Well, we’ve made it this far…the best is yet to come!
Happy Homesteading,
T.
Tag Archives: snapshot
Snapshot Garden – Nov 12, 2016
Low last night 45
High today 80
Hilltop Garden – full with strawberries and Austrian Winter Peas. All the animals love those winter peas!! Need to plant more! Here is the original Tractor One that we move around the Hilltop Garden. The resident Orpington chickens are in charge of weed control!
West Veggie Garden – Looking through the Bean Wall where the hyperactive lima bean vines grew this year. (No beans to speak of, just vine!) The Pigeon Pea Hedge is visible with the kiwi vine beyond. No kiwi as yet, even though we have male and female plants. The rabbits love the pigeon pea…ducks and chickens not so much.
North Orchard – One more Hibiscus to harvest then chop them down. Some of the flowers got moldy…probably left on the branches too long. Hard to keep up.
Tea Garden & Orchard – The Tea Garden needs spiffying-up. The pink whirly gigs, parsley, and blue fescue grasses are all gone. The thyme didn’t do much this season…probably because it has been so dry. We have not had any rain to speak of all year so far. We only got a 1/2 inch in Hurricane Hermione!! But, Marjorie is in full bloom…lovely.
Shade Garden – beautiful Cattleya Orchids this season…6 blooms!!
Greenhouse and Seed Starts – planted Basil, Hot Peppers, Banana Peppers, Creepy Thyme, and Sorrel Hibiscus. Out of all that 1 Hibiscus germinated. It’s us against the squirrel. We sow the seeds and he digs them up as we sleep! The seeds are probably scared to sprout!
Happy Homesteading,
T.
Snapshot – Oct 22 2016
High Today – 76
Low Tonight – 41 !!
Livestock
Chickens– the Cornish Cross chicks may have stabilized. We didn’t lose any today. Total losses may be at 8/53. We replaced the rubberized hardware cloth with regular metal and that seemed to help reduce the mess from waste a bit.
Goats – Emma is quite used to being milked now, although we suspect that the kids, who are still housed with her at night, are getting more than we are. Currently the small supply of goat milk is going to the pigs, who are quite happy with their organic diet of rice, and our own veggies and goat milk!
Rabbits – loving the parsley greens once or twice a day! We’re hoping Fluffy has bred again – 28 days, we’ll see.
Feed – purchased Organic Scratch Grains from Tractor Supply.
Garden – waiting for the temps to break a bit. Too hot for most crops still, although we have been sharing longevity spinach all summer with the ducks, who love it scattered on the pond. The rabbits are happy that the parsley flourishes in heat…that’s heat, not sun. see post
Food – continuing to harvest kefir for smoothies. Ray has had an allergic reaction to something and has cut out the kefir to see if it is related to that…we’re hoping not. We continue to drink smoothies every morning, but his are now kombucha-based…still yummy!
Meat Birds – we will eat our last butchered Cornish from last Feb this week. The supply (25) lasted about six months, which is why we purchased 50 birds this time. see post
Happy Homesteading,
T.