Garden Journal Entries

Every year I write in a journal to document which varieties of seeds I start.  Here is a page from this year's entries:

I have the date started, variety, number started, abbreviation used on the cup, and the seed source.  This has really helped over the years for looking back and seeing what worked well and what didn't do well.  It has lots of dirt stains since I write as I plant.  I love my little garden journal!

Spring 2015

Spring has sprung on the homestead and we've started turning our attention to getting the garden ready.  Hubbie has plowed the garden area and we are waiting to get someone with a 5' tiller to work up the soil more.

Hubbie also repaired our greenhouse for another year of service.  This poor greenhouse has been pieced back together numerous times but it's ready again!  This year he had to add a door as the zippered door came apart last year.

He also helped set up some better shelves for all my baby plants to rest on.  It's nice having extra room to work.

I bought some different soils at Lowes the other night.  There was top soil, mushroom compost, and garden soil.  The kids and I put some from each bag into a tote and then used their small hoe to mix it together.  

We started plants on 3/9/15 and they are coming up really well.  I had germination problems last year but this year things are going well!  We hope to be blessed with a great harvest all summer/fall long!

We have chinese cabbage, regular cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, melons, zucchini, squash, okra and brussel sprouts going so far!  We're trying lots of varieties of our favorite veggies to see what works well and some tried and true favorites.

The kids are really enjoying helping play in the dirt.  It's great having them by our side while we grow food!

June 4, 2014 Garden Update

I thought it'd be good to do a video updating how our garden is progressing so far.  We were late planting so some things are just now coming up.  We were afraid to lose our plants to a freeze so we waited an extra little bit. (Live and learn!)  Enjoy and I hope your gardens are doing well!

Taters in the Ground

We traditionally plant our taters on Good Friday or that weekend.  We were worried that we wouldn't be able to due to tractor problems but God provided a neighbor from up the road to use his tractor-pulled tiller through our garden.  We acted fast and threw taters in the rows while we could!

Princess #1 and Princess #2 did a great job helping this year!  They were very interested in planting for the first time ever.  We hope to involve them in the entire gardening process this year.

We planted red pontiac potatoes again this year.  I like red potatoes better than kennebecs and they are much easier to find when I go out to dig up a mess for supper during the summer.

We had our first hatching of chicks this week.  Mama hen did very well and hatched 8 babies.  She's as crazy as ever but that's what makes her such a great mom. I've yet to get a good picture yet but I'll post one next week for sure.

Donkey Donkey

TH had been talking about wanting to get rid of our goat Karl and get a donkey.  We decided to put up an ad on Craigslist stating that we would like to trade our goat for someone's donkey.  A guy called and told us about his family's young donkey that they needed to get rid of due to breeding issues with a miniature donkey they had on premises and we worked out the logistics to make the trade.  He showed up on a Saturday on his way to our town's livestock auction and we swapped critters real quick.  Meet Donkey Donkey:

He's still suspicious of us but he learned very quickly the call for dinner.  Bella wasn't impressed at first and ran from him every time he got near that first night.  The two of them are big buddies now though.

We have started looking into having Bella bred.  We've decided to breed her with a miniature Jersey as she is a small girl and we want to make birthing as easy as we can for her.  We had a local gentleman that raises miniature jerseys out to help us with our cows and he said that Bella will grow more but agreed that miniature is the way to go for now. We will have to bring the vet out to give her a blood test and when she gets her clean bill of health, we'll make the final arrangements for her to meet her boyfriend.

I finally started my plants!  My peppers are still being stubborn and not wanting to germinate but they are always last to appear.  TH is prepping the ground as we plan to plant our taters and onions this upcoming weekend.

Hope all is going well for all of you this Spring!

Anxiously awaiting Spring

It is Tuesday, March 25th and it is currently snowing.  Looking at the weather forecast, it should warm up by the weekend and I'm hoping this is our last snow for the season.

We're watching our calendar and waiting for the next good day to start seeds using the moon signs.  The first of April is showing as good signs so we'll start our seeds then.  I probably should have started them during the last good days but I wasn't ready.

I went out to work in the greenhouse this past weekend.  Princesses #1 & #2 helped me put locust bark down on the floor of the greenhouse to try and help with weed control.

TH has been spreading old horse manure on the garden area.  We have folks up our road that raise horses and they had an abundance of manure.  They even let him use their spreader so we have a nice layer of poo on the garden now.

The animals are doing well.  We did lose one chicken to what I believe was a stray dog.  It was on of our white chickens and I believe it was the one that laid green eggs so I'll miss that.  I'm ready for one of the hens to go broody so we can new chicks for this year.

Steak and Hamburger are still getting along well in their pasture.  Steak is getting mean though.  He likes to try and fight with TH's truck when he brings it into the field.  I try to not mess around in their field but will go over to give them feed in the barn occasionally.  He behaves himself in the barn as he wants that little bit of special feed he gets.

Bella and Karl are still coexisting.  Karl is teaching Bella bad habits though as they like to play the head butt game.  Bella outweighs Karl by a good bit now and can push him all over the field when she wants.  It's funny to watch from the house but not so fun when I go out to her and she tries to play with me that way.  We're considering getting rid of Karl and bringing in a donkey.  We'll wait and see what Spring brings.

Hope you all are having a great start to Spring and will have a productive year!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Looking forward to the new year!

First, let me wish everyone a Happy New Year!

It's supposedly winter here but we mainly are having rain.  Everything is just muddy and yucky.  TH has been trying to get some really rich soil from a bottom field moved up to our garden before he plows the garden to turn the soil but it's not looking like that's going to happen.  We're just going to have to turn it and do the best we can with it.  I'm hoping to get a little manure to go on it.

Our animals are doing well.  The chickens are holding out on me though and we're only getting 2 or 3 eggs a day.  I thought it was the shorter day length but I'm beginning to think they are laying in a hidden spot.  We need to repair their fence (Our goat Karl destroys chicken fencing by rubbing his rear all over it.) and lock them in for a few days to get them used to laying in the proper place again.  They are currently enjoying the freedom that comes with winter in that they get to wander around and forage.  The two guineas stay around the chickens now so they are easier to track.

Bella is growing.  We look forward to this upcoming year with her.  Hopefully she'll grow and be ready to breed and calve the following year.  Hamburger has adjusted extremely well to life with Steak our large steer.  I was afraid that Steak would be territorial but he seems to enjoy the little steer and as both have been bullied by larger cows, they seem content to be together.

I've already placed and received my seed order for this year.  I look forward to cleaning out my greenhouse and starting my plants!

Remember our cow "Stupid"?

Yes, fall is upon us and Stupid is in the freezer.  We are very glad to have a freezer full of meat though it is always sad when one of the animals goes.

"Stupid"

We took Stupid to a place that gives training to young folks on how to butcher cows, pigs, and deer.  It was an affordable option for us and let us support vocational training in our area.  They did an excellent job!  He was put down, hung for two weeks, butchered, vacuum sealed, and labeled.  We are very pleased!

Our other animals are doing well.  Bella is enjoying her pasture with Karl the goat.  Hamburger was moved over to the field with Steak when Stupid was taken off.  He thinks he is a big cow now and we're glad that the two of them are getting along so well.

The chickens have been turned out now that garden season has ended.  They are having fun chasing bugs and exploring.  It's always more interesting in the yard when the chickens are allowed to roam.  We had 5 new chicks hatch in September and they are all doing well with their mommas.

Morning Feeding Time

I thought I'd share a look at what our morning feeding routine looks like.  This was my first time trying to feed and film at the same time so the camera might not be as steady as it could be.  Hope you like a look at our mornings.

Now that Spring has finally sprung, things are progressing at a blistering pace!  I went out today to snap some pictures of what's happening around the homestead.  You'll have to forgive all the weeds!  I have had every intention of getting out to weed but last week when it was nice, princess #1 and I were away from home and this week it won't dry out enough to get out there and really work!

TH and Princess #2 planted part of our tomato plants last week.  We had cages for most but some will still need to be staked and tied later.

Here are some pepper plants.  I'm hoping to gather enough grass mulch to lay between the tomatoes and peppers.

These are the plants still in the greenhouse.  The squash plants really need to be set out soon!

These are my Hopi Pale Gray plants.  I received my seeds from my homesteading hero Jackie Clay.  These seeds are extremely precious to me so I'm trying to take very good care of these plants.

The pears made it through the last few cold spells and it looks like we will have pears to can this year!

The older strawberry plants are covered with berries this year.  I hope to make a few runs of jam with what plants we saved when we re-worked the bed.

The new strawberry plants have taken root well and will be producing well next year we hope!

TH & THB have been busy getting firewood ready for this winter.  TH considers firewood an all year project and is always happy to bring another truckload home.

Bella is growing well.  She is really enjoying being in her new field.  We like having her close so there are lots of ear scratches and pets to be had.  She is becoming a super sweet girl.

Frank is well and trying to stay out of trouble the best he can.

We'll see what the weather holds for us this week and I hope to have the weeding started soon!  I won't be able to find my onions if they get much bigger!

Pics of recent activities

Thought I'd share just a few pics of what's been going on around the ole homeplace.

I've been anxiously awaiting the year's first appearance of asparagus.  I planted my asparagus three years ago.  They were 2 year plants when I bought them from a local greenhouse and I've been waiting for this year since this will be the first year I can steal a few sprigs from the bed!

Princess #2 has been hard at work helping me plant seeds for our greenhouse.  On this day, we were planting her choice which were melons.

While we were planting, I started some Beefsteak Tomatoes from MyPatriotSupply.  TH had requested some large slicing tomatoes so I chose these.

TH and I extended the chicken coop this past week.  We downsized our flock a bit but still needed some extra room.

The new run is much nicer than the original part and we're sure the girls and Roy will have a big time scratching all the grass away.

I'll try to post more pics of what we have going on this week as it progresses.  I'm not sure what all the week will hold, but I look forward to sharing!

Spring has finally sprung!

At long last, we are getting some warm weather!  I was reviewing my planting notes from last year and noticed that I am almost a whole month behind.  With the wild weather we've had and Frank destroying our greenhouse, I was beginning to doubt my chances of starting plants.

Repaired greenhouse

TH and THB reinforced our greenhouse with wood sides up to about 2'.  This allows plenty of sun and let us piece the greenhouse back together for one more year.  Replacing the greenhouse is definitely not in the budget for this year.  TH also ran an electric fence around the greenhouse to discourage Frank's destructive behavior.  I just have to remember to step high when I enter or I'll be discouraged too!

"I have no recollection of the events you speak of."

With that done, I started seeds today.  I have tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, and a few cucumbers in warm spots around the house for germination.  Once the germinate, I'll begin the dance of carrying them out to the greenhouse on warm days and back inside during the nights when temperatures dip below freezing.

We had our first hatch of the year last week.  Our dual mother hens hatched six little black chicks and are working together nicely to raise them.  We recently discovered one of our white chickens on a hidden nest in the barn.  She is a beautiful chicken that lays green eggs so I'm eager to see what her chicks will look like.  I just hope she manages to get them across the road safely.

The guineas have been busy defending their home turf.  Friday, I came out to feed animals and found a standoff between two canadian geese and our gang of 4 guineas.  (We have 5 guineas but the 5th thinks it is a chicken and doesn't associate with the others.)  The geese were standing in the middle of the garden honking and the guineas were standing on the edge of the garden squaking.  They finally convinced the geese to leave and all was quiet for a few hours.  Near dusk, TH asked me if one of my guineas had gotten white on its side.  I looked out to see that our neighbor up the road's two guineas had finally made it down this far. Our guinea gang wasn't very inviting and chased them back out of the garden.  They haven't returned but I'm sure our two groups will inter-mingle quite a bit this summer.

If good weather holds up, we'll be planting potatoes Monday.  I picked up our seed potatoes in town today along with a couple pounds of onion sets and a few cabbage and broccoli plants.  It's been pretty wet lately so we'll need lots of sunshine for the ground to be workable.

Hope you all are enjoying Spring!

It's Started!

Believe it or not, this is the beginning of our planting this year!  I've never started onions from seed and have been reading about it for a few weeks now.  I decided with the beautiful weather we had today that it was a good day to start.

These onions will (hopefully) grow into the sets that we'll transplant in early spring.  We'll still buy several sets but I decided it would be good to know how to start them from seed so I can have a bigger selection of varieties.

These onion seeds came from MyPatriotSupply.com.  They have an excellent germination rate with their seeds so I knew it would be my best bet for a successful first try.  Currently, they are sitting on the corner of a cabinet where I normally proof my bread.  Once they germinate, they can move to a cooler area of the house where I can find some light or provide lighting for them.

These warm days are very deceiving but I'm still hoping for some cold weather so we can tap our maple trees in a few weeks.  I made a small amount of syrup a few years ago but I'd like to try again for at least a quart after boiling.

Hope you all are well and looking forward to the season as much as we are!

Vet Visit

We had a visit from the friendly neighborhood vet today.  Our cow "Steak" had some complications from a failed banding and it wasn't looking very good.  TH had given him some antibiotics last week but decided it would be best for the vet to come on out.  It was our first time with the new vet in town but she was very good and we hope for Steak to be back up and at 'em soon.

I took the two princesses over to the barn as they had never seen a vet in person.  She had to go out to her truck to get some supplies and as she walked by, Princess #1 asked why she had blood on her.  I let her know that vets have to work very hard and sometimes get dirty doing it.

All the other animals are doing well.  We did lose a hen a couple of weeks ago to old age.  She was the last one of our original 10 chicks we bought a few years ago.  She had stopped laying months ago but we were letting her enjoy retirement.

The goats are as ornery as every.  I try to sneak out and feed the chickens when the goats go over the hill and can't see me coming.  While it is possible to feed the chickens with the goats present, it is much easier when they are not around.  Bunny is our largest goat and the one that insists on jumping on me to try and knock the feed bucket out of my hand.  She's a handful at feeding time but sweet all other times.

I'm still making my final decisions with the seed catalogs.  Baker Creek is going to be getting most of our business and I'm hoping to get a vegan cookbook from them as well.  No, we're not going vegan but I am wanting to incorporate more veggie-focused meals to our diet.

First Seed Catalog of the 2013 Season

Lookie what came in the mail today!  It's my first seed catalog for the 2013 season.  It is from Seed Saver's Exchange.  I haven't ordered from them yet but spent quite a while perusing their website this year.  Especially during the Glass Gem Corn fiasco earlier this year, lol.  I haven't sat down with the catalog yet and will save it for a special treat when I can sit down with a cup of tea and spend my time browsing.

I told TH that I wanted to grow sweet potatoes next year and he asked if I'm giving up red potatoes or white potatoes to make room for them.  I then told him I wanted to grow yams next year and he kind of laughed and said okay ;).

TH has been reworking our chicken pen today.  We did a quick job of getting them some extra room this summer when they had to be pinned but now that they are able to graze freely, we have the chance to rework things before next year's garden season.

We were talking today about the need to throw the guineas out of the chicken yard once we have it repaired.  They need to live in the goat barn so they can get out and catch bugs for us while the chickens remain penned when we plant the gardens next year.  We have a little bit of time before we have to deal with that though.  If the guineas keep being mean to my chickens, we may be eating guineas this winter!

Corn Sheller At Work

Things have been pretty quiet on the home front.  The guineas are grown now and think themselves barnyard royalty.  They push the chickens around and seem to hate them all except for our old rooster Roy and the hen that raised them.  They truly are the dumbest birds I've ever seen.  They will run back and forth along a fence for 3 hours just runnin' and squawkin'.  For some reason, they forget they can fly and could go over the fence any time they choose.  Sometimes Frank likes to help them remember by spooking them into flight.  I would yell at him for it but after 3 hours of squawking, I'm glad to have them over the fence.

Our momma hen sat one last time a few weeks ago and hatched one more baby for the year.  She and the baby live in the goat barn away from the craziness that is the chicken coop.  I believe we have 4 young roosters running around and we'll have to thin the herd very soon.  I'll choose one to serve along side Roy as he has slowed down quite a bit this past year.  There are two little feather-footed black and gray roosters that I like the looks of but I'll have to see how their temperament is as they get a little older.

The goats are doing well.  Bunny just passed through heat but we didn't have a buck ready for her so we'll be waiting for that to happen again.  When you add a goat in heat to five uppity guineas, you get quite the chorus in the barnyard.

I wanted to post a video on how TH's corn sheller is doing.  He had to tweak it a bit to get it to work but it is much better than using our thumbs to take off every little kernel!

You can see part of TH's woodworking area behind him.  We should be getting out there more as the weather gets colder.  I have lots of things I'm hoping to get built this winter!



TH made our corn crib to be able to roll around the garage floor.  One thing he forgot to build in was a way to retrieve the corn if you just wanted a few ears but he used his "I-Have-An-Idea" super power and came up with this solution:

                                                   Princess #2 thought it was a grand idea!

That'll do it for tonight!  I promise to try and update more regularly.  Thank you all for visiting!

TH's I-can-fix-it Power

I'm very proud of TH tonight.  We had bought an old corn sheller at a flea market last year and TH got it to working tonight.

I'm not sure what all he had to do to it but after he repaired it and attached it to a wooden box, it makes our corn shelling much easier!

Before this repair, we had to shell all of our field corn by hand.  That takes a lot of time and wears your thumbs out!  I was amazed that it is even designed to kick the empty cobb back out.

TH deserves many kudos for this repair!

Harvesting

Greetings from Learn As We Grow!

It has been quite a while since my last post.  We've not been doing too much to write about but I did want to update with some of our harvesting from this week.

Our potatoes did pretty well this year.  The red potatoes yielded more per pound planted but the kennebecs had pretty good numbers even with having to throw several away due to rotting.  Usually moles are the major problem with our potatoes but this year with the long stretches of wet weather, rot was more of a problem.

The decorative gourds did pretty well for the first year.  I have birdhouse gourds, big apple gourds, bushel gourds, and another kind.  I'll be hanging them soon and hoping they cure out over the next few months so I can try  my hand at decorating them.  I had read that you could use wood carving and burning tools on cured gourds so I planted these with that in mind.

I pulled the last of my peppers off today.  Over the next couple of days, I'll dry and freeze some for winter/spring use.  I still have two jalapeno plants to pick from so I hope to have a few more pints of pickled jalapenos soon.

These weeds are Jerusalem Artichokes (or sunchokes).  I planted them last year inside a tire to try and contain their growing area but TH threw out the tire and plowed the area up.  They loved that and have taken over a corner of the garden.  I found some recipes for them in a magazine this month and will be trying them out on the family soon.  I'll let you know how that goes!

Hope everyone is having a plentiful harvest!  We are very blessed to have some food to put away and we are very thankful to God for it.

Catching Up...

Haven't posted in a while.  Things have been wet and gross around here.  Our tomatoes finally succumbed to the blight so I'll be putting those away for the next week.  Pepper plants look awesome and I hope to get lots more of those.

This is a picture of our Victorio Food Strainer in action.  It allows me to process tomatoes without the hassle of peeling and coring.  A spiral forces the tomato pulp through the screen and the left over seeds, peel, and core is pushed out the end.  The chickens really enjoy the leftovers.  Our strainer was a gift from a very dear friend but they can be bought at MyPatriotSupply.com and are worth every penny.  There are additional screens you can buy for berries and pumpkin but we use ours primarily for tomatoes so the screen that comes standard works well for us.

Today I am making Chipotle Bbq Sauce from Jackie Clay's Growing and Canning Your Own Food.  Her description of it sounded so good, I couldn't resist giving it a try.

We have realized a major mistake in our garden this year.  We planted way too many varieties of beans.  I tried to keep up with my garden map but we got off somewhere and it's a huge mess trying to find which bean is where.  Next year we will plant Blue Lakes for our green snap bean and Cherokee Trail of Tears for our dry soup bean.  There is no way to confuse those two varieties.  We have been very frustrated with our beans this year.

Our baby birds are doing well.  We did run into some losses with our guinea babies when the momma chicken that hatched chicks decided the guinea keets were in her way and started killing them.  We separated the momma hen with the keets and they are now living in the goat shed.  They are free to roam during the day and return to the shed in the evening.

The momma hen with the chicks has been able to keep all 12 of hers alive and happy.  It is definitely noisy out in the chicken yard and we'll be downsizing some soon.  We have a few hens that have reached retirement age and are no longer producing.  MHM has asked for them to get his dog used to chickens living at his place again.  We plan to give him the older hens and a young rooster.

We did increase our chicken run by 40 feet.  They love having the new space to run and look for bugs.  I'd say the insect population in that stretch of grass didn't know what hit them that first day.

I'll try to do better keeping everybody up to date on anything interesting happening around here!

Guinea babies!

We have teeny, tiny guineas!  The momma started doing the "my-egg-are-hatching-and-it's-very-uncomfortable" squat yesterday morning so I knew it wouldn't be long before little guinea heads started peeking out.

Usually, if I can make a sound similar enough to a baby chick, I can get little heads to poke out from around momma and get a peek.

This picture was while the momma and babies were still in the nesting box.  This morning I moved everyone down to the baby pen on the floor of the coop.  I really should figure out a better method of getting this done but for now a pair of heavy leather gloves is the way to go.

I first took most of the babies out of the nesting box and placed them in the new pen.

Between pecks, I was able to move momma hen down to her babies.  She calmed down once she realized that everyone was okay and even began to teach them how to eat.  

She did have a few eggs that hadn't hatched yet but felt like they may have a chick in them so I let her keep three eggs to see if they would hatch by tomorrow.  I also cleaned out the nesting box she had been in.

Guinea eggs are very pretty and a tad smaller than my regular chicken eggs.

Yesterday was our 11th anniversary.  We celebrated the best way we could.  TH, THB, and MHM went to cut a load of firewood on some property TH used his charm super power to gain access to.  I stayed home and canned 14 quarts of green beans using my new All American 930 canner.  It went much faster than when I would use my Presto and have to do two runs.  After we were done, we took the Princesses to the drive in to watch Brave.  It was a good movie and the princesses love getting out and visiting the drive in movie. 

Everything is still wet here.  The weeds are really enjoying this weather.  Our tomatoes have finally started to ripen.  I had one on the vine that I was saving for today but I suspect THB or MHM was granted access to the garden by TH and I lost that one.  Oh well, one tomato for the help of a load of firewood is a pretty good trade!