K is for Keeping the Farm

We are back for another week of Blogging Through the Alphabet with my friend, Marcy at Ben and Me!  If you have not popped over to check out the others who are on this journey with us, I would love to encourage you to do so.  There you will find word studies, favorite books, women of the Bible, animals and more.  Each week, I love reading what others have picked for their letter topic!

This week is K and was a no brainer for me!

Yep, we got to "keep" the farm for our friends while they went on a mini vacation.  You may have read about said friends in our butchering the cow post or the butchering chickens post.  Can you believe that in a few months we will even get to share with you about butchering a pig?  But even more than that- can you even believe that they trusted us enough to leave the farm in our care for a few days?

It was so fun.  It was actually the most relaxing thing I have done all summer.  Seriously.

Now, let it be said, I know it is not always fun for them.  Or any farmer.  When it is your land, your garden, and your animals, it can be a lot more stress and most certainly a lot more responsibility.

But when you are just keeping the farm, pretending it is yours for a few days, well, it is kind of like watching Little House on the Prairie.  You can hum the tune and pretend.  Not that I did that or anything ;)

First, the chickens.  A few in this batch are destined to become dinner for someone, but most are their layers.  Yep, fresh eggs.  How cool is that?  Of course, someone needs to tell those chickens it is time to get laying.  Just saying.

Because Farmer Dan built those spoiled chickens a really cool coop, there was not much for us to do.  They can go out and roam the farm all day and get safely shut inside at night due a motorized, automatic door, so they are not going to go hungry when the family  is away  We just made sure their water was full and clean and fed the smaller chicks that have not earned the privilege of being outside yet.  Don't know if you can really tell from the pictures (those things will not stand still and pose!) but the newest set of chicks are fancy dancy.  A few have cute tufts of hair on their heads and make me want to just name them all and snuggle with them.

Next the cows.  Have I mentioned before that these cows are not just your ordinary cows?  They look like big 'ole teddy bears.  I am pretty sure they would not want you to cuddle with them, but I sure would like to try!

 Again, they are in the pasture and do not need babysitting, but we needed to keep an eye on them anyway.  One, they have been know to let themselves out of their own field and wander.  Of course, not sure what I was going to do if that had happened on my watch!  While they may know Farmer Dan and follow him around, I am pretty sure they not only do not know me, but could care less about following me around.  My youngest, well, that may have been the ticket.  He fed them and they were his new best friends.  It was actually comical.  The second time we went, they about fell over each other to get back to the barn where he was.  His comment- "they like me best, Mom!"  Yes, yes, they do.

And the second reason for watching them-  three of the cows were pregnant and due to give birth at anytime.  We were assured that they would give birth at night without any need of us (good thing) but we should keep our eyes out  "just in case".  hmmmmmm, let's just say I may have prayed for NO "just in cases"  My only consolation prize  would be we could name a baby if it was born on our watch.  And guess what...those darn cows waited until the night our friends came home to give birth.  I kid you not.  They are not my favorites anymore.  The cows, not our friends!  For the record, the baby was born on the 4th so his name would have been Patriot, or Cuatro or Independence, or something really cool.  Now, he can be Dinner for all I care. ;)

See him? Not, even one day old!

And then there was the garden.  My dream garden.  I could just go stand right in the middle of it and sing a song.  Of course, I have not planted, weeded and watered it, nor sweated it out every time there was bad weather.

Again, the "keeping the farm" is a much easier job than owning the farm.  Instead, I got to harvest a few extras that would not make it long enough to keep them for their owners.

Like cabbage,

 And broccoli,

Some spinach,

and the most beautiful purple cauliflower I have ever seen.  Did you even know it came in that color?  For the record (so you will not be disappointed) it still tastes exactly the same.  Some nameless folks in my family were hoping the pretty purple had changed the original taste.  Nope!

Once cooked it turns deep purple!

Oh, and there is a pool to swim in, which we did not.  Either the wind was blowing hard enough to carry off little people or the temps were too cool, but I did learn how to test the PH and chlorine levels.  Let's just say I am not very good at it and it just may have made me reconsider the pool option at our next location.  If there was ever a pool option ;)

So pool, maybe not, but farm- YES, I still want one.  Even if I have to do more than babysit it!

Thank you to Farmer Dan and his beautiful family for entrusting us with your place and giving us the opportunity to live our dream for a few days.  It was a joy!

Blessings,

 

Also linking up with Jenna at Called Home!

Garden Visitors

Our summer garden is starting to come to a close, partly because the harvest season is winding down for the things we planted and partly because the farmer girl is not here to tend to it anymore.
But have enjoyed it and benefited from it...

 from squash, potatoes, onions, peppers and a few zucchini, to cantaloupe that we thought were watermelon at first, to enough tomatoes to freeze lots of tomato sauce and even some spaghetti sauce.  It has been fun for the girls of the house to see the fruits of our labors.

The boys,
well what's been fun for them were the visitors we had!

Deer!  Sorry no pictures, but there have been several.

A snapping turtle!  Did you know those little creatures are mean?  And will stand you off?  A make a weird hissing noise?

A skink.  Not to be confused with a skunk!  Again, no pictures...those critters are fast!

Lots of caterpillars.  One of which CJ finally talked me into bringing inside in the bug catcher.  And can you believe it, it actually lived, made a cocoon and turned into a butterfly!  I have paid companies to do this little experiment in the past.  No more!  There is a garden full of those wonders.

And then just recently, some kind of snake!  Luckily for me, the skin was all that was around to see at the time.  I jumped down into the garden bare foot and landed on it.  It took me a second to register it was the shed skin and NOT the actual snake, but I do think that in those few seconds my heart may have jumped into my throat!  While I am not terribly distressed over snakes, I prefer NOT to step on one!

This is minus about three more inches of skin that tore when I picked it up.

I am sure there have been more, like the raccoon we saw the wildlife protection people carry away in a trap last week and even possibly the fox we saw wandering the neighborhood at the first of the summer, but for now these will do for entertainment.

Garden Success- Kind of!

Many of you have seen the before garden photos here, and the mid-way point, here, but I wanted to share with you all some minor success.  Finally.  Now don't forget, we are a military family in a rental, with a golf course in the back yard behind that line of trees you see, and limited space.  If you earn your living farming or feed your family only on your garden you may want to turn your head or at least -please do not chuckle too loudly!

Squash and Zucchini- Both finally started coming in, though the zucchini a little slower.  While we were gone for a week a sweet neighbor tended our garden for us and was able to enjoy both.  I was thrilled!  Now there seems to be a second wave coming in and lots of flowers still, so we hope to start freezing some for the winter.  Well, some of us hope!

Tomatoes- Wow!  Last year was sparse to say the least.  This year I about lost hope when almost all the first batch we planted DIED!  But thanks to a few new plants and a few volunteer plants we have tomatoes.  Lot and lots of tomatoes.  Can't wait to can sauce and freeze salsa.  We found a new recipe for salsa we love.  (I'll post it on Friday!)  No more jarred Salsa here.

Peppers- Now while I do not love to eat peppers, I do love to cook with them.  My hopes are these little ones get big enough to chop up and freeze for the year.  We have lost several to what looks like rotting on the bottom.  Any ideas?

Onions- Sill in the ground growing.

Potatoes- ALP actually harvested a handful for dinner a few nights ago.  Don't you just love zipping out to the garden for your dinner?!  She and her grandfather planted lots so we have high hopes that there will be enough there to get us through the fall and winter as well.

Herbs- These are finally slowing down a little.  That is ok with me because there was a time in which I was pretty sure that the parsley was going to take over.  We have stored enough to use forever, I am sure, as well as pawned it off on any one who showed remote interest.  Pair that with the lemon thyme we gave away, the oregano, and the scallions we have dried, I am happy with the output.  The only thing I wish had done slightly better was the dill.  Happens to be my favorite.

Today's gathering

Oh, and I can't forget- WATERMELONS!  Which, by the way, we did not plant this year.  We did plant them last year but they need lots of space and will take over we learned and only got one or two good ones out of the deal, and so we said no to them this year.  They, however said yes to us.  We have 7 growing when I counted this morning and all doing well.  I do admit for me there is something kind of fun in trying to figure out what is growing where you did not plant anything.  ALP, however, does not think it is fun and said it is messing up her pretty, planned garden.

So there you have it- our attempt to garden, grow healthy food for our family, save a little money and have fun in the process.  Yes, I dream of adding lettuce and beans and corn and cucumbers and more, but for now I am happy with what the Lord has supplied! 

How is your garden doing?

On Tuesday, check back here to see how other CREW members' gardens are doing!  Maybe we will find a little inspiration- or empathy! This post is also linked up to Raising Arrows!  Check them out here! 

Garden hope

See the garden?  Do you remember the before???  We are not as hopeless as I thought and I am so excited.  Things are finally beginning to grow.  In the far back peeking up are potatoes.  In front of those, which you cannot see, are rows of onions.  Then come the tomatoes.  Last year we had to beg the plants to produce.  This year we not only have about 8 healthy plants we planted, but now have about 5 that are volunteers from last year.  Who knew?!  In the middle are zucchini and squash plants.  We hope to actually get to show you pictures of vegetables by next month.  Hiding under the squash are our three pepper plants.  I am thinking they may need to be moved since they are not getting much sun now. 

Blue tub alert!
These, by the way, are the same sorry plants we showed you last month.  Do not think they have grown one inch.  As a matter of fact, now that I have looked back at the pictures, they seem to have shrunk. Why didn't someone tell us it was a bad idea...oh, I remember, I asked you kindly not to.  Next time- ignore me!

These are the few herbs we grow.  I know it does not seem like a lot, but it really is enough for our family, as I sadly do not use herbs like I should.  Just never know what to do with then.  We have gotten to share parsley with a neighbor because it keeps trying to take over.  There is also dill (MY FAVORITE), oregano and scallions.  We usually end up drying it all and using throughout the year.  Spices are expensive!  If you have one that you grow, AND love, AND you can tell me what to do with it, I would love your suggestions!

This is my oldest working.  Since she really does all the work and is the one that deals with ticks (my LEAST favorite thing in the world, I am pretty sure)  I thought I better give her some credit.  She is a hard worker.  The funny thing about this picture is she kept finding new plants that we did not plant come up.  We finally decided to let them grow and see what would happen, hence our new watermelon plants that want to take over the garden.  Seriously!  I guess composting is good for more than one reason.  Last year our garden had perfect little rows and did not produce like we wanted it to.  This year, much to ALP's dismay, it is a haphazard mess with NO organization, but is lush and showing much promise.  Oh well.

-This is by no means our dream garden.  That requires land of our own and acres of crops. Not that season for our military moving family- YET!

-This will by no means sustain our family.  A family of six requires more and some of my crew are not even particularly veggie loving folks.

But it is a start.  It is more than last year.  And it makes the momma happy!

"Then the Lord said, 'Let the land produce vegetation: seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seeds in it, according to their various kinds.'  And it was so."  Genesis 1:11

This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday sponsored by A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa and GNOWFGLINS and Culinary Bliss.  Check out their awesome blogs!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It is our great desire to grow much of our own food; our being mine and my oldest, mind you!  We dabbled in it a little last year and are trying to expand a little more this year.  Keep in mind, we live in a rented house right now and do not have tons of land.  As a matter of fact, out our back door you can see a golf course.  Not exactly my dream land, but we are trying to make do with what the Lord has provided for this season. 

Anyway...if you are looking for a how to...you are in the wrong place friend!  Our biggest success last year was cucumbers and jalapeno peppers.  Not exactly life sustaining crops. huh?  We did manage to freeze tomatoes for sauce, but not nearly the amount we needed.  We have planted 16 tomato plants but this is what they look like right now...

Not exactly encouraging!  If you have an idea of what's wrong, please, feel free to clue us in!  We did just get 24 hours straight of rain so I was in hopes they would have perked up this morning, but as you can see....NOPE!

These are some of our squash plants.  We cheated and did not start these from seeds this year.  We  planted half in the garden and half in containers, as you can see.  There are zuchinni plants in another container as well.  Reason being... SQUASH BUGS!  They took over in the garden last year and ruined about all of our plants.  (The oldest does NOT want to put any chemicals in the garden!  Me, I wanted to stand out there with insecticide and just wait to spray one of those little bugs!) We want to test the theory that maybe some plants will be a little more protected in the containers.  If you are shaking your head and know this is not going to work, don't tell us!  ;)  We want to pretend it is a good idea for a few more weeks.

Here are our onions and potatoes, both planted by my father-in-law a few weeks ago.  (His garden by the way, is amazing, and puts ours to shame.)  Both are coming up beautifully, go figure.  This family does not even like onions for the most part, other than I do cook with them, and we may end up with tons.  The potatoes will be great!

This is one of 3 pepper plants.  Again, we do not just eat peppers, but I do like to cook with them so the plan is just to chop up and freeze what we are able to get.

The herbs.  Again, another cheater plant.  We have tried seeds numerous times with no luck, so I finally got mad gave in and bought a few plants. 

Cucumbers are in, but have not come up yet.  I still have hope!

Here are some of our flowers, maybe we should just stick to those!

taken by R

In my dreams my garden looks amazing.

For now, I will settle for this...

It does have a fence now, thank you to the deer!

Someday, when this Air Force moving family settles down in one place, I pray we will have abundant land and a place for my dream garden.  Hey, maybe by then we will know what we are doing!  Until, we welcome any advice and appreciate you muffling your laughter!

How about you?  What are you growing, and as long as you are writing, share your best gardening advice!  Please!

This post is linked up to Our Simple Farm...Simple Living Wednesdays.  Pop in and give her a visit, you will love what you see!

We are also linking up with The Homeschool Village!  YOu may get to see some better gardens there!