FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy

Denim Deb

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It's not quite that chilly here, but I have thought of lighting a fire here too.
 

FarmerDenise

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I lit a fire yesterday and have one going now. I don't think we ever had a fire in May before.
I gave the goats some alfalfa hay and they are sort of happy. They definitely do not like this rain.
Our plants that are up are growing nicely though, but we can't walk in the field or we'll get mud clogs on our shoes and compact the soil.
So we are just hunkering down inside again. I am clipping coupons and looking for the best sales on stuff we actually use.
I wish I could get enthusiastic about doing something more constructive....like baking desert or making broth or something...
Oh, I emptied several containers of fresh clean rainwater to fill the chicken waterer. I was pretty pleased with myself. I didn't use power to get water and it is better water for them than our well water :D
 

discoversimplicity

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Denim Deb said:
It's not quite that chilly here, but I have thought of lighting a fire here too.
I'm lighting my pellet stove right now :) No snow so far but sure feels like it could at any moment...
 

FarmerDenise

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As far as my birthday goes, I have no plans. SO wants to take me to the ocean to go fishing. I told him I want to go to the ocean to gather seaweed and get some clean seawater, so I can make my own salt at least once. He want to go fishing, so he keeps suggesting places for fishing, which are not neccessarily good for getting seawater or seaweed. :p
I will be babysitting as usual tomorrow, so if we go to the ocean, it will have to be on another day. The weather is not exactly nice for the ocean. If it is cold here, it will be absolutely miserable at the coast. I told SO we should go next week. It would be fun and maybe we could even buy some fresh caught fish from a fisherman. I should check CL, since they sometimes post in there.
 

FarmerDenise

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I had noticed that it wasn't raining and decided to go and gather eggs. At the door I picked up a five gallon pail that had held kindling a few hours earlier and turned toward the roses. I had my pruners in my pocket and decided to cut the spent roses for the goats. I managed to fill the bucket adding a few sprigs of lemon leaves. The goats sure were happy to see me. They stepped all over my toes to get to the bucket. :lol:
Coming back from the ogat pen I notice that 3 of Mandy's chicks were in my strawberry garden. I manged to catch them and shove them back screaming the little beaks off into the chicken yard. Then I saw all those lovely red ripe strawberries and figured I better pick them, before the slugs find them. I got a big handfull. I brought those into the kitchen. Then I noticed the rice sitting out and the leftovers from breakfast and fixed a bowl of goodies for the chickens. I remembered to grab the egg basket also. It is such fun to watch the chickens fight over the goodies in the bowl. Many grabbed bits of bread and bit off little pieces and then chirped to a baby and dropped it in front of it. Other chicks were running around with big bits of bread in their beaks. I was just cracking up.
Finally I went and gathered eggs. I have two broodies I have to lift off the nest in order to see if anyone laid a fresh egg in their nests. They scream at me, but otherwise tolerate the invasion.
Since it still hadn't started raining again, I got the camera and took a few pictures. Everything looks so nice and clean and fresh and you can almost watch it grow. I am drooling in anticipation of the good food.
If only I could get someone else to cook it for me. I much prefer to sit outside and pull weeds all day, drinking my cool white wine ;) then spending my time inside cooking and canning.
 

FarmerDenise

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A pic of our little farm taken on the morning of summer solstice.

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This mostly shows our second section of the garden. It has tomatoes, millet, broomcorn, sunflowers and not in the picture a row of lettuce and chard. We have volunteer pumkins and sunflowers growing all over the place. Actually we have all kinds of volunteer plants growing everywhere. We mostly leave them be. They tend to produce well.

I've been busy as usual. Taking care of DGS makes is very difficult for me to keep up with all my farm chores.
I watched lots of youtube videos on goat birthings. I have called our vet to check on what I need to do for our area as far as vaccines etc goes. He was very helpful. I am not to worried about Blossom's kidding time. I have all the stuff needed for the birthing. I just need to put it all in one container, so I have it ready.
Our 3 different sets of meat birds are growing. I think one set is not going to get very big. They were "dark" cornish, whatever that means. The white ones are quite large, as large as the red broilers, which ar a few weeks older.
I have another broody hen and plan on getting a few more meaties for her tomorrow. May as well take advantage of having a momma hen ;)
Tommorrow I have to go through the freezer and consolidate some stuff. By that I mean I have to take stuff I have frozen in plastic containers and repackage them into vaccum sealed bags. That way they will take up less space.
Today we did a big shopping at one of those huge warehouse stores. Got good deals and decent food. They have lots of organic and whole foods. DD and I even found a package of sprouted, dehydrated beans and grains and they were organic. We decided to get them and share them to experiment with.
After I get the stuff in the freezer consolidated, I will have to freeze the stuff I bought today.

Our garden is doing super well. Our corn is beginning to tassel! We just planted some more beans and sunflowers. I also planted some sweet potatoes, that had sprouted.
We won't have many peaches or plums this year, but we have harvested quite a few strawberries. Not enough to freeze or make jam, but enough to enjoy right now.
There is always something to be joyful about!
 

FarmerJamie

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Cool picture of the garden! :thumbsup

I have to agree with you on the "volunteer" plants. :D
 

Dace

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Hey FD :frow

Your garden is beautiful :).

My DD will being going to Sonoma in the fall....isn't that somewhat near you?
 

abifae

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your garden is bigger than my entire apartment.

and gorgeous!!

auntie, something is wrong with her dirt, it's not grey!!! :gig
 
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