April 18,2009

I just love my husband. Don't know what i would do without him. He finished planting all my fruit trees this week. Then yesterday he and sil and my oldest son and I got the fencing up around the 25 by 100 foot strawberry/raspberry plot. He looked so sexy out there hauling trees and pulling fence and stuffing fence posts. Never have I appreciated muscle so much. Because if he were not here, I would have had to figure out how to do it. Anyway, the trees are in. I spent Monday in town with the 5 youngest kids buying fencing and strawbales while he got the rest of the trees planted. Doing farm errans at four different stores with 5 kids under 9 is a great way to develop patience. Then a strawbales blew off the truck in the middle of the only 4 lane in our little town and stopped traffic. I really did not know how to handle it. But after I made the kids promise 10 times they would not get out of the truck on the busy higway, I went back to heave-ho the bales out of the road. Luckily a nice muscled man stopped his truck jumped out heaved into his truck and then drove it up to mine and the kids listened for once.
The next day the rains hit and we did inside work. Thursday the 300 strawberry plants and 60 raspberry plants came by parcel post. The weather broke Thurs. so we spent the day and all day yesterday fencing
. It is alot of work. My sil had already cut the locust posts from our property,then the tractor dug the holes or at least part way. Then the men dug the holes some more and put the posts in,then stuffed the holes with gravel. [ luckily we had two loads of gravel delivered this week for the driveway ] Then tamped the holes. Then strung the wire. I was the gofer person as I have noticed that for every 3 or 4 men working, you need one to go find all the things they need and forgot where they put them. So I went for the shovels and tamping bars and shoveled and hauled the buckets of gravel and got the wire cutters, etc.
Today most of the family will be at the Special Olympics as our down syndrome son is competing, but the oldest son will put the chicken wire along the bottom on the woven wire fence so that rabbits can not get in. When we return we will haul manure [ we had a dump truck load delivered last night ] to the plot and then make 3 foot beds for the strawberries and raspberries. Then hopefully plant before the plants rot in my cold room. Also yesterday, my sil put a 5 gallon bucket of water on each fruit tree that went in this week. We contracted with the bulldozer that is working above us in the Christmas tree fields to do some bulldozer work for us on Monday. it will give us more workable land. I want to put in more fruit trees and blueberries. We have 40 blueberry plants now waiting patiently to be planted.
I got my tomatoes in the greenhouse wall of waters. We should be eating salads from the greenhouse in two weeks and I hope to never buy salad greens again. I need to study Eliot Coleman's book this summer and learn how he does the year round growing.When we lived in Maine, I kept greens in the greenhouse all but 3 months out of the year. Now i am going to do 12.Did some transplanting also as the trays of peppers and tomatoes are ready to go to the next pot. Also planted some nasturtiums and watermelens in flats. Need to do some more of my fancy tomato seeds and some cayenne peppers.
Also we made some great chevre cheese this week. Different ones had dried apricots, dill, garlic, etc. Even the kids liked them on their bagels. I have been making them hot chocolate everyday with the abundance of goat milk we have coming in. We are getting 1.5 gallons a day from two goats. We need to make more cheese today. We want to try hard cheeses as soon as we have time to read the book and order the supplies. Our chickens [ we have 18 ] are giving us 10 eggs a day. that should increase to 15 in the near future. I have 60 baby chicks coming on May 5.
Well that's it. My gator was a great investment. We have used it alot for farm work and fun. Need to wak up the kids for a big day at the Olympics.

April 10, 2009

Have had fun playing with my new wall of waters. I learned about them from Jackie Clay who writes for Back Woods Home Mag. They are plastic teepee like things that you fill with water, then let sit for a week, then plant tomatoes in them. You are supposed to get tomatoes 2 months earlier. So I did 6 in my greenhouse and next week will do 6 in my regular garden to find out how well they work.
Today I planted collards, red and green bibb lettuce and arugula in my greenhouse. My husband and two sons and sil worked on digging the holes and planting my fruit trees. Don't know what I would do without them. Next week 300 strawberry plants and 60 raspberry plants arrive so we will be busy putting up a fence and getting them planted.

My Gator

Been too busy working here to write much. I got a new gator that I have wanted for 5 years. It is so useful. We use it to haul plants that we have started from the greenhouse to the house when the weather is too cold. We have like 20 flats of plants started so it is real handy. I also use it to haul water to the chickens and baby goats. Also to haul feed. And the most fun of all is hauling grandkids around everywhere. They love it. This week-end I had me, my two pregnant daughters and two teen daughters and we all went for a girl gator trip while the men were tilling the outside garden spots. We rented a pull behind the tractor tiller and it took care of my new corn/bean patch/field, my strawberry patch/field and our new patch for our new 20 by 70 greenhouse. I have 300 strawberry plants and 50 raspberry bushes coming next week. We have to fence the patch/field for the strawberries and get our fruit orchard field ready for the raspberries. Not to mention the 50 fruit trees that have still not been planted. Luckily they are in big pots and have been growing in these pots for the last 5 years. The men have been working on clearing that field every good weather day of which there have not been many. We had 6 inches of snow and 19 degree weather for the last 2 days, but everything in the greenhouse came thru fine. We have onions, lettuces, spinach, turnip greens, parsley and cilantro growing in there. Tomorrow I put tomatoes in the greenhouse in wall of waters.
Well life is busy here. Two kids have had the chicken pox and one is training for the special olympics.
Well gotta go bring the flats of plants in because it may go below freezing.

Daily Routines.

I have to do a talk at an organic Growers Conf this week-end entitled " The Sustainable Farm Family" or "Eighteen Kids and What do You Get". This from the section on Pulling Together as a family. I wanted to show people how helpful it is to have many people who can do the chores and how we are all interrelated to those chores. Thought some of you might enjoy seeing our daily rountine for the last week.

PULLING TOGETHER AS A FAMILY

A.DAILY FAMILY ROUTINES-MONDAY

Somewhat different as four older kids on school vacation

6AM everybody up, Jody breakfast and snacks, me clothes and organizing

630am two kids feed baby goats, rest of kids eat and help with clean up

700am leave for busses

800am Jody milks goats and feed chickens and goats

900am Crew of 3 hispanics and dh and teen son start clearing land where fruit trees will go

930am teen daughter and mom cook lunch for workers and work on this talk.

1200am SIL Chris takes Caleb fishing as part of vacation time off. DIL Crystal takes Scotia and Gabby for overnight and swimming tomorrow. Mom works on phone calls and house chores and being sick

330pm Mom picks up kids off bus

4pm Men quit working because of rain and mom does supper for very tired men.

5pm eat

Mom and dad make calls deciding what to do about greenhouse no. two. Look at new seeds arrived from Johnny’s selected seeds and make plans for sil Chris to work tomorrow with teen son clearing more land. And putting seeds in trays and transplanting into pots seeds already in trays.

Kids do kitchen clean up

Dh does homework while mom works on this talk and kids do dishes

Kids milk goats and feed baby goats and chickens and dogs

TUESDAY

6am kids and parents up, dressed fed and some clean up

8am SIL comes and unloads fruit trees from truck with teen son, the two of them plus 12 year old son work for the next 6 hours clearing more land for the fruit trees. They are all getting paid for their labor

900am maid comes today for 4 hours and sweeps house and cleans kitchen and does laundry

930am mom and dad each have a therapeutic massage

1100am mom and dad buy bulk seeds for garden, 50 lb bag of red potatoes, new seal for canner and half gallon ball jars for goat’s milk

1200pm lunch

100pm mom and dad buy a larger new chain saw and a new John Deere Gator. Mom has been begging for this for years. Word spreads thru the family like a wild fire

200pm buy fresh fruit and salad veggies and dog food. No more needed as we store all grains, etc. Have a years worth.

300pm mom and dad pick up 17 more fruit trees from the orchard and then kids off the bus

400pm look at work on the orchard that was done that day. Impressed

500pm teen daughter made supper

600pm dad works with 4 youngest on homework and mom works on this

Kids do dishes

800pm pot plants for a half hour

800pm Kids feed and milk goats and chickens and dogs and baby goats

900pm baths and TTL bed

WEDNESDAY

6am mom and dad and school kids up

Dress, eat, some clean up, bus; older kids still on school vacation

8am dad milks goats; we are now getting 1.5 gallons a day form two goats, kids feed baby goats and chickens, mom goes to store; pays employee, gets diesel for tractor and burning off brush

830am mom puts split pea soup in crock pot for supper, makes bread with teen daughter

9am we start burning off brush; nothing burns too green, teen boy, dad and Caleb start working on clearing the fruit orchard field. Mom works on our orphanage blog, phone calls related to for profit business and farm and orphanage and kids.

1200am mom helps Caleb make biscuits from scratch, mom makes salad, daughter makes omelets

Ordered John Deere Gator [ wanted forever] Will be delivered Monday

Men work outside again; mom pots seedlings in bigger pots and waters greenhouse

Flossie comes and we take pictures of farm for this talk

Supper, soup and bread and fruit

Mom takes older kids to church meetings; goes by walmart for garden supplies

Dad does homework with little kids at home, milks goats, feeds dogs and chickens

THURSDAY

6am same old routine

7am bus

8am Discussed this week-end plans with hubby; son came with his son and we visited for a while

830am hubby milks goats; teen son at Joey’s house helping to clean out his barn and riding horses for the next two days

930am went outside with hubby to feed goats and go for walk; checked greenhouse

1030am scripture study with hubby

1100am mom does conf call with management staff for the business. Hubby works on talk for conf.

1200am lunch

1200pm Son Bryan and his wife pick up our van that is at the car repair place

100pm dad works clearing land with Bryan adult son; mom works potting plants in greenhouse,

200pm teen daughter starts chicken and dumplings for supper

330pm mom picks up kids off bus

400pm kids do chores

500pm supper

600 cleanup and homework

700 kids practice presentation for today

800pm dad milks goats, kids feed babies and dogs and chickens

We have been in a buying mood or rather an exicted about farming mood. On the way home from mine and farmdad's little time off, we stopped and looked at a used but good condition 75 by 32 foot greenhouse. This will triple our amount of greenhouse growing space. Our adult son farmboy is doing a farmer's market and we will contribute things for him to sell. He just bought his first tractor and had a hugh grin on his face for days. A boy after my own heart. Actually I have never driven a tractor, but I asked farmdad about it and he told me he would show me how to use ours. that it is easy. Anyway so now we have more greenhouse space. Then on Friday we went and bought 50 plus fruit trees. Before you think we are rich, I need to tell you I bought the fruit trees with my IRA money. I cashed it in. I have more faith in the fruit then the economy. We have a great site for them near the house that my hunny bun built 8 years ago. I have hired two men who work for the nursery to cut up for firewood the downed trees on the acre and to machete the briars and then to plant the trees. I should get alot of leaf mold as this is virgin land and those trees have been shedding leaves for centuries. I could get a shovel full of dirt with literally no sweat. it was definitely fun. We got 6 cherries, 6 pears, 6 plums and 25 apples of all varieties some heirlooms. I am really into heirlooms right now.
Then on Sat. the whole farm family worked outside all morning cleaning up a winters worth of trash and junk from a family of 12 whose children act like little piglets. That afternoon farmdad and I and farm sil and athlete boy put the plastic back on the existing greenhouse, dug up daffidil bulbs from the pasture that used to be a flower bed and replanted them in the new flower bed. Then we put 3 pounds of vidalia, white and yellow storage onions in one of my 4 by 8 beds on 3 inch centers. Hope they are not too close. Athelete boy cleaned out the chicken pen. It was one of those 65 degree thank the Lord you are on the earth and still strong enough to work days. My adult farm boy son brought his new tractor up to show us it's stuff. He plowed enough to double our garden space. Now I have a big corn patch and will put peaches and cream with some corn field beans and some good corn to grind into cornmeal later this year. the other patch will have beans including several different kinds of heirlooms like Kentucky Wonder and Turkey craw. He also did a new patch of ground for the new greenhhouse. Our new dirt looked so pretty. Just the right texture and just the right color.
Oh yeah my body hurts because my mind works like a 25 year old but my body can't get over the fact it is almost 60.
well bye
Vicki
PS After ruling out a golf cart [ too slow] and a [ they are too expensive], I have decided to buy a 4-wheeler for me. Is that not exciting for an almost 60 year old woman. It will be an automatic as i can not switch the gears on the others and it will have a neat cart to go with it. It will be used but good condition.

I love kids

I love having kids and I especially love having kids if we are going to try to be farmers. This week we had ice, snow and 0 degree temps. My kids were always ready to go feed the baby goats tho. I don't think they computed the cold and just thought of the fun of being snuzzled and loved. I, however, did compute the cold and made sure they had heavy coats, socks and hats on. But I did not have to go out in the 0 degrees and will not have to for another 15 years as long as we train them right. Farmdad makes the youngers go with the olders to do the farm chores so the youngers learn. Hey we also have grandkids coming on -- 15 so far-- probably some of them will hate their parents and can move in with us and do the farm chores. Farmdad has constant trouble with his back. Remember he can not accept being almost 60 so he lifts tons of things and they all weigh too much. So I love having athletic boy here. I tell him about how many muscles he is building for football by hauling water and hay and manure and compost. I also tell him how much love he is showing love for his dad by doing it. The building muscles always works; the showing love for his dad sometimes works.
Athlete boy is also a love of my life this last two days. Farmdad and I took two whole nights and 3 whole days off in the big city. We could do that because athlete boy milked our almost a gallon a day goat and gave everybody hay, water and feed both goats and chickens. One of our older daughters and hubby and number one grandson came and watched the 10 still at home. We sure trained them right. Three days of peace and quiet and reading and even some intimacy. WOW, some 60 years olds get this all the time. I would be bored and I love my kids.
We sold our meat goats and not one of us cried. Most of us celebrated. I am kind of sorry for our buck who wrestled athlete boy and showed farmdad that there was someone stronger than he to be gone. That buck was alot of laughs.
Oh well I ordered a bunch of baby chicks. Did I mention I have never done chicks before. Well let's pray I keep most of the 60 chicks alive. Easter egg ones, 365 day ones and ones that lay and we can eat. Farm SIL does the butchering. Hope Joel Saladins book and Poultry Magazine teach me what I need to know before the chicks arrive. Hope the US never gets a Chick Protective Service. I have worried enough about doing everything Child Protective Service expects us to do as parents.
Well the time of peace and rest is up and I must go back so we can go to Sam's Club before we leave the big city life.

Goats, goats and less goats

We started our goat "business" back last June. We bought thru the summer milk goats, meat goats and half and half. We watched them breed, watched wrestling matches between the big buck and my oldest athlete son and farmdad. Sometimes they won and sometimes he did. We had baby goats and had a 50% success rate keeping them alive. It is COLD up here and we didn't know when they would give birth. We have milked them. As of this date we have figured out [ we hope] , how to keep most of the babies alive. it is depressing to have them die. We have learned alot about the milking. We are getting almost a gallon a day from our Alpine/Saneen mix [ doesn't that sound like I know what I am talking about ]. But the meat goats were a bust. No one wanted to kill them and if truth be told no one wanted to eat them. So we put an ad in the paper and farmdad sold all 12 of them for $700.00. He figures we only lost about a $1000.00. but we learned alot.
Now we have 3 great milk goats, two baby milk goats and a milk buck who does not like to fight anyone.
I kind of hate to see our big mean buck go. I have had a bunch of laughs watching him take down my macho athlete son and my even more macho husband.