Author: Steve

Happenings Around the Homestead

Posted by Steve On February 9, 2015

It has been a busy weekend around the homestead, with the bulk of that time spent building the northern run extension for the chickens.  Check back tomorrow for pics and details on that.

It seems that every weekend I have more on my to-do list than there is hours in the day, and this weekend was that way and then some!  On Saturday I intended on finishing the run extension, then working on winter sowing (am I ever going to get to this!?), roasting coffee, and the normal weekend chores.  I only finished the run extension and roasted coffee though.

It is funny, when I tell folks I roast coffee, the most often think I mean that I grind coffee.  They don’t realize I actually roast my own beans.  Not only that, I do it in a kind of old-fashioned way – in an iron skillet over a charcoal fire:

Roasting Coffee

Roasting Coffee

No, that is not me stirring the coffee.  My lovely wife agreed to hold the pan and stir while I snapped a picture.  This week I roasted mostly Brazilian coffee, but this batch happened to be a new one for me: Peruvian.  I just finished a cup as I am writing this, and it is a definite keeper.  I tend to enjoy the South American coffees best, and in my opinion this Peruvian coffee had that same flavor I enjoy.

Do you realize it is just three months until May?  That means it is just three months until my garden will be fully planted, I hope!  I know it seems so far out, but it won’t be long until the cooler weather crops are growing.  That reminds me – I need to be getting some peas sown!  Argh!  Maybe next weekend!  😀  No boredom, that is for sure!

Domino Stick Bombs

Posted by Steve On February 6, 2015

It doesn’t take much to entertain me sometimes, but this just kind of blew me away. 🙂 I do have to admit, by the time the video finished, I was wondering if the creators enjoyed cleaning up the mess as much as they did creating it.

Seven Specialty Crops

Posted by Steve On February 5, 2015

I am always trying to find a way to make my hobbies pay for themselves.  Photography is just one example of that, where I began shooting with the intention of making a profit in order to help me afford more photography equipment.  Believe it or not, that is true with gardening too.

The funny thing about gardening is that it already pays for itself, in my opinion, from the savings we have on food.  We are also able to bless others with the excess crops we have.  Even so, wouldn’t it be great to be paid to grow things?  No, I am not referring to being a big-time commercial farmer, but there are some profitable specialty crops that seem to fit well into small operations.  To be honest, I am particularly partial to #2 on the list.

Gourmet Garlic

Sanders Gourmet Garlic

No, I am probably not really seriously considering growing specialty crops for money, but it is fun to dream a bit, isn’t it?

 

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On February 3, 2015

This is the third week in a row that egg laying has increased.  I wasn’t really expecting this until later in the winter, when the days are longer than they are now, but I am sure not complaining.  This week the ladies laid 33 eggs: 20 from the Rhode Island Reds and 13 from the Easter Eggers.

Speaking of the ladies, they sure are enjoying the Back to Eden garden!  They love getting in there and scratching it up, looking for bugs or worms underneath the covering.  I am sure they won’t be very pleased here in a few weeks when I put a stop to that.  I can’t have them digging up my plants come spring though.

I have always heard they are not smart animals, but you sure can’t tell that with these birds most of the time.  In particular, we have at least one Rhode Island Red that will go up to Charity when she has let them out to run in the yard, letting her know she is ready for Charity to put a shovel in the ground and turn some dirt over.  This bird will then eat all the worms, then look back up at Charity, as if it is asking her to please do that again.  😀  Some of the others join in, but most of the time it is just one who starts it.

 

Rhode Island Red with an Attitude

You Lookin’ at Me?

Happenings Around the Homestead

Posted by Steve On February 2, 2015

Seeds.

I know I am not the only home gardener who struggles with this.  Each year I find something new I want, but I have more seeds now than I know what to do with.  I went through and organized all my seeds the other day, and was shocked at the varieties I have, and even multiple packets of the same seed.

While I attempt to organize this, I don’t do a very good job.  I do separate the seeds generally by the type of plant they are, and then I put a rubber band around all those packets.  That, in turn, is then thrown in a box which I keep in a refrigerator in the garage.

Sometimes I see other people with fantastic organization of their seeds, and I druel a bit, but I haven’t decided yet it is worth the effort to achieve what they have.  As I was searching for a picture of what I am talking about, I became a little convicted, as it is not that hard to do.  I just need to make the effort to get some photo albums.  Yes, I am going to just give you a link to more information: How to Organize Seed Packets.

It’s Sunday morning as I am writing this post, and I still haven’t finished the winter sowing I have been mentioning here.  I am going to try to get to this today, though we are expecting rain which might put a glitch in those plans.  We’ll see.

Well, I am updating this very early on Monday morning.  Winter sowing did not happen, though we had an interesting afternoon.  Let’s see if this tells the story better than I can:

Busted Water Pipe

Busted Water Pipe

Evidently sometime over the winter we had a pipe to an outdoor faucet burst.  Yesterday while that faucet was being used, one of our bedrooms ended up with water halfway out into the room.  SIGH.

While I worked on this some, my two oldest boys did the bulk of the work, and I appreciate them for that.  It is a basement level bedroom, so I don’t have to worry about floor damage, but the carpet may still have to be pulled up.  We have a dehumidifier and fans running in there now, and the boys have used a wet-dry vac to clean all they can.

Where was I at?  Winter sowing.  Perhaps that will happen during the week.  We’ll see.

Cherokee Gourdseed Corn

Posted by Steve On January 30, 2015

If you know me, it doesn’t surprise you that I tried a new, unusual crop this past year: Cherokee Gourdseed Corn.

Cherokee Gourdseed Corn

Cherokee Gourdseed Corn

This is a traditional southern corn, as it is a longer season corn.  In other words, I am not sure the summer would be long enough to grow this very much further north than we are.  The books say about 125 days to maturity, and I believe it.  It took longer to mature than any corn I grew this year by a considerable amount.

It was a pleasant corn to look at though – the cobbs were nice and fat on the stalks, and they seemed quite hearty.  The stalks were stout, with no danger of blowing over.

The kernels are amazing though.  As you can see in the picture above, they don’t look crowded on the cobb, but that is because they are so thin and long.  They are often said to remind people of old man teeth or horse teeth.  Did I just say that old man teeth and horse teeth look similar‽  😀  No insult meant to all the old men reading this.  I didn’t really think of the kernels looking like teeth when I was shelling the cobbs, but now that I look at the picture, they are very similar in features to teeth, aren’t they?

The most interesting thing about this corn was not the kernels though, in my opinion.  Instead, it was the ease of shelling.  It was almost as simple as placing two hands on the cobb and twisting.  In fact, I wish I had videod to show, as it was so amazing.

There aren’t very many gourdseed corns out there: only three or four.  This is the Cherokee Gourdseed, and there is a Texas Gourdseed, a Carolina Gourdseed, and I have found some references to a Virginia Gourdseed.  I have my seed stock from this Cherokee Gourdseed that I plan on landracing with at least the Texas Gourdseed, of which I also have some seed.  I will probably hand pollinate some of each as well to keep the pure strains alive.

The Hazards of Backyard Chickens

Posted by Steve On January 29, 2015

If you happen to own chickens, do yourself a favor and check out this video from One Girls Rant:

She is so right.  Our chickens have names.  They are basically pets that lay eggs.  Not only do they have names, but they are entertaining to watch, as they all have different personalities.  In fact, Charity can tell me a story about one of them, and I can figure out who it is most of the time by the actions she is describing.

Know this, if you get chickens you will not be unaffected.  😀

The Chicken Chronicles

Posted by Steve On January 27, 2015

I am not sure I have even seen the chickens except from a distance this week.  Praise God for my lovely wife who has mostly taken care of them.  It has been a bit of a chaotic week that ended with me feeling a bit under the weather.  Thankfully I think that has mostly passed now.

The ladies aren’t feeling under the weather though, it seems.  I have been pleasantly shocked to see more of the Easter Eggers’ eggs in the egg cartons this week.  Even though the days are still short, perhaps they are itching to start laying again.  When I gather eggs I remind them, “I either have egg layers or meat birds, one of the two!”  This reminds me of a cute cartoon I saw sometime back:

Why the Chicken Crossed the Road

 

I decided to validate that they are laying more, and I was wrong!  The Rhode Island Reds have had a good week (20 last week, 22 this week), but the Easter Eggers are actually down from last week (9 last week, 8 this week).  That being said, they are laying more than they were just two weeks ago (2)

One of the big projects I need to get done is expanding the chicken run.  Our birds are fortunate in that we have a decent sized run for them, but they sure do enjoy getting out of the run and stretching their wings.  You ought to see these little ladies when they find some new bugs or worms – it is like Christmas morning to them!  Of course, expanding the run isn’t going to replace that free time out in the yard, but it sure will help us feel a little better about it when we aren’t home to let them out.

Happenings Around the Homestead

Posted by Steve On January 26, 2015

I think I am probably like most every other gardener in the northern hemisphere right now, perusing through seed catalogs trying to decide what I am going to grow this year.  There sure isn’t much going on around the homestead otherwise.

Wait!  That is not really true.  My middle son has been working hard all week getting all the leaves cleaned up from our yard.  He has dumped many of them in my garden to supplement the wood chips that are already there, but he and his brothers started a fire last night with some of them, as well as some old wood we had in the yard.  Besides making a great bonfire for roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, it should have left behind a considerable amount of ashes which will be tossed on the garden soon.

Did you know that wood ash is a great supplement for the garden?  It is often considered so because it is a good source of potash, but it also contains minerals such as iron, manganese, zinc, copper, and more.  In other words, wood ash helps add back the trace minerals into your soil that are so often depleted and ignored, which makes for healthier food.

The other big thing around here is the beginning of winter sowing.  I had intended on completing the first round of winter sowing last week and getting a blog post up on it, but that didn’t happen.  I am expecting to finish it today though, so if I find the time, there will be a post this week.  I also have a few other posts I am working on that I cannot seem to find the time to finish.  May this week allow time for that as well.

Aniforms

Posted by Steve On January 23, 2015

Loading...
X