This Week

It’s been a busy week but I did squeeze in some hill time to go from this… 

To this. A bit more picking to do but getting there. 

The sun doesn’t come over the mountain until about 8:30 now. It’ll be after 9:00 Dec 21. 

Sent some extra cockerels off to freezer camp

Doing chores by headlamp in the morning sucks but the sunrise is pretty 

Made a yummy cheesecake from chèvre. Cheated and bought crust. Did you know they come in pecan now? It’s so yellow from my egg yolks. 

This poor chicken had a bad case of fowl pox but also somehow it’s eye is infected. Not sure it’s going to make it but she’s up eating and drinking so I’m doctoring. 

Mmmm. Posie your legs are just too short. I did find my beat up, dented 40 year old milk pail. It’s a bit shorter than this new one so using it now. The new one is fine under big tall goats but Posie has really short legs. 

I worked a bit getting grass out of this bed. Will take a few days before it’s all done and ready to plant again. 

Mmm. Pulled some carrots to cook. Not sure if they have nematode damage at all, it doesn’t look like it although forked roots can be a symptom these look more like the soil is not deep enough. I should probably double dig these beds before I try carrots again. 

And I found a heart rock  

#appreciation

Today I appreciate that the weather has been really nice. 

Farmer Friday

The last few weeks have been doozies. In fact this whole year has been something else. My culverts clogged a bit and I had some run off from the hill pen. You can see more of that in the video  below. 

I worked on new steps up to the hill pen. 

And it rained. A lot in a few days. I’ve gotten as much rain this month as I did for the whole year of 2019. 

So the goat pens flooded and needed mucked out. 

14 bags of bedding barely dried out the goat pens and the brooder coop. Most of the other pens had at least some dry space. 

I dug a little ditch around Caramel’s pen so hopefully the water won’t run in there again. 

There was so much water on tarps it was bending the kennel panels. 

View from the top. Took me all one day to bail water and muck out pens. 

And THEN!

It rained some more!

Since it was nice and cool I did make a pizza: Brick House Bakers pizza dough, home made mozzarella, homegrown tomatoes, basil, garlic chives with some figs from the Superior Farmers Market. 

Tons of weeds growing like crazy but so is everything else. A little birdhouse gourd. 

And a big one. 
Cosmos or maybe coreopsis 

Dahlia 

Tomatoes are starting 

Armenian cucumber 

A jungle out back

I got some of it tamed

Wild fungi

Another dahlia I love the colors, reminds me of water lilies 

Sorting out some Nankins. Nankins are little bantams that shouldn’t be too big. A young cockerel like this should only weigh about 20 ounces. Some of these are too big or don’t have the right coloring to keep for breeding. So I’m giving them away to 4H kids for showmanship birds. I have several pairs. Message me if you are interested and local

I did pick tomatoes and okra and a couple cucumbers but forgot to take pictures. Maybe in the morning. But I did get one of this weeks flowers. 

#appreciation

Today I appreciate we’ve gotten rain. I appreciate that despite the wildfires and floods I still have my house, my gardens, my animals, food in my belly and clothes on my back. 

A Chicken Show 1/18/19

Today I had a great time at the poultry show visiting old friends and making new ones and talking standard bred poultry all day. 

It was a bit chilly being at the base of Mt Graham. 

My Black Copper Marans cockerel was reserve variety and breed. 

While my pullet was Best variety, Best of Breed and Champion Continental. She’s a silly, friendly girl and hard to photograph properly!

 



The Buff Orpingtons were not so great looking. So I didn’t take any pics. 

The day was lovely, went to lunch with a friend, had a great time. 

#100daysofappreciation

Today I’m appreciating a lovely day with friends, knowledgeable conversations and fun. Everything went smoothly from the show, to lunch, to driving. 

Farmer Friday

cute chickens

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. My oldest daughter came to visit from Florida and brought me some cute chickens. The one in the background is a cookie jar. There are some more, including some metal ones that can go outside but I didn't take a pic of them yet.

The Nankin's first egg

I'm keeping my grand daughter's little Nankin chickens for her because she can't have them where she lives right now. They started laying last week. Their eggs are even tinyer than the Silkies.

steamy compost

I've been turning compost piles this week and made a new one which needs to be turned already. 

1/4 inch sifter screen

I made a sifting screen with 1/4 inch hardware cloth. I sifted a lot of peat moss and added some vermiculite for seed starting. This will be much less expensive than buying small bags of mix from the store. I'm planning to make some other sizes of sifters also.

a rock retaining wall begun

In this area last year I dumped 6 truckloads of mixed manure and planted melons. The melons grew fairly well once I was able to keep out the squirrels. When the melons were done I put some young cockerels in there because they needed more space. I've culled that group down to 2 birds and put them in another pen. This area is quite sloped and needs a retaining wall at the bottom. I thought about using some tires, but decided I liked the idea of a rock wall better. Sill a lot of work and clean up to do. I started putting up more fence and that job needs finished also. There will be space here for 2 new beds 4 feet wide and almost 20 feet long, with some space along the rock wall for some herbs and flowers. I will probably have to terrace the 2 beds also, using some old boards to help keep things even. 

more work on the wall

mystery fork

We had our Christmas dinner on Saturday. On Christmas morning I found this fork in the driveway. All the kids deny it falling out of their cars. So I don't know, maybe it was elves or aliens.

The little cafe where we do our winter farmers market is closed this weekend so we are taking Saturday off. Felt a bit odd not to be picking and washing and packing veggies this morning!

Giotto gets a mouse

Mom's barn has become mouse heaven and I'm really tired of those little buggers. There are literally hundreds of them tunneling all over. They are eating the feathers off the chickens to the point some birds have no tails. So I've been digging up or pouring water into every hole I see and Giotto helps. Sometimes the mice jump out of a different hole where he's not expecting them and doesn't see them quick enough to catch them but other times he gets them. Sometimes the chickens catch them too and eat them. Giotto just plays with them.