Ol' Rosie - Almost Time!

What are some things that catch your eye in the photo below?

The first thing, I'm sure, is that I've taken the photo facing into the morning sun.  You're not supposed to do that.  It gives the picture a hazy appearance.  The second thing is likely the muddy ground.  The cows are standing in ankle deep mud to eat their hay. They slosh through the mud and walk around the hay ring to eat.  What a mess!  The goats absolutely hate walking through water and mud, but they'll eventually get there.  As you can see, they are small enough to fit through the hay ring and they stand on the pallet I place underneath the bale to keep it out of the mud and water.  Behind the hay you can see the remnants of the water oak tree we took down this summer.  I'll eventually get that cut up and stacked.

What may be less evident from the photo is Rosie's girth.  She is very pregnant.  I think her due date is in four days.  We can feel her baby kicking in her belly every day.  Rosie's vulva is becoming 'flabby,' which is a sure sign of imminent calving.  We've also begun to see mucous discharge, but her bag hasn't really begun to 'bloom' yet.  We'll be keeping a sharp eye on her.  As usual we are praying for a heifer.  Our freezer is full of meat, so we don't really need a bull calf right now.  A heifer would be ideal.  We could either use her as a replacement or we could sell her and make some rare farm income.  One thing I'm a little concerned with is the deep mud due to all the rain we've had.  If it doesn't dry up soon (and that doesn't seem likely), a little calf will have its work cut out for her/him walking in all the mud.  We may have to keep them in the barn for a while until things dry out.

Anyway, we'll keep you posted when Rosie goes into labor and delivers the newest arrival at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.

Getting a Jump Start on Spring

Let's take a look at the tomatoes that I rescued from the carrot row a couple of weeks ago.  Yesterday, temperatures hit 74 degrees, so they've been really growing!

These tomatoes came up volunteer in the carrot row and I haven't a clue what variety they are.  If I can keep these bad boys alive for two and a half more months, we'll have early tomatoes.  My plan is to put them in the cold frame with a heat lamp on them when it gets cold.  We'll see if we are successful. 

Right now, they are on the back patio.  I walked out yesterday morning to water them and dew had fallen, leaving dew drops on the points of every leaf:

I've never had tomato plants that big during the first week of January.  The first week of January is normally the time that I plant all of my eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes from seed.  This year was no different.  On January 5th I got busy planting.

Here are my Florida Market Eggplant.  I planted 2 seeds in each seed pot to account for poor germination.  Later, I'll weed out the weaker plants.

I planted the following varieties of peppers:
Anaheim, Lipstick, Sweet Chocolate, Lilac Bell, Emerald Giant, Hot Jalapeno, Criolla Sella, Craig's Grande Jalapeno, Horizon, Banana, and TAM Mild Jalapeno.  Eleven varieties in all.  We love peppers!  Most were from seed companies, but two varieties were from seed saved from last year or previous years.

We also planted eleven varieties of tomatoes, including: Creole, Roma, Pink Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Amish Paste, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Black Vernissage, Thessaloniki, Big Rainbow, and a variety I call "Mrs. Linda" tomatoes.  They are an Italian variety someone gave me from tomatoes purchased at Wal Mart, of all places.  They are prolific producers.

They were planted 1/8 inch deep in seed starting soil.  The trick will be to keep the soil moist until germination.  This light soil tends to dry out quickly.

Once they germinate, I'll bring the grow light inside and position it above the plants.  We'll keep you posted on how the plants grow.

The Garden Fence Is (Almost) Complete

So a beautiful (and non-rainy) Saturday for a change gave me a perfect opportunity to finish up a project that had been lingering on my to-do list - putting up a new garden fence.  As previously discussed, the old homemade picket fence had rotted, leaving gaping holes that our cats skittered through the gaps and used our garden as their personal latrine. 

With a crowbar I removed the old panels of picket fence and replaced with 'store-bought' ones.  It was a lot easier than making them from scratch like the first fence. 

The only tricky part was the very last panel.  I had to use precise measurements and my amateur carpenter skills to fashion a gate out of the last panel.  The fit had to be seamless, and it had to line up, open to the inside and latch perfectly.  Believe it or not, it all came together in the end.

And here is the finished product.  Or almost finished.  As it stands now, the cats can still get in the garden as the slats are wide enough to let them through.  My plan is to staple chicken wire on the inside of the picket fence.  This will keep the fecal felines out, hopefully.

We've got to protect what's behind that new fence.  Our cole crops are just starting to come in now.  We've got some nice cauliflower that is ripening now!

Along with some broccoli!

I picked a big colander full of beautiful broccoli on Sunday...

I also picked an enormous head of cauliflower.

Tricia roasted some broccoli with garlic tonight in the oven.  I can't even begin to tell you how good that is!  We asked her to cook more tomorrow night.  At this rate, we may not have any left over to blanch and freeze for later.  Nothing quite like fresh broccoli and cauliflower!

From A to Zinnia

Normally we only grow stuff that you can eat in or around our garden.  This year I learned that it can be nice to grow some flowers to beautify the garden.  I selected zinnias because with my first attempt at growing flowers, I figured I would try something easy.  Zinnias are about the easiest.  The flowers are multicolored and they bloom all season long.  They seem to be drought-proof and can also make it during times of monsoon rains.

Back in early spring, I planted them in the holes of some cinder blocks that I use to line a drainage ditch just north of the garden.  The cinder blocks stop erosion.  The holes in the blocks always bothered me, though.  I kept thinking someone would step in them and break their ankle, so I filled them with potting soil and planted an assortment of zinnia seeds in them.  I used some open-pollinated, heirloom seeds so I could save the seeds, if I wanted to and plant more next year.

Nine months after planting them, the zinnias are still blooming.  For the past couple of months, as the flowers fade, I've been snipping off the heads and allowing them to completely dry.

Here is a closeup of the dried zinnia flower head with the petals pulled off.

If you pull on the dried flower, you pull out zinnia seeds!

Here's what's left when you've pulled off all the seeds.  This can be discarded.

We were able to harvest a BUNCH of zinnia seeds!  A couple of handfuls, for sure.

I put all the zinnia seeds in a container for storage.

In about 2 1/2 months, I'll pull the seeds out, work up some more ground in front of the garden, and re-plant.  I'll never plant flowers in the garden and take up ground that could be used for planting vegetables for flowers, but I'll admit, the multi-colored zinnias we planted in front of the garden was a good thing.

Slow Time of the Year for Eggs

At this time of the year, egg production really takes a hit.  The shortened days and dark and gloomy weather coupled with not much grass to eat and bugs to munch on means that if we pick up seven or eight eggs, it is a big day.  In the springtime, we'll pick up ten times that amount in a day.

We have around 100 hens and during the big production months, we give away or sell the eggs our family can't eat.  We bring some to church and then we'll normally have our sign out by the road selling our excess, but these days, we pulled up our egg sign and brought it back to the house.  It'll go back up in the spring.  Maybe we'll have to touch it up a little!  It is looking kind of rough...

Speaking of eggs and chickens, as I was opening up the egg boxes in the hen house last Saturday, I glanced in the woods behind the hen house and something caught my eye.  Something seemed out of place.  I opened the back gate and walked and found this grisly sight:

It was a fresh kill.  Overnight some predator feasted on one of our Rhode Island Red hens.  If I had to guess, I would assume an owl or a hawk did this as it took the hen over the fence in order to feast on her.  The predator didn't even finish eating.  If you look into the center of the photo you can see the hen's untouched gizzard.  Further to the right, you can see her liver. 

Especially during this time of year, we lose a few birds to predators.  That's going to happen.  I don't get too worked up about it.  I did set up our cage trap in the woods near where I found the remains of the hen and the very next night, I caught a big, fat possum.  I don't thing the possum was responsible, but let's just say there's one less possum roaming around at night.  Normally the chickens run into the goat barn when predators are in the area.  This one just wasn't quick enough, I guess. 

Fences Make Good Neighbors

I have lamented recently about our cats getting into our garden and wreaking havoc by digging up freshly planted carrots and using the garden row as their personal latrine.  This ends now!  I must take some responsibility for this since I've allowed the picket fence to fall into disrepair.  When we built our barn years ago, I made homemade pickets out of the leftover lumber.  I was pleased with the outcome and we painted the fence white like Tom Sawyer.  There was one problem, however.  The wood wasn't treated and so the pickets rotted.  You can see where the rotten pickets have fallen off of the fence and created openings where the cats are able to get it and do their dirty business.

I did a little shopping and found some 8 foot, 3.5 feet tall wooden fence panels.  They are made with treated Southern Yellow Pine and the panels retail for about $27.  I purchased four of them and got ready to install them.  First I had to dismantle the deteriorated fence.  I pulled them off a little at a time.  Using a level, I ensured the fence was straight and true.

It didn't take me long to have most of the fence erected.  The only thing left to go is rebuilding the gate.  That is going to take a little fabricating.

I'll have to take the last remaining 8 foot panel and cut it into two pieces.  A two foot section will make up the last portion of the fence anchored into the last two support posts.  The remainder will be used as the gate after I fasten hinges and a latch onto it.  It will open toward the interior of the garden. I'll have to wait for some better weather, though.  It rains every cotton-pickin' day!

While the new fence is taller, it has a big short-coming.  The slats between the pickets are four inches wide and cats and other critters can easily get between them and into the garden as you can see below.

One the entire fence is erected, I plan on stapling chicken wire across the inside of the fence, creating an impenetrable barrier that will keep the cats and chickens at bay.  I'll post final pictures of the completed fence when I'm able to get it done.

Happy New Year To You From Our Maker's Acres Family Farm

Image Credit

Well, 2018 is in the books, wrapped up with a bow and all done.  In the upcoming days, we'll look back at some of the numbers like we always do - looking at rainfall, egg production, milk production, animal production, etc.

For now we'll look ahead to 2019 with a few resolutions and/or goals.  I've come to dislike resolutions simply because they are so doggone hard to keep.  I always start with such good intentions, only to fall short of following through.  And the salt in the wound is that it doesn't take me very long to get off-track on my lofty goals.

This year, I'm going to try to keep things simple, and I've asked my family to hold me accountable.  Here goes:  I like to make goals in three areas: Spiritual, Physical, and Mental.

Spiritual Goal for 2019: Read 3 Chapters a day in the Bible.  Doing this will enable me to read through the Bible in a year.  I like to read beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation.  I know many people will read a couple chapters in the Old Testament and 1 chapter in the New Testament each day.  I like to read the Bible through, though.  It is just more orderly and I can follow the timeline of what is going on from a historical perspective that way.

Physical Goal for 2019:  Do at least 50 push ups and 50 sit ups each day.  I am not real big on working out.  I would much rather work hard in meaningful work that accomplishes an outcome, but especially during the short days of winter, there's not a lot to do outside.  I'm 52 now and as the metabolism slows, but my appetite for good food grows, there's a weighty problem ahead (no pun intended) if I don't burn some calories.

Mental Goal for 2019:  Read a book a month. 

I have a few homestead to do's, but these are more to do list items than resolutions.  I'll list them here and will check them in a year to see how much we got done:

1. Put in sidewalks to help with trudging through the mud,
2. Add lighting to the barn.  Adding the lean-to's on either side of the barn made it darker in the barn,
3. Add lights to the cattle trailer.  Maybe we can be legal for Benjamin's last year of showing:),
4. Build a roof that spans between the barn and goat barn,
5. Bring in more fill dirt to fill in low areas around the barn,
6. Improve drainage around the barn,
7. Make homemade soap

So there we have it.  We have been blessed in 2018 despite some difficult bumps in the road.  May God bless you and your family in 2019!