Too bad I never went to sleep last night LOL!  Long story but I’ll give you the short version after I share some gardening news with you.

Saturday morning and afternoon we had a great time outside in the garden!  It just felt so good to get out and dig in the dirt, ya know what I mean?  There’s just something about getting back to the Earth and enjoying the great outdoors with the plants (veggies in my situation) and animals (cows and chickens for me!). 

Kitty and Davison (our Black Angus “puppy” cows) are getting so fat!  And they are so spoiled too.   I would have never imagined in a million years that I would begin to love cows!  But I’m really attached to them and I’m glad that we’re going to keep them through the winter and into the Spring.  To the casual passer-by they are just two black cows or steers.  But we can see how they are both so unique and different in everything they do and how they act.  Kitty has a “moo” that sounds like an elk call.  Davison has a very deep “moo” that will rattle the windows LOL  The shapes of their faces and necks are different, the “tuffs” on the top of their heads are different…. we can just see how beautiful they are and how individual each of them are.

Now the chickens, we’ll they are just so entertaining!  I had a little fun with them today.  Most of the hens had already gone into the next boxes to leave their “presents” for me (eggs) and I thought I would give another peek just to make sure one of them didn’t slip back in to lay another egg.  Well, I interrupted “Miss Priss” (her nickname for today).  She is one of the Rhode Island Reds.  She gave me a look like “Hello, can’t you tell I’m busy in here?”  Take a look:

So I quickly excused myself and went back to the garden to work a little more.  I decided I would go back later (which I did) and this time she was ready for me… head first waiting for me to open the nest box door…

For some reason she was just taking her own dear sweet time laying her egg today….   Now Buffy, she wanted to play Peek-A-Boo…

And she caught me in this pic:

DH worked on flipping the compost bins which is a big job considering they are 3×3x4′ tall and… there are 4 bins!  We really needed to flip them so that we could get some air mixed up and fluff them some AND, we also needed more room because we’re running out!  I was able to use a couple of wheelbarrow loads from the compost bins.  Some of the material on the very bottom was close to being finished - so that is what we used to supplement several of the raised beds that I was going to plant in today.

Later this morning (after I’ve had a little sleep), I’ll be going out to do some planting in those beds that DH prepared for me.  I am so excited that we are making our own compost from the leaves that fall out of our trees, from our kitchen scraps, from our steers’ manure, from our chickens’ manure, and from the lawn clippings that we obtain from our yard.  It’s had to tell in the picture above, but this stuff is rich and black. 

DH asked me what are we going to do with all of this compost.  That was an easy question to answer…. I told him that we’d be using it in the new raised beds we are going to build for the Spring planting LOL  Between that and supplementing the raised beds we already have, I’m sure that I’ll find a home for all of this compost.

Now a quick explanation of what I was blogging about with the peas and the tomato cages…. I planted “Alaska” which is a shelling pea.  The vines are supposed to grow to be 2 1/2 feet high.  So I planted the seeds around the base of the tomato cage and I’m using the tomato cage as a mini trellis.  And, around the tomato cages I planted some lettuce and some chard in the empty space.  Here’s a pic:

OK, time for me to end this post and get some sleep…. now for the reason that I haven’t been to sleep all night.  Well, around 2 PM I headed up to the office to meet another volunteer who is working on “the project”.  Well, we have so much work to do up there and we stayed until very late and until we were very tired - until 3 AM.  As we locked up and were headed to our vehicles, I saw a dog in the parking lot.  At first it scared me because you never know if stray dogs are mean or nice.  Well, the office is right next to a 5 lane highway…. I told the other volunteer that I was afraid that the puppy would get hit by a car.  Well, when I said “puppy”, he stopped, turned around and looked at me and wagged his tail.

That was it… I couldn’t leave him.  He came over to me wagging his tail and was the sweetest thing ever!  He was a full-grown chocolate lab.  No collar or tag.  I took him inside the office and locked him up in the bathroom while I ran to WalMart and purchased treats, a water bowl, a food bowl, a collar and a leash.  Oh, and I found him a huge rawride bone to chew on.  When I came back to the office, I got the collar on him, loaded him up in my vehicle and took him home.   So this morning, he is in the living room, relaxing and occasionally looking over at me and wagging his tail almost like he is saying “thank you” for saving me.  I woke DD and DH up and they are both in love with him already.  He’s just the sweetest dog.  He even knows how to sit for a treat and he minds pretty good too.

He’s definitely someone’s pet because he teeth are pretty and clean, he’s been trained a little, and even his toenails are clipped (meaning he’s a dog that also lives inside the home).  Let’s hope that he’s “trained” too or I’m going to wake up in a couple of hours to a mess by the front door LOL

And wow, it’s almost 10 AM LOL!  I have lots to do this morning…. heading down to the office at 2 PM for some volunteer work.

First though, we have to finish up in the garden area this morning.  DH has just left to go to the feed store to purchase more calf feed for the boys, Kitty & Davison.  We are trying something new - we feed them 1/2 of their daily feed in the morning and the other 1/2 in the late evening.  Inbetween they eat all the hay that they want.  This new schedule is working better for them…. hmmm, how do I know?  Well, you can tell alot about an animal by its poo.  When we feed the entire amount of feed for the day all at one time, it’s just too much for their stomaches I think.  By splitting their feeding schedule between the morning and late evening, they seem to do better.

This morning I’ll be planting at least 2 more raised beds with some carrots and some beets.  Last year the carrots were so sweet!  The difference between the carrots we grew in the garden and those I last purchased from the store… well, let’s just say “no comparison!”.

I want to do something with the SWC that I grew tomatoes in this past summer but I’m just not sure what would really be a good veggie to grow in them for the fall/winter.  EG seems to be having very good results with broccoli so I might try something like that… maybe some broccoli raab since I haven’t had very good luck with broccoli. 

You’ll get to see some updated pics of the garden this evening… I plan on taking some pics if I can find my camera today LOL.  I want to show you how I will be using the tomato cages as a trellis to grow the Alaska Peas on.  Plus, I am using the space around the outside of the tomato cages for my lettuce and chard.

Something else I planted yesterday was some of the garlic that I purchased a while back.  I know… a little late getting it into the ground LOL   I was hoping to get it planted about 2 months ago but the lack of time interferred with the garden.

It’s time to start thinking about some of the goals that I would like to set for 2010.  Can you believe it’s already November?    One goal that I have for 2010 is to acquire 2 rabbits for our little farmette/homestead. 

I already have the perfect spot for them (pre-planned of course).  I don’t plan on having the rabbits for meat initially.   It’s their manure that will benefit us the most.  Rabbit manure can be used straight in the garden without having to worry about it burning the plants,  So it’s a great way to improve the soil in raised beds as well as supplement feed the plants.

Another way that the rabbits will be beneficial — worms…. I plan on growing worms under the rabbit pen.  And guess who will get some of the worms?  The chickens!  The worms will be an additional source of protein for my chickens.   So there are 2 immediate benefits to having the rabbits here on our little farmette — manure for the garden as well as a place for me to grow worms for my chickens.  Of course there’s always the benefit of having rabbits to pet, hold and love :-)   When I was young I had rabbits for pets.  Rabbits make great pets because they are nice and quiet LOL  Plus, they are a great way to quickly dispose of garden scraps and green vegetable scraps - they turn this into a great manure that is mild and can be immediately used in the garden.

A 2nd goal for 2010 that I’ve really been thinking alot about is a chicken tractor.  Patti uses her chickens to prepare her raised beds for planting.  How?  Well, they consume the spent veggie plants, scratch and eat bugs in the raised beds, and till up the soil all while leaving poo to supplement the soil.  What I would like to do is build a chicken tractor that can also function as a rabbit tractor too.  We have plenty of grass and land and I could also use the “tractor” to graze the rabbits.

Just some ideas to think about for next year.  Well, I need to get outside and get busy!  I will check back in later this evening with some pics!  Have a great Saturday!!

I hope that everyone had a great day and that the weather was a nice in your area as it was here in South Alabama.  The high today probably didn’t get above 73 or 74 degrees.  But, the nicest thing is that there must have been 0% humidity!    So it was a perfect day for working outside.

Today the girls layed 8 eggs!  I think that they are finally getting finished with their fall molting and things are leveling off.  I had gotten down to only getting 4 eggs per day for a couple of weeks.  That was still plenty enough eggs for our family.    Two important things today with the chickens - first of all, I found out which Easter Egger (Ameraucana) was laying those extra long eggs.  It’s Buffy!  Her eggs are about 1 1/2 times as long as a regular large egg.  One was so long that when I put it in an egg carton, the carton didn’t want to close!  So far none of them have been double yolks - the yolks are just huge.  The 2nd important thing, this afternoon I went to check for more eggs and one of the Rhode Island Reds was in the nest.  I caught her at just the perfect time to see her stand up and lay an egg!  That’s the first time I’ve actually seen one of my chickens laying an egg.

I was able to get some work in the garden accomplished today.  I planted the entire bed at the end of the chicken run with peas and some onions.  I also planted the bed on the west side of the chicken run with peas.  This fall/winter we have so much vertical space in the garden (from the beds and trellises we built this past summer).  All of this vertical space will be used for peas and I’m hoping it will be a good growing season.  Hopefully, we’ll have a freezer full of peas to last us over the summer months as well as plenty of fresh peas to eat for meals over the winter.

Today 2 more raised beds (2′x4′) were double-dug, fresh compost added as well as some more peat and vermiculite.   These beds will be planted with beets and carrots tomorrow.  Last year the carrots grew so well and I had wished that I had planted more.  So this year I’m planting lots of them.  Hope they do as well this year as they did last year.

What are your plans for this weekend?  Will you be working in your garden?

I didn’t have time this morning for my scrambled eggs and swiss chard (like I was planning) so…. I had it for dinner tonight!  Everyone else in the family ate various items and leftovers so I decided that I would cook my planned “breakfast” for dinner tonight.  I added a piece of garlic toast and BAM!!!!! I had an awesome dinner :-)   Take a look:

I love cooking quick and easy meals…. and this one was both.  I scrambled the eggs in this same bowl and then poured them into a small pan to cook.  Then I washed the bowl in the sink, dried it and placed the cook scrambled eggs back in.  I then sauted the swiss chard in the same small pan I cooked the eggs in,  and when the chard was cooked, I placed it on top of the scrambled eggs.   While the eggs and swiss chard were cooking, I toasted this garlic bread in the toaster oven.  Now this is a healthy meal!  Hardly any clean up either :-)  That even better!

With the daylight hours dwindling, the  chickens are not laying as many eggs as they were in the summer.  So today we only got 3 eggs.  But one of these should be counted as 2 eggs LOL  It’s one of those huge double yolkers I’m sure:

I’m up early this morning…. I have a few things to do before I head down to the office this morning (where I’ll be all day and probably 1/2 the night).  It’s a quarter till 7 AM and finally beginning to get light out.    We’ve had a week of almost record-breaking high temperatures but I think the cooler weather is now headed this way.  A band of rain showers moved through last night which is followed by a ;ittle cool front.  I could tell the difference when I left the office last night (after 10 PM) to drive home.  Even though the roads were still wet, the air had a cooler, almost drier feel…   But it will not stay dry for long as we have another band of rain that is going to be moving through today:

I was so hoping that “the project” that I’m working on would be complete enough so that I could have my weekend off…. well, that isn’t the case unfortunately.  I’ll be going in to the office today and tomorrow… so much for this weekend, eh?

I am just so wanting to get outside and spend the day in my garden!  I have so many things that I want to do - like PLANT!  LOL  But, for now, I’m committed to this project and everything else will have to go on hold.  One thing I know for sure, after this project is completed, it will be a cold day in h-e-double hockey sticks before I even think once, much less twice of volunteering for such a time consuming task.  Every day that I’m at the office, all I can think about is how much I would rather be outside in my garden than sitting in an office in front of a computer and paperwork.  Just thank goodness I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Well, it’s light enough to go outside… I’m going to feed and visit all of the animals this morning :-)   I’m checking my chickens to see if they are beginning to molt.  With the changing amounts of daylight hours and the onset of fall, they should start molting any day now.  This will also mean a very sharp decline in the number of eggs they lay.  Molting is a natural process in the life of a chicken - it will just be the first time that my chickens (or ME) have gone through it LOL

Hope that you have a great weekend!  And that you can get out and do some work in your garden (dig a shovel full of dirt for me!!).

I hope that your week is going well!  We’ve made it past “hump day” and tomorrow is Friday!  Yeah!

These late nights working down at the office (on the “project”) is definitely taking a toll on me.  I’m just completely worn out!  This morning I couldn’t get out of bed at my regular time.  Thank goodness DH took DD to school for me.  I don’t think she would have made it there if I would have had to drive LOL 

So it’s a quarter till 10 AM and I’m still at home.  I just needed a little more sleep this morning.  Plus, I had clothes to wash and dry, etc.  But I’ll be getting my shower in a little while and heading back down to the office before 11 AM.

Something that I did do this morning was to feed and water the animals.    I have really missed them.  Thank goodness for DH…. he’s been taking care of things outside for me.  But it’s not his regular morning routine so a few things have gone askew…. like leaving the 40 lb bag of dog food out.  So this morning I didn’t have to feed the puppies at all!  Their tummies were so round from them eating for the last 24 hours straight LOL!  But that will mean that I have to stop by the store to pick up another bag of food for them today.

And the cows… well, he left the back gate open and the cows have been grazing in the area between their pasture and the garden.  And it was “mowed down” to say the least LOL  But that’s ok… the grass was getting a bit high in there.    Of course, they came running from their pasture when they saw me with the feed scoop.  They are so spoiled!  Something I noticed is that they are beginning to grow their winter coat already.  They are looking more “fuzzy” and not as smooth and shiney black.  We have begun to have some cooler days over the last 2 weeks or so.  This week is muggy and hot though.

Now about the chickens…. they are doing great :-)  No more broody hens… and the egg production is picking back up again!  DH wasn’t able to collect the eggs yesterday morning so I had 2 days worth of eggs to collect which totaled 11 eggs.    So, something I’ve learned from my two formerly ”broody” hens… this is a normal process and it is going to happen with hens because that is how God made them.  Rather than caging them up or fighting the process, when I have another broody hen I will just push her off the nest every morning so that she will eat and drink (I want to make sure she gets enough nutrition and water) and I will let her go thru the process until it runs its course.   Sure it cuts down on the number of eggs that I collect, but that’s ok.  I think going through the broody process gives the chickens a little break in laying eggs.

Well, I need to leave in 30 minutes or so…. have a great day!  Any plans for the upcoming weekend?

Well, I’m up bright and early this morning (been up since 3:30 AM actually!).  I’ve been working day and night (literally!) on this special project that should be wrapping up soon.  Unfortunately, for me it means that I haven’t been out to the garden or to see the animals since last Friday morning.  But don’t worry, DH and DD have been taking care of them and doing the feeding and collecting eggs.   Thank goodness — without my family filling in for me and covering my chores, I don’t know what I could have done LOL. 

I usually leave out early in the morning and I don’t get back home until 1 or 2 AM…. yeppers!  But yesterday evening I was just dead beat and couldn’t go any further.  So, the group knocked off at 6:45 PM and decided to call it a day.  We all needed some rest.  Nodding off at the computer isn’t good and we don’t want to make any clerical errors in our work (would be disasterous!).   So I came home and was in bed at 7:30 PM.  I slept until 3:30 AM (8 hours) this morning.  I feel like a million bucks this morning, all rested up and ready to go back and tackle “the project” again.

But back to the garden and animals…. guess what?  The Rhode Island Red that was broody has FINALLY gotten over it.  Yes!  DH has been out feeding and collecting eggs and said that for two days in a row she hasn’t been sitting in the nest box.  So that is good news.  She was defintely one meany while she was broody LOL   Otherwise, the Rhode Island Red hens have been so sweet.  I would definitely recommend this breed to anyone who would like to keep chickens for their eggs.   All of mine have laid the largest, oval brown eggs… many of which have been double yolks!

My last trip to the feed store yielded a purchase of garlic and onion sets…. I had gone to the feed store to purchase more feed for the steers and was very happy to see the garlic and onion sets there.  I probably purchased way to many onion sets though LOL  I am hoping that I will have a little time this coming weekend to get them into the ground.

Well, it’s 5 AM now and I really need to get going this morning :-)   I hope that you’re having a great week….

I hope that your Monday was nice too!  I got alot of work accomplished up at the office today - so that’s a “feel good” thing.  DH took the day off and was home working on removing flooring - he made a good bit of progress too

As soon as I got home, I just couldn’t wait to go outside and see the animals and feed.  As soon as we opened the gates, we heard the cows start mooing.  They were waiting on us :-)  It’s funny, but we can tell the difference in their “moo’s” now.  Kitty has a high, shreeking type of “moo”.  I’ve never heard one like that before.  And Davison has a very low “moo” that sounds like a big, brass tuba playing the lowest note.

DH said that with the amount of rain we’ve had this past summer and fall, there should be plenty of hay available for a good price through the winter months.  If so, it looks like we’ll probably keep our cow babies until the Spring sometime.  They will be a year old in December :-)  We’re definitely going to miss them when it’s time for them to depart.  But, it’s already been decided that when that time comes, we’ll be ready to get a couple more baby cows to raise.  I really like the idea of raising our own beef and knowing how well the animals were treated.  Ours will probably be the most spoiled cows ever LOL   They are never mistreated and are always pampered.   When we do get our next baby cows, they will be younger and hopefully at the bottle raising age!  If you raise them from young babies, then they will be every more tame and gentle than the ones we have now

I am happy to say that this is the 2nd day that the broody Ameraucana wasn’t sitting on a nest when I went out to get the eggs.  So, I guess I can’t call her a “broody” Ameraucana anymore LOL   She’s joined the rest of the flock and hopefully will be laying beautiful blue-green eggs again soon.  Now the “broody” Rhode Island Red, well, she’s a different story.  I pushed her off the nest again this evening and made her go and eat and drink.  She had adopted an egg that one of the other RIR’s laid today LOL  And she wasn’t too happy with me when we went back to the nest box and found that I had stolen her egg LOL!

On another note, I’ve almost finished laying out and planning my fall garden :-)  I am hoping to get everything in the ground this coming weekend

After the rain stopped this morning, the sun came out.  Wow,  it’s getting hot again - feels like summer!  The high today was 89 degrees.  Of course with all of the rain we’ve been having you can imagine the humidity! 

We’ve been working inside the house today on the flooring.  DH is getting it up. Actually, it is 2 linoleum floors - one on top of the other.  The people we purchased our house from had new flooring in the kitchen and breakfast installed right on top of linoleum flooring that was already down.    So we have double the work to do to get all of the flooring up to the concrete.  The worst part is the adhesive that the original flooring was glued down to the concrete with.  But DH has a scraper tool that he is using that is doing a pretty good job.

We went outside later this afternoon and fed the puppies, cows and chickens.  All are doing very well.  So far none of the other chickens are acting the least bit sick or ill.  Whatever it was must have just affected the one Barred Rock Hen.   On a good note, the Ameraucana “broody” seems to not be as “broody” lately.  I noticed this yesterday.  And today when I went out, she wasn’t even sitting on a nest!  So, hopefully she’s over her little spell and will get back to business LOL  Hens do not lay eggs when they are broody.  Now, the Rhode Island Hen is still just as broody as ever LOL  I have to make her get out of the nest box so she will go and eat and drink.  And she’s just as grouchy as ever LOL

DH took a couple of pics of DD while we were outside.  I know that I’ve said it before, but our cows are like really big puppies LOL  They will come running when you call them.  And they are so sweet. 

Wow, what an ending to a week!

What is that about things coming in 3’s…. like bad things happening in 3’s????

Well, the first bad thing was one of the Barred Rock hen’s left our flock…. yep, she’s somewhere in chicken heaven.  I don’t know what happened to her but I went out to feed on Thursday evening and she was inside the coop, over in the corner.  So I fed the rest of the chickens in the run and locked them out of the coop until DH could get home from work and bury her.  By the time he made it home, it was dark and he really couldn’t tell what had happened to her.   So far, nothing seems to be wrong with the rest of the chickens, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it wasn’t an illness that the other chickens could catch.

#2 - I came home from the office yesterday afternoon to feed the cows, chickens and puppies and found 1/3 of my house flooded with water.  Yep…. the bathroom in the office/4th bedroom is where it was coming from.  Something to do with the water on the toilet not shutting off…. So, now we have a mess to clean up and flooring in several rooms to take up.  I don’t want to take any chances with mold starting.  I saw what that was like after Katrina where my parents live.  So all of the flooring is coming up and anything that got wet is going to have to be gone through.  No fun.  So guess what we’re working on today and tomorrow?  So much for this weekend, eh?

#3 - Dear Lord, please don’t let the #3 bad thing happen….  let’s just leave it at bad things happen in 2’s, ok?  I would really, really appreciate it!!!

And rain… oh my goodness.  We have had so much rain.  You’d think it was spring time and not fall.  But with the rain going on outside, it will make me feel better about being inside working LOL  I won’t be as tempted to want to go outside and play in the garden or with the chickens and cows LOL

Got to run. Plenty to do