Has It Really Been 4 1/2 Months?

Chicks for the Holidays

I am astounded that time has flown so quickly since I last blogged.  I guess that's what happens when you are so contentedly busy on a farm.  The holidays flew by as we celebrated our first Christmas on our farm.  The Christmas season started off with the arrival of new chicks at the Post Office on December 19.  We added 15 girls to our flock.  I love trying out new breeds and added two new breeds of Stars and Australorps along with more Americaunas, Plymouth Barred Rocks, and Rhode Island Reds.  My first 15 have been laying really well throughout the winter.  I believe the presence of the chicks, their warming light and a night light have helped keep egg production high.  I have a fantastic customer base with a waiting list!

Well, a 10X10 coop just wasn't quite big enough to accommodate a triple-roost, nesting boxes, feed, and supplies so we added another 10X8 bonus room.  It is separated from the main coop and is great!  The picture below looks like a porch but it is now fully enclosed with a door and a window.  The chicks started out in a large dog kennel in the main coop with a circular corrugated wall.  After Ronny finished the "nursery", he built a large removable box on a rack that gave the girls more room to grow, was easy on my back, and functions as a cabinet now.  He built a rack on the wall and stood the box up on it on  its side.  The floor rack functions as a low roost as the babies learn to fly up to the higher roost.  Ronny is so smart!


Beware that extra buildings on your property increase your taxes.  A representative from the Appraisal District paid us a visit this week and told us that anything larger than 10X10 is taxable.  Maybe, we should have gone vertical?

Of course, all things with chickens are not always rosy and easy.  We lost our first bird to a hawk.  It was one of my Speckled Sussex.  They are especially sweet and friendly birds and we were so sad to lose her.  Our rooster has also been a bit of a problem.  He is fiercely protective of his flock and attacks at will.  So far, he just spurs.  I tried the nice route of trying to establish dominance, holding him, and backing him off by getting eye level with him.  I even resorted to a squirt bottle.  The "nice" things didn't work so well.  A leaf rake to the chest has been the most effective thing and he seems much less inclined to come near me now.

Babies getting their feathers

The bonus room to the Chick Shack

Getting the Garden Ready

Of course, besides birds, gardening is just my thing!  Since I don't have a greenhouse yet, I am using my breakfast nook as a greenhouse.  To date, I have started asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, and peppers in the greenhouse.  I have some excellent mentors at Garden Inspirations who have been a fantastic resource in green thumbery.  They offer a wonderful variety of classes including monthly sessions that teach you how to prepare and amend your soil, what to do in the garden each month, what seeds to order for upcoming plantings, how to successfully plant transplants, and how to plant your seeds.  They give great lists on plants that are successful in our region, ideal garden amendments, companion planting, and so much more.  You can purchase heirloom seeds from them as well.  Check out their website and all the great resources and knowledge they provide.

I "greenhouse" my seeds in Dixie cups and baking tins with plastic lids.  They are on bakers racks and as soon as the seedlings emerge, we put them under fluorescent grow lights that are suspended from the tops of the shelves.  I also have a space heater in the room and attempt to keep the temperature around 75 degrees. As soon as the plants look ready, I transplant them to organic cowpots.  The broccoli and cabbage are on the carport hardening.  Tomatoes, peppers, and asparagus are growing in the greenhouse.  Onions, spinach, lettuces, radishes, carrots, and potatoes are in the ground.  I just planted potatoes this last weekend after a few weeks of curing in sulfur dust.  Ronny is working on chicken-proofing the garden so they don't eat our seedlings.  It is a huge area, so the fence work is a work in progress.

We prepped the garden with at least 100 bags of leaves this winter.  We hired a truck full of kids from our church to spend an afternoon with us.  We raked a huge yard for free and got 56 bags from that property.  We have also collected leaves from a variety of other sources.  We spread the leaves over the entire garden and tilled them in.  I can tell a huge difference already this year as the soil is looser, softer, and less clay-like.  We will also begin a compost tea spray regimen of the entire property 4 times a year.  This will rehab the soil by adding essential bacteria back into the soil.  Composting is a huge part of sustainability and gardening.  I currently have a tumbler composter, two tub composts, and I do deep dirt composting in the coop.  We are getting pallets soon and will build a compost area to allow for easier turning of the compost and better aeration.  I have started recycling all paper products from our home into my composting technique, as well.  

TOFGA

One of the best things we have done for ourselves as farmers is join the Texas Organic Growers and Farmers Association (TOFGA).  We attended their annual conference a few week ago.  I went to the gardening and sustainability sessions and Ronny attended livestock sessions.  We learned lots of new things, went on a farm tour, and networked with people from our region.  Two of my favorite sessions were one presented by Betsy Ross that covered soil health and one that presented the dangers of GMO seeds and Round Up (glyphosate).  I also learned a few things about sustainability.  We would like to continue to develop the farm into a sustainable site with added solar power and rain water harvesting.

Upcoming Events

I will be attending the 2013 Sustainability Summit at the end of March.  I am really excited about hearing the keynote speaker, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm.  Our son recommended his books when we first bought the farm.  We will also be participating in the DFW Truck Farm Fun Run in April.  Truck Farms are a new concept in the U.S. and the only one in Dallas is owned and operated by Garden Inspirations.  Join us on the Fun Run for a fun day during the Earth Day Dallas celebration.  You can register on the Fun Run link highlighted above.

Sad Farewell

As you might remember, we adopted a dog with the property.  Sometime in November, she started getting picky about eating.  After a few weeks, she started eating again and then after Christmas, she went downhill rapidly and ultimately died of liver cancer.  After her diagnosis, we chose to bring her back to her farm.  She died peacefully in her sleep, curled up facing the entire property.  It could not have more perfect.  We miss her.  I accidentally called the cat by her name today.  Thanks for being a great little farm dog, Shasta.

So as you can see, these are busy days.  Ronny is working on building his barn and a hog pen.  I am dreaming of dairy goats and making yogurt.  And of all crazy things, I want more baby chicks.  Visit us on our FaceBook page at Scasta Farm to keep up with harvests and news.  We will offer Pick-of-the-Week produce, figs, eggs, and PYO blackberries this year.  HAPPY FARMING!

Some Pictures - This is all I could upload tonight.

Some of this year's harvest

So this calf and it's pal think the chicken coop might be a good place to get out of the sun.

A Rhode Island Red, Delaware, Plymouth Rock and Mel to the right.

Mel when he was Amelia.  They love hanging out around the tractor shed.

Ronny planting his hay nursery with hay from East Texas.

Yes! We Are Still Here!

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted on the blog.  Needless to say, farming is work especially when you work!  The summer has been a tough one with a major grasshopper invasion that isn't quite over and moderate drought conditions.  We are praying that Hurricane Miriam and the cold front have a nice collision tomorrow and bring some much needed rain. 

One of my favorite finds this month is this website.  It is a site for farm girls and has been fantastic.  I joined and can't wait to get started on earning badges.  Sort of like girls scouts but we do things that help us learn more about all kinds of things related to farming and so forth.  I am looking forward to learning more about the organization.

Garden

The garden was definitely a favorite place for the grasshoppers and I waged a valiant war against them.  Of course, we strive to be organic and natural with minimal pesticide use.  I am happy to say that even though, I lost more than half my crops, we only used pesticide on the few surviving pumpkin plants.  They will be ornamental for us and I refused to let the nasty buggers have them all.  I lost all my peaches, cilantro, cucumbers, corn, beans , watermelon, and eventually my onions to hoppers.  They got the purple hull peas after we got a good couple of pickings.  We could have gotten so many more but did at least get 12 quarts.

The best crops were figs, lettuce, some spinach, radishes, onions (until the hoppers discovered them), patty pan squash, zucchini squash, peppers, cantaloupe, and okra.  The okra is still producing pretty well despite being punished by ants and grasshoppers.  The cherry tomatoes have done fairly well all season but none of the other tomatoes survived the pests.  The figs were outstanding.  I probably picked over 100 pounds just off my mature tree.  Despite being chewed to pieces at the top by the grasshoppers, the tree is surviving well in the lower branches and putting out more fruit.  I am working to keep the hoppers off of it.  We also planted 4 small fig trees this spring and look forward to them producing as well.  I made fig newtons, fig honey orange jam, strawberry fig jam, peach fig with thyme jam, and my favorite was fresh fig pound cake. 

Thankfully, the grasshoppers have shown no interest in strawberry and blackberry plants.  Those have been our biggest investment and we hope for a good crop next year.  We are very happy that they have survived the summer. 

We used Neem Oil, garlic spray, Garrett juice, and NoLo bait on the garden and fig trees.  I think I put out about 60-70 pounds of NoLo Bait.  I will start putting it out at the first sign of a hopper next year.  It has long-term effects and infects the general hopper population.  So, even though we haven't seen the NoLo effect this year, it should reduce the invasion next year.  I first found it in a local greenery for about $20 a pound.  Then I was fortunate enough to find it here for a huge discount if you buy 5, 10, or 25 pounds.  No doubt, I needed more than one pound so this was a great find.

I planted my fall garden on Labor Day, which was late but it was hard to time with the waves of grasshoppers.   I used seeds from Johnny's Seeds and I planted lettuce, spinach, brocolli, cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, and carrots.  Oddly enough, not one single plant has come up.  I haven't lost hope, though.  The okra took forever to come up and is almost indestructible now.  I am even wondering if it will come back next year if I just leave it alone.  Some of the trunks are 3-4 inches wide.

We plan to put in a cover crop soon of field peas.  When we get ready to plant in the spring we will have prepped the soil by mowing and plowing the cover crop into the soil.  The peas are a legume and will replenish nitrogen in the soil.

Chickens

I cannot say enough, how I love my chickens.  One year ago, we lived in our old house in town with one dog and each other.  Less than one year later, we are on our farm with 23 animals!  I got my chicks in May as one-day old chicks.  I ordered them with my neighbor.  In addition to the other birds I ordered, we also ordered 13 Americaunas together.  She got 10 and I got 3.  I picked mine out with absolutely no rhyme or reason.  They all looked the same.  I ended up with one beautiful marbled beige/brown/black and green tail feather rooster and one red, and one cream with a red head.  I think all of the neighbor's Americaunas are reddish.  No way could we have known that I would get the three that looked different and a rooster to boot.  All of the chicks were supposed to be hens!  Imagine my surprise when I am going to the coop early one morning and I hear three cock-a-doodle-ooooo's!  He sounded like a 12 year-old boy whose voice was changing.  I had called him "Amelia" when I thought he was a she because he/she flew the coop the first chance he/she got as a young chick.  His name is now Mel.

Ronny built an amazing chicken coop.  It is 10X10 with 8 nesting boxes.  It is so cute and cozy and they love their home.  They free-range and know that is the place to go at sunset.  We transitioned them into the coop from their little chick box and let them stay in there for several weeks before letting them out into the big old world.  I check the nesting boxes daily but haven't seen anything but the four golf balls we put in there to show them where to lay.

The flock is beautiful.  I have already described the Americaunas.  I have 3 big white Delawares with black tipped feathers, 3 friendly brown/white/black Speckled Sussex and their 3 pals the Rhode Island Reds, and 3 black and white barred Plymouth Rocks.  Don't you love their names?  One of the Sussex hens had a severe leg injury this summer.  It was either broken or just severely wounded.  It got caught in a pile of steel beams.  It was limp and sheared at the joint.  Well, needless to say, I was heart-broken because we thought she was a goner.  We cleaned and dressed the wound and splinted it with a clothespin.  I checked on the internet and found great advice to put a sock over her head while we attended to her.  She laid on her back and didn't move or make a peep.  We kept her in the house in a small kennel for a day or so, then transitioned her out to the coop in the kennel so that she wouldn't be isolated.  When she could start to bear weight on it, we transitioned her to the chicken tractor.  It took about 3 weeks to heal.  Even though she mostly used one leg, we finally decided it was time to see if she could range.  As soon as I took her out of the tractor, Amelia (aka Mel) attacked.  Of course, I didn't know Amelia was Mel and just thought she was the bossy top bird.  So, I put her/him in chicken time out for over a week.  He/she was spitting mad.  I also looked this up on the internet.  Assuming that Mel was Amelia, you settle the aggressive hen down by isolating her and taking her out of the pecking order.  Otherwise, she picks on new and/or weaker birds.  Despite the fact that Amelia was really Mel, it worked.  He/she came out and was much nicer and less agressive toward his/her own flock.  Are you lost yet?

Madagascar

 

I made a second trip to Madagascar in July to do mission work.  What an honor and privilege!  We are going back next year.  This year's trip was my second trip there.  One of the things I am anxious to learn more about is their farming methods.  They have the most amazing farms and it is very organic.  They plant around rice paddies and use a lot of small plot gardening and terracing in the hilly landscape.  The rice paddies grow fish and rice.  Once the rice is harvested, the fields are drained and bricks are cut from the dried silt.  The paddies are flooded the following season and the silt is replenished and restocked with fish and rice.

I am so disappointed that I am unable to upload pictures tonight.  They won't upload here or into an album on FaceBook.  I will try tomorrow and will post them in a new blog.  You will love seeing all the changes.  So, I will bid you goodnight.  I have so much more to tell you but this is already long enough!  Happy Farming and good night!

Produce Available This Weekend

Already Picked

I will have combo bags of lettuce, radishes, and green onions this weekend.  Email if you would like to pick some up.  You must arrange to come.  Please do not drop in.

Calves, Chickens and Kittens....OH MY!

Needless to say, I have been a busy farm girl!  So busy that I haven't had time to post a blog in weeks.  The garden, livestock, company, weddings, and funerals......life.....has kept us running!  But it is a good life!  As you can tell by my title, we went from Ronny and I and our dog, Tucker, to another dog, Shasta, two kittens, 4 calves, and 15 chicks.  We got all the babies in one week!

Baby, Baby, Baby

Well, first off, we welcomed a new granddaughter to our brood of granddaughters.  She makes number 4 and is a sweet little baby.  We adore her!

As for animals, the calves came first.  We bought them from our neighbor and basically fence-line weaned them.  That method has been shown to reduce stress in mamas and babies.  The way they all bawled that first night, I'm not sure what it does for stress in the humans!  It sounded like we had a herd of elephants in our backyard!  One of the calves trumpeted just like an elephant and one of the mamas answered back the same way.  It was a loooooong night for us and the neighbors.

We got them on a Saturday.  Our son, who is an agriculture expert happened to be visiting for the weekend.  He helped us with tagging and vaccinating.  We did all of that in the trailer but definitely plan to build a corral with a squeeze chute to make the process easier and safer in the future.  We started out with 4 calves but one crazy, black heifer that I named, Bossy, jumped the fence twice.  She went to the sale barn and we went down to 3 heifers.  A few days later, we got our bull calf from the neighbors.  He seemed to acclimate better than old Bossy.  We put him in the holding pen to wean.  You should have seen those three heifers pushing him around.  Just like a bunch of bossy women!  He seemed to settle in well.  He went to visit the vet and became a steer and earned the name, Dinner.  Yep,  you got it.  He will end up in the freezer.  Now, I know some folks might have problems with that.  But I promise you that your meat does not come from the "gettin' place."  Now Dinner had us quite fooled.  Ronny cross-fenced half of the pasture with electric fence and turned the four calves out of the weaning pen this weekend.  They kicked their heels up, ran and explored and feasted on good grazing.  After three days with no trouble, lo and behold if old Dinner wasn't on the other side of the fence with his mama.  Ronny spent all evening tonight working on that fence.  Dinner will have to come home and be a big boy.



Meet Rodeo Rosy, Ginger, and Blanca respectively.

After that busy weekend, I went to work and the kittens that I had been waiting for arrived.  They are darling little orange siblings.  We got Elmo, the long-haired one and Zoe Girl, the shorter-haired kitten.  They are sweet little things and took to us and the dogs very nicely.  The dogs were mildly curious but they are all very companionable and share the same watering bowl.  Now, I can't say the same for food bowls.  Those dogs will have the kittens for breakfast if they go near their bowls.  I leave the kittens food in their kennel and the dogs leave it alone.  They love climbing trees and I am glad so that they can defend themselves by climbing the trees just in case!



Nap Time



Then.......on Thursday of the same week, the little chicks arrived at the post office.  I went in with my neighbor and we picked up a cheeping box of 25 chicks early on Thursday morning.  I got 5 different breeds:  Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, Ameraucana, Delaware, and Speckled Sussex.  I chose those breeds through a poultry selection tool found on a great website found Here.  The criteria I used included docility, egg laying, and heat/cold tolerance.  They are beautiful birds and growing so fast.  The website I mentioned gives lots of great advice and information on raising chickens.  If you are interested in raising a flock, I highly recommend that site.  I am also fortunate to have a neighbor with lots o' flock experience already!

Some things I have already learned are that you have to check their little bottoms or vents for pasting up.  That happens when poop dries and plugs up their vent.  You can sit their little hind end down in warm water to soak and pull the mess off.  Chicks are also susceptible to coccidiosis.  Using medicated chick starter feed and being diligent about keeping their water clean will help avert that problem.  Speaking of water, they get it dirty really fast.  I found some flat landscaping rocks to set their waterer on.  I had to raise it up another rock tonight because they are getting so tall.  One of my favorite things is giving them their worm treat.  They looooooove dried worm treats.  They just fight and fuss over the treats and will steal it away from each other!  They are hilarious!

 

Mind you, I am fond of naming animals and I had a long list of
old-fashioned women's names but those rascals move too fast for
me to tell them apart.  I think I am going to pick 2 or 3 distinctive
birds to name.



How Does My Garden Grow?

The garden is doing amazing.  We have already enjoyed salads with my mesclun mix salad greens, green onions, and radishes.  The tomatoes are starting to produce so they will be a welcome addition to the salads.  Pretty much everything I planted came up well.  The leeks and carrots did not come up but I knew I was gambling on them by planting them sort of late.  The cabbage and broccoli came up better than I expected.  Some beets also came up.  I have learned that English peas, lettuce greens, leeks, carrots, and spinach need to go in the ground pretty early. 

I fought a valiant battle with Neem Oil for non-beneficial insects and Garret Juice for soil amendment.  I have also used an organic plant food on the tomatoes and peppers.  I had a lady bug release for aphids and planted beneficial plants that attract beneficial insects.  I have two different birds nesting in the garden and lots of visiting birds which are nature's best insecticide.  Grasshoppers have come on the scene and have me very worried.  They are everywhere.  So far, they have mostly stayed out of the garden.  I am putting out Nolo bait which is an organic treatment that affects the grasshoppers' reproductive cycle and ultimately kills them.  I also put out Rabbit Scram, another organic product, around the perimeter of the garden.  I wonder if that doesn't help repel the grasshoppers as well?  I had an idea tonight to put several birdbaths throughout the garden to attract birds.  They can have one-stop shopping:  a bath, a drink and a buffet of grasshoppers!

Everything is in full bloom.  We are going to have lots of melons, tomatoes, peppers, squash, and okra.  The corn is starting to silk.  It was planted in two stages as the first planting did not have good success in coming up.  We supplemented the bare spots and that all came up well.  I am particularly excited that the purple hull peas are loaded.  I love those peas!  I have lost to aphids for about 3 years now but am convinced that diligent weekly application of Neem for about a month and the lady bugs did the trick.



Right after planting




Melons and squash



Tomatoes and Peppers



Peas, Beans, Corn



Pick Your Own and Downtown Farmer's Market

We will post PYO days as soon as we start having produce to pick.  I am pretty sure we will limit the PYO to melons and figs and will pick the rest ourselves for you.  The berries will not be ready until next year but are doing very well.  I am excited to visit an organic farm in Iowa soon that raises strawberries.  I can't wait to learn new things to enhance our natural growing practices here on Scasta Farm.

We have also registered as intermittent vendors at the Waxahachie Downtown Farmer's Market.  We plan to take surplus produce there on an as-needed basis.  Look for us if you are ever there.  They have a wonderful new location just off the square.



Children's Garden

We have a particular interest in teaching children about raising food and gardening.  We would love to have home school groups, scouts, or private schools come visit the farm.  Email for more information.



Children's Garden



So, I think I have sort of caught you up to speed on happenings at Scasta Farm.  I have so many things to share with you including what I am learning about composting, cover crops, and building chicken coops.  I also want to chat about subjects like GMO's and find out your thoughts on that.  There is so much to know, learn, and experience.  The farm is just the place to do it.  So, I will bid you goodnight and pray for rain and a peaceful night's sleep to all.  Happy Farming!



Strawberry Update

I have made this announcement on our FaceBook page but wanted to spread the word on our blog as well.  Due to the fact that the strawberry plants are new, we will be pinching all blossoms back this season and will not allow the plants to produce berries this year.  This will ensure a heavier bearing season next year.  So please hang in there and we should have a great crop next year.  Stay tuned for PYO of other produce this year, though.  All plants are coming up except leeks and we had to supplement the corn.  Otherwise things look great!

What To Do With Your Produce

So, you come pick fresh produce at a PYO farm.  And then you go home and have a wonderful stir fry and a refrigerator full of fresh fruits and veggies.  You suddenly ask yourself, "What on earth will I do with all of this before it spoils?"  Don't despair.  Home food preservation is easy and possible and there are lots of resources to learn how to do it.  I highly recommend taking a canning class.  I have been to one at a feed store and at an aquaponics farm.

For starters, the PYO website that we are listed with has lots of information for canning and preserving all of your fresh goodies.  Just think how great it will be this winter when you make a warm stew with vegetables that you picked and preserved this summer.  You can go to our PYO website Here.  For instance, we will have corn and you might want to preserve it.  Here are some links that will help you out:  How To Can Corn or Several Ways to Can Corn

I found this really great website for any kind of home preservation of food.  I am linking you to the tomato section but as you can see this is a fantastic resource National Center for Home Food Preservation.  I am putting this link on my list of links on this blog.  Great information!  I will be putting up other useful links for making jams and jellies soon so stay tuned!

We just got a wonderful rain.  We have the garden nearly planted and really wanted a good, soaking rain.  It came at just the right time.  You know you have become a farmer when you think this way :)  However, Ronny has been doing a lot of research on irrigation and is putting in a great system so that we don't have to totally rely on good weather.  We have strung hoses to all the blackberry plants and installed a tiny little plastic spigot at each plant.  The hoses are all connected and water simultaneously.  The spigots at the blackberries deliver one gallon of water per hour.  It was so easy to turn the water on and then off after a few hours the other night.  We found a great rain water cistern on the property that is full and over 20 feet deep.  It is fed continuously.  Ronny will be connecting the cistern water supply to the garden hose system and we will be able to water easily and efficiently any time.  You can get supplies for this type of irrigation at Home Depot or Lowe's but we found a good soure Here.

Efficient watering

As I have mentioned we will be hosting the children from our church preschool.  I found a great source for activities for kids in the garden.  It is called Kid's Garden by Witney Cohen, Life Lab Science Program.  It has a lot of wonderful activities.  It suggests a garden design called a pizza garden.  I will post pictures and updates once we get started.  The children will begin May 3 so stay tuned!

Blackberry rows

These are the blackberry rows before planting and the water hose before irrigation was put in.  All the plants are doing well and are 6-9 inches tall already.  We chose to leave grass paths between so your feet will stay clean when you come pick!  I will be putting some garden pictures up soon.  We have lots of little green babies poking through the ground.  The rain today and a warm week next week will really bring the garden on.

Please note that we have chosen to pinch all strawberry blossoms off this season to ensure a heavy berry production next year.

Happy Farming!