By Daisy Luther
This week was nice and mellow here at the farm. For once, there were no catastrophes, I didn’t run out of something important, and life went smoothly. Maybe it’s because we’re back on a routine again.
Homeschool started up for my daughter, so we got school supplies. Whether you leave home for school or not, there’s something inspiring about starting off with those fresh new notebooks, a package of pens, and a pristine datebook for scheduling your days. We hit the really good sales and got enough to last the year for a fraction of the normal price. As much as I dislike Wal-Mart as a corporation, I sure appreciate a 12 cent package of loose leaf notebook paper.
My oldest batch of chickens (16 weeks) figured out the perches in the run this week and spent their time looking down on the middle chickens (9 weeks).
This week, as I was sitting on the patio having coffee and going through emails, our little goat Nameless hopped the fence into the yard. She took one look at the dogs and took off running, so of course, they felt obligated to chase her. She was terrified, running into the fence in a panic, trying to get away from them. I yelled at the dogs and ran after everyone. I finally caught up with Nameless and she jumped right up in my arms. But when the dogs saw I had her, they ran up to me and she panicked again. She was screaming (if you’ve never heard a goat scream, check out Youtube) and she literally climbed up me and perched on my shoulders to get as far away from them as possible. It was like having a toddler again, except with hooves. Cora, the other goat, stood by watching, nibbling on fallen leaves like they were popcorn. I’m pretty sure she told Nameless, “I told you not to go in there.”
My daughter got into the farming game with 5 baby chicks that she has picked out and is raising herself. Here’s a picture of the little fluffballs:
I spent some time over at a friend’s house preserving food. Gee, I’m glad someone’s garden is bountiful because mine is NOT. All that survived the move was tomatoes and peppers and since I planted late, I’ve only gotten a few of those. I was lucky enough to get some overripe tomatoes from a farmer’s market and did a bit of canning. (Here’s my tomato prep process.) Look at these beautiful jars of tomato basil soup!
This weekend, I’m getting started on my fall garden, which should work better since I don’t have to move the plants this time.
The book for this weekend is called The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. While I don’t expect to cut things back to four hours a week, I’d really like to be more productive and reduce my time a little bit so I have more time for other responsibilities.
I’ll leave you with this picture of one of The Bronte Sisters (the names of our 3 Barred Rock hens that we can’t tell apart) eyeing up my morning coffee. Am I just weird or is that hilarious?
Tell me about your week! How is your garden doing? Have you harvested much? Let me live vicariously since mine is slow to produce. 🙂
Have a great week!
Hi,
We have been processing the tomato glut using your prep methods that you put out a year ago, and it is going well. We put all the toms. In a wire basket on the grill till soft instead of boiling — gives it a nice flavor and combines with other grilled items like fava beans. We love them, but the standard blanch-peel-blanch-de-skin process is way too much work. The easy lazy way is: put the ripe full pods in a big bowl with a splash of olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes (optional) mix it up and toss on hot grill or in broiler till they are slightly to moderately blackened and limp. Then back in the original bowl , stir to coat again, let cool enough to handle, tear open the pods, squeeze out the beans (skin is still on bean but has been cooked inside pod and is quite edible!) with your bare hands and eat, getting all the oil, salt etc all over. Beer or wine go well with this snack or makes good appetizer with grilled pizza, caprese salad etc. Favas are so easy to grow almost all year and produce lots of beans per plant. No goats allowed in the bean patch!
Do you have bees? It can be very rewarding especially the pollenization effort they put out. If you don’t already have enough to do, check it out. Go to your local bee keepers group to get started.
Your site is great! Love the critter stories as we don’t have any animals except a cat. We are on the coast in Ft Bragg and have been to Placerville several times and always enjoy that area, especially Lava Cap winery!
Jan and Jo Ann
Great site! If you like chickens then you might want to visit this persons website. She is a chicken expert.
Velvet Sparrow
“I have raised and owned chickens for eggs and pets in Southern California since I was a child, and as an adult my husband, daughter and I have continued chicken keeping–and I get lots of questions about keeping chickens happy and healthy. Jack’s Henhouse is named in honor of our original rooster, Jack, pictured here. Jack is no longer with us, but his descendants are.
We live in northern Nevada, and our current flock of 46 or so (‘or so’ because we are suckers for chickens and the number is always fluctuating) birds is a mix of different breeds, standard size and Bantam birds, hens and roosters that range in age from 6 months to 12 years old. We keep a mixed flock of many different breeds but try to stay away from the more aggressive breeds.”
http://jackshenhouse.com/
Daisy, love your blog! I’m so excited about the peas and beans and tomatoes and the 2 patty pans from our late blooming garden. We have so much rain in the spring that we can’t plant until May. Hard to sit by or drive by and see everyone’s garden so volumptuous! Finally, here in September, we are harvesting and canning. This is my first year to use a pressure canner and I’m verging on pride about the vegetables we’ve been able to can. Does anyone else pray for their garden?
Hi Daisy.
The plants in my greenhouse are done for the summer and so I’ve taken a couple of weeks “off” from gardening. I’ll plant my fall things in a couple of weeks.
We live in Texas, out in what’s known as the hill country. My soil here isn’t good and we have many, many deer, so I have a greenhouse and use grow boxes.
This year I had some really terrific tomatoes and on two occasions had way more than we could eat, so I canned them. I didn’t get many pints, but I marked which ones came from my own garden.
Our peach trees outdid themselves. We have four and this was the first year we had a harvest. I canned 52 pints of peaches and 11 half pints of preserves. They look beautiful!
Take heart. Next season your garden will produce for you. Just remember to plant by the moon. My Mom (who will be 101 next month) taught me and believe me, it does make a difference in the harvest.
Love your blog.
Daisy,
I enjoyed reading your farm update. The chickens have grown a lot over the summer.
Take care! Hope you have a great weekend!
KY Mom
P.S. I love your blog. 🙂
Here in the copper valley of alaska we had two 27 degree nights last week but the tomatoes and squash are still fine because we put propane heaters in the green house and hoop houses. I watch the temperature and light them when it gets down to 35. The potato vines are down but the cole crops are fine. We made the last two dozen pints of pickles this weekend. Saurkraut and digging potatoes next on the schedule.
Hi,
I love reading your posts! My garden did fairly well this year. The rabbits got into the beans but I was able to preserve a lot of them before the destruction was done. I got tons of eggplant and am going to try to make a type of Sheppard’s pie later today. I think I have enough pickles for the next two years! I think many people will be getting pickles in their Christmas stocking. 🙂 It looks like it’s going to be a busy year – graduate course, Bible study leader, full time job, mentor for new employee, fall garden, college visits for son, and running the household as a single parent. I wonder if the book you mentioned, “The 4 Hour Work Week” would help. I think I need it! Have a great day – keep up the great work!
Hi Daisy,
LOVE this blog! All your posts on prepping, homesteading, cooking, just speak to my heart. I live for the day I can move from suburbia onto a homestead of my own. We move every year or so due to jobs, and being young with no kids so we can. But eventually…
Anyways, the tomatoes went gang-busters this year, have been eating the cherry tomatoes like candy and bigger ones with sea salt raw and fresh! Never gets old. Just today I got to can a 2 quarts of sauce (also using home-grown basil, which became a veritable tree this year), some peaches from a local farm, and a few jars of salsa.
We are lucky to have a good gardening community in our neighborhood. Three other neighbors have large gardens, so we have a great time rotating around and having garden parties, and trading the surpluses. I’m very blessed indeed.
Keep up the inspiring, useful writing!
-Budget Epicurean
http://www.budgetepicurean.com