This was a challenge for me and I am not sure on this one.. I took a lot of photos trying to capture this in a different ways.. I am going with this one at the moment.. but I might change it out at a later point in the year.. I will put this one as the runner up.. Our spring come though of the Turkey Vultures happened this week.
Hello Folks..
Ready to see my snowy, messy.. what the heck happened last year to my gardens, walk about.. I could not even get into my main garden yet.. so you will get those first photos in may..
So here it is.. in the raw.. there is a part of me that really does not want to show you these photos.. I want to wait till they have been cleaned up, till I have pretty plants started or pops of color.. Anything really beyond showing this April spring muck and mud..
However I want to do a walk about photo series all season long on the same date each month.. maybe even weekly or bi-weekly in the real push garden season to show just how much of a change it goes though.
So for all you neat gardeners.. look away.. look away now LOL
This is the gate garden, it has the climbers and then a three foot bed around it.. plus in the back left you can see the tower garden area.
This area is the bale garden, compost pile mound gardens and if you want to look closer, you can see the new line of big cedar fence posts that went in last year and will be newly fenced this year.. I have tree’s that need to come down this year..
I know, you can’t even see things here yet but on the far left is the sunchokes patch, in the middle is two big three foot garden rows, at the back is black choke berry and more fruiting interplanting planned in there this year and that post.. it will play host to a mason bee house, facing the sun.
This is Bean Teepee #1 as more are planned this spring, along with Sofie kitty and Leeloo kitty who had to come on my walk with me.. It needs a good clean up and the 3 foot bed around it as well. It at least is melting out faster then other areas
While its starting to thin out in places in the drifted area’s the snow is still knee deep, so I will take more detailed photos in there in may for you.. but there is the garden beds, the hedge rows and much more back there.. Right now.. lets to put it as its big, its got lots of things being planted in there and its still very much pretty much under snow cover yet.
This is the view into the big new rebuild area of the front yard, it does not show the side part.. but I will get that in may, as I will with the other back gardens, including the gooseberry’s and the raspberry etc.
This one is a shot from the middle of the rebuild area showing a more direct line to the pond to be and beyond hat a rain garden to be.. plus the “big tree” where we will add in the picnic table for shade in the yard in the afternoon.
This is my poor cleared front yard area and now that I have figured out what will happen with it, I am so excited.. this area will become my kitchen garden with a intermix of flowers and walk away.. Its going to be both pretty and ever so useful!
This is the front bed, while it needs a spring clean, it is in fact filled with a great number of come back plants but there is plans on expanding it this year as well.. more on that soon.. I have had it with mowing that little patch.. time to turn it into garden space.. or at least herb growing space.
Well that is what you are getting for April.. I will expand in may once I can freely walk into the areas.. Hope you enjoyed seeing my crazy yard/gardens lol
Hi, its so nice out there at the moment, come on in.. I know its so mild.. and plus 6 today and not so much wind.. that wind has been crazy for the last bit. I know they are calling for snow tonight but so far they have not changed their mind that we are to get plus 11 and plus 13 on the weekend.
I sure hope they are right because if so, I am planning a on doing on farm work, both in the garden area, the barns but mainly in regards to getting some butchering done.. the weather and cold only held me off for a full month on that plan. But you have to be able to feel your fingers while working lol
Coffee? Tea? A hot bowl of soup? I have a big old pot on the stove, it will be even better at supper time but its ready now.. Can slice up some bread to go with?
Got my onions sets in.. I don’t have a enough green bunching onions there yet but can pick up a couple more bags easy enough at the store and put them in the cool/dark pantry to hold them till I want to use them.
Hubby and I walked over the deck area from where you can and had a chat and agreed that I could turn it into a kitchen garden. I am quite excited about it. I will have to grow up a number of wild plants in that area so I can transfer them to a different spot, as I want to save them.. its been one of my area’s that I tend have a lot of wild violets and plantain for harvest and I want to save those genetics here on the farm.
Still it will be such a nice thing to be able to walk off the deck and gather things for the garden, I did worry a touch about the fact that it will not be “pretty” when you walk up the sidewalk but I can throw in some flowers and really if you are coming to the farm, surely you understand that I going to have a working garden lol. Right?
Sweetie the new milking sheep ewe is just wonderful.. she is increasing her milk flow daily plus feeding her lamb full time yet. I am getting a 3 pints a day at this point.. she will come up to her average top late next week or early the week after. I expect she will be come at a liter a milking plus the lamb.
While I know that in her line, she can reach a gallon a day but as a first time girl and given she is young yet, I want her to reach her point naturally and I do not intend to pull the lamb from her till its 30 days and then we will do a share milking for another 30 days..
I am limiting what I will bring in the house doing this but I am good with it.. I certainly do not feel like I am short of milk in the house now as those beautiful jars fill up twice a day and are chilled in the fridge.
I do miss being able to use my rapid chill feature. I love it and normally do so when I am chilling out my milk but its not a good idea at the moment as I am also storing my mason bee’s in the same fridge and so I have to find a balance. I put the milk at the back in the coldest part of the fridge and I use pint jars to help drop the temp faster, and I keep the bee cooler more towards the front of the fridge. So far so good.
There is spots of green and spots of soil starting to show here and there.. the rings around the tree’s are growing.. the water is moving under that snow pack and there are so many more birds in the yard.. they are eating me out of house and home (kidding) at the bird feeders.
The spring moving birds are thrilled with it and instead of being filled once a week, its barely lasting three days between fills. The geese have gone over a bit but yesterday.. they arrived! Hundreds of them came last night to bed down and feed in the back fields behind the farm. Most of that is flooded so they have water to swim, bath and the rest is slowly melting out so they can also look for bits of feed at the same time.
When I went out to do morning chores, they were talking.. they are so loud.. I have had my own geese out and enjoying them in the yard at least until I was attacked twice.. they are feeling spring as well.. so they are moved into their own pen off the pasture to keep them out and enjoying the fine weather.
Got my chicks, and turkey pullets ordered, they arrive first week of may, 12 big dual purpose dark brown egg layers, 50 meat birds.. I had planned on 30, then decided that I would go with 40 and then the gentleman at the store said. I can sell you 50 instead of 40 chicks and save you four dollars.. The price drop is that huge once you hit 50.. crazy but so be it.. and 10 Big white Meat turkey pullets.
They will be six weeks old for when we head out on our Holiday and so they will be past the trying stage for our farm sitter.. however if everything works out we will be butchering the meat chicks in the first two weeks of July before the real hard heat hits the farm.
I don’t plan on doing the turkey’s till fall but we will see how big they get and that might change.. I am still sad that I lost my big brown layers in the last weasel attack.. I didn’t need as many as I ordered but if there is one thing that will sell.. its nice big brown eggs at the farm gate 🙂
I look forward to setting and hatching ducklings.. and then seeing what the mother hens produce on their own nests. I have done my research and plan to use the ducks to help “seal” the pond. I expect they are going to be so excited to have a pond to swim on and in this year.
I am waiting for notice that the rolls of sheep fencing I have ordered have arrived at the store and waiting to be picked up.. I got a great one day sale at a hundred off per role.. as I needed four of them. That is a big chunk of savings for sure! I can use that 400 in a different way on the farm.. like a new big water tank to help increase our water saving ability.
Well, I am late getting this finished up and must run as I need to get ready for my online training class in regards to my training on becoming a Master Rain Garden Designer. Have a great day!
The ducks are loving the melting, so much bathing and fluffing of feathers.. they are all looking very good coming into the spring. I am looking forward to setting up breeding trio’s and lots of little fluffy ducklings in the future.
I have not seen my raven’s for a while but my crows are doing well.. They are always around, while I know that some folks don’t like them. I count on them as a alarm system and they are very good at that.. This fine fellow was bug hunting in the pasture.
Miss Sofie was enjoying the melted out driveway gravel to roll and enjoy the warmth of the spring sun. Happy Farm Kitties
The wee house pup has been enjoying the dry deck and sitting out in the sun as well as taking short walks up and down the driveway.. Soon enough she will need to go for her spring hair cut.. she is so fluffy these days!
I had to include this one.. my Almost! not quite lol..
We have spent the money on those lovely fruit whips or maybe we clipped starts for propagation or even in some cases started from seed and we have those little plants out in the cold northern winter.
One of things that has happened more and more often locally is freeze/melt cycles and it leads to a lot of small branch breaking. I have seen this, I have tried different things over the years, I have covered them, potted them up and moved them to a safer location till they are bigger, I have wrapped them or put in stakes and wrapped the stakes..
Still I have had so many small branches break off in the ice layers as the melt happens because the snow melts at a different rate then the ice layers do.. Snap, snap! This has been a huge issue with my clove currents, setting me back year after year with them.
The cold hardy Fruit Nursery put a post out on their page on facebook and I went.. O YES!!!
Photo Credit to the them.. showing how sand melted out the branches on this big older tree as well!
We picked up a bag of regular sand and out we went, it was spread around the smaller fruit tree’s where needed in regards to melting out and then we checked and used as needed on smaller fruiting bushes as well.
I am excited to see how it will work this week and next as things melt out.. granted its moving pretty slow around here so far.. this week most days are below freezing at night, just above freezing in the daytime hours but with wind chill so cold taking us down to -15
They say snow is coming later tomorrow but then this weekend looks to be a amazing weather our first days of spring that are to get to plus 11 to plus 13. If this is the case, I have a pretty good idea what I will be doing this weekend!
I have planted some more seeds to start this and that, nothing major yet.. that will change over the next ten days but with the cold temps and working the new milking sheep I have been keeping busy.
So do give using the sand a try if you need to do so, I will report back on it next week, ideally with lots of photos for you at that time.
Have you ever used sand or a bit of wood ash to help melt the snow/ice layers from around your fruit tree’s or bushes? if so do you have any hints or tips to offer?
I was thinking this might be a awesome trick for those in the city that have said things like.. I swear I am going to shovel off my garden space to help it melt out.. instead of shoveling, perhaps a light sprinkle of sand would give you that extra melting, be able to be worked in as its not much sand used.
Anyone ever done this? I am thinking I might give it a try and see how it goes!
This is a amazing baked Colostrum Pudding that according to my “The Nordic Cookbook” comes from Iceland.
Baked Colostrum Pudding
Serves 4
Heat oven to 225
Combine the above and pour into oven proof dish, the pudding should be about one and inches thick, I used a small pie plate. place in a roasting pan with hot water half way up
Bake until set and golden brown on top.
Can be served hot, warm or cold. Served with jam on top, often cloudberry.
I tried it with Ground Cherry (its good) and I tried it with High Bush Cranberry jam and it was drool worthy! Amazing!
I make a version of this that came from a very old English cookbook.. Its the whole milk, no cream, no sugar and certainly not served up with jam. Its served cold.. its good as well..
They are not the same.. the English comes out more like a custard, smooth and cuts clean. This one cooks a lot longer, its sweeter and is almost like a very mild cross between pudding an cheese.
I have been struggling with this photo, winter has been hanging on in such a hard way.. I kept looking for new ways to show the start of new life..
Today I had to choose a photo.. I decided on this one.. I think the story of new life coming is pretty easy to find.. Winter is slowly moving out, baring the soil to the sun and new life (those tiny bits of green) are starting..
What I found interesting in this photo for me is how intent the hens are, they are so focused on that special edge of in between.
Despite the snow, we bundled up and headed out to prune the cherry trees on sunday. The little trees need almost no pruning get. However the big producing tree needed a good prune to honest.
I have three large branches in water in a five gallon bucket in the tub to force the blooms as I want to use them in the kitchen. After blooming they will be prepared to future use in regards to smoking.
The tiny twigs were all trimmed off the rest and are laying out flat drying out and will be used in small smoking at a later date. The branches about the size of my pinky were peeled and the bark dried.
If you do not or can not watch the little under a minute video, here is a tip, use a veggie peeler instead of a paring knife to peel off the bark and under layer of the bark.
While a lot of people would want these for short term use to make a cherry bark cough tea, I am more interested in having it in the herbal cupboard for
a) going in the herbal wound wash blend to make into a tea
b) to be used in very small amounts in a blend for worming
c) using to strengthen my hair in a herbal rinse
I do not use it a lot so a little will go a long way in my herbal cupboard. It will continue to dry in a cool dark cupboard until crispy, then into storage and I will only grind fresh as needed.
Ok folks.. I am going to break a unspoken homesteading rule.. I am going to talk numbers! AHHHHHH.. run for the hills.. stats, data.. hard costs.. Hauling costs, Butcher costs and more.
LOL, no really, now that I am done poking fun at things, lets get to the meat of things.
Those are honestly real questions I have been asked over and over again.
So the first thing we have to do is get a full grasp on what I have on the farm as of Feb 2019 (if you want to see the list for
Jan, Here is the link to that post
Feb Here is the link to that post
Ok, so to make things a little easier to see, anything that changed from month to month or is new is in the slant.
390 dollars spent this month plugs/plants for the big yard replant.. these will be delivered to the farm at the proper time to ship them in May. This includes shipping and tax fees.
Total spent so far on the above $980
130 -Eco Farm Days (early bird cost for savings) for two full days
Pruning Workshop – 90 dollars (both hubby and myself)
10 dollars -Sheep Training Day for Zone 10 (both hubby and myself)
Total Spent to date 230.00
This is my first year that I am totally pulling back on raising extra farm gate meat for sale.. the meat raised on the farm is for our own farm use only. If this changes, I will make notes on that. This will change, we have more lambs born this year then we will need for our own freezers but I have not decided on how many will go for farmgate sales.
Eggs however are open for farm gate sales.
All milk/milk products are for on farm use only!
Seeds/plants and plant productions are open to a point for use in farm gate sales
Photo sales directly related to the farm or farm critters will count towards farm income, however photography sessions and or sales not related to the farm or the farm critters does not count towards it.
The first thing to go will be the yearling sheep now that they are getting nice and big, they are ready to be done.. as I was growing them for my own use I prefer them to be larger/older then the “average” lamb. I very much like hoggart (over one year in age, but not older then two years of age)
The pig is ready for butcher as well.. its on the list but the weather must get better.
The intend is to grow less meat overall, but a wider kind of types and increase the amount of fruit/veggies/herbs we are growing. I can raise livestock at a rate on the farm out pace’s our own needs very easily. This is something that I need to pull back on!
So the out costs this month are in
Ok so here is our numbers for Feb
*14 lambs, they are not returns until they are either keep back replacement value in stock for the herd or until they are sold as farmgate or until they are farm butchered and return yield to the farm in terms of filling the freezer or pantry. so while they arrived this month, they can’t count on this month. If I could count them.. they would run around 200 each to replace per what I am seeing on Kijji at the moment.. would it not be lovely to have that 2800 bump to my final numbers but that would be the lowest return rate I could get for them, and that would not be a good thing for the bottom line in the end!
24 dozen Eggs (at 5 dollars a dozen, which is the average cost for farm gate eggs Mix of chicken/duck eggs) – $120.00
Milk- Sheep- Very limited milking yet as we are waiting for the lambs to get old enough for share milking. I also need to re-check what fluid sheep milk is worth this year but I am going to rough it out at 100 in milk for the past month.
In the Red by $4,168
Honestly I am not worried, I know that the farm “saves” us money and that we get a yield back on our investment in a big way, plus we know how the animals are raised, the food grown and the processed.
I have tried to do a hard track year but things keep getting in the way.. the last time I did a full hard track year and was successful at doing so ALL year long was a while go.. I need to do so this year and get a firm grasp on where we were, and where we are.
However having said that, in many ways we are starting a lot of the yard/gardens over again because of what happened last year. This will means many things will be up in the air in regards to what can and will get done.
Throw in the fact that we are in for a wild weather ride and we will see..
Combine the two milks together.
In a large heavy flat-bottomed ideally steel pan bring quickly to just under a boil.. traditionally, you would stop at this point, take off the heat, let it sit till it curds up and eat fresh as is (this cheese would need to be chilled in the fridge and eaten within 2 days)
However I went a little more modern, I added in 1/4th cup of lemon juice to add acid to the mix and I will sprinkle in 1/2 a tsp of salt into the cheese itself. I will still chill it in the fridge and I am quite sure it will be used up within a day or two.
please note, you should use steel spoons and tools when possible, I just gave my wooden a good salt scrub before I used it.. Its one of those do as I say, not as I do 🙂 moments here on the blog!
I am greatly looking forward to putting this lovely fresh sheep to use in the kitchen.. This recipe could be used for first freshened cow milk, goat milk or sheep milk.
Just another Day on the Farm 