January 2011 - what is on your homestead horizon?

Methods of preserving all those wondrous veggies!

You go ~ Lizards_Keep! We'll be helping you celebrate come Feb 24th! I constantly threaten to pass out dust rags or brooms. If you manage to get cooperation, let me know how! Having a large group of setters makes it look like you are busy and makes others stop to look around. Not always a bad thing I guess. Will your plant shopping day still be on Mondays?

If anyone is interested, this is an interesting feature. I get a newsletter from Terrior Seeds and they linked an Almanac best planting date program http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/zipcode/86323 just insert your zipcode and search. Some other interesting links listed there too.

Podster, it is pretty ambitious, but we have to do 30 hours during our first year to get the certification, then it's 15 hours per year. Most of the activities through the extension office are during the summer when I'm really busy taking care of my own garden. Figured with this, I could get most of my hours done by the end of March. I'll find out tomorrow if this idea is approved. There are 2 other interns about 5 miles out of our town that I have talked to about doing this with me and they think it's a great idea. Figured if either we each take a portion of each meeting or each present 2 classes, it shouldn't be too hard, plus all 3 of us would get our hours in. The town where we took our MG classes is 20 miles from our town, so this would be much more conveinent for local people and free to participants. My only concern is whether there will be enough interest with us being in a rural area. The biggest draw would be the info on "organic and naturally grown". And I might start that thread. :)

Jay, I thought about that, too (preserving), LOL...great minds think alike! Thought if this does work out and I don't get all my hours in this spring, that I might arrange another workshop or 2 in the fall.

Lizards_Keep, Feb. 24th is just around the corner. WhooHoo!

Dyson, inquiring minds want to know....

Having computer problems. Had to uninstall my anti-virus and reinstall it and after 3 hours of downloading and installing updates, I STILL have a "corrupted database". So I have to do it again. Oh, joy! :(

Robin, that sounds like a good three-fold plan for your workshop... gets in your hours, offers a community service, and spreads the word about your business!

Lizards_Keep, good for you! I retired 9 years ago and have been busy as the proverbial one-armed paper-hanger ever since. Can't imagine how I ever found the time to hold a job!

My first order of cheesemaking supplies came yesterday. It's just a few of the cultures I need, and 2 small molds. I had planned to order more, in anticipation of getting started next month by buying milk but I hadn't planned on my computer system software failure several days ago.

Meanwhile, I'm plugging away at learning meat preservation and just waiting on my order for an additional curing agent to start my first batch, which will be a venison bresaola. Bresaola is usually cured dried beef, and similar to prosciutto which is made with pork. I figure if nothing else, I'll have plenty of "creamed chipped venison on toast" LOL.

good morning everyone :)
Lizards are you a nursery ? i m too.
msrobin that sounds like a good plan you are going to do
oh not much on our horizon, the dog is whining to go out and its snowed last night and i still have not my first cup of java sooooo
she may have to hold it a bit longer .
chickens are laying , i get about 5 a day
had to kill one of my hens :( she got sick about 2 months ago , seemed to get better but then yesterday she just was not right.
poor thing.
got two roo's that need to find a stock pot or a home of love.
welp out the door with the dog , she can't wait

Today I am kicking my happy little fanny out into the GH to churn dirt... Then into town for lunch w/a friend, pick up straw.

Looks like I"m going to get to visit the Baker Creek Seed store in Petaluma this spring. Fun, fun. =0)

Jay, that sounds awesome about visiting the Petaluma Baker's Creek. I would love to visit all 3. The new one shown in their catalog out east looks really cool. Have to admire that young couple for what they have accomplished.

Darius, are you included in that band of predicted heavy snow over the next couple of days? I heard 8-16". It's snowing here, but only 1" so far. I think we are only suppose to get a few inches, though.

Also, I am really impressed with your endeavors (sp)!

Regarding chickens (and I might have shared this before): this is the first time (out of 4) that I have had a bunch of hens with only one rooster and they are all the best behaved. It's funny to watch them out running around but when the rooster kind of cackles, they all come running. When I head over to the hen house to put them up just before dark, they all go right in. In the past, when I had 3 roosters and they each had their little harem, I've had to spend 30 minutes or so to get the definiant ones locked in.

No roosters works well too.

Yes, we are getting snow, through tomorrow night... but no one agrees on the amount to accumulate!

Your chickens are behaving the way mine did when I had some years ago. I only had one rooster too, but about a dozen and a half hens. I had hoped to get hens this spring, but as I get more into curing meats, I'm re-thinking. I may want to get 2-3 piglets to keep/feed until late fall butchering.

with the price of ham these days , i would go for the pork products. :)

After I posted above, I remembered that pigs are exceptionally deft at escaping enclosures! That may be the deciding factor, LOL.

Darius, I read somewhere to run an electric fence line 6" or so from the ground around the interior of the pen. If you don't want to do that, I think hog rings (goes in pig's nose) are suppose to keep pigs from rooting, thus digging their way out under a fence.

Thanks., electric fence is a good option.

you could get a cute little diamond to put in the hog ring or maybe a charm LOL :) it would be so cute.
sifting through seed catologs today
found some of my fav peppers
Mucho Nacho
Fool You Jalenpeno
Jimmy Nardello
Jung Seeds seem to have everything i need . so i may go with them . don't want to pay all that shipping for 3 places .
last year garden was such a bust for me. i got zip. i let it go to all weeds.
I made 4 new big beds and it just got to big for me to do . :(
this year i will be more organized too

I need land - the apartment we are in is small, but since it is only the two of us this is not a problem. However, the lack of tillable soil is unacceptable.

I need to find a tract between 10 and 20 acres, undeveloped, with flowing water (a creek or strong stream for power generation).

Considering that I just spent my last free money for the weeks paycheck ordering strawberry plants for the spring - this may be a pipe dream like no other.

Snowing - hate winter.

Strawberry plants? Where you gonna plant them?

Sorry everyone is anticipating snow. No snow here, only cold so we've brought enough wood in to stay by the fire(s).

So, we haven't seen Cajun since the 4th? Hoping all is well with her and her loved ones.

No snow here... up in the 50's again, worked out in the GH, turning in compost & watering beds. Going through the seed box & figuring out which veggies I can justify buying more seeds in... another kind of melon, perhaps? And having discovered we like rutabagas, now we must find the PERFECT rutabaga... and there's a sauce tomato that slips its skin easily AND has great flavor...

Has everyone else received their Baker Creek seed catalogue already? I'm getting antsy...

Tomorrow we tackle the pump room where the seeds get started... it accumulates junk the rest of the year. Now I have to find another place for all that junk....

Howdeee! I have missed so much in a few days. Glad everybody is well. We are good, just busy. I traded 2 bantam hens for am EE hen and a BSL hen. I trimmed their wings and put them in the pullet pen. All seems well. Be glad when they start laying again. The EE is supposed to be a green egg layer. I have a roo I hatched out of a blue egg so i will pair them in Spring.

Gave away a trouble making roo. I shot him but didn't kill him. He was duck walking like one of Hitler's soldiers. LOL I caught him off the roost and gave him away. He nearly killed a little game roo I have. I have the game roo in the LR nursing him back to health. His eyes were swollen shut but I think he can still see.

Also have Miracle in the LR is a big plastic tub. She is molting. Bad time to be bare. She is the BSL pullet that survived the dog attack. She layed a few times. Big brown eggs.

Retirement!! Whoo Hooo!!! Enjoy yourself! Knock and I used to say we were going to get ourselves a snub nosed school bus and make a rolling coffee and snack shop out of it. We had fun planning our menu and decideing who we would hire. I sure do miss him. Have you noticed that more people are growing gardens now? It is nearly the only way to afford any good produce. Guess that is why you are selling more edibles.

Darius, you can keep a pig in pretty easy with hot wire, they hate it and will only need to get shocked once. But pig feed is very expensive. We didn't raise ours on pig feed. They got horse mix, whole shelled corn, soaked beet pulp and scraps. They grew out to be very big with very little fat. I am anxious to hear about your cheese making. I made soft cheese a couple of times thanks to Jay. It turned out well and I was pleased with myself. I will be making it again when I have fresh herbs. Can I make some with orange zest? Will you be making hard cheese?

Rabbits are cheaper to feed and ready to butcher at a young age. They are easy to butcher, taste great and are healthy to eat. You also get all that fertilizer too.

Jay, I checked with the local deli about getting their scraps for the chickens but they say they don't have much scraps and the owner brings what they do get to his dogs. There is one more place I will check with. Hope I have better luck there. So fun you are getting to go to Bakers Creek. I order from them and I am waiting on my new catalog. Don't know what's holding it up. I know others have gotten theirs.

Sue, so glad you joined us. Did you get your green house finished? I want to build me a hoop house coop like yours. I have not seen Jungs catalog.

Robin, your plans for the classes sound great. It's a much needed service. Glad your chickens are doing well.

Dyson, what kind of strawberries did you get? I have a neglected bed I hope to move in the Spring. They would have done much better if I had not left them to fend for themselves last year but it was a tough year for us. I want to move them closer to the house where I can water and weed them more often. Do you own your apartment? We live in a parsonage and it is not like having your own place for sure. But I do have a creek. I use it to water some of my chickens and one of my dogs. I tried to fence part of it into the gaot enclosure but they kept getting out. I will try it again in the Spring. It's hard to run hot wire here with the land being so uneven.

Hope everyone stays warm and well.

Glad to hear all's well, Cajun!

The apartment is attached to the back of the step daughters house. The SIL lives next door and I get to plant a small space in her back yard.

Last year I ordered 50 Honeoye strawberry plants from Nourse. I was happy with the entire transaction and all but one of the plants did well ( I think I planted that one too shallow - my bad )

After they started to ripen it did not take the grandchildren long to learn how to "graze" the patch. None of the berrys made it through the apartment door. This year the wife instructed me to put another 100 plants in.

Have tons of seeds from last year because the heart attack prevented me from getting them started can only pray that some are still viable and will start testing germination rates soon.

Dyson ~ I think you will be amazed at how many of your seeds will be viable. You may have to plant the next batch of strawberries elevated so the kiddos can't reach them! LOL Maybe in gutters like CountryGardens does.

Cajun ~ glad you were MIA only because of busy. I keep thinking I need chickens again till I read about the aggravations you are having with yours Cajun. Then I talk myself out of them again.

Weather revised for Sunday here. Snow and ice are being offered up and I surely hope they are wrong but it is winter. Sigh...

We have snow, snow... and more snow. Might be a foot, hard to tell because it's blowing sideways half the time. BIG drifts! Won't end soon, either. High temps all next week will not even get UP to 32º!

Caj, I've been making soft cheese for a year or more, with Feta being the most complex (and actually it's very easy). Now I want to make hard cheese. To make a press, I just bought a short 2 x 6 and a piece of EMT (electrical pipe) a few days ago. I could have found enough wood out in the barn but I want everything CLEAN. I'll use barbell weights if I can find some cheap used ones, or wrapped concrete blocks. Some cheese types press at 50-60 pounds.

My Baker's Creek catalog came about mid-December. Last year I didn't get it until mid-February. I had already ordered seeds by then, mostly elsewhere. Maybe it took so long to get it because I requested a catalog so late in the year? At least now I'm on the mailing list.

we got 4 " of snow
cold today and windy
Dyson you are more then welcome to build a yurt in the back of my woods if you want ? but we don't have a flowing water source. Guess you have to do solar or wind . :)
HI Cajun ! sending big hugs. Bus cafe sounds like fun ! :) glad you got rid of the roo.
one of these days i got to try cheese making. got neighbors with tons of goats !
well we are deciding how many BTU's for our heat source in the GH.
we decided on electric.
also my computer is making noises , i think its the fan clanking ? i brought it out in the cold once to hear a song in the GH duh. not a good idea to get a computer cold ? so i hope it isn't to expensive to fix. ? DH don't like that .
welp its making the noise so i got to t urn it off
they said it would take about 3-5 days if i bring it in to fix.
have a great weekend everyone

OK, I'm going to call Baker Creek & see what the deal is. Bah!

Got out in the GH yesterday, cleaned up, composted & watered another bed, bringing those little micro communities to life in prep for planting. The bed I composted in the fall has already eaten all its goodies; guess I'll have to add more. Soil is looking better & better in there. =0)

Today the shed!

Sure wish I had a GH. I have collected a bag of food scraps for my microbes, but the ground is frozen and they are either hibernating... or wintering in the Caribbean.

I don't actually compost; I dig a narrow trench next to a bed and bury the goodies. That generally keeps the local critters out of it. I'd prefer to have some EM to spray on it before covering the trench but that's not in my budget.

EM?

As we've got the donks, we just go dig in the bottom of the manure pile. No shortage of food for the micro-pets. (Love the image of tiny little planes packed w/vacationing microbes heading off to warmer climes!)

EM = Essential Microbes, sold in a concentrated form somewhere out in your neck of the woods.

Cold here and blowing. Upwards of 5" of snow. DH is out with the blower clearing the path to the truck. He likes to do that instead of walking on it and packing it to make ice. That gets slick quick.

I love my chickens. Please don't let me discourage you from getting a flock. I'd have mine in better quarters if DH had not gotten sick. They are doing fine and laying a few eggs each day. Love those fresh eggs.

Darius, sure glad we don't have as much snow as you. I'll say a prayer for you. I know how miserable it is. Please keep us up to date on your hard cheese adventures. I'd like to give it a go one day. My DS sent me a cheese book.

I wish I had a GH too. Maybe in the future. I'd like to grow maters all the time and have a place to overwinter some fruits that won't grow here.

Sue, hate to hear you are having computer problems. It's a pain. Glad your GH is still going forward. Did you get rid of your extra roos? Guess it will be a few more days before i can get shut of these game roos. If you can get goats milk you should really give cheese making a try. The soft cheese is easy peasy and tastes great. And all your friends will think you are da bomb because you can make your own cheese. LOL That's fun.

Dyson, know about those grandkids. I have 2 DGS and I love them to pieces. Miss them so much. They get to come for the summer and I can't wait. Will also see our DD this summer and likely our DS and DDIL when they bring up DGS#2. He spends a few weeks to a month. Knock, DGS#1 spends the whole summer. So sad and quiet when they leave. But we make the most of our time together when they are here. I have to get my does bred so they will kid in Spring. Then the boys can help with the kids and the milking. We'll make cheese and butter too. It will be such fun. I also hope to get another SFG bed made so they can garden while they are here. They both love the country life. Knock has to live in town now so he misses it. I am hoping DD will get a small trailer for them and put it on our land in the country. ( back in La. ) DH's parents are living in our house there. It wouldn't be as nice as the apartment she rents now but she wouldn't be wasting her money and it would just be a starter home for her. The sacrifice would be an investment in their future. She is giving it some seroius thought. Anyhoo, I wish you great success with your berries. Mine are 2 different kinds but I don't remember what they are. They are tasty but weren't very big. Of course, that could have been because of the neglect.

Jay, we use poop too. We sure have an abundance of it. The guy where we have 2 of our horses is digging out the run in and putting it in his garden. Win win situation. He always has a good garden. He has a big berry patch. Nothing like back home where everybody sells berries but a good size for a home garden. Good luck with the shed. When are you leaving for your trip?

Pod, sure hope you don't get that awful weather. I can hardly wait til Spring but I have no other choice. I think you are right about the seeds. I planted maters last year from my 2006 stash and they did great.

Well, I'd better get about the work. It will take longer today. I'll try to get some new pics for you. Pics and snow creme are all this mess is good for. :)

I'm leaving the 20th... ack! I actually have to map out the cells for seed starting for the SO... she's not the gardener & I always just do it by seat of the pants. This is going to be way too organized for me. Life on the planned side... don't think I can handle it. LOL

I notice that Johnny's has a conduit bender for 4' or 6' mini-hoops, Cajun. Maybe that'd be a good start for you, not as much expense & if you have to move again, easier to port w/you. =0)

Is that the Johny's seed catalog? I got one of those but haven't gotten too far into it yet.

Yes. I think I"m going to get the one for the 12' arch.

Does it bend pipe and then you put it up like Robin does hers? What kinda pipe?

The 4' & 6' bend metal conduit and the 12' bends the top rail used for chain link fences.

good morning
-1 her today brrrrr
still working on my coffee
bbl

Trying to get your coffee thawed out? So sorry... Not that cold here but anticipating sleet/ice later today. Will keep the home fires burning and be grateful there is no reason to hit the road. It is a short trip out to the GH to stoke the fire and the wood is stashed where it is dry.

Lots of seed catalogues calling me but that is hazardous too. I keep saying I am cutting back but found all kinds of new (to me) things last night when I was lusting thru them.

Sue... you are colder than we are here, but not by much! We are at +1º outside, the creek is iced over... and with all the bright sunshine, we may get up to as high as 20º today.

I'm interested to see what the Hi-Lo thermometer inside my root cellar recorded overnight... but not interested enough to don my gear and trudge through the snow to find out. Sure wish I had a wireless unit out there and the base unit inside where it's warmer!

27º here, but tomorrow we're supposed to get down to the single digits. No snow yet. The slight chance that existed for later this week has disappeared.

It looks like River the Rumhound has pulled something in her back. Her knees have been recovering very well from the surgery, but yesterday she started carrying one leg & we couldn't for the life of us figure out why... she's only taken out on a leash & there's been no rowdiness. I checked her leg & it didn't seem tender or hot... then I checked her back. Ouch! she said. Well, I know how backs can be... doesn't take anything to put one out of whack. So I've started the anti-inflams, SO is doing massage on her, & we're keeping the back warm. River certainly seems more comfortable this morning; last night she was one sad pup.

Got the shed straightened out & ready to go yesterday, looks like today I may be able to make a little more headway in the GH, then it's supposed to be pretty darn cold the rest of the week. Making dirt while the sun shines! =0)