Why You Set it Aside in the Summer

In springtime, the grass will slowly grow, filling the pastures so that happy cows, goats, and chickens can roam about and pluck the tender green growth, converting that grass to milk and meat.  During times of plenty, we've learned to look toward lean times and prepare.  I'm talking about hay.  While grass is abundant in the spring and summer, it's not that way at all in winter.  Oh there are winter grasses that grow, but as fast as they come up, they are nibbled down.

In the hot days of summer, we do several things to prepare.  First, we fill our barn's loft with square bales of good bermuda hay.  We purchase that from a neighbor down the road.  Each day we throw some of that into a wagon and the animals eat it up.  I pick up what they miss and fill the nesting boxes in the hen house with hay.  We also line up round bales that we purchase from another farmer.  Over the winter, he'll deliver a couple of loads of round bales.  He delivered 10 round bales and our inventory is down to three bales now after we rolled this one out.

It's funny, the cows have a trained ear.  As soon as I unchain the gate from the post, they hear the chain hitting the gate and they come running!  They circle the bale and eat to their heart's content.  On sunny days, they'll be out in the pasture sitting down or trying to find a sprig of grass that the goats haven't found yet.

On colder days when it is drizzling and the wind is blowing, they'll be huddled around the round bale eating hay and then chewing cud later.  We watch them closely.  Although they haven't been palpated, we are thinking that they are all bred and want to ensure that they have proper nutrition for themselves and the calves that are developing within them.

It is crucial to put stuff up for a rainy day.  It's almost as if the cows in the photo above (Elsie, LuLu, and Rosie), are thanking us for stockpiling provisions for them to eat in the winter when there's not much grass to speak of .

Spring's 'A Comin'

Yes, it's still a little cold out there, and rainy.  The weatherman shows temps in the 30's later this week.  Too early to be thinking about the spring garden?  I don't think so!  In fact, I went by our local feed store last week and picked up 10 pounds of La Soda potatoes for seed.  Tricia had put in our order and they saved them for us.  We ask them to hold some back as they usually go quickly once they come in.

I talked to a neighbor at the feed store who was walking out with his box of potatoes as I was walking in to get mine.  We joked that all we need now is some dry weather.  If we'd put them in the ground now, they would rot with all the rain we've been getting.

After getting home, we lit a fire in the fireplace and kicked our feet up.

But we couldn't just rest.  No sir, there's work to be done.  We have 10 pounds of seed potatoes to cut.

While sitting in front of a roaring fire on a cold, rainy day.  I cut up the potatoes, trying my best to cut each one into chunks with an eye in each piece.  Each one of those will grow it's own plant and make numerous potatoes.  

Once they were all cut up, I spread them out and put them on the top shelf in our closet.  It's the warmest place I could think of.  Up there, they'll scab over and hopefully each eye will begin to grow.  In about ten days, if the weather cooperates, I'll plant them in the garden ground.  One thing I've learned is that the very best gardens are those you dream up on cold, dreary days.  Whether the garden comes to fruition or not is another story...

Feeding Plan for the Winter

With the bull back at his home, our hay inventory might last a bit longer.  That dude was big and could put down some hay.  Our three cows and herd of goats could go through a round bale in about a week.  With Nick, the bull, added to the animal family, the bale was gone in about 4 days!  In the past month, we've had some light frosts that effectively ended any new growth of grass in the pasture.  The cows and goats have methodically gone over the pasture, cleaning up little tufts of grass still remaining along the fence lines.  There's really not much left.

We rolled out the last of our round bales that were left over from last year and the cows knocked that out in no time.  I called for some more bales and the Monday after Thanksgiving, the gentleman who sells us hay showed up at the house with 10 round bales on the back of his trailer for $40 per bale, delivered.  I think that is very reasonable.  It is clean hay, stored in a barn.  We rolled it off of his trailer and then I covered it up with a tarp to keep it out of the rain.  The cows saw this process unfolding and ran, bellowing, to the gate.

The best I can figure, we have about 10 weeks of hay inventory on hand before we re-order.  Warm weather extends things a bit.  Cows can handle the cold and they can handle rain, but both cold and rain together is not a good combination.  They need the calories to keep them warm.  We've had weather approaching the 80's for the past couple of days.  The cows aren't even around the hay much.  They are sitting out in the pasture chewing their cud.

We do have the 75 bales of good Jiggs bermuda square bales up in the loft.  We haven't even touched that yet.  We generally ration that and feed a half a bale a day of this in addition to the round bale as it gets colder.  We also feed them some sweet feed and salt.

For the goats (and cows to a smaller extent), I jumped over the south fence two days ago with a machete and went to work on the privet and other weeds, tossing it over the fence for them to eat.  They absolutely love eating on this browse and the chickens gather around as bugs and worms are always on the stuff I throw over.  I'll do that from time to time throughout the winter and it serves a double purpose.  It gives them something to eat AND it cleans up a buffer zone between our property and the woods.  I'm guessing that may discourage some varmints from visiting as they have to pass through a cleaned out area to get to our pasture and that exposes them to hawks and other predators.

We keep a close eye on the animals' conditioning during the winter months.  Sometimes I'll get the lead rope and get them out of the pasture to eat on winter grasses in the surrounding ditches and fence rows.  Which reminds me, I need to quickly plant a big plot of turnips.  The cows LOVE to eat big, fat turnips and turnip greens in February and March.

It's a Winter Wonderland!

It was 16 degrees this morning!  Goodness gracious.  It was nice to have you join me yesterday morning.  If you're not otherwise occupied, come along today as well.  We'll go exploring and sightseeing.  It's like a whole new world out there.  As we walk through the garden path to the barn, Ol' Rosie is waiting on us. She wants some hay.  The round bale in the hay ring is frozen solid.  I'm glad I put the tarp on the two round bales I have remaining.  We'll roll another out this weekend.  Oh, check out the icicles hanging from the barn roof!

I'll climb up into the hayloft and toss three bales down to you.  By my count, we have 33 bales left.  I estimate we'll make it until the spring grass starts coming in with that.  I will, however, have to get another 8 round bales of hay from my hay provider.  To me, hay reminds me of the "Ant and the Grasshopper" fable.  During the summer, it is blazing hot.  There are other things to be doing than gathering hay and loading it up into the loft.  Besides, there's plenty of grass for the animals to eat.  Why not kick back, stay cool, and enjoy yourself and leave the hard work for later?

Well, because winter months are coming.  In a few months, there will be no grass.  The weather will be frigid and nasty, and the animals will be hungry.  The cows and goats are hoping that you were an "Ant" and not a "grasshopper" back in the summer.  Fortunately, we were ants.  Your welcome, cows & goats.

The icicles hanging precariously from the hen house are quite a sight to see.  They sparkle in the morning sun.  They seem sharp as a ten penny nail.  

I call this guy the "Regal Rooster."  He was given to us by a friend who purchased a few hens from Tractor Supply.  These "hens" were to provide their family eggs in town.  The "hens" grew and matured.  However, this one "hen" began to crow.  That is a big no-no in town, and thus, we inherited a fine rooster.  This is not a hen identifying as a rooster.  She is not gender confused.  This is a bona-fide rooster.  A man.  The cock of the walk.  In fact, he has challenged one of our other existing roosters for dominance and the pecking order has now changed.  This is the new king.  It's good to be the king.  He struts around and exudes his superiority over the others.  He proudly poses in front of the woodpile in the snow.  I think he knows that I will let you all know that he a a bad dude.  I should probably let him know to enjoy it while it lasts.  As is always the case, there is always someone out there somewhere bigger and badder.  

Belle is mighty camouflaged in the snow.  She runs and slides and has the best time!  The cold doesn't bother her in the least bit.  She was born for this.  Her coat is thick and furry.  She chases the many birds that come to eat the hen scratch that we toss to the chickens.  Belle is a good dog.  We think she is coming into her own now and understands that the chickens, the cows, and the goats are her charge.  They are for her to guard and take care of.  She is starting to take that responsibility seriously (whereas she once ATE the chickens.)

Speaking of birds, here is a fat robin sitting on the fence.  Can you see him?  Randy Travis sang a song called "Deeper than the Holler."  A verse in there says, "... Honest as a robin on a springtime windowsill, and longer than the song of a whippoorwill."  I like that song.  I can't say I've ever given much thought, though, about whether a robin is honest or deceitful.  This robin is on an extension of fence I put up so our nosy goats don't eat the vegetables in the garden.  It's not springtime, Mr. Robin, but it'll be here before you know it!

When I came back inside Tricia said, "Come look out the kitchen window!"  There was a male Cardinal (red bird) and his wife in the shrubs.  Look below.  I know you can see the male.  His brilliant red color contrasts strongly against the white snow.  The female is harder to see.  Can you find her?  God's infinite wisdom designed her that way.  The male is intended to be flashy, showy, a distraction.  While the female is camouflaged so that she can sit on the nest, hidden and raise her babies in obscurity and safety.  These two are no doubt scoping out home locations for the nest they'll be building this spring.  They are optimistic that mortgage rates are at all time lows and there are incentives for first-time home buyers.  Their McMansion awaits... 

While there is great hope and expectation with some, the day brings great sadness and despair.  A gecko that has made his home outside our side door, eating mosquitoes that fly to the window has succumbed to the frigid temperatures.  He has assumed room temperature.  Unfortunately, the room is 16 degrees.  Not a good temp for a cold-blooded creature.

Let's leave on a good note, why don't we.  I walked out to check the mail and as I walk back, Old Glory still flies.  There is a stiff north wind, and it is cold and gloomy, but she flies on.

God Bless the USA!  Thanks for joining me again.  There's always something interesting to see.  Nice to share it with you.

Preparing for the Cold Weather

 “Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.” 

                       Job 37:9

I believe with my whole heart that the Bible is inerrant, factual, and inspired by God.  I found a tidbit of truth this morning I put above.  Isn't that true?  In the last six months, we've had TWO whirlwinds (Hurricanes Laura and Delta) from out of the south and now we have icy cold coming out of the north.  Being southerners, we're prepared for hurricanes.  Winter ice storms?  Not so much.

We started preparing the best we know how, wrapping pipes, putting animals in the barn, installing heat lamps for the chickens, bringing potted plants indoors, and piling lots of firewood on the back patio.  This is one benefit I can think of of the hurricanes.  We now have more firewood than we can shake a stick at.  We'll burn it!

The next thing we began to do is harvesting the remainder of the oranges off of the navel orange tree.  Once we finished, we had about two 5 gallon buckets full.  We'll bring it inside and either eat it or make fresh squeezed orange juice.

One thing that concerns me is what the photo shows below.  Our orange trees were just about to bloom.  Temperatures could be down close to ten degrees.  We are not only worried about losing the blooms and thus, fruit for next year, but we're concerned about losing the trees!

We also picked the last grapefruit off the tree.  Our tree is young and only made 3 grapefruit this year.  We were rationing them and this is the last one.  We'll enjoy it, for sure.

Here are the blueberry bushes.  You'll notice the blooms are about to open on them.  Hmmm...  I pray we still have blueberries this spring!

Another good thing about hurricanes is that we have tarps.  Lots of blue tarps!!  I stretched them out over the plants (carrots, beets, brussel sprouts, spinach, lettuce, kale, kohlrabi, chard).  It may not save them, but it's the best we could do.

On this side, I covered the cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and onions.

Looking back toward the front of the garden, you can get an idea of just how much of the garden we were able to cover.  I hope it saves the vegetables.

After thinking about it, I made another last ditch effort to save some fruit trees by piling mulch deeply around the base of the plants.  I also put a couple of trash cans over the limbs of the grapefruit tree.

It will likely stay frozen from Sunday night through Wednesday.  Precipitation (sleet, ice, snow) is forecast for early this morning.  We rarely have weather as cold as this for this long.  We'll report back how we fared.  On the bright side, I DON'T HAVE TO DRIVE IN TO WORK TOMORROW!

Cold Weather Coming

 

My oh my!  I'm looking at the weather report now.  It shows freezing temperatures moving into our area on Saturday and Sunday.  The current forecast shows that on Monday, the low will be 16 degrees and the high will be 32.  That may seem warm and balmy to some, but for us in South Louisiana, that is doggone cold!

We've been picking plenty of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, sugar snap peas, kale, lettuce, Swiss Chard, mustard, spinach, turnips, and brussel sprout greens.  We harvested some of our first beets and carrots.  The cole crops are usually pretty hardy in cold weather, but the weather coming is REALLY cold.  It may result in disaster for our winter garden.  We'll try our best to prepare for it! 

The Winter Coat

I have a big Columbia camouflage coat that I wear when it gets cold.  It got down to 26 degrees the other day and I broke it out of the coat closet a lot earlier than I usually do.  It did the trick of keeping me nice and warm.  Oftentimes, I'm concerned about the animals when the cold weather kicks in, but mostly when it is cold AND wet.  I've always heard, animals can handle the cold and they can handle wet weather, but being cold and wet is a hard hill for them to climb.

Fortunately, God has created a mechanism in cattle that helps them out during winter.  They don't have to go to a coat closet - they GROW their coats.  They are all registered Jersey cows, and they don't do well in the summer.  In the summer, their coats are slick - not much hair at all.  However, when fall rolls around, their hair really starts growing.  Here is Clarabull.  You can tell he's a little "fuzzy." 

Luna doesn't grow a thick coat.  Clarabelle's coat comes in a little thicker.  Rosie is the cow that really puts a thick winter parka on!  Saturday morning after milking, I walked her out of the barn and was admiring the coat she was wearing.

Yeah, I'm talkin' about you, Rosie.  She always cocks one ear up and looks at us with that goofy look.  Rosie is the cow that likes to lay in the mud like a pig all summer to stay cool.   Now in the winter, she grows a big furry coat to keep herself comfortable.

I took a close-up of 'ol Rosie's belly so you can see just how thick her hair grows around this time every year.  When we are milking her in the barn, we're freezing cold, but it doesn't bother her at all.  You can feel how warm she is.

She grows a lot of hair on her udder, too, though, and sometimes we'll get out the clippers and shave her udder as long hair on her udder can get in the way when you are trying to milk her.  The long hair they grow helps them to stay warm during the winter, but come summertime, they'll shed the winter coat they worked so hard to grow.  It's a neat cycle that God orchestrated.

Harvested a Few Things This Weekend

If the ground was dry it would be the perfect time to work up some ground with my hoe and plant some beans and corn.  However, there's more freezing weather coming and the rains keep falling.  That's okay.  We'll be patient and wait.  There's still plenty of things to do in the garden while we wait.  We can do a little harvesting.  While some of the carrots still have some growing to do, some are the PERFECT size.  In the wet soil, it's easy to tell which carrots are ready.  You simply run your fingers around the top of the carrot root to see if they are mature and ready to pull. 

Here is a nice cosmic purple carrot.  I don't know if the size and symmetry could be more perfect.  Cosmic Purple carrots are strange looking, but when you slice them open, they are orange just like a normal carrot.  They taste like a normal carrot, too. 

While the cosmic purple carrot may be the show off on the carrot row, the plain-jane, boring carrot on the row is the simple, white carrot.  It isn't a parsnip.  It is just a white carrot.  The cosmic purple carrot sports a flashy purple jacket, but inside it is orange just like any other carrot.  The white carrot is solid white through and through.  It may just be my mind playing tricks on me wanting something to be special about the boring white carrot, but I think it tastes sweeter than the purple or orange carrots.

You may recall that a very wet fall spelled doom for my cole crops.  The overwhelming majority of my cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli crop that I had nurtured from seedlings succumbed to a watery grave.  I enjoy growing things from seeds, but I wasn't going to let disaster keep me from enjoying eating the bounty from the winter garden.  There's always a "Plan B."  The local hardware store had seedlings for me to buy and plant.  The broccoli and cauliflower have all been eaten and now the cabbage are coming in.  Big, nice heads of cabbage there for the pickin'.

I picked out the biggest one to pick and we'll leave the others to continue to grow.  We love to eat cabbage - just cooking it down in a cast iron skillet, making a simple cole slaw, or chopping it up and making homemade egg rolls...  We may even make sauer kraut again this year.

Of course we always share the bottom leaves with the cows.  They LOVE cabbage!

That's how the cow ate the cabbage!

It's the best of both worlds.  Colorful and delicious!

With Rosie and her little bull calf (Aussie) looking on, I moved to the sugar snap peas.  These are growing on a trellis and they are now over eight feet tall and still growing.  I don't know how I'm going to reach the peas on the top.  The weight of the peas coupled with high winds we had a couple of weeks ago caused some of the tendrils to break free from the trellis, but they are mostly still attached and growing.

The blooms are abundant...

And each day new pods fill out and develop.  We're picking every third day...

They taste so good and sweet.  Many times I just stand by the trellis and eat them right off the vine.

The pods are crisp, but tender and sweet.  I like to pop them open sometimes and admire the perfection of a pod of peas before popping them in my mouth.

Tricia was making a pan of homemade corn bread, so I picked a mess of mustard greens.  Cornbread is mustard green's best companion.  This will be the end of the mustard greens.  tThey are not young and tender anymore and have a stronger taste than earlier in the season, but I'll enjoy them this one last time.

That's enough for the day's harvest.  Perhaps next weekend it will dry up enough to begin planting the spring garden.  garde

A Few Things to Knock Out in the Garden

The short days of winter mean that by the time I get home, it's dark.  Due to darkness, there's not really anything to do until the weekends because you can't see anything.  When weekends come, there's a lot of catching up to do.  This past weekend I had a big on-going project that I've been working on for years now.  Each year a good family friend rakes up her yard and gives us roughly 20 BIG garbage bags full of leaves.  Instead of taking them to the dump, I take them to the garden.

Each year I dig trenches about a foot and a half deep in the garden and pour the leaves into the trench.  I stomp the leaves down into the bottom of the trench, throw some cow manure in the trench so that the bacteria begins to decompose the leaves, and then I pour more leaves into the hole.  Finally, I cover the leaf filled trench with soil.  A couple of things happen here:  First the organic matter loosens the soil, adding fertility and a habitat for earthworms.  You ought to see the earthworms in the areas that I filled with last year's leaves!  Adding the leaves and manure and covering with soil raises the level of the garden, leaving it high and dry when it rains.  The buried leaves act as a storehouse for moisture during drought, giving the plants sustenance during dry times.

My next area of work was one I am not crazy about doing- WEEDING!  The winter weeds and grasses will take over the garden very quickly, especially if I can only work the garden on weekends.  One must remain vigilant to stay on top of things.  In the photo below you can see a few carrot plants on rows dominated by weeds.  Time to get busy!

Weeding is a tedious job.  Due to the close proximity of the weeds next to the plants, it is a task that is done by hand.  You have to be real careful not to uproot vegetable seedlings.  In the photo above, the carrots are almost completely hidden by the leaves.  In the photo below, the weeds have been removed, leaving only the carrot seedlings.

Now that we've removed the grasses, the seedling has no competition for soil nutrients and water.  The plant is also able to let the sun's rays reach it, which results in faster growth.

While pulling weeds, I happened across some seedlings growing in the garden that were NOT weeds.  There were seven nice tomato seedlings that came up volunteer ~ perhaps from compost?  Anyway, I dug them up and potted them. 

All of the tomato plants are very healthy.  I will attempt to keep them alive during the winter months and then transplant in the garden once it warms up.

I normally plant my tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings on January 1st and then transplant in the spring.  Finding these plants was a great gift.  If I can successfully get these plants through the winter, I'll have a great head start and hopefully, early tomatoes.

Getting the Gardening "Itch"

Last week had conditions that were below freezing for a week long.  It was gloomy, grey, cold and wet outside.  We kept our fireplace roaring and stayed in front of it.  This time of not being able to do anything outside coincided perfectly with the time of the year that the mailbox begins to fill with seed catalogs.  I love looking through seed catalogs!  Even when it is too cold and rainy outside to do anything, you can dream about this Spring's garden.

I heard a quote I liked once that said something to the effect of "No garden is as good as the one that you are going to plant NEXT YEAR!"  If you think about it, it is true.  The garden in our mind has 100% germination, perfect spacing between plants, healthy, green, lush growth, weed-free rows, ample walkways and no insect pressure or disease.  The garden in reality doesn't quite measure up to the one that we spend the off season thinking about!  But it doesn't stop me from dreaming about it.

So as I sat in front of the fireplace dreaming about the spring garden, I figured that there were actually some garden tasks that I could get done right where I was seated.  First, I took all of my purchased seed out of the freezer and opened an excel spreadsheet where I maintain my seed inventory.  I took stock of what I had AND what I needed to order.  Then I did the same with my inventory of seed I had saved myself that I had stored away in various medicine bottles.  I took inventory of those too, updating my spreadsheet.  This essentially made my seed order ready to go.

Then I got out some of my favorite seed catalogs and began comparing prices, package sizes, shipping costs and varieties.  I ensured that I was comparing apples to apples and that I was ordering open-pollinated seeds.  Then I made my orders.  I always order a new item or two to try in the garden.  It is always nice to experiment with something I've never grown, something colorful, exotic, or weird.  I actually placed my order from 3 different vendors this time.

Over the next week the garden ground began to dry up a little.  They are raised beds so at least the northern side stays high and dry.  I pulled up the pepper plants and egg plants and turned the soil over with my shovel.  With some baling twine as a guide, I measured out rows.  They are 15 feet long, 20 inches wide, with an 18 inch walkway.  These rows are reserved for my onion and potato crop.  My onion sets came in the mail this week, and I have seed potatoes left over from the crop I harvested in May 2017.  I'll be planting both of these possibly this weekend.

Our mail carrier began to deliver some of the seed I ordered this week.  Two of the three orders have arrived.  I like to open the package and shake the seeds.  There's something magical about "dead" seeds in an envelope in the middle of the winter.  The transformation that occurs once they are dropped into the soil is a true miracle.

Before you know it, it will be time to stop dreaming about the garden and start gardening.  I can't wait!

A Winter Wonderland - South Louisiana Edition

It was 5 AM and still dark outside when the phone rang loudly on the bedside table.  It was Benjamin's school calling to let parents know that "school has been canceled for Friday due to winter weather creating dangerous driving conditions." 

Translation: "It is snowing outside today in South Louisiana.  It never snows here, so all the children need to go outside and play in the snow!"  That's exactly what we did.  I looked outside the french doors in the back and the snow was coming down.

Luna was standing 'hunch-backed' by her hay bale wondering what all this white stuff was.

Big Boy, our Great Pyrenees came running to the back patio to greet us and it is a good thing because he was quite camouflaged in the snow.  We didn't want to lose him!

The navel orange tree had snow-coated leaves.  Everyone always says that if you leave the oranges on the tree until after the first frost it makes them sweeter.  I don't know if that is true or not, but if so, these will be some sweet oranges.

As I was walking in the winter wonderland, everything was so bright and cheery.  Kids were out of school and the neighbor kids were over and all excited.  Things in the garden, however, were not so cheerful.  The snow and freezing conditions signal an end to the merliton squash and tahitian melon squash.

My fall tomato crop with fruits ripening and blooms on the plants are toast!  We had harvested four beautiful tomatoes and I was racing the weather to get more ripened before the freeze, but I lost the race.  Oh well...

They were so healthy and free of bugs.  I'll pull them all up now.  Tomato plants do not like a White Christmas.

In northern climes, farmers and ranchers use heaters to keep their water troughs from freezing.  We don't have those down here, although I'll certainly break the ice so that the cows, goats, and chickens can drink some ice water.

The sun started to come out, shining through the frozen plants.  In no time all this would be de-frosted, but it would be too late to save anything.  That is the risk you take when you push the planting dates, and I can blame no one but myself.

We won't waste the tomatoes, though, even if they are green.  We wash them, freeze them, and then we'll add them to soups and stews for extra flavor, nutrition, and heartiness.

We put them on a tray in the freezer and once frozen solid, we pour them into ziploc bags for storing until we cook them.

This merliton squash is ripe and ready to eat, so the freeze didn't ruin it.  We'll be eating it soon.

Same thing with the tahitian melon squash.  I can't wait to try this.  A friend gave me the seeds.  Supposedly, these are supposed to be sweeter than butternut squash.

Although the freeze killed all the fall crops susceptible to frost, the winter garden still thrives: spinach, carrots, chard, beets, kale, mustard, sugar snap peas, radishes, turnips, lettuce, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.