Walking with Goats and Sheep

Our friends were up for just a couple of days. It was a quick but wonderful visit! While they were here, my Valley friend offered to take us on a walk thru the woods with her goats and sheep....

How cute is this???? Dulca giving Jen a kiss....

Then, a walk thru her barns....


Brand new babies as seen thru the horns of Mama....

These goats stayed at home of course while the others went walking....

Gorgeous colours on a rooster

My friend sheared a couple of her sheep. They had so many burrs and thistle things in them, she will not bother to clean the wool....

Finished off the afternoon with a little shooting...the Gman gave Jen the safety lessons on handling guns. Then they set up targets and got started!

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The Garden Plan

Here's the porch side table late this afternoon....all the necessities.

My garden notebook....I make note of each of the rows as soon as I'm done. I take this out into the garden itself....I've noted on each of the garden stakes how many rows of each I have....

The paper sticking out of the top corner is the diagram of the Animal Garden and the Barn Garden....I think if you click on it, you can read it if you like.....

(Got my beer there too, it's a hot afternoon)

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Tomatoes and Zuccini

The tomatoes are doing well. They are still sitting in their tall pots, waiting to be planted in the small greenhouse. I'll put them in next week, each day I wait, the better developed the roots will be in those deep pots.

Plus, I have about a million other things to do, and the maters have not made it to the top of the list....yet!

Here's the zuccini. They are sitting in the living room under the windows. They look great! As soon as I can free up more greenhouse room, they'll get moved out there for a few days before I transplant them into the main veggie garden.

Also still in the house - dill, basil, a couple little tomatoes, a pepper, 3 pumpkin and 1 or 2 butternut squash.

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Planting Corn

Well, I've succumbed to my obsession with trying to grow corn here.....

It can't be grown very successfully where we are....the nights are too cool. We often have temperature ranges of 30 C or more during the 24 hour day.

I decided to plant them in the greenhouse - that should work a lot better than putting them in the garden.

I started some corn seedlings down in the seedling room.

They got moved several days ago out to the greenhouse, where they sat in my black wheelbarrow to help soak up some more heat.

Jen watered for me while she was here, and she also added more soil to each of the pots of corn.

So, earlier I went out and got the Gman to dump some composted manure into the little JD trailer....and I putted up to the greenhouse with it. Added the whole trailerfull to the bed the corn will go into.

Then, I started planting. Set the plants 10 inches apart and managed to get a block of 3 rows in there. Corn does much better when planted in a block, rather in rows, as it gets pollinated much easier.

Here's the roots, they look pretty good.

The Gman got a pic of me doing the planting....

Now, we water very well, cross our fingers and hope they grow well enuf to produce ears. One per plant would be acceptable, 2 per plant would put me over the moon....

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Planting Cabbages, Broccoli and Cauliflower

Here's what I did today....

Cabbage, planted 5 rows. Dug once with the shovel, threw in a nice shovel full of composted manure....planted them maybe 14 inches apart....

The plants, still in their cups, waiting for their turn to be planted in the soil

The Main reason I use these cups....fantastic roots. The tapered shape of the cup helps when getting the transplant out. Just hold upside down with fingers separated around the main stem. Tap it...it'll fall out. Plant...immediately. Then water...immediately.

I did the same with both the broccoli and cauliflower. I did plant these a bit closer together, maybe 11 inches apart.

I have a bit more room in the lower bed, and am running out of the transplants. So, I'll think of something else I can throw in their by tossing seeds....

After I finished, da Wolf hopped in the back of the truck and we went off to a nearby lake. The Gman threw a line in, the dog waded around, it was beautiful out there! So peaceful and quiet....

I'll go down soon and water those transplants again. The sprinkler will also get put on in the morning. They should be fine. They are basically cool weather plants, but today was quite warm, so I want to make sure they get lots of water and get off to a good start!

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I Never Thought I Would be a Birder

Really, I Never thought I would be One. I mean, a Wild Birder. Others, however, thought differently...let me explain.

I try to Not mess up the natural order of things....when it comes to wildlife I have always thought it best to leave it alone....let it do what happens naturally.

I'd never had a birdfeeder. Actually, I don't really believe in them. Lest you think badly of me (and feel badly for those poor birds) I kinda think that....If you hang out that syrup stuff for the hummingbirds, all that really does is teach the birds that You have the good stuff....and in turn, they'll teach their littles ones that Yes Indeed, You do have the good stuff.

But then.... a friend got into making these....bird feeding condos. He gave us one and we hung it up in the trees....put suet in there....sat and watched the birdies....

Then, the Nman and Kgal gave us this for Christmas....so we hung it up and now we can watching the birdies....

Then another friend gave us this....so we hung it up and now I sit on the porch trying to stay out of the way of Kamikaze Hummingbirds who are fighting to be the TopBird at the feeder....

I guess I'm a Birder now....

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Strawberries...and Animals

These are the Mother Strawberries....they should do really well this year!!! No flowers yet tho....

We picked up a mini tote of feed for the meat birds....this is how the Gman has it rigged up to hang in the breezeway of the barn (to discourage mice)....

Our girls working

Pretty, isn't she? And it's so green everywhere, I love Spring!!!

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In The Greenhouse

These were taken a few days ago. Some of what you see sitting in the greenhouse here likely isn't there anymore!

But the tomatoes are settling in very nicely! They are still all in pots...some of the little bitty ones haven't even been transplanted out of the styrofoam cups yet....

Cabbages (now in the garden). They did great as seedlings...tough...

Some Siberian tomatoes I started for a friend. Gotta deliver those in the next day or two, as I'll need the shelf space...

Sunflowers sprouting up....

I made 2 flower baskets up, altho the main flower in each one has bit the dust already.

It got too hot in the greenhouse for it, I didn't uncover the Remay cloth early enough in the day. Also lost a couple of small tomato plants :(

Baskets have allysum, verbena, sweet potato vine, and heliotrope in them....

The yard where the Gman finished levelling it out....it looks much better! We want to put some pasture seed down and water it well....

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Planting Onions

I have no time to post, literally, the days keep passing us by. We're really busy and I'm taking the pictures, but don't seem to be able to find the time to put up posts on the blog.

I've got abit of time now, so I'm going to try to get caught up....

I got the onions planted....

ran my string line, dug a little furrow and threw in a good whack of composted manure. Beautiful stuff, let it sit for a year, fantastic for your soil and veggies.

Planted the sets pointy end up, about 7 - 8 inches apart. I got 4 rows planted, and put the rows fairly close together...how much room does an onion need after all?

Meanwhile, the Gman brought his machine up into the yard and finally moved all those ugly rocks for me....and since we had some pretty good ruts in the yard, he used that big mound of soil that was in the yard to do some levelling.

He even made a thing he could pull behind the quad...it's made out of a big thick steel rail, and he used it to level the soil. It worked great!

Oh....and a pic of one of the two beauties who are in the field next door right now....

She's staring at the piggys running.

It's so wonderful to see horses running over there again!

The next day, I got the upper right portion of the Main garden planted. Using my Vesey seeder, it was really easy and fast! I think most of my time was spent filling and emptying the hopper...the actual row planting is really quick!

I planted 6 rows of carrots, 3 rows of turnip, 4 rows of beets, 5 rows of spinach and 6 rows of chard.

Soooo....another big portion of the gardens planted!

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Putting the Pigs on Pasture

The other day, the Gman pounded in a bunch of Tposts in the close pasture. Then he ran two strands of electric fence and let the pigs in there....

Here's their new backyard! Not sure if you can see the white electric running....

We're hoping they will eat those willow roots, and drop the willows for us! You never know....and pigs like to keep busy.

They'll do lots of rooting and digging in here. When I took these pics, the pigs were pretty muddy....and Happy!!!

Da Wolf had a good time walking around the pasture....watching the piggies.

Muddy piggies.....

Look how cute this little guy is!!!

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