Category: Farm

Spoiled Pups

For several years, I have subscribed to a blog, The Kitchen’s Garden written by a New Zealander living on a farm in the midwest. She is definitely a soulmate in philosophy, avoiding waste, reusing, recycling, growing organically, re-establishing trees and converting fields to organic practice growing. Though her farm has many more and varied animals than ours, she does raise chickens and has two older dogs.

For a while, I have been bothered by both the cost and quality of commercial dog food, but had not taken the time to research a homemade healthier alternative. I have often made feed for the hens in lieu of the commercial layer pellets, though a good organic layer pellet and a multi grain scratch are usually less expensive than making it as the grains that are needed to get organic come from the local natural foods store. Recently, Cecilia posted her recipe for homemade dog food and the quantity she feeds her dogs. I purchased the ingredients that I didn’t have on hand and compared the cost to the commercial feed and it is about $1+/day cheaper to make it. Everything in the mix is human grade food, the “stew” though unsalted could easily be eaten by us. The mix contains meat, whole grain, pulses, fruit or sweet potatoes, pumpkin, vegetables. For her recipe, you can go to her blog. The recipe makes enough to feed both of our dogs for 6 or 7 days, 2 meals per day.

The first time I made it in a large pot and had some scorching at the bottom of the pot. Today, the rice, lentils, oats, sweet potato, and pumpkin with the water were cooked first in the Instant Pot, the meat in the large pot on the stove, and then mixed together with the frozen peas and carrots before ladling it into reusable containers and wide mouth pint jars, some to freeze, some to go into the refrigerator for the next couple of days meals.

This was prepared this morning before hubby got up.

The dogs love it. It is healthier, less expensive, and hopefully both pups will shed a few pounds on it. A side benefit is that Shadow, the German Shepherd who seems to be constantly on some med or another will take the pills in the food without having to resort to trickery and it should help reduce the UTI’s that she experiences.

As the meat can be of various sources and since there are too many frozen chickens in the basement freezer, a couple of them may be the protein source for a few batches before the next round are replaced with younger birds and more tough old hens added to the supply.

A Warm Winter?

During Christmas week, we had a -9 f (-23 c) night and many, many nights in the teens and twenties with daytime temperatures in the upper 30’s and low 40’s since then. Many, many days with light sleet and snow flurries, but until last night, no accumulated snow. The local weather prognosticators say it has been a warm winter.

This morning, we awoke to our first measurable snow. Not a lot, maybe two inches with it hanging heavy in the evergreens.

And frozen fog.

It was pretty while it lasted. Never covering the driveway or the roads. By the time we headed out to town for supplies and our walk, it was already melting and the grass beginning to show through. By the time we returned, about 6 hours after the above photos, this was the scene.

The past two day’s walks have been quite chilly, glad to have a down coat, warm hat, and the heated ski gloves that hubby got me for Christmas. Whenever it gets cold, my right hand gets frigid. The circulation has never been good since I broke that wrist in my early 50’s and even worse after having a trapeziectomy on the same wrist due to arthritis in my mid 60’s. The heated gloves help. Tonight it going to get frigid and not even reach freezing for the high tomorrow.

Once home, a thick layer of hay was put down in the muddy chicken pen and they were let out to scratch through it. They won’t leave the coop if there is snow on the ground. With the days beginning to lengthen and molt finally over, egg production is picking up a little. For a while there were none, then one or two every couple days, now 3 or 4 most days and with different colors and sizes, I can tell more are joining in each day.

The Groundhog saw his shadow in Punxsutawney, he wouldn’t have seen it here, but regardless, there will be 6 more weeks of winter, at least according to the calendar.

False Spring

After typical winter for weeks with cold, damp, gray days and lots of wind, today is glorious. It is 50f (10c), clear, sunny, and calm. A couple of springs ago, a new metal raised bed was added to the garden with the idea of restarting the asparagus bed in a controlled area. Nothing came up from the crowns that were planted there and the bed was not in a good location. I moved it out of the way last year, moving the soil with it and put the third planting of beans in it that the bean beetles destroyed before they could produce. Where I moved it was also not a good location because it was hard up against the fence, an area with every noxious weed under the fence, and in a position that prevented getting the wheelbarrow to the compost pile. Last fall, Son 1 turned the compost pile for me and as I had moved a non productive bed box over my blueberries and heavily mulched them, he moved my raspberry and blackberry half barrels to where the old bed had been and it created the perfect spot for the raised bed.

Today because it was too nice to stay indoors, I moved the metal box frame to it’s new and permanent location and since I wanted it full, not just a couple inches of soil, it became a Hugelkultur bed. The sunflower stalks and corn stalks from last year’s garden were cut and layered in the bottom on a cardboard base and a layer of wood chips fouled with chicken manure shoveled on top.

On top of that, a layer of straw:

On top of the straw was a wheelbarrow full of the compost from the turned pile.

Then the soil that had been in the box was weeded and shoveled into the barrow and added on top and top dressed with another layer of compost to fill the box nicely and have it ready for early peas in another month or so.

While out there, the bed that had the flying greenhouse in it was weeded, hoping that with this week’s potential snow that it will stay clear, and another 4 X 8 bed that had a layer of old chicken bedding piled in it was turned to help it break down. Finally, the compost pile was shoveled back into a pile, trying to turn it a bit more to add to the bed nearest it when the weather warms a bit and the kitchen scrap pile beside it was fenced off with temporary fencing and top and an opening from the chicken run created to allow them to eat the weeds and kitchen scraps and make more compost in that location.

It didn’t take the hens long to discover the new territory.

As I was coming back in the house, I saw a text from a west coast friend, asking if we could chat as there is no Zoom session today and ended up with a delightful half hour or so on the phone, sitting in the warm sun on the front porch and sharing stories. Such a delightful way to end an afternoon outdoors.

Tomorrow the weather takes a turn back to cooler and rainy with wintery mix, possibly snow mid week. We will see, there hasn’t been any so far this winter.