Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[Denim Deb]

But at least the wheel bugs and praying mantises don't eat the plants. I much prefer them.

I have 3 praying mantis egg cases, one was on some of the wood I got and 2 were in my front garden. I'll be putting two of them out by my garden, and will take one out to the farm.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I had to google wheel bugs... don't think we have them here.

I got a wonderful start to my summer tan today. Not sure if it's sun or wind - but I'm definitely carrying more color than I had a couple days ago. Despite the wind it's a beautiful day - not a cloud in the sky.

Whew, got lots done - have more to do. But, the garden is getting a good start. I've got yellow onions, red onions and potatoes planted along with a row of spring peas. In another area I put in some eggplant (earlier than I usually do - but what the heck), peppers and tomato plants. I wanted to get a bunch of hay mulch put down today but OMG the wind is crazy and is blowing everything around. I tossed one pitchfork full of hay and not one piece of it went where it was supposed to go, lol. It went south thanks to our strong north wind!

Already fed the chickens, but still have goats and quail to feed along with milking the girls. After that's done I'm gonna put some tomato seeds in the ground. I usually start 'em inside - but for whatever reason I didn't get that done this year, so I'm gonna direct sow and see what happens. I've bought some started plants but it's getting ridiculously expensive these days. I've direct sown tomatoes previously with good luck so it's worth another try. After that I guess I'll try to figger out something to feed the hubster when he gets home.

Gotta get busy gettin' busy...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Owie - I am one great big ball of hurt! I spent about 3 hours behind the tiller in the new area of the garden. Went over it about 3 times. It's still a little damp, but by tomorrow I'll give it one more round and I think it'll be good. Might plant some corn out there and then some green beans to grow up the corn stalks. Ya know, I've tried that before and it's never really worked well for me... I think the ground is still a little bit cool for corn seed so I'm gonna give it a little more time I think. 'Course by next week we could be in the 90's, lol.

Got a lot of mulching done too. ARGH - what am I thinking? I got about 1/8th of the area covered that needs to be covered. At least I'm optimistic, huh?

I LOVE spring break - I wait for it with much anticipation - and then I practically kill myself trying to get everything done and never quite accomplishing it all. Oh well - at least with the longer days I might, kinda sorta, get caught up. Nah.. never happen!

I planted tomatoes in a raised bed today, but haven't put any out in the big garden yet - but I've got the area ready. Since I'm direct sowing in the garden I've dug cute little holes and will fill the holes with potting mixture and plant the seeds in that instead of the hard clay ground. I'm going 'whole hog' with tomatoes and peppers this year. I'm expecting less bugs cuz of all the freezes, but if not, I'm prepared anyway.

Checked eyelids on several of my goats today and dang it if Lil Bit doesn't have pale white membranes again. I had problems with her last year not responding well to worming. So, I'll try again with some Cydectin cuz Ivomec just isn't getting the job done anymore. I need her to get better so I can get her (and a couple more )bred so I'll have fresh girls to milk in the fall.

Been a long day and I needa find food and settle into the hot tub for awhile. I expect I'll sleep really well tonight!

 

[FarmerJamie]

Great job!

Won't the little holes in the clay become filled with water and drown your plantings?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I thought about that, FJ, and it almost stopped me from doing it. But in my infinite wisdom (as if!) I thought about what happens every time I plant a started tomato plant. They come in those cute little peat pots filled with starting mix or potting soil or whatever they use..... and then I dig a little hole in the clay and plant 'em. (I usually take the peat pot off too - call me a rule-breaker, lol) But, it's kind of the same thing - I hope! I'm gonna cross my fingers and hope it works.... stay tuned! Oh - and I am using a traditional raised row, so that helps with drainage. And, because I was such a slacker a few months ago and didn't start ANY seeds indoors - I'm gonna be trying it with peppers too. We have such a long growing season here that I'm not too worried about things having time to mature.

I've been working this spot for a few years now and I've gotta say that the soil is improving but s l o w l y. I've also added a whole new section that I'll need to be amending also. It's becoming clearer and clearer to me that I neeeeed to retire so I'll have more time to play in the dirt!

Despite the hot tub and 2 doses of liquid muscle relaxer (known as beer, lol) I woke up as stiff as I thought I would. Thankfully, after moving around a bit it's getting better. I'm sure by the time I start planting and tossing hay and wrestling goats I'll either get way over it or get way worse.

Well, as my friend always says --- "nuttin' to it but to do it" - so I'd better get busy doing it.

 

[hqueen13]

You might try giving clay to the goats to help with the words. Worms can't live in a clay environment. I can get you more info but I don't have time at the moment. Drop me a pm to remind me if you want.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

The things we do on the farm - OMG! Yesterday I was on a mission to get a rooster out of my garden. I've chased that booger outta there a dozen times and he would find a way back in. He is kind of a low-man-on-the-chicken-pecking order kinda guy so I wasn't terribly surprised that he tried to stay away from all the other birds. I had to resort to the net to finally catch him and move him to a lock-up facility. As I always do when I pick up one of my birds, I felt his breast area to see how meaty (or not) he was. I was amazed to find a HUGE knot on the end of his breast bone. I've heard of chickens getting breast blisters before (but usually meaties) but this didn't feel soft and squishy like that. It was about the size of a golf ball and almost as hard. I peeled back the feathers to take a peek and YUCK, major creep out! There was a foreign body in there.... I looked at it and looked at it and dang if it didn't look like a spur from another chicken. I go out to the pasture and look at the roo he had previously been beaten up by and sure enough this guy is missing a spur. His other spur is a good inch or a little more long....

I go inside and tell DH, who is a medical guy, that we need to perform surgery on a rooster. I get 'the look' from him.... ladies we all know that look, huh? The "what the heck are you thinking you're gonna rope me into this time look" lol. But, being the sweet (ahem) guy that he is we glove up and go catch a rooster. I asked him if he wanted to be holder or surgeon but he defers to my "superior chicken knowledge" (yeah, right!) and decides to hold. We place rooster on his back and proceed. My surgery tool of choice - needle nose pliers. I could get a grip on a piece of it and it'd just crumble...so I kept that up for awhile, but finally decided to go "all in" and try to grab that thing. This spur had been in him for so long that his body had effectively walled it off and was trying to grow skin over it.....so... I had to dig deep. I pulled out the biggest part of it and OMG - the stench was enough to almost make us both (maybe all three if you count the roo) GAG! I kept digging until I got to good tissue that started to bleed a little and then flushed everything out two or three times with peroxide....ended up with a spray or two of vetericin and called it a day. I was amazed that there wasn't any puss in the hole...DH said that there musta been at first and that it dried up...would explain the granular looking yellow stuff that we flushed out.The hole in his skin was huge where I got that thing out, but he hopped up and walked away like nothing ever happened.

Hopefully, since it's on the lower end of his body it'll drain (if it needs to) and eventually close over.... It goes down in farm history as one of the yuckiest things I've ever done!

 

[FarmerJamie]

That will probably limit his contribution to soup?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You are sooooooooooo right about that! That chicken will never go in my pot, lol! His sole contribution, if he makes it through all of this is simply to be a sperm donor. He's a beautiful Coronation Sussex roo and they're not that easy to come by, so he will get to live his life out without worry of being chicken soup!

 

[Denim Deb]

Doesn't sound like fun, but glad you were able to get it done.