted different kinds of lettuce and spinach, affectionately known as the “salad bar.” I also weeded the first strawberry patch where we planted the first 40 strawberry plants. We put shiny 4^th of July pinwheels in the strawberry patch that we purchased for 90 cents at a local store, and it has kept the birds out of the entire garden. They don’t like the sound they make or the flashy-ness of them, either. And because it’s pretty much always windy here, they are always moving. Genius!

More Planting

Yesterday we weeded the strawberry patches and put down a thick layer of mulch to help keep the ground moist. We also mulched the raspberries with chicken manure and wood chips. They are looking great!

I planted more carrots and onions this weekend, too. We like to slice, blanch, and freeze the carrots, and they last all winter long. For the onions (and squash and potatoes) we’ll be turning our basement closet into a cold storage.

Time Off

We didn't do any gardening or farm work this weekend. We had family visiting from out of town and enjoyed a weekend of petting kittens, looking at chicks, feeding chickens weeds and grass, and shooting the guns the family brought with them. We set up some targets behind our barn and shot things like potatoes, paper plates, and old thick book, a metal canister, and some metal targets they brought with them. It was fun learning how to shoot, and I did pretty well for a beginner, if I do say so myself!

More Chicks

We brought home 12 more chicken babies today. A neighbor family eats a lot (and I mean a LOT) of eggs and agreed to purchase all their eggs from us when the chickens start laying. That will basically help supplement the cost of feed. It’s not like we’ll make a ton of money, but it will be nice to share our bounty with some friends.

Blossoms

Farm Boy had me close my eyes and led me over to where we planted the beginning of our orchard; three apple trees. He asked me to open my eyes and the smallest apple tree had a small group of blossoms! I was so surprised! I have no idea when apple trees normally blossom, or if our other two will blossom, or even if these blossoms will turn into apples, but it was nice to see them doing so well!

Mother's Day

I had a fantastic Mother’s Day this year! Farm Boy helped get dinner ready in the afternoon, so that when it was dinner time we didn’t have to do much. He sent me outside with the hammock , a book, and some juice that he bought for me that he knows I like while he got dinner together. Then he brought all the rest of the Farm Girls outside carrying a blanket, dinner, and some napkins and we had a little picnic in the shade by the hammock area/fire pit. The Farm Girls had a blast playing on the hammock together while we enjoyed the sound of bumble bees buzzing in the thousands of blossoms of the trees lining our back yard. It was a gorgeous day and a great way to relax and enjoy my family on Mother’s Day!

So Many Weeds!

Spent time weeding the garden areas and also some other areas around the property. Last summer I was pregnant all summer and Farm Boy had just had two back surgeries, so everything got kind of out of control. We didn’t do much yard work or upkeep. So we’re trying to catch up this year. It means we have lots to do to keep us busy!

Moving along

Well, we haven’t had any more signs of an intruder, so we have foregone the animal traps for now.

The chickens are getting along fine and enjoying their time eating up all the tall weeds in their yard. It’s only a matter of time before they have eaten everything in their yard and we’ll need to start feeding them weeds from around the yard and gardens. It will be a good motivation to spend time weeding regularly! They’ve also started eating table scraps, mostly just leftover produce and breads/grains. They especially love plain cooked white rice!

More Plants

We brought home 300 more strawberry plants today! We will be planting those tomorrow. Also brought home three apple trees, of three different varieties for cross pollination. Those  are going in the ground tonight. We’re slowly on our way!

We also had a problem with the lawn tractor. A wire became wound around one of the mowing blades and broke a belt or something. Farm Boy is working on it…

Planting

Started planting! Spent two hours outside caring for the raspberries we transplanted, and doing a little planting. So far we planted 4 rows of carrots, two rows of broccoli, and two rows of onions. Still have a ton more to do!

Update on the intruder: The animal pushed all the rocks out and dug a bigger hole. The Farm Boy will be making a rudimentary snare to see what he can find…

Intruder!

Some kind of animal dug under the fence into the chicken yard overnight! We filled it in with rocks, and we’ll see what it looks like in the morning.

Underway

Began tilling. Spent the whole weekend outside borrowing a neighbors tiller. We tilled up the “garden spot” from last year, and a big area in front of the barn. Getting excited for planting!

Transplanted raspberry bushes (three rows!) and a small patch of strawberries.

Berries

I just got off the phone with two very generous women who will be helping the fruit section of our farm get underway this year. One woman will be selling me 100 strawberry plants for less than $10! The other woman will be dropping off some raspberry plants to transplant into our garden... for free! So excited!

The Ladies

It was a pretty windy day yesterday, and the ladies are still getting used to going outside. I didn’t know if any of them would brave the weather, but one by one they made their way out to their yard. They enjoyed some time pecking at the ground, and when a strong gust would come through, they would flap back into the barn.

They don’t call them “chicken” for nothing!

Escape!

We had our first farm “emergency!” One of the leghorns managed to find a way out of their yard. We counted up the chickens for the night and one was missing. Sure enough, there she was, hanging out under the barn. After some time we managed to scare her out, then herd her back into the yard, then back into the barn. What an adventure!