Weekly Recap

Maybe if I make an effort to recap our week, I can get back into the habit of blogging.

There's always (always) weeding to be done.  And lest you think our property is perfect and we've got it all together, behold just one rock...  The kids decided to decorate the top with pulled weeds, but there are still plenty more to tackle.  We have come a long way, but, please, don't be too impressed.  I don't take many pictures of our messes.

What's sprouting?  Radishes and summer squash are sprouted.  Strawberries and cherries are forming.  The garlic is now waist high.  I didn't even know garlic could grow so tall!  I certainly hope this means we'll have splendidly large bulbs in a few months.  The rhubarb is finally looking healthy, although watering it regularly remains a challenge.

What are we planting?  Tomatoes are two rows down, a million to go.  (Not literally.  There are still eight flats sitting on the deck awaiting my attention.)  I've also planted herbs and flowers.  The basil seeds are high on my list for some soil and water.

What are we harvesting?  Asparagus and eggs are keeping us hopping.  We're trying new laying boxes to foil our egg eaters.  Thus far, I'm disappointed in the lousy boxes, but our efforts are to make them work.  Our two sheep are at the butcher, so I've cleaned out two of our deep freezes while they're empty.  Soon enough, with sheep and chicken, we'll be full again!

What about those chickens?  The layers are now moving to fresh grass each evening, meaning the yolks are during the delicious, deep, orangey-gold that no store egg can match.  The layers-to-be remain in our stationary pen until James has time to build a new tractor for them (and who has time in the spring?!).  Our meat chicks are busy growing too, and while on grass, don't get moved every day (yet) until they can tolerate less heat.

 We are moving along with the business of living and growing!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Spring

We are ever threatened with tornadoes and high winds, but this has been a spring mainly devoid of such excitement.  Despite 2"+ of rain, the ground is still thirsty.

The parade of the chicken tractors has begun, with the layers being moved once a day.  They are so thrilled to see new grass that they will avoid their feed until the grass is cropped.  This is, of course, what we want, and we look forward to the deep gold/orange yolks of our well-pastured eggs.

Meat chicks (114) arrived Monday and are safely installed in their tractor.  Once the weather warms up and the chicks get bigger, we'll divide them into two coops.  For now, they are easier to warm in one coop.  We've lost several to "pre-existing" conditions, but if last year was a good teacher, we should be done with those losses soon.  With our order arrived one exotic breed chick, almost certainly a male.  I think he was a crevecoeur, a created breed.  The deck was stacked against his survival, being half the size of meat chicks and with curled toes that made his balance terrible.  We tried to create a boot for his toes and sequestered him inside, but he wouldn't eat and I think he was too frightened too survive.  That, my friends, is the difficult part of raising animals.

Our asparagus is fat and delicious.  We've been enjoying an okay harvest, eating it every few days, and clearly need to fertilize and stay on top of the weeds better this year.  Roasted with salt is the way to go!

Our new business cards arrived, and I'm excited to quit saying, "We haven't ordered any yet!"

Planting and weeding are, for once, not tasks sorely neglected.  Having the watering system in place has greatly facilitiated by planting in a timely manner.  I'm also trying to plant some of the many flower seed packets we've accumulated but never used!

Enough for tonight, as we are anticipating bad weather and I should sleep while I can!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Time moves so fast when it is full!  Planting, children, school, the house, life...

James had a team of volunteers over to catch up on our perennial weeding.  In exchanged for their labor, we'll be donating $5 to the Lord's Diner for every man hour they contributed.  They tackled our garlic, strawberries, and asparagus beds before breaking for a home cooked meal (including asparagus, chicken, and goat raised by us).  They also laid out our entire watering system for the main garden and moved some serious mulch.

Rain and lightning called a definitive end to the evening, but not before food, fun, fellowship, and prayer filled us all.

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Onions, onions, onions...

We'v been dodging wind and lightning in an effort to get our onions planted.  So far, we've planted 6 bunches of Texas Super Sweet  in our north bed, 4 bunches of "not-Vidalia" and 9 bunches of Texas Super Sweet Red in our south bed.  Planting was interrupted by lightning and driving rain, so today is another effort to plant the approximately 1800 onions.

Zana and I planted 14 bunches of Red Candy and 5 bunches of Candy onions.  I was impressed in her diligence, since planting onions is pretty repetitive.

Now we need rain!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Spring Time

50 pounds of potatoes in the ground by March 17.  In the south bed, 15 pounds of Red Norland and 10 of Dakota Pearl.  In the north bed, 25 pounds of Yukon Gold.  It took us about two hours, but we added mulch to the rows to keep down weeds.  Let's see how this year goes!

Horseradish is peeking out.

 The first daffodils are already a few days old.

and the cherry bushes are blooming.  Of course, we will probably have a late freeze (or even a regular one!) and kill any cherries, but these surely are beautiful.

Even a few crocus flowers are here and there.

I'm trying a new location for seedlings this year, and they sprouted in less than three days.  I think that means I finally found a good location!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise.  It's Purgatory Ranch.

Meat Coop Progress

Chick Season!

Please forgive the sporadic pictures.  Jimmy helped with picture taking, so we have a little bit of everything.

Soup is a hot broody mess each February, apparently.  Last year, she successfully hatched out Chicken Little.

 This year, we ordered an incubator, had Soup in a much chick-friendlier location, and got busy on our dreams of hatching our own flock.

 All seven of our eggs inside successfully pipped and hatched out.

 They were successfully incorporated into Soup's own brood of seven of eight eggs hatched.

Sadly, this morning, I discovered one of Soup's chicks had fallen (been ejected?) from the nest and died.  Still, we stand at 14 chicks.

Now to see how many are roosters.