Friday, January 27, 2012

Rainy days

 Hello everyone. Things have been pretty quiet around here for the last few days. We got a big rain storm which dropped 4 inches of much needed rain here. Considering Texas is in the worst drought in recorded history, I'm happy to put up with the mud and the cranky goats (they hate the rain and glare at me like it's somehow MY fault that water is falling from the sky!)

4 inches of rain in my handy dandy rain gauge
 I was a little bit afraid that my brand new garden would wash away, as it's still bare dirt, but it looks just fine. The onions that I put in on Monday seem happy with all the moisture. As soon as the soil dries out enough I will be back at work getting my early plantings in and spreading wood mulch in all my paths.
Muddy but happy onion seedlings
 Egg production has gone WAY up in the last week or so. I was only getting 1 or 2 eggs a day before. Yesterday I got 10!! Maybe the Buffs won't end up in the freezer after all. Of course, chickens don't wipe their feet before going into the nest boxes so there is quite a bit of mud on the eggs. I will wash them off just before I use them so that the bloom isn't removed from the eggshell. The bloom is what seals the pores in the eggshell so that bacteria can't get inside.
This week's eggs, time to make quiche
 In hopes of getting some of my seeds started indoors this weekend I spent a good part of the last 2 days making little newspaper pots with my PotMaker. I love this little contraption and highly recommend it to anyone starting a lot of seedlings. I think I have around 80 done so far, only about 300 more to go. 
Lots of tiny pots
 It makes pots and also gives your pecs a nice workout. I have to say I didn't even remember that I HAD pecs until I used this thing. 
My PotMaker
 Yesterday Mike, Lily and I went to a great seed store here in town and got 6 new fruit trees, 30 asparagus roots, and lots of seed garlic (from Gilroy, Ca the best smelling town in the USA!) After I brought them home Bruno decided that the trees looked a lot like sticks, so he should carry them off and chew on them. He managed to get 3 of them and chew off the small roots before I caught him. Let me just say that he's really fast when he needs to be, which saved him from the swift kick in the ass I was about to give him. I think (hope) that the trees will survive the trauma.
2 figs, 1 cherry, 1 peach, 1 apricot, and 1 plum tree
 All morning he has been trying to make up with me. It was the last straw though. He is an expensive pain in my butt. I put an ad on craigslist but nobody wants him. Mike will be calling a local no kill shelter to take him in. 
He looks smug
 I'm most excited about the asparagus. It's my favorite veggie, but I've never grown it because I haven't had the land to do it. I didn't want to start a bed at a rental house for fear that I would do all the work and wait the 2-3 years before it was ready to harvest just to move. Now that we have our own land I can plant to my little heart's content. Since we got 2-year-old roots we will be able to harvest 1 or 2 stalks from each plant this year and then for 6 weeks next spring. The best part is that once I get them established they will produce for 20 years or more!
30 asparagus roots
 I think Mike is most excited about the garlic. I put it in everything I cook that isn't sweet. Not only does it taste good, but it's incredibly good for you!
Garlic!!
 Anyway, that's what's been going on around here. Blessed Be




2 comments:

  1. Wow...busy, busy. I hope that people know how hard you work. A job and a half for you!!

    Poor Bruno. I do hope that he finds a good home. I'm sure he would be great with a family, minus a farm.

    That is an amazingly long run for asparagas. I had no idea.

    Is it me or do I see green in the onion beds? Maybe I was just wishing...LOL

    Everything looks great. Keep up the hard work =)

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  2. Thanks Jill.Yup, I'm a busy girl.
    Asparagus is a perennial, it keeps coming back from the roots every year. That's why I never grew it before.
    And yes, there is green in the onion bed, I put in young plants, not seed so they already had some green at the top when I planted them (they look alot like dirty green onions when you buy them.) They will still take several months to get big enough to harvest but this way I don't have to worry about getting the seeds at the right spacing.

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