I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.
Welcome to Harvest Monday, a great blog hop hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres And why am I late to the party this week? LoL. Because I am a crazy, stubborn old lady with a one track mind sometimes.
A single yellow zuchinni, Japanese eggplant, Lemon Spice Jalapeno
Really I was getting my act together, had part of this post done, had my little video all uploaded and then forgot all about it while I dealt with all that milk.
the cucuzzi are still going strong
all the eggs are from the pullets now
All the older hens have quit laying for the winter but the new pullets are laying well.
goat milk
While milk production is slightly down due to heat cycles it is still a lot.
This weeks totals
cucuzzi 31# 6 oz
eggplant 1# 4.6 oz
eggs 43
milk
Bambi 4 gallons, 2 pints
Esmarelda 7 gallons, 4.5 pints
Thanks for stopping by, be sure to stop over at Happy Acres and see what everyone else is harvesting.
Been another doozy of a week. I had to work my part time job 3 days instead of just 2 so that cut into my project time a lot. Then on Wednesday morning Bean was yelling her head off. Sure enough she was in a full standing heat. Not sure what happened, since I thought she was in heat the week before. However there is such a thing as a short cycle where a doe can come into heat close together. But as far as I know she and Bentley had a successful date and we should have kids in 5 months.
Back side of the big chicken house
I've been working on making repairs to my big chicken house, being very careful looking for the rattlesnake. So far no sign of it. I'll probably do a little video about this and the mistakes I made when I built it. In the meantime there is a page about it here; Big Chicken House
Fresh Goat Milk
In spite of the girls having their heat cycles and our weather being wonky I'm still getting a lot of milk. I did make a couple of batches of cheese.
Death Nap
The first time I found a goat stretched out like this I was panic stricken to say the least. But 'death naps' are a regular occurance.
pomegranite
The little pomegranite tree is almost ready to pick, but a squirrel got one first.
Goat Milk Soap "Orange Coffee"
Goat Milk Soap "Cedar & Sage"
I did get some soap packaged up that was ready so a couple of scents are restocked now. I really need to get more made so I don't run out of anything again but it's hard to do with so much other stuff going on.
What happened to my usual Harvest Monday post? Well some crazy stuff happened last week!
It all started on Wednesday when Bambi came into heat and went on a date
This fence is trashed
And it ended with a demolished fence and two bloody bucks. So then I had to spend all my time on Friday securing a different spot for Bentley
So I wasn't able to pick any vegetables for Saturday's Farmers Market.
Things are a little bit calmer now, with more distance between the boys and so far no girls have come into heat this week. Kind of holding my breath on that.
Anyhoo Harvest Monday is a great blog hop hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres so hop on over there and see what everyone else was able to harvest!
eggs
goat milk
I did get a total of 50 eggs last week and a combined total of 13 gallons, 5.5 pints of goat milk. Whew, hopefully this week will be better!
Welcome to Farmer Friday, a recap of the goings on around here. Boy it's been a week and I'm physically exhausted and super stressed out. Miss Bambi came into heat on Wednesday so I took her to have a date with Bentley.
Things weren't going too bad until Bashful tried to get in on the action and Bentley took offence. Bentley proceeded to mangle the cattle panel and weld wire fence in between them.
This cattle panel is trashed
I fixed things up as good as I could and prayed the fence would hold up. It did, just barely. Both boys are bloody, Bashful from breaking his scurs (small bits of horn) off and it looks like Bentley cut open the back of his neck, probably from broken fence wires. So I decided to make a quick hoop shelter up in the hill pen and move Bentley up there, I am hoping that the extra distance between the two boys will help. All of that occupied all of my Friday, I didn't even pick any vegetables for market.
Pinto Bean and Bentley
I had wanted to breed Pinto Bean to Bentley also and it looked like she might be at the very end of her heat cycle so I moved her too. Poor thing didn't have a clue what was going on, although she did stand for him a couple of times that I saw. But after that she just yelled and yelled, wanting to go back to the girls pen. At this point though I'm a bit afraid of letting her out, afraid of what Bentley might do to the fence. Since she's not milking or anything I'm going to leave her in for a bit, to make sure she is bred. And try to figure out what to do next.
Welcome to Harvest Monday, a blog hop hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres Thanks Dave! Milk is still the most abundant harvest this week with a total of 13 gallons and 7.25 pints.
Japanese eggplant, Lemon Spice jalapeno
eggplant, Lemon Spice and other peppers
There were some eggplants along with Lemon Spice jalapeno and a couple of other peppers. Totals are down because it's been hot and dry and I just haven't been able to get out and water like they need it.
Cucuzzi
Still lots of cucuzzi and the vines are still going crazy. Some folks at market are adventerous and giving them a try. Leftovers go to a friend with pigs, she says they love them. Just over 6 pounds. I'm wondering if I missed some.
colored eggs
Still just getting about 7-8 eggs a day mostly from the new pullets. Giving serious thought to hatching the bigger blue ones from a couple of Legbar hens. Chicks that hatch now will begin laying in spring and will lay well most of the summer and fall when the older birds quit to molt. I just don't know if I have the time and energy....
Thanks for visiting and be sure to check out what other folks, in other parts of the world are harvesting too.
Welcome to Farmer Friday, a recap of the past week. Saturday I went to the Superior, AZ Farmers Market, it was a good day. The weather is still too hot but we were able to be inside in their Chamber of Commerce building. Then Sunday as I was filling the kettle the faucet came off and water was shooting everywhere. But I was able to shut the water off pretty quickly and fixed it later after I did chores.
Fresh Goat Milk
I made cheese a couple of times during the week with the overabundance of milk. Most of it ends up in the freezer which is getting pretty crowded.
I spent about 2 hours on Wednesday morning cleaning up stuff in the driveway. I would really like to be able to drive all the way up to the shed and goat pen to unload feed instead of carrying it all the way up. Not happening any time soon but I'm a little bit closer.
Filling a raised bed
I haulded a lot of mostly finished compost and topped up two raised beds. It's really still too hot to plant most fall crops but I needed to make space in the compost area and I want to be ready as soon as it cools off a bit. I could add shade cloth and sprinkle a lot to get seeds going but really don't have time to babysit things right now.
Then I spent a lot of Friday morning turning about 2 cubic yards of compost. There is still about that much more to go and then I will have room to muck out the girls pen. I will be really happy when I can get some of the hillsides fenced off for the goats. A lot less pen mucking then!
Nice wrap
I had two .22 rifles, both of which had been having issues. A friend looked at them, used parts from one to fix the other and added a nice wrap to the stock. We went up the creek to check it out. We discovered that some of the ammunition I had was the cause of jamming. It really didn't like a couple of brands at all. So we sorted all of those kinds out of the stash. I should be good now for varmint hunting.
I hope everyone has a great week. Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.
More Japanese eggplant & a lone Lemon Spice Jalapeno
Harvest Monday is a lovely blog hop hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres Thanks Dave! Not a lot to harvest this week, some Japanese eggplant, one or two jalapenos, a few other things.
Honeynut squash
Honeynut squash
Most of the Honeynut squash were ready to pick. There are still a few solid green ones out there, I don't know if they will mature properly or not because the vine looks mostly dead. But I was very happy with the ones I got. A few still had green stripes but their skins are hard and their stems are hard and dry so I think they will be fine.
Cucuzzi
More cucuzzi. The vines have gone crazy. I was thinking of beginning to chop them back, thinking it would cool off soon but we are still at the 100+ mark. I have been selling a few of them at market. Of course no one here has ever heard of them so I have to educate them. Many of those that have tried them have been coming back for more, saying they liked them, so I will probably grow some next year, just maybe in a different spot.
Fresh raw goat milk
The goats are doing well. Bambi is still at her steady 6 pints a day. Esmarelda was hitting 12 but then she came into heat which dropped her to about 8 for a couple days. It's coming back up though since her cycle is over.
chicken eggs
While egg production is no where near what it should be for the number of birds I have, the 7 new girls are now all laying regularly. As soon as the weather cools down I will be reducing the flock quite a bit. There are too many old nonproductive birds out there, they are not even breaking even on their feed bill.
I do have a couple of Legbars which lay blue/green eggs of good size. Those girls are only about 2 years old and they are laying right now. I have been keeping their eggs back because I would like to hatch some. Birds that hatch now will start laying in spring and fall hatched birds tend to be bigger than those raised when it's warmer. They will also lay most of the summer when the older birds quit to molt. I used to do a fall hatch regularly but haven't in a few years. I'm actually not positive I have the time and energy but going to give it a shot. Worst case scenario I get overwhelmed and either find someone to raise the chicks for me or sell them off. Time will tell.
Welcome to Harvest Monday, a blog hop hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres The summer garden is winding down and the fall garden is not yet started to any degree. It has been too blasted hot. We are back up to 100+ this past week, so I seriously doubt there will be any fall tomatoes other than a few cherry types. The heat is also slowing down bed prep and seeding of fall crops.
Eggplant & Jalapeno
Cucuzzi
There were a few eggplants and jalapenos and a lot of cucuzzi. A lot of my market customers have tried the cucuzzi and have come back for more so I'm happy for that.
The milk explosion continues
Egg production is still low
Esmarelda is still giving me 11-12 pints of milk a day and Bambi is still on her steady 6. The last new pullet has started laying so that makes 7 new steady layers. But most of the old girls quit when it got hot in the summer, then they started molting. Most of them are going to freezer camp as soon as it cools off enough to do that because I'm in the red every month for feed.
There are a couple of Legbars laying nice size light blue-green eggs and I'm seriously contemplating hatching chicks from them. Chicks that hatch in the fall tend to start laying in spring and lay well over the summer when the older hens quit and I have the biggest market for eggs. I'm still at war with myself over it though, will I have enough time and energy to raise them well. I don't know, I'm going to think about it some more before I actually do it. And I'm going to check with some 4H families if they'd like to hatch and raise chicks until they are big enough to sex, in exchange for some of them. I would pay for their feed in exchange for their doing the work.
Welcome to Farmer Friday, a little recap of my week around here. Last weekend the diamondback rattlesnake was still hanging out in the chicken house. My friend tried to catch it but it got away from her. I have not seen it in about 2-3 days now so not sure where it went.
Esmarelda before milking
The milk explosion continues with Esmarelda now up to 11-12 pints a day in two milkings. I'm just happy she is so good on the stand and is soft and easy to milk.
Pinto Bean
Bambi's daughter Pinto Bean gets a little snack after the milkers are done in the evening. The other night she did not want to get up on the stand and decided to eat her snack like this. She did eventually get all the way up but I was cracking up at her antics.
pumpkins I did not grow
I was gifted a large lot of pumpkins, some of which were a bit moldy and squishy. Those went to the chickens right away and the rest to the kitchen floor to stay coolish. I have been feeding them to the goats and chickens.
eggplant and jalapeno
There were still a fair number of eggplant and a few regular and yellow jalapeno peppers
loofah
There are several good size loofah's out on the trellis
Lemon Spice jalapeno
cuccuzi / cuccza
Not a huge amount of things going on around here this past week,just trying to keep everybody fed and watered. It was cooling off and now it's hot again. Trying to prep for fall plantings in the garden is hard when it's hitting 100+ all the time.
Don't forget to stop back by next week for Harvest Monday!
Welcome to Harvest Monday, a great blog hop hosted by Dave over at Happy Acres I hope you stop by there and see all the wonderful gardens and harvests. Even though I got half an inch of rain, the ground was still powder dry under the surface. Which is why I tend to water even if it's trying to rain, because it almost never rains enough.
Esmarelda is still pumping out milk like crazy
Esmarelda, one of my Nubian dairy goats, has weaned her triplets and is making milk like crazy. 10 gallons in the past 7 days. While the kids were nursing I was only milking once a day and now I have to milk twice a day. The old girl Bambi gave me 6 gallons this week, milking her once a day.
Japanese eggplant
The eggplants are still going strong. I did notice as I picked this week that I must have missed some last week because there were a couple very large ones with dull skin. I decided to leave them for seed.
a handful of tomatoes
There was only a handful of tomatoes, most of which I ate with tacos.
cucuzzi
Cucuzzi is an edible gourd from Italy and it's been producing like crazy and trying to take over the whole yard. Too bad the goats didn't seem to care much for it, it'd be a great thing to grow for them.
Honey Nut squash
Last year my daughter brought me some HoneyNut squash she had been given. They are like single serving butternuts but much better and sweeter flavored. I thought maybe they were hybrids but when I looked them up online found they were supposed to be heirlooms. So I saved seeds and grew some. These three were on the ground so I picked them because I was afraid they might be get too wet and rot. The vines have quite a few more but I love these so much I'm pretty sure I did not grow nearly enough of them.
Cucuzzin obliterating the rest of the harvest
This weeks totals;
Eggplant 1# 14 ounces
Tomatoes 4 ounces
Cucuzzi 11# 11 ounces
Honey Nut 1# 1.5 ounces
Milk;
Esmarelda 10 gallons
Bambi 6 gallons
Eggs 54
Thanks for coming along and thanks Dave for hosting us. See you next time.
