Tag: farm life

Farewell 2021

An entire calendar year through a pandemic. Can you go back in your mind’s eye to March 2020? Did you ever think it would last this long? I remember going home March 16 and thinking, “Sweet, telework for the next month or two, this will be so great!” What I hadn’t figured in was daycare closing, grocery shopping becoming stressful, job security becoming an oxymoron, and the shroud of uncertainty and constant change that would envelop our entire existence.

There have been so many ups and downs for all of us.

There have been months of despair and questioning followed by hopeful horizons that renewed our spirit.

This past summer felt like things were finally taking a meaningful turn for the better. We could be outside, places were open with limited capacity, you could meet a friend for coffee or let your kids have a playdate and it didn’t feel so scary or risky. Work was getting back to normal and plans were in place for kids to return to school in person for real.

The Fall was holding our collective breath. Waiting to see how the numbers would tick. Will this last? And by most accounts everything was going fine. A new sense of normalcy was developing. We even got to look happily forward to holiday get togethers with friends and family.

And then Ka-Pow! Sucker punch to the gut. And here we go again with restrictions and shortages. It’s the worst kind of déjà vu.

We can all look at the small wins and silver linings. If you’re reading this, you’re still alive and hopefully healthy. That’s something to be grateful for.

All of this isn’t to say it hasn’t been really hard. I am not a positive psychology prophet. I think it’s the dark and discomfort in life that shows us the direction we need to go.

I will say this pandemic has shown me faster and more clearly what is important and valuable in my life. Things I probably wouldn’t have taken stock of for another 15 or 20 years are already strongly at the top of my life priorities list.

Cheers to 2021! I propose a toast:

To the sunny and the rainy days.

To the flowers and the weeds.

To the still waters and the waves.

To the breakdowns and good deeds.

It’s all what makes a life a journey,

the things that test our mettle.

We’re made of more than we ever knew,

don’t give in, give up, or settle.

Pink, perfect trailing rose
Bright yellow sunny Sunflower
Pink tinged with yellow dahlia approx 5 inches across

Pallet Projects

I love Pinterest. Who doesn’t? Something that caught my eye a while back and has stuck with me is the utility of pallets. Oh my word, there is nothing you can’t do, build or use a pallet for. Was that a double negative? From the simple vertical herb planter, to lawn furniture, to a wine rack, to yard art. The possibilities are endless. Wow, I feel like I’m on the home shopping channel doing an infomercial. And if you call in the next 15 minutes, we’ll throw in an extra pallet…

Over the last month with driving my Mumsy to her treatments on a near daily basis, I had noticed that a house near us had a pretty sizable pile of pallets in the front yard. And, like a good neighbor, I thought let me help them help me. On a drive home one afternoon I pulled into their driveway and was jotting a note to leave in their mailbox. I highly recommend this method (Disclaimer: I do not recommend this method. It’s a total crap shoot for more reasons than I can list. Use your judgement and don’t ever assume people aren’t crazy. For example, there is another ‘neighbor’ with signs in their front yard that say “No Trespassing” and each sign includes the image of a semi-automatic weapon. They had a bunch of cardboard put out on recycling day that I could have used for my garden. I did NOT leave a note in their mailbox.) Anyhoo, major tangent, but I looked like a weirdo the entire time and took long enough writing the note that the female head of household came out to the driveway to ask if I needed help. Why yes, yes I do need help. I explained I had seen her pallets and if they were just planning on hauling them to the dump, I would happily take them off her hands. She said sure, we exchanged phone numbers, and agreed I would reach out later that day when I had access to a truck.

I have about seven projects that immediately come to mind for these pallets and I’ve pretty much decided pallets are the answer to everything. I’ve advised Cactus that if he ever sees pallets, he must get them.

First, I wanted compost piles closer to my garden. Five pallets, boom. Done.

Second, I wanted my garden tools organized. One pallet, kapow. Done.

Third, Cactus had started a treehouse for the girls last summer. He pretty much only built the ladder and floor. My geniusness said “What if you use pallets for the walls?” Sha-zam. Done.

  • five wood pallets nailed together in the shape of the letter M
  • single wood pallet standing upright holding garden tools
  • Tree house with walls made of pallets

I’ll keep you posted on future projects.

5 things to know before you get a goat

Last weekend we went to see some baby goats at Buckhorn Run Farm. The owners, Barb and Jack, were so delightfully generous with their time and explanations. Talk about a whole new vocabulary to learn.  Gee whiz, I could barely keep up. But that’s the case with nearly all new hobbies, right?

Baby Goat on a cinder block at Buckhorn Run Farm

When we bought this property 18 months ago, nearly every person we knew said “get goats!” and Cactus and I had no idea why that was a recurring theme. I know goat yoga has gotten lots of hype and there are hilarious videos of goats screaming on youtube, but it was funny to me that goats were this quintessential symbol of farm life. Umm, chickens anyone?

However, over the last year and half, mowing the back yard was something Cactus decided he would love some assistance with, which resurrected the goat conversation. To help us think this through, here are some questions you may want to answer to help guide this decision of whether or not to get goats.

1. What’s your main reason for wanting goats?  Will they be a family pet, do you want to breed them for income? Will they be a source of milk and cheese? Will they be a source of meat? Are you gonna rent them out for goat yoga parties or to clear areas with invasive species?  Think this through.  They live 12-14 years and they are only cute and little in the beginning. The answer to these questions would very much impact the breed you choose. We did very preliminary research on Nigerian Dwarfs, Nubians, and Boers. Turns out, goats are ‘browsers’ not ‘grazers’ meaning they are not going to mow the lawn. They’ll climb on things to eat branches or tall grass but sheep would be the better bet for our mowing needs.

2. Can you afford their feed and routine care needs?  The cost of their food and care doesn’t seem to be too substantial, certainly less than a horse, but only you know your financial arrangements. Of course, depending on how many you have, this could be quite a range. Considerations on feed costs include hay, alfalfa (for females you are milking), a mineral supplement, and grain as a treat. This article from Thrifty Homesteader was very helpful. Don’t forget bedding as well.

Mineral station - a wood box with three sections - about 4 feet off the ground
Mineral station at Buckhorn Run Farm

3. How much time are you able to dedicate to caring for them? Again, your answer to this question would be different than mine.  If you are milking twice a day, that’s definitely something to think about in relation to all the other things on your schedule.

PVC and wood milking station for goats at Buckhorn Run Farm
Milking station at Buckhorn Run Farm

4. Do you have the space for them – both to sleep and exercise? In addition to where ever they sleep, I learned goats hate the rain so you need a sheltered place for them during the day.  And they need space to romp about, browse, and ‘kid around.’  A conservative estimate is at least 20-30 square feet for daily living and less for sleeping.

5. Can you keep them entertained, contained and safe?  As cute as the babies are, these guys can get into mischief and need to be well contained. Cactus has a huge fence project on the horizon but not in the immediate future. They need stuff to climb on for fun.  I’ve seen some elaborate play areas and some simple tree stumps or goat rocks. And when considering the space requirements above, definitely consider how you will keep them safe from predators (mainly coyotes and dogs).

Hope this was helpful. It was valuable for us because it’s easy to be swept away by the cuteness of any baby animal initially and it’s always best to make the responsible decision that works long-term.

First Year Garden Learnings – Part Two

Howdy again.  I’m back with part two of my first year garden learnings.  I’m glad I took notes and will continue to do so. Doing this lookback is also helping me think through some of my plans a little more deeply, which is good.

What I hope to improve next year:

The blueberry ambush.  We will have to rewire our electric fence.  The deer in our area are out of control and they are not taking my blueberries again.  The Deer Chaser was not enough of a deer-terrant.  Ha ha ha, I had to.  

The single blueberry that the deer left behind on Farm Charm
The lone blueberry that the deer left

Carrots and cucumbers.  Total flop.  Nothing ever sprouted and I tried carrots twice – once in the spring and fall.  Grrrr!  

Starting my seeds in an egg carton. The cucumbers never sprouted.
Every other seed I started grew, except the cucumbers and carrots (which were directly seeded).

Fig Fail.  Wah!  I believe a few things worked against us.  I don’t think we pruned enough of the old growth or insulated the roots during the colder months.  I reached out to the previous owner as well and he said that some years were a miss as well for them.

Kale caterpillars.  I had to rinse all my kale like 9 times before I used it and I’m sure I still ate extra protein without knowing.  Not that big of a deal, but it did slightly lessen my enjoyment of the salads. However, not worried about worms at all from the bags of kale I froze and am putting in smoothies.  I’m trying to keep my garden chemical free so will need to figure out how to keep these caterpillars out.

Tomatoes a-go-go.  Since I hope to do more canning next year, I am not going to exclusively plant the small guys.

The layout.  I feel like the location for where I planted squash and lettuce could be improved.  The squash needs room to spread but also needs to be contained somehow. The two butternut plants took over the entire corner of the garden and grew through the fence.  For the lettuce, not sure if it was due to soil or sunlight, but my lettuce leaf varieties did not take hold the way I would have hoped. 

Spacing.   Green beans need their space.  So do tomato plants. This is true both horizontally and vertically.  I will need to create better trellising configurations. For the green beans, I made a teepee that was not tall enough, only about 3 feet tall.  Next year I will make it at least 5 feet tall and just plant 1-2 plants at each leg of the teepee. Personally, I don’t think tomato cages get the job done.  The plants get tangled in them and they can still tip over. I’d really like to have some sort of bar suspended above them that they can grow up to.

No compost bed.  I will not be dedicating a garden bed to composting.  It became intractable and overgrown and my garden does not have extra space.  Plus we have three other compost piles.

Take pictures of everything!  Since I’m out in the garden so much and my memory is so, so spotty, I want to put a reminder on my phone to take a picture once each week.  This will be a great visual record of where stuff was planted, how quickly it grew (or didn’t grow), etc. The challenge will be remembering to take my phone.  I enjoy my gardening time as a way of being outside away from screens.

New veggies I want to try to grow:

  • Broccoli
  • Brussel sprouts
  • Collard greens
  • Golden beets
  • Spinach

What I will NOT be growing next year:

Strawberries – I had four strawberry plants and as you know they were a great source of sustenance for what I guess were a local bunny family.  I think we only ate 10-12 strawberries tops. I’m sure I could learn more about caging them in a way that allows them to spread while being protected, but they seem like more trouble than they are worth at this stage of my gardening game.

Farm Charm tomato cages wrapped in netting to protect my strawberry plants
My strawberry plant cages. These were good in theory but didn’t allow the plants to spread.

Sunsets

Cactus and I met online.  We’ve been together for about 11 years.  Online dating is no big thang now (which is a discussion for another day), but back in 2008 Match was probably one of the only shows in town. Well, that’s not true.  Craigslist was around back then, so was OK Cupid, and I think JDate (since Cactus is from that flock). We didn’t have Tinder, Bumble, Grindr, and what the hell is Coffee Meets Bagel?!?!?  Needless to say, online dating is now ubiquitous and seems to be the preferred way of meeting people.

Can you guess which site we met on?  Craigslist, the classiest of all. Recall this was prior to people getting killed on dates that were initiated on Craigslist so it was totally fine.  Not weird at all. And truth be told I was not looking for a boyfriend online. I was looking for a place to live. But being the efficiency focused female that I am, I got a two-fer.  It’s actually quite a funny story but that can wait.  

Anyway, were I to write an online dating profile presently it would definitely include my love of sunsets.  I always thought that was just a cliche, along with long walks on the beach, but since last Fall my opinion has completely changed.  Driving home each evening when daylight is shorter, I am chasing the sunset for about the last five miles. This discovery was pure luck and coincidence based on where our house is and the road that leads to it.  But man oh man did we hit the jackpot.  

Brilliant sunset on Farm Charm

The sunsets are striking.  They are beautiful beyond words.  I will likely never be able to take a picture that does justice to their dazzling colors.  The pinks, oranges, purples, and blues just stop me in my tracks. It’s like all the ideas, energy and deeds of the day have swirled together and floated up to the atmosphere and poof!

Dazzling Farm Charm Sunset

Here are just a few recent pictures taken with my phone (sorry!), since my DSLR seems to have elected retirement.  I’m gonna have to get better at dusk photography to capture this brilliance. Even though the last thing I want to do is go grab my camera during these fleeting moments.  I just want to stop and stare.

Bouquet of Beets

Three juicy, purple beets ripe from the Farm Charm Garden

We are a beet family.  I didn’t eat them growing up, but some while ago I read they were good for making your blood stronger in Eat Right 4 Your Type.  What exactly was meant by ‘stronger’ I don’t remember, but I’m a sucker for health claims.  You could tell me that eating caterpillars covered in hot sauce is good for your skin and I would likely try it.  

So I started buying canned beets at the grocery store.  Please, before you spend time sending me hate mail about how inferior canned beets are to fresh, I know and I get it.  But I’m not a foodie. For me, food is mostly functional. Rarely do I sit to enjoy a meal for the crisp crunchiness, amazing aromas or titillating textures.  I just need to get the calories and nutrients in and be on my way. My kids eat canned beets (they look like little vampires with the juices running down their faces).  I throw them on salads, sandwiches and burgers. Sidenote: ever had an Australian burger? With a fried egg, ring of pineapple and sliced beets? Sooo yummy <says the girl who just said she wasn’t a foodie>.  Cactus even makes beet salad. So the decision to try to grow beets was just a “Sure, let’s give that a try.”  

Three juicy, purple beets ripe from the Farm Charm Garden
Three of the first beautiful beets from the Farm Charm garden

I planted beets back on April 1st.  I seeded them directly into the soil which I think is what the packet said to do. A mere 2.5 months later, these are just three of the amazing purple hearted beauties I plucked from the garden.  They were likely ready for harvest two weeks ago but I kept waiting and waiting to see how much of the bulb would continue to push itself out of the soil.  I think I didn’t plant them deep enough. Needless to say though, I am very happy with the result and still have about ten more plants I will harvest in the next couple weeks.

The Ferry Morse beet seeds I started with back on April 1. I would buy these again.
The package of beet seeds I bought at Lowe’s for the Farm Charm garden

I’ll be honest, beets were one of the vegetables whose success I was least invested in.  Sorry beets, love you boo! I was way more interested in lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and squash because we eat those nearly every day.  And, per above, canned beets really don’t bother me.  

Perhaps it was that lack of love that made my beets say “I’ll show you.  We’re gonna be the best darn beet crop you ever saw.” And they are.

Seven roasted beets ready to be made into a tasty salad
The Farm Charm first beet harvest after roasting

Next step was roasting them for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees and then removing the skins. Tip: I covered a pan with aluminum foil and sprayed it with cooking spray to prevent sticking and have minimal clean up. In the past I’ve also wrapped each beet individually and put a bit of olive oil in each package. If you wrap each one separately, definitely still put them on a pan and not directly on the oven rack. Similar to sweet potatoes, I believe some beet juice can drip and then you’ll have a mess to clean up in your oven.

I’ll make a beet salad and/or serve them with goat cheese.  They are also great on a bed of arugula with chunks of goat cheese and a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Farm Charm beet salad - nature's edible rubies
Farm Charm beet salad

Final thought:  are beets always plural?  Can I say I ate a beet for dinner?  Can you add a beet to my sandwich? Sounds wrong.

3 Ways to Keep Your Chickens Safe

It is with a very heavy heart that I tell you we had a tragedy on the farm.  I won’t go into a lot of detail. I wasn’t even home when it happened so only know second hand what took place.  

Essentially, Cactus had let the chickens out of their run to a little yard area so they could scratch and peck around.  This area is right next to the coop and completely fenced except for the gate that one enters or exits through to get to the coop and run.  

Farm Charm Chicken Yard, Coop and Run
The chicken coop is on the left, the run is in the back and the free range yard area is right in front.

When we are going in and out, we use a big rock to hold the gate shut rather than fasten and unfasten the lock (mistake #1: lazy humans). Cactus was doing some weed wacking in the little area and at one point he stopped to take a business call and walked through the gate without properly locking it behind him (mistake #2: having to walk and talk).

While on the phone, he said he heard a scuffle and ran to the little yard area to find our schnauzer, Shume, next to a fatally injured white chicken.

Farm Charm Felon #1

He immediately got the chickens into the coop for safety but only counted six when there should have been seven (we had a total of eight to begin with). He searched the little yard and everywhere nearby but could not find the seventh chicken.  Eventually he noticed that our second dog Ozzy, a shih-tzu, was nowhere to be found. He started calling Ozzy and finally found him laying in the grass by the front of the house with a lifeless brown chicken next to him.

Farm Charm Felon #2

There are so many lessons to be learned from this event and I now know that dogs are the number one predator of backyard chickens.  I never would have thought our useless little twenty pound dogs who only bark and eat and sleep were capable of anything like this.

Here are a few points to remember to save other chickens from a similar fate.

  1. Your dogs may be loving companions and family members, but there are still thousands of years of instinctual learnings that may make them do things you never thought possible.
  2. Chickens have pretty much no way of defending themselves from a dog, unless they can quickly get to a high enough perch.  
  3. As a human with a cerebrum, it is your job to think, plan, and perceive the dangers in a situation and protect any animal in your care.

Now, if we are visiting the chickens, which we do at least every evening after work to say hi and give them treats, we make sure the dogs are inside the house.

Cactus also rebuilt the gate entirely so it is much easier to lock and unlock. He did a really great job and was very upset that this happened at all.  Trust me, I was not shy about pointing out that this was his fault.

Farm Charm Gate to the Chicken Coop and Chicken Yard
This is the gate to the chicken coop and yard that Cactus re-built so it now goes completely to the ground and is easier to lock.
Farm Charm Chicken Yard Gate Lock
The new and improved gate lock leading to the chicken yard

I share this to save anyone else from the same tragedy.  I feel like we failed these little creatures and hope they didn’t suffer too much.

Farm Charm Chicken Flock of Six