Sorting garlic

Now is the time to be planting this stuff. Its easy to grow, and so far I haven't seen it affected by insects or disease. You just have to remember to plant it in the fall. Last year I neatly planted in multiple rows all lined up with the varieties labeled with a survey flag. This year I simply planted whatever we hadn't eat up to this point, was big enough for me to fool with and then I scatter plotted - i.e. tossed them into the air over my prepared bed, thinned them out a bit and planted them were they lay.

Strawberries

Done planting the 150 little strawberry plants (actually 148 - I was short 2 Camarosa). Half or more of the Camarosa had multiple green stems and leaves. Most of the Chandler was still dormant looking even though I kept them all in the same conditions until planting. Hopefully they are all alive! According to something I read yesterday, if these are treated right they should produce a pint of strawberries per plant. How exciting...that's 150 pints next spring...not that I'm counting my strawberries before they hatch! What have I learned from this? Strawberries need soil that drains extremely well,they prefer slightly sandy and acidic soil, a minimum 6 hours of sunlight and you need to remove all runners and flowers up through Christmas. What have I learned this year from gardening that I can apply to the strawberries? Mulch harbors insects!!! I am going to mulch with fine chopped up composted grass to protect it over the winter, but I will rake it back as the first sign of growth. I could also put hoops and plastic over them to force and earlier fruiting, but am curious to see how they do without that. I am also curious to see what hordes of insects will attack strawberries.

Finished pepper jam

The Habanero gold turned out yummy. It actually was not that hot. I could still feel my lips after I licked the spoon. Paul thinks it will taste great with brisket. Think I'll have to put that to the test this weekend.

Habanero Gold

Starting a batch.... it's a jam with dried apricots, habaneros, sweet peppers and onions. Youngest daughter Jessie said do those things even go together?!! I wiped pepper juice off the island, but later leaned against the cabinet and got my shirt damp. It started burning and I ended up with an inch wide red burn mark lengthwise across my stomach....youchie! Once it has boiled with sugar and vinegar, the mixture has to macerate overnight. I will be canning tomorrow.

Eggcup candles 3

Finished product...need more eggcups! The wax was very dark when I started and it lightened up when dry. It turned out very nicely. I need to remember to make more cut comb honey next year because these candles came from all the extra wax I couldn't use. It came from the edges and irregular pieces I trimmed away when cutting the piece to go into the honey jar.

Eggcup candles 2

Found a better way to prop up the wick with a clothespin...thanks for the suggestion Paul.

Eggcup candles

Making eggcup candles today with my beeswax. Looked for bath candles this week at world market and pier one and could only find fakey artificially scented ones...yuck!

Speckles and Spunky

Last year's bottle calves are getting close to being 18 months old now. We will have them AIed in December to calve September 2011. We should be looking for a total of four calves: two from them, one from Anabel and a hereford from Pistol. The jerseys are all gender select and should have girls. Hopefully the hereford calf will be a bull and he'll be our freezer beef. The semen for her will come from our vet who raises herefords. It will be interesting to see how it matures because Pistol has seemed slow to catch up in size to the jerseys. We also have two Dexters. I will have the adult AIed and sell all three together next spring. I decided the maximum adult cows for our acreage will probably be four if we don't want to wear out our pastures. Unfortunately our three horses are eating machines 24/7.

Speckles

Spunky

Naughty turkeys

These two are first on the list if you know what I mean. I think we are going to have 8 extra toms, out of 19 birds total, to process. I thought I'd have a hard time sending them off to the axe, but the boys are starting to fight and they are downright viscious with each other. They got after one poor rooster and bloodied the wall with him. He survived the encounter but his hackles are matted with blood. When the male turkeys fight with each other they will try to grab a fleshy part of their opponent like the snood or carbuncles on his neck and latch on. Not nice! The truth of the matter is, the farm only needs one male of each breed at the most, less than that if you AI, and any more is problematic. I wonder if that says something about human society at all :)

Rainy day reading

8 copies of organic gardening for a buck each at hpb...Score!

Saturday soccer

Watching VA Big Kickers play some gooood soccer!

Chirimen and Cheese

Yeah fall!

Chandler and Camarosa

I've got 150 little strawberries wondering when I'm going to plant them. This is the best time to put in June bearers for a nice crop next year. Think I'll write my next column on it. Think warm strawberry jam...yum!

Chicken cleanup

I didn't look forward to cleaning the broilers' pen, but it's nice now that it's done. I believe the chicks are 4 weeks old today and that is half way through. They will be processed at 8 weeks on October 21st. I haven't lost any more since the original 3 chicks which died during the first couple of days, so I am holding steady at 38. That is 76 chicken wings I told my daughter last night! I am having less problems this time with chickens blowing their legs....ie unable to walk. I thought that was due to rapid weight gain, but I was told that the problem could be a bacterial infection resulting from wet/contaminated bedding. I have them on the same feed that the processor uses. This time around, I have one bird that is having problem walking but isn't totally down, and I removed her from the pen and put her in a wire cage. Paul helped me scrape down their pen and put in new shavings. We're also trying to minimize spillage from their water container. Hopefully that will all help. The bigger they get, they more often their pen will have to be cleaned. I thought I'd scoot them all outside in the pasture while I cleaned it out, but they were petrified to be away from their usual surroundings and did not want to be herded outside, in fact they would hurt themselves trying to get back in. This is in total contrast to the turkeys who enjoy being outside so much that they will pine if they are left confined inside the barn. I'm going to have to rig up something outside forthe broilers to forage in that will keep them contained so they can eat greens and bugs.

Birthday books

Got three great titles for my bday, can't wait to really get into them. Thanks Beth, Mom and Kathleen!

Bourbon Tom

The bourbons are finally starting to display. The midget whites, that are the same age, started weeks ago, maybe longer. We are going to keep the biggest, nicest tom of each breed and all the hens. Any extra toms go to the processer on Oct. 21st with the meat chickens.

Fresh from the garden

Finally got some squash, no thanks to the squash bugs, the stink bugs and the little green worms. I sprayed BT with the big sprayer a few days ago, and got a brief rain shower the next day....grrrr :( I wonder if that stuff takes a few days to work anyhow, because I found another green worm yesterday. I've laid out feed sacks in the garden and plan to get up early in the morning to see if the squash bugs congregate underneath them as advertised. I've just got to get up earlier than usual! I've got to start watering again. My much anticipated early fall did not materialize and we've had temps in the low 90s and no rain since tropical storm Hermine dumped 6 inches on us.

Tractor trouble

Paul is trying to get the tractor running. I was mowing last with it in the back pasture when it made a funny noise, lit up the gauges and gave a puff of smoke before it died. The battery was a goner and we replaced it. Also decided it was a good time to change the oil and oil filter, replace the air filter and the fuel filter. It was a pain to bleed the fuel line and we were getting frustrated, when Paul went back to check the fuses a second time and found a 5 amp one blown out. It started right up after that!

McKinney XC meet

Savannah and Lindsey representing VAHS.

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

McKinney Boyd XC

Watching my daughter Savannah run CC on my bday....best gift I've ever received was my healthy, happy children!

Eleven eggs

Either the lights or removing the abusive rooster did the trick.

Lotsa habaneros

Good year for these, and jalapenos too. I'm going to make some Habanero Gold this week. Its a jam made from dried apricots and habaneros. I found it on the harvest form at gardenweb. Hope its good! Here's the recipe:

Carole’s Habanero Gold (courtesy Bob Rouleau from Ball’s Complete Book of Home Preserving)

1 cup minced dried apricots (1/8" dice) Note: Could use dried peaches or pears instead.

1-1/4 total cup minced red sweet pepper and minced red onion (1/8" dice), approximately half-and-half.

1/4 cup Habanero peppers Note: For extra-hot, increase Habaneros to 1/2 cup and reduce red sweet pepper/red onion combination to 1 cup total.

1-1/2 cups white vinegar

6 cups sugar

1 3-ounce pouch liquid pectin .

Prep apricots, peppers and onion. Place in a large, stainless or other non-reactive pot. Add sugar and vinegar. Bring to the boil and cook 5 minutes. Pull off the burner; allow to cool, cover and let sit overnight. Stir occasionally if convenient. Note: 4-6 hours would be plenty, so the time doesn't need to be any greater than the soaking time for apricots in the original recipe.

Next day, bring the mixture back to the boil. Stir in liquid pectin. Boil hard 1 minute. Pull off the heat. If necessary, skim foam. (I did need to skim a bit.) Let cool 2 minutes, stirring to distribute solids. Pour into jars. Stir to distribute and remove air bubbles. Do the usual with the jars and lids, BWB 10 minutes. When jars are sealed, "agitate" to distribute solids throughout the jelly.

Programming my hens

They need16 hours of light to make eggzzzzz. I found out that the Barred Rocks that I mostly have, are considered pretty good layers as they average 4 eggs a week. The best brown egg layers are the production Reds who can average up to 6 eggs a week, and even better are the White Leghorns but they lay white eggs and are considered quite flighty. I think you'd have a hard time letting them free range during the day and getting them all back up at night.

Turkey oddity

Just recently learned that the black spot in the middle of the male turkey's breast is a turkey beard and not a defective spot...wierdness. They are strangely formed feathers, kind of bristly like a old timey shaving brush. It will grow up to an inch a year, and hunters will save them as trophies. Don't know what purpose it serves.

Flooded

The sun is finally out and its going to be a hot and humid one...good grass growing weather. We still received considerable rain earlier this morning and our grand total came in at 6 inches from tropical storm Hermine. This should mean that the local hay farmers will have a good fall cutting. Hopefully there will be plenty of hay for sale.

Tropical Storm Hermine

Hermine has dumped 4 inches on us and it's still coming down hard. I got soaked to my underroos doing all the farm chores. It is harder on the animals though. Everybody is taking it pretty well except that the horses stalls are getting soaked from the east and the bee hives are in imminent danger of flooding.

Evil rooster

Sorry Kay, I've had to change Goldie's name to Mr.Hyde. He's charged me twice and flogged the backs of my legs, and he's unnecessarily rough with his ladyfriends.

Watchout grasshoppers

Found this praying mantis chomping down on a grasshopper while I was trimming around a peach tree. Just need to find a bjillion more!

Say no to factory farming

Raise your own or buy locally from your farmers market. 95% of chickens are still raised in battery cages that are smaller than a sheet of paper and are impossible to santize. Their diet includes ground up old chickens. Factory food is cheap because they pass on the costs ocurred from the filth and disease to us the consumers.

Green Peeps!

Recycled shelter for chicks: pvc and shadecloth from garden hoops, redwood frame from old raised bed, hardware cloth leftover from another project.

Cute little peppers

Red Cheese from Baker Creek Heirloom. Gonna stuff em with goat cheese. Yum, yum.

Moon and Stars

I was scared to death that I'd pick this too early or too late....but it's just right Goldilocks!

Cool temps

Pretty good for September 2nd! Fall actually hit September 1 this year with a measurable amount of rain and temps in the mid 80s, which is nice after the long dry period in the 100s that we've been experiencing.

First day September

Well that was a good rain

Storms a coming

Putting up the horses before a downpour....thunder is rumbling to the north. Spuds doesn't mind if he gets noms.

Conneticut Field pumpkin

Nankeen cotton bloom