Day 9: Twelve Days of 2023

If you are new here, I'm recapping 2023 as one post per day. This is September. I started working on putting a solid roof over the girls pen instead of tarps.

A Colorado River Toad stuck in the squirrel trap.

I don't think these were the same two toads as this one looks much bigger. These are poisonous to any animal that tries to eat them, they have poison glands on the back of their heads.

I went to fill a chicken water and when I brought it back in discovered this king snake under the cinder block. Since it didn't move at first I wasn't sure if it was stuck or what.

 

Did you know all the baby scorpions ride on mom's back?

Bianca, Queen of the Coop. Sadly I lost Bianca recently but she lived to be about 14 years old and was a great broody hen.

This coyote comes in close, right to the fence some evenings to tease Digger Dog. 

I discovered that I still have root knot nematodes in at least one area. These things suck big time and I am sooooo over them!

The tomatoes are still coming in.

I cleared out the cucumber vines from the small raised beds to get ready to plant fall crops.

Getting a solid roof over the girls pen

And done.

More Progress

Working on getting a flat space

Getting closer

Green paint marks where I still need to pick

You know I need to work right there Posie 

Posie makes me laugh 

A new set of paint lines

Still working on this bulge. The ground in this spot is almost as hard and dry as a rock. There are layers of calcium gluing rocks and gravel together 

Caramel is still being ridiculous and is trying to dry up. I don’t think she’s cut out to be a long term milker in which case she may be looking for a new home. 

After some days of zero eggs due to the fowl pox epidemic here things are starting to pick up a tiny bit. 

I cleared all the vegetation in this bed and raked up as much of the nematode infested roots as I could. Those go straight to the trash. 

Added gypsum for calcium

Made furrows and filled with worm castings 

Planted salad mix, spinach and cabbage 

The pink cosmos have started blooming. And the mums should start this week. I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by. 

#appreciation

I so appreciate that the weather has been beautiful so I can work outside a lot. 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

A seedling peach tree growing in the garden

First some good things. I potted up this seedling peach tree that grew in one of the garden beds.

a sweet potato

It looked like the sweet potatoes were getting good size so I started digging them up.

While some were on the small side some are pretty big and I"m not done yet.

root knot nematode damage on okra

Now for the bad. Most of the okra in the sweet potato bed had root knot nematodes. I sure thought we were done with those buggers but I guess not. I have been carefully pulling the plants up and bagging them for the trash with as much root and soil around them as possible. With the cooler weather the nematodes won't be a problem but they will be a big issue next spring when it warms up. I was actually amazed the sweet potatoes weren't affected but I didn't see any nodules on their roots at all.

And some more bad. Due to the heavy July rains the mosquitoes are crazy and they carry fowl pox (yes chicken pox, related to but not the same as humans get). So eggs are down to 2-3 a day. 

Bambi, a 5 yr old Nubian in milk

Bambi has the high ground but she is no match for Posie

Giotto was concerned about the goats fussing

L-R, Posie, Bambi, Caramel

And a bit of ugly. (But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be) So Bambi came to me with her twins Storm and Showers, and a dry doe named Vicki. Another doeling came a bit later but from the same farm, Esmarelda. Well Bambi is very mean and bossy with Vicki and Esmarelda so I decided to start putting her in with Posie and Caramel during the day, to give Vicki a break and a chance to eat in peace. Looks like Bambi has met her match. Posie isn't quite as big but she's stubborn and bossy too.

Today I worked on taking down the broken cattle panel hoop house. Quite a feat with 3 goats trying to boss everything

I even managed to get some of the kinks out of it

Then I wired it up to the T posts. Posie was really no help at all. 

Then I worked a bit on moving dirt. If you are new around here I’m trying to get a flat spot to build a big goat shed so I can get them out of the small pens they are in right now. 

#appreciation

I really appreciate that the goats weren’t too bad today. Bambi backed down immediately from Posie which is a good thing. I was afraid they’d both be stubborn and somebody would get hurt. 

Farmer Friday 11/8/19

Rearranging and adding to the soaker hose. Peas and arugula will go down the center. 

And turning compost. 

Picking flowers, herbs , kale, mustard and arugula. 

Giant red mustard and arugula 

All set up at market. Was a nice evening. But I am wore out. Good night. 

10/17/19 a little work here and a little work there

I started the morning off by trimming back the squash vines to the last full fruit. They don’t have time before frost to make any more. 

Then onto a bed where I had planted cherry tomatoes. Only about 3 plants lived because they had root knot nematodes. However I have been spraying for the nematodes and this gives me hope. You can see how badly infested these roots are. I don’t know if you can see the fresh new root growth. These plants have been making a comeback and were full of flowers and small green fruit. This tells me that if I begin spraying early I might be able to get a decent crop next year. 

The two beds in this garden need a bit of weeding. 

I fed the small weeds and some mustard greens to the broody and her chicks. They made short work of it. 

Next an experiment. I planted rows of garlic between rows of spinach. Based on growth of volunteer garlic they should have been in the ground a month or six weeks ago. 

The black Chile tepin is finally blooming. 

I spent the afternoon hauling and spreading gypsum. You never spread lime in the desert. You use gypsum instead for calcium. It also helps loosen up our caliche. 

The cockerel with the sore on his neck is doing well and getting a little bit of color back. 

Cockerels to sort out. Two are olive eggers and the rest are Black Copper Marans. They need to grow a little longer before I make final decisions. 

I spent the evening working on getting some of this Bermuda grass out. Now time for food and bed.