A couple weeks ago, I butchered all the grow out buns at that time, currently we have one litter of seven at the cute four week stage and a litter of brand new day olds, and one doe expecting any day now..
They only came in two colors, as seen in these kits..
I very much like my new doe..
Look at those full little bellies
Well, Samwell is now safely at Dad’s farm, if you ever need a recommend on a horse hualer in Ontario or one that goes from Ontario to the rest of Canada, I have a good one to recommend, just ask and I will be happy to share their info with you.. above and beyond in care of the horse’s and care of the people worrying on the other end.
Sam did a longer trip in terms of days but he had a layover in thunderbay and was also off loaded in Sask to get time to rest, stretch his legs and eat and drink.. etc He was very sad to be leaving and he even though he made a girlfriend on the trailer, he was still very unsure and scared.. When he was of loaded into a stall in thunderbay, he thought he had got to his new place and was very sad indeed..
After being a free boy at my place with his herd and 24 hours access to pasture, he was close to being depressed at the idea of being a stall boy again.. above and beyond care was given as she spent time with him.
When he arrived home in alberta, with them just making it though the flood area’s before highways were closed, he off loaded, shared a apple with mom, and then got very excited to meet Jessie his new herd mate, and once released he galloped around and then rolled and checked out water and feed bins.
I will look forward to a report later today on how he is settling in but I am very hopeful that his nose will tell his mind that my folks are “half” of me and there for family and he will settle quickly..
Our goodbye photo.. yes he is worried looking, he did not want to load and leave me.. and yes I look like I could burst into tears..
This move has upset my own little herd of two as well, calling, pacing the fence line and many worried looks I am given. They will settle soon I hope..
Its the end of june and we are eating things out of the garden in pretty much every single meal at this point, we have also gotten to the point of harvesting certain rows that were very quick crops that were planted in April and have been eaten up and have rows that are being replanted into other crops, some spots are planned to have two or even three plantings over the spring, summer and fall. We continue to plant more things out all the time, only a few things must either be started or are past their planting dates, this will continue thoughout July and even the first week of aug for late season or late fall plantings.
Here are just a few photo of things that are in harvest or are coming into blooms nice and early..
The pea vines are well over four feet now and working their way upwards on five feet high at this time, both in bloom and producing..
The earliest of the bush beans are in full bloom and I can’t wait for them to start cropping in, a number of other beans will come in later but most of them are climbers
The hot peppers are ahead of the regular bell peppers but they are in bloom and starting to set fruit as well, they had better hurry up or it will get hot enough in the evenings that they will not set again till mid to late aug as the evenings cool off.
The tomato’s have lots and lots of growing to do but they are just starting to get some of their first fruits, many of which I will use as green tomato’s, who waits till they are red to start eating them LOL but I will let one plant go to red.
Everyone needed a few moments of break time and cool off in this high heat!
Great day Canning yesterday and I have bags of fresh ones for us, I will break them down into recipes and get some photos of meals up as well but this is how I spent most of my day yesterday 🙂
Well, the rain came softly first, four or more hours of lovely soft spring rain, I was off the farm for a good part of the day as I headed in to get to have lunch with 3 gens of a certain family, it was lovely to get to spend time with my girlfriend, her dad an her sweet wee one.
By the time I was driving home the road though the forest was sopping and it took me double the time to drive it safely, an that also meant enough rain that I didn’t get out and ride yesterday, but as least I got my horse workout today(also in the rain but at least lightly rather then downpouring) but had to stop as I didn’t want to cut up the ground.
So I am on house cleaning today, the rain means that even with the fan’s on, its really taking its time drying LOL
Well my first big garden harvest has happened, bowl after bowl of….
Raddish greens came into the house, yup, it was raddish thinning time, even after I gave the ends and colored bits to the critters, I still have two huge washed and lightly chopped greens.
One big bowl went into a burger dish, its was so simple, I took a pound of my beef, and cooked it up with montreal steak spice, and once it was cooked, I added in 20 cups of washed, lightly diced raddish greens and cooked till wilted, this was served over a bit of freshly made mixed rice with a touch of butter.
Do you eat your raddish greens, so healthy for you! Full of all kinds of good things healthwise.
Say my first flowers today on my bell peppers but the pea’s are going so strong now, not only growing fast and hard but major flowering but also starting to produce pea pods at the same time..
Well, I am to have lots of steady soaking rain for weds-Friday, and there is a warning out that it could get quite heavy at times, this is to me at least excellent news, we need the rain, we need to fill the water barrels, we need to fill the trought and we need to refill our ground water for the dug well..
Today and tonight will have a few moment to reseed out any hills that are lacking in their plantings.. Some came up with everything, other half some and a few hills have none, those darn birds 🙂
This is a perfect hill, two sunflowers, all squash are up, I will need to cull and or transplant a couple of them, plant to a different hill as I don’t want this many, I over planted and yet on some spots I am still lacking the required amounts..
Some area’s are still ok in terms of growth around the hills, but in a number of others, I need to find time to get out, cut and drop in place..
The main garden is coming along, we had a rain and about a fourth of the potato’s in the hills-straw garden popped up in a matter of a day or two, we need lots more rain to get the rest up, all the ones in the ground are growing very well indeed.
All the root crops are up but they are just wee seedlings, while the rain is a great idea, heavy rain could still be a issue, but as they have gentle swells in the walkways with free form raised beds, we should be alright, and its early enough to replant if required. I was going to bed them down but that will need to wait till after the rains and the coming push..
We created drain lines in the garden, this is one of the biggest, the rest of the garden gets their drinks, and then the water starts to flow in the walkways, which will naturally hold the water.
a lot of which are cut this way and that to help collect the water and hold it to sink in, but not all of them, some of them are done to help the water move down, and then one is done quite deep to create a drain to the pasture.
There is a very steep ditch cut between the raised strawberries patch and the rhubarb patch with a line then cut over that drains right out of the garden as this is a wetter sink area of the garden, part of the reason for raising the beds and part of the reason for turning that one spot into a higher rhubarb area so I don’t have to fight with it each spring in regards to drying out enough to work with, and same with why the area behind it is done in sunchokes.
However I have a number of things in flower that are to produce the fruit for later in the season, I can only hope that the rains if they come as heavy as they say will not be damaged to the point of loss of crop.
Deb this question is for you or anyone who might have thoughts, my wild blooming fruiting bushes in the food forest-wilder area of the front have at my count four different bee’s of all kinds on them, they are alive with sound but!
So is my if you lift the tops up, now six foot comfrey plants, they have three different bee’s on them, but there is a clear difference on which likes what.. the four in the front, I have not seen in the garden and the three regulars in the garden, I don’t see them much in the front, I did see one in the apple, plum, cherry and crabapple but since the different things are flowering in the garden, nope, nothing.. but the tiny little native bee is in love with the mustard flowers.
The lilacs this year are stunning, when I hang my cloths, the scent washes over me.. love it!
But going back to the rain, my new raspberry rows to be, will love the rain, if it really does rain for three days, they are going to get a truly great water in.. yup as you can see its carved out of some pretty raw land, but the row was double dug, with compost mixed in and then planted back out..
The peas are finally growing, you can see it daily at this point up the fence’s, and they are covered in blooms to boot.. I hope they make it threw with little damage.
Well, I had better get back to it..
Well, the past days have been very busy indeed.. Thursday was the start day of a Brandi Lyons clinic, I went with a friend on the Thursday, and we learned a goodly amount on that day, lots of things to bring home to work on with my own guys and then we had a bit of truck trouble, so we need to call my friends hubby and work out a pick up, a tow and so forth, which added in a good amount of time to our day but we all took it in stride and got it done.
Friday was spent doing farm work and the heat was bad but I struggled though it as a I had a full afternoon of farm help, and so a lot of the heavier need two people to get things done work got done, I was so whupped by the end of that day.. went to bed early and the alarm went off way to early indeed.
Back to the clinic, I ended up being there from just before 9am till just after 9pm, wow was there lots learned during the day and the evening was about cowboy clinic, very good info, it also meant that I figured out a training plan for both myself and for my horse in regards getting us ready for our first clinic at the end of this month. This ladies that attended this clinic were awesome, I really really liked Brandi’s teaching style, highly recommend her, IF you go in knowing that you are going to be worked to the point of being tired and sore.. she really wants you to get your money’s worth of training and she does push, in some ways, I think that is a good thing and in others, I honestly felt that at times, perhaps it was push just a hair to much.. but when the ladies called it, she always let them..
Sunday was back on the farm, the major push on the morning was weeding in the garden and getting the big new raspberry row in.. we have a new row of early bearing rasberries, there is a total of 60 new canes, the row is set up as a double row, they are just starting to break into leaf. Speaking of rasberries, something odd is happening this year in our regular patch, we have had these rasberries for six years in that row and they always produce late summer and then go gangbusters till frost, but this year for no reason that we can see, they are already covered in flowers, and when I say flowers, I mean it, I figure there are at least a thousand flowers coming on those canes.. The only thing different was the very hard winter and the very slow, slow start to spring, then really no spring.. boom into summerlike weather.
I will be quite interested to see if they will produce and then stop or if they will start this early and go till frost if we keep picking, we will see..
Then I worked Caleb twice during the day, we were working on a few new things on the morning session and I could already see a improvement by the evening session. Picked upa box of non-toxic, child safe, washable chalk so that I can put a little funk into his white mane over the summer in regards to training and riding.. its just a little fun thing..
This morning so far, I have gotten some indoor stuff started but mainly I have spent it in the gardens weeding, and watering before the heat of the day arrives.
Just another Day on the Farm 