Odds, Ends, and Leftovers

I managed to get my garden re-planted.  I didn’t have my camera up there though, so you get a picture of my garlic and potatoes in containers.

potatoes and garlic

My strawberry bed in containers is also doing well.

strawberries

Penelope has reached that awkward stage where she can easily put her head through the fence, but she can’t get it out.  I’m hoping that she outgrows this phase quickly.

Penelope

If not…I still have my horn apparatus left over from Hera.

Hera from 2018

Maybeline is such a pretty girl.  I hope the llama shearer comes soon since our weather is starting to warm up.

Maybeline

I am really starting to wonder how many kids Hilda has in there.  She’s still got a month to go.

Hilda (with Chiffon in the background)

Wanda’s fur is growing back where she was naked all winter.  I’m pretty sure our warm, humid air has helped it not be dry and itchy.  She been rubbing it off with her horn every time it started to grow back, but it is finally looking good.

Wanda

I’m guessing part of the problem with her fur having come off and her back injury were due to low copper.  I don’t understand that because she’d never shown a sign of the copper issues before.  Sadly, I’m afraid I am seeing the neurological symptoms of in vetro copper deficiency in her kids.  Lou is holding his own for now.  We’ll see what happens.

Lou fighting with Scooter

I’m afraid Lainey’s issues are too severe for her to continue much longer.

Lainey

This just breaks my heart.  I gave those goats a ridiculous amount of copper throughout the last year, and I’m getting ready to do another round in the next week or two.

Other Stuff Around the Farm

The last week has truly been dominated by kidding, but there are other things going on around here too.  One big thing was my nephew coming and applying anhydrous ammonia to the fields to prepare for the corn to be planted.

It’s ready to go now as soon as the weather returns to more normal temperatures.  You’ll notice my fields are not plowed.  We do no-till farming for everything because it is much better for protecting the soil and preventing run-off.

I am glad my nephew drove the farm equipment through the driveway up there because the road maintenance crew did a really crappy job of not blocking my driveway.  Jerks.

Anyhow, I did get in; although it was pretty hard on the truck driving it over that big bump.  I picked my birdhouse gourds that I had left in the garden to dry overwinter.

I had a pretty decent crop from one little plant.

I drove out the other drive up there.  That was much better.  I also had to bring home a tomato cage.  My experiments in container gardening are progressing, but I might have planted pole beans instead of bush beans.

This should hold them until I can set them out by a trellis or fence.

My snow peas were really begging to be transplanted also.  Poor spindly things.

Somewhere between Hera and Sidney kidding I got them done.

This will hold them until I can get them next to a fence outside.  The garlic is growing.  I do still have some more to plant.  I’ll try a different type of container to see what works best.

My experiment with having the strawberries  overwinter in the house didn’t work so well.  Last fall they started drying up and dying, so I put them on the front porch hoping they’d go dormant and not die.  So far I only have this one pot coming back to life.  Hopefully, they’ll do well and put out a lot of runners, and I’ll try something different.

I also put a pot of plum pits on the porch.  I’m hoping these are trees starting and not weeds, but they are too little for me to be sure yet.  (I’m leaning towards weeds right now.)

I am also working on planting potatoes.  I filled some of the garden bags I made with compost, and I just have to get a layer of potting soil in there and then the potatoes.

I also want to do just a salad bag and see how that works–lettuce, carrot, spinach, radish.  I might even try growing some beets in a bag.  Even though there’s a bit of hay on top, I know it’s good compost and not manure because my dog didn’t try stealing it out of the bag.

I am also potting some of my squash and pumpkin seedlings so they have more room to grow until they can go outside.

It’s been a lot of fun to do some gardening this early in the year.