Thursday August 11, 2011
This year, my garden produced an abundant crop of cabbage, which finally reached such a size that I had to harvest it!
There are many great ways to use cabbage, and I'm going to preserve mine by making some sauerkraut. First, of course, I needed a sauerkraut crock. After scouring the internet, I found a beautiful crock, and I hope to get started on it soon. Stay tuned!
Thursday July 07, 2011
My garden is really coming along. The 38 tomato plants are all staked. I remember my grandfather always removing the "suckers". When I was a kid I thought they were bugs. Now I remove the suckers and have learned that they are new shoots that form at the roots of the plant that can "suck" the energy from growing bigger and more delicious tomatoes. I have even staked my eggplant which are finally beginning to show signs of life. For a while I thought they were frozen in size. Now they are growing and offering up flowers - yippee!!
I planted my kale and Swiss chard so it gets morning and midday sun, but ends up shaded as the afternoon passes. I think they like it - they are healthy and productive!!
But the weeds were killing me! In fact, one day I thought the weeds were winning and then I discovered STRAW. Not only does the straw make for lovely paths, its golden color offers a juxtaposition to the lush greeness of all the plants. And, it seemed to be a magnet for the chickens - I only left the gate open for 2 minutes as I went for a glass of water....
Well, it's time for a little harvesting. Happy day.
Thursday March 17, 2011
98 lambs and today was their first day outside. Took 5 tries, but eventually they all made it!
Thursday March 10, 2011
Lambs keep coming..... and so does the rain. At least the snow is washing
away - now we can begin to inventory the spare parts to the hoop house in
order to begin to reconstruct it after its snow load collapse. Well, maybe
we'll wait until the rain stops....
Sump pumping out the barn gutters has become a regular occurrence with the
rain. We think there must be a gopher hole or rabbit hole right up again the
foundation of the barn which is letting all the water in, since it has never
happened before in its 75 year history.
Friday March 04, 2011
This is what 50 lambs looks like. Here are the other half of the girls that are going to be lambing this month. The barn is filling up!
Friday February 25, 2011
...triplets, twins keeping me busy... lamb head count is now 33....
