Farmer Friday 9/22/2023

Cute little Pinto Bean, Bambi’s daughter

 Little Bean is now 7 months old but compared to her mom Bambi she still looks a little bit small so I probably won't breed her until next year.

Even though we have gone to just one milking a day Bambi is still giving me 6 pints of milk!



There hasn't been a lot of rain this year, but there have been some pretty sunsets

 These Armenian cucumbers have been struggling for awhile.

So they came out so I can prep these beds for fall / winter greens

This week just a few tomatoes and the last of the cucumbers.

I emptied a compost pile

 And spread it on a bed, getting ready for fall planting.

 

Can you see the coyote? This is a young one that comes and plays in the creek.

Have had some pretty good days at the Globe-Miami Farmers Market. Just one market left, then I'll be going to the Superior Farmers Market over the winter.

Miss Esmarelda is the only girl I"m planning to breed this fall, just trying to decide if I want to breed her to kid mid-March or early April. I don't want kids later than that because we get so hot.

Farmer Friday 8-18-2023

A baby Tiger Salamander that was in the kitchen sink. 

I think that’s a tarantula hawk

Huge deep ground squirrel hole

A bright blue dragonfly 

Me and Bambi

Tomatoes. Not as many as there have been. 

Got a fair amount of stuff done. 

My old computer area. Trying to get it cleaned out. 

More to do but most of the desk is dismantled and the floor swept

Farmer Friday 8-11-2023

Just a little bit of this past week. And yes I know it's Monday already, but I've been so busy!

Still a lot of tomatoes

Globe-Miami Farmers Market

Farmer Friday

 

We have had weeks of high heat at least 105 every day and some days as high as 113. Pretty much anything in a smaller pot has fried to a crisp, I've probably lost a seedling tree that I planted this spring and the figs aren't looking too good since the squirrels tunneled under them and dried them out big time.

But I do have tomatoes! And after all the years of dealing with root knot nematodes I *think* I am finally clear of them. Now I just need some rain and cooler tempertures to get some more things planted. Not much thrives in this heat and dryness. Even the prickly pear cactus are dried out and shriveling up!

Just a Little Catching Up Part 1

 

Just trying to catch up a bit here since I haven't posted since Oct 2022. Things just got so crazy and I was trying to work on videos so this space was neglected. Trying to do better! This was how big Digger Dog was at about 6 months. He's even bigger today of course!

This video is from November; things have changed a lot since then!

In November I sold the 4 wether kids which helped the feed bill a bit.

In December Chocolate gave birth to a single doeling, Christmas Evie

And then Gazelle had twins

And a look back at 2022. I'm hoping to post a some more catch up posts the next few days and then keep up with at least a weekly roundup.

Exciting Monday

Early this morning while I fed the goats I didn’t see any of the loose bantam chickens out that Digger wants to chase so let him run a bit. He ran up behind the big chicken house and was really barking and growling.  Look close in the that tree behind the IBC tote. 

Digger had this young male bobcat treed. I swear I hit video record but apparently not really so all I got was these two still pics.  That tree is right in a fence corner and when it showed no sign of leaving on its own I picked up a long piece of rain gutter and was going to poke it. Cat got the message and hopped the fence. 

I discovered it had peeled back this chicken wire (which I never worried about before because Giotto was here). Bobcat got two nice Black Copper Marans males I’d been watching as possible breeders for spring. So I spent the morning reinforcing this with scrap wood and looking for other breeches in defenses. 

Then I worked a bit on prepping a garden bed. Mostly full of rocks and gravel about 8 inches down

Tons of rocks. This bed has been fallow for 2 summers now with chickens on it so fingers crossed those root knot nematodes are gone. I’ll finish loosening it up and add some compost and amendments then plant kale, Swiss chard and spinach. 

Digger might be barking at bobcats and coyotes but he’s really still a baby. He wants to chew on the goats rubber feed pans and everything else. The coyotes are really howling tonight. 

Hopefully that bobcat won’t come back but you never know. 

Catching Up

Digger eating a stuffed hoof in the kid pen and being calm. 

My phone did die and it took a bit to get a new one so not many pictures yet. 

Sometimes things are slow because I’ve been keeping my 2 yr old grandson while his mom works nights. 

Some days he helps with farm chores 

Some days it’s work keeping Digger from knocking him down trying to play with him

I did get a small garden bed prepped and planted

We’ve had odd weather. October tends to be a dry month yet this year we’ve had a fair amount of rain. 

Midnight being cute with a little bantam chicken 

Lots of things have been happening. I’ll update more soon. 

Mid September Already?

Mmm. Alright Bambi how many kids are you hiding in there and when are you going to let them out???? I thought it would have happened by now….

Found some cute new signs for my market table. I have had to increase my prices a bit….. soap is now $6

A sugar scrub is this month’s new product 

The lilac soap was ready to package. Mmmm. Smells heavenly 

Picked up an awesome solar light for the Patchwork Shed. 

Digger sniffing around in the car. 

Digger went to the veterinarian for his rabies shot and other vaccines. At 5 months he weighs 62 pounds. 

Digger digs. That hole is knee high on me. 


Mmmm. Looks like some chickens need a new roof pretty soon. 

These four little bucklings will soon be wethers. They are all still available and if not sold will go in my freezer when the weather cools off. They are already eating almost as much as adults and the price of hay is going up. 

Well I’ve been a bit lazy today.  Did chores and cleaned pens until it got too hot. Came in and had some lunch and played on the computer some. And now it’s time to do afternoon chores. One of the reasons I haven’t been posting a lot is my phone battery seems to be dying. Of course it’s only 6 years old….  

The Rest of August

Thought I’d catch you up on some things that happened in the rest of August. I pulled a chain link panel out from Bambi’s pen. 

I replaced it with a gate panel. 

I added more panels and made a little pen to separate the bottle baby and his brother from Storm during the day. So there is a gate on the outside of the little pen and then a gate into the big pen. A small tarp on top to help keep off rain and shade cloth on the outside. 

Then last week Midnight looked like she was coming into heat and I decided it was time to wean everyone. So all four boys are together now. 

We’ve had some crazy monsoon storms but nowhere near the amount of rain as last year. 

One day I milked in a drizzle with thunder, lightening and sunshine all at the same time!

The flies have been crazy. This giant fly paper has made the most difference of everything I’ve tried. I’ve been putting it on old tomato cages, buckets, just anything handy. 

Digger is getting big. Still getting in trouble but sometimes he is good. 

Storm has a better rear udder attachment than her mom Bambi. 

Midnight also has a nice attachment although her tiny sideways pointing teats are hard to milk. 

First day of weaning all the boys I got two gallons plus a pint of milk. That may go down a bit as the girls adjust to the lower demand. 

Tobacco Bay is a new soap scent. 

There have been a few cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes in the garden but not huge amounts of any one thing. 

I don’t know exactly what happened but Digger managed to break the front door. 

He’s watching an ant. 0.0  Check out how long his tail is, it’s almost touching the ground!

Monsoon sunsets are the bomb. 

I was hoping September would be cooler but it’s actually hotter. I can’t wait for fall.