These are next year's layers
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Heritage Homestead Thanksgiving Craft Fair
We had beautiful weather the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Nathan couldn't come with us, but Adam and Madeleine rounded out our party. We got to watch the barn go up this year, and the presentation was facinating. Mostly about northeastern barns from the 1800s. The kids had homemade fried cheese, corny dogs and huge servings of ice cream, while Paul and I had farm raised burgers and sweet potato fries. I enjoyed the craft barn the most, and was almost enticed to begin keeping sheep and learn fiber crafts. I bought a huge harvest basket to pick produce in the garden, and a soap shaver to shape my homemade soaps. Jessie and Maddy bought a pottery kit with three big blocks of clay. Although I wouldn't let the kids bring home any puppies, I did bring home 12 barred rock pullets that are now brooding in the pantry.
Witchita Wildlife Reserve
Savannah and I visited family in Western Oklahoma the weekend before Thanksgiving. We came home through Lawton and drove through the Witchita Wildlife Reserve. Savannah wanted to see the prairie dogs, and really enjoyed the scenery. She was such good company over the weekend, I didn't mind taking the long way home to go through the park. It was very beautiful. I'd like to camp there soon, it is only a couple of hourse from home and there are many places to explore in the park.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Peter Piper
These peppers aren't the only things getting picked today. I bought Paul a box of 22 short shells and a digital coyote call to "pick" some coyotes tonight. Nate is out with him right now, and asked that his Dad not to pull a Cheney on him. We didn't latch the chicken pen last night and two coyotes raided and killed four chickens...of course they didn't get the ones I wouldn't have missed such as the extra roosters, but instead they got a couple of the special ones that I hatched and two black auracauna hens that I was waiting to see what colored eggs they laid. So bye-bye coyotes.
UPDATE:
The coyotes are safe. I don't know why you were even worried, the great white hunters came back empty handed. Turns out Nathan is not the best partner for a stake out, (something about dancing around with the spot light), and one of the 22s was dropped and broken in the barn on the way out, and the other gun jammed. Not to mention a bunch of nosy cows wanting to know why they weren't invited to the party. Hmmmm....do I hear coyote giggling?
Fall tomatoes
We are supposed to have our first real freeze tonight. Last week we had a drop down to 34, and lost the newer pumpkin vines but nothing else. Early tomorrow the low is forecasted to be 32, so it will probably be a little lower here. I got up early and picked tomatoes, peppers, sugar snap beans, some small pumpkins, and lots of kentucky wonder beans. I took all the tomato and pepper plants off their stakes and laid them down so that maybe some will survive the freeze. All of the broccoli has been maturing too, and I've had to pick five bunches already before they start to flower. It looks like I'll be blanching peas, shelling beans and making lots of broccoli soup this week.
Fall Vegetable Report:
The Porter and Viva Italia tomatoes really started to produce well, but it was impossible to gauge the taste of anything with all the cool and rainy weather we had this fall. Hardly any of the tomatoes ripened outside at all.
The Chile peppers and Jimmy Nardello sweet peppers produced well. Ditto on the ripening. The jalapenos were kind of wimpy.
The cucumbers, luffa, zuchinni, yellow crookneck, hubbard squash and tomatillos all performed miserably. The cucumbers went moldy and fungusy and petered out early.
Fairytale pumpkin was a huge (47.2 lb) success. I won't grow the Jack be Little pumpkins again because the vines are full size and take up too much of my space just to be ornamental. The cheese pumpkin was a slower performer than the fairytale, and the one good specimen rotted when I brought it in the house. Small sugar did okay, but had scanty production.
Volunteer watermelon plants grew well, but the fruit rotted in the rain.
The dill, parsley and other leafy herbs look great. The basil has even held out well.
It was TERRIFIC weather for the peas. I will definitely grow Sugar Snap Peas again. They performed amazing and tasted great. The dwarf gray sugar had a bitter taste, and Wando must be longer maturing because they are so far behind everything else.
Kentucky wonder was very prolific, but I didn't pick it early enough to use as green beans. They were too heavy to use with the woven fence that I bought. Pole beans need a cattle panel or something heavy duty. Bush Lake Beans had much lower productivity, and long maturation than the Contender beans which I would definitely grow again.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Erosion
It has been four or five days since it stopped raining, but we still have a considerable amount of water draining from the east and the south. I've put in a call to a guy about evaluating the site for a pond to help with erosion. We are down to rock in places, and its a minimum of 12 or more feet deep.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
It was a little hard getting over the bone cracking noises, but we got passed that quickly. Jess was especially impressed by the FDA facility where we had had the chickens slaughtered and processed this morning, because it was a family enterprise and the children were all involved. Jess was glad that she wasn't required to do that as part of her homeschool education!
Cutting and sealing
My sister Brooke and I spent a couple hours in the evening cutting all the chicken into wings, leg quarters and split breasts and then sealed them up for the freezer. I was very tired from a long day, but the work went very quickly with help.
Chicken destiny
Jessie and I got up at 5am to load the chickens and drive to 1 1/2 hours to Greenville for processing. FYI, Starbucks is open at 5:30am so that is a good thing.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Tools of the trade
I spent this evening trying to rig up safe transportation for 28 live chickens, and this was the best I could come up with...a rubbermaid tub and an 8ft furniture box. It will do! Jess and I are leaving at 5:30 am tomorrow to transport them to Greenville for processing. I will be glad to have that over with. My sister Brooke is coming over tomorrow night and we are going to cut the chickens up and vaccuum seal them for freezing. I will be a busy day.
What a beautiful (and busy) last couple of days it his has been. The rain has finally stopped, and it has been sunny. It makes me feel as if I should hurry outside and get all the backlog of chores done before the rain starts back up!
Our weekend started Friday night when the whole family, with the exception of Nathan who had worked all day, went to see Where the Wild Things Are. It was an interesting movie and I enjoyed it.
Saturday, Paul and Nate ran a 5k in McKinney. Nate's boys cross country team is going to district next weekend and they need the practice. While they were gone, I took Jessie on a field trip with her Sunday school class to Temple Emmanuel in Dallas. Later that afternoon she had a soccer game in Sherman which her team won. We wound up the day with Halloween activities. Beth and Adam took Jessie trick or treating, she was a vet-wrapped mummy, Savannah went to a church event and a band haunted house with her best friend, and Nate stayed home and ate pizza with us.
Sunday was daylight savings, and would have been an excellent morning to sleep in BUT our doorbell rang at 5:00 am. A neighbor thought our horses were out, but they weren't ours. They live on the property behind us, but the man says they belong to the previous owner. We tracked them in the dark and called the Sheriff's office. They sent out a very nice deputy who made sure they had a place to go and weren't a danger to people driving. I got to see the sun come up!
Jessie went to Sunday School and Savannah went to church with her friend, but the rest of us spent Sunday morning at home for a change. Paul and Jessie helped me plant blackberries. Paul dug the holes, Jess drove the riding lawnmower and trailer with dirt, water and plants; and I kneeled up and down planting the rootings and watering. My back is still killing me! Then a man from Whitewright came to pick up our Dexter bull King. It was an effort to load him, because he got upset by the commotion and broke through the pen, then stuck his head under the fence and lifted two tposts totally out of the ground. We spent all lot of time running back and forth trying to contain him. It took us 1 1/2 hours, and then by sheer luck we got him into the trailer! I was really happy, because this was a much better fate than the sale yard. Paul and I finished up the evening with dinner out, and two magararitas had me totally unconcious....I was EXHAUSTED.
Today is Monday, and Jessie and I finished the last two rows of blackberries. We put in over 100 really good looking plants with lots of roots. I am going to water again on Thursday to give them a good start, and then I think we are looking at chances of rain again next Sunday or Monday. A full week looms ahead with piano lessons, a sports booster meeting, a district cross country meet and a basketball scrimmage.
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