By Daisy Luther
September is flying by in a rush, isn’t it? I can’t believe that we’re almost to the last quarter of the year already!
This was an eventful week with a lot to report on the Friday Farm Blog.
I waited until my chicks were mature to see if I had any roosters, and it turns out I got all hens. (At least the survivors are, anyway.) A person in a local homesteading group who lives in town ended up with a rooster she was giving away. After I agreed to take him home and not cook him, she discovered his sibling was also a roo. Because the boys are bonded and get along well, I offered to take both of them home with me.
Plus, they’re ridiculously cute. If a stuffed animal manufacturer needed models for plush toy chickens, these are their guys. The dark one is Hemingway and the lighter one is Orwell. You probably want to squeal at the adorable fluff. Go ahead. I do pretty much every day.
These chickens are a special breed called Silkies. They’re very friendly, although that could just be how they were raised as opposed to something breed specific. Orwell, in particular, is a snuggler. He also doesn’t even mind my no-makeup, bedhead look for morning chores. And FYI, I’m wearing PJs and polka dot boots, too, for a real fashion statement.
In other news, I think our goat is pregnant. Much Googling and Youtubing seem to agree. Now, since I haven’t a clue when she had a “date” all I can say for sure is that it’s more than two months along. Baby Goat Watch 2105!!!! I’m so excited. And yesterday, when I was poking her belly, something poked me back. So it’s either babies, exceptionally large parasites, or she has been inhabited by aliens who are planning to break free. Occam’s Razor (the most likely theory is probably correct) says it’s babies. (Happy dance!)
This week has seen some horrible fires in our area. One wiped out an entire town, burning it to the ground. We saw just how quickly it could happen, and with some neighbors, tightened up our evacuation plans. Nearly everyone in this area has livestock, and evacuating them would be a complicated maneuver. We witnessed a fire that moved so quickly some people didn’t even have time to put on their shoes before leaving their homes for the last time. (See the shocking evacuation videos HERE. You may rethink your own evacuation readiness.)
I did a little canning this week. Have I mentioned lately how much I love canning? I used some of these recipes to process a windfall of tomatoes this week. Next week, I have a tree full of pears to process, and will get to keep half in return for preserving a friend’s harvest. I haven’t put back nearly as much as usual this year, which makes me uncomfortable. What with the move, we were on a pretty tight budget and couldn’t afford to buy a lot. Since we moved in the summer, our garden is only so-so. We’ve been relying mostly on barter for building up our supplies this year. I feel fortunate to live in an area where so many people farm – despite the drought, there is so much bounty here.
How was your week? Did you do some prepping for the winter ahead? Any news from your farm? Please share in the comments below!
My grandpa always said you needed two roosters so they would keep each other honest! No lazy roosters allowed on his watch I guess. lol For prepping I harvested a bunch of herbs & froze them in ice cubes. So much tastier & more nutritious than dried herbs.
It’s been a tomatoey week. I have 35 half pints of tomato sauce! Since we use a lot of tomato sauce, my goal was to put up enough of my own for a year. Then, the tomato production sagged due to the heat along with hope for a year’s worth of sauce. We are being blessed with a bit of heat relief, now, and the tomatoes have taken off. Those and string beans are our current rabid producers. The blackeyed peas and purple hull peas have laid down the gauntlet and are on the list for clearing out.
I love purple hull peas! I used to have the all the time growing up in the South. 🙂
Here in the Copper valley in Alaska We expect freezing nights for the next week! So we will pick all the green tomatoes to ripen in the house. Propane is too expensive to keep the hoop houses going nd we are loosing seven minutes of light a day now. Already have about two dozen half pints of sauce. We have about fifteen bushels of potatoes drying in the shed. This week’s main chore is harvesting three double rows of carrots and three double rows of beets each fifty feet long. Canning some of the carrots and most of the beets. Still have cbbge to cut and maybe more cauliflower.
Wow, the summer ends quickly up your way, Howard! 🙂 Happy harvesting!
Busy week here too, got my baby chicks this week from McMurray Hatchery, 30 girls and 10 boys, only lost one in shipping, then 2 more to the stress i think, they all seem to be doing good though, eating drinking peeping away and pooping,,,,
I got Dark Cornish chicks so wont be as fluffy cute as your new friends but will hopefully pretty independent, hope to semi free range them. Roosters are usually around 10# hens around 8# so bigger birds.
Harvested about 1100# of corn, sold or traded a bunch of it, but am canning or dehydrating or eating the rest, did about 36 pints the other day in the canner and dehydrated another 20# of kernels, still have 3 50# tubs of ears to process, or eat.
The asparagus has been shooting up so need to find some good way to preserve some of that, have about 25# that needs to have something happen with it. Had traded some of the corn with my neighbor who has a farm stand down the road, got 2 big bushel bags of small sweet Maui onions so cut a bunch of them up and am making pickled onions, also dehydrated about 30-40 of them, was pretty funny, 9tray excalibur was chock full of onion pieces, ended up shrinking down into 3 vacum sealed bags that look to be about 2 cups each, was sorta like “hey, whered my onions disappear to” but it was still the same onions, just really shriveled up!
The corn was the same way, drier was chock full, was about 4 gallons of kernels stripped from cobs, when it was dried it ended up being 5 vacum sealed bags with 5 cups in each, sure saves on space though!
Have to figure out how to stop the pickle worms from eating my cucumbers, sorta had an explosion of the damn things, both the cucumbers and the worms, i hear they taste sorta like cucumber though.
Need to start harvesting butternuts and the scarlet kabochas, have dozens and dozens of them about ready, trying to figure out a way to preserve them, no root cellar and they just rot because of our climate. I know freezing is easy but what if electricity disappears? Guess i shouldnt worry about that and just freeze the damn things chunked up and stuffed in zip locks. May try and pressure can some, would be easy for chris to take for lunches then.
My tomato plants are starting to really blossom now, the Amish Paste tomatos were first to start, then the Moskovich, both growing in the greenhouse,the Defiant hybrids are the last in line but didnt take as good care of the plants, but are in the garden tunnel so they have a nice environment, looking forward to the tomatoes though, this is the first time i grew them, so need to gear up for sauce! Oregano and thyme are coming bach after giving them a haircut and the basil patch is about 1′ high and bushy so have just about all the ingredients,
It finally seems to have stopped with the crazy el ninyo rains here, but will see, this has been the wettest year i can ever remember here on this rock, in the late 70s on the big island i remember a year like this but that was a long time ago.
Happy homesteading!
Man, I sure hope we get some of those El Nino rains! We can use them. Your harvests sound awesome! Next year, I’m planning to add some Cornish for meat, but with my propensity for turning them all into pets…well…you know. 😉
Hi Daisy,
Been reading you for several years now, love it, keep up the good work! What kind of goat(s) are you raising?
Hi Andrew! Our goats are Nigerians.