Posted on by Heather

Today I got stuff done.

I planted all my cilantro (15 plants??). I put a few mizuna plants on the greens row. I planted 3 packets of carrots (white, red, black). I also planted a few kales. Happy day!

This week is spring! I think the ground is ready to get things growing.

I wanted to plant spring hard white wheat this week, but the ground is water logged in the area where I want to plant it. I might wait until fall. Or I might wait a few weeks and plant once the ground drains a little.

I talked to my sibs this week, and they said they’re not planting a garden this year because of the drought where they live. Having a garden not only heals the earth, provides biomass, and sequesters carbon, but the large leaves of some garden plants can serve as a mulch and living shade, which preserves precious moisture. Many plants are water wise. When they said that none of them were planting a garden, I felt my heart rip in half. And then rip in half again. And then one more time, but not as loud as the first two times. So, eight pieces total. Of my heart. Sad.

Back to happy things. My greenhouse is working! Everything in there is growing and happy! I even have a gopher that pops up every couple days to say hello, and bask in the warmth. The gopher’s name is Sheila.

One. More. Thing. Let’s all give a big South Dakota welcome to our new drake, Franklin. Franklin is from Newberg. He was best friends with two donkeys before he joined our farm. He adores Maggie. They swim together all day. Their goal is to raise 12 ducklings this spring, then 12 more next spring. ❤️

Posted on by Heather

Games Ducks Play (Part 1)

1. Tomato, Tomato (pronounced tuh-MAY-tow, tuh-MAY-tow)

In the game Tomato, Tomato, throw a split, rotten or otherwise unsuitable-for-humans tomato 3-50 feet away from your flock of ducks. The game play begins when the first duck spots the tomato and grabs hold. Play continues when a second, third, or fourth duck discovers the tomato. Turkeys may also play. There are no height or weight restrictions. The game ends when players get distracted by a shallow puddle or a squash plant.

2. Shallow Puddle of Nothing

In this game, two ducks put their bills into a shallow puddle, as if eating sooo much food. The object is to see how many other ducks they can trick into joining them at the shallow puddle. Once a good number of ducks have arrived (between three and five), points are awarded. If playing in “duck mode” the two ducks who began the game receive one point each for every duck they lured into coming to the shallow puddle of nothing. If playing in “flock mode” all ducks win if they can create enough drama to lure a human to the shallow puddle.

3. Sleeping Ducky

In this delightful game, ducks spread out on the front lawn, 10-20 feet apart from each other. One duck walks around acting as the “leader duck”, while the others pretend to be asleep. One by one the ducks “wake up” and follow the duck who was walking around. Last duck to follow the leader must run as fast as they can to catch up to the flock. They will never be the “leader duck”.

Posted on by Heather

One of our goals this year is to keep our garden full. When one crop is harvested, a flat of month-old seedlings will be planted in its place. It requires me to think ahead and plan where to put the next batch of teeny plants. It also means leaving a little margin in the garden just in case things take longer to grow than I anticipated.

This new way of approaching gardening (new to us!) is very fulfilling and exciting. It means that during the most productive months, our garden is running at full capacity. We are harvesting every day. We are making good use of the space we have.

But there’s always more that we can learn or do. I know there are spots under the corn where I could plant lettuces. I could have done a better job of protecting my baby beets from the baby ducks. I could have filled in the herb garden (but no–it will do that on its own). I could have spent more time over last winter prepping the east and west ends of the garden so they’d be as fertile as the central section. I could have planned something to put where the garlic was, instead of leaving it empty (like it still is right now.)

I’m not beating myself up with all my mistakes. I actually get giddy in the garden when I recognize mistakes–because it means that next year’s garden will be more beautiful, abundant, and lush than this year’s garden. I can learn and grow through my mistakes.

I’m going to add one more thing to this post. Actually two more things. First, I love gardening with Josh. I love doing anything with Josh. We share so many interests–some that we discovered as we dated in 1998 and some we’ve developed together since we were married 22 years ago. He brings so much joy to my life as we grow together. Second, Josh is a very organized person, and his sugar snap pea plants did not reflect that at the beginning of their growing season. They were Seussian–and that is not a vibe that jives with Josh. I put up a trellis a few weeks after they sprouted so that Josh’s snow peas would more closely match his desire for order and systems–not in a 1940’s German way, but in more of a Swiss farmer way. Now, as the snow pea season draws to a close, the pea plants which were trellised continue to produce, while the peas which were left to find their own path, wrapping their tendrils around each other, have become withered and spent.

Posted on by Heather

After our duck trampled the half-dozen corn seedlings on our last row while circling the chicken tractor, I decided to move the chicken tractor far, far away from the garden. It’s under the grape vines now.

My brain must live in a Disney fantasy farm world, where all plants and animals and hoomans live together in musical bliss.

That’s never been the case on our farm.

Free-range chickens rip up plant starts. Sheep devour kale plants in one bite. Escapee ducks flatten teeny seedlings. Chickens kill bunnies. Bunnies mow down freshly planted herbs.

Yesterday Josh said that he could live without the animals. He would much rather just have the garden.

Yeah, I understand why he said that. The garden is a special place for Josh. And I absolutely adore our garden, too. However…I also love the variety, spontaneity, chaos, and personality that the animals bring to our farm. We don’t binge watch TV, and could care even less about the big screen. But if you were to count up the hours that our family spends watching the animals, you might say we have an addiction.

We’ve loved watching the rabbits + bunnies, sheep + lambs, ducks + ducklings, chickens + chicks. It’s adorable! And if I keep learning and observing, it will be more than just adorable. It will be beneficial.

One of my goals is to better manage our menagerie–to use the strengths of each animal to improve our garden, our pasture, our farm and our lives. We can use the animals to enrich the soil, reduce destructive pests, heat up our compost, enliven the land, and eliminate weeds.

But for now, we’re kicking the duck out of the garden.

Posted on by Josh

I love getting early spring harvests! The overwintered kale is about done– and getting aphids, so it’s time to pull it out–but the chard is super sweet and should keep going a bit longer… hopefully long enough to tide us over until this year’s planting starts to produce. I’m optimistic about the tatsoi.

Front the incubator, we ended up getting six ducklings. Turkeys are more fragile: some never made it out of their egg, and a couple died after hatching, but two have survived.

Posted on by Josh

We’re finally getting a little rain today after two very dry weeks.

Some of the duck eggs are starting to crack, and we are hearing peeping sounds. Any day now…

Posted on by Josh

Darla the duck died. Heather propped up a gate panel against the chicken area this morning, and it fell and crushed the duck. Guess we won’t have ducklings soon.

Posted on by Josh

A couple days ago we got a male duck on loan from our neighbors. We might have ducklings sometime.

Heather seeded beets and carrots today.

Posted on by Josh

All of a sudden we’re getting duck eggs. We found seven of them yesterday in the sheep shelter. Apparently they sell for $12 a dozen. They’re huge and have huge yolks.