New Lawnmowers!

Up until last fall, we have kept chickens for eggs. They has a pretty large area to run but they were able to keep the weeds and grass completely out if it. Their pen looked like a moonscape. Now that they have all been dispatched by varying critters, it resembles a jungle. That is just one spring's worth of growth.

This area resembled the moon with craters as well as lack of vegetation.  I was not going to try to mow it for fear of falling into one and never being found.  It is too large of an area to weed eat and I didn't want to spray it.  It was beginning to look like a jungle.  I asked Jeff if we could get a couple of goats or lambs.  He went one (two) better.  We got four, a nanny goat and her triplets.  They are about two weeks old and are the cutest lawnmower ever!  If you have never seen kids jumping around and playing, well, you just haven't lived.  That may be the greatest stress reliever of all time.  With our new acquisition we hope to have the former chicken pen in shape soon.  We also hope to be able to milk the nanny some.  First she has to warm up to us.  All three kids are doelings-BONUS!  They sell better than bucklings and we can also have them bred to keep a supply going of meat and milk.  We were blessed with paying less for them than normal as well.  The three doelings had gotten off by themselves and we were able to catch them.  As siblings they like to stick together, so once we had them we decided that was the group we would take. (The man had 4-5 nannies all with at least twins.) I had picked out a nanny before we had the kids.  She just happened to be their nanny.  We had been quoted a price over the phone.  Once we had all the goats the man checked their sex and was surprised that they were all female.  (he had only ever checked one of them and figured law of averages would have at least one male in the group.)  Normally this would raise the price for a family, but since he had already quoted us one, he kept it at that!  So now they are here and we have named them.  Fortunately they were not bucklings or they would be Moe, Larry, and Curly.

Ginger

Jack Rabbit (Jackie)

Buttercup

Stormy



A Little Restructuring

The garden is in for the most part!!!  All I lack are a couple of purple bell pepper plants and my sunflowers.

This year I have had quite a bit of help from the hubby.  Usually he just tills the ground for me and then the rest of the year it is all mine.  All the planting, mulching, wedding, picking, preserving, cleaning out.  All of it.  That really is okay with me, after all, he does work a demanding job.  Besides, I really like working the garden (unless it's 100 degrees).  It brings a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.  This year we did a bit of restructuring though, so his help was very much appreciated and needed.  We moved the fence panels to make the gate opening at the shed instead of in the middle of the fence.  This gave us a sturdier structure for a gate to actually be put on.  Now that we have a large dog that is like a bull in a china closet outside (in the house he is very laid back)  we felt that it was necessary.  Then we decided to try landscape cloth as an underlayment for our sawdust/wood shavings mulch.  This can be a one person job, but it is so much easier with two.  (Though still a pain, I don't think I will do it again unless it works really well.)  Then we decided to make paths down the long sides of the garden.  We used landscape blocks that had previously been a retaining wall in the yard to make the borders.  Then we filled the area with colored cypress mulch.  This will make it easier to do raised beds next summer. 

We got all of this finished just in time for the rainy and storm week that has been forecast.  So, what did I plant?  Not as many things as I normally do, but the usual things made it in there.  Tomatoes , of course.  Jeff picked those out.  We have: Roma, Jet Star, and four heirloom varieties that include a black tomato and a yellow tomato.  We have bell peppers (4 colors so far), jalapenos, habaneros, sweet banana, and Anaheim.  I may put in some poblano as well.  Purple carrots and multi color Swiss chard, broccoli, garlic, spaghetti and yellow squash, cantaloupe and one lonely eggplant round it out.  I had thrown some spinach and lettuce seeds in with the strawberries a few weeks back.  They are slow going, but have finally made there selves known.

Now it is just a wait an see game.  We are all just hoping for a much nicer summer than the last one.  With the very mild winter and a warmer than usual spring, we may be out of luck.  I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Landscape fabric and cardboard under the mulch

Sawdust mulch

Leveling the path

landscape fabric

Blocks and mulch

Something to trip over in front of the shed

Beautiful Day to Work Outside

Today has been overcast and cool. You can't ask for better weather to work hard in the garden. It went from overgrown with wheat to completely cleaned out and it is half tilled. Chicken poo has been spread over all of it. (I made a pretty good dent in that pile.) I'm throwing in a picture of our chicken feeder that Jeff put together a couple of years ago. It will hold 2+ bags of feed.

We rearranged the fence a little this year, moving the entrance closer to the shed. We will attach a fate to the shed and grow honeysuckle or morning glory on the trellis.

I've got to get the landscape cloth down an then we will cover it with wood shavings from the cabinet shop.

Lots more to do, including the purchase of a couple of goats!

Before

That's a pile of...

New garden entrance

Gophers!  UGH!

More before

After

And even more before-iPhone does not arrange in order chosen apparently

After

These are of the chicken feeder-concrete forms duct taped to the feeder and then hung from the ceiling

Broccoli

Broccoli

Got the broccoli in. It's a little later than I would have liked, especially considering we just had the warmest March on record, but it's in!

Spring Has Sprung

With all of the inside work of deleavening going on, I had to get out and get my hands just a little dirty.  I don't have a lot of time until this weekend, so I focused mainly on my pots and barrels.  I am also not really sure about having a bunch of flowers in a yard with a 100 pound dog.  We'll have to see how that goes.  I will probably stick with seeds instead of more expensive plants for now.  I do want to get some creeping phlox in though.


On the front porch I just planted a few things.  You can see my dog in the background.  At least he doesn't dig.

Elijah wanted to plant some mint in the yard so when he mowed it, it would smell good.  Since it tends to take over everything, I told him we could put it in the barrel that had basil in it last year.  Then he can pick a few leaves and rub it in his hands and then fill them with water for a refreshingly cool drink when he mows. 

I managed to keep my pineapple alive all winter.  It could use some trimming, but at least it's alive.  The strawberries are blooming like mad.  I may get a few  more.

I have started a few things for the veggie garden, probably a little too late, especially with all the warm weather we have had.  But at least they are started.  I am also trying out a new-to-me product this year.  Sea Minerals FA.  It has several applications, including farm animal supplimentation.  I treated most of my seedlings (leaving some untreated for control purposes) with it, one pineapple, and my new flowers.  I also treated my irises, strawberries, and my front shade garden.  I will keep pictures posted of how they are doing.

Tomorrow we will mow, hopefully burn some more tree limbs, and get an area in the garden ready for broccoli.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

I decided to measure out the ingredients for the sweet and sour sauce I've been making for my stir fry.  Here it is.

3 large grapefruit-ruby red
2 lemons
1 lime
2 tsp crystallized ginger
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup honey

Juice the fruits and put all the ingredients in a pan.  Simmer until desired thickness.  Store in airtight jar in fridge.  It doesn't take much.

Finally a Fire

I did not get to burn the stuff in the garden until Sunday night. March is definitely coming in like a lion. No where near as bad as the eastern part of the country is experiencing so I will not complain. It is just too dry and windy to burn. Sunday night however was perfect!

Sunday afternoon was nice so I also finally got the wheat pulled in the strawberry bed. With a little help from Elijah we got that finished in about 30 minutes. Then I scattered lettuce and spinach seed in it.

Today it is already terribly windy so I'm not sure what we will get going out there. We do need to mow our weeds though. I also need to get some plants started. Maybe it will be an indoor day.