On Gardening

I find that when people find out that I out in a sizable garden each year and have beehives, I get one of a few responses:

1. "Do you sell vegetables/honey?"

- No, I don't.  I have a large family that loves fresh vegetables and everything I grow goes into their bellies in one form or another.

2. Or worse: "Do you have tomatoes/cucumbers/etc?  I just love them fresh from the garden!  Could I get any of your extras?"

- Same response at  above, with internal eye roll.  My garden and hives cost me money, time, and effort.  Why would I ever give any of it away?!

3. The worst: "Would you mind bringing your tiller over and turning just a small garden for me?"

- Yes, I would.  My tiller is not for hire.  It still takes up my time and gas and most that ask don't even know how to prep the piece they want to turn.  They expect my little tiller to cut through virgin ground and they will instantly grow award winning vegetables with no effort.

So my advice to those that hear that a coworker or friend is putting in a garden is to respond politely and with interest, but don't make demands.

A "Day in the Life"

Every day on a small homestead or Farmstead includes chores.  Ours is no different.  The chores may not be the same, but a regular week-day for me generally goes something like this:

Wake up between 10 and 11, get dressed and get something for Bubba to eat along with the cats and dogs.  After that I start on chores.  The animals' needs require daily attention.  I usually start with the rabbits.  I'll haul feed down to the barn when needed, turning on the water before heading down, which can sometimes be a real trick with a 50# bag of feed over your shoulder!

If I've brought down feed, the first stop is the barn.  I know when the pigeons are out of food, because they start to simulate Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie, "The Birds."  I put the new bag of feed into the appropriate bin, then head out and check over all the rabbits and feed them while dumping out water bowls at the same time.  Then I go back through and give fresh water, scrubbing out filthy bowls as needed.  The pullets and hens also get fresh water, while checking for eggs.  After making sure everyone has clean water, I dump, scrub, and refill the goose pot and buckets, which they usually immediately soil, but I've got to at least try!  Then it's hay for the rabbits and feed for the hens and pullets.  Feeding and watering the pigeons is always a trip, because it becomes a frenzy for birds to get into the feeder and the squabs beat their parents into feeding them.

After all the barn critters are fed and fluffed, I head back to the house for those chores, casting an appraising eye over the berry bushes and beehives as I go.  On the way up, I switch out the hose director so one section of the gardens will be watered.  Today it was the tomatoes.  The cavies get fresh food and water, the chicks and ducklings too.  In the same area the raised garden, flower bed, herb garden, and a few potted herbs need watering.  On the way to the front yard, the potted trees and herbs also need water.  In the front, the potted plants and flowers need water, as do some of the garden plants.  Then I proceeded to weed the front garden. 

Then it's into the house to cool off for a bit, get something to eat, clean a bit, and get ready for work.  Before heading out, it's back to turn off the garden water.  I head off to work late in the afternoon and work until the small hours of the morning.  When I'm finished, it's home and into bed around 3am, to start all over the next day.

And that's just a regular day.  On week-ends I add in breeding, pan cleaning, mulching and fertilizing gardens, more in-depth weeding, mowing, selling animals, festivals and shows and swaps, cleaning nests, laundry & house chores, and much much more!  Somewhere in all this I still manage to find time to crochet, knit, and spin to have product to sell.

Hard Cider Reviews: Redd's Apple Ale

So I've decided to start keeping track of the different alcoholic beverages and their tastes along with my overall evaluation.  For no reason than just my own personal uses.  Though feel free to read along!

The first thing I'll say is that I do not like beer, nor do I have much liking for the taste of alcohol in general.  However, I've learned in the past months that there are certain beverages I can tolerate fairly well, and others that actually appeal.  These are the hard ciders, for the most part, plus a few other "exotic" drinks.  Most of these can be found at just about any standard grocery store.  My store has this special, you can purchase a single regular-sized bottle of off-brand drinks for a much reduced price.  You can also mix-n-match these oddities to make up a "tester" 6-pack.  This is what I like to do, because it gives me the ability to try a bunch of different ones.  I simply ran into the problem that I can no longer remember which ones I'd already tried and liked, and those I didn't.

Dilemma solved!  Ya'll get to hear my reviews!

So this first one is not actually my first, though I hadn't noticed it on the shelf before.  There was only 1 bottle of it it the mixers, so I popped it into the pack to try.  The brand is Redd's and this is a 'crisp' apple ale.  Apparently they do make other styles, though I didn't see any other singles.  This one is a clear glass bottle with twist-off cap and red label.  The liquid inside is a light amber in color.  The fragrance is a light apple, not too overpowering.  First taste shows is to be quite light and refreshing, with a slight tingle and bite if held too long on the tongue.  Barely any aftertaste, with no bitterness.

This one definitely wins my seal of approval.  I could certainly see this one accompanying a meal... though probably in an actual glass.  I wouldn't class this as a favorite, but certainly one to enjoy.

Changing Direction: Rabbits

It's interesting to think that I've been in rabbits for almost 20 years.  And yet, in all that time I really can't say that I've genuinely excelled with any single breed.  I've encouraged the kids to have their own, gone to great lengths to help them get the best and watched them succeed.  Both elder girls have won both BIS & RIS trophies.  I myself even won an RIS once... long ago.  But that's no more than a memory.

I think of other people I've known over the years, some haven't been in as long as I have, winning high stakes with their ONE breed.  I think of others who've been raising the same, single breed for at least as long as I have.  And then I wonder, why can't I settle on a single breed?  I have never truly had a passion for just one, I love them all.  So I always have to try something new.  Even when I first started, I had 2 breeds: Mini-rex and Holland Lops. 

I've raised cavies for only about 10 years, with about a 3 year gap in between while having my youngest kids.  And even though I've tried out different ones of those as well, I've always gravitated back towards a single breed: American Satins.  I'm even down to just the 2 compatible colors: cream & white (necessary to breed creams, not because I'm particularly fond of them).  So why have I never been able to drive myself to the same level with the rabbits?

Over the years I've had:
Mini-rex
Rex
English Angora
French Angora
Lionhead
Polish
Dutch
Netherland Dwarf
Holland Lop
Mini-lop
French Lop
Flemish Giant
Californian
New Zealand
Lilac
Havana
Himalayan
Belgian Hare
Jersey Wooly
American Fuzzy Lop
Mini-Plush Lop
English Lop
Mini Satin
English Spot

That's 23 out of 47 breeds!

Now I'm getting ready to clear out all "non-essential" breeds from the rabbitry.  I plan on leaving only my Hares and the Dutch.  Everything else will go.  That will actually reduce me down to less than 10 rabbits if I can actually pull it off.  The problem here is that I can feel the restlessness coming on.  I don't have the ability to go full-out with the Hares.  I love them dearly, but most of my cages were not built to house Hares (who require special accommodations), so I'm very limited in the numbers I'm able to maintain.  The Dutch are the property of one of the girls and I have little interest in them honestly.  So now I'm at my wits' end.  I want to specialize, I really do.  I just cannot seem to find that ONE special breed that is meant for me.

"What Mom Says"

I'm coming to discover that when you have multiple teens in the house, everything you say can and will be distorted, sometimes in the extreme.  I can't really say that it's really a fault or blame type of situation.  Teenage brains are just equipped to operate differently than either children or adult brains.  It's scientific fact!!  Of course, at this age I wonder if really it doesn't have more to do with a slight disconnection of their ears to their brains!  I believe the common term for it is "selective hearing" and apparently, my voice and those of moms everywhere suddenly become the range that teens simply cannot hear.  For example:

What mom says: "Clean your room."
What teenager hears: "Wait until most of your belongings are scattered around and your room can no longer be entered without stepping all over everything."

What mom says: "You need to do your laundry."
What teenager hears: "Don't worry about cleaning your clothes! You can always just pick things up off the floor and sniff them to check to see if they smell too bad to wear just one more time!"

What mom says: "Please don't use this new special mug I bought."
What teenager hears: "Feel free to use it whenever there are no other clean mugs."

What mom says: "Be home at your curfew time."
What teenager hears: "Come home at least 10 minutes later or longer.  Heck who needs curfews!"

What mom says: "Keep an eye on your younger siblings."
What teenager hears: "Stare at the television, read a book, or listen to music all you want.  It doesn't matter what the little kids are doing."

What mom says: "I'm going out shopping.  Want to come along?"
What teenagers hear: "I'm going out shopping.  Want to come along?"

LOL

Ducklings - A Story

Take a good close look at this little guy.  Does it look as though he's struggling to survive?

Here's another angle of him.  Seems perfectly healthy to me.  But that was not what the store that had this duckling told 2 young men who were there to appreciate the spring birds.  The story I was told by the young men was the store had said this duckling was slower than his counterparts and they did not expect him to make it.  So they were going to just "throw him out."  Yes, that was verbatim for what the guys told me that afternoon after they knocked on my front door and handed me a small cardboard box containing this little guy.  Apparently their grandfather lived down the road and knew I kept ducks, so instructed the young men to bring the little one to me.  At this point I had to tell them that I didn't have ducks, I had geese, but that I'd had ducks in the past.

Mentally my shoulders dropped, I didn't really want ducks, not my favorite avian species for personal reasons, but I was not about to turn this little guy away.  So I took him from the young men, put him on a heating pad with some crushed chicken feed and a tiny bowl of water while I fired up the brooder.  His story has since been told all around and he is thriving.

I lucked out though, after having placed an ad on CL several days ago asking anyone for another young duck to act as companion to Neitzche (name of the duckling, yes I named him.  LOL), I just happened across an ad today with an offer of free ducklings to anyone that was interested from a photographer whose lined-up-home for the babies had fallen through.  They were a week old.  Perfect!!  So I went and picked them up this evening.

But only one of these lucky babies will get to stay with Neitzche, the rest will be offered to other homes.  After all, I don't really like ducks!!

Gardening

I'm hoping to actually get all my gardens in the ground this year on time.  I never seemed to manage it in the past.  But this year, I have a head start.  With the help  (mostly) of my oldest girl, I managed to not only turn, but to actually plant the house-side garden today.  Here's what went into that garden:

Top to bottom:
- 3 Brussel sprout plants
- 4 rows of Kholrabi
- 3 Buttercrisp lettuce plants and 6 rows of seeds for the same
- 2 rows of mustard
- 2 rows of spinach
- 5 1/2 rows of collards
- 6 broccoli plants and 2 rows of seeds for the same

I also turned the soil around the back and half the sides of my shed and put in the started onions I'd gotten.  I also put a few pieces of garlic there as well, to finish out the row.

Then I turned a row of soil along the yard retaining wall and planted another 35 sections of garlic there as well.

I had gotten 2 horseradish roots and put them in a small depression in the yard where a tree had once been (but whose stump had long since rotted away).  I also brought out my comfrey plant and put it in a similar depression about 10 feet away from the horseradish.

The asparagus bed was looking sad, so I had my eldest rake out the leaves, weed it well, and plant the 11 new roots I had picked up.

Next week-end, if the weather cooperates, I plan on turning the secondary garden and putting in the potatoes.  At some point I also want to add some more blueberry plants, blackberry canes, strawberries (as soon as I figure out a better placement for them), a couple more rhubarb plants, and another pawpaw (they do better in multiples).  I had my eldest transplant the raspberry cane that popped up in the asparagus bed over to the berry patch, then had my youngest girl create a special barrier for the young cane so it's not accidentally damaged by unsuspecting people.

Sometime this week or next I'll setup several seed pots to start peppers, tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers indoors to be transplanted sometime next month.

And that's it for now!!  Busy, busy to prep for spring.