Saturday Farm Journal

On Thursday, with the help of the son of a farmer from church, the broilers were slaughtered, processed, and placed in the freezer. The whole chickens varied in estimated weight from 5-7lbs. We decided to go ahead and stop growing them at 8weeks because the largest broiler died one evening and another good sized one became lame. We ended up with eleven chickens in the freezer for a total of (averaged and estimated) 55lbs of chicken. Not too bad for our first time. Next year we will be doing more, and possibly getting a few turkeys too.

The ducks have been moved to their permanent home. All eleven of them. At first we kept the two batches apart with fences until they were accustomed to each other. Now they get along just fine with only a little bit of dominating pinches now and again. 

We have been eating a lot of blueberries. Every two days we spend two hours picking everything that is tinged red. Once inside they are all blue within a few days and then we freeze them in gallon sized bags. I have already made Upside-down Blueberry Cake and will be making it again tonight to take to a family gathering. I will be sure to take a few photographs and put the recipe up on our other blog after this week-end.

The garden is doing great. Mom has been spending a lot of time each evening weeding, when she isn't picking blueberries. This past week she weeded some tomatoes and potatoes and Dad hilled them. I weeded some tomatoes and peppers, and staked a few tomato plants. We ate green beans out of the garden on Wednesday, they were so yummy. Next week I will be making Green Tomato Relish, since we ate up the last jar a month ago.

Last weeks lists:

• weed: cabbage and tomatoes
• water if it doesn't rain
• continue to watch for bugs
• replant cucumbers
• move layers outside and Peking ducks to house

Next weeks list:

• weed: cabbage and tomatoes
• stake tomatoes
• pick tomatoes
• make relish
• pick blueberries

Saturday Farm Journal

hot peppers, pears, blueberries, peas

Brussels spouts, red cabbage, beans, tomatoes

onions, squash, beets, carrots

It seems like the warmer it gets outside the more work that needs to be done. A lot of weeding was accomplished last Sunday with a promise that this vacation week we'll get more done. It looks like the peas are done and I'll be picking and pulling those up this week. I feel so foolish that I forgot about them! I allowed them to get too big for eating raw, but I think they will be just as tastey cooked. 

We received several mystery ducklings. They are some sort of laying breed. A cambell-mallard-runner cross maybe, who knows? The broilers have about 5 more weeks of life before Jason harvests them. We are hoping to get them outside for a bit of free ranging before that happens. Today a duck house is being built so the big ducks can go live outside in the pond and the little ducks can get out of the barn because they are stinky and messy. We did learn from our mistakes and they are where we could hose them down as needed.

List two weeks ago:

• Keep an eye on the bugs
• Re-plant potato, cucumber (looks like they are actually up so we didn't do this)
• Fertilize onions, tomatoes, peppers
• Weed

This week(s) list:

• weed
• watch for bugs
• weed
• water when needed
• weed
• move layers to a tractor outside

Saturday Journal

 

It's been a busy few weeks. First we were drenched with rain which halted everything in the garden and then the ducks and chicks needed to be moved so that took up all our time. Hopefully now that the rain has stopped and the weather man has said we will have a few days in a row of sunshine, things will get done in the garden.

The one very exciting thing, we ate a handful of pea pods! They were a bit bitter, but tasted sweet to us! 

Went to our green thumbed friend to ask a few questions about pesticide and bugs and he suggested Garden Dust from Bonide he claimed it was more natural than most pesticides, we'll give it a go and see how it goes. As it was by the time I got out there the bugs had chewed through every leaf (in a day). 

I'm not sure how the cabbages/Brussels Sprouts are going to do, they don't look well. I think it was too late in the season to plant them, or maybe it's the pine shavings? 

The potatoes aren't up. Dad dug up some of the potatoes and a few are rotten, some are growing, we are going to give it another week to see what happens.

Mom and Dad planted another garden to use some of the seeds before they went bad: carrots, squash, turnips and onions so now we have to gardens to watch. 

List from two weeks ago:

• Weed tomatoes
• Hoe between the rows
• Mulch Brussels Sprouts
• Thin the beans

What actually happened:

• Watched Brussels Sprouts, cabbages, and potatoes drown.
• Thinned beans
• Roto-tilled or hoed a couple of rows
• Trimmed tomato
• Strung peas
• Ate peas
• Planted more: carrots, blue hubbard squash, butternut squash, turnip, onions
• Weeded strawberries

This weeks list:

• Keep an eye on the bugs
• Re-plant potato, cucumber
• Fertilize onions, tomatoes, peppers

How is your garden growing?

Stomper (age 1.5) munching on pea pods

Saturday Journal

• Planted seeds: beets, carrots, summer squash, zucchini, beans, and sunflowers
• Planted onions
• Strung up peas
• Bought more chickens (fluffy white ones), this time broilers and one mystery chick
• Thanked God: for the rain to water the garden, the coolness to help the cabbage and Brussels sprouts take root, and the overcast sky so that the tomato plants didn't get scorched.

On Monday Jason came home and said to me (Delia) in a mischievous voice: "I have something for you!" To which I responded, "It better not be a puppy or I'll kill you." He took me to the porch and presented me with a box of fluffy, yellow, peeping chicks. "They are broilers! Meat birds."

That night we constructed a new home for the ducks, a dog kennel wrapped in wire and cardboard, and put the new little chicks where the ducks once lived.

For a few days everything was fine. Then the Reds got bigger. Bigger and flapping. Flapping, jumping, and perching on the water jars. Flapping and jumping to get over the gate to visit the new chicks. I said to my Mom, "One of these days we are going to go on the porch and a Red is going to be with the Broilers."

Sure enough later that day Mom went out on the porch and a Red was laying down with the Broilers.

I worried that the Reds would get hurt trying to get over the fence, so I removed it. Everyone is happy, healthy, and getting big and strong!

This week in the garden we hope to:

• Weed the peas
• Mulch the strawberries
• Plant pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, potatoes, watermelon