Accidental Gardening and Having the OSU Extension Agent Out

For the second summer in a row, we have tomato plants sprout up in the most unexpected of places. Now if I can just keep the birds off of them. I have 2 of my own plants that have fruits on them, and 2 that seem to have succumbed to something.

I contacted Pawnee County Extention Agent, finally, and he is gonna come out here, tell me what I HAVE, and what I need to do to improve the pastures.

On another good note, the kiddo got her camera today, so I can take pictures and get some posted!

Unhappy Cows

Well, T-Bone and Kahlani aren't really happy about the Squire's and Gumdrop's move to the front pasture. They were bellowing about it half the night. What they don't seem to grasp is that they were given the opportunity to move up front with their fellows, but failed to take that opportunity.

Check, Check, Check

Well, there were three things I wanted to accomplish this weekend.

1. Get Joan's feet on the way to recovery. They were terribly overgrown. Check.
2. Get the pigs moved. The 16 x 16 pen was completely in mud, especially with the rain we've had this week. Check, and bonus: their new place is bigger.
3. Get the 3 Dexters up front (Squire, Gumdrop, Kahlani). Well, I got Gumdrop and Squire, but Kahlani wasn't quite ready to trust the small round woman with the blue bucket. But that blue bucket sure sounded good. So, mostly check. The bull is now back on a huge amount of grass, and his intended is with him.

8 Days

Only eight days remain before we get 50 little chickies to raise to eating age! Ok, so I plan on keeping some of them as layers/self-perpetuating flock chickens.

The other things on this weekend's agenda are finishing the other cow pasture and moving the steers over and trimming goat feet. Specifically, Joan's rear feet. They are AWFUL. I'm embarrassed that they have gotten this bad.

Somewhere in that eight days, I celebrate my 10th anniversary! It's amazing that the man stuck with me for 10 years, I'm telling you! Of course, it's a no money anniversary. Not even enough to go out on. Not enough to get a special meal together either. Oh well, at least we have each other, right?

How Much Rain Does It Take?

This is one of the rainiest summers on record, I swear. More storms and rain that went on for hours hit us last night and this morning.

We've had rain for the last few days, and while it is keeping everything nice and coolish (for August), the mud is becoming an issue here and there. Not to mention, the toll the weather is taking on my animal shelters. They are collapsing. Time to rebuild, and coat the exteriors with exterior paint. That was something we didn't think about, but I'm sure it will help.

Wow, Muscovies!

Well, barter is alive and well in the world, right? So, mom paid for my broilers, and I picked up her Muscovy ducklings. These guys are 12 - 13 weeks old. There is an assortment of males and females. There are eight. Four of them are black bodied and a variation of white/black speckling on the head. The other four are white based, varying from almost pure white to blue splash.

I agreed with Jim about having ducks. We were given the Rouens. He likes the mallard look...but I like the Muscovies! Oh well, we'll see how things work out.

Now, let's talk about rain. I like rain, especially in the hot, hot summer. It rained yesterday, it was raining again when I got up. It's supposed to rain tomorrow.

Someone mentioned on a list that most years her goats have begun the winter coat growth by now. I haven't been very observant of this, except I did notice they kept their winter coats quite late this year. Given that nighttime temperatures were in the 50s in June this year, I can see why. Everyone has awesome looking summer coats right now.

What.......Wait.....No Boobs?

Yesterday we wanted to slaughter chickens. You know, so we could eat them. Jim and I bled and plucked the first two, and sent them in to the eviserator (my mother) and the bagger (the oldest kid). Mom came out and said, "These chicken have no boobs, we should wait." So, we had heated up the water for 2 chickens. Oh well, we'll give them 2 or 3 more weeks. But then they gotta GO! Seriously, these birds are 5 months old.

Jim finished making some modifications on the pig pen to keep the B&B boys in. Seems to be working. Now we just need to move the pen. There's always work to be done, isn't there.

Yesterday, I ambled over to my tomato plants. No tomatoes, but lots of flowers. The temperatures are supposed to be cooler...so, maybe I'll get lucky before the end of October!

We are trying to figure out how to move the pigs at Mom's house to our house. One gilt and the barrow are for eating, but the other gilt is to get up close and personal with Willy. Authorized pig sex. To result in authorized piglets. To result in authorized pork! I am surprisingly fond of the pigs that we have right now. Willy just wants you to scritch his back...get him in the right spot and he just flops over. It's amusing to watch, really.

All my city friends think I'm crazy, but they do not know what they are missing. Homegrown meat is just delicious. We looked at the sheep yesterday, and the ram has done his conjugal duty, and now it is time to go to Freezer Camp for him. All we are waiting for now is the engine hoist (hey, necessity is the mother of invention) and a coolish morning.

This Little Piggie........

Ok, so, we went out this morning and found our 2 newest piggies, Boston and Bacon, in the pen with the big boy pigs, LP and Willy. Even more amazing, LP & Willy were letting the B&B boys eat with them. The big boys weren't even trying to run off the little guys!

The funniest thing to happen today? T-Bone scared the bejeezus out of the 15 year old. Somehow, the fence was left off, and T-Bone decided the grass looked greener on the other side. Said child was feeding pigs when T-Bone crossed behind her, scaring her witless.

Once we got hay down one end of the pasture to entice the other cattle away from the gate, it was a fairly simple 3 girl operation. I held the feed buckets and walked in front, the youngest manned the gate, and the oldest manned the fence charger. Done deal. The easiest cow round up ever.

Escapees, Loud Cows and Whatnot

So, the two little piggies we brought home a little over a while ago, Boston and Bacon, are still hanging around. This is good. They don't want to be caught. This is NOT so good. But having seen them over by their little house, and feeding area this morning has given me hope.

Willy and LP are very friendly. Willy loves to be scritched. I'm beginning to become fond of him. Maybe it's the fact that it's a round-a-bout way to my relatives back in England. My Great-Uncle named all of his boars Willy. It seemed appropriate. I just felt a layer of peace come over me when my mother related that to me, a total sense of rightness. LP stands for Little Pig. That's cuz he's littler than Willy, and he isn't ours, but since he's around for a bit, I needed something to talk at him with. I really prefer all my critters be sociable.

Gumdrop appears to have stopped sounding like a love sick Manatee. Thank Goodness! Wow, that was like 3 days of annoying noise, I'm telling you. Why no one told me that cows in heat were every bit as loud as weanling calves I don't know. Since Squire was kinda showing off his bidness, I figured that's what was going on. As well as some physical changes I noticed on Gumdrop. These things I learned for myself. Boy, am I proud of myself. LOL!

I am looking for an aerial photograph of the property, so that we can draw in the pastures and paddocks. We were discussing it last night, and we can put in a series of about six to eight pastures, each with paddocks in them for rotational grazing, and yet maintain one feeding area. This minimizes the amount of land damaged by hayfall. We need to get 2 hay racks put up, and that will help a lot too. There are a couple of kinks to work out...aka, keeping heifers and bull away from each other. Same with kids and lambs that still have there whatnots. I'm trying to work pigs into the grand scheme also, and we'll probably put the chickens in the middle, to let them have the run of the place....Not so sure on that yet, as they really should follow through with the goats, to pick through the cowpies. I know the rotation is cattle, goats/sheep, chickens. I'm just not sure where to put the pigs into the rotation.

I've been reading Steven Solomon's Gardening When It Counts. This is an eye-opening book. He assumes you know absolutely nothing about creating a garden from scratch! I'm consolidating thoughts on my gardening strategy, as well as everything else. I'm just wondering if my brain will overload from the copious amounts of input I keep stuffing in there!

No One Warned Me About These Things

Gumdrop, has been making the MOST god awful noises beginning 2 or so days ago, and ended sometime after I left here yesterday. I finally decided she was either in heat, or constipated.

Seriously, cows should come with a warning label: EXPECT no sleep while cycling is occuring. Holy Cannolis.

ON a positive note, Squire never left her side during the ordeal. It was an ordeal for me, ok? Wow, you could hear her inside, in the kids' bathroom, and she was on the far side of the pasture at the time. Yikes.

I'm beginning to get a solid picture in my head of where the paddocks will be for stock movement. Now I just need more wire, and more t-posts and more step-ins. I'm trying to decide exactly how to move critters around too.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

We meant to have the new steer pasture up by the time we got the bull. Didn't quite happen.

So, now the Dexter Gang are getting along great, and think the dairy steers are just twits that need to be gone.

New Addition

Gladhour Squire had made his way to the farm and is settling nicely. It was a 21 hour day, but....Gumdrop likes him. YEY!