Fingers and Toes Crossed

We have an offer on the house! We are currently in negotiations with the potential buyers and hope to have a signed contract within the next day or two. Lets hope the home inspection goes well with no surprises. Cris has to get the pool up and running from its winter hiatus for the inspection.

Getting that house sold will be a breath of fresh air. Between the property taxes, homeowners insurance, electric bill and home equity loan (used to buy the farm), and lawncare, we have been paying alot for an empty house. Hope it will all be over soon.

The next six weeks will be super busy. I am going to Maryland the last weekend in March for about 4 days, sometime in the third week of April, I am driving to Texas to see Robbie come off the plane from Afghanastan (so happy about that!), the house closing will be April 20th (yeah!), sheep shearing April 14th, have to get ready for three sheep we are getting, the last weekend in April is the sustainable living groups Nature Weekend where we learn what Spring plants growing in our woods are edible or medicinal. April 21st I am playing bells at church, finish emptying the Memphis house and in between all this Cris has to travel for work, we have to get stuff planted in the garden and oh yeah, Easter! Our April is full. May should be a breeze.

We sold a 5 mos old gilt and two more piglets since my last post. We have one more 5 mos old gilt to sell, one piglet is going to Alex's fraternity for their bbq pig roast, one we are keeping to breed, one piglet is spoken for in the fall for butchering and two are suppose to be picked up next week.

We have run out of hay rolls so we moved the cows into the pasture to start eating the grass that is growing. They prefer fresh green grass.

I forgot to add to our April list; make a chicken coop and set up electric poultry netting for the 25 chicks coming the second week of april. They will stay inside the coop for the first month until they are old enough..... About 4 weeks i think.

Our other hen is laying as of today so we are going to be getting two eggs a day which is good because the pigs love hard boiled eggs.

Come on Spring

Our piglets are almost 8 weeks old and are super cute. We sold a male and female piglet last week and are selling 4 more on craigslist. We also plan to sell one of the 4 month old gilts to reduce the number of girls we have. We moved them further into the woods and they love it. So much area to root around.

We picked up a Scottish Highland Bull 2 weeks ago to breed with Mandy in May. He is all black except for some reddish brown on his ears and top of his head.

We now have four hens and a rooster living in the chicken tractor that Cris built. One of the hens started laying yesterday and we have two eggs so far!

The chickens are americaunas and buff ophingtons. We ordered 25 black australorp chicks that will arrive in April. We plan to raise them both for meat and eggs and they will live in the tree orchard area to help keep the trees pest free. The chicken tractor works great We move it every few days in the garden so the chickens scratch up the ground and fertilize it for when we plant vegies.

The sustainable living group got together a week ago and harvested sassafras root to dry and use to make sassafras tea. Other projects we plan to do this year with the group is take a handgun course, first aid/cpr training, Ham Radio training to get our license.

There just aren't enough hours in the day though. Trying to get everything done and adding more things to the list all the time and the never ending things that need repaired....like the $450 tractor tire that had to be replaced, the wires on the lawn mower and UTV that the dogs tore up trying to get to a mouse, the roof on a storage shed that has to be replaced after a hail storm.

But for all the aggravating things that happen, there are the great things that make it all worth while. Like the first egg that our chicken laid, watching piglets being born and growing up, watching the boar run over to us like a puppy dog when we come home from work, petting our hairy highland cattle.

We are still trying to sell our house in Memphis. Hopefully the few repairs we do and the spring yard cleanup will help us get it sold. It is a buyers market for sure.

Sir Loin, Our New Guernsey Bull Calf

9 Hungry Piggies and One Patient Momma

Newly Born Piglets

Nosey Piggie

Yummy Turnip

Our Seedling Greenhouse

Garlic

Little Squash in the hoop house

Mixed Greens

Our harvest one winter Saturday from the hoop house

Curly Parsley

I Walked for Miles and Miles and Miles

PIG: What a month.  I am happy to report that momma pig gave birth to 10 piglets (5 girls, 5 boys) the evening of Monday, January 23rd.  Cris was out of town for work until Tuesday so he missed the fun.  I got home from work around 5pm, did my usual of checking on the cows, feeding of the 4 gilts and then headed over to momma pig in her farrowing hut.  I lifted the lid and there was momma, laying down with one piglet next to her face and another one had apparently just been born.  I grabbed the cell phone (which was about dead), called Cris, went inside and got the video camera, a towel and flashlight.  I stayed outside with momma for about 4 1/2 hours while she went through birthing 9 beautiful piglets.  I actually thought she was done after 8 because some of the afterbirth came out....but about 1/2 hr. later, out came number 9.  I did nothing but video tape and keep her from laying on the piglets.  I did have to climb in the hut one time when she rolled over on a piggie.... Luckily, I was able to move her large body enough to pull baby out...no worse for the wear. The man we purchased baby momma from said she was a good momma and he was right.  I went to bed around 10pm, woke back up around 2pm and check on the pigs....to my surprise when I did a head count there were 10 piggies! 

Unfortunately, when I came home Wednesday, one of the girl piglets had died.  It looked like momma had accidentally  laid on the the pig.  That is the main cause of death for piglets the first few days after birth.

It is now almost 2 weeks since she gave birth and the piglets are venturing outside, running around the pig hut, starting to dig in the dirt with their noses like momma does and have even started eating pig feed.  The girls are larger than the boys and the first piggie born is the smallest but not by much.  They are growing nicely and are so funny to watch; especially on the pig camera we have set up in the hut. This mild winter we are having has been good for the piglets too as they get cold easy.

Baby daddy (the boar) has been moved to his own lonely pig area because the 4 gilts are too young to get pregnant and he was getting too friendly with them.  He does not like being alone but we now have the cows next to his pen so at least he can visit with them.  As soon as some of the boy piglets get older, they will go in the pen with baby daddy. 

COWS:  last Saturday (Jan. 28th) we had a Guernsey Bull Calf delivered to our farm.  He was about one week weaned from his momma.  We put him in the paddock with the 4 heifers and they were not one bit happy about that.  The girls ran around in a tiffy and two got loose and took off.  It was the worse two to get loose.....the youngest and the most shy.  We searched for them Saturday and Sunday on our property and our neighbors.... no cows, no hoof prints.  We got a call Sunday night that they were spotted on highway 57...about a mile south of us.  By the time we got there, they of course had run back into the woods.  We were able to search on the land next to highway 57 during the week because the owners of the land we very supportive.  Cris saw them once on that land but again, they ran away.  We eventually spotted their hoof prints on a property next to our property which meant they had moved closer to home....which was a good thing.  Friday evening we were able to coax them with sweet feed so they would not run off...I even got to pet one of the girls.  I was so happy.  It got too dark though so we left them int the pasture with feed and water.  Saturday we went back to the field with our Great Pyrenees Daisy, and located them again.  This time Daisy helped to get the girls moving and with the help of a feed bucket full of sweet feed (their special treat), we were able to move the cows 1 1/2 miles back home.  We went through the woods, up and down hills, through sticker bushes, a stream, fencing.... it was a long ordeal and I prayed the entire way home.  We had to take baby steps at times because they did not want to cross that stream.  We would walk 5 feet, put the bucket down, wait for them to come...walk another 5 feet....over and over.

Happy to say they are safe and sound in OUR pasture with the other two girls.  They have learned to live with the new bull calf. They better learn to live with him because Mandy (heifer almost 2 yrs old) has taken little Sir Loin (his name) as her own child.  She watches over Sir Loin. 

We plan to finish the fencing around the perimeter of the farm to keep them from getting off our land again.  We have learned from other farmers that it is just a fact of farming...cows will get out.  And at least we now know that if they do, we can get them back.....thanks to the feed bucket!

So now that the piggies are here and the cows are found....I hope things can go back to normal...as normal as can be anyway!

VEGGIES:  We have starting seedlings in a smaller hoop house.  We have started with the cold vegetables....cabbage, broccoli, etc...  it's too early to start with the summer veggies.

We are still eating out of our large hoop house..... squash, carrots, romaine lettuce, cabbage and plenty of greens and herbs are still growing nicely.  Outside the turnips are doing great too. 

We hope to have chickens in the Spring.  Our next two major projects are a driveway and a chicken coop.  Our things to do list is very long and the top priority items change from time to time and things get shuffled up and down the list.  The driveway is a must though...I am tired of sliding up and down the yard from all the rain and mud.

Momma looks like she is smiling

Our Sweet Daisy

The "girls"

Our Manure Spreader - Love it!

Momma still pregnant

The piglets are getting bigger - they love napping in the sun

The Waiting Game

We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends in Maryland. We left the farm in the capable hands of our friends with the hope that momma pig would have her babies upon our return Dec 26th. Alas, here it is Jan 7th and still no piggies. Cris has been up all hours of the night to go out and check on momma so I jokingly recommend he purchase a video baby monitor. Well, we now have a baby video monitor... It is called "pig cam 1". Now he can just look at the monitor and see and hear her in the farrowing hut. Her breathing is heavy when she lies down. We had a local vet stop by Friday to check on momma and she is fine but just not ready to deliver yet. Cris is outbof town for 3 days next week so I hope she either delivers by Tuesday or waits till Friday.

We have moved the pigs further into the woods so they will eat more roots and acorns and less feed. They love bread and cabbage. The piglets are really growing nicely and have started eating out of our hands. Baby daddy is a sweetheart which is good. You dont want a large boar to not like you.

The highland cattle have been moved closer to our second field where there is some green grass on the terrace. Mandy will be two in May so we have to start thinking about when to breed her. The others have at least another year and a half to grow.

We have finished the deck floor on the back of the house and now have to put up railing. We will decide later which part to enclose with screen.

We are trying to create as much useful storage space as possible in our new little house on the prairie and also use as much of our own furniture as possible. I cannot bring my large china cabinet to the farmhouse so i converted a dresser into a buffet for the dining room. It holds all my good china very well. I will eventually paint it and change the hardware.

While we were in Maryland we came across a log filled with oyster mushrooms. Cris bought two coolers from Walmart to store them for our trip home. We ended up with about 40 pounds of mushrooms. We also found a lions mane mushroom but it was too old.

The hoop house is still plentiful. Cabbage, lettuce, herbs, squash and outside the turnips are thriving. Once momma pig has her babies and all are settled in, we will start getting ready for spring planting.

We had to take Teddy and Daisy both to the vet last week for dental appts. Teddy (wheaten terrier) had to have a canine pulled and teeth cleaning. He was real sick as a puppy and the antibiotics did a number on his teeth. Daisy had to have 2 baby canines pulled because they never fell out on their own and were interferring with her adults ones. Long story short...... $500. Always something....Month before last was the $500 Nugget injury.

Merry Christmas

Hard to believe another year has come and gone. As much as we have accomplished this year, there is still so much to do. We really need a driveway up to our house. It has rained so much this winter and at times it is so muddy that I slip and slide all the way up to the house. The ground does not have a chance to dry up before the next rain.

Our hoop house is looking good with squash, various greens, lettuce, beets, radishes, cabbage and herbs. The tomatoes can't take the cold so they died. The garlic is doing good outside as well as the turnips.

We have been working on the fence and have put the pigs into the woods to forage for acorns etc. We are keeping an eye on momma pig to watch for signs of when she may start getting ready for her big day. We hope she waits to have her piggies till January. The piglets have grown quite a bit. One of the challenges with raising farm animals organically is controlling internal and external parasites without chemicals. We use D.E. to control internal parasites by adding a little to their feed each day. We tried spraying the pigs with a soapy spray to control external mites but the are not very fond of me chasing them around with a sprayer. I think I will try dusting them with D. E. and see how they like that. They don't have many mites so I want to keep that under control. I have also read that adding Basic H soap to their water works great for internal parasites. Not a pretty subject to discuss but a necessary one!

We are finishing up the back deck but won't start enclosing a portion of it until the spring. It is almost time to start seedlings to get ready to plant in the hoop house.

The heifers are doing great and have been no problem except Harriet likes to get out of the paddock they are in sometimes. But once she gets out she immediately wants back in. We just have to make sure we have the electric line at the right spot to be Harriet proof.

We are headed to Maryland for Christmas and have a friend's teenage son who will be checking on the animals while we are gone. Nugget the labradoodle is staying at the doggie hotel though because his scrawny little body cannot not be outside all the time like the other two hairy dogs. Nugget is a princess at times.

First Snow of the Season

Hyacinth & Harriet

Daisy Mae - 8 mos.

After 2 1/2 days and almost 4 inches of rain, it finally turned to snow....but it is turning back to rain.  The piggies have been staying dry by curling up together in one of the pig huts.  We opened up the pasture to the cows so they could find a less wet place to lay down.  The Highlands are used to cold weather and have a thick coat but we don't want them to have to lie down in puddles of water in the cold.  We are going to bring up a rolled bale of hay today to supplement the hay in the pasture.  With all this rain they need some nice dry hay to eat. 

We canned pumpkin and turkey soup the other day.  I laughed to myself when I saw people rushing out to get bread, milk and toilet paper yesterday....the snow never even stuck to the road.  We make our own bread now (or I should say Cris makes it) and when the cows start producing milk, we will have that as well.  Our grocery bills have gone down already as well as our dining out bills.  Our last dining out bill was about $18.00.  We did splurge and have sushi a couple weeks ago but most of the time we spend about $20, maybe once a week.  Cris is such a good cook that there is no reason to eat out.  The other night we had risotto with mushrooms that we picked ourselves and he used the broth from the turkey for the risotto liquid.  The salad was from our garden and he makes really good homemade vinaigrette's as dressing.  Seems we spend more money on feed for the animals than we do on ourselves.  That bill will go down once we get the pigs in the woods to eat acorns and the grass turns green in the spring for the cows. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

Left to Right:  Baby Daddy (boar), 4 piglets (all sisters), Big Momma (pregnant Sow)

Cris and I both took the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off to get some extra farm work done.  I gave the house a much needed dusting and think I am finally getting a handle on the farm dust...but, don't get me started on the mud.  Three days of rain makes for some major mud.  We really need a sidewalk and driveway that goes to the carport that has not been built yet.  It's on the list.  For now I put plastic grocery bags on my shoes to get to the car when it's too muddy out.

Alex was here for Thanksgiving and he enjoyed playing with the dogs, cows and the newest addition to our farm....the pigs.  We welcomed a pregnant sow (this will be her 2nd litter of pigs), a boar (he is NOT the father of the upcoming pigs) and 4 female piglets (all sisters but not related to the boar or sow).  The boar will be able to breed with all the females and any female pigs born to the sow since he is not related to any of them.  We set up an area in the main fenced field for the pigs.  The boar and sow came off the truck just fine and settled in to their pen.  The piglets were terrified and took off in 4 different directions....right under the electric fence.  Thanks to the efforts of 3 dogs, 4 humans and a utility vehicle, we eventually rounded them all up and put them in the 10x10 dog kennel for a few days to get used to the area.  Teddy the Wheaten Terrier was great at rounding up the pigs when they ran off and he was able to get three of them to stay put long enough for us to grab them.  Unfortunately, Nugget, the labradoodle is not a fan of the piglets and we had an incident two days ago when Nugget got into the dog pen and went after the piglets.  He had a hold of one by the neck and was shaking it.  Piglets scream something awful too.  We have a shock collar on Nugget now and Cris had to shock him a few times on the highest power to finally get him off the pig.  Two of the piglets ran out of the dog pen and went straight for the sow and boar in their pen....so we put some medicine on the bite marks on the hurt pig and then put the remaining two in with the big pigs. That is where they are now and seem happy to be there.  We added a very low electric line to keep them in the pen and they have already learned to respect the fencing.  They are really so cute.  The sow is expected to delivery the first of January which means Cris may have to come home early from Maryland in December but we will play that by ear.  Cris made a 'farrowing pen' for momma pig .... he wants to paint a stork on it with a piglet in the handkerchief.

The cows are doing great and we are able to pet Harriet and Zinnia now as well of Hyacinth.  We move them to a new field about every third day and the pigs get moved about every 3-4th day too.  When we get chickens they will follow the pigs and cows.  They will scatter the manure and eat all the bugs.  It is so nice to be able to use our food scraps to supplement the pigs food. Nothing goes to waste around here...if they pigs can't eat it, then the worms do.  

We are still working on the fence...that will be a long term process.  We want to fence in the perimeter of the pond next so we can put the pigs in there to dig up the area we want to clear and also, pigs love, love, love acorns and there are plenty to be found in the woods.

Our friend, Larry came over last Sunday to hunt.  He got here around 6am, got settled in around 6:30am and shot a buck around 7am!  I watched his friend field dress the deer and I want to try and do it myself the next time Larry comes out and gets a deer or if Cris gets one.  It wasn't as gross as I thought it would be.

Cris scared me today and he got a stern talking to about ATV safety.  Daisy had walked down towards our neighbors house while we were installing t-posts.  I went down on the UTV to call her back and Cris came down on my Polaris ATV.  We found her and Cris went a little too fast on the gravel road..... tried a sharp turn and the ATV went up on it's side and flipped over.  He landed in a ditch with the ATV over him.... if his body had not landed in the ditch, things would be different.....as it was, he was fine.  I screamed his name a couple times as I was running towards him down the road (I could not see him, all I could see was the ATV) and he did not answer.  Then he finally grumbled.... "I'm OK"..... He told me later he was giving himself a 10-point diagnostic check (checking for broken bones etc...) and that is why he did not answer me right away.

The hoop house has an abundance of lettuce and the radishes are huge!  The squash plants are large but the buds are slow to grow.  The herbs are fantastic as well.  We harvested some cilantro, dill and parsley for our neighbor.  The herbs were beautiful.  So green and fresh looking.



Last Saturday we went to our friend's house for their family's yearly stew cooking event.  They take a large black kettle (think witch's brew type kettle) and start cooking the stew over an open fire in the morning.  By lunchtime it's ready and it was delicious.  We met their very large family and everyone was so welcoming.  We all had a bowl or two of the stew and the kettle was still very full.  Each year that they make this, they divide the stew up and each family takes some home to freeze.  It was a very nice day.

Next week is our monthly meeting with friends at the dairy in Middleton.  It's our Christmas meeting and I've been trying to decide what little gift to take to everyone that reflects the 'sustainable living' lifestyle.  I think we are going to bring everyone some of our fresh cut herbs.

Rain is in the forecast the remainder of this weekend so I think we are going to work in the barn and go through the many boxes we have brought from the Memphis house.....decide what to keep, what to burn (some of Cris' paperbacks got wet and have mildew), what to recycle (or donate) and what is just plain trash.  

Windy Weekend

This weekend we made sauerkraut.... or I should say, we starting making sauerkraut...take a few weeks for the cabbage to ferment.  When I think of sauerkraut I always think of my mom. She was the sauerkraut bringer at all holiday gatherings.  She made a great pork and sauerkraut dish.  I also remember her meatloaf...that was always good.  I miss her so much.  Losing a parent is just something you never get over.  The pain lessons but never goes away. 

So, back to sauerkraut.... we put the cabbage in a food grade 5 gallon bucket with a brine solution, put a plate on top of that, weighted it down with water jugs and covered it with a towel.  We will see how it turns out in a few weeks. 

We also made and stuffed into casing:  breakfast sausage and smoked kielbasa.  The kielbasa will be smoking all day today.  Yummmm  We used our Kitchen Aid Mixer with the grinder attachment to grind up the meat and then the 'stuffer' attachment to fill the casings. 

We try to not to let anything go to waste and with our worm bin, compost piles and occasional fire (to use the ash to improve the soil), we are able to get rid of stuff without actually throwing it in the trash.  When we get chickens....they will eat alot of our scrap food but for now we give that to the worms.

Our radishes are ready and I wanted to find something to use the radish greens (tops) for rather than give them to the worms.  I found a really good and easy recipe for Radish Top Soup and that was our lunch yesterday.  It tasted a bit like potato soup and was perfect for a windy, cloudy day.  I also made a Blueberry Buckle that is almost all gone. :)  Cris was picking up a load of sheep manure yesterday so I thought I would try my hand at cooking for once since he is usually the cook.  I was quite pleased with the result of the soup and blueberry dessert.  I even managed to plant two rows of garlic while he was gone yesterday.

Today we are working on the fencing at the area that runs along side the road.  We finished up the backyard fence job to keep the dogs in during the day while we are at work.  That way they can be outside and still have shelter (under the covered deck).

Speaking of dogs, as you can see by the photo of Nugget from an earlier post, he was injured about 10 days ago when he was running through the pines.  He runs just like a deer and jumps over logs....it seems he jumped and did not see a limb sticking up from a downed tree and it basically impaled him in the chest.  Cris heard a scream that he thought was a coyote but it was Nugget screaming when he was hurt but the limb.  Long story short, a trip to the emergency vet, stitches and $440 later, he is fine.  He would not wear that 'cone of shame' on his head so I bought him some toddler t-shirts to wear so he would not mess with his stitches.  He looks so funny in his little shirt but he is used to wearing it now and just sits there while I take off the dirty shirt and put a new one on him, like it's just part of his outfit now.  Dumb dog. 


Daisy is 100% adjusted to living with us now and is just the sweetest dog but is quick to alert us of anything that is out of the ordinary on the farm. 


The cows are doing great as well.  Our friend Susan delivered the 4 heifers (Scottish Highlands) to us last Sunday.  They are Mandy, Hyacinth, Harriet and Zinnia.  Our first morning with them was theatrical because the 3000 volt electric fencing was not enough to keep Zinnia in and twice she went for a walk in the woods.  I 'babysat' the cows Monday morning while Cris went to Tractor Supply and picked up a 5000 volt system which now works just fine.  A couple pops from that and she decided that inside the fence was better.  We are doing the 'rotational grazing' where you move the cows every two days.  Once we get chickens in the Spring the chickens will following the cows on the schedule and the chickens will feast on the bugs that go over the cow manure and that will help to scatter the manure around the pasture.  The girls get a little sweet feed each morning with some d.e. sprinkled on to keep them parasite free.  We are trying to keep them on a natural diet which means no commercial drugs.   The only heifer that will let us pet her is Hyacinth because she had alot of human contact as a calf.  The others will stand by us (especially with the feed bucket in my hands) and are starting to warm up to us a little each day.  Hyacinth is halter trained as well. 

Teddy seems to be the cow dog and studies them. He at first would be aggressive and bark at them but he is learning to respect them more now.  I am sure as their horns continue to grow, he will learn a little more respect for them.  Nugget could care less about the cows and Daisy is more into being a sheep guardian dog then cows.

The Pups

Daisy-Mae - 6 mos old

Nugget resting after his puncture wound - $440 puncture wound!  Poor Pup.

Working on the back deck

Fall Frenzy

I just can't seem to keep up to date with the blog.  Could be because the nights are getting shorter and with us living full time out at the farm now, we are working until dark, having dinner then are in bed around 9:30pm. 

We have accomplished some of the 'to do' on the list from the last post though.  We got the hoop house cleaned up from the summer and have planted squash (4 varieties), tomatoes, lettuce (coming up nicely), eggplant, various herbs, peppers and okra.  When the sun shines, it does get pretty warm in the hoop house.  We hope to have lettuce growing year round....nice to be able to go out and pick fresh lettuce for dinner in the middle of the winter. 

The front deck is complete and the back deck is about 1/2 done.  Part of the back deck will be covered and enclosed with screen to keep bugs out. 

Cris planted winter wheat that is growing though not as high as it should due to lack of rain.  It will become dormant and then when Spring comes around, it will start growing again.  Same thing with the garlic we planted.

We purchased more trees..... pears, apples, pomegranate, persimmon, pecan and fig as well as more blueberry bushes.  We are growing various herbs as well...for cooking and medicinal.  We took a herb/foraging class last month and learned alot about what plants in our area are great for medicinal purposes.  I learned that the red sumac berries make a fantastic tea or lemonade.  (not the poisonous sumac)  The guy who gave the course, (The Southern Herbalist) is coming back up for a Spring class and I am really looking forward to it.  We learned how to make a liniment and salve for cuts, scrapes, poison ivy and also how to make lye for soap making.  I took ALOT of notes and also bought his book on CD so I could keep track of what plants are what in our area.

MUSHROOM HUNTING - has slowed down with the cold weather but we have had some great discoveries.  We found  a huge amount Mi take Mushrooms (Hen of the Woods) and we harvested them and froze them for future use.  Great for cooking and medicinally one of the best 'shrooms to eat.  Cris found more oyster mushrooms and one of our logs that we plug over the summer had a couple shitake mushrooms on it so that was a nice find.  Hopefully in the Spring the mushroom logs will take off and have shitakes everywhere. 

ANOTHER DOG??? yes, our friend who owns the farm where we get sheep manure has 2 puppies left from the litter of Great Pyrenees.  She kept the male for herself as he was instantly tuned into the whole livestock guardian dog thing and never leaves the sheep area of her farm.  She was going to keep the female pup but decided that since she already has the momma and the male pup, she didn't need the girl.  She gave us first dibs on her because she wanted her to go to someone she knew because she fell in love with her.  So we picked up Daisy Mae (Cris named her Daisy, and I added the Mae because she was born May 1st) about 2 weeks ago and she is an absolute doll.  She will be an outside dog which is fine because Great Pyrenees are used to cold weather.  It's actually in the summer when you have to be careful and make sure they have enough shade and water because they can get overheated with their double coats of fur. 

Nugget and Teddy have warmed to her nicely and she has already done a great job of being a guardian.  Her first night at our house she went straight to the front of yard when it got dark to keep an eye out for predators.  She has chased coyotes away with her big girl bark and the other day a stray dog came up and Daisy made it clear that the stray was not welcome.  Pyrenees' are not confrontational and will not fight unless absolutely necessary....usually their large size and large bark is enough to keep predators away.  She's really great and does not run off.  We can leave her out all day long while we are at work and she will not run off.  I really love her disposition.  The other two dogs freak out and jump and bark when I pull up from work (we keep them in a dog pen because they would run off to try and find us!) but Daisy just sits there and waits for us to come say hello.  Teddy likes to stay out with Daisy at night and assist her with guard duty but Nugget (Labradoodle) does not have enough of a coat to stay out all night long in the cold....plus, he barks and anything and drives me nuts. 

Daisy is 6 mos. old and weights 56 lbs.  She may double that within the next few mos.  She will look like a big white polar bear. 

Alex is enjoying college life and will most likely rent a room year round from the fraternity he is joining.  That way he can get a job in Memphis and not have to drive back and forth from the farm to Memphis during the summer and winter breaks.  I would worry about him driving late a night on side roads in the country.  Since I work in Memphis during the week, Alex and try to connect at least once during the week for lunch or he will stop by my office to visit. 

CANNING - as well as freezing stuff, we have canned more spaghetti sauce, chicken soup and beef soup.  Cris makes really good soup and it's so handy to just come home, pop open a jar of homemade soup.  Canning is better than freezing (though more time consuming to can) because it won't spoil if we lose electricity. 

We are having our monthly sustainable living dinner meeting at the dairy our friend's own this Saturday.  We are discussing MRE's or "Meals Ready to Eat".... We are having a taste test of various MRE's that one of our members purchased from a company that sells emergency equipment for homes.  Should be interesting.  The idea of the MRE's for our group is to have food available to eat in case of a lengthy power outage.  There has been a time within the last 10 yrs in Memphis when people were out of power for over 3 weeks because of a ice storm.  Our farm, I am sure, would not be on the top of the list to get the power back on should there be a large scale power outage...so it's nice to have options. 

I get on kicks of reading certain types of books.... for a while I read ever book I could on mountain climbing..... Mt. Everest etc... I was just engrossed in the stories of survival and death on the mountains.  Well, now I am on a 'catrastrophy' type kick..... kind of like the movie Contagion....  I saw the movie Contagion but felt it didn't really show the true actions of what people would do in that type of situation.  Some of it yes, but not the extreme that some people would go to keep alive.  Since then I have read, "One Second After" which is about a country wide EM Pulse that knocks out electricity, cars, pacemakers, etc.... and how one small town deals with it.  It really makes you think.  The other book I recently read is "The Jarkata Pandemic" which is about a superflu that hits the world and how one small neighborhood deals with it and each other.  What is yours suddenly people assume is now theirs..... again...makes you think.  I recommend both books.  Am I a doomsday person.... is my cup half-empty???? No.... I just love reading about these types of things because it gives me ideas of ways to prepare in case of a long term power outage or a very contagious flu that may hit us one day.  Am I storing tons and tons of items in preparation....NO, but I can see how some people may live their life preparing for the end of the world.  I am sure in a couple months I will get off the end of the world kick and start ready about something else...... I really need another Harry Potter book!  This what happens when you don't have a TV on the farm.  We read every night which I have come to really enjoy.  I feel more relaxed at night without the TV blaring and I don't miss any important news because we have the computer and my phone with all it's apps. 

We haven't purchased a central heating system yet so we are using space heaters.  We have two little ones in each of the bedrooms ($20 and puts out the heat when needed!) and also have two for the kitchen/living area.  The living room one is actually a Duraflame Heater that looks like a real fireplace.  I've included a photo above.  It's a plug in fake fireplace that has a blower that puts out some heat and the logs glow and there are fake flames.  Cris said all it needed was the number 3 for Dale Earnhardt and we would truly be redneck!  Ha!  I actually like it alot and at night it is pretty to look at and makes the room toasty.  What the heck, we live in a pimped up trailer so why not?? 

All My Birdies have Flown the Coop

The largest sunflower head we had this year.

We moved Alex into his dorm yesterday with the help of his FiJi friends.... that is the Fraternity that he has pledged for....seems like a nice group of guys.  I had a few moments of panic and sadness throughout the day but he is only 15 mins. away and 2 hours after leaving him at the dorm, he and his friends pulled into our driveway to pick something up from Alex's room.  We will seem him often I am sure. 

Memphis house has had a couple more potential buyers tour it - one is still considering and not sure about the other one...they came yesterday and we have not received feed back from them yet. 

This past weekend we picked up more mulch and did some weed control on the blueberries and grapes.  We put down newspaper, then fabric weed block and then mulch....hopefully that will keep the grass from growing where we don't want it to grow.

The blackberries are ready to have another row added so as soon as we find the thing that we use to hammer down the fence posts, we will get started on that....it is hiding somewhere on the farm.  The 3 little blackberry plants we started with have really expanded nicely.

I finished mowing the back fields and even though you are only sitting on a tractor riding around, it still wears you out after a couple hours.  The tractor's power steering is not working and the bouncing around is a little hard on the back sometimes.   Every time we drive by the tractor store in Bolivar, Cris and I just sigh..... someday we will have a new tractor.

CANNING:  The pears were canned last week as well as peaches we bought at Jones Orchards.  We made a peach pepper jam that really tastes good.  Will go great over cream cheese.  We also canned about 10 jars of spaghetti sauce.  We use about one jar of spaghetti sauce a week so we figured it took 20 pounds of tomatoes to make 10 jars.... so we need about 80 more pounds of tomatoes to make a year's worth of spaghetti sauce.

SUNFLOWERS I harvested the sunflower heads last weekend.  We had ALOT of sunflowers from just a few heads we harvested last year.  They are drying out on the breezeway of our trailer on the farm.  Some of the seeds will be saves to plant next year and some will be used as 'organic' birdseed and chicken feed.  Chickens love birdseed.  No chickens on the farm yet but should have some in the Spring. 

Storage space is lacking in the trailer so we are making plans to install a pantry in the kitchen and some bookshelves in the dining area. 

FARM TO DO LIST:

• Clean up the hoop house to get ready for Fall planting
• Gutters for the trailer
• front/back deck built on trailer
• storage solutions for inside the trailer
• build garden shed near vegie fields
• addition to barn - 2 more stalls for farm equipment

This should keep us busy for a while.... 

This past weekend, the temp finally went below 95 degrees.... I actually saw an 88 during the middle of the day. Saturday evening was beautiful on the farm.... if actually felt cool.  There was a meteor shower over the weekend but it was also a full moon so Cris was only able to see a few fly through the sky. 

Cris bought some new parts for the Massey Ferguson tractor and it is now running much better.  My tractor (the Ford 8N) is still in parts in the barn from last year.  It is his rainy day project.  I bush-hogged as much of the lower fields as I could over the weekend, getting them cut so the grass will grow back in time to cut for hay in the Fall.

We have been working on controlling weeds in the asparagus, grapes, strawberries, blueberries and the fruit trees.  We are putting down weed block between the rows of asparagus and strawberries (and on the strawberry rows themselves) and then will lay mulch down over it.

The greenhouse is our project for the coming weekend - the peppers are done so we pulled those and will be canning and freezing this week.  The tomatoes were attached by hornworms and we also decided that we planted the tomatoes too close to each other so we are cleaning up that area and hopefully what the hornworms did not destroy will produce through the fall in the greenhouse.  We are harvesting tomatoes but not as many as we had hoped.  It's a learning experience

The pear trees did great for being their first year.  We have a large grocery bag full that will be canned this week as well.  There is a great pear/cranberry conserve recipe we are going to try and also a pear rosemary recipe that looks really good.

Cris and Alex installed the skirting around the modular home (ok.... pimped up trailer) and it looks more like a home now.  The front and back deck will be started in September.  We have a WELL!  They only had to drill down about 125 ft which is so wonderful!  We tested the water and it's free of all the bad stuff that we don't want in the water. 

Our remaining bee hive is gone. Not sure what happened.  Sometimes they just leave.... maybe it just got too hot for them.  We found moths in the hive and we are not sure if they caused the hive to leave or they came in after.  This type of moth eats the wax on the frames and they pretty much destroyed the frames and the honey is no good.  We have talked to other bee keepers and they have had the same problem the last few years.... It's something we hope to control a little better once we move to the farm full time.  We won't add any new hives until the Spring.

Our next meeting with our friends a Evergreen Dairy will include a speaker who will discuss saving seeds.  Should be interesting.  Our sunflowers are all in the drying out process now, still on the stalks.  When the sunflower heads turn brown, then it's time to cut them from the stalks.  I will have alot of sunflower seeds for next year.

Cris has been mushroom hunting every chance he gets.  He is finding Chanterelles at Shelby Farms in the hiking trail area and on our farm.  We can't wait for next Spring when the Morels are in season again.  

Alex heads to college next week.  His gets settled into his dorm Thursday the 25th and classes start the 29th.  He's way excited!

Our house has been on the market for a couple months.  Only 4 visitors but we know this is not the best time to sell.  Two have been looking for a house with the master bedroom on the first floor but all our bedrooms are on the 2nd.  We just have to be patient and the right buyer will come.

July 16-17, 2011

Our tomatoes are being attacked by Hornworms.  We are only at the farm on the weekends and hornworms need to be taken care of daily.  We must have picked off over 100 hornworms this weekend, between 2 adults and one labradoodle..... yes, labradoodle.  My wonderful Nugget has watched us take the hornworms (large green caterpillars) off the tomato plants and he now sniffs them out and snatches them off with his teeth. He does a great job too and finds the ones on the lower part of the plant.  But you have to watch him because he also likes to eat the ripe cherry tomatoes.  We are hoping the special wasp shows up that lays eggs on the hornworms.  Once the eggs are laid, then in less than a week, the worms are gone.  Nature is it's own insect repellent sometimes.

Well, the heat has not diminished so we try to limit our workload outside and drink plenty of water.  Every once in a while Nugget will dash from the field and heads to the pond to cool off.... he swims around and then comes back to the field, wet but refreshed.  Smart dog.  

We are still waiting for the well. Suppose to come back out this week and drill deeper.  All we can do is wait.  We have been bringing gallons and gallons of fresh water with us every weekend so we can cook and drink but that is getting old.  

We harvested the potatoes (red & white) and the remaining onions.  The onions are drying out at the farm and then will be stored in a cool, dry place like the potatoes so we can keep them as long as possible.  

My sunflowers have all bloomed and look great.  The cabbage is growing nicely too.  The okra is taking off despite the weeds.  

We had our monthly meeting with friends Sunday at the Bolivar Nursery.  Once again, good food and good conversation.  Michele, the owner of the nursery discussed herbs and the various medicinal properties they have.  

On a totally non-farm related matter - we saw the final Harry Potter movie over the weekend too....it was awesome!

July 9-10 2011

 

Last week Alex and I went to Maryland to visit family and Cris stayed on the farm the whole week with the 2 dogs and cat.  Kitty took a couple days to adjust to his surroundings but is fine now.  He is not allowed outside though, not until he is used to the area. 

We put our Memphis house on the market and had a couple people look at the house.  It is not the best time to sell a house but hopefully we will find the right buyer and the right price.  The house has never been so clean….even Alex is keeping his room clean, but that could be the $20 he gets for keeping his bed made and floor clear of clothes etc…

The well is not installed yet.  We ended up changing well companies because the other kept giving us the run around… it was always, “next week”.  The new company (which came with recommendations from friends) drilled yesterday and hit sand around 50 ft. which is good.  They went to 95 ft. and stopped.  Tuesday another person comes out with a pump to see how the water flow is from 95 ft.  If it is good, then they install the pump and holding tank…..if not, they dig some more.  When the well is ready to be hooked up to the house, we get the electrician to run the electric and then FINALLY, we will have a well. (update - well is not deep enough so they are coming out again to drill....no well yet!)

Two weeks ago we had friends over to make shitake mushroom logs.  Cris hooked up a barrel of water to the house so we could at least use the bathroom.  That was handy and appreciated by all.  The mushroom plugging went great despite the heat.  Afterwards we all went inside to the air conditioning to have a wonderful meal and conversation.  Cris made two different mushroom dishes and others brought dishes from items out of their gardens. 

I thought it was hot two weeks ago, that was until we hit this weekend….. The heat and humidity are horrible.  We are not getting as much done as we had hoped for fear of heat exhaustion.  This morning we weeded the cabbage and ended up a drenched mess.  This evening we hope to start weeding the okra plants.  Last week while Alex and I were in Maryland, Cris weeded the 500 strawberry plants and then covered them with weed block…. That took him 3 days because of the heat and humidity. 

We are thankful that it has rained…not like last year  when it was so dry.  I think that is why the weeds are so bad this year….not really weeds but just grass.  Our cows will have some wonderful grass to eat because it grows like crazy. 

Since we are limited to what we can do outside, we “went to town” to pick up materials to make a solar clothes dryer (clothes line) and we installed that today.  I plan to buy a used washer when the well is ready and will only wash on sunny days so I can use the clothes line.  We will see how long that lasts before I beg for a dyer.

We are also pricing the sheeting that goes on the bottom of the trailer.  As soon as the well is installed, we hope to get the heat pump and then we can put the sheeting up…that will keep the dogs out from under the trailer. They love hunting for frogs.

Cris has been mushroom hunting around the property and has found chanterelles, which are in season right now.  They are all over the place.  Our dinner tonight will consists chanterelles freshly picked, and freshly picked cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and onions. 

The potatoes and remaining onions are ready to be dug up but the ground is too wet so that will have to wait.  We did some more tomato staking (the tomatoes we planted outside, not in the greenhouse), weeding and then called it a day at 6pm…. Just too hot for man and beast. 

Our farm home is currently a mish mash of furniture and boxes and there is NO method to our madness, as they say.  We are slowly moving items out to the farm but some items have to stay at the Memphis house since it is for sale and we want to make it look nice for potential buyers. We will not have the storage space we have in Memphis so we are coming up with ideas to create storage.  Our project list just keeps growing. Luckily, my daughter Lindsay has moved into a townhome and needs furniture...I am glad I can pass some of my mother's furniture onto her granddaughter.