Tomatoes! Tomatoes!

Every spring we plant large # of plants thinking we will want all those tomatoes to "do stuff with" and every fall I think "We are Insane!!  Why did we plant so many tomatoes?!?!"   And this year is no exception lol.

This years weather was perfect for the tomatoes plants. They loved the hot humid weather and since we pretty much watered every day, this is a Bumper Crop for sure.  So far we have done a large batch of salsa. Tonight we are dicing the tomatoes to can, since I can see using them in lots of things and in about 2 weeks (maybe less) we will be doing tomato sauce. Now, while I'm making all this I'm think we are crazy, but all winter long and into the next summer when I just run to the basement and bring up a nice jar of homemade sauce I remember that it is all worth it. 

And I've been lucky enough to be married to a man that is my partner in this whole scheme of things. Not only does he do 90% of the gardening, but he is chopping with me, pulling hot jars out of the water, slicing & dicing and helping me do taste tests.  I highly recommend having a partner while canning.

The Heat!

The heat!! Goodness the weather is always the unknown when gardening. 3 years ago the spring came early but so did the fall. 2 years ago it was just a cold summer. Last year the spring was cold and wet! Barely saw the sun at all till mid-June and while the fall was nice, it came too soon.
Each year we've planted, something different is affected by the weather. Last year the biggest plant affected was the bell peppers we planted. They had enough sun to turn green but were about 20 days short of sunshine to turn orange and red.

This year the heat has killed the beans, the soup beans that is, yet the onions are growing like crazy and so are the tomatoes (though we've never had a problem with them and always have more then we need.) The cucumber plants aren't growing quite as good as they did last year (they liked the wet cool spring) and I'm not sure what the potatoes are doing under ground but the top sides don't look so good :-(

I have  LOT of respect for those way it was before grocery stores. If my zucchini plant doesn't give me one, I can just go to the store and buy one or order seeds for next year from someone else and not worry about harvesting my own seeds if the plants don't grow. Or even for those in many countries who live and die by what the weather does and how it affects their crops.

Bitter & Sweet



Our mouse chasing crew



It is Always a bit of a challenge to leave the city and come back to the farm, especially when returning from Minneapolis. We don't know Milwaukee enough to have that feel familiar when we visit, but Minneapolis feels like home in so many ways that it is hard to leave.

Each year we've been here it gets easier as we have friends here now (though those took a while to find) and our little farm is more and more home as we've done improvments all over the outside to make it "ours" (and so far the landlord doesn't mind). And of course this is the only house Trinity knows as home. 



Time to eat peas



It is a joy to watch her run outside with complete freedom to be a kid. She plays with the outside animals, has a very loyal dog that comes to her when she whistles and even when she doesn't, veggies she eats from the plant & fruit she can pick herself. Riding the lawn mower with daddy is a MUST in her mind.

I often looked at this place through her eyes whenever I question our move from all things wonderful and familiar to a land of strangness and vast expanses without buildings or good ethnic resturants...



OHHH And for those who Minneasotans that want to know.. YES! Trinity is growing up a Packer's fan. It is just unavoidable around here.. Sorry ;-)

So far this year...

Well I've put a reminder on my phone to enter something in here, so I should be able to be more consistent at entering info.

This summer has been fairly easy weather wise. Spring started early and plants that were already in the ground shot up without any hesitation. We plant organic seeds so the seeds from the veggies are able to be used the next year. One example of that was a snow pea plant that must have happened from a see falling last year from plant we had. This spring it was up to my knee before June. And now it is about 5'5" tall and we were picking snow peas off it early. Which gave me the idea to maybe plant them in the fall and see if we can recreate affect next year. Plant is bigger then the ones we started normally and because it bigger had more pods.

Ugh...

Where does the time go? Well it's been a year since we posted and since Daryl hasn't been in the mood as of late, I am going to take over instead of just putting my two-cents in.

It is spring again and this year we have a little better outlook on the future. Last year we were struggling financially while jobs here were scarce and usually paid as little as possible! THIS year, Daryl has a great new job that pays higher then we thought possible around here. We get Lots of yummy free cheese from his new job and a lot of burdens have been lifted off our shoulders.

SO! We have 50 baby chicks arriving next week. 25 meat birds and 25 egg layers After experimenting with a few other egg layer breeds, we have switched back to all Rhode Island Reds. Their temperament is amazing! They are great layers and they are the classic brown egg layers for a hobby farm.

So keep an eye out and you'll see pics soon of all the little balls of fluff!

I KNEW IT!!

I looked outside and guess what I saw?!?! 4 Red-Breasted Robins!!

SO it is official. It is SPRING!!

The Signs This year of Spring

So even though there is still an average of a foot of snow every where in our yard. There are Still some Sure signs that spring is actually here.

1. The sure smell that spring is here... .Skunk! Yep, the poor skunks are coming out of hibernation and in their sleepy hazy filled brains are not avoiding the cars. So we have on more then one occasion had the privilege of smelling skunk.

1A. The Smell of spring! There has been in the air that very distinguishable smell of spring. Hard to pin down but Anyone who has lived more then a couple years with winter turning into spring knows that smell. It can smell different depending on if you are in the city or country side, but it is there nonetheless.

2. The sounds of spring such birds chirping me awake. This is something that I actually don't mind being awaken by. And today I heard a crane! Yes a crane!! (I also saw one flying) SO That means they are back and spring is here!

There is also the Awesome sound of snow melting and water

3. The Sight of Spring!! I Saw a bald Eagle!! Yes a Bald Eagle and I saw it like 3 or 4 weeks ago. I expect to see a Red Breasted Robin hopping around Any Time Now lol

4. The Temperature of Spring! It is 50 degrees outside and in the spring that means shorts and sandals :D (In the fall that means sweat pants and layers)

Trinity will now go outside and spend 2 or 3 hours outside before she gets cold. I am thinking of sitting on the deck to drink my morning coffee... Yep, it getting warmer outside.

5. The taste of spring is Very similar to the smell of spring... you can't quite put your finger on it, but everything just tastes better. Of course it could be because we just happier in general.

6. And last but not least is the work of spring. We laid out some chicken manure on the lower garden. Stirred the compost pile and started our first seedlings! Cherry tomatoes first in the hopes that they will come first and we can enjoy them before the large tomatoes. Also started the peppers with the longest growing season. Daryl set up a Great lil "green house" in the basement. Basically he wrapped plastic on around a table with 2 lamps in the basement. It 4 sides and a roof. Plastic goes all the way to the floor. Heat pad under the seedlings to keep the roots warm and a small heater inside the plastic to help keep the humidity up. It perfect for small seedlings.

LONG winters

As the end of Jan draws near I realize that I am SICK of winter.... :(

The other day there was a tiny warm up.. the snow was melting a bit, there was sunshine & I heard that wonderful sound of melting snow! I look forward to the real melt & promise of spring. In the mean time...

Trinity still bundles up everyday to go out and play with the "Chicken Kittens" as we call them, Daisy & Iris. I have made an "executive" decision to name all our future cats a plant or flower name in honor of my cat Flower, who died here tragically on the farm our 1st spring. Pretty flower names for the girls and fun names like, Dandelion or Thistle for the boy kitties...

Daisy & Iris were free kittens that came from an “unwanted” litter. They were tiny lil cats and SO friendly. We put them in the back part of the chicken coop separated from the chickens. There was lots of space to explore, run around and this way the chickens could also get used to them without pecking their eyes out. Our rooster jumped high to watch these new invaders. After a day or two, he decided they were no threat to him nor his hens.

The kittens were allowed to go outside after about 4 days. They went into the yard we use in the spring time for the meat birds. After a few days it didn’t take long before the kittens found ways out of that yard. They were exploring their new world.

We locked them up in the coop every night to protect them from the wild tom cats that roam the area and would see the new kittens as a threat to their territory. We also let the kittens roam freely among the chickens when they were about 2 months old. Every once in a while you would hear a funny sort of “Bah Boock” from a hen as a kitten rubbed up against them.

They caught their first mouse while Trinity watched. She proudly brought it to the house to show us!! We explained that the next time she should just leave the mouse for the cats to eat and NOT pick it up. :D

Since they have arrived, they have been a source of great entertainment for Trinity. They have done their job. Caught mice & given us all laughs as they play in the snow. They like to chase us around when sledding and the greet any & all who come to our house. We were SO fortunate to get such Great tempered cats. Here is to a LONG healthy & happy life.


For now they are still sleeping in the coop at night and fed 2 times a day. Spring time will bring a lil change for them, less food from us & they will be allowed to roam at night. Oh.. and since they both girls, a spading is in their future...




Here are some more pics of our kittens ~ Enjoy

Butchering Time

First I would like to apologize for how long it has taken to get another post up. I am officially taking over so it shouldn't be so long between posts.

This post is about butchering egglayers. The 2 other times we butchered chickens, they were meat birds. They were younger, bigger and tender. These were about a year old Rhode Island Reds. We gave them a good life, feed them good food and Trinity gave them lots of love.

This time we had some help from 3 friends. There were only 11 birds to do. Next spring we will be ordering 24 meat bird and hopefully have more friends help. The hardest part is the plucking! But ironically the feathers on these birds came off rather easy so that helped the process along.

Of the 5 of us doing the work, 3 of us were amazed at the whole biology of the bird. We took apart the gizzard, liver and anything else that took our fancy. One of the things I found facinating was the development of the eggs. I guess it makes sense, but I never thought about it before, but the egg is created yolk first in a tiny lil orange dot that grows large, then is surrounded with the egg white. Lastly the egg shell is developed over it all. We found that each chicken had varying stages of egg development from the tiny bit of orange to an almost fully completed egg.

2 members of our party thought we were crazy and just wanted to get the job done!! After all was said and done, everyone went home with chicken meat. We found that the meat, though flavorful, it was a lil tough to eat baked. In chicken soup though, it is Very yummy!

Thanks to Aaron, Kristopher & Holly for helping us! Here are the pics from that day.

Holly is taking pics... She wasn't too sure about helping with the gross part.

I am showing Aaron the gizzard and Kristopher and I couldn't help but poke at the egg yolk we found.

I am instructing Aaron & Kristopher on how to butcher... Not sure what I'm pointing out here. The ironic thing is, all I know is what I figured out the first 2 times we did this. I really have NO idea what I'm doing and think I need to find a class on how to butcher.

Here are the different stages of egg...

Proof that Holly actually Touched a dead bird! Arron & Daryl are getting down to the last part.

"There comes a point in the spring when winter is finally over and one can dream of things to come. Making plans for the garden, ordering seeds, the spring air is refreshing, birds are singing announcing to all who will listen that there are good things to come, warmer weather, spring rains & flower blossoms. Here the often caprices and unpredictable Mother Nature has sworn an oath to thoughtless alliance with those who are best able to serve her. They apply themselves year after year, to extract the perfection from the potential which she provides.” ~
Haut-Brion The Film

This means having the patience and wisdom to wait when others are planting, tilling & fertilizing. Knowing when is the right time for you and your land. Even more important is being ready to act when the time is right.

The warmer weather in early April brought a relief and a opportunity to get some soil prep work done much earlier than last year. We have started our seedlings at this time and have had some good results so far. Mostly tomatoes and peppers as seedlings but I’ve already planted some peas and potato. They went into the ground after lots of amending to the soil.

I’ve tilled the ground after the frost was over. Then added manure and tilled again. Added compost and tilled again. And just to make sure I’ve tilled the gardens about a dozen times. We get our manure from a great farm that uses the manure to fuel their methane powered farm. The manure is cooked at such a high degree that virtually all the weed seeds are destroyed.

The plan for this year is not much different than last year. To put it simply, the idea is to grow organically & healthy food and preserve as much food as possible by either freezing or canning. Oh and this year we plan on installing a windmill for “homemade” electric energy.

This year we will be more prepared for the apple & pear harvest. (At least that is our hope) We plan on making apple cider in addition to apple/pear sauce, jams & jelly's, pies and anything else my lovely wife comes up with.