Happy Valentine's Day!

I've never been much of a fan of the holiday, but have been enjoying the glorious sunshine after the cold dreary weather we have been having here. It makes me wish that I were outside in the garden or doing some chores that sorely need to be done. Alas, I am at work and can only enjoy the sunshine and fresh air streaming through the door I propped open near my desk.

We have been having unusually cold weather which has even brought sleet, ice, and snow on a couple of occasions over the last month or so.That is not normal for the deep south! I love the snow and have lived with very cold winters for most of my life, but this is different. This area isn't prepared for weather like this. We have no salt trucks or snow plows. Everything here is built to better deal with severe heat and hurricanes. There was no thought to cold weather issues... because we really don't have any most of the time.

Even myself, when building my coops, thought nothing about cold weather. If I had been back home where I grew up I would have made sure they could withstand the weight of snow, keep cold winds out, and were well insulated to keep the birds warm. Instead, I built them to give enough during high wind so as not to fall over when we have tropical storms. I made sure that they were shaded but allowed plenty of air flow so the birds didn't roast in the hot summers. All thought was given to keep them cool, not to keep them from freezing their beaks off!

Thankfully, all of the animals are doing well. The chickens have the sturdiest coop and have been keeping pretty warm. I use deep mulch in the winter anyway, so they have a little added heat. I sealed the windows with feed bags to keep out the wind and they seem perfectly happy. The turkeys live in what is pretty much a wind tunnel. Which works perfectly most of the time! I have put up extra tarps to try to channel wind away from them and have been keeping deep mulch in the run. The guineas have had it the hardest because they roost high up in a leaf-bare tree. They don't seem to be bothered one bit by the cold though. I have been feeding all of them more often than usual and making sure they have warm water available on super cold days. The extra calories seem to get their body temp up. They have also been getting a treat of feed mixed with hot water and fruit/berries and turned into an "oatmeal" type dish. The chickens LOVE it! The turkeys and guineas don't seem to get the concept of treats.

I haven't gotten anything planted in my garden yet because of the low temperatures lately. I am getting behind though! I need to get some cool weather crops started soon. Maybe on my next day off. I have made some progress though! I got some of my indoor seeds planted last night! I always get so excited when I start my first seeds. Especially my tomatoes and peppers, which is what I started last night. It is almost like a promise that full fledged gardening, sunshine, and warm weather are coming soon.

This year I started my seeds in Jiffy Seed Germinating mix because I had problems with the Miracle-Gro potting mix that I used last year. It caused mold, mildew, and gnat problems that I had never had before. Many of my little seedlings didn't make it as a result. I also used the little paper bathroom cups this year instead of the big plastic solo cups that I used last year. I still plan to use those ( I saved them from last year) when I transplant, but it seems smarter to start off smaller and then size up since I have limited room. When I transplant I will probably use the Miracle-gro potting mix since the plants will be larger and stronger and better able to withstand any issues.

The tomatoes are always my favorite. I poured over catalogs trying to choose which kinds I wanted. I went with my favorites: Cherokee Purple, Pink Brandywine, and Amish Paste. I also added a new one. Keegan loves eating the small tomatoes right off of the vine so I got him some Egg Yolk tomatoes which are small and yellow and look like, you guessed it! Egg Yolks. They are supposed to be sweet and tangy. We shall see. I planted approximately 10 each of the pink and yellow tomatoes, 15 of the purple, and 25 of the paste. Also planted were 7 egg plant, 13 pepperoncini peppers, 15 jalapeno peppers, and 25 bell peppers. The last 4 cups I had left over were filled with oregano seeds. None of the ones I planted last year came up but I am hoping with the soil change it will do better this year.

Now for the watching and waiting for my little seedlings to break the surface begins. You would think that after hatching as many eggs and planting as many seeds as I have that it would get old, but I feel like an expectant parent every time. What's more, I love it! The excitement is just beginning.

Hope you all had a beautiful Valentine's Day too!

Disaster of a Garden... 2013

I haven't written a post about my garden yet this summer... That is because is has been a complete disappointment. Honestly, I have been ashamed to post anything about it, especially photos. I had such high hopes for this year! I poured over seed descriptions and spent more than I want to admit on heirloom seeds. It was going to be the best garden I ever had! I was going to save all of my seeds and not have to buy any next year! That was the plan, anyway. Things always seem to work out differently than planned. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not. This is decidedly one of those "NOT" situations. It seems to have been a "perfect storm" of events.

I bought a large amount of seeds at the end of last year and started planning for a much larger garden. I would like to get to be able to live primarily off of our homestead. Except for things like olive oil, flour, salt, pasta, rice, and things of that sort. I have even really been looking into things like maybe rendering lard to cut down on our olive oil use, and growing wheat with the help of my father in-law, to grind into flour and use to supplement poultry feed. Some of the corn I planted this year was supposed to go toward that purpose as well.

The first issue was that I was working until mid-April, which would normally have made getting my garden started more difficult, but a good deal of that was spent working 6 day weeks, and including quite a few 10 hour days. By Sunday I wasn't worth much, and not much got done in the garden until April. Finally I got the brush cleared from my new garden area, got it plowed, put up an electric fence to keep the chickens and turkeys out, and dug about 1/3 of the paths and raised beds. Then it rained.... not just rain, but a torrential down-pour... for days! On my newly plowed soil! If you garden you probably know how terrible that is. It compacted all of my formerly fluffy soil. Washed the good soil away leaving sand and clay. Turned the whole place into a mud pit. Then it teased me... not raining for a couple days and just when I thought that the soil was dry enough to try to rescue the mess it started raining again.

Catastrophic failure of corn and beans

I built a seed shelf in my kitchen and suspended a shop light over it to start seeds early in the year. I started LOTS of seeds and was so excited! I planted over 60 tomato seeds, around 30 bell, pepperoncini, and jalapeno peppers, several eggplants, and lots of herbs. Almost all of the tomatoes came up. Most of the bell peppers did as well. The herbs, eggplant and pepperonini, not so much. NONE of my jalepeno peppers came up. I assumed that it was user error (hey, it happens) and so I planted more. None again! So I tried one more time with the last of my seeds... nothing. Bad seeds! And not just these. None of the lady finger popping corn, watermelons, 2 types of pumpkin, cantaloupe, sweet melon mix, winter squash mix, or zucchini that I planted outside came up either!  I know that it was not user error because I replanted several times and never got so much as a sickly looking seedling. Nothing. Not even in my well established above ground beds. Needless to say, I'm very disappointed in that seed company and will not be buying from them again. I try to stick with small family run businesses, but perhaps this isn't one of the things I should do that for. I am not happy with the quality of amish paste tomatoes that grew either. That may be because of my gardening skills, or lack there of, or all of the other issues I have had with them, but I'm wondering if it is simply poor quality seeds. Some of my soil is pretty poor still, but those were planted in prime garden area and still aren't producing very good tomatoes.

I traded some of my tomato and bell pepper plants to a friend for fresh goat milk, thinking I had more than I needed. It continued to rain to the point that by the time I got a chance to put them in the garden, very few had survived. They just got too big too fast and I didn't have the room or equipment to repot that many plants. I reordered more Cherokee purple and some brandy-wine tomato, and some jalapeno seeds from Baker Creek and tried again. I just got those seedlings planted a few days ago. I fear that it was too late. We shall see. I think I will stick with Baker Creek from now on. I have hear a lot of good things about them.

Ponding in paths and overgrown area

Being thoroughly discouraged already, and fighting daily rain storms, only half of my garden beds were prepared and the rest is unlevel, packed down, and overgrown with very tall weeds. The weeds seem to be loving all of the rain! I managed to get hay down in most of the beds a few days ago. We had a single rain free day. Keegan and I took full advantage of it! We got a TON of stuff done, though, nothing fully accomplished. About 1/3 of the yard was mowed, about 2/3 of the prepared beds in the new garden got hay mulch, some brush got cut to prepare for the electric fence that will be erected soon... It made me feel good to get something accomplished! The garden paths are still overgrown and usually flooded. I'm working on figuring out a solution to that.

Kudzu-like bean vines took over the corn,
causing it to come crashing down

I tried the "3 Sisters" method of planting this year. I planted corn, then pole beans to grow up the corn, then squash in between to act as ground cover. It is easy to tell the soil quality from one end of the row to the other. One end was super tall, lush, and healthy, and then it get shorter and thinner to the end of the row. The beans did the same thing. Oh well, they are going to undergo some lasagna  type mulching and hopefully will be better next year. The main issue is that there was a catastrophic failure with the corn and beans. The healthiest looking section especially. The Florida Speckled Butter Beans took over, in Kudzu-like fashion. Not a single flower or bean pod in sight, but the vines are amazing! So much so that the corn just couldn't handle the weight, especially with all of the rain. The wet bean plants were just too much for the corn to support in the sodden soil and they all came crashing down. Right onto my cucumbers and sunflowers. Trying to right them just resulted in the corn stalks breaking. Luckily half of the cucumber bed is safe and I rescued the sunflowers, which aren't doing as well as I had hoped either, but at least have some small blooms on them. They are supposed to be 12-15 feet tall and the tallest ones are around 7 feet with very thin stalks. Most are much smaller than that. The rattlesnake pole beans are in bad soil, but are at least producing beans. Not many, but a handful every few days. I'm not happy with how stringy they are. I'm not sure if it is the type of bean or the terrible growing conditions this year. I also am not sure if the butter beans just don't do well in this area (it really hasn't been too hot this year so that shouldn't be the issue), if the soil isn't right for them in that spot (very fertile rich soil), or if it has just been the constant rain. I'm amazed at how well the vines are doing but that doesn't do me much good if it doesn't flower. Maybe it will soon... I haven't pulled them up yet just in case.

Rigged up tomatoes. You can barely see them, but there are
smaller Cherokee Purple and Brandy-wine plants in the back.
There may be hope for some tomatoes yet...

The corn isn't the only thing that came crashing down. I have had a terrible time keeping the tomatoes up. I need to try putting up a fence next year, and trellising them. Indeterminate tomatoes get too tall for cages, and even most stakes. The heavy plants kept weighing the stakes down and making them fall over. The wet soil didn't give the stakes much support, regardless how deep I drove them. Some of the more deeply driven stakes broke in half. The vines were damaged in the fall. Some had to just be pulled out. Then I think they contracted something by laying on the ground. Only the Amish paste tomatoes were effected. The others weren't big enough yet, so they were safe until I devised a make-shift way to keep them up. I put up a couple of pallets, secured a pole between them, and attached the tomatoes (stake and all) to the pole. It worked in a pinch. I really need some more t-posts but don't even have enough right now for the electric fence that needs to go up.

I had to replant the cucumbers twice, but they finally came up and looked wonderful! Full, bushy vines! Tons of flowers! They are barely setting fruit though. I think perhaps, the rain has kept the pollinators from doing their job properly. A large deal of the cucumbers that have grown have started to rot before I get to them because of the puddles they are sitting in. The vines on top of the bed (safe from puddles) are turning yellow and dying, and all of the fruit and healthy looking vines are growing in the paths where it keeps flooding... ugh. I have managed to bring in a couple every couple of days and we have really been enjoying them. We may not be getting many, but the ones we have gotten taste great!

On a happy note, the peppers are doing amazingly well! They are big bushy plants and have set a bunch of big healthy peppers! We haven't been using the peppers we put up from the you-pick, and have been exclusively using our own! They are thick-walled and beautiful! Now enough about that... I don't want get too excited... please don't smite my peppers!

I haven't done much with by established above ground beds... that is, after planting them and having nothing come up but weeds. Two beds are doing well. The jack-be-little pumpkins and gourd mix have put out a few plants and even have fruit set! The chickens or turkey hens have found a few of the gourds and taken bites out of them, but over-all they look good. You have to look hard to see them though! The weeds have taken over and I'm afraid to clear them and mulch for fear that the it will draw the chickens' attention and they will perish. I will clear them soon for cool weather crops. I hope they do better than the summer crops have... None of my pie pumpkins have come up in the garden, but I spread a bunch of seed that I saved out of pie and jack-o-lantern pumpkins that I bought at the store, in "the bottom" (the lowest part of the front yard which is rarely mowed but collects plenty of watershed from rain). Quite a few came up so I'm going to mow carefully and hope that we get some pumpkins from there this year.

Jack-be-little pumpkins

Gourds with bites taken out of them

I hate that we will have no food stores to put up for winter. It breaks my heart and is so disappointing. Especially the lack of tomato sauce. I dreamed of a large store of thick, red, beautiful, hearty pasta sauce that would last us through the winter.

I feel terrible about having spent to much money on seeds when I have so little to show for it. Brad, being the wonderfully supportive love he is, keeps reassuring me and telling me that it is alright. "Things happen! You will try again next year!" he said. He is right. I will. And I have had lessons learned. Thinking back, none of my gardens did well the first year. I will be adding compost and mulch over the winter, so the soil should be much better next year. They have already had a large deal of the turkey coop contents added to them. Hopefully, it will also be less work. Above ground beds are amazing like that. I prefer them because it builds better soil. Because the soil isn't tilled it doesn't break down the soil composition. It is also much easier after the initial building of the beds. These are side-less beds (just mounded soil) so hopefully they stand up over time. The rain hasn't washed them away yet, so that is encouraging.

Pumpkin plants growing in "the bottom"

On another positive note, the electric fence around the garden has been doing a great job keeping the animals out. The dogs learned immediately, although other than digging a few holes, they weren't a problem to begin with. I was worried about the chickens and turkeys, and any deer or wild animals that would like to eat my plants. The roosters learned quickly that the zap on their comb wasn't enjoyable and wouldn't go in after the first day. The hens took a bit longer. They have a smaller comb and their feathers save them from the zap. They don't wander far from the roosters though, so after a few days they stopped coming in completely. The turkeys took a few days longer, the toms learned before the hens. The hens still sneak in on the rare occasion that the fence is off. They seem to know when it is down and are in the garden immediately. Too bad the fence doesn't work on flea beetles, aphids, and tomato worms! I'd be all set!

Sorry about the rant. This post has been largely for my records, and partially to vent. It helps to look back and see what worked, what didn't, and how weather and such have been each year.

Post Isaac

Even the flat areas of the yard are pretty marshy

We survived Isaac! Luckily it turned west before it got here and didn't strengthen as much as they thought it would. The one tree we lost right as the storm started was the only one we lost. We were VERY lucky. Even though it didn't hit too hard here there are still many people in our town that lost everything due to flooding. People closer to the coast fared even worse.
The turkeys actually seemed to like their playtime in the cattle trailer. I have a big tree limb in there for them to perch on and they rode out the storm really well. The chickens did as well, although they didn't like being locked up. I kept them in all day on Wednesday because the storm was coming in, but by Thursday afternoon, they were free ranging around the yard, despite the wind still being very strong. I tossed treats in to them while they were cooped up (sunflower seeds) so that they could scratch around and find it, rather than being fussy and mean to each other. The coop is large and has two levels, but they are used to having free range of several acres. I didn't move the turkeys back to their hoop coop until Saturday afternoon. The rain completely flooded where the coop was, as well as much of the rest of the yard. We had no place to move it where they wouldn't be ankle deep in water. I also didn't want to put the tarps back up until the wind calmed down some more. When I moved them back into their freshly relocated coop they all started chasing one of the toms (Big Man) around and biting him. I have never seen them do this before. I tried to rescue him but every time I put him back down they all came after him again. Finally, I put him on a roost and they left him alone. I'm hoping this is just a pecking order issue and they don't hurt him.
The rain was the biggest issue with the storm. There are many places in the area that are underwater. The wind scared me a few times. It is nerve racking to watch the trees bend and sway like they did and know that if they fell, they could reach the roof of the house. Aside from some tree limbs and branches being strewn around the yard and my Cosmos (6+ foot tall plants that grow orange flowers) being knocked down, we really didn't have any damage. I'm thrilled that we fared so well. I'm glad that we prepared, though. It was a nice drill for next time.
Another positive note, my hens are laying 5 eggs a day now!!! Even one of the EEs are laying and I have some pretty blue eggs. I actually have a full dozen eggs for the first time in... I don't remember when. I guess it was at least May. That is, I have a whole dozen eggs, even after Keegan eating his fill this morning! I think he made over half a dozen this morning, and the girls replenished them. I can't wait until I have enough to boil (without Keegan getting upset that I used up all the eggs. He doesn't like boiled eggs that much unless they are deviled eggs).

Randy was keeping an eye on me while I was doing my
walkabout to check on things. 

One of the hens checking out the new "pond" located next
to their coop. 

The turkey coop was pretty well flooded. Randy wanted the
frogs that were enjoying the water. 

Egg production continues, and gets better by
the day. 

The chickens enjoyed scratching around in the mud for
bugs that they couldn't get to before. 

The water trough not only continued filling,
but overflowed from the rain. 

Some photos from an area in town. Completely underwater.

A man walking across a bridge that used to span a creek. I
think the creek pretty well spans the bridge now. 

A whole dozen eggs!!! Even beautiful blue ones, courtesy of Greta.

The turkeys enjoy being back in their hoop coop and are
starting to look/act very turkey-like. 

They are strutting around all puffed up. 

Complete with gobble!

Preparing for Isaac

Having lived on the east coast of Florida for several years, including the summer of 2004 when we were pounded with one hurricane after another, I am fairly practiced at preparing for a hurricane. What makes this one different, is that I have never had this many animals in my care at the time of a hurricane, or this much property to secure. Last time I lived in an apartment and had 2 pets, a parrot and a rabbit, both of which were inside. Now I have over 20 chickens, 13 turkeys, 3 dogs, and about 12 acres to keep up with.  I began preparing several days ago, when Isaac was expected to be a category 2 and headed straight toward us. Now, thankfully, it has been downgraded to a category 1 and moved to the west a bit. We still need to prepare to have power outages, high winds, possible tornadoes, flooding, and no access to supplies. I always like to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. The winds have gotten strong already. The chickens are free ranging still but will be locked up where it is safe in a couple of hours and will remain there until the storm has passed.  

The chicken coop has been tied down. We are worried about the tin roof remaining intact during the storm so we secured it. The coop has an automatic waterer, but a regular gravity waterer has been placed in the coop to prepare for the loss of electricity. We have well water so no electric, no well pump, and no water. Extra feeders have been placed in the coop to ensure that they will have plenty of food if it isn't safe for me to go out and feed them in the morning. 

A cattle water tub was brought over and filled so that we will have plenty of water for the animals. I'm expecting it to finish filling during the night, as we are going to have LOTS of rain. 

The turkey hoop coop has been evacuated. It is built to be light so that it can be moved around the yard easily. This means that in high winds, it just isn't safe. The tarps were removed so that they don't catch wind. Hopefully it will hold up through the storm. 

This is where the turkeys will ride out the storm. A cattle/horse trailer. It is sturdy enough to withstand the wind, and possibly downed limbs. It also has a middle divider so that if we need to leave, we can close the turkeys in one side, put the chickens in the other side, hook up to the truck, and all of us can go. 

The turkeys seem to enjoy the new settings. They are so curious. I had to rig the back of it because they had figured out how to escape. Who ever said turkeys are stupid have clearly never been around heritage turkeys before. They are too smart for their own good sometimes. I moved their automatic waterer to the trailer, but also gave them a gravity waterer and extra feeders. We also stocked up on chicken feed, turkey feed, and dog food when we were stocking up on canned food and water for ourselves. They are good to go!

The first feeder band made its way through as I was finishing up. We already had our first tree casualty. This was a large Oak. Luckily it was away from the house and fell into a wooded area. Hopefully we won't loose many more. Time to hunker down for the storm!