No rain this day, just a beautiful, bright blue sky.
April showers, bring May flowers? Not in our neck of the woods. It is so DRY here. There is no point to dusting our house (lets be honest, I don't do that much anyway) but there really is no point to it right now. I'm sure 10 minutes after I dusted it would be covered in a layer of fine dust and dirt that is blowing in through my windows. I refuse to turn the air conditioning on until I can't stand the heat and humidity. For now, I will live with the dust. We are in the highlighted area today and tonight for the potential of some severe weather. I'll pass on the high winds, 2 inch hail, and the tornadoes of course. I just want a good long, soaking rain. The cracks are already starting to develop on the farm and the summer heat isn't even here yet.
Even though the rain is few and far between we have been having beautiful weather. Spring has definitely arrived and for us that means high winds also. Most days starting in March we have a sustained 15-20 mph wind and goes up from there. Today, we are 25-35 mph sustained with higher gusts. It keeps you cool when the temperature rises, but it makes it miserable to be outside doing anything. It keeps me from working in the garden, that and the million other things that seem to keep me busy. Planting tiny seeds when the wind is blowing as much as it is challenging to say the least. I have to plant at night when the wind has calmed a bit to have any hopes that my seeds will stay put.
I am experimenting with making my own seed tapes. You take strips of newspaper and dab a bit of "glue" (flour and water) spaced apart accordingly to what you are planting. I am going to experiment with lettuce and carrots (the two smallest seeds we plant) and see if they work. You place the seeds on the "glue", let them dry and roll them up. Go outside into the garden and dig a trench and place seed tape in and unroll. Cover with soil and water. Keep the ground moist until seedling emerge. Keep the ground moist enough is a constant struggle. My germination rates and low sometimes because the soil drys out so fast because of the wind. I'll attempt to plant these this weekend and see if they work.
I have planted a few things so far. My peas are growing nicely and hope to have a good crop this year. I soaked my seeds to speed up the germination since I was a bit late getting them in the ground. This technique seems to be working well. We planted potatoes from leftover harvest potatoes from last year. I'm not sure if they will grow or not, but it was a nice experiment to see if we could grow potatoes from our own leftovers. If nothing starts to pop up soon I'll probably go to my pantry and grab some potatoes that have developed plenty of eyes that should grow a good potato or two. I've planted a row of beets for Bubba. He LOVES beets. I'm planning to plant a few more rows for feed for the pigs. I don't like beets and I don't think pickling will make me like them either. We'll freeze some, but give plenty for the piggies to enjoy too. I wonder if there poop will turn purple? Sorry! :-) I've planted a few onions, but Monkey's nap the other day interrupted garden time so I still have about 90 more to go. Bubba and Junebug each have their own garden space in my main area. It gives them something to do and care for and hopefully keep my garden from being stepped on and grow their interest in the hobby. Junebug let Pipsqueak and I help her plant in her garden. Junior has a much larger garden, probably a 10 x 10 area between our shop and greenhouse. He hopes to sell some produce the grows, but I hope he'll share with the family as well. It's amazing how much they like to pack into their small spaces. Bubba planted enough vegetables in his space for a garden twice the size that his is. Maybe the close planting will keep the weeds at bay? Time will tell. Junebug planted some peas in her space and she ran out there first thing this morning to check her garden. Her face was priceless when she came in to tell me her peas were growing too!
Even though the rain is few and far between we have been having beautiful weather. Spring has definitely arrived and for us that means high winds also. Most days starting in March we have a sustained 15-20 mph wind and goes up from there. Today, we are 25-35 mph sustained with higher gusts. It keeps you cool when the temperature rises, but it makes it miserable to be outside doing anything. It keeps me from working in the garden, that and the million other things that seem to keep me busy. Planting tiny seeds when the wind is blowing as much as it is challenging to say the least. I have to plant at night when the wind has calmed a bit to have any hopes that my seeds will stay put.
I am experimenting with making my own seed tapes. You take strips of newspaper and dab a bit of "glue" (flour and water) spaced apart accordingly to what you are planting. I am going to experiment with lettuce and carrots (the two smallest seeds we plant) and see if they work. You place the seeds on the "glue", let them dry and roll them up. Go outside into the garden and dig a trench and place seed tape in and unroll. Cover with soil and water. Keep the ground moist until seedling emerge. Keep the ground moist enough is a constant struggle. My germination rates and low sometimes because the soil drys out so fast because of the wind. I'll attempt to plant these this weekend and see if they work.
I have planted a few things so far. My peas are growing nicely and hope to have a good crop this year. I soaked my seeds to speed up the germination since I was a bit late getting them in the ground. This technique seems to be working well. We planted potatoes from leftover harvest potatoes from last year. I'm not sure if they will grow or not, but it was a nice experiment to see if we could grow potatoes from our own leftovers. If nothing starts to pop up soon I'll probably go to my pantry and grab some potatoes that have developed plenty of eyes that should grow a good potato or two. I've planted a row of beets for Bubba. He LOVES beets. I'm planning to plant a few more rows for feed for the pigs. I don't like beets and I don't think pickling will make me like them either. We'll freeze some, but give plenty for the piggies to enjoy too. I wonder if there poop will turn purple? Sorry! :-) I've planted a few onions, but Monkey's nap the other day interrupted garden time so I still have about 90 more to go. Bubba and Junebug each have their own garden space in my main area. It gives them something to do and care for and hopefully keep my garden from being stepped on and grow their interest in the hobby. Junebug let Pipsqueak and I help her plant in her garden. Junior has a much larger garden, probably a 10 x 10 area between our shop and greenhouse. He hopes to sell some produce the grows, but I hope he'll share with the family as well. It's amazing how much they like to pack into their small spaces. Bubba planted enough vegetables in his space for a garden twice the size that his is. Maybe the close planting will keep the weeds at bay? Time will tell. Junebug planted some peas in her space and she ran out there first thing this morning to check her garden. Her face was priceless when she came in to tell me her peas were growing too!
Just as my fruit trees went into full bloom, Mother Nature threw us a curve ball. Our temperatures dipped down to 28 degrees for one night, but we pray that not too many blooms were affected by it and that we still get a decent crop of peaches, pears, and apples. I've been pruning my trees and I think that's one of the most nerve racking things to do on the homestead. I hope that I don't thin them out too much or not thin enough. Time will tell if I did it right or not. If I did it wrong, it will grow back, eventually!
Junior's lambs are growing nicely. The day after the twins came home we brought home another female. They are named Sarah, Samantha, and Tom. These three will be Junior's breeding pair. These sheep don't have wool, but hair, making them better suited for our warmer climate. Their hair thickens over the winter to keep them warm, but for now we don't have to worry about shearing any wool. Junior was disappointed, I was relieved. One less thing we have to schedule in to get done. Their pen still isn't quite finished, but they are now at least out of my laundry room and school room. We have small pen in the yard for them that we move around to fresh grass. One end has a tarp over it to block the wind and the other end has a dog carrier with hay in it to sleep in. We are still bottle feeding 4 times a day, every 6 hours. We are trying to be on a 10/4 schedule, but doesn't always work out. Right now we are on a 11/5. I wake him up for the middle of the night feeding since I have been unable to grow extra arms to feed them all on my own. Plus, I'm loosing sleeps for these little critters, he should too since it was his choice to get them. I'm such a mean mom, right? ;-)
Sarah, Tom, and Samantha
Lilly and Midnight are growing fast too. They check out the lambs each day and are interested in the chickens. Midnight thinks it's fun to chase. I do not think it's fun for him to chase. That leads to killing my chickens. I keep and eye on him and correct his behavior. I tell him no, slap him on the nose, and he submits by laying down and rolling onto his back. He knows I'm in charge. Occasionally after his has been scolded he will run into his doghouse and come back out a few minutes later. I guess he is putting himself in timeout. He found out what the hog fence does, shocks. He didn't like that. He ran to his house and hid. He hasn't been back out there since.
Speaking of pigs, the male piglet from our last litter is an escape artist. Wilbur thought he didn't need to stay in the pen with his sisters and should roam our yard like a dog. That was all fine and well until I got a call from the sheriff department saying that my pig was spotted along the highway. Great! How the heck am I suppose to get a pig home with five children? I load everyone up into the van and head out. We found him 1/4 mile away on the wrong side of the road, gorging on dried corn from the past harvest. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I left Junior with Wilbur and ran home to get a carrier and the scrap bucket and hoped I could capture him and then figure out how to get him into the back of the van. By the time I got back to Junior a lady and her son stopped to help us. She use to be the vet in our town and I think she may have been the one to call the sheriff when she saw him out on her way to town. We quickly captured him and with their help we got him in the back of the van. Now, remember, we live a 1/4 mile from where we found him. I pull into the yard and back up to the garden with the chain link fence. Just as I'm ready to get out of the van to get the carrier out he starts freaking out and is half way out of the carrier. I rush to open the back doors and he tumbles out and fights his way out and into the garden. He wasn't harmed, but my van was. He SHIT all over the back of my van. Oh, the smell. I quickly cleaned it up and got ready to head to town for an appointment. Something big always happens when you have somewhere to be. He stayed put the rest of the day and all night, but the next morning he was out again. Drastic measures were needed to keep him in. Our electric fence wasn't sending out enough power to shock him with our ground being so dry. I chased him into the main pen with the bigger pigs and got him locked into our hog panel area for when we capture them to slaughter. He has been there about 3 weeks now. He has fresh water, scraps everyday, and a bed of hay to lounge in. Hopefully we get enough moisture soon so that the fence works optimally. Otherwise, he will be a hog roast early summer.
Speaking of pigs, the male piglet from our last litter is an escape artist. Wilbur thought he didn't need to stay in the pen with his sisters and should roam our yard like a dog. That was all fine and well until I got a call from the sheriff department saying that my pig was spotted along the highway. Great! How the heck am I suppose to get a pig home with five children? I load everyone up into the van and head out. We found him 1/4 mile away on the wrong side of the road, gorging on dried corn from the past harvest. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I left Junior with Wilbur and ran home to get a carrier and the scrap bucket and hoped I could capture him and then figure out how to get him into the back of the van. By the time I got back to Junior a lady and her son stopped to help us. She use to be the vet in our town and I think she may have been the one to call the sheriff when she saw him out on her way to town. We quickly captured him and with their help we got him in the back of the van. Now, remember, we live a 1/4 mile from where we found him. I pull into the yard and back up to the garden with the chain link fence. Just as I'm ready to get out of the van to get the carrier out he starts freaking out and is half way out of the carrier. I rush to open the back doors and he tumbles out and fights his way out and into the garden. He wasn't harmed, but my van was. He SHIT all over the back of my van. Oh, the smell. I quickly cleaned it up and got ready to head to town for an appointment. Something big always happens when you have somewhere to be. He stayed put the rest of the day and all night, but the next morning he was out again. Drastic measures were needed to keep him in. Our electric fence wasn't sending out enough power to shock him with our ground being so dry. I chased him into the main pen with the bigger pigs and got him locked into our hog panel area for when we capture them to slaughter. He has been there about 3 weeks now. He has fresh water, scraps everyday, and a bed of hay to lounge in. Hopefully we get enough moisture soon so that the fence works optimally. Otherwise, he will be a hog roast early summer.
We have sprayed our 10 acres of wheat with sea minerals twice and now wait and see if it will make a difference at harvest time. Sea minerals are a natural, organic method to fertilize crops. Our farm isn't certified organic, not yet anyway. With the help of my father-in-law we hope to be in the next year. The soil where we live is heavy clay. It's a constant challenge to grow anything in it. If you drive tractors over it repeatedly, you pack it down. If you till the ground, you dry it out and make large clots that are hard as rocks and the plants can't break through. We try to till as little as possible, but it still needs to be done on occasions. We are going to experiment this year and grow pumpkins in three different rows. Two will have a weed barrier in place and the other nothing to see how the pumpkins do. We're trying to make our farm make some income, plus provide a high percentage of our own food year round. A pumpkin patch would help to bring in some revenue so we are in the beginning stages of seeing how we can make it work, or not work. Time will tell.
I drove that big tractor. In the dark. B made me sit in the driver seat to get a feel for driving a big tractor. His family is doing less farming so their need for a big tractor isn't necessary. The tractor will most likely be sold soon, so this was my chance to drive the Big Cat.
We took the kiddos to the drive-in movie theater a couple of weeks ago. It's a lot a work to go and we are super tired the next day, but it's a cheap way for us to all go see a movie or two. They were having a $12 per car load special verses pay for each person. We grabbed dinner on the way and enjoyed Rio 2 and Mr. Peabody and Sherman.
We took the children fishing over Easter weekend. Monkey and Bubba had a touch of the runny nose so we didn't want to share our germs with the rest of the family so we stayed home from the big family dinner. We didn't catch any fish, but Junior caught some frogs.
That was a long post, but I feel like I'm caught up on what's been happening on the farm and at home. Hope everyone is enjoy the spring weather too and if you can, please pray for rain for us.
Until next time,
T
Until next time,
T
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