Month: April 2010

I have all kinds of plans for the weekend, although there isn’t as much to do as I originally thought.  This is a big weekend for me because it is the first time I’ll be planting things in the garden outdoors!  It is exciting because the first batch of meat chickens are moving out to pasture.  Here’s what on the agenda: Start cucumbers inside. Plant peas and onion sets outdoors. Set up broiler fence/shelter and move the birds out there. Make bread for communion (rising right now). Enjoy a good book and some time to relax. What are you planning for the weekend?  Anything exciting?  Working in the garden at all?

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.  Head on over and see what other tips are being offered. I’ve been making a bigger effort to schedule my time lately.  Amy over at Raising Arrows recently wrote a great post about scheduling for large families.  A lot of her tips would apply to individuals as well.  She mentions 2 basic types of scheduling:  a basic routine or a more formed schedule with set times for each activity.  I would hate a schedule with times on it because I would fall behind and give up.  Instead, getting in to a routine works really well for me.  This is the week Brian’s work schedule changed back to 4 days a week for the summer.  I took advantage of that to start my new routine.  Here’s a general idea of how I go through the day: Get up around 6 AM as Brian’s leaving.  Then we don’t crowd each other in the bathroom and kitchen. Round 1 of cleaning: get the automatic cleaners going.  This means I put in a load of laundry and run the dishwasher if either one needs to be done.  I also dust

This is not a rant either, so please stick with me if I sound a little crabby.  I don’t mean to be.  This is a tough topic to write about because my audience here is a mix of other farmers (who want the straight talk) and customers (whom I obviously don’t want to offend). Over the past couple years Brian and I have become more and more serious about farming and making the farm profitable.  Don’t get me wrong, I think Brian would enjoy driving his tractor if he had to pay to do it.  I certainly love dealing with the animals and will probably always keep a few around. That being said, there are a lot of things we would NOT do if we didn’t hope to make a profit from it one day.  Examples include: sleeping poorly and getting up several times per night to check that the latest ewe isn’t stuggling to lamb or that the heat lamp for the chicks is keeping them warm and isn’t burning down the barn juggling feed bills, fertilizer bills, seed bills, rental payments, etc. foregoing certain home improvements so the animals can have a new barn spending good portions of

To see who else is strolling today head on over to Quiet Country House.

You may remember my seed starting schedule… To start indoors: Tomatoes start 4/1 plant out by 6/1 Eggplant start 4/1 out by 6/1 (or dc 6/1) Cukes start 5/1 out by 6/1 (or dc 6/1) Pumpkins start 5/8 out by 6/1 (or direct seed 6/1) I finished planting the tomatoes and eggplant on Saturday.  I’m running about 2 weeks behind but I’m not too worried about it with our crazy weather.  The pics below shows 4 flats germinating. Once they sprout they go under the light.  The one on the bottom here is celery that I planted on Saturday.  Instead of using cells I spread an inch or two of mix in the tray, sprinkled the seeds over it, and patted the mix down with my hand.  I’ve never grown celery before so I’m excited to see if it works!  The tray on top is a batch of Amish Paste seedlings that I started a couple weeks ago.  The other tray is an experiment so to say.  I spilled a whole flat that had just been planted with Jersey Giant tomato seeds.  To salvage them I scooped up the mix and spread it thinly in a tray.  So far 3

I planted my potatoes last weekend, so the second weekend in April.  This year I planted some in pots versus in the ground.  I’m hoping this method will make it easier to avoid or minimize a blight outbreak if one comes our way.  Portable pots will fit in the garden better too.  If nothing else, I’m interested to see how they yield. One downside to growing potatoes this way is they require more regular watering since the soil dries out faster.  I’m not too worried about that.  My biggest concern was finding enough material to fill the pots with.  Brian solved that problem for me.  On the left is a scoop of composted hay.  On the right is some topsoil he scraped up from where the lean to was that burned.  There were cattle in there before the fire.  He cleaned up the old bedding and manure a long time ago but I’m sure a lot of the nutrients seeped in to the soil underneath. I mixed the soil and compost about 50/50 and spread it a few inches deep in the bottom of each pot.  Then I placed the potatoes in.  I put anywhere from 3-6 potatoes chunks in

There is so much going on!  Not that I’m really busy.  I’m just dabbling in a lot of things.  I keep thinking I should totally do a post about this and this and this and yet when I sit down at the computer I enjoy reading everyone else’s blogs instead.  Plus, I’m following Dancing With The Stars for the first time ever this year because Kate is on there.  I know she’s kind of crazy but I really like her.  I think it’s because she says what so many women are thinking/feeling.  She’s certainly not setting a Godly example for her children so I’d love to see her make some changes and I’m cheering for her (in life and on DWTS).  Anyway… LoL So what have I been doing?  Planting potatoes in pots, starting seeds, organizing the basement (or thinking about it), trying to settle in to a housework routine that works, raising chickens, thinking about pasture arrangements, trying to eat healthier, trying to have a better attitude, trying to work in some new recipes, etc.!  Enough for you?  Now what do you want to hear about?  I’m not promising I’ll write about it all so if you’ve got priorities

First, thanks for sticking with me through my venting the other day.  A girl can only take so much and I just couldn’t muster up a real post right then.  Right now we’re no closer to a diagnosis.  I’m going to take some samples and send them to MSU this week so I’ll keep you posted.  Basically, CL is a disease that causes random abscesses externally or internally.  A few of our ewes have developed abscesses in the same location for no apparent reason.  The disease can be managed but not easily eliminated.  At this point we’re not overreacting but are prepared to deal with whatever result we get.  As a side note, our final lambs of the year were born Friday morning.  Angel delivered twins: one boy, one girl.  I named the girl April because Mama really held out, she was way overdue.  The twins had a slow start and aren’t real big but they’re both nursing and doing great now. After church and a nice breakfast we worked on the garden.  It took all afternoon.  Brian spread manure and we rototilled.  We added a new patch and expanded the main garden by about 1/3 rd.  I think I