Tiny farm blog has moved to dropstonefarms.com! (RSS here.)
It's just a standard WordPress theme for now, but we'll get it up as a real site... someday. In the meantime, no posts will be made here anymore.
As far as I know, registration is not required to comment on WordPress blogs; let me know if it's different, and I'll figure it out.
(PS. Write comments!)
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Things I would like to buy with $400
1. A secondhand cookstove
2. An extra large garden cart
3. A practice set of Uillean pipes (Pronounce "Illin'")
4. An iPhone.
2. An extra large garden cart
3. A practice set of Uillean pipes (Pronounce "Illin'")
4. An iPhone.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Warm weather weekend
It was 70° here on Saturday, which is approximately late June weather, rarely in mid-April. It was also the first day of the Bainbridge Island Farmers' Market, so we rode our bikes into town in the morning and did some shopping. I had my bike all tricked out with my removable wicker basket on the front, and my new REI-dividend-purchased pannier on the back. We strolled around for an hour or so, had lunch at the pub, and returned home with my front basket full of seedlings, pannier full of groceries from the regular store, and Garth's messenger bag and front basket full of veggies and eggs from the farmers.
When we got home, we immediately took advantage of the heat -- seriously, it was actually hot
-- to bring all manner of poultry outside. Chickens were in the electric fence, until we discovered they could get through the holes of the fence regardless of zapping, so we moved them to a smaller, but still large, area with a smaller-holed. It was pointless, really, as they huddled together in one section for an hour or two, although it was definitely above 70° at that point.
Our charming young next-door neighbor Calvin, who is almost four, inquired with volume and frequency as to the location of the very cute ducklings. So we brought them out to enjoy the sun too, though Calvin was napping by the time we wrangled them
outside. Turns out ducklings like a dog-dish full of water and bits of weeds and grass nearly as much as a four-year-old likes ducklings.
The chickens spent their first night in the coop on Saturday, but we didn't get much else done. Saturday was poultry day, I guess.
And Sunday was planting day. We had bought broccoli, chard, and onion seedlings at the market, and we picked out three kale seedlings from our seed tray. Chard (multicolored) and kale (1 Winterbor and 2 Nero di Toscani, I think) went in between the two rows of peas (Oregon Trail and some Sugar Snap, both of which have germinated almost 100%, which is awesome). The greens should keep sort of shady there, and not bolt too quickly, I think.
Broccoli went sort of alongside the rosemary bush, which we had to trim to get the deer fence in place. I don't remember which variety it is -- the broccoli, that is -- but I remember it was from Persephone Farms, so I'll ask them when we go again this weekend.
The onions are Egyptian walking onions, which are funny looking and awesome. Instead of making a bulb underground and a flower on top, they make a group of small bulblets on top. If you don't harvest them, the weight gets too much and the stalk bends down to the ground, where the bulblets plant themselves and grow. Hence, walking. The 4-H kid we got them from at the market said they make good scallions, too.
Earlier this week, Garth planted potatoes, too. Rather than marking them with the little flags, he drew a map in his notebook. He says it's "four plants of everything, and six of All Blues." I don't know what "everything" means, but I'll find out eventually, I'm sure.
As always, pictures are up at Flickr: Chickens; Ducks; Little farm (not very up-to-date).
When we got home, we immediately took advantage of the heat -- seriously, it was actually hot
-- to bring all manner of poultry outside. Chickens were in the electric fence, until we discovered they could get through the holes of the fence regardless of zapping, so we moved them to a smaller, but still large, area with a smaller-holed. It was pointless, really, as they huddled together in one section for an hour or two, although it was definitely above 70° at that point.Our charming young next-door neighbor Calvin, who is almost four, inquired with volume and frequency as to the location of the very cute ducklings. So we brought them out to enjoy the sun too, though Calvin was napping by the time we wrangled them
outside. Turns out ducklings like a dog-dish full of water and bits of weeds and grass nearly as much as a four-year-old likes ducklings.The chickens spent their first night in the coop on Saturday, but we didn't get much else done. Saturday was poultry day, I guess.
And Sunday was planting day. We had bought broccoli, chard, and onion seedlings at the market, and we picked out three kale seedlings from our seed tray. Chard (multicolored) and kale (1 Winterbor and 2 Nero di Toscani, I think) went in between the two rows of peas (Oregon Trail and some Sugar Snap, both of which have germinated almost 100%, which is awesome). The greens should keep sort of shady there, and not bolt too quickly, I think.
Broccoli went sort of alongside the rosemary bush, which we had to trim to get the deer fence in place. I don't remember which variety it is -- the broccoli, that is -- but I remember it was from Persephone Farms, so I'll ask them when we go again this weekend.
The onions are Egyptian walking onions, which are funny looking and awesome. Instead of making a bulb underground and a flower on top, they make a group of small bulblets on top. If you don't harvest them, the weight gets too much and the stalk bends down to the ground, where the bulblets plant themselves and grow. Hence, walking. The 4-H kid we got them from at the market said they make good scallions, too.
Earlier this week, Garth planted potatoes, too. Rather than marking them with the little flags, he drew a map in his notebook. He says it's "four plants of everything, and six of All Blues." I don't know what "everything" means, but I'll find out eventually, I'm sure.
As always, pictures are up at Flickr: Chickens; Ducks; Little farm (not very up-to-date).
Monday, April 14, 2008
LAUREN + GARTH !!111!!1<3<3<3
So, there are benefits to having a wife with a degree in linguistics. It turns out that, as I've known for a while, the name 'garth' is derived from an Old English word for garden and the name 'lauren' means victory. That's right, when we got married, our names combined to form victory garden.
(image source) This gives access to some pretty cool iconography.
City Farmer News has a nice post about Victory Garden. The comparison has been made that the sacrifices asked of the public in World War 2 included recycle and food production. Our current government response to crisis is, predictable, "go shopping."
The folks at Dervaes have adopted Victory Garden iconography as well. I have to say, I'm a fan of the graphic style and I've got a soft spot for politicization but it might be better to go with "kitchen garden" for mass appeal. I learned that the the medieval French referred to kitchen gardens and the everlasting soup made from the same as "Potage." I like that. Also, a feature of the potage was a garth at the center. Win.
(image source) This gives access to some pretty cool iconography.
City Farmer News has a nice post about Victory Garden. The comparison has been made that the sacrifices asked of the public in World War 2 included recycle and food production. Our current government response to crisis is, predictable, "go shopping."
The folks at Dervaes have adopted Victory Garden iconography as well. I have to say, I'm a fan of the graphic style and I've got a soft spot for politicization but it might be better to go with "kitchen garden" for mass appeal. I learned that the the medieval French referred to kitchen gardens and the everlasting soup made from the same as "Potage." I like that. Also, a feature of the potage was a garth at the center. Win.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Oh look, it's the apocalypse! LOL.
Still no love for the bees in the Northwest. Colony Collapse Disorder is still affecting beekeepers. This is problematic in the extreme because, you know, no bees, no flowers. On the upside, bees managed in a non-industrial manner tend to be less affected by CCD. I'm not entirely convinced as the beekeepers on our island are still reporting problem and are responding with Russian bees and, according to the nice lady at the nursery, treating their hives with ever increasing doses of antibiotics. I'm certain that this will not result in hardier mites.
Annnnd, the salmon are dying. And not in the delicious way. Stocks of chinook are pretty much depleted and it looks like the season is going to be called off. "This will be devastating to the communities and families on the coast that rely on salmon fishing for their livelihood,” Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski said. While true, I can't help but think about how similar this situation sounds to the ecological disasters I read about as a child in even-then-dated books on futurism (remember that?) from the 1970s. Seems like a bitter victory for them long-haired treehugger types, doesn't it?
The New York Times reports that survivalism is quite the thing nowadays. I can't say that this is a bad thing, especially in light of the response to Katrina. Anecdotally, I know that at an assembly of librarians in my grad school cohort, five of twenty-five people in attendance were making plans for some degree of social or infrastructural collapse. The winners were Lauren and I and a buddy of mine who's a big fan of Burning Man.
I am, it seems, a little cranky. Fortunately, we've recently added a new book to our library that makes me happy. Also, the chickens have moved outside and having fewer livestock in the house will definitely improve my mood. Also, I got rid of the option to have my browser render all web pages with an enormous picture of Jakob Nielsen to every page I look at. It's better this way.
Annnnd, the salmon are dying. And not in the delicious way. Stocks of chinook are pretty much depleted and it looks like the season is going to be called off. "This will be devastating to the communities and families on the coast that rely on salmon fishing for their livelihood,” Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski said. While true, I can't help but think about how similar this situation sounds to the ecological disasters I read about as a child in even-then-dated books on futurism (remember that?) from the 1970s. Seems like a bitter victory for them long-haired treehugger types, doesn't it?
The New York Times reports that survivalism is quite the thing nowadays. I can't say that this is a bad thing, especially in light of the response to Katrina. Anecdotally, I know that at an assembly of librarians in my grad school cohort, five of twenty-five people in attendance were making plans for some degree of social or infrastructural collapse. The winners were Lauren and I and a buddy of mine who's a big fan of Burning Man.
I am, it seems, a little cranky. Fortunately, we've recently added a new book to our library that makes me happy. Also, the chickens have moved outside and having fewer livestock in the house will definitely improve my mood. Also, I got rid of the option to have my browser render all web pages with an enormous picture of Jakob Nielsen to every page I look at. It's better this way.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
More linkses
Friday, March 28, 2008
Unexpected livestock
Just yesterday, we were telling Garth's mom what a relief it was that the chickens are old
enough to require less work now. We have elevated their foods and waters off the ground a bit, so they don't scratch so much pine shavings into them. We have given them a bit of dowel to perch on, and we upgraded them from the bottom half of a dog crate, to the two halves of a dog crate zip-tied together.
enough to require less work now. We have elevated their foods and waters off the ground a bit, so they don't scratch so much pine shavings into them. We have given them a bit of dowel to perch on, and we upgraded them from the bottom half of a dog crate, to the two halves of a dog crate zip-tied together.So it was sort of ironic (Garth says: "less ironic than a pain in the ass") that he called me frantically from the feed store late this afternoon to tell me that they had four Khaki Campbell ducklings, exactly the breed we have been looking for. They were two females and two males. We wanted three or four females for eggs, and would take a male just to hang out (and breed, maybe, given the hard time we had finding these ducklings). Two males and two females is way different from the
ratio we had hoped for, but the prospect of leaving one poor little boy duckling behind in the duckling bucket, all alone, was just not even an option. So Garth brought home four little ducklings, two boys and two girls.
For now they are in the chicks' old galvanized tub, washed out (thanks Garth!) with vinegar. They are already displaying very different behavior from the chicks; they run and splash in the water, going in circles with one foot in the waterer.
So at this point we are looking at a future average of:
6 chickens = ~28 eggs/week
2 lady ducks = ~10-12 eggs/week
Yay!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)