An Update

Its been a busy time... lots of new stuff... some disappointment... and everything in between:

1) The sheep are on permanent hold. After a major communication fiasco, the sheep were sold right out from under us the day before we were to (again) pick them up. Then we got a scathing e-mail in which it became clear that the seller either had us confused with someone else or really isn't dealing with a full deck. After drying my eyes over having to mow the lawn and comforting Gloria who was really excited about "Oonice" (Eunice), I've decided to let sheep come to us for now. Besides, the gas can for the mower is full.

2) We're beginning the expansion of the "orchard garden" (the garden that surrounds several of our young fruit trees) which will add about 50% more bed space to that garden. I'll plant some tomato and pepper seeds next week. About 2 weeks later I'll start some watermelon seeds. By then the new beds should be ready for transplanting.

3) We came home heavy laden from a visit with the Central Florida Gardener. Lots of fabulous things to try: malanga, cassava, bananas, okinawa spinach, sweet potatoes, and some others also. My brain is bursting with things to do... just wish the rain would hold off to let me get some done!

4) We ditched the rabbit hide from that little garden pest. The skin was so thin you could see through it. It tore several times as Randy was stretching it (a necessary step in the tanning process). I decided Sundae slippers are good enough for the boy... he doesn't need bunny slippers too. Also learned (from my very knowledgable midwife) that the worm that had burrowed into its neck was a "botts fly" and probably the very reason it had ventured so far from its home in the woods to come and feast in the garden. A botts fly will make them virtually insane and will eventually kill them.

5) I used maybe about a third of my basil last night for some fresh pesto sauce... and had such a heeping pile of basil leaves that I ended up making enough for 3-4 pounds of pasta! It was great! Thanks to my uncle for a yummy recipe and freezing tips! I've discovered I've got quite the knack with herbs... still working on the cucurbits... gonna put brassicas to the test this fall!

6) For anyone who read the "Say NO to Shoestring Farms" blog before I removed it, those facts are still very much true. I removed it at the behest of my husband who said I was too harsh. Forgive me please. He has rewritten it and I'll re-post it later with the changes. Until then, keep spreading the word to give Ron Price a clear berth. His "business" is not an upstanding one.

7) I'm in the process of building a new blog, one that's more informative for all those out there really trying to figure out how to do this florida homesteading thing... which means its also one that doesn't highlight cute pictures of my beautiful children. I know many of you read this blog for that purpose only. If that's you, e-mail me and I'll include you on family update e-mails. They won't be frequent, once or twice a month or so, but it will keep you in touch with the abounding antics here at the Pinedale Palace. I'll post a final blog to this one when I'm ready to make the switch... which could be a while so keep checking in here!

Spontaneity

Spontaneity- I'm so NOT spontaneous, I don't even know if I spelled it right. The spell checker is agreeing with me... but what does that mean?

Anyway, regardless of my claim to like to plan ahead, have my lists, rarely stray from a scheduled day, I did. All week. It first started with a decision to weed a BADLY infested herb garden and mulch what I could as many of the plants are still too small to handle a heavy mulching. Then I was picking beans and tomatoes in the garden, got frustrated when EVERY zuke and yellow squash I picked up was heavily infested with pickle worms and ripped them out. Yup. Their days are done. Anthracnose was really taking its toll anyway and I was feeling a bit defeated with a spray schedule that immediately gets washed off in the afternoon rains. But in ripping them out I discovered a hot pepper plant that had 3 little peppers on it. I picked the largest and Randy practically danced with excitement. I've also decided to rip out a few tomato plants and put them in pots, if they can handle the transfer, just to give the others some more room to breathe. Then yesterday I had a few extra minutes of "outside time" before I ventured inside for the dreaded "cleaning day". Well, I spent more than a few extra minutes as I got sucked into weeding a bed that was 100% covered in weeds. I had planted cowpeas, but, remember that bunny??? Yup, ate all but 4. I weeded it, covered it in plastic and transplanted the remaining cowpeas into prepared holes in the plastic. Tomorrow I'll plant the sweet potato slips that are still growing like wild on our porch into the same bed and possibly weed and mulch the rest. Yesterday I was admiring my abundant basil and decided to scrap my dinner plans and make pesto instead. Well, to keep it short, it wasn't so great. I mixed some overgrown zucchini sliced like pasta, but still raw in with some brown rice noodles. Not one of the best meals I've made. I'm open to new pesto recipes if anyone has one though! I also had the thought of finding free tile from Craig's list to put on our walkways between garden beds. This would prevent weeds (which are growing, not through the underlayer of weed cloth, but right up in the mulch!) as well as provide a distinction between mulched beds and mulched walkways when its time to dig up the beds. Well, the thought came yesterday and today free tile was posted. I snagged it... on my way to get supplies for our sheep which Randy and his dad will pick up tomorrow. The sheep are certainly not much for spontaneity since we've been planning this for a few weeks... even these particular sheep for a solid week, but in our book... this is moving kinda fast. But here we are, flying by the seat of some proverbial pants. And I haven't a clue what to make for dinner.

I did it!

I did it! I pulled off the "pink horsie cake" Gloria's been talking about for months! She found it in a book of fun birthday cakes I have... and decided many moons ago that would be for the "GloGlo party". We're not big into birthday parties, so not quite sure where she picked up on having a GloGlo party, but at any rate, we had one, complete with a cake that only slightly looked like a pink doggie instead. You can see, Gloria and I are both thrilled to present it to all her closest friends. (We made a tiny blue horsie cake too... mostly so Mama could practice but also so any pink-a-phobic little boys could have some cake without feeling self-concious). For those wondering, the mane is made with strawberry fruit leather.

In other news, the sheep hunt continues. We have a couple we may purchase if we can work out transportation before someone else snatches up the good deal. It would be for a 100% St. Croix and a 100% Katahdin, both likely bred by a Katahdin ram. The St. Croix has been milked giving 16-32 oz... about what we get from our dwarf goats.

The garden continues with its ups and downs. Getting LOTS of good beans, a good number of usable tomatoes (though another good number already attacked by bugs and rot). Yellow squash, zucchini and butternut keep coming. The butternut is really tasty! Aaron thought he was in heaven with that yummy squash continually showing up on his plate the other night. Our "seminole pumpkin" is not doing well at all. I picked one and immediately couldn't tell it apart from the butternut... maybe when we cut into it. There are 3 more I'm hoping the vine survives long enough to ripen. It is clearly a case of just not being a true seed. I've contacted Baker Creek (the source) and they've refunded me, but since I didn't save the package and don't know the lot number I couldn't do much to help them pinpoint the problem. Whatever this is, it just isn't at all anthracnose resistant. Despite my efforts its being quickly wiped out. In the summer garden, weeds are abounding. Okra is flowering and little okras will be read to pick in a few days. Some last chance tomato plants are big enough for staking... especially with beans starting to climb in them. They're from my smattering of unlabeled tomatoes. I offered them to others with no takers so here they are in my garden because I don't have the heart to throw away perfectly good plants. Cow peas are growing. Sweet potatoes doing well. Got more sweet potatoes ready to plant from the ones I've sprouted. It was so easy it makes me wonder why I was thinking it was going to be a major ordeal. Easier to sprout than seeds! The picture was taken about a week ago- both full-sized sweet potatoes (the store bought ones) have lots of sprouts on them now. The ones in the little container are the sprouts from TINY potatoes from last year's harvest... and those are some very ready to plant sprouts! All just given a tiny bit of water to sit in.

Today's chores are to weed the new herb bed and get some more sprouted herbs into it to make room for July's seed plantings (can you believe we're only a few weeks away from "fall planting?") and spray the gardens with neem oil... stink bugs are abounding! Gloria's been my "Aphid Warrior", armed with a spray bottle of soapy water and a bucket load of cuteness, she attacks aphids (and anything else in spray zone of a 3' little girl) with relentless avengence. Sometimes not always hitting the aphids, but that will come. Until then, I'm glad to have her working beside me. There's NOTHING better than that. Motherhood is the best job on the planet. And this little 3-year old is a precious Jewel to a happy mother's "crown". Happy Birthday, GloGlo!

Weekend in Review

I'll post our weekend activities backward as the latest was the most... um... unique.

Coming home on Sunday, late in the afternoon, we found a bunny in our garden. We have several bunnies that live in the woods to the south of our house and come out to graze on a regular basis. We have one garden with a little bunny-sized hole in the fence, but it being on the north side of the house, we generally don't have to worry about it much.

Until one finds it.

So I kept an eye on this little intruder while Randy grabbed the hand pump air rifle. He hit it and severely wounded it on the first try. He was rather proud of this feat and has been anxious to at least match my killing 2 pesky squirrels with this little bebee gun, one in a single shot. A couple more shots and the little bunny was dead. We were careful to explain to Gloria (who LOVES the bunnies) that when they eat our food, we have a right and a responsibility to defend our garden. She didn't seem bothered by it though. Actually it was hard keeping her away from Randy during the slaughter process.

Yes, slaughtering. Well, you see, I've always wanted to give my boys bunny slippers (though I still haven't attempted sewing anything with Sundae's hide). So Randy immediately went to work skinning it. We planned also to eat it... that is until Randy squeezed out a really disgusting worm thing that had burrowed into its neck. Yeah, THAT grossed Randy out for quite a while afterward. We decided to nix the rabbit stew idea after that. But the hide is doing its prescribed soaking in a battery acid solution right now and will probably be ready in about 2-3 weeks. Not what we planned on doing on a Sunday evening, but kinda fun none the less.

As for Saturday's activities... there were many.

1) We separated our chicks into 2 pens: meat birds in one and layers in another. We lost a layer due to crushing during a rain storm. They all piled into a rubber made tote that I give them for added shelter and the size difference was just too much for one little one. They seem to be happy with the added space.

2) We put up the electric fencing in the front and moved the goat kids in for weening.

3) We moved the kid pen (where the goat kids would be housed at night) into the unused portion of the pasture as a shelter for the ducks. Crows have been swarming the pasture for weeks... I think they are able to find duck eggs before I do. I've found 2 in the last week and have created a little nest box for them and put that in the kid pen. The ducks are happy to have that pen again (we used it to initially establish the Pinedale Palace as home for them).

4) We transplanted Mississippi Silver cowpeas in the unused (or rather, now inhabited by the ducks) portion of the pasture hoping they will produce a good abundant forage for the goats.

5) We staked out the corners of the new dimensions of an existing garden and planned the beds and rows for optimum bed space... a great job for that hard rain stretch in the middle of the day.

6) Finished putting barb wire up above the woven wire around the pasture as an added measure against Chuck one day deciding to jump the 4 foot woven fencing. We're hoping this will also be Nubian proof and maybe next year, when the pasture is better established, we can get some young nubians who will give us more milk.

7) Randy also "cut hay"... our term for mowing the lawn. It gets so tall so fast with all this rain, we can hardly keep up!

As for today... I guess I'll be attempting to patch a bunny-sized whole in the fence.

A Vision Meeting

These are katahdin sheep... not our's. We're thinking though. Yesterday I was looking out at the pasture, the partition fence holding the goats back for a week now. And its green. But mostly of polk and other weeds the goats won't eat. So last night, while snuggled into bed a bit on the early side and reading a Mother Earth News (a publication I don't recommend if you're easily offended by liberal propoganda), we mused over expanding our homestead into another enterprise.

So out came the books- Backyard Livestock and Pasture Perfect. Nothing was answering our questions. This is our dream for sheep:

1) That they will eat the stuff the goats won't and thus have a very low additional impact on the land and require little extra feed, particularly once the pasture is in full production, and even improve it some by giving the goat forage less competition.

2) that they will give a pint at least of milk that is not naturally homogenized. This means the cream will separate on its own and we can easily make our own butter.

3) They will be better lawn mowers than the goats- in fact the reason we have to mow our lawn at all is because the English nobles had sheep and thus the grass in front of their homes was always nicely mowed... and of course we have to follow after the rich and famous, even if it makes no sense whatsoever.

4) They would be an easier source of meat. Chuck is a good goat, but honestly, a decent sized sheep seems easier to handle.

Now, the info we're finding is limited. Few raise sheep in Florida. Sounds like this katahdin is the only breed. And what are they good for??? If they're good for meat, well, how much milk will they give? If they're good for milk, well, how much meat will they provide? We're not out to produce for the masses so we can get away with "less than optimum" of a single product. Can we use one breed to fulfill all our dreams for them? And maybe, just maybe, could we get a wool sheep that can do all of the afore mentioned things AND handle our summers so I could support my knitting obsession with homegrown, homespun wool??? I know. Big dreams for one little animal. But that's what animal breeders dreamed like. Maybe I should start studying genetics. Thirty years from now I'll have the perfect breed to do everything... or maybe not.

A Day's Harvest

This is today's harvest. I generally only pick things every other day right now as nothing grows so fast as to out pace me in a single day. Once the okra is bearing, that will have to change. But here we have it (I don't know varieties of any of them save the beans):

Butternut squash- Not sure if they're ripe. No sign of green left on them. Snapped easily off the vine. The vine had browned slightly... figured any more ripening would happen just as well on the counter as on the ground.

Zucchini- two today, more than normal. Production has really slowed. I plan to pickle these with a yummy recipe from my grandma... and we'll try it with the yellow squash too just because they are abundant though I'm dubious if they will taste the same.

Yellow squash- 3 today. About normal. Very productive with lots more little ones coming.

Cucumber- Just one though I probably could have picked two more. They aren't too tasty. The kids love cukes, but not these. Very seedy. We'll try pickling them also and see how they do.

Tomato- The second of the season besides 2 more ripening on the counter that fell off way too early as I was staking sagging limbs. Really having to fight off the bugs.

Beans- red seeded asparagus beans. They are really rocking now. Just a few plants has us swimming in beans. Enough to eat all we want and some to preserve. I'll prep some for freezing and can some more. I have a few more plants that were planted later and just starting to flower.

Eggs- a dozen yummy eggs. They've recovered from the protein deficiency and have even sailed through a change in feed with nary a blip in production. We tend to get right around a dozen a day.

Milk- we're getting a solid quart a day. Unfortunately, that's rather low. We should be getting double that. I think part of it has to do with kids still nursing during the day, but mostly due to precious little green matter in the pasture. Grass has sprouted. The partition fence is fixed and holding well. We snagged yet more discarded chain link fencing while on our paper route last night. (I think we'll need to drive the route even after we quit throwing just to see what treasures are being thrown away!) That will probably give us a third section for rotation once its up and solid. We're hopeful. Goat kids will be weaned this weekend and put in electric fencing in the front yard for as long as it takes to ween... maybe months. Sorry to the single grumpy neighbor who hates to see livestock in the front yard. Everyone else will be thrilled. I may milk twice a day for a time to see if I can keep the production up for a while longer. We'll see... that's an awful lot of extra work. :-<

What we didn't get:

Corn- we've picked 2 ears of corn and ate them a couple days ago. Absolutely no flavor. Corn is so hard on the ground, hard to get pollinated well, and hard for Randy to eat so we won't be bothering again. Maybe, as a luxury item, should space allow, we might try growing our own popcorn, but that wouldn't be for a while I don't think.

Peppers- still not even a blossom on the peppers. I'll try again in the fall, but I'm tempted to rip these out and make more room for the tomatoes.

Cowpeas- First planting is loaded with beans already. Just waiting for them to be ripe. This planting was just to fill in the spring garden. The summer stuff has a few more weeks before we'll see much activity.

Sweet potatoes- growing well. We're also starting some sprouts of our own. I have 2 store bought sweet potatoes in shallow pans of water. Roots are coming out. No sprouts on those yet. We also had some TINY little ones from our garden last year that sat in the corner of the kitchen all this time. Put those in a bit of water and there are sprouts all over them... though they are TINY! We'll move the kids kiddie pool and take advantage of the dead grass underneath to plant them when they're ready.

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For anyone interested, Baker Creek Heirlooms or http://www.rareseeds.com/ has free shipping until June 15th. Their shipping isn't too much as it is, but if you're ready to place an order, or just want to check them out and give them a try, now's the time to do it and save a few bucks.

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And for the kid-addicts, all is well. Nathan (aka Superfly) is being very merciful on his mama. The heat hasn't bothered me much at all. Hopefully that will continue all summer! He's a wiggly worm and tickles me frequently! Gloria got a new "big shovel" and helped me finish double digging the summer garden and get it planted. She also was a huge help in getting dry fertilizer onto plants earlier this week too. Aaron is... Aaron. Just a happy little boy who loves to be outside. He greets the chickens every morning while I milk then is off to throw random objects into rain barrels. He's a joy... as they all are.