Monthly Archives: June 2021

by

Geeses

Things have happened this weekend…
Birb things.

Last week my incubator of 41 Narragansett turkey eggs hatched out 32 poults.
2 passed away shortly after hatching.
That left me with 30.

I have to add…out of the 41 eggs, only 2 weren’t fertile.
But, we did have some strange temperature issues on one of the crazy hot days we had last week, so there were a couple of poults who died in the shell.
It’s was sad, because they were almost fully developed, but incubating can be a delicate balance of heat/humidity and fluctuations can cause deaths in the shell.

Plus, there were 10 already in the brooder from the new incubator…then we lost one because it drowned in the water.
Have I mentioned that turkeys can be stupid?
Yeah, this little one fell asleep in the bottom of the waterer and died.
So we’ve added some cleanly scrubbed rocks…which adds the bonus of giving the poults something to peck at, so they find the water easier.

So I now have 34 poults, with 6 belonging to a friend.
How does 39 become 34?

Well, I’m glad you asked!

39 poults becomes 34 poults when a friend says “hey, I’m going to be in your general area picking up some geeses bebes, do you want some?” and I says “um, yes!” and then she gets here and says “hey, want to trade poults for geeses?” and I once more say “um, yes!”

😂😂😂

And that’s how 39 poults became 34 poults and I now have 5 geeses bebes.
😂😂😂

And what exactly do we plan on doing with 5 geeses bebes?
Welp, we’ll see who’s a boy and who’s a girl (because I have no idea how to tell, if one can tell, at this age) and see who pairs off (because I am told geeses do the 1 mate thing) and then let them make the geeses eine kliene bang bang musick so we have more bebe geeses next year…and the extra geeses will become Freezer Campers.

Until that time though, they get to get acquainted with their space and then they’ll get to wander the yard with the rest of the poultry…because even though no one is supposed to be free rangin’, they don’t listen to me and just do whatever they want…
😂😂😂

Kinda like the turkey and cornish chickens yesterday…

But y’know…
Happy food always tastes better. 😉
And it sure does make them happy to be running all over the place eating bugs and grass and picking through the horse piles. Who am I to deny my food the right to be happy?

by

Officially Summer

So I missed the Summer Solstice.
So, happy Summer!
Life has been busy.
Okay, so when isn’t it?
Turkeys have hatched.
10 from the replacement incubator, with 14 chicks.
Today we’re taking out the ones who hatched in the big incubator.
I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in there.
There were 41 eggs, and there’s a whole lot of jim jamming and singing in there…
Then, Saturday we fire up for the last hatch of the year.
(I may have said that already…days blend when it’s all animal chores and weeding 😂😂😂)

I’ll be hitting y’all with a whole bunch of Instagram posts for images, just because it’s easier today to link to them than to upload into WordPress…aka I’m lazy.
😂😂😂

Garden is doing pretty good.
If you ignore the fact that on the Solstice night we had frost that took out my tomatoes. And most of my peppers.
Fuck.
Ah well.
Greens and beans and carrots and onions are growing well.
I’ll just watch for the local mega mart putting cases of roma tomatoes on sale again…I’ll get food in jars yet. 😉

So y’all know I’ve been going on and on and on and on about a greenhouse.
Y’all are probably sick to damn death of hearing about it, but not seeing any action.
Well shit comes up, ‘kay?
But…this weekend the build begins!!
We’ve been collecting old windows, and buying new lumber as we can, and then last week…

In this local gardening group, a woman posts how she has these plastic rolls she wants to get rid of, probably good for a greenhouse, if someone wants them, come get them for free.
I expressed interest, explained what we do here and how a greenhouse is a massive asset to our operation.
She says to me “all yours!”
So I send Hubby to her place in the Big City to pick it up…
(and ain’t he handsome? my giant bearded bastard… ❤ )

Remember, you can click the arrows on the side of the image to scroll…you do not have to go to Instagram to see the images. 🙂

Uh yeah, so that’s 1 roll of 32ft x 150ft greenhouse poly.
Like, for reals, proper af, last 4-5 years, UV treated, poly.
The 2nd roll is a plastic tube that we’ll cut open and use for smaller hoop houses.
What an amazing gift!

So this weekend, once the final brooder has the top hinged on, and the last of the turkey poults in it, we start the greenhouse.
Holy. Fuck.
Next year I might actually have tomatoes!
😂😂😂

As for the garden itself…

Some of it, I’m on top of the weeds and mulching.
Other parts are a hot mess that still need weeding and mulching.
But it’s always a work in progress.
It’s doing awesome this year though, and even with the loss of the tenders, I’m not going to complain.
🙂
Besides, I’ve been picking massive amounts of lamb’s quarters…

Yup, they’re weeds.
But, they’re edible weeds.
And I love me some free foods.
I love me all the free foods!
Tastes like spinach, excellent in salads and on pizza.
And free.
Did I mention that part?

And finally, an offer of free trees fell into my lap and I happily scooped up 25 free trees.
10 willows and 15 poplars.
So now I’ve added tree planting to the list of things to do this weekend…along with weeding, mulching, building, and cutting hay.
Because YAY the first bales of hay go up tonight and the next round is cut down and drying.
Tomorrow morning I cut the next area, and then onto the access road on the side of our property and they the edge of our big field.
Rains have been good to us, so this year’s hay crop oughta be decent.
I oughta be able to put up enough to sustain a ewe or two for winter…

😉

Sharing with Brian’s Home for Thankful Thursday
Even with the challenges, I am incredibly thankful for the life we’re building here.
❤

by

All Out

All the plants are out of my house.
Not necessarily planted, but moved out to the garden and this afternoon, I’ll put in whatever I can.
And then it’s down to the weeding, watering, mulching and whatever Mother Nature decides she’s going to do…oh, and fucking cats.

This morning as I’m moving the plants out for the final time, I notice my zucchini is gone.
They were lovely seedlings passed onto me by friends…they were growing beautifully.
Up to 6 leaves and happy, happy, happy.
And then this morning?
Gone.
WTF???

Yeah so, I had started some pumpkins in the house.
I set those outside in the garden first, then went back for the tomatoes.
I guess I didn’t latch the gate…or she climbed the fence.
Either way, I came into the garden to find this asshole:

…eating the pumpkins.
Seriously.
Eating the pumpkin leaves…
WTF??

And then I look down to the end where the peppers are and see this one…

…lying on the pepper plants.
I say again…WTF???

And then, just to add a bit more insult to injury, Coal walks over to Trouble, does the nosy kitty kiss thing with him, looks straight at me and starts munching on a pepper plant.

*sigh*

I may have lost it right about then.
Screamed like a maniac at the cats.
Chased them out of the garden.
Threatened to make slippers from their lovely furry fucking hides.

And now the weather can’t decide if there’s going to be gale force winds, or if there will be no winds, or what it’s doing.
All I know is, it’s June 18th and the tomatoes are not coming back into the house.
They can live or die as they see fit.
Grow, don’t grow, what the fuck ever.

But I’ve had my first harvest of Lamb’s Quarters.
And I’ll be harvesting more this weekend with weeding.
And today I’ll be emptying the one incubator.
Some turkeys have hatched, some chicks have hatched.
And on Sunday the other incubator goes into lockdown with 41 Narragansett turkey eggs in it.
Then, one last round of eggs for the year.
It’ll be a big set…97 eggs.
And once those hatch, it’ll be mid-July.
Which makes it the last one.
I am so good with that.

But for today, all I have to do is get things in the ground.
Rains are coming this Sunday, so I want everything done and in.
I’m so very close.

Sharing with Sandee at Comedy Plus for Feline Friday

by

Almost There

I’ve fallen a bit behind in getting everything into the garden.
What’s in is growing well though!
We’ve had a couple days of really good rains, which we’ve needed sooooo bad!

Now I have weeds galore…but a lot of the weeds are Lamb’s Quarters, which is awesome, because they’re edible.
Last year I put a whole bunch of them into the freezer (after we ate a lot too) for winter use.
This year, I’m hoping to save some seed from them, and instead of buying spinach seeds, I’ll plant rows of Lamb’s Quarters. Free food is the bestest foods. 😉

Speaking of…
We had another round of pinto beans given to us.
Last year we grew many, many pintos.
They were wonderufl eaten as a green bean and canned beautifully.
Well, we still have a lot fo the growing ones to plant for a few years (I’ve been sharing them with anyone who wants some to grow too), so this round?
I decided to expriment cooking with them.
Y’see, the fellow they come from gets them from a farmer, for his birds.
But they’re not cleaned, and I was hesitant to cook them for us.
I don’t know why.
I buy bags of wheat from our local farmer to process for beer and bread, so, I don’t know what made me hesitate on the beans.

But last week I soaked a bunch of pintos with some kidney beans and made a crock pot full of pork and beans (after having made a huge pork roast with many left overs).
And we’re still alive. 😂😂😂
Of course, Hubby tells me afterwards that the guy he’s getting the beans from has been feeding them to his family since the beginning…and I’m over here not…

So now we have an abundance of beans for eating as well as planting.
Once the garden is done, and the yearly butchering is done, I’ll put up a few dozen jars of pork and beans.
Just because it’s nice to be able to pull something off the shelf for a quick and easy meal.

As for the garden, today we’ll get the rest of the beans planted and tomorrow the tomatoes transplanted.
I’ll stick a few other things in here and there…but that should do it.
I was hoping to get a few rows of feed corn in (whiskey makin’s) but we’ll see what’s left for room after the beans go in today.
Might not be room this year.

On the waterline front, we’ve had a couple businesses out for quotes to fix our leak.
1 was someone I really, really don’t want to work with.
Um, vibes were horrible, and yeah…I’m not a fan of misogynistic old farts treating me like garbage…and wanting to way over charge me because he’s “doing me a favor”. Uh, no. You’d be doing your job.

The 2nd company, we’re just waiting for his quote and when he can get to us.
Drought has made things very, very busy for well companies.
But this guy…yeah, I’m happy to work with him.
Thoughtful, knew his stuff, respectful and friendly…and his helper was the same.
So yeah. Just waiting for this to go forward.
And then we hope it will be a straightforward fix.
But who the hell knows what he’s going to find once he starts digging.
So, wish us luck that this is an easy peasy dig up and fix then fill in job.

Finally, I’ve sharpened up the scythe, because it’s time!
It’s haying time.
My first task is to cut in the front pasture where we haven’t allowed the nags to go yet.
It’s long and tall and they much prefer to eat it after it’s had a first cut off…if the grass is too tall, they’re not so interested in it.
So I grab a first cut for hay and then we turn them out to enjoy.

Lazy girls, lounging around while their Food Lady is working her rump off to put food up for them for winter.
😂😂😂

by

Outside!!

Today is a milestone for the meat chickens and turkeys.
It’s their first day outside!

You can use the arrows on the sides of the pictures ^^^ to scroll through…
It’s scary and exciting and whooooo….they’ve been waiting so long (to them) and they really, really, really wanted out…until they could get out and then it was too terrifying…that’s where the food comes in.
😂😂😂

Once they knew the food was outside, they were much braver.
So for now they get the small yards, but as time goes on, they’ll get more and more space, until the turkeys end up in the turkey yard and the meat chickens just run with everyone else.
Until they go to Freezer Camp.

I tell ya, the real panic is going to be this afternoon, when I clean their coops out for them.
😂😂😂
**THAT’S** going to be terrifying.
😂😂😂

by

A Little Catch Up

We’re in the middle of a heat wave.
It’s hot.
I’m cranky because it’s hot.
I’m watering the garden a lot.
Birds get out at dawn and stay out until dusk.
I’d *love* to leave them out overnight in this heat but…someone posted on a local FB group that a black bear had been seen (with picture!) just a few miles from us.
Uh, I don’t need my birds being a bear buffet.
😂😂😂
And while I’m not adverse to shooting and eating a bear, I think it’s better to not have the birds out as a possible buffet temptation in the first place.
So up early to let ’em out, up late to put them away.

Still planting the garden.
These are the days of beans.
So. Many. Beans.
But, I didn’t get enough canned last year to make it ’til this years harvest (have 4 jars left) so the bean patch is getting a bit bigger. And I keep saying we need to expand the garden more.
Not even kidding.
But there’s a plan that replaces last year’s plan that didn’t work out and all it’ll take is a weekend to move a pasture fence and a couple big round straw bales…wheat straw please, because I can’t grow food to feed my Kid in oat straw…unless I want to kill her…which I don’t.
Obvs.
But that’s a Fall project.
For now, Hubby is building another brooder…that’ll be 4 for this year.
2 for turkeys and 2 for chickens.
Then he can work on a refurbish of the duck one (remember, it had mold and killed off over a 2/3rds of my first hatch of turkeys. 😥 )

Things went a bit sideways with my pre-purchased plants.
Trees were shorted from the order…so no saskatoons and no siberian crabapples this year.
Prolly for the best, I’m running out of place to jam things…for now.
Once the expansion is done, a section will be specifically for the saskatoons.
Then I heard from the local greenhouse that my order was being shorted the wild hops plants I wanted because the plants didn’t make it through the winter.
*sad face*
So I’ve substituted chives, a couple paprika pepper plants and mortgage lifter tomatoes.
I’ll get hops next year.
Really, it’s all kind of a blessing in disguise because I hadn’t figured out where to put all the trees, and not even kidding when I say I’m already exhausted.
😂😂😂
But…the end of planting is in sight, so once that’s done, it’s mulching, weeding and watering until harvest begins.
And feeding the bazillion and 15 birds.
Again tho…we’re gonna eat good this winter. 😉
Oh!
And the lady we bought our pig from last year has been in touch.
I have my pig booked for pickup in the Fall.
So just as I’m dropping from exhaustion from butchering birds, we’ll have another 250lb pig to do.
Not to mention the bartering trade of birds for a pig from a friend.
Lots of pork, lots of poultry.
Now, we’ll just need a deer or two and some beef and we’re set.
🙂

2 more weeks for the Sweetgrass turkey eggs.
3 more weeks for the Narragansett turkey eggs.
Then there will be many, many more turkeys.
And in case anyone thinks turkey might have a wee bit of a brain, trust me, there is a reason I call them my “stupid children”
Case in point:

She stood there a bitched and bitched and bitched…for a good 20 minutes…because her feet were cold.
Seriously.
Turkeys is stoopid.
But, they are also good eating and fun to watch.
Which is why I love ’em.
😂😂😂