Bottle feeding

2010 March kids from Hyacinth, Maggie, Snowflake and Mary (Saanen/Nubian) cross

3/24/2010 Hyacinth had boy/girl twins. The boy is tricolored, mostly brown with white cotton top and black dorsal stripe. Girl is a striking black and white.

3/24/2010 Maggie had boy/girl twins. The girl (Piglet) is brown and white. The boy (Espresso) is solid brown with no markings. Both were mid sized and have been the most difficult to get on the bottle.

3/25/2010 Mary who is a sable Saanen/Nubian cross had boy/girl twins. Very cute. The boy (Tank) was huge and lightcolored white, grey and black. The girl (Ginny) was tiny-tiny very cute gray and white.

3/28/2010 Snowflake had boy/girl twins that were solid white with floppy ears. They were MUCH bigger than any of the other kids this year. Very aggressive eaters.

No trouble kidding this year.

Feeding frenzy/Crazy food packaging series:spices

Eight kids - 4 boys and 4 guys. Time to go to the lambar.

Single application of six spices to be used in one dish, packaged in hard rigid plastic and cardboard.

crazy food packaging series: Apples

Kind of silly huh? Four apples to a package, in hard rigid plastic. Wasting resources to make the packaging, and just making WASTE!

crazy food packaging series: Potatoes

Four potatoes incased in shrinkwrap on a polystyrene tray. Craaaaazy!

Potting up tomato transplants. Running kind of late this year.

Hyacinth's kids

Hyacinth kidded first this year with a boy and a girl. They are both tri-colored with the boy showing a lot more brown and the girl almost entirely black and white....very cute. Looks like the boy got the lion's share of the inutero nutrition because the girl is considerably smaller.

Spent the MOST facinating day with an Angora goat breeder in the hill country. It was a terrific day and I learned a bunch.

Spring at last

Beautiful day outside today - just gorgeous! It was a nice time to be outside and get some needed farm chores done. I moved last year's bottle calves to the big girl pasture, and then I vaccinated all the dairy does. I did prick my finger at the end, but hopefully it won't have any adverse effects ala spiderman style!

I also managed to eyeball the bees today and thought the bee traffic looked a little sparse. I'll have to suit up and check them out, but in the meantime I set out some feed for them.

I saw my first sign of spring fix today when I spotted the very first leaves popping through on an Arapaho blackberry cane and a couple of Nova Red raspberries - YEAH!

Seed starting day

It's a little late, but I got my tomatoes and peppers started today. I'm still waiting on a couple of varieties that haven't been delivered yet. This year I am trying:

Cherokee Purple - large 12 oz, dusty rose colored, extremely sweet, productive.
Hillbilly Potato Leaf - 4-6" flattened fruits 1lb each, beautiful yellow striped with red.
Nyagous - black, baseball size, blemish free, excellent flavor, clusters up to 6 fruits, very prolific.
Crnkovic Yugoslavian - large beefsteak, smooth shoulders, doesn't crack, great full tomato flavor, productive.
Box Car Willie - heavy yields 10 oz fruit, old fashioned flavor, crack resistant, disease resistant.
Rutgers - heavy yields 7 oz fruit, very flavorful, excellent for sauce, paste and processin.
Opalka - 3x5" sets of fruit, excellent fresh flavor, very few seeds, holds on the vine well, wispy vigorous vines.
Yellow Pear -
Black Cherry - Huge clusters 1"round, deep purple, mahogany-brown cherry tomatoes. Complex, full flavor.
Sungold - heavy yields golden yellow, one of the sweetest tasting cherries.
JetStar - high yields, medium red tomato, mild flavor, early maturer.

*Better Boy - high yield, smooth, large flavorful. 1/2 to 1lb each. Deep red and meaty.
*Beefsteak - huge 4-5", delicious, ribbed fruit.

Jimmy Nardello Italian Pepper
Red Cheese Pepper

Pluot and plum trees already breaking bloom...they are going to get zapped by frost! After pruning today, I brought in branches to force into bloom. Paul and I planted the new fruit trees today. He dug holes and I filled them. Still doing my part to make Spring get here faster!