The Garden

I’m sort of trying to keep up with the garden, but this has not been a good year to try and garden between the drought and the deer.  This corn is so pathetic. I can’t believe it has little ears on it.

sweet corn

As a bonus, the dragonfly likes the corn.

I’m afraid the tomato plants are dying.  Hopefully all those tomatoes will be able to ripen before they completely dry up.

I left some volunteer squash plants growing, and I had no idea what kind.  This one looks like a spaghetti squash.  That’s good since I didn’t plant any of them.

I did get nice turnips.  I promise I really tried to find recipes to like, but I am not a fan of turnips. I can very definitely say that now.

The reason I planted turnips was to try canning my own vegetable stock.  I got the turnips, but that was about it.  I decided to just buy carrots and celery and try it anyhow.  It seems to have turned out pretty good.  I just need to try it in a recipe (but it’s too hot for soup right now).

I also am optimistic that I’ll have a good potato harvest since this one was just right there on top of the ground.

That would be good since I ordered a potato French Fry Cutter.  It works pretty slick.

Hopefully, I have a lot of potatoes to use it on.

Getting Caught Up

The month of February has been exhausting with the cold.  It just took so much more to do anything, and there was so much more to do.  This past weekend we had really good weather, and I was able to get a lot done.  I managed to get more corn, so I emptied my car trunk and hauled it all over to the birds’ room (where I feed from).

It was nice that Moose didn’t even try to “help” me.  Everything is easier when Moose doesn’t help me.

Moose opening the door for me later in the day

I was struggling with the bird door freezing shut with the overnight cold temperatures,

ice on top of the water puddle

but last weekend, it thawed enough for me to get a channel dug for the water to drain a little bit.

Free range hen trying to keep her feet dry

I have to wait for it to thaw more before I can finish getting it drained.

Easter egg hen before it thawed into mud for the day

I did do a bit of cleaning in the garage, so I don’t have hay and poop stuck to my shoes.  It was too messy out to actually get it out of the garage, but it’s away from the car.

But I did leave hay and bedding on the other side.  There’s a good chance Astra will have her oopsie babies in there.

Astra (guessing it won’t be triplets this year)

I had a big pile of cornstalk bale that the goats put right inside the door because they were eating and playing in it.  I got that hauled out to the chicken building.

Scratching through the new bedding I brought in

I also cleaned out the nest boxes after the eggs had frozen in them.  Now they are filled with fresh straw.

Mr. Peacock just paced the roost and yelled every time I made a new noise.

Tail is growing back!

I finally got the big water tub scrubbed.

Ava drinking after I cleaned the tub

The goats were not the only ones who wanted water.

They were trying to take a bath in a mud puddle.

I got the hose uncovered and it thawed so I could fill the pool for them.

I’ve been cleaning in the milk room and soap room.  That’s an ongoing process, but it is much better.

You can see the floor!

I feel so much better with getting all of this work done.  Next weekend, I’m hoping to hit the hooves hard.

Still On the To-Do List

I have managed to get a lot done since we’ve warmed back up, but I do still have some things left to do.  First, I really need to clean the soap and milk rooms.  They’ve kind of become extensions to the barn and garage with the cold.  It’s a mess.

It’s still been a bit cold yet (at least the ground level with all the snow) to get hooves trimmed.  I really need to get them done as soon as it warms up.

Joani needs her hooves trimmed badly.

I’m trying to get some of my doors cleared out.  The door to the barn and the birds’ section of the barn barely open.

It’s packed hard, and I haven’t even gotten it chipped loose, even though I started trying to get them cleared up when I chipped open the red gate.

I also thought the chickens quit laying eggs when it turned cold.  Apparently, they just decided to lay in the lower nest boxes, so I have a crazy frozen, broken egg mess to clean out.  Fun.

I’m still struggling with keeping food for the animals on the farm.  The feed store is still dealing with supply issues, and last weekend I had no corn for the goats and llamas.

Maybeline

Thankfully, my nephew brought me enough to get through the weekend and even picked me up more from the mill when he dropped the Little Farm Hand off with the babysitter.

I’ll be glad when these supply issues are done, but it also makes me realize how much I need to get my bulk bin back to being functional.  I also still need to clean the garage out after having goats in it for that short time.

Blaze (on the Ranger), Dolly and Flower

With the cold, I also didn’t have a chance to dump out the water buckets to scrub them clean.

Popcorn

That’s done now, but I still need to do the big 50-gallon tub.  I just don’t want to make a huge ice rink from dumping it.

Gidget

I guess that will have to wait a little bit yet.  I’m pretty sure I’m not going to run out of things on my to-do list.