Final Autumn Days

We are trying to make the most of these final days. I took these pictures about a week ago. We've been letting the geese, ducks, turkeys and chickens out when we are home all day and planning on being outside. The two turkeys are huge, they don't look it but they feel like it. They need to be butchered and it is just a matter of finding time. Meanwhile they are eating a lot and rapidly growing heavier. Last year none of the turkeys would fit in our oven. I grilled one, chopped and ground one, and then we cut one in half and cooked the two halves in each of my mom's large ovens. The largest one weighed in around thirty four pounds. We are not going for such large birds, it just kind of happens around here.

My husband is still working away from home between sixty and seventy some hours a week, until the ground freezes solid they say. We appreciate the income but we are behind on winter preparations, namely; firewood. I don't write much about my husband. He prefers to fly under the radar. However; this time of year I am ever so grateful to him for working such long days, outside in the cold from dawn to dusk, so that we can live this lifestyle we've chosen. I am hoping that we have at least another week or two before the snow settles in. It is just so much easier to move wheelbarrows and move about the property now, before we are walking on narrow trails, dealing with snow drifts and slippery stairs.

Rosie the goose who is the only nice goose right now, hopefully she stays that way. She enjoys following us around and is very curious. She genuinely seems to enjoy our company. We enjoy her's as well.

Noah, riding down from the garden, leaning on a bag of kale.

In other news, we have added on some new shareholders. We are up to seven and there are two more families interested. So nine is a nice number and close to the ten I was going for. Now we will just have to see how long we can provide milk for. I am currently milking six does and putting a seventh junior doe on the stand as well. I am getting about three and half gallons of milk. Everyone's milk is tasting good. Up until last week I was carrying a bucket of milk up to the birds two to three times a week, but I think I'll be able to reduce that and at least carry up smaller quantities and not the entire morning's milking. I am looking forward to having time to make cheese. I'm hoping D will have time to look at my cream separator and use his genius to fix it soon, as it has quite working completely. And now I've dallied long enough and it is time to get out and milk. Happy autumn days to you and yours!

Garden pictures

 Here are some pictures I've taken in the last week. Notice the tall fence posts outlining the south border of the garden. We've got two problem trees that bent over in our crazy ice storm last November. We should have taken them down before the garden went in. Now we have to cut them down before the fence goes in, and they will inevitably be falling on and crushing flowers and vegetable beds.

 My first fava beans, ready to pick.

 

 This has been a weak year for some crops. I made the mistake of thinking I'd put so much compost on the garden in previous years, that the beds might need a break, otherwise I might end up over fertilizing, or getting too lush of greens and not enough fruit - vegetables. Instead I've got smaller than usual broccoli heads, much fewer tomatoes and some of the carrots are woody and bitter, ugh. Every garden season comes with lessons.

 First tree that must come down.

Second tree that must come down.

Other garden notes to remember. Plant more shelling peas, fewer snap and snow peas. More cauliflower and bush beans. Start squash earlier. Pay more attention and add more compost to tomatoes. Add more compost to everything. Plant less onions and scallions. Can't succession plant cilantro enough!

Looks like the onion harvest is going to be better than last year. I ordered a Northern mix of onion sets this year. They are decent size now, if they can grow another few weeks, I should have some to be proud of. My beans and peas germinated late so I've only been picking them for a couple weeks now. I have five different types of zucchini, I'm managing to stay on top of them by picking them at six to eight inches, but I've gotten a couple whoppers when I've taken a break from checking under the plastic.On the other hand, out of all my winter squash I planted, I've got one decent size spaghetti squash. I think the season may be too short for the winter squash this year. If only they'd taken off faster. I'm great at growing lush green squash plants, that would provide many beautiful squash with a longer growing season.

As long the moose stay away, I'm going to have a nice number of cabbages. I've got around a couple dozen plants, a few red and savoy, but mostly a green storage type, which is doing well. It is time to do some mass beet and carrot harvesting, a thinning of sorts to allow the smaller ones room to grow. I neglect early thinning, and prefer to wait until the thinnings are of eatable size. Time will tell if this is a worthwhile practice or not. I should be eating a salad a day, or maybe a head of lettuce a day. Maybe if I make up some really yummy salad dressings, Caesar, blue cheese...

Well that is my garden, and geese... tell me, how does your garden grow? What did you learn this year? Successes? Things to do differently next year?

Geese and Spring

Last wednesday I was expecting a few Toulouse geese and four ducks from Metzer Hatchery in Northern California. Wednesday came and went, then Thursday, by that night, after two days of worrying and harassing the post office, I was expecting a box of dead chicks. two thirty a.m. Friday morning I get a call that they ar wee in. I asked if they were alive. The postal worker said he didn't know. I asked if the box was peeping, and he was like oh yeah, they're alive. So I drove in to get them. Amazingly the geese and two ducks made it, after being in a box for five nights!

While I was picking up my order, the guy from the feed store was there as well picking up his huge order and somehow fitting them all in his little car. He lost his whole waterfowl order. The folks from the feed store said that this year they've been having lots of problems with shipping chicks through USPS. I guess the last two weeks their chick order of 1,600 got taken off the plane in Anchorage (360 miles away) and trucked up. So they lost half their order both weeks. They are not ordering any more water fowl this year. Sounds like they are still getting in chicks and turkeys.

So far, the kids are handling the geese and lone duckling (one didn't make it) several times a day. Noah named the female goose Rosie. Avery named the female penciled runner duck Flower pot. The boys aren't named for now as we are not sure which will be dinner. But I'm thinking we'll name one Sebastion, and the other Christmas Dinner, and then I can always switch them later depending on which is the nicer of the two.

So far we are feeding the goslings/ duckling and chicks, my layer feed coursely ground with a few additives. So our layer feed is whole oats, whole barley, wheat berries, cracked corn, sunflower seeds, kelp and salmon meal and salt. The chicks have even higher protein needs. So we also added some ground peas, ground lentils and some extra kelp and salmon meal. We've also been feeding them hard boiled eggs, spinach and other fruits and veggies.

In other news, our doe Xoe is due this week. All the other goats are well, but shaggy and shedding. The milkers are starting to look raggedy. We are feeding alfalfa hay to help them out. Dustin just finished tiling my milking area, so I moved in this morning and now I can get down to business. I've been doing math on how much our goats are costing, and that is a post in itself- coming soon.

I brought my new bee hive home this week. I need to paint it and get it set up. I'm picking the bees up on Sunday.

I woke up to rain/snow this morning. The day was cool and windy but sunny. We are trying to clean up outside as we can. D cleaned out the chicken pen and duck shelter yesterday. I started on the doe pen. It is going to take another week before I can start working the soil and direct seeding in the garden. I am so ready for summer, for warm t-shirt weather. I am so ready to retire my winter boots and coveralls. I am so ready for green grass, green leaves, shoots and buds. We are having a late cool spring in the interior. I'm guessing wherever you are you are ready for summer too.

Facing my fears; geese and honey bees

I grew up with my dad raising bees for honey. My brother and I got stung a lot as children. Now, my brother has severe allergic reactions when he gets stung. I just have a slight fear of handling bees. I must have been in kindergarten or first grade when I remember my dad running circles around the house hollering while we tracked him from inside the house, running from window to window to peer out at him. I remember him stopping to pound on the door demanding entry and mom telling him to keep running. As far as the benefits go, I grew up on honey, honey and PB sandwiches, honey and PB on ricecakes, honey and homemade yogurt. I did not realize how much I appreciate good honey until I no longer had any. Now, we eat honey on hot cereal and honey on pancakes. I use honey in our weekly bread and on sandwiches. I have a strong appreciation and desire for local honey which is outrageously expensive here. I've been mentally working myself up to raising bees for a few years now. Last year D got me a beekeeping book for Christmas, which I read. Last spring I signed up for a beekeeping class, but later decided I already had too much on my plate.

This is going to be the year. I'm starting off by taking a beginning bee keeping class which covers all the basics. It is a couple hour class, once a week over five or so weeks. I'm gearing up to order a suit - or maybe just the jacket and head covering. As much as I'd like to imagine myself with barefeet and bare hands among the bees- well I think I'll be a lot less intimidated if I'm suited up and protected from stings. I'm starting off with one hive on the hill above the garden. I'm hoping to meet our honey and beeswax needs, with some leftover for gifts.

I don't have many experiences with geese. Actually I've only met one flock of geese, and we did not get along. There was a flock of large white geese at a farm where I boarded my horse for a couple years. This farm had attack geese and an attack rooster (which finally left me alone after it flew at me while I was holding a shovel, which was the bat. He was the ball). The geese would corner me in the barn, chase me, chase my car, pluck the rubber trim out from my bumper while I was off riding.

I've been doing a lot of geese research. I've learned that my shying away from the geese initially may have instigated our poor relations. I've been deliberating between Pilgrim and African geese, two of the more gentle breeds. I decided on the Pilgrim too late, multiple suppliers are already sold out for the season. I really liked the idea of the Pilgrims as they are the only breed of geese that are sexed. The males are white and the females are blue and gray. I ended up ordering a pair of French Toulouse geese, and an extra un-sexed goose - possibly for Christmas dinner. Looks counted for a lot in deciding which breed to get. The Toulouse are gray and blue, they look like the French aristocrat version of geese. They are stately, blue and gray and handsome.They are also one of the more gentle breeds, good layers, setters, parents, and they make a nice roast goose, good fat, feathers... I would have like to get the ones with the dewlaps, but those are way pricey.

I am getting geese mostly because I like the idea of having a couple pet geese. I also like the idea of large hardy birds wandering around the homestead. We have a lot of birds of prey issues, mostly Ravens attacking young chickens and ducks. As a result the ducks are hesitant to free range. I think they've been traumatized. So I'm hoping to raise the geese with some same age layers and ducks, and maybe the geese will look out for the smaller birds. The ducks are very skittish, not inquisitive or friendly. I'm hoping the geese will fill my desire to have some pet birds.

Now, if you have traumatic geese memories you may be thinking I'm crazy. Well, if they end up attacking my children, they will be dinner. We are just getting a few to try them out. We are going to handle them a lot. I'm going to work with the kids on not running from the geese or establishing any bad behavioral issues - no running, no intimidating etc. We will work on carrying treats daily as we do chores. So hopefully we will have friendly geese. Geese don't lay a lot of eggs. We're talking twenty to fifty/sixty a year depending on the breed. The French Toulouse lay towards the higher end. I like the idea of bonding with the original pair, letting them hatch and rear their young, and then eating the wild things. Obviously I have some details to work out, like they are going to be vicious when setting on their eggs and caring for their goslings. And then, wild goslings may be too wild... It is an experiment.

Other poultry notes: I'm still trying to decide whether to get regular Cornish Cross this summer or a slower growing meat bird. I think we are going to do four Broad Breasted Whites again as opposed to heritage breeds. I'm collecting duck eggs to start incubating in the next few days. I'm collecting Peking eggs and Peking crossed with Saxony eggs. We will keep the females for layers and eat the males. We just need a handful of layers. I'm going to set a few Ameraucana eggs and probably buy a few Ameraucanas and Sexlinks at the feed store. Each summer I end up with five groups of birds to feed and water. I'm trying to think of how to simplify the chores. There are the established layers, established ducks, then the turkeys, the cornish and then the new layers, ducks and geese. I may combine the established birds, and then all the new birds except the turkeys. Does anyone have experience raising turkeys with other poultry? Everything I read says that is a big no no, but then I've heard of folks doing it without problems. Also, if you have experience with raising geese and have any advice I would love to hear it. Thanks again for your words of encouragement and kindness regarding this years kidding losses. Take care.

Oh yeah, and here is to facing our fears, bees, geese or whatever they may be. Cheers!