There is a lot in bloom already. Phlox, tulips – some looking taller than ever before, Magnolia, bleeding heart, jack-in-the-pulpit, azalea and other spring blooming beauties. The forsythia and narcissus have long faded. Some of the lilac are already blooming and some are just forming buds. The night air is fragrant and wildlife is stirring.
The farm animals seem to know spring is here too. The chickens are laying a ton of eggs and of course the roosters are constantly going after the hens. Last night we butchered four chickens with the help of a friend. They took two and we put two in our freezer. This time we chose to butcher four Rhode Island Reds. They seem the most agressive of all the breeds we have and also are harder to keep in the chicken area. They want to roam the entire yard which would be fine if they were not inclined to go across the street and eat or dig any flower that was emerging.
The goats escaped the fence the other day and trashed several of my trees. Darn goats! Jerry has to try again to fix the fence so it will hold them. I am hoping the trees survive. At this rate I am never going to have mature plants!
Beauty the horse is much calmer this year. I still cannot get to her tail to brush it but when the vet comes out I am going to ask her to sedate Beauty so I can get those cockerburls out. She is letting me brush her butt some – but only briefly.
Having a cashmere goat is a bit different. Tulip is still quite shy and has to be lifted onto the milking stand. She does not like being brushed but tolerates it. I trimmed all of their hooves this week. Darla was the real pain. First she jumped on the milk stand, then jumped off behind it, tipped a shelf over and finally ended back up in her stall. I did get her hooves trimmed but made her wait until last. She didn’t like watching the other goats get ginger snap cookies when they were done so after I finished all of them I called Darla and she jumped right up on the milk stand!
The vegetable garden is growing too. I have tiny plants of carrots, kale, sugar snap peas, spinach, turnips, brussels sprouts, sugar beets, cabbage and we are already harvesting radish and lettuce. Some of the lettuce we planted the year before has sprouted on its own. I will be digging and moving those plants once we get ready to till that area. Adding the compost has done wonders for the ground! There are still many plants to get into the ground that are in the greenhouse as well as more corn and green beans to plant.
I am debating growing flax this year for fiber. I already have small cotton plants growing.
The bunnies have not had babies and I am wondering if maybe one of them cannot breed. They have been together for several months now but my female has not shown a single sign of being pregnant.
If you are in the area I invite you to come spend some time at our farm and wildlife habitat. Please email or phone ahead for reservations.
Sheri
Filed under Homestead Happenings by on Dec 20th, 2009. Comment. 
Last night my epiphyllum oxypetalum bloomed for the second time this year in the greenhouse. I got it back in 1998 however this is the first year it has bloomed. The first blooms happened earlier in the summer. It had a total of four beautiful, fragrant white flowers that opened together this time.
I am still canning and preparing food for the winter. I plan to can some pint sized cakes and breads as well as some more beef stew for winter use. I harvested the sugar beets which need to be made into sugar two days ago.
We have begun to eat our canned food. It tastes so much different and is so much more satisfying than store bought. Even though I have been buying organic for the past few years I am finding that home canned still tastes better and is more satisfying. I am not sure if it is because I know where it came from and how it was grown or if it has to do with different processing methods. Either way, it is nice to know I do not need to buy potatoes, vegetables, fruits, fruit juices or condiments for most, if not all, of the winter. The only food we need to purchase is meat and milk. Once the goats begin producing again we will not need milk and we have plans come spring to add a pig to our flock of animals, so that will eliminate the need for purchasing meat.
We finally fired the still up. I made half a gallon of distilled water to water some of my more sensitive plants with. It took two gallon to make half a gallon and about four hours total time. Keeping the pan with the pump in it filled with cold water was not an easy task. Now that I know what I do, I wish I had bought a five gallon still instead of a two gallon one.
I strained the lavender buds out of the olive oil that it was being infused into and have that bottled and put in the basement. I will use some of it in salves and some in the lye soap that I am in the process of hand milling now. I also have some soapwort leaves, roots and flowers I am working on converting into soap. Once I am satisfied with the thickness of the product I will use it as a hand soap, as a shampoo and possibly as a laundry soap, at least until my trees begin to produce soap nuts. Making our own salves, soaps and other necessities is just one more way we can be more independent and self-sufficient now.
I think the goats are bred, at least I hope they are. I am really looking forward to some nice goat milk to drink and make cheese with. It has been a long summer without some. I had about thirty chickens, a peafowl and three guineas given to me by a nice man who could no longer care for them. Luckily for us, Jerry had the new henhouse done and was able to get the top cover back on so they cannot fly away, otherwise I would not have been able to take them.
Jerry has been working hard on the new greenhouse which will be ten feet tall! Woo Hoo! My plants will sure like that. Some of them were reaching the top of the other greenhouse. It is also larger so instead of needing two seperate houses, I can put all of the plants into one house. That will make heating and watering much easier. He is also going to work on a hatch that we can open and run a hose out of. Hopefully this will allow us to use a hose outside in the winter to water the animals with.
In the greenhouse I have lots of lemons and limes on the plants and believe it or not they are still blooming their little heads off. Looks like I may have plenty of these to use fresh as well as some to juice. I will can any extra juice I get to use at a later date. With any luck my need to buy lemon and lime juice will come to an end as I begin to build up a larger supply than I need. Now if I could just get some of my other fruiting tropicals such as the bananas, passionfruit, pineapple, cacao, coffee and vanilla to bloom!
The garden is almost done for the year and I did not get a winter garden planted. Once the new greenhouse is done and the plants are moved I may start some lettuce, spinach and other greens in it, then move them into the cold frame after they have grown. I am also considering trying to grow some green beans, radish and peas in the greenhouse. In the garden still left to harvest after the first frost is brussels sprouts, kale and rose hips.
It is late and I need to get some sleep. The contractor’s could be here as early as 8am tomorrow to start on the barn roof. It will be nice to get rid of the leaks in the big barn and have a new roof with a ten year guarantee. Jerry is still working on the other parts of the barn roof that we are re-doing and he still needs to tear off the roofs on both of our offices and re-do those. The office roofs I think will end up being tarped for the winter and started on come spring as they need to be torn down all the way and rebuilt. That in itself is going to be a huge job and one I do not want to take on with winter just around the corner.
Sheri
Filed under Homestead Happenings by on Dec 20th, 2009. Comment.
Reader’s Thoughts