Just another Day on the Farm

When I got Caleb, I was told that when they had got him, he was pushy about treats so they had never treated him by hand, and so that had been years of extra’s in the bucket etc

But I hand treat my horse’s and I can not be giving treats to only part of the herd and not others.. plus its part of my I’m herd boss.. standing quiet and waiting as I treat the horse one by one mixing up who gets what and when.

but Caleb cracks me up.. he will try anything.. so far this year, we know he will eat any kind of herb, kolerabi, beets, carrots, turnips, blueberries, (which he helped himself to!) and he adores watermelon and of course he loves his apples..

But today he tried banana and it was a hoot for him to figure out the texture and taste.. snort, giggle..

I think I said that I am growing a total of eight different kinds of spuds this year, so far we have eaten the older German kinds called Sieglinde, which we are in love with, and we are going to plant a huge amount of them next year.. they are some of the best tasting I have had in years, good as spring fresh eating, good as mashed, good as baked, they say good as fries but I have not tried them that way.. they say good for storage, so we are growing out three plants, one for my thanksgiving mashed and two to watch for storage etc

Then this week we cracked into the first of our “strawbedded potato’s” we started on the one end that had been growing the best, it was nice small red potato’s a typical norland, we had planted them as we have grown them in a few different ways an we wanted to compare yields and for first harvest, the straw grown was lacking!. Lacking in both amount of potato’s and how big they had grown considering when they went in..

So today was the day, I sent hubby out to try a different kind, this time he came in with All Purple, more potato’s, but again the volume overall was greatly lacking.. does that mean that the number come in the straw but you need to allow them extra time to fill out.. maybe.. taste tastes seem to agree that the purple’s taste really good when grown in straw. The color was also much darker and fuller then any year I have grown them in the ground.. is that the seed potato, or the year or the way they were grown..

The darker the purple, the most healthy they are..so that is a point on the plus side!

Now yesterday, I made my first batch of “Pasta” sauces, it was about 50 percent sun and vine ripe tomato’s, lots of Celery (really strong Celery), Summer Squash, Greens and Onions and Fresh lovely Garlic.

This was brought to a boil and then it was turned down to a steady simmer, and it was simmered with salt and pepper for hours till the liquid was reduced by about 20 to 25 percent..  Then it was allowed to just slightly cool and it was transferred into my trusty blender.

Normally, I use a handheld a lot when I blend tomato’s, I don’t skin them, I blend them and use them all.. but because I had so many different veggies in this lovely batch, I went with the blender as its so much more powerful.

When it was done it was a lovely super thick sauce, just what I was hoping for.. but it does not just have to be just pasta sauce.. O no, its the base for so many things that can be done with it..

Today, I took a half a pint of the finished “sauce” and I did equal amount of milk to make a cream of tomato-veggie soup, but then I chopped up a tiny bit of fresh herbs and then grated a bit of white cheese on top.. Heavenly!

Well, the bounty flowed in from the gardens today, bowl after bowl after bowl came in from hubby, enough that my biggest canning stew roaster is full of my first pasta sauce for this year! Yippy.. Fresh Tomato’s, Onion, Garlic, Summer Squash, Celery, and some lovely greens..

Plus Hubby took me some great garden photos, I got things trimmed and cut up.

Lets play a little game, what in this photo has been allowed to go to seed for harvesting later, it will be used for winter sprouting.. hint, they will have a little heat to them, and they produce tons of small black seeds.

What are the three plants in this photo..

What kind of heritage beet are these.

Are these for summer or winter eating,  are they sweet or heat when eaten raw, and do they change their flavor when cooked or not..

A see of potato plants but who can tell me what is growing in the background that is producing those pretty yellow flowers..

Remember those Nova raspberry canes we planted this spring, well they are already producing their first crops and the fruit is large and very tasty indeed.

The garlic has arrived and it looks great, its sorted, bagged and tagged Boy did we all get a deal, the same bulb at the local garlic festival was 2 dollars each.. which when averaged out was 20 dollars a pound.. I loved hearing that the names on the bags was done by the little one in the family. I have not been though each bag but I have had a overall look, and could not be more pleased..

One bag is Music, and one is Red Russian, to give a average look and that is the red Russian in the hand, they grew big this year!

I will be in contact with those that ordered to let you know where and when I have arranged pickups times this coming weekend 🙂 or other times can be arranged

Once a year for the past few years, I plan a get together not quite like others, its a gathering of like minded folks that have meet though the net.. its both exciting and scary to a point of making a day long event for what is in effect strangers.

This is the third year and point in fact, both on the second year and the third, we had a number of folks come back year to year, so that makes things a easier as I do know someone at least 🙂

Also as its the third year, we have a much better idea of what to expect in someways but not always, the feel of the group and the flex of the group always changes the talks, seminars even just the visiting.

This year was hard because of the broken foot, I didn’t get my regular prep done, I forgot things that I normally would not, I was one of the last speakers and things that would normally roll of my tongue when it comes to knowledge were sticking 🙂

Still overall, it went so much better then I expected, I did make the whole day, I was grateful for everyone’s help, just little things really made a difference in respect to not getting up again on some things.

It is always nice to meet new folks both from close and far that come to the day long get together, I have no doubt at all that there will be a fourth one..

It got me thinking about new things, like ham radio, what a interesting presentation that was, great idea and set up.. I meet a some really great new folks, some of which I expect we will keep in touch in other ways and it brought someone who I had lost touch with back into my world.. It was so nice to get to have a visit..

So have you done it.. have you meet folks over the net, in a local group and with just that “ONE” thread to connect you, taken that plunge and gone to meet a person or people cold turkey.. did you love it, hate it, sat there in a stunned o my.. or did you meet someone who turned out to be a great friend.

Me.. ah, hon, those “bush beans” are sure looking like climbers..

Him.. ok

Me.. do we need anything to build a climber fence for them..

Him.. just time..

Bang, Bang, saw, saw.. walks by with a shovel, heads out into the bush pile.. come back dragging small tree’s..

Comes in house, gets Camera.. come back give to me..

an Voila..

Not bad for a bit of time, scrub brush cuttings and some baler twine..

They can climb up it and cover it all an if needed, we can add a couple more shorts for extra weight if needed..

It really is the little things that I find surprise me..

Until it hurts and you notice it.. so many things I never notice..

Like, my wonderful hounds love to sleep on or near my feet, they like to lean, they like to have that connect to me, they sleep by me.. I normally love this.. but now when they go to sleep on my foot.. ow!, and if they sleep by it but then lean in, ow! and even if they back up enough to not be touching me (which they hate), they sleep in a warm furry piles around me, and when I step down, there they are.. and normally, I Would just adjust and step to the side or over them. but I can’t and they will move for me and for my cane but you can see the “huh” as they do it..

Like Stairs.. I mean I do stairs all the time, even on my main floor there is one step up and down between the living room and the kitchen, I must do that stair 50 time a day, never really thinking of it, other then to sometimes during the week to stop and use it as a workout step up.. but now, stairs, stairs and more stairs, stairs to get down to the basement living area, stair to up and down between the living room and the kitchen, stairs down tot he cellar, stairs to get up to the second floor bedrooms and five stairs to get up or out of the house! Wow..

Like Balance.. sounds like a simple thing, its not.. balance to sit down, Balance to walk, Balance to lean over and do things, I have lost the ability to do basic things, like pickup from the ground, to lean over to close things if I don’t step into it properly and if I reach to far, I unbalance enough that I will fall forward.. my hubby says he is going to get me one of those claw picker uppers.. ok then..

Like the ability to walk on uneven ground, do you know that other then the floors in my house, everywhere on my farm is uneven ground, I never even think about it, I mean to be fair other folks have said to me, your lawn is not level or even and I just kinda raise a eyebrow and go.. hmmm but right now, wow.. every where I walk, everywhere I try and put my foot down, uneven and its really effects my current length of time I can be up and on my foot.. I have the ablity to be up about 3 to 5x longer on flat even footing over uneven.

You get my drift here.. I know that its temp but its giving m a whole new look at how folks that struggle with different things must feel on a day to day basis..

Feeling like the farm got a little blessing tonight 🙂 Photo’s never do it justice. it was here for about five and It looked like it landed in the field right in front..

Time for a little update on the youngin on the farm..

We have two new kittens on the farm this year, one is a tortie female kitten called Penelope and a lovely little boy who is a Pointed Flame with a mismarked bicolor pattern, the female is a little hunter already, she is friendly enough, you can pet her and if she chose’s to cuddle she is a sweet but the boy, little Apricot, now he is a cuddle boy, he still likes being a indoor-outdoor kitty, totally purrpot and sweetheart.

About half of our farm cats are strays- drop off’s or show ups, they are what I call shadow cats, they live here, they hunt here and I do feed them but they are pretty much feral’s, you might be able to walk by one of them, but good luck on ever touching them..

The rest of my “pride” are my indoor-outdoor purrpots, they are all sweethearts but they are all getting quite old, most of them are over middle age, with a few between eight to ten, but most are ten and older, with Priss being my oldest at 17 this spring.

While I certainly didn’t “need” any new purrpots per say, it was nice to have some new kitten love.. hope they both grow up to live a long life with us!

My new does are on their first litters and I am expecting my first litters from my new buck, I am in the process of growing out the kits, so far, I have been very pleased indeed with the grow out rate of the kits in terms of increasing my meat-age ratio

My chicks are half grown now, and I have had loss’s to the wild critters, sigh.. it happens..

My Ducklings on the other hand are rocking it.. all 13 are still with me 🙂 Three chocolate and white, five black and white and those yellow ones.. well they are turning out to be black or chocolate barred, my very first! Funky..

I am very hopeful that I will have lots of hens to over winter for breeding next year.. and a few males, one for a pick backup male and the rest to add to the pantry and stew pot..

I have six keets coming to join the farm, they will be put in with my single surviving male and I am very hopeful they will bond with him and that I will end up with a good number of females, but even if I end up with a little male only group, so be it, I want them for tick control more then anything, so I am ok with that..

I am still having a debate on if I want to add 6 turkey pullets or not.. most likely not..

I am still waiting for piglets.. Sigh.. So far this year, the only thing that that has paid for itself has been the rabbits, otherwise the loss of females, full nests some taken mear days before hatch has been very hard indeed..