Chix On Thanksgiving

Okay, first of all, I'm not the world's steadiest camera gal... so apologies for that. And, when my son dubbed over the video with my life's theme song, you don't get to hear me begging the chickens to come out from under the coop!! Only Lucy/Larry ventured out ~ until about the 2:10 ish point in the video. If you can stand to watch it that long, you will see the flock on the run... but honestly, this post is all about the song!! It's called "Simple Ways" and it's by a good friend's son, Matt. He goes by the name Human and he's with the Human Revolution. I enjoy his music, but for some reason, this is the song that says it all for me!!

Oh, and the girls had fresh cranberries, cabbage & spinach for Thanksgiving.

Gonna Get me a Flour Sack Dress

Does anyone else remember reading Lois Lenski books like Judy's Journey, Cotton in My Sack or Strawberry Girl? In Judy's Journey, she had a goat and she begged her father to stop at a feed store to buy goat chow. As they were very poor, he wasn't often able to do it. They did stop once and spent a quarter (wow, cheap chow!) The clerk told Judy to come back in a few days and he'd give her a flour sack to make a dress. They were migrant farm workers, so she wasn't able to go back to get it, but she always dreamed of having one. Every time I visit my local feed- n- seed store, I'm reminded of that story ~ and I wish I could have a flour sack ~ for my girls, to make them dresses.

Valley has feed for all our critters - hamster, guiena pig, rabbits, chickens, dogs and wild birds. We've even bought fish food for the pond dwellers. This time of year, they have bulk nuts available which is great for fall baking.

I've been trying to find a local source for Mortgage Lifter tomato seeds, and was delighted to discover them here and at the bargain price of 40 seeds for $1.50. I also picked up a package of Roma seeds ~ 500 for $.99!! I also bought Beefsteak & Arkansas Traveler. Closer to spring, we'll go back for some of their many lettuces, potatoes and onion sets.

If you're in the Wichita area, check out Valley Feed & Seed at 1903 S Meridian. They are open Mon - Sat. And, feel free to ask questions. They are a weath of info. I inquired about finding a processor for my roos, and they had a source in Yoder. I don't think they'll process just 3, but they also have a poultry auction the last Saturday of each month, so we might consider putting the roos in the auction or trading for some hens.

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Viewed from Another Angle

I asked Jerry to take some photos while he was roofing the coop... just to see the yard from another angle. Right now, I'm trying to figure out where/how to plan the new square foot beds. On paper, it all looks like it will fit, but when I walk in the yard, it's a head scratcher. Honestly, we have a 1 acre yard, albeit a little oddly shaped. We should have plenty of room for everything, I think!

This is the space between the coop and the shed. At the top of the photo, we have 3 strawberry beds, asparagus, boysenberry, rhubarb and several smaller 3' x 3' beds that the kids have claimed. Next is the extra large compost bin, open space for potatoes (can't bear to grow them in the square foot method - we aim for at least 300 lbs of potatoes). In the middle of the picture, the fuzzy green stuff is the other asparagus bed, 2 more small square foot beds and the very long bed is slated for corn. Hopefully, it's far enough away from the fence that the lovely horses do not eat the stalks like they did this year.

Oh, the "ghost" is our attempt at wrapping one of the 4' x4' squares in plastic to extend the growing cycle. Even with our whipping winds in Kansas, the plastic was holding up okay. What has been a major pain is the temp fluctuation... from lows in the 20's to highs in the upper 70's. We have to put it on and take it off so, for now, it's off. All I have in there is spinach, carrots, greens and radishes.

So, this is the view from the rabbit hutch towards the coop. See the tiny little Jerry in the pix on top of the coop? I dare say, we have PLENTY of room to grow a lot more...

Speaking of Confetti Flocks

Today, J finished putting the shingles on the coop. YEAH!! While he was banging away, I let the chicks run around outside the coop. This is what a confetti flock looks like... That's farmer Cole in the background. Or Chick Wrangler.

To the left in the photo is the horse fencing. We are incredibly lucky that our backyard neighbors are 4 horses, on 7 acres. So, we get a sense of wide open space and all the horse love we want without the work. *grin* And, whenever the girls ask for ponies, we just point over the fence and say, "There ya go!"

My Favorite Red Head ~ Lucy

When we ordered our chickens from My Pet Chicken, I couldn't really decide what kind to get. I'd promised the youngest son that we were only going to get hens ~ egg consumption is okay with him, but NOT eating pets. His therory is that if you name it, you can't eat it.

After much debate, we settled on a confetti flock of White Leghorn, Buff Orpingtons, Easter Eggers, Barred Plymouth Rocks and New Hampshire Reds.

When they arrived, I was beside myself ~ giddy beyond belief. The were so sweet, fuzzy and just C*U*T*E. I was in love, with all of them. But something funny happened, once they started growing, one in particular just endeared herself to me. She was sassy, bossy and noisy. She was the biggest and the first to get her comb ~ which came in bright red... hence her name.... Lucy. She is still the biggest, sassiest and one with the most personality... but now we wonder, is our Lucy really a Larry? And, if she is a he, what the heck are we gonna do? Roosters are NOT allowed within the city limits... and apparently, if we try to eat him, our youngest son is going to run away and take Lucy/Larry with him. *Sigh* Anybody know for sure if this is a boy or girl? She/he is about 2 months old now.

Book Review: The Organic Food Shopper's Guide

I checked out the book from our library. I rarely buy books - I wouldn't have room to keep all the ones I read!

I was looking for a field guide to buying veggies. I just grabbed this off the shelf, not realizing that it was going to be a gem!

Okay, it's organized alphabetically. For each item, it lists when it's in season, varieties, how to select it, how to store & prepare it, nutritional highlights and what it goes good with, organic advantages and uses (ah! not just for cooking/eating!!) As a bonus, there are recipes galore!!

This book is going on the shopping list. I think it's something I'd love to have on hand while planning my garden as well as shopping. It's a smaller size so it'll tuck into a basket or purse.

For example, I'm on a quest to grow my own garlic after I tried my hand at making roasted garlic (super easy) for homemade hummus (also, super easy.) We hit the Farmer's Market and found the Garlic Lady (I wish I knew everyone's name, but I just call them by what they sell...) We bought 30 cloves of garlic. Some got roasted ~ YUM! Others went into the spaghetti sauce that I canned. The rest will be planted. I've got the spot ready, even have a ton of shredded paper.

So, that brings me to the book. I have no idea what kind of garlic I had. Until I read the book, I didn't recognize that there are 2 main types: hard-neck and soft-neck. Now, I know that I have white skinned, soft-neck garlic. So, I can check into other varieties next year.

What is even more amazing is to find out that once you find a type/kind of garlic you like, you can grow it from the original clove until you have the abundant bumper crop you need for eating and planting. (That I learned in another book ~ stay tuned.)

Bad Seed Farm Bee Class

The boys and I motored up to KC this past weekend to attend a Bee Keeping Class at Bad Seed Farm Market. Chris, the bee keeper, brought a lot of things to see and a wealth of info.

We've been thinking about adding bees to our little homestead, but DH has been concerned that bees and little people/dogs/chicks/horses aren't a good match. Well, it seems that others have blended the bees right into their suburban backyards with much success.

We had researched hive box building and found severl great online references to the Emile Warre method, but no place to buy them. Sooo, DH has offered to assist us in making our set up. We have plenty of time, bees don't arrive until April.

One class member (sorry, I didn't catch your name) gave info as to building a house for Mason Bees. Apparently, they are just as good or even better pollenators as Honey bees, and they don't need a hive. So, after hunting thru some library books, we found a simple design for a bundle of bamboo that will be easy to construct.

Really, all we want is to add bees to our homestead, whether they are honey bees or mason bees, either way is just fine.

By the way, the above photo is one box from Chris's hive. It contains about 25 pounds of unprocessed honey and honey comb. It even had a stowaway bee that zipped out during class.

Thanks K's Dad

We have a wonderful family friend, K, who's dad is a fabulous gardener. Someday, I'm gonna grow up and be just like him. So when dad of K called her to offer her a bushel of apples, slightly spotty, she declined. Then dad & mom went on vacation.

She relayed the info to me and I immediately begged for the apples, spots and all. My garden produced, but not enough for me to be tired of canning, and I haven't done apples yet. So, she calls her folks on vacation and inquires if I may have the apples. Yes!

Now, we got the spotted orbs of goodness several weeks after picking, so some were a bit mushy, but we processed all we could, nibbling as we went. We fed the chicks some peelings, fed the worms some mush, fed the horses some cores and the rest we dumped into the compost bin.

I found a great recipe for cinnamon apple sauce and we made 7 quarts.

Does anyone else have kids who insist on eating what you just canned?! It doesn't matter if we have fresh stuff, they just want what's canned. It's like they cannot believe what we just made. So, we ended up eating 2 jars already. Sigh. At this rate, we will be staring at empty cupboards in November, except for salsa, which they do not eat with gusto.

My birthday wish came true

I've always had a fierce love for laundry hanging on a line, snapping in the breeze. My great grandma used to babysit us and she actually let us play in the laundry. Well, not the just washed stuff, but she would hang up sheets and blankets and we'd play for hours.

Fast forward to my newlywed years. My DH and I rented our first "house" that came complete with a laundry line in the yard. It was a square affair and dippy and crooked and it was just mostly a pain, but I did use it. Then, we moved into our next house that was built in the '50s and it had the more traditional T-posts with lines strung between. That house saw plenty of cloth diapers and baby stuff added to the usual 2 loads a week. Our next house also had a laundry line, but it ran in the midst of cedar trees. I'm sure when they were planted, no one ever thought they'd grow so wide. I implored my DH to dig them up and move the posts, but alas, he wasn't ever able to do that. He did put up some new wire between trees which worked nicely.

After 13 years of marriage, we finally bought our first house. It had everything on my list of wants/needs except the clothes line. DH promised he'd put one in for me. Every year for any gift giving holiday, I asked for a clothes line. Dozens of holidays have come and gone and this year, in honor of my birthday, I bought myself the cadillac of clothes lines, the Breeze Catcher 140.

It has all the best features: tons of hanging space (holds 3 full loads of clothes), spins with the minimum of breeze (we have plenty of that), folds down like an umbrella and if need be, can be removed from the ground and stored during the winter. OH, and it's rust proof.

The only trouble we had is that it's so windy here, that we ended up cementing it into the ground (after we had it inside the recommended cement block). And, that's really no trouble at all. They even sell the pipe that goes into the cement, in case you ever want to move the system and re-install it somewhere else.

All in all, truly one of the best gifts ever!

Gardening

We've always had a garden. Some more successful than others. Some years it's just a few tomatoes, others, it's a sprawling tangle mess of weeds and struggling veggies.

When we moved into our current home, we were extremely blessed to inherit a wonderful garden spot that still had growing produce in it. I'm sure the former gardeners must have spend a lot more time than we do, because in just a few months, we had transformed that beautiful plot into a weed infested wasteland. Sigh.

Every fall, we'd vow to do better next year. We'd burn off the stubble and plow it under. Spring would come and we'd begin planting with hopes and visions of bumper crops of glorious veggies. But, when the heat of summer hit, we'd abandon the mess and just wait til fall to burn and turn it under.

Until this year. We got smart and decided to have our soil tested. Yes, I realize it wouldn't help with the weeds, but it surely would address why we had such spindly plants and little yields. DH dug up several spots and mixed the soil together. Then took a sample to our local Extension office, paid the $ and we waited.

A few weeks later, we got the results back. While we had a wonderful mix of soil and compost, we were severely lacking in nitrogen. We also had a pH of 7.2 while most vegetables prefer 6.3-6.8, so sulfur was recommended to drop the pH.

We had very high levels of phosphorus and potassium and organic matter.

I highly recommend if your garden is struggling, get the soil tested. You will receive a summary report as well as detailed report on what you have and what you lack. Based on their advice, we added nitrogen fertilizer found at local garden centers. And, it worked! This year, we had a much better crop.