What a strange time it has been in the yard and gardens, we have had some really nice days that almost got to second digits. They say that we are going to get into the low teens this coming week.. I hope they are right.
We have had snow, hail, sleet, freezing rain and a whole lot of rain! While the farm just got a nice amount of rain.. it was good but it was not crazy.. up the valley it was not the same at all.. they broke the local record for the most amount of rain fall in 24 hours.. It was a good amount of rain, it led to roads flooding out, and bridges going out and from the reports on facebook a lot of local folks had flooding in basements and so forth.
I was a touch worried but watch in great relief as our new collection systems went to work and while it did rain enough that the pond overflowed over into the rain garden system.. it never made it past there.. outstanding to see the water staying on the farm and at the same time to see it being collected and pulled away from the house and buildings!
We did get more pruning done.. we have finished all the fruit tree’s, plus the high bush cranberry bushes and I have 15 cuttings hopefully rooting out. We have nine babies that can be transplanted out into the other areas that are already well started and rooted out..
I took a good amount of off, I wanted to be able to open up the middle for air, removed anything cross branching and most important, give us walk around room for picking as they were closing in the middle to create a thicket..
That’s a great thing in certain places in the yard but not in the food production area. there we need to be able to walk around, bark was also peeled and dried for future use in the homestead herbal pantry by its herbal name Crampbark.
We had some rabbit damage on two of our Pixie gooseberry bushes. We cut them right down and I think they will push back up from the roots. The other six bigger bushes all took a good trimming and we have successfully rooted out four new babies to growing and transplanting into the food forest. They really need a circle cut back on the plant undergrowth and a good compost feeding so they can produce to their best level this year.
Speaking of babies.. we got the first clean up round done around the teepee garden (above before) and that included trimming down all the “pop up” rose bush babies that need to be dug out and moved to different locations. Looks so much better now and once it dries out a bit more and I add a inch or two of compost to dig, I will get it early spring planted out and prepped for the full planting on it by may long weekend..
Ah rose’s once you are in a place, you are hard to get out!
We did very light pruning on a number of other fruiting bushes as required and I finally got a answer on one of Dear Hubbies.. It is flowering, it must produce fruit, I will dig it out of the ditch and bring it to the farm.. here honey I found you a present lol 🙂
Turns out its a Nannyberry and its growing quite well in its area so I am looking forward to adding a new more of them to the farm for better production on them. I am very interested in trying the fruit.. I have been told its a combo of grape/date.. which just sounds different but good!
We did a some smaller and bigger pruning in the hedge rows, some was trimmed upward on the lower branches so I can mow and or underplant depending. I want to be able to do a single mow track between the rows and so we needed to clean out some under brush..
Some things were cut up to a higher point so that we could use the below area for seating and resting, I want the air movement but I want the shade as well. So I can’t take down certain tree’s until I get others better choices in place and grown big enough to replace some of what was lost.
I found one more use for binder twine and laid out in the roughest way the general outlines of paths and beds for in the kitchen garden.. This is just one little section of it in the photo but I spent a hour plus slowly digging out grass clumps.. I am going to try and put a hour into this garden on any day that the weather will let us.
Hubby also cleaned out the gate garden for the gate part but we still need more snow to melt before we can pull out the outer rows and it to dry out enough to work and finish cleaning up.
Seven of the rhubarb plants have started to pop their pretty heads upward into the sun.. the rest are still under snow.. it will come in due time.
Its a slow start to spring and we are still about 3 weeks behind compared to normal.. I expect that will just stay that way for the next month.. here is hoping we keep getting a spring! That last thing we want is a straight jump into summer heat.. stay slow, stay cool.. let us have a spring season here on the farm this year.
These readily available houses will cost around 20 dollars and can be found at local garden centers as well as online.. I picked up a number of them, some for ourselves on the farm and some for placement in some of our “guest gardens”
We put up three of them this past sunday and we learned a few things quickly.. that I would like to share today to save folks some trouble down the road
So that’s as far as we got.. three up.. at least four different placements that didn’t work but were a learning curve at least.. I can see myself fading these out and replacing them with the bigger cedar houses (which I have gotten as well for trailing this year)..
I know that the one house by the deck is within six feet of hatching Mason bees and I am making myself not harvest anything that might be feeding them in what will be my kitchen garden to be until most feeding sources come up and get moving in the yard.
Its a cool slow start to the spring.. we will keep a close eye on these houses and see how they do though the season and so forth, I will report back on the other two types of houses that will be put up by Easter weekend.
So far, they are a 3 out of 5.. losing two full points for the reason’s given above! Maybe they will earn some of that back over the coming season.. we will see..
In a good heavy steel pot with a whisk, add your milk, sugar, vanilla and egg yolks at a med heat, bring up to a slow simmer stirring all the time.. it should create a foam on the top of the milk from all the stirring as it heats up.. do not boil it!
Once its steaming hot, then add in your corn starch that has been mixed with a bit of water until its well blended and slowly drizzle it in the heated mixture, turn down your heat to just 2 or 3 stirring the whole time.. then heat till cooked though. It will thicken up in the pot but it will thicken even more as it cools down.
Can be served Warm or Cold, your choice.. Can be eaten as is or can be used with fruit or served with cake or cookies. That wonderful color comes from fresh spring egg yolks.
Serves 4
On Saturday, the temps were above 0 and the sun was shining, this meant that we started clearing some very small garden area’s. We needed to prune down the rose bushes and all the baby roses that will be dug out and moved into different area’s of the yard.
One of the area’s I wanted to check was the bigger rooted Sunchoke growing area. I was hoping that I might be able to dig some for a meal (yes, the first forged food this year from the food forest garden area)
and we took off the canes that had been left for the winter, just rolling them into a big pile next to the area for the next week.
Once the temps warm up for a couple of days above plus 10, I will move it but not yet.. I want to leave them there to give anything in them a chance to come out and move on before I compost them. This will go a long way to melting out the still frozen main part of this patch and get them to start growing.
However, I looked at the stems and went hmm. hard outer shell and soft pithy inside that would be very easy to chew out to make a nice little bed.. Grabbed the snipers and hubby and I selected and then cut up different sizes canes until we had our biggest 10 gallon plant pot filled up with them..
they are all cut to very close to the same length.. but in smaller, med and larger sizes for the entry holes. I would not just leave them out in the weather at this point, and I only expect them to be a single year in regards to use.
However I am very interested in bundling these up and using them in a few spots in regards to different bug hotels. I see it all the time that folks recommend raspberry canes and such, I am not saying I will not add a few of them as well but these are certainly easier to work with as they lack the prickles
Bamboo canes are not cheap these days that’s for sure.. it’s very hard to find them cut to the right size locally, and if you start buying the bundles off amazon or other one line sites and the prices go up.
You see them often talked about being added to the bee houses or the insect hotels, however it’s rarely talked about the fact that these are really only one year in use as there is no real good way to clean them out year to year..
So I am hopeful and will share and report back what “if anything” uses these, because it a cheap frugal renewable yearly cast off on a plant grown for its roots. While the leaves can be taken off and used for fodder for livestock. The same could be said for the stems if you wanted to cut them down late fall and given to the pig for chewing on..
However I prefer to leave them as a winter habitat for the natives bugs and so I have not really had a spring use for them until this year..
So what do you think? Will it work? Who do you think will use it? Have you ever used these canes in this way? What was your results?
This my stand in photo for this week.. I will come back to this weeks challenge at a later point.. sometimes you can look and look and still not find what it is you want for a certain word or idea in that time frame.
I found two cases of Quarts and two cases of half-gallon dark Amber, (takes out 99 percent of UV light) and I bought them all.. I have looked at smaller jars at times but the costs where quite high.. as were these.. the quarts were sitting just over 3 each and the half gallons were pretty much 7 dollars each.
Now they are Ball jar, which means they are top of the line compared to many other cheaper jars and if they are looked after properly with care, they could outlast me 🙂 I know this because I have found and own jars that are older than I am and they are going strong!
Pressure canning is much harder on the jars overall compared to water bath canning, however not using a proper bottom on your water bath canner can weaken the bottom joint ring and cause them to let go.
When it comes to jars, I have the cheaper brands, but I have found them to have a much shorter “life” depending on the batch and what they are used for.. The Wal-Mart brand hold up well for juice, jams, jellies and for gift giving when you know the odds are you are not going to get those jars back..
However the higher quality jars are a better investment if you are going to be canning up meats and veggies, soups and stews.. I have some soup/stew work jars that are coming on their 15th year that hubby takes his lunches on.
Every time a jar breaks or chips, it’s a waste.. there is really no way to reuse a broken jar on the farm, I do not even like the idea of using it in the bottom of plant pots and so forth due to cutting possibility.. If you know of a homestead use for broken glass, I am all ears.
I have been watching the cost of rings going up and more up.. What are lids costing you this year? I hope you would be willing to take the time to let me know. I was shocked to see that 12 lids for regular mouth jars is 2.97 and 12 for wide mouth is 3.97 plus 13 percent tax on top of that at the till..
Once again, its cheaper to buy the box’s of 12 new lids/rings combo at the moment then it is to buy just new lids.. I found this last year.. its a glitch that I am sure will be closed soon enough.. I normally like to buy them by the case.
I decided to see if I could order them by the case online and so far no luck on finding a proper full case.. they are trying to sell them in sets of 12 boxes.. ah.. no.. a case is 48 box’s, thank you very much!
I have heard that at least in the states that they changed the rubber compound to the point that the jar’s lids have been failing at a higher then normal rate and that many of the homestead lady’s are ordering in though a few select sites.. I can dig out that stores name if need be.. but perhaps one of you will know?
We still have our Canadian brand and so far to date, while I do believe that the rubber IS thinner, I am not yet having any issues as long as I pre-heat my lids.. They “say” that we don’t need to do that and for pressure canning, I do not.. but even I had a couple lids fail on the same batch when I did it the way they said.. HA..
I went back to hot jars, hot lids and hot whatever when water bath canning and surprise (not) not a single lid gave after I went back to doing this.
So while I certainly am not recommending you boil your new lids, I will stand by the fact that putting a hot lid on does not hurt at all in the process.
Its a sad thing that at this point the replacement lids are going to start costing us canners more per jar then the jars will once their costs are spread out over the years. I do reuse canning lids in many ways, if I am putting a jar in the fridge or a storage jar or herb jar etc.
However I use a new lid for both canning and pressure canning always.. I know lots of folks that reuse lids and there are times where I know that I would risk it on lids I have taken off but hubby does not have that “touch” and crimps/dents the lid when he takes it off..
It does take a talent to release the pressure on that lid with it coming off clean.. Who in your family is the best lid remover?
Waves.. Dogs are on the deck, rain is coming so I am taking advantage this morning early to get a bit of garden work done. Come on in, I will wash up and put the kettle on for us.
O you want to have a little walk around, things are slowly melting out again since that last snow.. I know there are a few little things that are starting to grow and we are finally going to be able to plant out in the horse trough garden this weekend and work on the new garden paths for the front garden.
So yesterday in my email box came a letter from one of my official “provincial” livestock orgs and the whole thing was all about how to protect yourself from the animal rights and how to lock down your farm in many ways from the public.
This included signs, recommendation on wording and more..
I have to admit that I did a huh?
It seems to be it was not that long ago that everyone was talking about farm tours, about that as a small farmer and a connect with those who produce your eggs, your milk, your meat.. come to the farm.. pet the babies.. get your picture taken.
Now I have ALWAYS had an issue with this.. I can count on one hand the amount of my “friends” or those that visit the farm that are allowed to see everything and there is a dang good reason for this..
Its called Biosecurity and its real and its something that so many homesteaders, small farmers do not practise.. I am bad at it sometimes myself.. there are times where I let folks in the front yards without making them put on the booties. Where If I know that I have X rabbits in a clean hutch that I will take one out for a pet etc
The horse’s do go off the farm but they also get extra vaccines and they also have extra insurance for it as well. I used to have special travel insurance when I showed but now I have basic coverage for here on the farm. I have asked other people at times, what coverage do you have for when you have these “open days” and only two have ever answered me in detail.. the rest just get blank looks on their faces.
Strangely when you step out of the small livestock and into the horse world, this is the norm.. you need to show proof of vaccines, you need to show proof of insurance. You need to fill out and sign wavers when you arrive on the farms..
To be honest it should be the same way on the small homesteads, if you are really going to allow folks to stick fingers though fences or worst yet, going to allow people in with the different critters, example goat yoga or walking with the alpaca, then I would hope that everyone had to sign a waiver.. I don’t think many do but they should!
I had someone “petting” a friendly sheep, my focus was elsewhere and if I had not seen him back up and then move into again for “another pet” I would have missed it, I was just lucky that he was giving warning.
That ram was warning that person that he was getting ready to charge and because of lack of knowledge, the person though that the slow movement, care being shown was an invite to be friendly.. it was a interspecies miscommunication.
I know I shocked the person when I went over and reacted in a “BIG WAY” and drove the ram out and back.. but it truly could have all gone VERY Wrong.. I had a fellow sheep farmer who was hit by her ram and he broke her back. It was an eye opener to say the least, I had allowed myself to get to comfortable with the folks visiting as they come to the farm every year.
It was not their fault, it was not the ram’s fault.. it was mine.. as the farmer, I should know better than to put people and livestock together without full-time care and explaining going on between them.
I have been kicked, bite, rolled and stomped over my life time and pretty much everyone I know that works day in and day out with livestock has stories and war wounds to show..
The rooster that decided that purple was the color to trigger an attack.. the gander that thought you might have looked in the direction of his gal, the ram who has ewe’s in heat, the mare that is heat and who is a total sweetheart most of the time who will kick you if you look at her wrong on the “heat day”, the pig that has been a sweetheart always who snaps when a baby cries wrong.. and her hormones kick in..
However I do my best to keep certain lines that do not get crossed on the farm.. area’s that have the youngest is one area that I try very hard to keep totally only us, or a vet if needed but trust me, he is boot dipping and or wearing the blue booties.
Certain times over the past years, I have totally locked down the farm when certain bio threats are happening and are so easy to spread. Tires can and do bring things in.. boots, gloves and more.
But this was all about image, this was about the fact that we need to present the white picket fence image.
Strangely despite everything I said above, I don’t agree with the white picket or the hiding behind fences or locking in buildings without windows. Its spring here on the farm and I know that there is a mud on knees, there are wet feet that I am watching, there is a big shit pile in the one corner of the pasture where the horse’s dozed in the sun for months..
There is muck and mud and piles of bedding hauled out of the barns.. is it pretty.. no, it’s not.. but its real..
We need more care yes, and we need animal welfare yes, but we also need more real!
There is nothing wrong with real, you know!
Not all babies are perfect..
Not everyone is healthy all the time.. are we.. I mean really think about it.. why is there this image that every single animal on the farm must be this glowing picture of health..
If I asked you if everyone in your family was the picture of health all year-long, what is the odds.. someone had colds right? someone needed some kind of tooth care? What about nail care, some got a sliver? Or some slipped? Did someone hit their toes and break it? What about someone who gained weight over the winter or lost weight because they are nursing a baby and running after a toddler?
Or what about your house hold pet.. cats that need help with bite that got infected, or a dog that eat the wrong thing and is throwing up or a split paw or a pulled nail.. we all know that if own pets that there are times we need help, that we take them to the vets.
SO why the heck have we allowed ourselves to fall into the trap that a full-time milking animal be it cow, goat or sheep is to look the same as a dry animal.. they don’t.. they are in full production.. they have a hippy look to them.. it’s not wrong.. it’s just not the same as a unbred animal would look…
Does a mother of four who is in her mid 30’s look the same as a 20-year-old in their prime with no children.. no.. and yet we expect the older females of our flocks and herds to look the same.
I have even had people say.. what is wrong with that chicken! Is it unhealthy, does it need a vet, o my god.. put a sweater on it.. yes I swear, someone say the sweaters on facebook and told me to put a sweater on my chicken.. Sigh!
Its called moulting.. all birds that live longer then a year do it and they do it every single year! Instead of going, did a fox attack chickens due to the feather explosion in the yard.. or going.. that chicken must be cold..
Maybe we could have a chat about the fact that small farm, homesteads and so forth are the fragile keeping grounds of the rare breeds, the heritage breeds and that the best way to save them is to breed them and eat them.
That sometimes we should take pictures of birds in moult and share them on our social media instead of only sharing the perfect photos of the full fluffy butts.. I mean I love a feather fluffy butt the same as the next chicken loving gal.. but I swear I am going to put up birds with missing feathers and moulting chickens this year.
Then yesterday on the radio came a hour long program by a ag lawyer talking about how farms are getting swarmed.. they will have numbers of people arrive in protest and refuse to leave and often take animals when they do so, without the farmers permission.. they simply overwhelm the farmer. .. that they have started having to send out alerts to farmers that activsests are planning and talking on the net.
In this case they were focused on dairy and they would steal the calves and then post photo’s of them afterwards. Its my understanding that this also happened with piglets as well.
A friend of mine in alberta had her dog taken and re-sold (or so it appears) from her ranch yard.. I feel so badly for her, it seems like every year all over the place, dogs are taken for re-sale (if they are lucky) and for fighting rings if they are not lucky enough to be rehomed.
Whole litters taken from backyards, someone tried once to steal my Freyja and they would have gotten my mom’s much more friendly house dogs if my farm girl had not let loose in barks and ran away.. stranger should not touch.. I yelled from the window and then left as I went storming out. That same day they took X amount of dogs from the town.. we were just lucky, it was totally random.
However my friend had shared on social media that she was traveling, and I know that while it “could have been ” random, I can’t help but wonder if her farm got targeted due to there being a farm sitter in place. As far as I know at the moment, they still do not know where they much loved dog is.. my heart breaks for them..
I would be so upset if someone came and stole my lambs right out of my barn.. Camera’s have come a long! long way. Tiny little battery camera’s will get the job done. Get one that shows your lane, one that shows your barn and more.. and put up the signs.. Smile, you are on camera!
So in a nutshell..
Stop having open house farm days, they are being targeted
Follow proper and safe Biosecurity on your farm when you do have people come visit.. they come to visit in the house.. beware and speak strongly to those that they can just wonder around looking at things.
Show real life as well as the pretty on your social media, we need more REAL
Put up camera’s and use them on your farms
Lock things up.. I know its a pain to do so.. but put things under lock and key goes a long way to help makes sure things stay safe. As does chaining things up. I know they can be cut.. but it sure slows folks down at the least!
Don’t tell people if you are going to be away or if you have a farm sitter stopping by, write about your great time after you get home. I do it all the time, folks think its happening in the moment.. but its after I am home..
If they are going to be living on the farm full time that’s a little different but make sure that is shared in such a way as folks understand that.
Its a new world we live in folks.. and its a tricky one to find balance in.
Stay safe out there.. and keep your livestock just as safe!
The Canadian Geese have been coming to the fields behind the farm by the hundreds for days now..
We have three deer that have been cross over the farm and feeding around the farm in the local fields. It appears to be a big doe with two yearlings.
There little trouble makers have broke out of the fence one to many time and are now in lock down after I caught them up by the bean teepee.. sneaky girls.. very sneaky!
The big river is staring to break up now.. the local creek is overflowing its banks and there are local roads closed off other then local traffic and only if you can get to your place before you can’t! Its not effected us, despite the higher levels, it has not gotten even to close to the pasture fields before it started to retreat
However down the road, its been much worse.. this is not a lake.. this is hundreds of acres of fields.. hopefully it will start to drain soon.
The call was placed to the feed store and the Chicks and Turkey Pullets are now ordered and will arrive on the farm the first week of May.
We ordered in 12 dual purpose large brown egg layers. I love so many thinks that my Icelandic J line land race rooster has added into the main mixed breed flock but the reduction of egg size is the one thing I need to correct in the coming gens. These are sex linked and are all hens.
He reduced egg size from a large to a med in weight on most of his offspring and then I had a weasel attack late winter and sadly lost four of my bigger brown egg layers. I had five years ago added in a some green egg layers but while they were stunning, great temperaments, they did not really lay well.. .. no let me change that.. they really did not lay well.. they were from show lines and produced 3 to 4 eggs a week.
However breed down to the Icelandic line, I was able to increase the laying rates back up to normal rates but the Icelandic helped bring down the egg size.. giving up one thing for another.. I would take regular steady layers that really produce well even if It means I lost some size..
Now that I have the colors I want added in, the smaller combs and that great forage built-in, I want to use the coming laying hens to be to bring in the genes to bring back up the size on the eggs in the next generations.
I ordered in 50 white rock meat birds. I had only planned on 40 of them but it cost me 4 dollars less if I ordered 50 then if I ordered in 40.. as the price really went down at the 50 mark.. so be it.
While I have raised chicks for many years now, I have never raised white rock’s.. I have also gone with the slower growth rates of the heavy dual breed chickens.. but this year, the simple fact is that I had to take a very hard look at the growth rates, the return rates and the feed costs.
I heard from a friend who raises her birds very much like I do and she said they did them last year for the first time and had very good luck with them. I am hoping I will find the same thing. We will see how it goes and if it saves us money in the long run. They are mixed run unsexed.
It will have to really prove themselves because if I was not buying them, I would be hatching my own chicks, so right off the top, we have earn back the money that it took to buy these chicks from the hatchery.
While I will run the chicks as a group of 50 at the start, as soon as I can, I will be splitting out the bigger chicks (males I assume) into their own group of ideally around 25 and keeping the smaller (female’s I assume ) into their own group. I have heard they can be quite lazy and I want to make sure that the bigger are not pushing the smaller off the feeder or water or prime shade etc.
I also ordered in 10 turkey pullets, I had planned on buying the smaller white but again it turns out that you have to pay extra to get the mini-classic so I went with the more cost-friendly choice and got the great big White Broad Breasted Turkeys. These are mixed run and unsexed so we will get a mix of smaller females and bigger males.
I am very hopeful that my female turkey will be laying an trying to sit eggs and I will be encouraging her to do so at the right time and I will be able to slip the pullets under her and that she will raise them for me.. It will make things so much easier if I can make this happen..
The plan at the moment is to butcher at smaller sizes for at least some of them, I have no need for 50 pound turkeys, well other then one or two for when I hope to have some family come a nice meal around thanksgiving etc.
I still plan to do all the ducks inhouse as they say.. all my own eggs, my own hatching or the hen hatching and raising them for our own use. I am still wanting ideally a min of 48 ducks but more would be better.
I am excited to see the plans come together here on the farm.
How about you? Have you got eggs in your incubator? Do you have chicks ordered? Do you live in ones those places that brings in chicks of all kinds to the feed stores and you can just go and pick what you want? Do you get your chicks delivered by mail?
Is feed costs effecting your own plans for what you are choosing to raise this year?
So unless something else changes, that is the April update for you, somehow.. somehow I made it though spring and did not make it to a single spring bird sale! O my gosh.. you have no idea how hard it was to not go to a sale lol..
I adore my spring bird sales! So SO much.. but I stayed with the plan! I am working the plan..
Just another Day on the Farm 