November Raspberries

They are still ripening on the vine! We have been eating them all summer. Not as sweet as summer berries, but they taste pretty good! Note the molting awful-looking hens in the background eying the berries. I like to throw them berries, they love them and beg for more.

The chicks are becoming teenagers!

They were born June 10th. We think we have 3 boys and two girls. They are Delawares.

Every Urban Farm Needs a Couple Good Watchdogs

The signs on our gate say "Beware of Dog".  I want to get the sign that has a picture of a Dobermann Pinscher and says "I can make it to the gate in 1.2 seconds, can you?".

Sadie Lou, our newest addition to the family.  She is a rescue, we were told that she is 1/2 Rottweiler and 1/2 Lab, but she doesn't look like a lab in any way.  I suspect that she is 1/2 Rott and 1/2 Pit Bull or some other stout dog that is brindle colored..   She is a sweetie and really mellow.  That is welcome since out other dog, Greta (see below) is hyperactive and very "on guard".  Sadie is learning to be a good guard dog from Greta, the ultimate guard dog.

Our goofy Greta.  She is the ultimate guard dog.  She is vigilant, always on the lookout.  No squirrel or cat is going to walk on our property without Greta announcing their presence to the world.She finds it hard to relax.  She reminds me of the Dobermann dog leader in the movie "Up".  We are hoping that she and Sadie Lou will start playing a lot and she will get tired out.   I am thinking about getting her a treadmill for more exercise, since walks and playing fetch are not enough.  I can't run with her as she is too hyper and has no sense of her body kinesthetics and no body management skills.  She is all over the place and runs in front of me, stops, pulls, etc. and she is strong!  She has a fun-loving personality and at almost 5 years old she still behaves like a puppy (a 70 lb puppy). She is likely to sit on your foot with a bony buttbone or step on your foot as she walks by.  She smiles a lot and seems to think things are funny, especially if she nudges you in the butt and makes you jump.  She is happiest exercising, running, jumping, etc.

First Harvest Fresh From the Garden

The garden is coming along despite our rainy summer.  Today I made a frittata for dinner with our hens' eggs and cilantro from the herb garden.   We had mashed potatoes with the year's first potatoes, and a salad with our butter lettuce and the first tomatoes of the season.  The tomatoes are the heirloom variety Stupice, and there is a a lot of fruit on the plants and many are ripening already .  I will have to remember that this variety is a  good producer and early ripener for future plantings.
Tomorrow night will be some sort of zucchini dish.  They are ripening fast and furiously.  Soon I will be up to my ears in zucchini and yellow summer squash.  If anyone has any recipes for squash, send them my way.  My plan is to freeze any extra for future use.

New Chicks!

Our chicks finally hatched!  It took 21 days, but the chicks are out and running around.  Only two out of six eggs  hatched, so I got four more chicks from the farm and put them under her.  She has taken to all of them, except the smallest.  That one is named Cookie, and is younger than the rest.  Cookie runs around behind all the other chicks trying to keep up.  The mama will tolerate Cookie to sit under her to keep warm, so we don't need the heat lamp.  They are out foraging in the yard and digging for grubs. The mama digs up dirt and shows them how to get food.  They are really cute and we are having a great time watching them and playing with them.

Goats!

My sister Tanara is living the dream life in an old farmhouse on a 7 acre apple orchard in Winthrop, WA.  She recently got some baby goats, and calls frequently to give updates on the babies.  I haven't met them yet, but the goats seem to have great personalities.  She says that they are like dogs in that they follow you around and want to be near their people.

Since I can't have goats here in the city where I live, I have to live vicariously through her pictures and updates.

 This is her son, Hawke bottle feeding his goat.

Tanara's husband Zach bottle feeding his goat.

More bottle feeding:

Ear nibbles!

A boy and his goat

It all looks like a lot of fun to me.  Also, it looks like a lot of work.  I think that I need to make plans to go visit them this summer while the goats are still babies.  

Squash and Zucchini

I got to planting 3 Zucchini's and a Carnival Squash (from the Proctor Farmer's Market) yesterday amidst intermittent sprinkles.  We will be full of squash this year!  I ended up planting them in the ground, rather than in pots as I had originally planned. They are right outside the chicken yard and the chickens were eying them greedily.  I sectioned off the squash plants and I might let the chickens in there to eat the weeds, if I can keep them from eating the crops.   That requires standing there and watching them so we will have to see if time permits.

I would like to grow pumpkins but I am not sure about this, because they take up so much room.  They are fun to grow, but I need to find a place for them to run.  I have always wanted to grow one of the giant varieties that you see at the fair, but I really don't have room for that!

Memorial Day Weekend Plantings...Just Need Soil

Over the weekend we went to the Farmer's Market.  It was a beautiful sunny day and I was inspired by the plant prices as compared to Home Depot or Lowe's, so I bought a bunch of veggie starts.  When we got home, I planted the two varieties of broccoli and cabbage in the bed in the henyard, but ran out of soil for the rest.  I need to get the tomatoes (heirloom of course) into their containers, but I have no soil to put in the pots!  Greg is taking his truck to work this week, so unless I want to pay a premium for individual bags of soil, I have to wait until the weekend when we can take the truck to get a load of Tagro.  Boo hoo.  Hopefully, I remember to keep the little 4" pots watered all week so they make it.

Photos of the Ol' Homestead

This is what we call the "circle".   In the background you can see the hen yard and the coop is over to the left.  If the far background, in red shorts, is my husband toiling away at waxing his boat (no, that is not a euphemism).

The hens and their coop.  Notice that they are running toward me around the vegetable bed.  They think that I have food.  Nope.  Just a camera.

This is our broody hen named Oreo. We call her Mamacita now that she is broody.  When they go broody, they just want to sit on eggs and wait for them to hatch.  We have no rooster, but we got some fertilized Delaware chicken eggs and put them under her.  We are anxiously awaiting our hatchlings.  We will surely be posting about our new babies when they come!

The patio.  Yes, I lugged those columns here myself!  Sculpture on the table by Trisha Johannessen.

I will post more photos when I get some.   Meanwhile, I have to get back to work.  I can hear the weeds growing out there.

A Beehive, at Last

I finally got my hands on an affordable beehive from Craigslist.  My friend lives in Woodinville, where it was located, and she picked it up from the seller for me.  For $10 I think that I got a good deal.  The only work needed is to paint it on the outside and wire some plastic honeycomb foundation into the frames (this will be were the babies will be made to populate the hive) and get some bees.  It already into the bee season though, so I might have to wait until March to get bees, when the season starts again.   You have to give the bees sufficient time to build up their stores in their new hive to tide them over through the winter.  Otherwise you have to feed them sugar water, and they can go through 10 gallons of this a week! Yikes!

I am excited to start as a novice beekeeper.  I took a Master Beekeeping class at the Pierce County Extension about 2 years ago.   I need to take it again, though, to refresh my memory.  There is also a hands-on component to this class that I missed last time that would be helpful to take.  Also, I am keeping my eyes and ears open for a fellow beekeeper who needs help so that I can learn by helping.  For further information, I have been checking out the numerous books and websites on the subject , and viewing an amazing library of informational beekeeping videos on YouTube.

Hopefully in the next couple years we can have some honey.  Mmmm.  I can't wait!