Digging Ditches

Yesterday evening, I said to a friend, "I feel like I've been digging ditches, oh wait, I have!"  And while I haven't exactly digging ditches, I've been preparing the high tunnel, finally, for planting.

While I've been waiting for the temperature to stabilize enough for my delicate tomatoes, peppers, melons, and eggplants; the weeds have been growing lush and tall.  There's been so much moisture (ie. rain!) that the ground under the high tunnel must be wet enough for great weed growth.  So I'm pulling  and digging up all the weeds I can and putting down four feet wide lengths of black plastic as part of my back saving weed control plan.  In a few years,  as I get the weeds eradicated from the high tunnels (ha ha), I plan to use more natural mulches, such as chopped leaves.

The chickens are happily (I imagine) laying lots of eggs.  I brought in 19 eggs yesterday. Free range eggs are very different from store-bought eggs.  The egg yolks are a richer yellow, the white stands up nicely, and the shells are much thicker.

Speaking of eggs, I hope to check the bees today and look for bee eggs.  If the queen is doing her job I should see what looks like a tiny grain of rice stuck into the bottom of each cell.  

Note:  I won't be checking bees today.  The forecast is 45-degrees and rainy.  Tomorrow's forecast is 65-degrees and sunny.  I don't want to chill the brood (forming bees).  I'll wait until tomorrow to check them.    

Back to gardening, I don't know who said this, but I love this quote:

How do you tell if a plant is a weed or a valuable plant?  

If it pulls easily out of the ground it's a valuable plant.

Piglets 2011

The piglets arrived last night!  They started eating almost immediately and this morning they were crashed out on a big pile of hay.

A peasant becomes fond of his pig and is glad to salt away its pork. What is significant, and is so difficult for the urban stranger to understand, is that the two statements are connected by an and not by a but.

~John Berger

Air Raid Warning

We have one guinea hen.  Thank goodness.  Guinea hens make more noise than all the other farm animals put together.  I'm not sure if my guinea hen perceives a threat or if it's just bored, but the guinea starts its squeaky door "eeh er" sound and calls over and over and over for up to half an hour!  You can hear it here.

Why do I keep such an annoying bird? 

Guinea hens are known for their excellent tick control abilities.  Also, they have the prettiest spotted plumage, and it's difficult to see in these pictures, but guineas have these strange growths on their heads and look positively prehistoric.  

But the absolute best reason for having a guinea hen is for their air raid calls.  

Yesterday, I was working in the high tunnel and the guinea hen started a very loud buzzing/screeching sound - a sound it only makes in times of high danger.  I bolted out of the high tunnel and saw a red-tailed hawk just flying up from the trees after it had tried to swoop down on the chickens.  That buzzing/screeching acted as an air raid warning!  You can hear it here but imagine it much, much louder!  

I pictured how the attack would look in an old time cartoon - the guinea hen would be cranking up the air raid warning and the chickens would be putting on their little metal air raid hats and running helter skelter for cover!  

I don't know if the guinea hen's noise scared off the hawk, but I didn't  lose any chickens yesterday!

Pick The Best Fish

I love to grill outside in the summer and fish is a perfect summer food for this.  I worry though, about feeding my family fish with high levels of heavy metals or contaminants, or eating a species of fish that is not sustainable.  

To help you decide which fish to buy that is the most healthy for your family and for the environment, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has put together a wonderful pocket-sized Regional Seafood Guide that can help you choose the right fish for your grill.  

Happy Grilling!

Easter Bunny Cake

The kids and I made a Easter Bunny cake for yesterday's holiday.  The cake was tasty and the kids had a great time helping to make it and enjoyed being part of the dinner preparation.   This hasn't been a tradition at our house, but it's going to become one!

We made a yellow cake for the base and I wanted an easy recipe for the frosting.  I found one that fit my requirements of needing only a few ingredients that I had on hand and easy to make.  Here it is:

Fluffy White Frosting

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

2 egg whites

1 tsp. vanilla

Dash of salt

In a saucepan combine sugar, cream of tartar, 1/3 cup water, and dash salt.  Cook and stir until bubbly and sugar dissolves.  In a mixer bowl combine egg whites and vanilla.  Add hot sugar syrup very slowly to unbeaten egg whites while beating constantly at high speed of electric mixer about 7 minutes or till stiff peaks form.  Frosts two 8-inch or 9-inch layers or one 10-inch tube cake. (It makes plenty of frosting!)

                         ~ From Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

This makes a wonderful, fluffy, meringue-like frosting that is soft and spreads beautifully - and it best of all, it tastes delicious!

Don't forget to hop on over to Homestead Arrival and see what's going on!



P.S. The pig's arrival has been pushed back to Wednesday.  We spent the weekend moving the fence and their shed and everything is ready for them.

Cold Weather Go Away!

There's so much going on that I can hardly keep up!  O.K... even though we're behind schedule due to the crummy weather, I'm not keeping up and just barely treading water!

Fitz is out pulling the maple tanks as I write and when we get a day when there's not a torrential downpour (or snow) I'll get all the taps pulled.  

The pigs are coming on Monday!  We're getting 4 little squealers - 2 of them are sold, 1 is for a pig roast at my 50th birthday celebration this summer, and one will go to my own fall freezer camp.  We've been moving the pig fence because we found this spring that the runoff from it could potentially go into our seasonal spring, and we certainly don't want that!  Especially since we've talked about digging out a small pond in that area.  

I'm battling voles in the garden.  It appears that the little creatures are pulling up and eating my peas and sugar snaps as the beans emerge from the ground!  I've put out lots of mousetraps and I'm going to start bringing my kitties - Fred and Ginger - to the high tunnel with me while I work.

The garden is about two weeks behind schedule.  We've had such cold night time temperatures that I'm afraid to put my delicate tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants out there.  I'm crossing my fingers that this week will be the week I can catch up and get planting!

Happy Easter!

Bee Success(ful)!

Today the weather warmed up enough that I could check on my bees and see if the queens got out of their little boxes.  I didn't get pictures because although the weather was "warm" - meaning slightly above 60-degrees, it was windy and threatening rain.  I wanted to get in and out of the hives as quickly as possible.

Success!

Six out of six hives have released their queens.  They are building tons of comb.  They all got to get outside and poop.  You can see the streaks on the sides of the hive.  Did you know that bees will not pooh in the hive?  They'll hold it for months during the winter while they wait for a day above 40 degrees so that they can go out.

I sat right up next to where the bees were buzzing in and out (we have their usual hive entrance reduced to about an inch wide) and watched them work for a few minutes to see if they were finding anything to eat.  They were bringing in loads and loads of pollen on their back leg pollen baskets!

Thank you to everyone who has planted flowers in town.  I hope you get to see lots of the bee ladies visiting your gardens and pollinating your vegetables!

In Maple News:  The holes on our maple trees have closed up and we have stopped getting sap.  This next week I'll be pulling all the taps out of the trees and flushing the lines.  This will help cut down on the amount of gunk in the lines next season.  I'm already looking forward to next year when we'll be boiling our own sap!