Chicky, chicky, bok, bok! Farm chicks!

Yippee!!

Today we replaced the hens (all the previous ones were massacred by raccoons). We ended up with 12, all are laying now except for 3-4 of them which should start laying in a month or two. Dave completely rebuilt/recovered the outside enclosure last week, and sowed rye seed. In a few weeks, when it is not a dirt patch, we will let them out in their run area.

Several hours after bringing them home I went to take them some treats and found a treat for me--the first egg!
I puttered in the garden a little bit, mostly winterizing the veggies by bedding around them with spent hay. The tomatoes are growing so vigorously they are lifting up their cages out of the ground. The little green tomatoes and blooms are too numerous to count. Now we just have to be mindful of checking the weather forecast daily so we don't get surprised by a frost. That would really stink!

As you know our heifer Ginger is due to calve in May. I have been dying for more milk to be able to make cheese, yogurt, butter, etc. So, I have been on the hunt for a healthy, sweet cow in milk (and used to being milked). I am not sure how it will work if we end up having a heavy producer and fitting that into the job (traveling out of town every week). I don't know what the situation will end up being with the job (they have asked us all to reduce traveling) but I figure we can always get a foster calf or two to take care of extra milk, and still milk 3-4 times a week for the house. Despite search Craig's List and the KFC forum daily for weeks, I did not find one. Thankfully though providence brought one to us--the opportunity to buy back a cow we sold last spring: Vera! She is dry now and due Jan-Feb. She is bred to an Angus bull. We are picking her up the second week of November. I am thrilled! She is sweet, healthy, good at milking, has a bangs tag, etc, etc. The fact that she is not in milk is by far outweighed by the fact that we know her and love her.

Here are some recent pics from her current home:

The only other major happening this week was the A/C (furnace) compressor and the septic (pump) deciding to die on the same day. Thankfully they were both fixed the next day. These things run in three's don't they?......Should I wait for the other shoe to drop, or live in bliss that both are fixed. Hmmm, I am a "cup is half full" kinda girl so I'll just be thankful that all is well.

Here's hoping all is well with you too!

Happy Sunday!

I have had a great time today catching up on all the blogs I follow. You all inspire me so much with your cooking, farm activities, animal husbandry, and just life in general and how you manage it all.

All is well on the farm, animals are happy and healthy and the garden is growing like crazy.

The kids are so busy these days with work, friends and activities! It is a challenge to keep up and spend time together on the weekends. (I think the homemade ice cream I made may work to my favor this evening!)

Lately life has been a constant balancing act between needing to travel and wanting to be home. The special reward this morning was quiet time on the back porch before heading out to feed the animals. I jotted this down:

Observe. Morning sunlight streams across the farm. A barn cat basks. Cardinals shift in flight at the feeder. Cow bell chimes in the distance as she grazes through tall summer grasses. Dew drops cling to garden leaves. A pig crunches acorns. Coffee aroma. Rich, overwhelming peace.

I wish you all peace this week, and many special moments!

Anyone know a good rain dance?

No rain this week, or for several weeks. The pastures are very dry and crunchy. This is the time of year to sow rye or winter wheat or clover, but without any rain in the forecast I don't dare throw seed out.

Despite the dryness, we have had a pleasantly mild fall with crisp air (40's) in the morning. So nice!

I survived the learning curve with the live trap, after having the bait stolen for several nights. After I changed how I was setting it up (bottom was resting on the ground) and oiled all the moving parts I trapped a feral cat. Then a couple of nights I was gone and on Saturday morning there was a growling opossum in the trap! Not a nice fella. The next night the feral cat returned (I let it loose the first time). Both have been relocated and now I hope to capture the raccoon that left its paw prints on the hen house door.

I need to call the guy we bought the hens from and see if he has any more.

Ginger and her pasture mate Black Beauty (Black Dexter cow) are getting more friendly by the day and have begun hanging out in the pasture adjacent to the garden when I am out there working. Their efforts are rewarded with comfrey or whatever weeds I have pulled.

I have tried giving them pumpkin and cantaloupe, they don't care for either but they do like bananas and apples. ;-)

I found a huge Wolf spider in the tomato bed this morning. (pic attached) She is absolutely stunning!

The majority of the basil leaves have been harvested and frozen, made into pesto, or dried. The house smells lovely. Kind of like our favorite Italian restaurant!

I have not been overly domestic this weekend since I had a major project due for school (celebrating tonight when Dave gets home from work!). This semester ends Friday and the next starts Monday. The 8-week semesters march right along. I have 4 more semesters to go, and then I will have a BSN. Not sure what I want to do when I finish this 20+ year college plan. Something besides "official" school. I don't think I will have any problem devoting my time to family, farm, cows, garden and maybe some sculpture or pottery.

Have a great week friends and family!

FYI

I discovered in the settings for Blogger (on my dashboard) that I can post to the blog via text from my phone--this will be handy when I am traveling! Also, I had not ever enabled the notification to let me know when someone comments--I should be a little more responsive now!

Just posting this in case it can help any fellow bloggers!

A few more pics

Lantana bloom

Spottie!

Yesterday was extremely productive here, we got 130 bales of hay put in (165 total now), Josh and his friend Victor were a tremendous help.

Melissa picked up one of her cows that is due to calve soon and she brought me Spottie the GOS! Very sweet and curious pig so far, she "talks" too. (and is driving Cooper nutty). She does have brown stains from where she made herself "as happy as a pig in sh**"! That was literally the first thing she did--find something to roll in!

I also cleaned out/weeded/edged all the beds in the backyard, I can now appreciate how ratty it was looking, and have taken stock of what plants need to be replaced (more Knock-out roses).

A very busy, productive weekend and I hurt in places I haven't in a long time, add to that the blisters and sciatica and I am thankful for every bit!!!

Gorgeous weather

Much of this week I spent in Atlanta with the nurses at strategy meetings (pic above: Vanessa, Kathleen and Marty). The weather there was gorgeous! 40 at night with a high of 80, very little humidity--very nice! The only down side is Dave said the weather was identical at home, and I wasn't there to enjoy it. It has been warmer since I got home on Friday, but still very nice.

I spent the day today cleaning out and organizing the tack room. Very productive. Max and Cooper thought they were helping but really it looked like chasing of cats and carpenter bees. Max is one of my favorite subjects to photograph, and he is usually pretty close to me.

I took off Ginger's halter and gave her a bell, she did not seem to mind at all. I am looking forward to the day when her horns come off and the attitude adjustment that comes with it. She knows she has them and has lowered her head at me several times. And then she sulks when I stomp my foot and tell her BAD GIRL!

The garden beds are thriving, the tomatoes are blooming! The lettuce and herbs look and taste delicious. The carrots and peas have not come up yet. I think I will have to look for some onion sets and broccoli plants, the seedlings did not germinate.

We lost 3 hens and a duck to a predator, most likely a raccoon. We found a spot in the netting that was torn open. Since then we have been closing the hens in at night. Yesterday when I went out to shut the door I noticed it had raccoon prints on it!(pic above) The nerve! I set the trap tonight and will see what we have in the morning.

While visiting a friend today she offered me her Gloucestershire Old Spot pig (gilt). She is friendly, healthy, and cute! Spot will be coming tomorrow if all goes well. This is a very hardy heritage breed that is on the list of dwindling numbers. I hope we can breed her (AI) and not have to eat her. I did not get any pics yet, but I will. ;-)

Dave is in LA at Steph and Emile's camp hunting, for what I am not sure since teal and alligator seasons are over. I have no doubt they are having great fun no matter what they find to do!

The spider lilies are blooming! It is cheerful to see bright red clusters popping up in yards all over the neighborhood. (pic at top)

Happy Friday!

Ok, so it is late-ish on Friday. The weather here in SE TX has been absolutely the best it ever gets--highs around 80 most days this week and lows in the 50-60 range. We actually turn off the air at night and most of the day now! A little crispness to the air and less humidity....all this adds up to FALL! It really is here! Wow, it just feels so refreshing.

Besides the weather, all is well. Ginger is used to her routine (go stand in stanchion and don't flinch when they close the head catch, don't flinch when being brushed and eat like a pig!). She will definitely be a back pocket cow someday. She still has a flight zone in the pasture when she is approached, but it is noticeably smaller.

Work was work-ish and a little intense this week. Not so much on the travel, just mental angst and stress. Next week I will be in FL for one day then the next day go to Atlanta for 3 nights. All the Nurses are getting together to brainstorm, strategize and well, be together for a few days. I am looking forward to that trip, there are 5 of us and it should be a lot of fun and pretty productive too.

Only half of the beans I planted came up this week so I replanted that side of the bed with shell peas. Claire posted a pic of some on her blog and they look so great, I hope ours do that well.

Next week the kids have Homecoming, woohoo!

The weather is supposed to be gorgeous this weekend so my goal is to get my homework done early and not be indoors writing a paper the whole time!

Have a great weekend!

Her name is Ginger!

Well fans and followers, it is a great day on the farm!

The temperature is lovely, the sun is shining and we have a cow of our own in the pasture!

Ok, so she has been in the pasture for a few weeks, but she is ours now so that makes it all different.

The previous buyer for her was not able to commit so Melissa offered her to us! She is a bred Jersey (bred to a red dexter bull that throws low birth weight calves). She is due in May, has had all her vaccines and tests, has a bangs tag and has had a little time on the lead rope.

This morning I closed her in the stanchion for her morning cow cookies and hay, and locked the other girls in another pasture. She seemed to relax after a few minutes of brushing, petting and cooing. In the pasture she will come for cookies, but is still a little shy about being touched in the field.

That will pass in time. ;-)

She is very sweet and I am on cloud 9!

Why I love gardening with black plastic!

The top pic is what I found when I uncovered a garden bed today to plant beans.

It looked a lot like the second picture the last time I saw it. Tall grasses and weeds, and in the heat of summer I did not have the inclination or time to weed it properly so I covered it with black plastic and weighted it down with bricks and old potting pots (it has been covered since early July). I did rake the soil once over to smooth it out just before the pic, but that's it! No weeding for this bed!

The second bed is the herb bed that I didn't cover because I knew there were little plants of oregano and lemon thyme still surviving under the jungle.

What I didn't know was that there was a snake hunting in that weed hide-away too!

See: Garden Adventure blog.

:-)

Garden adventure!

So, while pulling weeds today in the one bed I didn't cover with black plastic (didn't want to kill the oregano and thyme that was buried), I had a little adventure.

I am working along the bed (4 x 16') pulling weeds and basically baking in the sun. Max and Cooper are helping, especially Max because he wants to be right next to me in case I uncover a frog or bug that he needs to attack.

I am about 2 feet from the end and and I hear a weird little SQUEEEEK! sound. Max perked up his ears but that's all. I figured it was a frog I must have startled. Well, I stood up to stretch and what of all things but a snake head (triangular shape) sticks out of the chives about 6" from where my hands had just been!

I am really really really uneasy about snakes, and to overcompensate I gave a lecture at a staff meeting once about identifying them (not species specific just poisonous vs. non-poisonous). This guy was in my mind poisonous because of the shape of his head.

I backed away slowly a foot or so and reached for my new deluxe garden hoe. Once in hand I suspended it over him and prayed that when it came down it would find its mark (I closed my eyes for a sec). It did! I stunned him enough to drag it out of the chives (with the hoe of course, I am not going to touch a snake willingly)!

Then I got the hoe positioned on him and tried to push down hard enough to do the guillotine trick. The ground was a little too soft to allow this to work so I did the next best thing--stood on the hoe and took pictures of it to send to Dave (at work) so he could identify the species for me. I was positive it was poisonous because by this time I had seen it did not have a round iris, and the open mouth with fangs was a dead giveaway also. While I had it trapped Max proceeded to try and rip it apart from the tail end, thankfully he left the head alone. I succeeded in damaging it enough that I could get off the hoe and go get a better tool (loppers) to decapitate it. They were dull so there was no quick end to the evil critters life, but I did get the job done and the fang-y part away from the dogs. I let them have the tail end to whip around and kill in their own way.

I eventually got back to the chive area of the herb bed and beat the remaining chives down and around to make sure "where there is one, there are more" didn't apply.

Nope, no more snakes. I did find a couple of inches from where the snake had been, a freshly dead toad with all his legs stuck straight out--I am certain it was his SQUEEEEK I heard--that must have been when he got his dose of neurotoxin poison.

Yikes, I hope we don't see any more snakes this year, Max and I can't handle it!

Wow! I missed you all!

Wow, time has flown. I apologize that it has been so long (3 months) since I last blogged.

It has been a very busy time for us, I'll try to sum it up quickly:

*Job in the Florida region officially started June 1. I fly to Florida or Georgia nearly every week.

*House was on the market until the weekend before school started here-- it did not sell.

*We sold all livestock in preparation for the move.

Two weeks ago our friend Melissa brought over 3 bred cows to eat down our pasture, we are so thankful for that assistance and for the blessing of being able to watch cows again.

Not long after, Dave said we should get a few hens so we can have eggs again. He got the coop up to snuff and I found some on Craig's List--we now have 6 hens!

A couple of days before I was at the feed store buying feed for them and decided on a whim to buy a couple of tomato and cilantro plants. It was not long before I had a whole bed planted with lettuce, kale, celery, garlic, radish in addition to the plants I bought.

The hens had been here almost a week when Dave said "I think you need your own cow"! I had been turning over in my mind for a couple of days how to tell him I desperately needed a cow again! He is so intuitive and sweet.

So fast forward to today, 4 garden beds are planted and we are on the hunt for just the right cow for us. I feel so much better than I have in well, months.

I have not been handling the stress very well, and didn't even realize stress was an issue until about 3 weeks ago when I was getting to the point of snapping at people and feeling tense all the time. The headaches and gastric burn should have been a clue also.

The gardening and re-committing back to the farm has helped me so much. For so long I had distanced myself emotionally to be able to sell the house and it really was beginning to take a toll. In all honesty I don't know what the future holds. I would like to be very close to the Atlantic, and have a small farm so we can have our cow and a garden. I am just that kind of person, I need to be creating in the kitchen, tending to the animals and garden. If we were only a few minutes from the ocean I could use that kind of relaxation too.

The job has been a source of stress, but only on my part with adjusting to the new region and learning to be a hardened traveler. I am certain I could not do this for the rest of my career--the travel part. I am gone from home 2-4 nights a week and often my flights don't get in until very late. This is the hard part--I want to see the kids as much as possible since they will both be gone in 20 months.

And for the record, Dave and the kids seem to be handling it all fine--it must be a mom issue!

So, the plan is to put the house back on the market in Feb or March and see if we sell next summer. If we do, the cow goes with us, if we don't the cow stays.

That's what I call a win-win!

I have some gardening stories from today, but will put those in a different post.

Thanks to all our friends and family for their support!!

Wonderful weekend

It has been a wonderful weekend at home.

Thanks to a dear friend supplying me with milk we not only had the best milk to drink, but I was able to make butter and then make wheat bread with the buttermilk. I have missed cooking and especially cooking with wonderful fresh dairy products!

I also made salsa, it turned out fantastic! Basic recipe:

In a large saucepan, sauté diced onion and garlic in olive oil.

Add to saucepan: 2 quarts diced tomatoes, 1-2 cups of chopped cilantro, 2 TBS chili powder, 3 TBS lemon juice, salt to taste, one jalapeño (chopped and seeds removed), 2 cups banana peppers (or bell) chopped. Heat through, stirring and sampling as needed! Serve warm with tortilla chips and a frozen margarita. Ole'!

The homemade granola, well lets just say it will be repeated!

4 cups oats

1 cup flax seed

1 cup roasted sunflower seeds

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (mine were pre-spiced, leftovers from holiday baking)

1 TBS cinnamon

2 tsp sea salt

In a large bowl mix all the above ingredients (may add a couple TBS of brown sugar, ginger or some shredded coconut, if desired).

Heat slightly until well mixed:1 cup honey and 3 TBS olive oil (or butter melted)

Toss dry ingredients with honey/oil, spread on large baking dish covered with parchment paper.

Bake at 300 for 40 minutes, stirring and rearranging every 10 minutes.

Allow to cool for 20 minutes and mix in 2 cups of dried fruit (raisins and cranberries in mine).

When completely cool store in quart jars for up to 3 months.

In other news, I looked at 4 rental houses while in Fla last week; all were doable, and one was spectacular. We have dropped the price on the house again and hopefully the Realtor is on the same page for getting a contract in the next 30 days. Otherwise, we will be here for another year. School starts in Florida on August 9th--not much time for messing around!

Our anniversary is this weekend, we have the same debate every year "is it the 26th or 28th?".

This year we have decided to celebrate it all weekend and wish each other happy anniversary every day. Quite romantic! Dave surprised me with the most beautiful, gorgeous suitcase I have ever seen! It is red leather(ish) and matches my red leather work bag. I feel like a princess!

I am making the wheat rolls and honey butter mainly for him--two of his favorite things he has not seen in many months!

I am looking forward to getting moved and settled for many reasons, but this weekend has reminded me how much I have missed cooking with real food.

After harvesting 20 more pounds of cucumbers, I pulled the vines out and covered the bed with black landscaping fabric. The bean bed (pole beans that are not setting fruit) is next on the list, and then the carrot/weed bed after I harvest the carrots. Slowly but surely the garden is getting put to bed, and the number of beds that need to be weeded is reducing! The Roma tomatoes are not far behind, they are a determinate variety so once they are finished setting fruit in a couple of weeks that bed will get shut down too. The cherry tomatoes that looked so horrible at the start of the spring are now enormous and producing well. The melon patch that we planted in the old pig pasture is doing very well. It must have been fertile soil! The produce is such a blessing and I am constantly wondering what our next garden will look like.

This week and next is the official break between semesters. Thankful for that too.

Wishing you all a great week!

Wow! Time flies!

Two weeks since I have posted, good golly!

I have traveled to Florida the last two weeks for work, and it has been great. Getting to know the facilities and all the people is a challenge and a lot of fun too. Driving from Central Florida to North Miami last week we went past miles and miles of orange groves. The crops were almost all in, and the last of what was being picked was for the orange oil production. On a medical note, seems the hospitals see a fair number of people with chemical burns from it. We also passed the Florida Orange Growers plant where the majority of orange juice in the US is produced. The weather there is about the same as in TX, just more breeze and less humidity. The daily shower helps to cool things off too. I have found a source for farm goods when we relocate, that makes me very happy!

No contract on the house yet, despite lowering the price significantly.

The kids are enjoying being out of school, Josh spent a week at ROTC camp, Charlye is looking for a job.

The garden is in full production. The bounty collected today must have weighed close to 50 pounds between the 4 containers. It was tomatoes, cucumbers and banana peppers.

The squash has never really come back from the squash borer attack, so I will pull it all out and cover that bed (no weeds!).The carrots and garlic are begging to be harvested, I hope to get to them tomorrow.

Dave is teaching me to shoot a handgun, a 9mm. I got it to qualify in the concealed handgun class. I thought about buying the pink model, but it was a double magazine size and was too thick in the grip.

How does the garden grow!

Ok, I admit it, what you all already know...I am not a daily blogger.

So, here are the highlights for the last week:

*I worked my last day from the Houston office, bittersweet.

*We have started on the process of loan approval so when we do sell our house we will be ready to buy without having anything holding us back!

*The house we loved has a contract on it, so it was not meant to be for us..but it served its purpose of helping us decide what we do want!

*The garden survived without us, though the yellow squash looks like it could have used a little more water. The plants are catching up and putting on new green growth.

*The tomatoes are laden with fruit. Some were laden with bugs so we dusted again. The slicers grew so fast and so big that they became cage bound! We have started picking any as soon as they have the merest amount of color to ripen inside away from bugs. The cherry tomatoes are looking and growing much better. We have tomatoes of all sizes and shapes on almost every surface in the kitchen.

*We are harvesting a basket or two daily of various items, I am trying to remember to cut herbs every few days to dry and store.

*The hot peppers are fruiting, cayenne, sweet banana, Tabasco and jalapeño. Ole!

*The blackberries have come on full tilt and besides enjoying them from the vine, I made 6 pints of jam. Max is a berry stealer, carefully using his front teeth to grip and pull a berry at a time off the canes, he only likes the ripe ones too! Thankfully he can't reach them all.

*The Memorial Day weekend is quiet here, a time to catch up on gardening, reading, homework and being with the kids. I miss Dave who has had to work the whole weekend.

Remember those who died in the service of our great country and have a safe and wonderful weekend!

Peace!

Florida Trip

We traveled to Florida for 4 days to see the area, spend time with a Realtor and see some friends. It was a great trip! Friday we looked at several houses and areas, mainly to decide what part of the island we would like to live on, or what neighborhoods. It was invaluable to be able to do this. We found a house we love, and of course now are under the gun to sell ours!

Saturday morning we woke up extra early to drive to the beach for sunrise coffee time (Atlantic/east coast). It was so beautiful and peaceful. We saw many fishing boats heading out and several schools of dolphins out fishing as well. Afterward, we headed west toward Tampa to see our friend Marty. That evening we had dinner with Marty in Dunedin, Fla and watched the sun set on the Gulf/west coast of Florida! Overall, it was a great weekend; seeing friends, basking in the oceans and views, couple time and finding what we hope will be our next home!