Just another Day on the Farm

A little light hearted fun.. Mrs. Brown and her twins.

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

A lovely friend of mine made this adoreable knitted sheep.. She is a Brown girl with a black mask and a lovely full sized ewe 🙂

But she has a surprise.. She was ready to have her lambs..

What a handsome set of twin she had and you will note, she was fully bagged up and ready to nurse them 🙂

I have seen online that there is patterns for dairy cow that has calves, a pig sow that has four to six little piglets.. ..

On a slightly more then that is just so CUTE, I do like that I can line them up and could do a little bit of teaching or as a lambing tool, as you can move the legs and so on.

Have a Great day folks..

Native Plants are the must have “hot garden item ” of 2021

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

When it comes to landscaping, garden centers and the local garden groups locally, provincally and across N.A.

The HOT trend for 2021 is without a doubt..

Native Plants with tag lines including plant natives, support the bees, support the butterflies and other native bug life and more..

Now the really great thing about this trend is that it works for both types of peaple.. landscaping company’s really can plan and plant your city yard with stunning native choices that will do amazing, and support all kinds of wildlife.

BUT they also need to include the knowledge that that tree that is a natural native host to say 11 native butterflies cycle means that in real life, you will have catapillers on that tree and that sometimes it will not be as pretty as the “imported that will not support” this means many things that the average city home owner can find challenging , including the fact that a health amount of catapillars means that wasps will come to your yard and sadly most peaple just see the colors and think they are all jack-ass’s like yellowjackets when point in fact many many yellow and black wasps are in fact part of a nature yard and gardens in a healthy and postive way.

Same with birds, I love my birds and it never occurred to me that someone would have a issue with birds but I have heard it, the birds are pooing on this or they are making a mess..

So let me round that out in a very clear way, putting in native’s in the back and front yards of the urban is great but not if they still have the yard sprayers coming once a month, not if you still spray the trees and so on..

In that case, the plantings will not help the over all issue but it can be a boon to the landscape company’s and the native producing company’s.

Now lets flip this from the average urban and move it over to urban homesteaders, the burbs, small and large homesteads and big community gardens and urban or country food forests and hedge rows and more.

I want to look at this from two angles..

So the first is that you MUST as the gardener, the homesteader stop undervaluing your local native plants. We have for so many years loved our wild natives, what many of us call our “Bird Gifts”, our ditch finds or they grow in a huge patch down there or its a straight line, so one of the past owners of the land or great-grandpa or grandma must have planted them at some point.

Many of us have had a bad habit that “new” improved and bought has more value, we put more value on our bought “eurapean” plum vs our native plum.. The one I see alot now is bought elderberry’s vs wild elderberries.

Now I get it for a very small yard, if you only have room for one or two of each, then of course you want to get the most for your small space and ideally have proven results.. but if you have any length of garden time under your belt, you know that is WAY to simple. soil, water, weather, feeding, pruning and sun hours all effect your yeilds from year to year..

We all adore reading those seed plant catalogs and what do we love best.. Aunt Bess’s Y, found in 1800 or early 1900’s.. and so on..

Here is the exciting NEWS.. that can and should be EVERY SINGLE one of us!! .. Stop right there and let that sink in..

farmgalsblackchokecherries

Farmgal challenge 2021.. I want you this spring to find all your wild fruiting bushes/trees.. we are going to take walks and we are going to spot those flowers and we are going to map and mark out our wildlings and we are going to try all of them.. I am going to walk us though find, learning, marking (in a careful way that ideally does not bring others looking lol) and taste testing, how we can help them, recipes and ways to bring out their flavours

farmgalshighbushcranberries

We are going to get out there and do this for ourselves but I also have plans to lay out a plan to help all your garden folks and homesteading folks to come up with a way to create a small income stream if you want to do so.. we will get to that at a later point and I will link all the posts together interlaying them.

So lets bring this back to my comment about undervalue.. I have plans to buy very few extra’s to bring to the farm but I saw a post on my local native plant group that a larger producer of trees, bushes and so on so off I popped to a nursery that is 45 min from my farm.

I was thrilled to see all of my food forest native plants and then i looked at the sizes and the prices.. the most I went from plant to plant to plant, my frown lines got deeper, which menat I was thinking hard..

I finally shook my head, and did a little number crunching.. Rounding things out to a average between the lowest and the highest and then figuring out that x the amount of Native plants that we transplant out of our nursery area’s, wild bird started, ditch babies and farmer fields local edges that we moved into the two new massive hedgerows planted out into 2020..

I am rounding out to 150 to make it easier and that means we moved well over 3 grand of natives.. if I had ordered, bought the same plants form the nursery, by the time we paid, tax, shipping/handling and so on.. we would have spent 4 thousand.

When we spent days moving these, at no point did it cross our minds at the value of plants we were moving, the value was in our time.. and of course our time has value but we often forget that if you needed to BUY these mass plants at those sizes that it can be worth a great deal of money.

We are often focused on food production, what the cane, plant, bush or tree looks like, maybe we are also looking at it from eco as well.. but we also need to a starting value.

If you have wild blueberries and they grow freely in your bush lots and you pick all you want each year and never think anything of it.. the fact that right now, a 24 inch high low bush blueberry bush in a 3 gallon pot will locallly start at $22 and could go as high as $29..

Now I will fully admit that five years ago, you could have found them 12.99 to 15.99 but just try and find that right now.. maybe you can in your next of the woods but you can not in mine!

Each type of plant needs to be looked at as its own.. some can be spring sold as a bareroot/little soil, ready now to plant!, others if you have the pots to do so, can be prepped a bit more and be done in the spring but sold for fall plantings.

If you took the time to carefully dig and transplant 5 or 10 plants, this spring filling in those holes with a good mix of acidic needles, a little bit of compost, so you have no holes to step into, and gave them a small prune for shaping grew them with care over the spring/summer and then offered them at 100 for a lot of 5 for fall planting.. they would sell!

In 2021.. a extra hundred here, a extra 50 here, a bonus 20.. will be a good thing..

Of course we are not only talking about fruiting bushes, canes or trees.. there is much more and will get there..

Now do not think you need a website, or lots of shipping and you DO not need to get big on this.. I am talking micro here folks.. Facebook local buy and sell’s, Kijji and so on will get the job done.. live in a even smaller place.. go old school.. sale write up on the local grocery or church bullitin board..

So what is YOUR more common ditch, hedgerow, forest edge wild fruiting bushes.. in middle alberta, the saskatoon rules.. in northern alberta, the blueberry was king, in NWT.. o the blueberries.. in Iqaluit.. cloudberry, in Quebec, I had the most amazing pincherries, moving to the farm, my farm’s only “wild” fruit that it had was wild strawberry and Elderberry.. but a walk took me to huge patches of Black ChokeCherry and Black Chokeberry..

farmgalselderberries

The most common however was Elderberry!

Posted in Native Plants | Tagged Black Chokecherry, Black Elderberry, Blackchokeberry, Elderberry, Gardening, high bush cranberry, Homestaed gardning, Native Plants, Wild native fuit | 6 Comments

Cottonwood Buds Salve

Posted on February 8, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

Cottonwood Salve or oil or Balm of Gilead

Ah 2021.. if there has ever! been a year that you should be on top of getting your harvests on things that can only be harvested “ONCE” a year, this is the year.. I am going to be covering a number of things that I have posted on over the past 10 years on the blog, I will be doing new post but linking back to older posts at times.

One step at a time, as they come ready we are going to work on creating a number of healing salves, tea’s dried this and that and a number of other things.. If you never need to use them, wonderful.. but so many things are truly only ready for harvest in a very short window of time and if you do not get it into your herbal cupboard.. it will not be there till next year and this is not the year to count on being able to just “order” things or assume your friend will have extra? that they are willing to part with.

The common Cottonwood Tree holds a lovely secret.. its buds in Feb (in our zone) are filled with a sticky sap that can be made with olive oil into a amazing healing external salve

Some time in Mid feb or Late Feb here in Garden zone 5, the Cottonwood buds are going to start swelling in size getting ready for spring, they will plump up and if given a little pinch.. they will ooze a a bit of red to yellow colored resin.. if your buds are still smaller and very firm.. keep checking..

When you get your nose near them, they do have a lovely scent to them or at least I think so 🙂 They are sticky, so please expect that your fingers will have a good little goo/stick to them.

cottonwood-budsfeb

The Buds are used in ointments and skin treatments to reduce pain and inflammation, and to ease rheumatic pain. Salicin, a major constituent of this plant, is a painkiller, while bisabolol in the oil reduces inflammation and is antimicrobial

These tree’s tend to have a good amount of branches come down in the winds and you can very often collect what you need from the downed branches which is the ideal, not effecting the tree’s productive leaves to be. Lay out your buds and let them air dry if they were at all wet.. ideally you waited for a nice sunny winter day and collected in the warmest part of the afternoon.. if you picked carefully then you should have no issues with your buds

Once you have collected the amount your will need for your size of family, a jar full will normally get the job done, fill your jar with your buds, then cover with a good qaulity olive oil and give it a shake, into the cool dark cupboard for a min of 6 weeks but up to a year before making the salve itself..

Farmgal hint.. reuse the same jar over and over again, it is just easier to use the same one as its very hard to get it clean lol

cottonwoodsalve

Its a very basic salve, strain out the buds, measure out your oil, I use raw beeswax to thicken it into a stiff salve that will melt at body temp and I use a small 4oz canning jar, I pour my hot Salve into the clean dry jar and then store it in the fridge once opened.

You can make it is as thin or as thick as you like by controlling the beeswax percentage.

Side Effects: If you are sensitive to aspirin, you should use care in regards to using Balm of Gilead.

Posted in Forage | Tagged collecting cottonwood buds for salve, Cottonwood buds, cottonwood buds sap, Cottonwood Salve, Cottonwood tree, Forage, Making your own salves | 15 Comments

Waste not, Want Not.. Steaming your starting soil

Posted on February 7, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

I have a very large bag of potting soil that I did not use last year, but of course I had cut into it and needed just a bit out of it to finish my started plants. This bag had been moved from the greenhouse to the shed and that shed door had been openned.

Bringing it in to thaw out was no biggie but the fact that it was open meant that it had been exposed to all the bugs (and I normally adore my bugs) and even possable wind lifted seeds.

To be honest the seeds did not bother me, really pick them out and on a normal year I would have held out using that bag until I was doing the pots in the outside greenhouse, because it has bugs and so its very much alive and doing its thing.

However this is NOT a normal year, and while I have a good amount of soilless seed starting blend, I am in need of potting soil as I want to transfer over my sprouting pawpaw seeds into their next size up deep grow unit.

We do have curbside pickup.. but what we do not yet have is the soil shipment in at my local store, I called, they are waiting.. I have checked the website, and if I wanted to drive 45 min, I can order and get it.. but we are in lock down and soil is not a good enough reason for me to consider doing that..

BUT! I do not want to introduce buggy soil in my inhouse greenhouse, so I went looking, I have baked regular soil and I have never liked the end result.. hit my soil book and its said I would have better results if I steamed it.. hmm

Interesting.. now how would I steam larger amounts?? Got it.. why redo the wheel right.. could I use my steam juicer?

https://www.facebook.com/valerie.johnstone.5/videos/3431747223618632

The answer is Hell’s yes you can.. I set it up, filled the top section that you normally put the fruit in put the lid on, checked it with my temp gage, adjudged my burner to control the amount/seed of the boil and it came up to the 180 and held like a dream for the full 30 min.. took it off, set the pot balanced on the handles into the big blue waterbath canner to allow it to have full access to air to cool down.

Check that carefully, do not think that because the top is fairly cool that that the middle is not still hot! I will need to do a few batches in order to do the whole amount needed but its something you can work around fairly easily into your day to get it all done.

Two points that I really liked is that by only aiming for 180, it means that your soil can come back quicker into being a living soil again, I am not sure how they know this, its one of those.. just because I read it does not make is so.. but each of the little sprouting pawpaw seedlings will come with their own soil which will help restart the steamed soil..

The other point was one I was quick to realize how little soil came out of the holes in the steamer and I will use that water to not waste any of it, it will be poured into my 5 gallon bucket that stays by the greenhouse and how little water that the soil took up. I expected it to “suck it up” but while its very nicely damp in a healthy way, its not wet..

I would never plant seeds in it and expect it to have enough moisture as is.. for sure you need to water it.

Have you baked the soil, did you use the oven, a friend says she does her’s in the slow cooker, I have seen folks do it in VERY small amounts in their pressure canners to create a medium for mushroom growing but I do not know anyone that has done it for potting soil and it would take way to much energy for value to me considering how small amount they recommend to place in it.. have you steamed soil?

I did have the thought that on the right day that you could use a solar cooker to get the job done, I have had some very cold days but crazy heat on the sun, if you boxes it up right and let it get full sun, I would love to play around and see if I could get the solar cooker to do the job?

Posted in Gal in the Garden Series, Garden | Tagged Be creative, don't bring eggs in your soil into the house, potting soil, seed starting with leftover soil, Steam your soil to 180, Steaming Soil, Steaming soil to clean it for seed starting, Useing your stream juicer to steam your soil, Waste not want not | 2 Comments

No Buy Feb 10 years strong..

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

Now I have always adored No Buy Feb because it leads into my Pantry March Challenge.. these two combined have let me find so many weakness and build in strengths into my homestead.

What is No Buy Feb?

Its pretty simple.. Only buy what must be got (clearly you are going to need to buy your pet food) most peaple do allow themselves to buy basic food items but not all do.. and otherwise, anythign that is a want/wish/would be nice is NO BUY..

I am stunned to realize that I did my first No Buy Month (feb) in 2011.. that means this is my 10TH year for doing some version of this..

Anything that is a need, as in I need to X, then you can get it.. On average in a non-pandemic year you should be able to save at least a couple hundred dollars over the month.. its a way to put up a little extra, pay off those last of the christmas bills and so on.

I am leery this year to put a No Buy Feb full stop on the farm as a whole.. A good friend of mine was going to host the No Buy Feb and then decided that it was not a good idea due to the fact that here were we live that we will most likely only have a small window in feb when the lock down ends, the stores open with regs in place between the next lockdown with the coming varient waves.. (which for my area the general thought is it will start to pick up in mid-march and roll on strong though the spring.

However I have been mulling this over hard and I am going to do a No Buy Feb.. because of the very above.. and something ValB said..

Which in a nut shell was, its hard to have had the nose to the grind for a year, always trying to figure out the next “what is going to be hard to find”.. and that it wears on you.. I agree it does..

Now I am darn happy that I can and did see the writing on the wall and moved ahead of the base pop and I am sure she is as well..

However it went in the old noggin and stewed there.. I think that having the No Buy Feb in place, which means I have to report my success or failure on the blog is a great way to keep me from spending more then I need to..

I mean, honestly, I fully believe 2 is 1 and 1 is none, and in a very well stocked pantry, farm and so on but there is a temptation to get more then you need..

The feeling of worry in regards to what I believe is coming and I am beyond grateful that there are places and friends that will not have this effect and I want to be wrong.

I need to prepare like I am right.. but I also do not want to go over board.. I will to stay the course, straight and true.. No Buy Feb will help with that..

So Here is my No Buy Feb Rules

No Personal wants!

This right there cuts out any chance of me doing a add on to a online order or asking for a few extra things on the once or twice monthy go to town get it done shopping

Local Food programs is allowed but I will do my best to limit myself this month to fresh fruit/veggies/grains.. no extras unless it comes with the basket. They often sell add-on’s and that is where I will look for extra savings.

Extra for hubby that fit into his requirements for his diet requirements are allowed, example Nuts or his order of pork rinds etc.

When it comes to the farm, the same rules have applied for the past 10 years.. if the farm or the farm critters need it.. its allowed.. period..

Now comes the far more tricky part.. the above are standard rules and while they can be surprisingly harder to live by then you think.. a little buckle down and it happens pretty well..

How do I work in future needs/restocking/back orders?

I heard someone say on a meeting chit-chat.. “I got a tent for camping this year.. and someone else says.. o did you get it on sale? and the answer was.. no, I paid a high price for it but its ok because it was on backorder for 6 months.. and it was finally available”

This little 45 second chat is a sum up of my issue.. In years past we used to talk about sale cycles and how some things came on every few weeks, some in 6 to 8 weeks and some only twice or even once a year and you can’t miss that “sale” for the years stock up.. and so flex was given in the no buy and the pantry challenge to do the stock up but you could not use it until after the challenges were done.

This year, there will be no sales.. I think its going to be all about.. stock and back orders..

So here is my general rules in this regards.. If its been on my pick it up list for more then 3 months and its been not available and or on back order and shipment came in..

I am allowed to get it..

If I know I need it for something within THIS YEARS coming projects and I KNOW just! what it will be used for and when, then if its stock and I am not sure at how long that might remain.. then if I can find it this month, I can get the amount I would need for 2021 and 2022 but I have to own why I feel it would need more then this year..

That really narrows the window of what I can consider but keeps some flex and common sense in there..

Wish me luck and Keep you posted!

Posted in 30 day challanges | Tagged How much can you save on a no buy momth?, Keeping track, No Buy Feb, No buy Feb 2021, No buy month, Save some money, Use it up, Using your willpower | 6 Comments

Jan Updates Frugal and Declutter..

Posted on January 31, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

The 2021 budget is wide and vast, some area’s are super lean, some area’s are like a fat cat that wants heavy cream and the good fatty fish.. Thankfully some are one off’s! Other area’s are unknowns..

Budget/Frugal or Fat Cat..

Lets break that down a bit and see how we did in Jan..

Our one off was the vet bill for having Uther altered, chipped, his cone and pain meds etc.. Tax in at $405.. Thank goodness for my vet.. friends in the city are reporting that the same size male with both boys down can easily cost upwards of 1000 or more..

Our Frugal Wins for Jan..

We did not buy any cloths, I did get gifted cloths though a community program.. and they are wonderful, got 3 new bra’s (with tags still on) 2 new shirts and 2 pairs of summer to the knee pants.. All from Pennington’s and all with tags still on them.. (someone got them on sale and then did a purge, lost weight, I am not sure) I have put the summer cloths away and the fancy bra as well but the work out bra is awesome.. its got hold power, I will for sure pick that one and try it for when I am riding this spring and summer..

I got two lovely winter vests but I gifted them forward to a lovely older lady who will put them to good use.

We did our own hair cuts (but of course) and I dragged out my curlers so that I can get some lift to the top of my now longer hair (its to short for the pony, but to long to just hang there lol)

The only cloth/wear buy was a pair of heated gloves for hubby, he has been having really hard time with cold hands, I mean really bad and even with double layers and heavy duty really wam glove it was just not doing it.. now he has rechargeable battery heated gloves with four heat settings and his hands are much better.

When it came to household goods, we bought nothing this month that was extra.. (we will get to the greenhouse/gardening stuff further down) so that was a solid win. The farm was the same.. we have everything we need and you just keep moving on.

Now the FAT CATS..

Grocery bills..

O my.. O my.. $394.00 was spent in the month of Jan on outside food..

this includes my 2X a month fresh fruit/veggie/a small amount of grains sometimes basket, the box of pork puffs that is hubby’s favorite snack that he rations (but man they are crazy good) and pretty much extras like nuts, mixed nuts and other trail mix types and seeds like pumpkin/sunflower and a few other extras for his new diet and coffee. There was a bit of smaller household items in there as well, a extra bag of toilet paper, a new tube of toothpaste, a box of q-tips and another bottle of shampoo

In 2019.. my food/household budget for “out” was 50 every 2 weeks.. for a flat hundred or under for the month..

That means for 2021.. my real life spend in Jan 2021 is just shy of 4X the amount or looking at it the other way a increase of 300 percent.. OUCH!!

peatpellets

The Second FAT CAT spend item this month.. anything and everything related to the seeds, garden, fruit production, propagation, trays, labels, soil and so on.. now I know that when this is spead out over the year itself its not to crazy and some things should get a 5 to 10 plus year spread cost out..

BUT.. I have spent $639 in Jan of 2021 on a host of different garden stuff.. stuff for the indoor greenhouse, stuff for the big seed starting push for the 3 season greenhouse, new kinds of seeds for different flavours and textures for the main garden, items for creating new plants, items for working in the food forests, and the list goes on..

saladgreens2

On the flip side as the Indoor Greenhouse is gearing up, we did grow/harvest and eat $51.50 worth of green salad greens, pea shoots, Mung bean sprouts and micro sprouts.

I am looking forward to seeing what we can do in Feb in this regards..

Now I expect I need another 100 yet to finish out the garden/3 season greenhouse and then I have everything I need for the garden/food forest and so on.. so lets round it up to 200 to safe.. so that puts me at 839.. so lets round it up to o.. $900.. (what you know its going to happen, I am going to find something that has broken and needs to be replaced)

Which still even if you only break it down over the 2021 year comes in at 75 per month, it would put me under my normal “garden allowance of 1500 max” per year.. but that typically covers my garden courses, books, tools, seeds, and so

The yard rebuild was a whole different budget.. and the indoor greenhouse/lights and flooring went into the 2020 budget and be glad of it or that would be alot higher.

Moving on to the Declutter..

I have done two drawers, one big closet and some general all over the house this and that.. we have thrown out, put into the recyle or giving box or re-gifted out a whopping!

WAIT FOR IT!.. 178 items.. of my ideal 365 items for the year or 2021..

Now I admit that i counted small stuff but if it was a little kit or bundle, it was only counted as one item.. it was crazy how fast these things added up.. and I need to clean my junk drawers more often..

Now the great thing about this was finding “keep” stuff and being able to sort it and still get it out of the house.. Small box of screws size.. to the build it area in the one outbuilding.. New bottle of cement glue.. to this house repair kit box.. so many things we got extra’s of, so that we know we have backups but many of them ended up on the main floor of the house, when they should have been sorted and put into working areas, working kits and so on..

This is also proving to be a boon, in figuring out what we should be adding to our lists.. example.. shower cocking replacment tubes.. great.. when was that last done.. ok, lets add that to our winter to do list and use these, and add these to the “replace/increase the backups” shopping list for when we come out of lockdown before the next “varient” wave lockdown hits in march..

I figure we will locally in my area have around a 4 to 6 week open window to get everything we could need for the next 3 to 8 months and or next 1 to 4 years depending on what it is..

So the declutter is going amazing but I did bring items.. so I am not going to count the little compost seed starters or seeds.. but if you are just looking at trays, garden related items and so on.. I added in 47 items.. 47!!! can you believe it.. and I am not even going to touch the 500 plant tags.. because then it would be 547 items.. did you just laugh.. I did.. add in the 500 plant pots and I added in 1047 items..

Opps, going the wrong way lol..

I am only giving myself credit for 131 items of my required min of 365 for 2021.

as I am taking off the bring in items.. If you bring things in.. its not decluttering lol

or if you want to count the 500 tags and 500 pots, then I am in the you suck at this.. so bad! its not even funny! (ok its funny)

There you go.. my end of Jan round up.. I truly hope you did nto see a 300 percent increase your grocery bill from per-pandemic spending.. I hope if you are decluttering in jan that it went better for you..

Onward and Upward!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Declutter, Frugal, Frugal fail, Seeds | 5 Comments

Friday Rambles -Putter

Posted on January 29, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

saladgreens2

The Indoor Greenhouse is filled with salad greens, radish starts, a couple baby tomato seedlings, cucumber babies already on its first true leaves, the mircogreens are doing well and I have added in another set of trays, I like the greens coming better if they are done in the soil but that cost increase in regards over price point when I need to factor in the soil and while I can feed the roots/soil into the chicken pen and it comes back to me in the compost, so I know its not wasted per say..

Still I am exploring ways to grow at least 50% of the salad mirco’s in a water only sprouting system so that I do not have the seed starting medium.. or I need to find a cheaper way to create that seed starting soilless soil.

The bigger push on some more seedlings will occur over the next two weeks and in the coming week, I will be making a post on different ways to find heat to help start those picky pepper seedlings. I read a funky way on the net and want to figure out if it will in fact work because it if does.. it means that you can dual purpose something alot of homesteads already have for a short term use in regards to starting this heat loving seeds.

grafting tool

In keeping with finally having mature fruit trees (for those that are new when we moved to the farm, we had three spruce trees, a couple maples and one massive crab apple and the two huge massive grandfather Black Willow Trees. So every single fruit tree, bush, cane and so on the farm has been planted by us.. Our oldest fruit trees are coming 16 this spring.

Every single year we have been here, we have added in more and more.. this year have lots of mature and different but related fruit trees that I am looking forward to trying grafting, even if its just for adding in increased pollination in regards to blooming and fruiting. Example, I have a very hard strong apple tree that takes 10 to 15 years to produce that is 8 years old, I am going to graft on some of my faster producing trees in different trees and or the slower growing trees..

I have a number of different plum types and I am thinking it would be a good use of my learning curve to try and take my cross pollinator cuttings and graft them on the different plum trees across the farm so that ideally, there is that one extra branch per tree to help make sure the amazing mason bees help make sure I can lots and lots of plums.

I want to do apple, plum, cherry, pear and a few more.. I am going to do some research, I want to find out if you can use High Bush Cranberry as a root stock for any kind of grafting.. It could be fun to find out.. (as long as I am not counting on it)

One of my plant orders just came in and I did a opps, I thought I had ordered in 500 small sqaure peat pots but instead I have 500 of the little jiffy pellets.. Pellets are not pots.. I will need to go over my invoice and see if the issue is mine or theirs..

peatpellets

I hate those little flat disks that puff up.. but this might not be the year to send them back.. it might be the year to keep and use them.

I hope that my last sets of seeds have come in for the year.. (well other then the switch grass seed, which I am still waiting for yet) These ones are all different kinds of things that are normally grown here on the farm but are just slight modifications for different flavours or textures so that I can create meals with them for hubby and myself.

Where did the month go.. poof.. but at least the sun is coming back.. so bright and so cold today.. The birds are going crazy on the feeders. I have not shared the Common Redpoll’s with you yet.. we got a lovely little flock of maybe 30? of them.. a nice mix of adult and 2020’s offspring..

Otherwise, no lambs yet, the chicken breeding flocks will be split out into breeding pens and the incubator will need to be given a freshing and a run though and testing to see how its holding.. The good news is I have just the place to set it up in the upstairs of the older part of the house.

Normally on Friday Rambles I can get some snark in this posts but I am refusing today.. we all know what a “#$@&” week its been in the news.. The sunlight is pouring in, the cold is deeply bitter making me put on the oven for a slow roasted meal, baby plants are starting and growing, the yard is FILLED with bird tweets and twips and chirps.. the horses and sheep flock are on double rations to keep those belly’s filled and those internal engines keeping them warm with dry outer winter fluffed coats. the small stock is all spending the day in their inside pens

I am beyond grateful for the ability to order things online and have them deliveried.. I can not imagine how some peaple with no credit card, no internet and so on are trying to keep to the safety rules.

I am so darn lucky that we are able to just go online, order and within a matter of days or weeks.. it appears on the farm with no contact, just a nod/wave.. no contact. I can not tell you how many times this ablility keeps us from leaving the farm..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Friday Rambles | 3 Comments

Air Root Pots

Posted on January 27, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

If there is one thing you will read me saying this year, Bringing it in house.. This means that If I can find a way to make things work based on what I have or based on a very small local circle that I am working with.. The less I need to leave the farm, the better.

In this case I finally got something that has been back ordered for months.. 10 of these air rooting pots from Europe finally arrived at Lee Valley Tools here in Canada and have been shipped to the farm.

I have a large selection of different fruit trees and many of them are so wonderful that I would LOVE to have another one or two..

However in few cases there is no way to get them again as I snagged from the wild and they are one of kind.. In other cases, the places that sell them are sold out this year and in some cases they already say they are sold out next year. Last but not least, I am not keen to spend another 29.99 to 59.99 per tree or more if I can find a way around it.

In comes that very old way of creating new babies off the parent trees that will breed/product fruit tree..

airrootingpot1

Both photo’s credit go to Lee Valley Tools.. NOT MY PHOTOS on this post.

Air layering.. scoring the bark and adding rooting and covering with soil and letting them grow roots and then cut the whole thing off and potting it up.. sounds so simple and in a way it is..

Of course real life is not as easy as it is to write it out.. first while some trees, bushes and plants do well with this, others do better starting from seeds or do better if put on root stock etc.

Also you have access to the starter stock, I will admit that I do plan to put a few at higher risk in the “edge line” of a few local farmers fields to take off babies from some old apple trees, from a amazing huge hawthorn tree down the way that I would like to get into my own yard.

airrootpotset

These pots are very cleverly made and I hope they will give me a good leg up.. The cup goes around and you put the cut in the middle with a soilless medium but it has a water reserve cup in the bottom, this will go a long way to making sure things do not dry out but you only need to check them around once a week on average (weather dependent) and they come with a dark peel on and removeable sticker that lets you write dates and so on you need the darkness for the roots but you need to be abel to move it to check the root growth.. once the roots are reaching the edge of the cup, time to get it out

Now It would be very temping to go to the full max of 3 feet.. but my own thoughts are that is a lot of top to be suppored on not alot of root once it loses the partne tree support..

So I am aiming for 18 inches as the idea.. I want enough to support the plant well, I want enough “plant” to make the effort worth while but I also want to give it the best chance of making its first winter.

I figure that the first round of these started in the spring, I plan to plant into the gardens themselves.. but the second round if the timing works right (and it might not) because to me weather does matter.. they will go into 3 or 4 gallon pots and given a helping hand and overwintered in a cold but draft free place and hardened off in the spring before planting them in 2022.

So lay it on me.. haha..

Have you done this? What was your result? Did you like it? if not, why not? What did you have the most success with? Share your stories, helpful hints and so on.

Posted in gardens | Tagged air root pots, air rooting pots, creating new plants, using air pots | 3 Comments

One year in..

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

Can you believe that its been one year since we first “offically” heard that we had our first case in canada? Regardless of your feelings on the subject, its very safe to say that pretty much no matter where you live, you have felt the effects.

So STOP.. right here.. if you want homesteading, livestock, recipes, garden and so on.. THIS IS NOT THAT POST.. This post is about turning that one year mark living a world that has c-19 and its effects.. Ok.. see you tomorrow or read on..

Maybe you are very lucky and no one you know has gotten sick or worse sick and died from it. (they say here in canada, that 50 percent of us now know someone who has gotten it, as of the poll done in the second week of jan 2021)

I know peaple that have been given the formal notice of having had it.. and I have had both friends with mild cases ( a couple days of feeling off, loss of smell or taste), I have had three that were very sick and one that is being called a long hauler..

I have had so many peaple that have never had it but have spent weeks in “waiting” for results, I have had friends that have had to have themselves or their children tested 2, 3 or 5 times waiting out those days for test results to come in.. missing days of work, the last couple months of 2020.. the words.. I have no sick days left and have to take unpaid days off while waiting was something I was seeing far to often.

However I have had much fewer friends that had elderly loved ones that have passed on.. Sadly I have had 5 friends have family members or in the one case.. the social garden friend that took their own lives in the past six months.

This was related to the what has been happening in regards to loss of job, struggles with what has happened in regards to lock downs, and so much more. While clearly there is many layers to this, it has been very hard indeed to see the pain these choices have left in the loved ones.

Sadly, I have also had two peaple who where “covid” medical side death, this at least in our province is now listed in the thousands, these are peaple who have health issues that did not get the normal medical care and therefor passed faster due to lack of treatments, being sent home and so on.. This was seen here in the hardest hit provinces in ontario and Quebec when they were keeping everything as closed as possable in the first wave push.. I am beyond grateful that this did not effect some of my loved ones in alberta that ws able to get their needed cancer and other medical care.

The past year has pushed a number of relationships and marriages in ways that have proven to much for those in them.. I have seen this go both ways, some marragies are even stronger for it, but sadly others are ending..

I have watch the K happen within my own friends and family across canada and N.A. and outward.. While some folks are working from home and have more funds in their accounts, others have been laid off, others have taken pay cuts, hour cuts, small business’s have been pushed to the brink and in some cases lost. Other small businesss are booming and tell me that they have had their best year to date..

Across Canada at least we are seeing such a uneven spread of the pain in many ways but the ripples are never ending.. and I regret to say that many of the ripples will be felt this year in 2021 as they were softened by CERB and other programs that helped keep a number of peaple afloat in 2020..

We are all feeling the increase in pricing, with the reduction of availablity, I guess its possable that the .001 percent are not but I am pretty darn sure everyone from the low income to the middle to the higher are all feeling it.

The low interest rates are a double edged sword.. in some way its pushing bubbles, I mean honestly the housing bubble in my own area is going to “pop” the average house price has increased a min of a 100,000 int he past year..

It means that the other increases are being hidden a bit more but they are so there.. I guess I have to at least touch on the vaccine.. I know one person a PSW at a retirement home that now has her two shots done.. that’s it.. I guess by the end of year two, I will know more..

Its a very touchy subject to say the least and I know 8 peaple so far that have been offered and at this time declined.. (yes they all also work in health care) I know that others in their places of work have said yes..

I have had a few folks that have come to me in the past couple weeks to have a phone or video chat in regards to the coming year in 2021.. I will share the advice I gave them.. yes the varients will be a factor here.. no it will not evenly felt the K will be in full force

But we are not walking in blind, there should be NO one with their head on their shoulders saying.. o.. just a few weeks.. o this is the last lock down, o, the kids will be back to school in person by next week.. Life will be normal by sept 2021..

However there is NO POINT in have a AHHH moment ( yes you are allowed them.. of course you are, I had one myself on sunday.. it was a total blargh day for me) but as I said to my friends and family..

Keep on doing what you are doing.. take the lessions learned in the past year.. and put them actively in place this year and repeat..

I know, I know.. its not that easy for some.. I get it.. if you have been living on reduced income.. things will need to be figured out.. if you are part of the what they are calling the “she-cession” were we are seeing huge numbers of women under employed or even leaving the workforce to raise their kiddo’s at home, or home schooling and so forth.. I get it.. I do..

However, at this point, you should be looking as a unit/family/couple/support group at getting together and working monthly or quarterly and sorting out what you need to do next for the coming year..

Be flexable.. Be willing to think outside the box!

This one is really hard to hear..

we have had 20 or 30 years and whole generations of “you can be whoever you want to be” and “live your passions” focus on your “happiness first”

We need to ourselves have permisson to say..

Its hard

I am unhappy

I am not where I want to be

I have lost… I mourn… I am hurt.. I am angry..

I need help with this, I do not have this, I need to learn how to do this..

I need to make do..

and still get up every single day and slog it.. one foot in front of the other.. we need to reach down and grasp that we must live for the small things, the small moments and that its just going to be HARD..

2020 was one huge “WTF” learning curve.. and its done.. the future.. the future will have so many moments of beauty, moments of caring, moments of laughter.. but those will between plain old hardship.

Posted in Life moves on daily | 7 Comments

Are you a Seed Snob?

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Just another day on the farm

Never thought I would write that.. but this year I have seen peaple asking questions like

I am on a budget? Where can I get the most reasonable priced seeds?

I am looking at getting a bulk seed kit?

I am getting seed from the dollar store 3 packs for a dollar

I am deeply saddened to see replies that I feel are off-putting to the honest questions being asked..

When I was a child at the age of 8 years old, I got my first garden seed bucket.. it was a pink bucket with a adorable strawberry shortcake type little girl with flowers and a watering can. In that bucket kit was flower seeds for my own little flower bed and basic seeds for my own little garden inside my mom’s big (acre plus) garden..

I had pea’s, beans, beets and so on.. that garden kit in a bucket with the most basic seeds, helped create the passion I have for my gardens.. I would dance with excitement for a number of years after that looking for my bucket of seeds..

Yet this week I have been sad to see so many peaple come down on seed buckets/kits like they are a) new b) bad.. o my gosh, how dare you buy from a company that put together a kit of basic seeds for a basic garden.

Now I would like to say that its just a intense dislike of the fact that they said the words “amazon” in regards to the kit, but its beyond that.. I mean I have seen them get just as worked up by the garden kits offered by solid company’s.. Big company’s that have bulk seeds and are looking at zones.. I have seen many of them offering a basic garden kit and yet the Seed Snobs are fully out there saying .. No

The kind gardeners are explaining in ways that matter.. a solid example of a kind and thoughtful answer could be

Grow what you eat.. no point in having hundreds of a kind of plant you and your family will not eat that came in a kit.

Watch your garden zoning in terms of the kit.. fair point

But the seed snobs are focused solidly on buying small, buying local and yes I am sad to say.. they are the seed version of keeping up with the jones..

It started about 10ish years ago when we had a huge push for open pollinate heritage seed saving, and what a wonderful thing that is! O my gosh, Seedy Saturdays are amazing and awesome!

But like so many good things its gone to far for some.. It used to be about buying good seed..

This past while on different homestead groups, garden groups and so on..

Its like they are trying to out do themselves.

I only buy from a local small company..

Well I only buy from a family owned small company

Well, I only buy from a this does not even have a website, came down from grandma, pay 5 dollars a package for 10 seeds of this special seed saved for X gens on this Y land.

I do not buy seeds at all, I only use my local seed saving libary..

O my gosh peaple.. Stop it! Do NOT become a Seed Snob!

Be proud of being a seed saver, Bless you

Be proud of being a plant grower, Bless you

Be proud to grow heritage seeds, Bless you

Be proud of Supporting small seed houses-Bless you

but its about growing food! The child that pulls a fresh raddish out of the ground does not care if that seed came from a dollar store package of seed, from a tiny seed grower, from the mid size grower or from the biggest 100 plus year old seed house in your state or province..

If it not been sprayed, if its not been owned gene wise by a company if its not a GMO and you can grow it in clean soil, with clean water and save its seed.. then its all eqaul across the board..

I know that you can buy all kind of “different raddishes” and that is awesome and its worth it to try new colors, flavours and so on..

However in todays world, in this pandemic its more important to put food on the table and in the belly for many peaple in the most economic way possable.. that means for a lot of peaple, the good old red radish is that can be picked up for a fraction of the cost of the fancy new green/white one is not just good enough.. its perfect..

The good news is that most old time gardeners are kind sharing souls.. we are so happy to reach into our seed collections and gift out seeds.. the plants give so freely.. one saved perfect tomato can gift us dozens of saved seeds and we remember that plant that grew just a bit fast/bigger with the amazing fruit with the texture and color and o the flavour.. and we want to share and save.

It seems to be the newer garden folks that are on a learning curve, and I am glad they are on the path.. but no.. I hate to break it to you, the goal is not to pay the most for the smallest, biggest, most different, oldest and so on..

The goal is fresh food, healthy soil, time spent with nature, learning to work with the season’s, learning about a plants life cycle, harvesting and using it to create lovely melas that nurish our minds and body’s

Like so many things this past year, everyone has more time on their hands and are online so much more and they want to feel that they are HEARD and I get that.. I do..

Whenever possable.. please be kind, be thoughtful, expand your mind just a little and remember that not everyone right now has extra money to spend, please do not make them feel bad when they seek to find ways to grow food within their means.