Our original sheep are white St. Croix hair sheep. (In some ways they’re more like goats in their feel and appearance.) But our newest sheep are Shetland/Gotland blend sheep, and their wool is luxurious, smooshy, soft and so, so curly. It’s exceptionally curly when it gets wet. This video shows some of the curly goodness!
One of the tricky things about caring for the health needs of sheep is that they can’t talk. They can’t say “It hurts here,” or “I have a headache,” or “Something’s not right with my digestion.” I can observe some health symptoms, such as lowered head, hunched back, lethargy, limping, diarrhea, or pain indicators in the face. However, other health issues may be asymptomatic, eventually leading to what appears to be an illness with quick onset.
Josh discovered a website that maps all the different soil types in the United States. He looked up our address and found out that we have Aloha (pronounced uh-LO-uh) Silt Loam.
Technically I got my first radish a couple weeks ago. I picked it, put it in my jacket pocket and forgot about it. Today, though, I was able to harvest my first fistfull of radishes! Yay!I’m not a huge fan of radishes, but they’re great because they can be started in early spring and harvested a month or so later! They’re also incredibly easy to grow. An idiot-proof veggie.
The NHS plant sale is a dangerous place of you’re wanting to have the value of your harvest exceed the cost of planting. We spent $31. I transplanted dwarf blue curled Scotch kale, Italian silver rib Swiss chard, and Mortgage Lifter tomato in my garden row (all heirloom), plus Delicata squash, yellow summer squash, and spaghetti squash in the row that we planned to leave fallow this year. Grant transplanted a black Krim tomato in that row, too.
Heather transplanted herbs out into the pasture along the fence.
I ran a 1/4-inch soaker hose on my row. It’s not very good. All the water leaks out within the first 15 feet–especially the first 5 feet. I might try a 1/2-inch soaker hose.
Frost took out the tomatoes the night after we planted them, and the chickens tore up about a quarter of my garden row.
The peas that I direct-seeded have caught up with the transplanted ones, and they’re healthier. Today I planted an Early Girl tomato plant that I got at the Ag Fest, and 10 blue lake bush beans. The soil on my garden row dries out quickly and can absorb a lot of water.
Heather planted a few Oregon sugar pod peas on her row and transplanted two tomato plants of unknown variety from the Ag Fest.
In the back corner of the property, one of our douglas fir trees got mowed down. It was the one that wasn’t doing well anyway. We planted another one in its place that we got at the Ag Fest. We also planted two lodge pine trees that we got at the Ag Fest, and we mulched the trees with wood chips.
The Oregon Sugar Pod peas that I direct-seeded on April 14 have sprouted (in the middle of the row in the picture).
I transplanted some plants that Heather started. From the end in: kale (dwarf blue curled), chard (mixed colors Swiss), spinach (Bloomsdale), lettuce (cutting mix), lettuce (unknown–the label faded), and marigolds (petite orange). Some of the starts were waterlogged and others were dry, so we’ll see how they do.
We planted about half of my garden row with Little Marvel peas that Heather started, two rows with one-foot spacing, and direct-sowed Oregon Sugar Pod peas every six inches down the center of the row.
A hawk killed one of the Jersey Giant chickens today.
I turned my garden row a second time with the pitchfork. I decided to remove the chunks of sod that I had turned over the first time I worked on the row. I was afraid the grass would keep growing if I didn’t. By leaving it there for the past month, I think it created a good environment for the microbiome to transfer to the manure and wood chips that I added. I saw a lot of worms, so that’s a good sign.
We also mulched between the rows and over garden area that will remain fallow this year but be cultivated into two more rows next year.
The radishes that I sowed in the ground last week just sprouted today!
Today I planted outside! Josh is stuck inside doing taxes, so I feel kind of guilty. I know he’d rather be outside with me. If he has time today after taxes, I’ll go outside and help with his projects.
I got the radish seeds in the ground. I also planted the pea seedlings that I started indoors back on February 22, 2019.
For the radishes, I took a 2×2 square of ground, turned it over a few times, mixed in some wood chips, scattered the seeds, and lightly tilled them under.
The pea seedlings went into the
Our seedlings are doing well. Each day, for the past two weeks, I’ve put them out on the front porch for some southeast sunshine. Then I bring them in at night.
We’ve had an unusually cold February (third coldest on record), so we’re anxious for March to warm up the soil so we can plant our cool weather crops.
I reinstalled the original oil bath air cleaner on the tractor. I bought a 30-inch long flex radiator hose with a 1-1/2-inch inside diameter to connect from the air cleaner to the carburetor.
Got a small trailer load of horse manure. It’s mostly aged already. I dug and turned over the sod to make my 3×30 garden row. I layered and mixed the manure plus a tractor bucket load of wood chips.
Today I started reading a book called Natural Sheep Care by Pat Colby. Chapter 6, titled Land Management, is a rich
Colby says “[Land management] is the single most important item in any farming enterprise, be it fine-wool sheep breeding, meat sheep, dairying or stud breeding. Land management is the difference between ultimate success or failure. All disciplines demand land in very good condition mineral-wise. Without all the minerals being available in the right quantities, the microbes, mycorrhizae and other occupants of the soil cannot do their work to make it a living, breathing food factory which will nurture all who live off it.”
She recommends getting a soil analysis.
We had to put down the boy lamb today. He still had a fever, and his breathing had become faster. We could tell he was in pain.
We had a friend come over with a .22 rifle and help us end the lamb’s suffering.
Today I picked up three free chickens from a lady who needed to rehome them. She said they all have been laying throughout the winter. Within an hour of us putting then in the pasture they had sneaked through the cattle panels and were browsing the side yard. It took some chasing to get them back in the pasture. Grant locked them in their coop overnight (without the chicken that Payne family gave us) to get them used to their new home.
