We banded the boy goats today. Makes me sad, but it’s part of the process on the farm. I suppose it was probably easier than disbudding them, which I wasn’t involved in.
We have a gopher that just can’t resist bok choy. It took out the last of the bok choy from below yesterday and today. Luckily, the plants were left, and they crisped up in the fridge. We’re having Chinese food again tonight. I seeded some more bok choy in the place of the “harvested” ones.
Some Chinese brocolli sprouted. I reseeded the rest.
I reseeded some green beans once again. Tough going on green beans this year.
I transplanted an evil olive tomato.
Only a few of the green beans in row 1 sprouted, so I replanted today. I came across some of the beans from the previous planting, and I can’t tell if they dried out or their sprouts were eaten. I saw ants in the area a few days ago. The beans on the other rows are doing better.
thevtomato plants are looking healthy, and the pepper plants are starting to look better.
We had some great thunderstorms today that refreshed everything.
I reseeded corn where come seeds didn’t grow, and I added a few feet more seeds. I also seeded about five feet of Chinese broccoli.
I’m really happy about the bok choy. On plant got sucked down by a gopher, and one is struggling, but the other four are really vigorous.
The beans aren’t up yet, but I guess it takes them over a week to germinate. So we wait.
We planted cowpeas in row 3. From east to west: pinkeye purple hull, red ripper, Ozark razorback. We planted cranberry green beans in the west end of rows 3 and 4 (beneath the trellises).
Heather pulled out the remaining kale plants from last year and hung them to dry so we can collect the seeds.
The neighbor’s hay was cut yesterday.
The plum tree is absolutely loaded this year!
I planted about eight feet of Blue Lake bush beans on the west end of row 1. It’s been a grass-infested corner of the garden, so hopefully the bean plants and wood chips will keep the grass out.
Heather harvested garlic from the garden and in front of the house. The bulbs from in front of the house are small, but better than nothing.
And we still have mushrooms coming out our ears.
A Pineapple Express dropped a half inch of rain yesterday.
The hops plant accidentally got weed-whacked, but it’s regrowing… plus, we noticed a couple additional bines coming up from the ground, too.
The first planting of potatoes is looking great. We planted the rest of row 2 in potatoes today.
The peas are sprouting.
The first planting of corn has a couple of sprouts coming up. I did the second planting today.
We have plenty of volunteer orach and lettuce.
I planted Oregon sugar peas and the first 12 sweet corn seeds in row 1 of the garden. The dirt on that row seems really compacted, so we’ll see how it goes.
We planted potatoes in part of row 2 a few weeks ago. They’re up and looking good.
We’ve had a good amount of volunteer lettuce and orach growing that we’ve been harvesting and enjoying at the dinner table.
We transplanted tomatoes and peppers last weekend.
We watched a deer decimate the fresh leaves on our grapevines yesterday. I’m glad the netting around the garden is working to keep them out.
The baby goats are all growing quickly. They’ve all been disbudded. In a few weeks, they’ll get banded and turned into wethers.
I think I’ve already ruined the new chainsaw engine. Not sure what’s going on.
Update: Juniper’s kids are boys, not girls. We have four baby boy goats.
Juniper’s baby goats (both girls) were born Sunday evening. We were at a church meeting, and when we got home, they had just been born. Like Hazel’s kids, they have spent most of the first couple days sleeping. They have also seemed like they were shivering, but it seems to be subsiding today. They haven’t had problems nursing, though. And they went out into the back pasture with their mom today.
Hazel’s kids are bonkers now, running and jumping all over the place. After about a week of us helping them with nursing, they gradually figured it out and don’t need our help anymore.
My chainsaw stopped running, and I had to replace the engine. From what I’ve learned, the scoring on the exhaust side of the piston meant that I wasn’t giving it a chance to warm up, so the exhaust side was getting hot quicker than the intake side.
I did some work on the tractor: I bought new front tires and replaced the front wheel bearings. I also finally got around to tearing off the left brake assembly and replacing a badly damaged seal that was leaking the transmission oil out. The brakes work now that they’re not doused in oil. It will be nice to have the transmission stay full.
Hazel gave birth to two baby boy goats yesterday morning. No human intervention was needed. I heard goat sounds out my office window, but higher pitched, and went out to find two kids.
They’ve had a hard time getting the hang of nursing. We think it’s because Hazel’s teats are very big. We have had to help them latch on, and then they can suck and get milk. I hope they’re getting enough. They slept a lot yesterday. They looked a little better today, but I don’t think we’re in the clear yet.
The chickens got into the garden, so we locked them in for a week or so, and they cultivated it for us.
This past week was really rainy until yesterday. We’ll plant potatoes as soon as the soil is workable.
We finished splitting next season’s firewood. It will be about 50/50 maple and Douglas fir or pine. This year was mostly pine, which was hard to use due to some extremely pitch-filled logs.
We worked on some pasture fence repairs today, mostly pulling out some janky stuff and putting up new chicken wire to keep the chickens in the pasture.
We passed the cold frames on to a new owner today. They didn’t seem to make much of a difference in the garden.
We’re using some kale florets that we picked today in our stir fry dinner.
It was our first day of the season doing a little cleanup and weeding in the garden. We added wood chips to the extra area on the east side that was created by putting up the archway and deer netting last year.
The beginning of spring seems to be here. It was 69° today. The plum tree blossomed this week.
I worked on the mushroom bed. I removed the straw bale border, which was filled with grass and spreading into the walking path, and replaced it with wood that wasn’t able to be used as firewood.
I pruned the grapes, fruit trees, and roses over the weekend. The pruning on the fruit trees was very minimal.
The freeze a couple weeks ago kept temperatures below freezing most of the week (lows in the teens). There wasn’t much snow, but something whitish that resembled snow that took forever to melt… freezing rain or sleet, I guess. It took out the celery and chard, and the artichoke plants took a beating. Even the kale got “burned,” but most of the leaves were still harvestable. The Chard and artichokes will resume growing with new leaves. The alliums (leeks and garlic) were totally fine. Surprisingly, the lettuce also seems to have survived fine. The ice took down the deer netting fence in spots. I tacked it back up when the freeze was over.
A little January lettuce harvest before the temps go into the teens for the weekend. (It’s been growing since fall… super slow. The lettuce in the cold frame was larger, but just barely.)
An endless summer. Today’s high was about 65°. More mushrooms are still coming up. I picked a few more small peppers and some kale.
Heather made some grape juice from Merrie’s Concord grapes.
November 1st, and we’re still picking peas. They’re not as good as summer peas, but I won’t complain!
