The Last Kid of the Year

Posted on August 30, 2012 · 2 Comments

Daisy kidded last night. This was only her second freshening and again she had a single kid. I was sure she’d have more than just one but nope, just the one. This time, however, she had a single doeling which proved to be much easier on her than last year’s single buckling. The doeling is very healthy and active, stood up really quickly and was able to nurse with just a little help from us.

This little doeling showed up around 11:30pm last night.  By midnight she was nursing all on her own without needing any help to find the teat. While I’m pretty tired, I’m very happy it wasn’t a repeat of last year’s 3:30am difficult kidding.

This picture isn’t the greatest. Daisy is an aggressive licker and kept moving around her so we couldn’t get a good shot. What you don’t see really well is her really cool markings. She’s got a dorsal stripe down the white part of her back and then the diagonal lines on her legs.

This little girl doesn’t have a name yet as she’s going to a new home when she’s weaned. We’re just waiting for her soon-to-be-owner to tell us what name she would like to use.

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Filed Under: Goat Health, Goats, Livestock, Urban Farming & Homesteading

The Turkey Threshold

Posted on August 29, 2012 · 3 Comments

Turkeys are awesome. They are charming and personable. I love having turkeys. As I’ve said before, Hank is one of my favorite pets. Yes, we have turkeys for pets. Duke, the she that we thought was a he, is the more vocal of the bunch and also the most dominant. She is also prone to shenanigans. Tater is the most submissive and shy one. She hangs back in the crowd.

But having three pet turkeys is completely different than raising additional turkeys for meat. They lose their charming tendencies. They fight relentlessly with each other regardless of how much space they have – and here they have a lot of space. The older ones particularly enjoy picking on the smaller ones so we had to separate them into smaller flocks to keep everyone safe. The “tots” are living with Hank, Duke and Tater because they are the bigger troublemakers. Hank, being the dominant male, seems to have a calming influence on them and keeps them from fighting excessively with each other. Duke’s offspring live with our chickens since they are smaller. Mr. Jenkins, our rooster, is larger than they are so he easily keeps them in line.

There is also the whole lot more maintenance involved. Wing clipping, a totally painless procedure involving trimming feathers (similar to trimming your fingernails) is a regular occurrence. Because they are still growing, so are their feathers. This means we have to clip their wings about every 10 days. With the adult birds (except for Hank who is too big to fly so he gets to keep his feathers intact) you only need to clip once a year, which is a lot handier since they are such large, powerful animals. I don’t even know how many shirts of mine they have destroyed with their feet from kicking me when I pick them up.

Surprisingly though they don’t eat much feed. This could be because they are good foragers, while also being a lot easier on the landscape compared to chickens. While they love to give themselves a good dust bath they aren’t prone to scratching like chickens. And while chickens will continue to eat a plant down to a nub, turkeys are more like drive-by eaters. A nibble from this plant and they move on to the next. Well, except for grapes. They nearly killed our grape vines. And they really love blackberries, but just the fruit.

Now just to be clear, the turkeys we have are not the big Butterball turkeys (which were just exposed by Mercy for Animals as being HEAVILY abused – Warning: Graphic) you get at the store. They don’t grow so fast they have leg, joint and heart problems and they don’t grow so big that they can’t naturally mate. No, what we have are heritage breed turkeys. They are smaller, don’t have gigantic breasts and have kept their natural behaviors, which includes being a lot more active, hence the shenanigans. We also gave quite a few away to be raised by friends so we had substantially less that what actually hatched.

Will we continue raising turkeys for meat? Yes, but we will only be breeding one of our hens next year instead of both so we have fewer to deal with.

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Filed Under: Livestock, Turkeys, Urban Farming & Homesteading

A Garden for the Birds (and the Bees) – Part 3

Posted on August 27, 2012 · 1 Comment

I can pinpoint my intense love for plants to when I was in high school. I was particularly interested in medicinal plants. My mom had given me a little space in the garden that I could plant whatever herbs I wanted. Mullein, comfrey, wormwood, rue, hyssop, sweet woodruff, mugwort, and horehound were just some of the plants I grew in my small space. When I went away for college I no longer had a little garden as I was living in apartments. Spring was the most difficult time for me because I had this yearning to start growing something. It might be why my apartment had so many indoor plants that my college roommate and I called it “The Jungle.” I also had an orchid addiction which I had to give up when I got cats. Don’t ask.

With our garden redesign one of my primary goals is to create an area that is safe for and from the chickens. They can safely forage but won’t destroy everything. In addition I want to make it a haven for beneficial insects, especially bees and other pollinators. Increasing biodiversity is incredibly important for helping control pests and increasing the health of the farm. Plus pretty flowers aren’t too bad either.

The Free-Range Chicken Garden has some great lists in it for creating your own chicken-safe gardens. Jessi Bloom, the author, breaks them up in to the type of plant (tree, shrub, perennial, etc.) and also whether they are safe for chickens to eat or just chicken-proof. She’s also got lists for fragrant plants, plants that will muffle chicken noises and colorful seasonal plants. She includes a great list on plants that are toxic to chickens and shouldn’t be planted where they have access. I’m happy to say I don’t have any of those plants in my yard.

This garden mixes different colors and textures to make a beautiful landscape.

The trick to producing a beautiful planting plan is to choose plants that have a variety of colors (flowers and foliage), sizes and are different textures. Avoid placing different species of plants that have similar colors and textures together. Also, planting in odd numbers more aesthetically pleasing than planting in even numbers. When planting a large area don’t use just a singular plant unless it’s a focal point/accent piece.

The following plants are the ones I’ve chosen for our garden.

Achillea millifolium ‘Paprika’ – medicinal and used in biodynamic farming because of its high potassium content. Attracts bees and other beneficial insects.

Artemesia ‘Powis Castle’ – similar but not necessarily the same as Artemesia absinthe (what they make Absinth from). I’ve grown this previously and was amazed by the amount of beneficial insects that loved to hide in it. Striking foliage adds color and texture contrast.

Carex buchananii – Chicken proof. Adds contrasting color and texture.

Dahlia ‘Mystic Illusion’ – edible (relative of sunflowers and sunchokes). Almost pure black foliage and bright yellow flowers add a striking contrast.

Echinacea p. ‘Bravado’ – medicinal and chicken-resistant. Huge, beautiful flowers are a bonus.

Gaillardia ‘Monarch’ – Attracts bees and other beneficial insects.

Hemerocallis – Chicken resistant and edible!

Lavandula x ‘Provence – chicken-resistant, medicinal and edible and a fantastic forage plant for bees.

Leymus condensatus – Chicken resistant and adds color and texture contrast.

Marrubium vulgare (Horehound) – medicinal, edible (candies can be made using horehound), and attractive to bees. Not necessarily the best looking plant but I want it primarily for nostalgic reasons.

Miscanthus s. ‘Cosmopolitan’ – A tall variegated grass that is chicken resistant but works well as a cover for them to hide or just lay under.

Monarda d. ‘Jacob Cline’ – Chicken-resistant, medicinal and very attractive to pollinators. There’s a reason it’s called “Bee Balm.” It’s one of my favorite plants to boot. I just adore the striking red flowers.

Passiflora ‘Maypop’ – Edible for both chickens and humans (it’s passionfruit!). This will be one of the vines we’ll be using on the fence around the chicken yard.

Penstemon ‘Firebird’ – Great plant for beneficial insects including pollinators. The bumblebees are particularly fond of it.

Rosa rugosa – Edible for both humans (used in jelly, tea, etc.) and chickens along with being used in Chinese medicine. Also serves as good cover for chickens to safely rest underneath.

Rudbeckia ‘Indian Summer’- Chicken-resistant and attractive to pollinators. I absolutely adore the flowers as well.

Symphytum officinale – better known as Comfrey, it is medicinal and edible for chickens (it’s controversial whether it is edible for humans). It is also an important plant for permaculture and around here it attracts quite a few pollinators.

Vaccinum ovatum – Edible to both chickens and humans. Evergreen huckleberry is a native around here and the season to pick is upon us. Now to find the time…

Vitis spp – Edible for both humans and chickens. Mmmmm, grapes. We’ll be planting these on arbors and on the chicken run.

 

 

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Filed Under: Current Events, Farm Diary, Garden Planning, Gardening, Growing Tips, Urban Farming & Homesteading

Fat Goat

Posted on August 24, 2012 · 2 Comments

Big ol’ Tubby McTubberson’s over here. OK, she’s not fat. Goats, like cows have a rumen which is one of four stomachs. The rumen is basically a big fermentation vat and breaks down the vegetative matter allowing nutrients to be absorbed. Well it gets burped up in the process and chewed as cud for a bit.  A healthy rumen will give them a big belly making them look like rolly polly little buggers.

But Daisy isn’t fat and this picture isn’t some ginormous rumen. Nope, she’s got some babies up in that tummy. And they are due this weekend. I’m really hoping she’s not doing an encore of last year. I’m just not up for sitting with her until 3am to deliver this huge kid that she needs help delivering. She’s much bigger than she was last year. She’s either got an even bigger kid in there or she’s got multiples. My bets are multiples since we can feel at least two in there.

In other goat news, Bella got a reprieve. She is not pregnant which I am TOTALLY OK with. The last thing I wanted to do was milk 3 goats every morning before work. Just not my idea of fun.

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Filed Under: Goat Health, Goats

Living in an (Almost) Tiny Home

Posted on August 23, 2012 · 11 Comments

It was once thought that bigger was better. People were buying up these giant homes providing at least a 1,000 sf per person. The tables have now turned since the housing bubble popped. Tiny homes have become the new McMansion. People are protesting the monstrosities of the 4,000 sf home by living in 244 sf apartments. The smaller the better. It’s all about living in a 78 sf apartment – the size of the small closet in an McMansion.

We live in an almost tiny home – not as small as a closet but smaller than what most people live in and smaller than most 2 bedroom 1 bath apartments. It was a conscious decision. When we started looking to buy a home our specific requirements were “large property, small house.”  That’s exactly what we got. At 750 sf it can be tight for two adults and a teenager. I get asked pretty regularly what it’s like to live in such a small home. Is it worth it? What would I change? So here’s the low down on living in a small house.

Pros

  • Cleaning the entire place, top to bottom only takes about an hour.
  • It limits the amount of junk you can accumulate. And keeps the chicken tchotchkes to a minimum (Tom, I’m looking at you).
  • It takes no time at all to heat up the house in the winter. The wall heater is more than enough. And a few fans can cool it down pretty quickly.
  • Which leads to less money spent on energy.
  • You know that the kids can hear you when you call them.
  • Maintenance work and remodeling costs a lot less.

Cons

  • No storage space and no pantry. Well, our garage serves as our primary storage and as our pantry.
  • We had to get rid of a bunch of our furniture when we moved from our previous 970 sf home. Amazingly, 220 sf makes a huge difference when you’re living in relatively small homes.
  • Our garage is so small neither of our vehicles fit in it. Mine is too tall to get through the garage door (and it’s not a 4 wheel drive) and Tom’s vehicle is too long to fit in the actual garage. This did help with our decision to turn it into our pantry/laundry room/storage.
  • No dining room = no entertaining in the winter.
  • The small kitchen makes it a challenge to process a lot of food at once so we’ve now set up a spot outside to do some of our processing. It’s a good thing most of it occurs in the summer. Also not having a dishwasher due to lack of space to put it means that a dish rack takes up a good chunk of our precious counter space.

What is the ultimate feeling about living in a small house? I’d like a bit more room if just for a bit larger kitchen and an actual dining room. A pantry would be nice as well. Not too much more room but a bit more would be good. Would I go smaller? I can unequivocally say “no.”

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Filed Under: Current Events, Farm Diary

I am NOT an Urban Homesteader

Posted on August 22, 2012 · 18 Comments

There is always somebody out there bitching about urban homesteaders. Usually it’s a woman bitching about other women that choose to grow vegetables and preserve their harvest. Sometimes it’s some dude bitching about urban homesteaders being elitist and out of touch because they don’t want to eat the corn-and-soy-laden-pseudo-food.

Why don’t those stupid locavores just shut up and eat the damn Big Mac already? We all know they want to but their guilt has overtaken them like a monster in a horrible B-movie.

This week is no different than any other week. Some self-congratulatory woman has decided that homesteading is a worthless activity that doesn’t break out of the status quo and shouldn’t be bothered with. After all,

… the damage to a generation of women who are tending (and butchering) rabbits and chickens, and raising vegetable gardens (often along with children) has already been done. These activities are obviously more creative ways to spend time than watching soap operas, but urban homesteading and “the home arts” should not be confused with real art-making, which involves challenging the status quo, not feeding it.

Please.

She goes on to discuss how all too often women judge each other but isn’t that what she’s doing herself? She’s judging women by focusing on food and wrongly assumes that it is all they do in their lives. She sums her article up pretty nicely in the last paragraph.

My point is this: if women are spending all of their time planting gardens, tending chickens, and canning (i.e. living our lives in the most laborious ways possible), how are we ever to catch up as writers, visual artists, composers, and directors?

Some of us like the process. We love the pride we feel in growing our own food, preparing and preserving it and serving it to our loved ones. But that isn’t all that we do. When people ask me to describe myself I’m funny, smart, and loyal to a fault. I’m a stepmother and a wife. I work full time as a design consultant and project manager.  I like to party with my friends and I can make a mean mojito. And I have an urban farm and like to cook what I grow and raise. But that isn’t all of who I am or all of what I do. I don’t know anyone that is just an urban homesteader. I have friends that are activists and professionally trained chefs. Friends that are in marketing, and friends that are researchers. I even have friends that are writers and business owners. We all have something in common but we also have many things that aren’t in common, and that’s what makes us fabulous people. We’re multidimensional and I’m proud to say that I’m not an urban homesteader. I’m so much more.

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Filed Under: Current Events, Farm Diary

When Technology Goes Away

Posted on August 21, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Yes, it’s been over a week since my last blog post. No, we did not fall off the planet. Well, we did fall off of the world wide web though. Our internet went out last week. Since we’re probably the last household without smartphones we were cut off from the world. More so because we couldn’t find our most updated phone book. Oh yeah, we were flyin’ blind.

I learned an important lesson this past week. Write down all important information and keep it in a safe place. Do not rely on the internet or even your computer to store this information.

We had a lot of canning to do this past weekend and of course all of my favorite recipes were here, not written down. I’m not opposed to using new ones from my canning books or making them up as I go (using the safe guidelines of course) because I couldn’t access my favorites. But canning is the least of my worries. What if I needed to access phone numbers I hadn’t written down for an emergency? What if technology was down more long term?

Now comes my next big project – getting everything in hard copy.

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Filed Under: Current Events, Farm Diary

Canning Tomatoes 101

Posted on August 12, 2012 · 16 Comments

We do a lot of canning here, especially with tomatoes. We harvest several hundred pounds every year with most of it being preserved. This year I’ve been getting a lot of questions about canning and tomatoes seem to the most popular.

Tomatoes are the gray area of canning. They’re not quite acidic enough to just straight can like fruit but the right amount of added acid can keep you from having to pressure can them.  Here are the basics on canning them (and much of this can actually be used for water bath canning other things like fruit and pickles. This will mostly be for making sauces, paste and juice. Crushed, diced and whole tomatoes can be done in a similar manner but you need to skin and core them first and the process is slightly different. The amount of acid is the same though. Even with pressure canning tomatoes you will need to add acid. If you’re adding other vegetables to your recipe you will need to pressure can because you’ve dropped the acidity too far. But don’t be mistaken, if you skip the acid or add other low acid ingredients tomatoes can effing kill you. Botulism is no joke.

Start with your water bath canner and canning rack at the bottom. If you don’t have a canner and rack use a large pot and put a towel on the bottom or use lid rings on the bottom. The rack/towel/rings serve to protect the jars from breaking. Put jars in your canner and fill with water. I usually will fill until the water is just above the rims to ensure that the water is at least an inch above the top of the jars when they are filled. Heat up on the stove.

In the meantime take the lids (without the rims) and put them in a pan with some more water and heat them up as well. Do not boil, just get them to a simmer. If you don’t have a lid magnet or rack put them in the water alternating direction (bottom up then bottom down) to make them easier to get out.

You can skin and seed the tomatoes before hand but if you have a sieve or food mill don’t bother with the extra step. Cut up the tomatoes and put in a large pot and heat them up. Bring to a boil and then simmer down until the fruit breaks down.

Run through your food mill with the finest mesh. This will remove the seeds and skins while breaking down the flesh. If you’ve already skinned and seeded them you’ll need to run the fruit through a sieve or food mill to make smooth.

Return juice and flesh to the stove and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook down as far as you need it depending on what you’re producing. This is also when you want to add any herbs or spices.

Once it’s boiled down it’s time to can it. Make sure that the water bath canner is boiling. You will be working with one jar at a time to make sure they stay hot while filling them. You don’t want to add a hot liquid to a cool jar because you risk breaking the glass. In addition put a towel down to put the hot jars on so they don’t break when touching a cold surface.  Pull out a jar and empty the water out.

To the jar you’ll need to add lemon juice or citric acid. It’s best to use commercial lemon juice which has a known pH level. Never use Meyer lemons because they don’t have a low enough pH to properly acidify the tomatoes. The guidelines are:

  • 1/2 pint (8 oz): 1.5 teaspoon lemon juice or 1/4 tsp citric acid
  • pint: 1 Tbs lemon juice or 1/4 tsp citric acid
  • quart: 2 Tbs lemon juice or 1/2 tsp citric acid
  • 1.5 L: 3 Tbs lemon juice or 3/4 tsp citric acid

If you want to use salt (it’s not required) the following guidelines are:

  • 1/2 pint (8oz): 1/4 tsp
  • pint: 1/2 tsp
  • quart: 1 tsp
  • 1.5 L: 1.5 tsp

Using a canning funnel fill your jars with the hot sauce/paste/juice leaving a 1/2″ of headspace. Remove any air bubbles and adjust headspace as needed. Wipe rim so that it’s clean for a proper seal. Take a lid from the hot water and place it on the jar. Take a band (which should be cool) and screw down the lid to finger-tight. Place the jar back in the canner and pull out another jar and repeat the process until all of the jars are filled. Once the last jar goes in start the timer. The water bath will increase pressure within the jars forcing air out to create a seal. Processing times* are:

Tomato Juice:

8 oz and pint: 35 minutes

quart: 40 minutes

1.5 L: 50 minutes

Tomato Sauce:

8 oz and pint: 35 minutes

quart: 40 minutes

1.5 L: 50 minutes

Tomato Paste:

8 oz: 45 minutes

Turn off canner, remove lid and let sit for 5 minutes and then remove jars. Place on a towel to allow to cool. The lids should start to pop immediately which means they are sealing. Any that don’t seal put in the fridge and use them soon. Once the lids seal remove the rings. This will help prevent rusting and also if a seal breaks it won’t keep the jar artificially sealed, hiding a spoiled product.

As long as proper procedures are followed home canning tomatoes can be done safely. Always err on the side of caution and you won’t have anything to worry about.

*Times will be different at higher elevations.

 

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Filed Under: Preserving, Recipes

A Garden for the Birds (and the Bees) Part 2

Posted on August 10, 2012 · 12 Comments

We’re moving forward in our planning for part of our backyard. Last week I wrote about how we’re going to update our patio area since it’s pretty much nothing but dirt and birds. I am using the book Free-Range Chicken Gardens to help plan our new garden. Here’s the plan view exhibit of what it currently looks like.

We’ve got big plans for this area. Of course we can’t do all of it at once but it’s something that eventually will look great. Free-Range Chicken Gardens has a great section specifically on planning your garden design even if you don’t have any experience doing any type of design. She starts with drawing out your property lines, house footprint, out buildings and other existing elements that will remain. She then directs you to make a wish list of what you want to include in your new plan. She even gets into details such as sun exposure, microclimates and areas of concern. Then you want to show other elements including the chicken coop, run and paddocks, trees, planting beds, lawn area, pathways and patios. This is our plan:

The patio is keeping it’s current configuration but we’re going to be building and adding elements on the patio to break up the large expanse of paving. Against the tower we’ll be adding an outdoor kitchen which will include a sink, barbecue, refrigerator, kegerator, and bar seating. We’ll also be building an arbor over a large portion of the patio to keep this area dry along with the dining table. In addition we’ll be building a cob oven. Flanking each side of the path out to the vegetable garden will be two 4′ diameter galvanized tanks with fruit trees planted in them. These will help add more shade and block the evening sun on those hot days. Offset 2′ from the patio and path will be a 4′ fence to keep the chickens corralled off the patio. The fence will be planted with edible vines such as Maypop passion fruit. There will also be vines such as grape and kiwi planted on the coop run fencing to produce a shady oasis inside the coop. The light green area will be seeded with chicken pasture seed in the early spring and then we’ll also include some chicken/turkey hardy shrubs between our vegetable garden fence and Turkey Town. The gate to the right of the chicken coop is access to the orchard pasture for the chickens and turkeys which will also be seeded with the chicken pasture seed but I’m not showing it here to save space. It’s an additional 20′x50′ area. The end of the path to the vegetable garden will have an arbor for more edible vines such as Scarlet Runners which are perennial here. In the darker green area on the left will be our chicken and medicinal garden. The chickens will have occasional access to this area for foraging. Additionally, the plants chosen for the chicken/medicinal garden are also bee friendly.

This plan will not be implemented all at once, of course. Just like every other project around here, it will be a work in progress so I’ll definitely continue to post on it. The next phase will be the planting plan. Next week I will post about the plants I’ve chosen and why and what the planting layout will look like. If I’m feeling extra saucy I may even include a perspective drawing.

 

 

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Filed Under: Chickens, Garden Planning, Gardening, Livestock, Turkeys, Urban Farming & Homesteading

RIP Little Girl

Posted on August 9, 2012 · 3 Comments

We came home yesterday after work to carnage. I almost cried. Almost. But I didn’t because deep down inside the demise was a relief.

Our Fuji apple tree was dead. Snapped off a the base. It really wasn’t a surprise and was eventually going to happen. Half the tree and thus half of the trunk was killed last year during the heavy rains. Last year I thought it was bacterial blossom blast because the buds died suddenly right after a late frost and weeks and weeks of rain. But bacterial blossom blast is usually not serious enough to actually kill a tree. It definitely wasn’t fire blight, which I’m familiar with. I really hope it’s not oak root fungus (though I think this might be the issue). Whatever it was, it girdled the tree at the base.

Fortunately the root system is still good. There are some healthy suckers coming up from them. Not all is lost! I’m going to attempt to graft new apple varieties to these suckers next spring. I am definitely not going to miss the scion exchange and I may even order some scions if I don’t find what I want at the exchange. One of the reasons I’m happy for this tree’s demise is that since it got diseased last year I’ve been pushing to just take it out. Fuji’s are just so…common. I’m more interested in growing heirloom varieties of apples. Apples that you can’t purchase anywhere except for maybe some farmstand out in the middle of nowhere that has 100 year old trees that the farmer is still harvesting from.

There was once 7,000 named varieties of apples just in the United States alone. Can you imagine 7,000 varieties? That’s incredible. 85% of them are gone now. Extinct. Never to come back. I actually have a tree that’s a graft from an original Johnny Appleseed tree. As far as I know it doesn’t have a name, it’s just a cider apple that’s no good for fresh eating and it’s probably not nearly cold enough here to ever produce fruit, but I’m fine with that because I’m just happy to be able to preserve a piece of history in my backyard. Now I’m off to find what variety I want to plant!

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Filed Under: Garden Planning, Gardening, Growing Tips, Urban Farming & Homesteading
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