New crop of potatoes

After the last harvest (and trying to clean off potatoes since, to eat) - and because of the fact that the ground is rock-hard and a pain to dig - I decided to try growing them above-ground in straw. I amended the soil underneath, embedded the seed potatoes in it, laid out soaker hose and covered with straw (and will continue to add straw as the plants grow). It'll be interesting to see how the yield compares. I know for sure they'll be easier to scrub!

This time we have five different varieties than before: Bison, Bintje, All Red, Purple Majesty, and Sangre.

Harvesting

So far we've picked a lot of chamomile for drying, and a lot of zucchini mostly destined to be grilled or stir-fried. The two "big" harvests were garlic and potatoes. Thirty pounds of potatoes for the 4 varieties harvested so far. The Inca gold plants are still green, even though all the potatoes were planted at the same time.

Not still chicks...

...But not quite chickens. They are pretty much fully feathered now, and are easily able to perch on the edges of the brooder and anything else nearby if we don't put deer fencing on top. But they're still peeping, not clucking. And they seem so small to consider putting outside! Besides that, until we finish the goat pen, their future home is occupied. We thought about keeping them together in the coop, but it seems like the chickens would mess up the goats' hay, kick up a bunch of dust, and otherwise make a big mess...

The setup

We had lots to do to get ready for the goats, although they are currently in the chicken coop (the chicks have moved out of the living room into the garage, in their brooder). Matt's working on the goat enclosure inside the barn. Giving recreation its due, he's already finished their jungle gym, above. :)

We expanded and then cross-fenced the enclosed area around the barn (ugh! I'm so sick of pounding posts!). But I'd also been eyeballing electric net fencing (you can see some in the background above) - primarily to keep predators away from the chickens. So we went for it and bought some fencing and solar-charged battery energizer.

So far we don't leave them alone with it - their heads are small enough to clear the net in some areas and there's more risk of them getting tangled up - but all of them have gotten the message once or twice to stay away from that stuff. Matt was more courageous than me at first - I would only test it with the voltmeter! - but finally I grabbed it, too. At 2,000 volts, it feels like a strong static shock (like when you drag your feet on the carpet then touch your sibling!) Closer to the energizer, at 4,000 volts, Matt said it was stronger and he wouldn't touch it on purpose again. It's not dangerous (relatively speaking), but enough to make you (and the goats) avoid it.

New family members

In our enthusiasm to do everything at once, we suddenly found ourselves in the perfect situation for getting goats - except that we weren't set up yet. An email meant just to "feel out" local goat breeders turned into our acquiring three Nigerian Dwarf goat kids about ten days later. They are adorable, friendly, sweet little time-consuming babies that are still at the bottle-feeding age. We have about four more weeks of this.

I had wanted sheep for the cynical reason that they are less wily and easier to keep fenced in, but Matt definitely favored goats more. I'm glad. These guys are so fun and intelligent, and promise to be great companions and lawn-mowers for years to come.

Since what we want at this point is "free" weed/brush/lawn service, we decided some time ago to first own wethers (castrated males), to see how we like it. If we decide to get more, they will probably be (female) dairy goats.

Flock pics

They're a little over 2 weeks old now, more feathered out and growing so fast that each day we see differences!

So far the weather has only been good enough once - on a day we weren't working - to get them outside. This was last Monday (the 6th). It's funny how their chicken instincts kicked in so early; after a bit of coaxing to get them out of the carrier, they were happily scratching and pecking away.

Oh yeah, the bad guys

Sorry for the gross picture.

I didn't want to end tonight without addressing the "bad guys" I mentioned a couple of weeks ago: evil, hideous cucumber beetles (some of 'em swimmin' with the fishes, above); earwigs falling out of everything as well as gnawing the strawberries so that big, scary black beetles could finish making them completely inedible.

What did we do?

- Knocked profane numbers of cucumber beetles into soapy water until the infestation subsided;
- Snatched big black beetles off of strawberries and drowned them with the cuke beetles;
- Cultural controls, e.g., "Angela, stop being lazy" - pulled lots of weeds near where the earwigs were worst, as well as removing the straw from the strawberries (gasp!) because that's where the earwigs were hiding. Of course since they are "June-bearing" it's hard to say whether it has worked - strawberry production has naturally dropped off - but there have been no more big black beetles, and far fewer inedible berries.

The new flock

While we continue to make improvements to the chicken coop and yard, we have started raising the new flock from chicks, planned to coincide with my mom's visit so we'd have help tending to them in the first week (although it ends up being they are more entertaining than troublesome).

They are so cute. The pictures above are from their first day here, which would have been just their third day of life. They were hatched on Monday June 29, so are just over a week old. Soon, more pictures. Unfortunately they make such a mess in such a short time, it's hard to get a photo before they've sullied up their bedding! They are now on rice hulls; the paper towels were just for the first couple of days (until they learned the difference between food and bedding).

Catching up

Where were we?

It has been so busy. We've finally finished moving out of our old house, which we dragged out for too long (one pickup and sometimes trailer load at a time). Work, unpacking and boring yard work have taken up entirely too much time.

But, on to the exciting stuff. The garden is exploding in shades of green, and fruits and vegetables abound in various states of maturity. We've gotten a handful of zucchinis so far, and lots of chamomile blossoms are drying on the dehydrator racks. Above: the first zucchini of the season, a borage flower in perfect full bloom, and Vanessa's beloved "Early Girl" tomato, making large (albeit still green) healthy fruits.