Farm Life

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I’m sure some of you are wondering why I’m posting a picture of dirt today. Well, that’s not just any dirt, no way. That is dirt that J and I worked on mixing most of yesterday (Saturday). That dirt is a mixture of the bottom of our compost (which we sifted), and the dirt in the chicken run. We’ve been working on this project for a year now, turning the dirt in the run every month or so (thank you to J for that!), moving around the compost piles and gathering the goodness that is made. We are very excited about this as it’s our first successful composting project! We have a few different piles going, one for dirt, one that’s new stuff and one that we use as mulch which has more hay from the chicken coop mixed in with it. The chicken run dirt has big fat earthworms in it too, so we know alot of good organic matter is in there! We feed the chickens alot of our kitchen scraps so what they don’t eat (which usually there is nothing left anyway), composts into their run along with their droppings. We replaced the dirt we removed with more composting hay, lawn trimmings, oak leaves, and dirt that needs to be reworked. We now have several piles of this goodness in different parts of the yard where we are planting.

It is so funny to get excited about dirt, but when you’ve actually created it yourself, it makes it much more rewarding! Thanks for indulging me! Peace!

And A New Showgirl Joins The Flock

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So after discovering that our “hen” was really a rooster, we called our wonderful friend Cindy down at Paleface Feed – she is the one we bought June from and who we got the original Showgirl chicks from. We explained our dilemma and she immediately got on the phone with other local Showgirl people and within an hour found a hen for us to trade our roo for! I cannot tell you how much help Cindy has been. She is just wonderful and obviously loves all animals. It is good to know we have her on our side.

So without further adu, here is our newest lady in the flock. Sorry these aren’t the best pictures, I will take more tomorrow when the lighting is better and I can actually get in the coop with her. The other gals were getting ready for bed and I didn’t want to go in and disturb their routine too much.



2 Roosters?! What?!

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Well, our ignorance in identifying male and female Showgirl chickens really showed up this past couple weeks. We kept hearing a chicken trying to crow but couldn’t figure out which one it was. We thought maybe a hen had learned to crow! But in the last couple of weeks, one of our Showgirls (the original one) started looking a bit rooish. Then today, there he was crowing in full glory. Fortunately the gal we got them from is wonderful to work with and is looking around for another hen so we can just swap the older roo (the one we had traded for) with that. Part of the learning curve I suppose! Doh!

Oh The Thrill Of The Harvest

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We are starting to get some really yummy things out of our gardens. Here is a couple pics of this morning’s haul! YUM!

We are averaging 8 eggs a day – the neighbor’s love us! Haha! There are still plenty of potatoes growing, now with more room after this morning’s take. Plenty of green beans, both pole and bush. Our peas just got anhiliated in the sudden heat though…the girls were able to get a few before they just burned up. We’ve got several volunteer tomato plants with green fruit on them, so that will be fun! I have no idea how big they will get, but they are organic and homegrown so I’m not complaining. We are still pulling onions, although we lost one whole patch due to bad dirt I think. One area of our larger garden still has too much kalichi dirt in it, so we are going to be working on really making that area better. But the rest of our onions are just going crazy. We’ve never been successful with onions before and I realize why now, we were planting them too deep! This year we went much shallower and are much, much more successful. We have a ton of lettuce and chard that I just clip the leaves off when needed rather than pull the entire plants. And our cukes are starting to really take off, so hopefully should do well!

We are also going to experiment with watering by the moon. My sister was explaining to me her friend’s garden, which she says is an organic masterpiece. Apparently her friend waters deeply – 3 to 4 hours – everytime the moon is in one of the astrological water signs. From what we could deduce, you water deeply the first day the moon is in the sign and again the last day, then wait 5 or 6 days until it moves into the next water sign. After much research, the novice gardener that I am, discovered that this way of watering promotes much healthier and deeper root growth. It also means you water less, thus conserving at the same time. We are having such hot hot days now, that we are watering every other day already. So we figure we’ll try the deep watering method and see how it goes! I like the idea of gardening by the moon, feels very traditional.

We will be adding some new life to our little homestead in June. We are getting 10 baby broiler chicks from Barnison Farm. Jeremy, who owns the farm along with his lovely wife Alison, is going to help us when the time comes to process them. We did it on our own with 5 birds, but could definitely do it better. So we’ll take a trip to the farm when the chicks arrive and get a lesson from Jeremy on what NOT to do mainly. I’m hoping we can sweet talk him into allowing us to bring the birds out there when the time comes! We’ll see. We are looking on Craigslist for a freezer and will hopefully be buying a side of beef cuts at one point as well.

Our zukes haven’t fared well however. The squash vine borers pretty much attacked them right away. I’m going to replant as we did manage to get several fruits off each plant, and they grow so fast that maybe we can get another harvest in, wish us luck with that!

So that’s the garden update for now. Hope your Memorial Day Weekend is a good one!

Peace!!


Summertime Is Almost Upon Us

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The Texas heat is starting to set in, the plants are growing like crazy, and our water bill is rising. But life is feeling alright. We are learning, growing, changing and loving our world more and more. With everything this last month, I’d gotten out of my normal habits of eating as healthy as we can, creating new things, and just enjoying our environment here to its fullest. Back to cooking with our own vegies, working hard in the yard and home, and just being. Our goal right now is to continue improving the soil down in the far back property – we have alot of kalichi rock and dirt; expanding our produce base and improving aspects of the house that we can afford right now. We are starting from the outside in…so the front yard is continuing to evolve. It’s nice to feel motivated again…

Our new table on the front porch, courtesy of Mom and Dad:

Pole beans!:

Remember those tomato sprouts from a couple months ago? Here are some of the ones which made it, all heirloom:

Flower children!:


More Goings On At The Farm

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A few days ago you got some blooms…today you get more farm pics. Things are growing like crazy now that the weather is warm. We are starting to enjoy some of the bounty on our dinner plates too! Oh, and I made the Minestrone Soup that I posted a few weeks back…one word, YUM!!! I used chard instead of spinach (we have huge chard plants growing now). I’d say about 75% of it was from our garden…can’t wait until we are consistently cooking 100% of our own homegrown.

So back to the pictures, these are just some of what’s growing, it’s very fulfilling…

Peace!

Potatoes:


Zukes!:
Radishes all in a row:


Is that a tiny bell pepper I spy?:


And the first tomato! We have about 25 volunteer tomato plants, plus another 20 or so heirlooms (the heirlooms are just now taking off, so we should see fruit in a few weeks on those). We have no idea what type of tomatoes these are:


Just a few of the pepper plants – we have about 50:


Pomegranates:

A huge rose bush on our fence. It’s got the most beautiful old fashion pink roses:


Kubra doing her thing:

June looking at me warily:


And of course, Mongo…who is full of personality and was very curious about the camera:

Front Yard Is Evolving

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We spend alot of time working on projects in the back – the vegie gardens, animal pens, studio, etc.. We realized that we’ve neglected the front as far as new plants go. I have a vision of this amazing ornamental garden. Full of interesting textures, colors, shapes, and height. So we planted some of that. It’s a start anyway…

Esperanza surrounded by Ornamental Purple Peppers:

Close-up of the Esperanza and Purple peppers:

Purple Peppers:

Yellow Peppers:





So Sorry It’s Been Awhile

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We’ve had to weather a personal storm. I want to thank everyone who has been such a support to us during this time. Pregnancy loss is hard, but there are constant reminders to me that life keeps happening. I look forward to wading through these emotions and coming to a place of healing. Thank you everyone who has extended themselves and offered support. We truly appreciate each and every one of you…

Life really does continue:

This Lemon Cypress was sent to me by the most amazing group of mamas. We all had babies in the fall of 2005 and have stayed close ever since through the miracle of message boards and the internet. Some of us have met in person, some talk almost daily (hi Bridgette!), and all of us support each other emotionally. I received this tree yesterday with the most beautiful poem and words of love and support from these women. Thank you Tree Mamas!

My Amaranth…I didn’t think it was going to grow…but it did.

Jason’s Pride of Barbados that finally sprouted. This is very exciting as we now have 2 sprouts!

Our Confederate Jasmine that is growing up the post on our front porch. We planted this last year and are thrilled that it bloomed this year. It smells so heavenly.

Who can’t smile around kittens?

Lola’s drawing…she wanted to draw how she felt last week during the hardest part of it all. So first she was sad, then she was mad, now she is happy again. 5 year olds have such wisdom. I’m learning so much from this one right now.

Again, thank you everyone who has been there for us…many blessings and peace!

No Garden Pics Today

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As the batteries on my camera are dead. Haha! But we did manage to get the chicken wire up for the beans and peas to crawl up this weekend. Our vegies are coming up nicely as well. I transplanted the tomato starts into pots out by the greenhouse and they seem to be doing quite well! I will keep a few in the larger pots and transplant the rest into the garden as soon as they are about 4 inches tall or so with a few more mature leaves…right now they are just getting their mature leaves and are only about 2 inches tall..;) The baby chicks are feathering nicely and are now living with the Showgirl hen in a separate part of the coop. They are liking the larger space so far!

We had a busy weekend of gardening, family, soccer, bbqing and dinner with friends. It was actually a very full and fun weekend. We needed it.

Here are pics from Lola’s soccer game that her Papa took!


And here is a recipe that my darling mother-in-law sent me today from My Recipes that I’m dying to make:

Garden Minestrone

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups chopped yellow squash
3 cups chopped zucchini
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 2 ears)
4 cups chopped tomato, divided
3 (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth, divided
1/2 cup uncooked ditalini pasta (very short tube-shaped macaroni)
1 (15.5-ounce) can Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup (4 ounces) grated Asiago cheese
Coarsely ground black pepper (optional)

Preparation:

Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until softened. Add oregano and garlic; sauté 1 minute. Stir in squash, zucchini, carrot, and corn; sauté 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove from heat.

Place 3 cups tomato and 1 can broth in a blender; process until smooth. Add tomato mixture to pan; return pan to heat. Stir in remaining 1 cup tomato and remaining 2 cans broth; bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.

Add pasta and beans to pan; cook 10 minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in spinach, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Ladle soup into individual bowls; top with cheese. Garnish with coarsely ground black pepper, if desired.

Oh that looks so heavenly!! I can’t wait. Peace!