To Market

I spent the morning at our Globe-Miami Farmers Market. Came home, unloaded, ate lunch, fed the bottle baby. Then I went and got feed and went to get a couple things at the grocery store. Got back and started chores. I haven’t had a chance to fix the gate issue on Midnight’s pen and it came down again. Midnight and her twins got out. I got the gate back up and Midnight was easy to catch and put back. Instead of putting the twins back in I put them in with Bashful.  They are old enough to begin separating from mom. And since the pens are together Midnight didn’t get too freaked out her boys weren’t in with her. Bashful is a pretty gentle guy and doesn’t seem to mind babies. 

Shortly after that we got a heck of a storm. My battery was about to die so no pics of the creek running. A lot of high winds made a mess of tarps and shade cloth. The wind also blew the tin off the chicken tractors and those birds were quite soggy.   Silly Digger looked like he was out playing in it the whole time. 

Mocha and Posie were up on the hill when it hit and got pretty wet. But mostly they care about eating. 

With this rain the flies will be terrible so tomorrow I’ll have to try and work on fly control among other things. And now good night. 

Farmer Friday

I skipped market last Saturday because of the weather. I really didn’t want to drive over the mountains in this mess.  

It’s been a fun and exciting week with the twins. 

Poor Giotto wants to go in with the babies so bad. He lies by the pen a lot, but I’ll afraid Posie might hurt him so we are taking things very slowly. 

Egg production is better than ever. 

It’s hard to focus on work with this much cuteness around. 

I discovered some Romanesco broccoli was ready in the garden so we had broccoli cheddar soup for dinner. 

What a face. This baby girl needs a name. 

Goat kids aren’t the only babies around tho. 

I do think they are the cutest things on the planet. 

Today has been a super busy day. Salad mix. 

Abundance 

Arugula 

Flowers 

More broccoli 

I also picked some spinach and baby kale. I started working on the milk stand 

I delivered eggs and veg to Globe then stopped by AutoZone. The check engine light was on and they have a gadget you can use to read the codes. They’ll even give you a print out, all for free. Love these guys, they are always really nice and helpful. The codes seem to have to do with some minor stuff. I’ll run it by my mechanical guy and see what he thinks. 

Got home just in time to water some seedlings, collect eggs, milk Posie, (the kids have been mostly nursing one side so the other side is too full), take out trash, wash dishes....

Give the twins their first vaccines, cook dinner, medicate the sick cat (I think he’s has a gut blockage), feed the dog, bag the broccoli....

What the second fridge looks like on Friday night. 

#appreciation

Today I’m appreciating the abundance in my life. 

Farmer Friday

Lancinato (Dinosaur Kale) and Rainbow Chard

The kale and chard in the low tunnel is finally taking off and ready to pick. I picked a mess of collards too.

Eggs!

While I'm still waiting for some of the older birds to start laying again, I still have a lot of eggs~ about 38 a day!

pallet fence

I got a little bit done on the pallet fence out front, but need to trim a couple of them to fit right. Hopefully when finished the pigs won't be able to get in the yard any more.

fence from the other side

rain clouds

I finally had some rain on Thursday, 1.5". Except for .1" awhile back that's the first rain since September. I hope we get more rain over the next few months, we are really behind. I got just over 10 inches for all of 2017.

Happy New Year

Sleeping Beauty Mountain Jan 7, 2016

Happy New Year. I thought I'd do a little review of 2016. A lot of things went wrong but some things went right and there were a few surprises along the way.

We had some snow in January.

hawk Jan 9, 2016

snow on the Pinal Mts. Jan 10, 2016

A hawk was hanging around but didn't get any chickens.













and more snow.

Sunset Feb 2016

February brought longer days and pretty sunsets.

apple blossom March 15, 2016

Cecile Brunner rose March 15, 2016

Creek side garden March 15, 2016

By March the apple trees and roses were blooming. In the creekside garden the garlic was trying to grow and the peas were coming along. This year should be a much better harvest as I've worked on digging the beds deeper, replacing rocks, caliche, ashes and junk with compost.

AZ pistache tree

Iris blooming March 24, 2016

The old purple and white bearded irises are dependable spring bloomers. This patch is along the driveway where they don't get any water but the rain. I planted quite a few young trees too.

tomato seedlings April 10, 2016

tomato seedlings April 10, 2016

By April the tomato seedlings, started under lights in the house were ready to come outside into bigger pots.

Sweet Magnolia snap peas April 10, 2016

back garden April 10, 2016

Also by April I was picking green and purple snap peas. The back garden, which became the main tomato garden was still full of weeds and junk.

Salad May 4, 2016

Iris May 4, 2016

compost material 

back garden May 2016

By May I was hauling compost material and working on the main tomato garden. The late iris were blooming and we were eating lovely salads.

new potatoes June 2016

yellow zucchini June 2016

By June I was digging new potatoes and picking zucchini. Our local farmer's market had started up too.

erosion control July 2016

rainbow carrots July 2016

rainbow beets July 2016

peppers and tomatoes July 2016

In July I was up on top of the hill doing some erosion control, The garden was doing fairly well, carrots, beets, bell peppers, tomatoes and other things coming in.

Trombonccino Aug 2016

deep digging a bed Aug 2016

compost chickens

carrot with root knot nematodes

By August the squash vines were almost to the roof of the house and the Trombonccino were really going to town. I ripped out a bed of beans that never grew well and dug it out 18 inches deep. I discovered the problem. Besides the caliche and rocks there were ashes and junk buried under there. I put the caliche and rocks into the pathways and filled the bed with compost. August also saw the beginnings of the compost chicken project along with the discovery of root knot nematodes in a couple of beds.

Pregnant Tinkerbell Sep 2016

Swiss Chard Sep 2016

squash 2016

Tithonia Sep 2016

In September Tinkerbell had kittens. The garden was doing fairly well, with greens and squash coming in along with some flowers.

cole crops 2016

Also in September I finished up the old bean bed and planted kale, cauliflower and broccoli seedlings.

They have done amazingly well and there are still a couple of heads of cauliflower and some broccoli shoots to pick.

Superior Farmer's Market

Superior Farmer's Market

end of tomato season

Time to pick squash!

Apparently there are no pictures for October or the computer has hidden them somewhere I can't find them. In November I started going to a little market in the next town over, Superior, Arizona. While small it has been fun and the people there have been very nice. When a hard freeze finally threatened (a month later than normal) I picked all the Trombonccino, 259 pounds worth, not counting what I had picked before.

eggs Dec 2016

cleaning up the greenhouse Dec 2016

homegrown broccoli Dec 2016

Homegrown cauliflower Dec 2016

seed order, ready for spring!

seedlings, I plant something almost every week

In December I've been picking beets, carrots, greens, broccoli and cauliflower. I've been planting lots of greens, hauling manure and making compost.

The compost chickens have done a good job and the new garden space is ready. The chickens will move to a new area this coming week.

I'm working on getting more organized with seed starting and have a big calendar already marked with starting dates for the whole year.




A great thing about starting seedlings in the house under lights is that it gets them off to a good start before they have to contend with birds and bugs outdoors. It also helps me get more from the garden as the last crop can be finishing up while the seedlings are sprouting and growing. I can gain up to a month that way.