Farmer Friday

I’ve been working on taming this jungle for a couple of weeks now. But there is still a lot to do. 

The flowers are starting to get going. 

Primrose 

I made some chèvre. First time I’ve made cheese in years. 

I added another trellis to the little back garden and planted 11 more tomatoes. Up to 77 in the ground now. 

I did get some weeding done in here. Really I don’t weed.  I harvest goat and chicken greens. 

Homemade pizza. 

One of 3 early morning visitors. Can you spot her? 

I planted a gooseberry. Guess I’ll find out if I like them or not. 

5 cups of fresh raw milk. Amazing really since the twins are still nursing. 

Farmer Girl gave me a hand adding arches to the new garden. 

I picked chard, spinach and snap peas today. 

The peas are taller than I am. 

Breakfast, homegrown eggs, locally grown sausage and homemade chèvre with homegrown herbs. Rolled into a burro to eat on the run. 

#appreciation

Today I really appreciate homegrown food. 

A New Old Garden: Part One

This area along the creek has gotten a major make over. The ground sloped a lot and around 2015 I hauled in about 8 truckloads of mixed manure and leveled it out. That year I grew huge amounts of summer squash. But the next year I had root knot nematodes and got nothing. So I turned it into a chicken pen. 

Here you can see how much it’s built up as a chicken pen. 

I knew I wanted to use a cute gate and decorative fence my daughter picked up on heavy trash day on this end. I also knew I’d need to work on the elevation change. So I scrounged up bricks from all over the yard. 

I had to dig the bottoms of some fence panels out. 

Making pretty good progress. I added old tin along the fence to help keep out rabbits and keep the soil in. 

Mmmm. How many more steps will I need.  

Mmm. One big damn rock

My 6’ pry bar was a big help

Took an afternoon to get this far. 

I ended up having to move most of the bricks out of the way 

But I got it over to the corner out of the way

Laying out the gate and fence. 

Trial fit. 

The post slides easily into the eyes on the gate but there is nothing to keep the gate from sitting on the ground. I slipped some small bits of plastic pipe under the bottom eye.  It’s not perfect but it helps I’m thinking some bit of hardware is missing. 

I added regular weld wire down the side and far end. Then 2 16’ cattle panels as tomato trellises in the middle. Next year I’d like to make an arch all the way down the center. 

From the other end. I added gypsum and other soil amendments where I’m planting. Flowers along the outside fence, tomatoes on the cattle panels. 

22 tomatoes are in. 

Along the outside edge here are sweet alyssum and calendula. The green fence is to keep Giotto from laying on them. On the inside are gladiolus, baby’s breath with nasturtium and cosmos seed thrown in. 

Beside the gate is a Fragrant Cloud rose. Maximilian sunflowers are on the other side of the gate. There’s  lots more space to plant in but some of the ground is rough and on a steep slope at the back end with a catclaw tree in the way. 

Tomatoes on the cattle panels. San Marzano, Italian Heirloom, Yellow Brandywine, Amish paste and Cherokee Purple 

#appreciation

I’m glad to have this space back in production again. Stay tuned for more planting 

The Impossible Never Ending Todo List

I got about 20 cherry tomato plants in here and more on the trellis at the end. 

The list of tomatoes in the ground now. 

The wagon has been full of mesquite bits for months. I finally put it on the wood rack. 

I tidied up the corner of the shed, unloaded feed then got the truck and hauled hay. 

I’ve had fly traps out almost two months now, trying to get ahead of them but seems there are more than ever. So bought a couple more. This trap was out for less than an hour. 

I tidied up in the greenhouse and moved things around since I’ve moved out a lot of tomatoes. These dahlias are coming along good. I’m going to take some cuttings from them so I can have more. 

I rebuilt the compost pile and watered it down. The goats pen has some wet nasty spots down under the dry bedding on top so I worked on cleaning that up and hauling it to the pile. If there are any fly larvae in it the chickens will gobble them up. 

The moon tonight has a pink ring. Besides these things I did regular chores and gave all the chickens some grit, hung new mineral feeders for the goats and watered a lot of plants. 

#appreciation

I’m appreciating and enjoying the nice weather we’re having tho some rain would be good. 

Spring Means No Time

The compost girls settled in nicely

That giant egg last week was a double yolker. Not going to get yolks that bright from the grocery store!

Part of a major project I worked on a lot the past couple weeks. I may do a whole post with project pics

😩 my pressure pump on my new well has malfunctioned. But my well guys have gotten it traded in for a new one since it was only a few months old. Hopefully it will be back up and running by midweek. 

Giotto wasn’t too sure what to do with the kids, especially when they were trying to jump on him. 

Miss Caramel has definite baby bulges. 

And her udder is growing   Kidding will happen sometime in the next few weeks 

It’s a jungle in here. This bed is full of fennel, Swiss chard, calendula as well as oats, curly dock and clover. 

The goats enjoyed the greens. 

Mmmm. Looks like this area needs some weeding and thinning too

Four fall hatched pullets, full sisters, have begun laying. 

This garden is getting a makeover and lots of tomato plants 

The flowers are starting to pop. 

#appreciation

Today I appreciate beautiful weather, garden abundance and working a few hours less at my off farm job.