The weather has provided me with an opportunity to blog mid-day today, instead of trying to fit it in between the night cap micro-brew and passing out from exhaustion. It rained a bit last night, and the radar shows it hitting us off and on again all day today and most of tomorrow. Not that I’m complaining (actually I am; there is shit I need to do).
I walked around the farm this morning collecting some photos in order to update you all on what I have been attempting to accomplish around here. I couldn’t even begin to list the number of ways in which I am behind schedule, but that is, I think, the very definition of homesteading.
One update I don’t have a photo for is I finally got around to ordering all the birds for the farm this year. I have twenty Bourbon Red turkeys coming next Monday! That is like the highlight of my spring so far. There is something about raising a heritage breed farm animal that makes me feel like I’m doing the world a solid. Of course, this means I now have even more shit to do before they arrive next week. I also ordered about forty more chickens… we didn’t need them; we already have about sixty or seventy (who’s counting) chickens running around the farm. We are already collecting over a dozen eggs a day and spring has just barely begun. But, my mom wanted more of the exotic rare breads that lay the tinted eggs, so we ordered twenty-five Salmon Faverolles that lay greenish-blue eggs, and about fifteen Cuckoo Marans, which lay a very dark brown egg. They will all arrive two weeks after the turkeys get here. Finally, we ordered about thirty Pearl Guinea. I will be splitting half of that order with my grandmother who lives down the road. We pretty much only bought them for insect control, but they won’t arrive until late June, so we will have to fend for ourselves until then.
And now for the show and tell…
First the garlic which has brought its sexy self to the party…
Then the cherry trees are in blossom already…
Here is one of the cleaned out raised beds… this is where I planted the salad garden the other day. You can see the grape vines in the background….
Oh, and this one made me so excited! The rhubarb is already out and about…
This last picture is of some flower or whatnot that we saved from a run-a-way grape vine that some bird must have shat a few years back. It was a healthy enough grape vine, so I just attacked it with a shovel and transplanted it into the herb bed for the time being until we can expand the actual grape vine area.... which will involve moving some raspberry rows. Yet again, just more shit to add to the to do list. But, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Life is good at the moment!
I want to get Marans chickens also! I love those choco-eggs. How old are you grape vines? And are they table or wine grapes? I'm undecided as to whether I want to plant grapes when we get out to our homestead because I don't want to get bogged down in the training and trellising, but they might be worth it.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely recommend planting grapes; they are the easiest thing in the world to take care of. They shouldn’t take more than maybe a day or two worth of maintenance per year as long as you’re not trying to manage a vineyard’s worth. We actually haven’t touched ours in about two years (other than to harvest the grapes), and they are doing just fine. This year we are going to be expanding the area we have dedicated to the grapes, but that is because they are expanding on their own, and since they are so easy to take care of, instead of cutting them off we are just going to extend the trellis. I am not exactly sure what type of grapes we have growing here because the plants we have are actually transplants and off-shoots of the plants that have been on this farm for fifty or sixty years. We use them to make wine, so for all intents and purposes… they’re wine grapes I guess.
DeleteAnd as a side note, I am a huge fan of your blog! I read every post. You go into so much detail with your research, and it is an absolute joy to read. You and I differ on the idea of goats on our homestead though… We are actually jumping through hoops right now trying to get a herd of French Alpines for our farm. I don’t actually like drinking milk –no matter what animal it came from- but I love cheese, especially goat’s cheese. I am willing to get out of bed at four in the morning every day to milk the damn things for the cheese alone! I am looking forward to all the updates when you get moved out to your mountain-stead… good luck, and thank you for reading my blog.
Good to know about the grapes - something to add to my repertoire fer sure.
DeleteGlad to hear that what I spew forth is of interest - I find it interesting, so I figure someone else probably will, too, lol. I haven't totally ruled out goats, but I just don't see them as being part of our arsenal at this point. I do love goat cheese, but I like feta better (and so does the Hub), which is part of the reason why I'm more interested in sheep. All my plans will probably end up moot once we get out there and start actually trying to homestead (does anything ever go as planned?), but it's still fun to learn and research!