Happy (Belated) Fourth of July
Posted on | July 22, 2010 | No Comments
Guess what else I found? My pictures from the Fourth of July! I love the Fourth of July. We go to the same small town parade every year. By small town, I mean we drive 20 miles out into the country from our rural community to theirs. That’s small.
The parade starts at the center of town. Which consists of a gas station and a stop sign. Not a fancy gas station with a fast food chain inside. Not even one with automatic doors. Nope. This is the kind of gas station where the old folks stand next to their vehicle, smoking a cigarette, and chatting with their neighbor while filling up their tank. Old School. Read more
This is what we do.
Posted on | July 21, 2010 | 4 Comments
It’s true.
We have to drive quite a ways to see a movie.
And the closest mall isn’t close at all.
Even if you decide to go those places, it might take a while. Because you’re bound to end up behind a farmer and his tractor. A decent hay rakes takes up a lane and half. If he’s moving the harvester combine, better just find another way. You’re not passing that baby on the two lane roads without a shoulder that we have out here. Read more
No Dumping
Posted on | July 18, 2010 | 5 Comments
Don’t do this.
Really.
It breaks about 20 regulations, ordinances and, maybe, even commandments.
I know what you’re thinking. What else do you do with the debris you collect from the back pasture except load it into the truck, strap it down, and haul it to the dump?
That’s the problem. There is no dump.
Oh, there are solid waste convenience centers (“Convenience” is used loosely in this term. Very loosely.), recycling drop-off sites, and landfills. But the word “dump” is no longer appropriate for modern trash vernacular. Because there is no dumping. There may be sorting, recycling, permitting and tipping. There may even be begging. But there is absolutely no “dumping”. Read more
Me and the Little Red Hen
Posted on | June 4, 2010 | 6 Comments
Apparently Mother Nature doesn’t know that the summer solstice is on June 21st. Like everyone else, she assumed that summer started on Memorial Day. So she sent us a week of heat, humidity and thunderstorms. Which is fine with me since I had just planted some seeds and didn’t have to worry about keeping the soil damp. Guess Mother Nature knows best after all.
But today dawned bright and sunny, meaning it was time to get back to the garden. I rounded up my slaves, um, children, gathered some tools, and remembered the tick spray when we already half way down the driveway. Same old, same old. Read more
Tags: 3 Sisters garden > beetle > blackberries > corn > garden > lettuce > okra > seeds > squash > tomaotes > weeds > zucchini
Cute is Overrated.
Posted on | May 15, 2010 | 12 Comments
I canceled the spring farm tour. Not because I wanted to cancel it. I know opening the farm for tours is a great way to make friends out of the neighbors and win new customers. But the animals won’t cooperate. Everyone wants to see cute cuddly chicks and cute fluffy ducklings and cute playful goat kids. But the animals on my farm don’t do cute. They laugh at cute. They spit in cute’s eye. They eat cute for breakfast. They meet cute in the corral at high noon and say “Go ahead, cute. Make my day.” Read more
Tags: chicks > ducklings > ducks > farm tour > goats > pony > rooster > sheep
Udderly Waiting
Posted on | May 7, 2010 | 3 Comments
Waiting for the goat kids to be born next month is starting to bother me. Even worse it’s starting to bother the goats. Not the waiting part. Just the part where I’m always following them around trying to check out their nether regions. Why is it that when you want a goat to look you in the eye during a blistering lecture about tipping the feed cans, all you get is the rear view. But if you’re trying to check tail ligaments or an udder that is bagging up, all you get is a big head insisting on an ear scratch.
Luckily, there is always something else to do around here to distract me from waiting for the goats to be born next month. Like arranging for the goats that will be born in October. I know what you’re thinking. That still falls under the Waiting For Goats To Be Born Category. However, it also falls under the categories of Clean Out The Breeding Barn (a.k.a The Love Shack), Move A Load Of Hay And Feed Bags Into The Breeding Barn, Give Everyone A Hoof Trim In Anticipation Of Company, Take The Does To The Vet For CAE And CL Tests, and, last but certainly not least, Find A Buck And Invite Him Over For Happy Hour. Read more
It’s That Time
Posted on | May 4, 2010 | 5 Comments
When it’s over 70 degrees at 6am, I know it’s time. Finally.
Summer is here. It’s time to wash the goat coat and pack it away.
You might call yours a barn coat. And, officially, that’s what it is. The coat actually spends as much time carrying chickens under a fleecy sleeve and pinning the sheep down for a hoof trim as it does cuddling goat kids during their morning bottle. The Great Pyrenees does try to leave his mark with swaths of 5 inch long white hairs. And the pony has been known to wipe green alfalfa pellet mouth foam on it from time to time. But since the goats are the most odiferous of our farm critters, they leave the most lasting impression. Read more
What was I thinking?
Posted on | April 22, 2010 | 5 Comments
There’s no good excuse. I guess I just got carried away. Because the summer garden was finally planted (except for the root crops which prefer a 3rd quarter moon). The raised beds in the side pasture were filled with compost in preparation for the vine crops (2nd quarter moon in Scorpio). The chicken accessories were moved to the summer coop so everything would be ready for the Big Switch (any moon in which you can get as many hands as possible to help carry sleeping chickens from the winter coop to the summer coop). I baked 3 loaves of bread, and actually remembered to put in flax seed (well, the bread machine did the baking but I did the remembering all by myself). Read more
Tags: coop > crops > eggs > garden > guinea > incubator > lunar calendar > perennials > weeds
The Perfect Storm
Posted on | April 21, 2010 | 5 Comments
Ready to go in the garden!
It’s second quarter moon in Cancer.
And almost April 22nd.
Plus, a gentle rain in the forecast.
To top it off, the kids are home from school on an early release day.
You know what that means.
You do, don’t you?
Ready, set…if you’ve got it, plant it!
That’s right. For those of us using the lunar calendar as a guide, the 2nd quarter of the moon in Cancer is perfect for transplanting crops that produce their yield above the ground. All those tomatoes and cucumbers and squash and eggplant and peppers and whatever else is hardening off on your deck can finally go in the ground (strike up Handel’s Hallelujah chorus). Unless, like me, everything except for the tomatoes and cucumbers died already. Then plant your tomatoes and cucumbers with pride and sneak off to the farmer’s market for replacement veggies. Hey, some farmer grew them. It just wasn’t you. Or me.
‘Tis the season
Posted on | April 19, 2010 | 7 Comments
It’s that time of year. When the chickens’ desire to procreate overrides their desire to provide me with fresh eggs for market. The entire 4 acres of our farm becomes the battleground for a strategic game of chicken-hide-and-farmer-seek.
Bad chicken. This is not the nest box.
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