• Well, the fodder experiment was a flop.

• Buckwheat Seed: Only a handful of seeds sprouted

• Barley Seed: Virtually none germinated.

• Rye Grass Seed: It sprouted ok. It seemed like much of the seed didn’t sprout, though. And, it took longer than I was expecting to grow.

• I fed it all to the chickens. They loved it.

• We began Fodder Experiment #2

• Many of the flower, herb, veggie and fruit seeds I started are doing well. The ones moved into an aquaponics grow bed seem especially happy.

• The deer are back at munchin’ on the day lilies.

• It’s been a wet, dreary winter. But, finally we have some flowers showing spring color.

• Just like that, in the matter of one week, we are down to one duck. We believe a coyote (and maybe his buddies) are to blame. We saw a coyote one morning, have heard them a couple times, and caught one on the game camera. There hasn’t been evidence of anything else lurking about. It is amazing to me how quickly 11 ducks disappeared. Occasionally a random duck or chicken becomes coyote or bobcat dinner. But, never have we had so many in such a short span of time. The one lone duck to survive is the welsh harlequin who has been hiding and sitting on unfertile eggs. We moved her to a chicken coop and she doesn’t seem to thrilled with her new home.

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The weather was crummy this week, so we didn’t do much outside other than necessities. I’m still focused on getting seedlings started and experimenting with fodder. The wild life news this week is that there is a duck-nabbing critter roaming about.

• Many seeds germinated and were moved to the garage under the metal halide light.

• A few seedlings (bush beans, kale & romaine) were moved into a grow bed in the aquaponics system.

• A few seedlings were potted up.

• And, some we are still waiting to germinate.

• The fodder experiment hasn’t been going as well as I had hoped. The ryegrass is doing ok, but only a handful of the buckwheat seeds sprouted. And, we’re still waiting on the barley.

• The crocus and daffodils are blooming! But, the rain has proven to be too much for some of them.

• Our Welsh Harlequin duck is sitting on eggs. However, they aren’t fertile, so we should put a stop to this behavior.

• Unfortunately 6 of our ducks have gone missing. I also saw a coyote in the yard this morning. Coincidence? I think not.

• We moved the game camera to where the ducks hang out with hopes of catching a peek at what is lurking around and when.

The post 2016 Update – Week 10 appeared first on .

This week was a lot less eventful than last week. And, I’m so very glad. We just had to tend to all the everyday feedings and such.

•  It’s warming up, but the first half of the week involved walking oh so carefully in the icy conditions to feed all the critters.

• The rain has returned. A tad more than I would like.

• The ducks are still content playing in the puddles on the patio. And so, the patio continues to be covered in poop.

• A few of the chickens, including a white leghorn, are not looking their best in the muddy conditions.

• Not many, but, we are getting a few eggs during these winter months.

• Pictured top right is our Old English Game Bantam. I think he’s quite handsome. He’s meant to be a 4H show chicken, but since none of our kids are participating in 4H this year he just gets to be our pet without the stress of showing off.

• Oliver, the pot bellied pig, and his goat friend, Lois, are still with us. Every morning I feed them in their shelter, but Lois always comes back out to get an extra hand out from me.

The post 2016 Update – Week 2 appeared first on .

2015 has officially ended. Let’s look back at how our farm and gardening endeavors played out this past year. We had a fairly steady year with good food being grown and plenty of animals to keep us busy.

CHICKENS

We dabble in a variety of things related to farming and gardening, but chickens will always be a main stay for us. That being said, this year we did take a slight step back. We didn’t incubate eggs, we didn’t attend any shows or swaps, and Farm Kid2 decided not to continue with poultry in 4H. But, that doesn’t mean we’re short on chickens.

We chose not to incubate eggs this year. We did, though, have 3 broody hens hatch small clutches. Click here to read about the first hatch and click here to read about the second.

The majority of our birds are Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers. But, we still have two golden polish hens that are nearly 4 years old. They lay a fairly small egg and are such a great looking bird.

Mo, our Easter Egger rooster, has been demoted. For a number of years he was our top rooster. However, some young, cocky boys have moved up and taken his spot in the pecking order.

Three of our handsome fellas.

We were given this Old English Game bantam. I think he’s beautiful. He’s meant to be a show bird, but at the moment nobody in our family is showing poultry.

This wasn’t an outstanding egg year. One day, though, Farm Girl decided to count how many eggs we had.

We raised 10 birds for meat. Usually we roast the whole chicken, but one night Farmer John made chicken strips. They were delicious!

Four white leghorns, one buff orpington, one barred rock and one black australorp were added to our laying flock this year.

DUCKS

The ducks have given us a bit of excitement by each hen hatching eggs this year. That’s a first for us.

Our two Welsh Harlequin ducks.

Sally, our male Muscovy. The left photos are from January and February of this year. The right was taken in September. His looks changed significantly.

Both ladies sat on eggs this year, which was a fun experience for us. To read about the first hatch click here. And click here to read about the second hatch.

I’ve enjoyed watching how the Welsh Harlequin/Muscovy cross ducklings change as they mature.

Unfortunately, we lost Sally and one of the Welsh Harlequins to predators in the fall.

GOATS

The goats are cute as can be doing goat type things. You can read more about them here.

PIGS

We’ve had two sets of hogs this year. The first round Farm Kid1 raised 2 and sold them to earn money for a computer.

The second round was to fill our freezer, as well as to sell. The pigs were a Hampshire/Berkshire cross.

OLIVER & LOIS

A couple weeks ago we acquired a pot bellied pig named Oliver, and his friend Lois, a pygmy goat. My hope was we could be their forever home and they would live happily ever after with Sven and Olaf. Unfortunately, things aren’t working out as well as I had hoped. So, we are in the process of finding them a new home.

FLOWER BEDS

There wasn’t a lot of action this year in our flower beds. But, the same ol’ trusty trees, shrubs and perennials put on a pretty show mainly in the spring and summer months.

The ducks, unfortunately, are not great for the plants. They step on them. They sleep on them. They poop on them.

The deer also make flower gardening a challenge. Apparently some of our plants are quite tasty.

The only new additions to our flower beds were 10 lavender ‘grosso’ plants. They’re in an area that I’ve struggled with for years. I finally decided lavender was the thing to spruce it up.

PONDS

We have two small ponds that I love. Our farm critters as well as wild critters love them, too.

GARDENING FOR FOOD

Another thing we didn’t spend as much time on as in years past, was the garden. It is incredibly time consuming keeping up with the weeds and by the end of summer it had gotten a bit out of hand. We did harvest some produce, though. We got onions, potatoes, a few eggplant and squash, cherry tomatoes & herbs.

We tried the three sisters method in one area of the garden. Corn, beans and squash all growing together. It worked kind of . Everything grew. But, we tend to have trouble with corn and it didn’t grow fast enough before the beans grew tall. The squash (pumpkins & gourds) grew well, though.

Many of our seeds didn’t germinate this year. I think the birds got to them. Darn it. I should have had a fabulous showing of tall sunflowers mixed with viney cucumbers growing underneath. What I got was one sunflower. One.

This was not a great year for tomatoes. We only picked a handful of big, juicy red ones. It was so hot this summer, I actually think we didn’t water them enough. We did, however, get renegade yellow cherry tomatoes. They reseeded from last year and were a pleasant surprise.

Fruit. My favorite items to pick from the garden is the fruit. Our grape vines are finally producing well, we got a couple apples, lots of plums and lots of raspberries.

NEW PATIO

Our only big project of the year was pouring a much needed back patio. We decided to do stamped concrete, which was a lot of work. But, I’m so happy to finally have a patio. The ducks, too, are quite happy with the patio. It is one of their favorite places to hang out and poop.

AQUAPONICS

This was our first full year experimenting with aquaponics. We have three grow beds, one fish tank and a sump tank.

A good sized pump cycles the water and aquarium heaters keep it warm. Depending on the time of year we keep the water between 70 and 80 degrees.

We have a fan for circulation in the greenhouse.

Grown in the garden beds were/are peppers, Mexican sour gherkins, tomatoes, eggplant, mixed greens and okra. This growing method works very well.

I also started nasturtiums right in the garden bed and overwintered geraniums that loved the greenhouse.

We grow tilapia in the fish tank part of the aquaponics system. The fish aren’t growing as quickly as we thought they would. But, at the beginning of December we did finally catch a couple fish and have them for dinner. I was hoping they’d be good, and they were.

Whew! There were no major plant or animal changes this year. But, just keeping up kept us plenty busy. It’s so much work living this way, but so rewarding. I can’t wait to see what 2016 will bring.

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The weather forecast is getting predictable. Rain. Followed by rain. And more rain.

This December is officially the wettest month in 75 years. That’s sayin’ a lot since we live in Oregon. And, the month isn’t even over yet. We still have over a week left in December.

After such a dry summer, a little rain is nice. But, we’ve had enough now. I’d like at least a day or two of feeding the critters without coming back in looking and feeling like a drowned rat.

I took a screen shot of the forecast pinpointed at our house about a week into the rainy days. Some days the rain has been accentuated with wind. Lots of wind. Thankfully, our power has only gone out once during this crazy weather.

We’ve had numerous flood watches and warnings, as well. It’s been rough for many people due to flooding. Our friend’s driveway had water knee deep. Since we are near the top of a ridge, flooding at our home isn’t a problem. Our only issue is getting to town sometimes when there is flooding across the road in the lower areas coming off our hill.

For three weeks now this has been the view out our kitchen window.

The little birds search for food even in the downpours.
Left: Dark-eyed Junco
Right: Song Sparrow

The rain hasn’t seemed to bother the ducks much. But, I wonder if they’ve had to spend more time preening to stay dry. Ducks have a gland that produces oil. They rub the oil over their feathers for a waterproof effect.

Our ducks have spent a lot of time lately preening, bathing and drinking the water collecting on our new patio.

Tonight’s forecast includes a Winter Storm Warning. We’re in an iffy zone weather wise. We could get 1 – 2 feet of snow, or we could get nothin’. It would be awesome, though, if it actually did snow on Christmas. We don’t get many white Christmas’s around here.

I’m not really complaining about all the exciting weather we’ve been having. Thankfully, we’ve had very few problems. I’m simply getting tired of the wet gloominess day after day.

The post Dreary December 2015 appeared first on .

We have 10 new additions to our farm thanks to a broody Welsh Harlequin and a male Muscovy that’s good at male duck activities.

BROODY DUCK

All spring and into summer both Welsh Harlequin ducks have been broody and waddling around like crazy. Last month one of the ducks hatched ducklings. Not long after, the other duck began sitting on eggs in almost exactly the same spot.

THEY HATCHED

One afternoon Farmer John heard a duckling and spotted it near its mama. The next day mama and her 10 babies ventured out for a swim.

DEAR OLD DAD

Daddy is our muscovy duck, Sally.

Muscovies are an odd duck. Since they are slightly different than other ducks, these babies will be sterile. Which is fine with me. We don’t need a bunch of breeding ducks.

NINE DAYS OLD

We left for vacation the day after the ducklings hatched. We came back home to all 10 ducklings appearing to be healthy as can be.

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The middle of July is already upon us, which means it’s Bloom Day. We had an unusually hot, dry June, which put the flowerbeds ahead of their usual schedule. We’ve been watering enough to keep the plants alive, but maybe not enough to keep them happy and producing their best. We’re already at the point where the majority of blooms are past their prime, which generally doesn’t happen until August. However, we have had some blooms over the last couple weeks to show off.

FRONT YARD

The pond in the front yard is in full bloom.
Top: Pickerel weed, creeping jenny & 5 cutie patootie ducklings.
Bottom Left: Cardinal Meadowhawk on a mint blossom
Bottom Right: Itty bitty marigold. I planted marigolds in front of the pond like I did last year. This time, though, they are scrawny.

More blooms around the pond. I love this section. The butterfly bush, lavender, daisies, day lily, yarrow and an unknown plant or two all bloom at the same time creating a beautiful little scene.

BACK YARD

The back yard is still in need of an update. I haven’t put the time into this area like it deserves. I’m thinking this fall and spring may be its time.
Top: I can always count on these three: marrow, day lilies, and shasta daisies.
Bottom Right: Wild red elderberry

BIRD VILLAGE

The bird village is always my favorite. However, it goes a little crazy this time of year.

The pond has a few plants along its edges in bloom, like pickerel weed & geraniums I over wintered in our aquaponics system.

The meadow strip. Every year I plant new seed hoping for a little variety. And, every year the daisies and blanket flowers take over.

While they are not officially blooms, they are new flowers in our garden. They are hand blown glass flowers created by me, Farm Kid1 & Farm Kid2. We took a workshop at Live Laugh Love Glass in Tigard. The flowers are beautiful, but I don’t love their place in the landscape.

OTHER

A few other blooms around.
Left: A hardy gladiola in a side bed that I really don’t spend any time on. I don’t think it’s been watered once this summer.
Right: Nasturtiums. They’re flowering, but aren’t trailing like I’d hoped.

Left: Calendula in the garden, reseeded itself from last year.
Right: Okra in the greenhouse. I surely didn’t know okra had such a splendid flower.

I’m sharing this post at May Dreams Gardens.

The post Bloom Day – July 2015 appeared first on .

The newest additions to our farm are 5 ducklings hatched on site. This is a first for us.

I’m going to be honest, we haven’t had a lot of success with ducks. So this is a huge milestone.

NEWBIES TO OUR POULTRY PARK

I was in the garden when Farm Girl came running over hollering, “We have ducklings! Mom, we have baby ducks!!!”
Sure enough, we did.

Our two Welsh Harlequins have been taking turns being broody this spring. I had suspicions that our Muscovy was a male, but wasn’t sure. So, I didn’t know if the eggs they were sitting on were even fertile. Eventually, though, all the needed elements came together and a clutch of eggs produced babies.

DADDY DUCK

Back at the Fall Poultry Swap Farm Kid2 picked out a duck. He bought it straight run, not knowing if it was male or female. I was hoping for female, but either was fine. Since then I’ve been watching to see if I could tell if it was boy or girl. But, I’ve never had a muscovy duck, so I didn’t really know what to look for. And, even just a few months ago it was hard to tell. However, this caruncled face and the fact that our other two ducks are ladies pretty much answers the question. This duck’s a dude.

GOING FOR A SWIM

So, so cute!
I love watching mama taking her babies for a swim.

I try to focus on how cute it is, as opposed to thinking about 5 little poopers in my pond.

TIME TO REST

When they were done with their swim mama let them know it was time to go. And, off they went to their secret hiding place.

Sharing this post with the Homesteading Hippie and their From the Farm Hop

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Weather

October’s weather started out nice enough, but has now turned to crap. Rain. Fog. Wind. Typical for this time of year.

Spider Webs

The spiders have been busy lately. Lots of web making going on. And, in the right light they look super cool.
  

Power Outage

This weekend was stormy.

I had to take the long way home due to a tree being across the road. Then we came home to the power being out. Our phone was out for awhile, as well. When it was working, though, I frequently called the power company to report our outage and the line was busy every single time I called. I wonder if there phone wasn’t working either? I never did get through, but thankfully around 4:00 the next day the crew came to fix the line.

I can handle not having tv, or computer, or microwave. But, I hate being without light. And, at this time of year it’s getting dark fairly early. Darn it! However, it did give us a nice excuse to go to bed early. I snuggled with my 2 kids that were home, read them Halloween stories & they were asleep easily by 8:00, maybe earlier. I stayed up a little later and read Wildwood. It is a middle-grade fantasy based in the urban forest area outside of Portland.

I think I have mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning again.
Most of the year, I am not a fan of our propane stove. It is very hard to adjust the temperature. There are even special burners that are supposed to help with this problem. One is meant to boil water quickly, which is a larger burner. There is also a small burner & 2 medium sized burners. There is virtually no difference between any of them. We’ve had the stove since we moved in 6 years ago. The stove & I still fight.

On days the power is out, though, I love, love, love that we have a stove that runs on propane. It means on the cold evenings we still get warm food.

Ducks

The ducks, of course, don’t seem to mind the crummy weather. It can be pouring outside and they’ll be splashing away in the pond.

Chicken Keeping

In the Spring we hatched lots of chicks. We sold some at the Spring Swap and later sold nearly laying pullets at the Fall Swap. We didn’t purchase birds for meat purposes this year. Instead, from the chicks we hatched, the majority of the cockerels will fill our freezer next month.

Jack-o-Lantern and Chick

Our chickens are happy to eat the pumpkin guts.

I was a little nervous bringing home hatching eggs from the swap. But, we put them in the incubator and all 4 of them started developing. I was pleased! However, they did not survive the power outage.

Goats

Our oldest son wanted to build the goats a play place. So, Farmer John helped him build this. Unfortunately, the goats don’t like it. They won’t climb it. When I set them up on the top, they just jump off. I think with a few changes, though, the goats will enjoy it.

Pigs

Pig raising seems to be going well. Thankfully, Farm Kid1 is pretty good about taking care of them and they are growing. I don’t know if I can call them super cute, but I do love their personalities.

Aquaponics & Greenhouse

In the aquaponics system set up in the greenhouse, the tomatoes, tomatillos & tilapia are all doing fine.

Wildlife

Neighborhood Deer

Happy Halloween

The post Around the Farm and Garden – October 2014 appeared first on .

Saturday was the Oregon Fall Poultry Swap in Corvallis. This was our first time being a vendor at the Fall Swap. Although, earlier this year we were vendors at the Spring Swap.

OUR BOOTH

OTHER VENDORS

WHAT WE BROUGHT HOME

Farm Kid2 bought a Muscovy duck from a vendor across from us. He also bought hatching eggs from the vendor right next to us. The 3 light brown eggs are Seramas & the white egg is an Olandsk Dwarf. Ooh, I hope they hatch.
Update: Day 6 I candled the eggs & all 4 looked to be developing. I was so excited. However… about day 14 we were in town all day & sometime early in the morning our power went out. By the time we got home the eggs were cold & had been for a number of hours. Our power didn’t come back on until the next day. They never did finish developing.

The day went very well. My only complaint is that going to the swap as a vendor, I don’t have time to look around at what everyone else is selling or take part in the other activities. Last year at the Fall Swap I had a great time browsing & taking pics. Whether going as a vendor or a customer, though, the event is fun. I’m sure we’ll be back next year.

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