Blog

     March is certainly going out like a lion. Last Sunday it snowed, Monday through  Wednesday it remained cold and flurried, last night it started raining and though it is supposed to be warmer today, it is going to rain all day with thunder storms this afternoon.
     It is time to get the pen prepared for the chicks, they are outgrowing the brooder and they aren’t pleasant to smell in the house.  The brooder is in the basement rec room and it will take me a week to clean up the dust they have kicked up and at least a week to air out their smell once they are outdoors.  We upgraded to much larger feeder and waterer and they empty the water, a gallon size at least once a day.
     It is also time to get peas and early spring greens planted in the garden, but it needs to dry out a bit to work the soil.  The tomatoes and peppers must be started indoors now and the electric fence around the garden and orchard needs to be strung to keep the deer and dogs out.  None of the outdoor work can be done in the snow and rain and my shoulder that was injured more than 35 years ago was aggravated by last week’s digging and this week’s sleeping on a pad on the floor in Northern Virginia while babysitting our oldest grandson, so outdoor work is unappealling right now anyway.
     The little guy spent his entire spring break sick with a cold and just feeling puny.  We made one short trip in to the Natural History Museum at his  request, but his energy level was so low that we only lasted a couple of hours.  Most of our time was spent snuggling and reading or playing his beanbag toss game when he was perkier.
     We are seeing signs of spring, daffodils blooming in yards on the mountain, tree buds swelling, the forsythia looking like it might bloom soon.  Perhaps April will chase the tails of winter away and we can get on with being outdoors some.

Snow and sleet that is.  We are expecting up to 6 inches today and tonight.

And a chance to wear my newly finished sweater.

The sweater is Corriedale sport weight yarn from Bovidae Farms in Mars Hill, NC.  It was purchased last fall when I went to the SAFF 2012 in Asheville.  The pattern is Anne Budd’s Top Down Raglan, made as a V-neck cardigan with wide button bands and finished with Dimensions Raku Clay fired buttons also from SAFF 2012.  Dimensions is located in Virginia Beach, where I lived before retiring to the mountains and the spring snow.

     The first folks I met in the mountains after I moved here, that weren’t neighbors or coworkers, were two young organic farmers and their very young, very shy daughter.  They are delightful people, that our eldest son had met at the farmer’s market.  I have enjoyed produce from their farm, had several lovely pot luck dinners at their house, and have been the fortunate recipient, thanks to my loving hubby, of a season of their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) flower share of 15 beautiful bouquets of locally grown flowers during the summer.  I am looking forward to this year’s share as well.  They have expanded their farm to growing apple trees, grafting five different varieties.  This was the first year they were selling the trees and we bought five, two Daveys and three Liberty.  Our orchard had been started over the past couple of years with three peach trees, two of which began producing the first fruits.  Last year we added two Asian pears.   Two of the peaches are above the garden and compost bins and define the upper west corner of the garden area.  The third peach and the Asian Pears are to the east of the garden in an area that has been previously plowed, but not used as part of vegetable or berry plots.
     Yesterday the new apples trees were delivered and as we are under a winter storm warning and I am leaving hubby and the pups mid week to go to Northern Virginia to help with childcare for our eldest grandson, today seemed to be the only day in over a week that I could get them planted.  Unfortunately, hubby blew out his knee two weeks ago and reinjured it when we moved and leveled the chicken coop, so he couldn’t help.  Bert, farmer friend, looked over my existing trees and showed me how to prune them and suggested getting the sod away from the trunks.  First thing this morning before we went to the Farmer’s Market, I pruned the peaches.
     The plan involved using the tractor bucket to strip off 4 x 4′ chunks of sod expanding the row that has the Asian Pears and a parallel row 20 feet to the east of them.  Next involved digging by hand, 5 new holes of substantial size, using a maddock and a shovel.  The compost pile was tapped to feed the new trees and also to top dress the older trees after hand stripping the sod from around them.  After the trees were planted, a layer of weed mat weighted down with rocks and more compost was placed around each tree until we can either get tree rings or straw to mulch them.
     The chilly, gray day ended with setting the posts for the electric fence, but I ran out of the electric wire, so I need to just hope that the deer don’t discover the new trees before I can get and string more.

     As soon as our beef stew is finished and eaten, I plan a long hot soak in the bathtub.

     Not snow this week, yesterday’s is mostly gone and the weekend storm has yet to arrive.

These two were the same size less than 2 weeks ago when we bought them.  The one on the left outweighs the one on the right by about 3 times.

They take up much more space in the brooder now and we had to upgrade the size of the feeders and waters.

And their coop is now in the orchard awaiting the remainder of the fencing to pen the dogs and coyotes out.  And I’m sitting here awaiting the delivery of 5 new apple trees for the orchard.  They were grafted and grown right here in our county.

     Yesterday was a dismal day.  It alternately snowed, drizzled freezing rain and flat out rained.  The predicted high of 41 was never even approached.  It was a good day to stay inside and work/craft.
     I finally called about the coop (see yesterday’s rant) about 11:30 a.m. and was told the driver had some truck trouble (good excuse) and we were next on the list to be called (funny, we were the first delivery, so why not the first call), and it would be there between 1 and 2 and they would call first.  We needed chicken feed, gas for my car, and a couple of supplies for soap and body wash making, so we decided to make a dash to town, grab some lunch and do the quick errands.  WRONG.  We did get lunch and a call that the truck was on its way.  Quick dash back up the mountain, stood out in the frozen yuk, guided the truck to a position where he could get the coop close to where I wanted it and he refused to back the truck off the gravel.  The coop was unloaded at least 300 feet from where it shall live.  They did show me how to hook the tow straps to pull it, and we hope the tractor can haul it where it needs to go without tipping it over.
     Errands still to be done, we took a second, more leisurely jaunt back to town (about 15 miles each way) and accomplished the errands.  Once home, it was going to take an act of Congress to make me go out again.
     With supplies in hand, I made my last full batch of melt and pour soap, scented with cedar, rosemary, and red thyme, the preferred scent for eldest son and his family.  I will be spending a half week with them soon to help with some childcare issues while the nearly 8 year old is on spring break.  Trips to visit them usually involved a pasture raised meat purchase, a soap making session, and picking through home canned tomato products and peppers for their pantry.

     As I have become more concerned about what goes into the products that we use to clean our homes and our persons, I have over the years made changes.  The first changes were to quit using commercial house cleaning products, a jug of white vinegar, a bottle of castile soap, a box of baking soda and a good cloth will clean most anything.  Furniture polish needs be nothing more than a dab of olive oil or a rub of beeswax applied to give it a shine.
     Next up was the soap.  I found a good quality hemp oil based melt and pour base that listed all the ingredients, nothing sketchy, and a mold, some essential oils and we have soap.  Next batch will be cold pressed with oils of my choice.  That is a bit more challenging and will require the purchase of an immersion blender, dedicated only to soap making, and a bit more of my time, but it is a challenge I think I am now up to undertaking.
     Body wash and lotion were next on my list and yesterday was the first planned attempt.  Realizing that I had failed to locate one essential ingredient for the lotion or lotion bars, I had to put that on hold until the purified beeswax arrives, but body wash was a breeze to make, and I know every ingredient that went into it, better yet, I can pronounce them all.  The internet is such a wonderful resource.  Did you know that most commercial moisturizing body washes contain alcohol, a drying agent?
     At the rate I’m going, I fear I’ll become a hermit living on our little homestead, growing my food, making my soap, spinning my yarn and avoiding all human contact. 

     Late last week, we received a call scheduling the delivery of the small chicken coop on a sled base that we had purchased on Tuesday.  And now we sit here in the house watching the snow and freezing drizzle and waiting.  The coop was to be picked up by their driver between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m.  We live about 20 minutes from where it was purchased and even if you don’t know where you are going, they should have been here by now.  It could have been dragged behind a horse in this time.  By my calculations, they are over an hour late.  If the weather is a problem, a call to let us know would be nice.  Afterall, it is too wet for the truck to get anywhere close to where we want it placed.  If they ever arrive, I guess the coop will temporarily be deposited well above the garden at the gravel turn-around and we will drag it to its new location once the weather improves.

     With each season, the decorations on the porch and in front of the house change.  The fall brings pumpkins, mums, and corn shocks with a fall flag, the flag tradition began when the kids were small and there was one for each season, plus a birthday, Easter, Valentines (our anniversary), Thanksgiving, Christmas, and of course, an American.
     Thanksgiving changes only  the door wreath and the flag, one my husband picked out long ago.  This one always brings a chuckle and the repeated quote, “This year we fight back.”  It is a turkey dressed as a pilgrim with a blunderbuss.
      For Christmas, the door wreath and flag represent the season, sometimes with sprigs of fir on the porch light and the posts of the porch.  There are also a chainsaw carved Santa and Snowman that bracket the door.
      After Christmas, Santa comes in and an old fashioned sled goes out, leaving the snowman until spring.  The winter flag is brought out and hangs for the next couple of months.  Of course, the snow shovel appears and disappears, the kids toboggans are brought out if the grands are visiting or if the power goes out and we have to haul water, but they are transient and not really part of the décor.
      By mid March, we are tired of winter, the snow if we receive it is generally sublimation snow or light snow showers, the rains have set in, it is too cold and wet to play in the garden, or walk the dogs most days.  They don’t mind the weather and will play outdoors on our farm regardless of the weather, including playing in the muddy creek when I think it is too cold to even wash them down with the hose.  After a couple of spring like days, a short walk yesterday, as hubby’s knee is bothering him, I decided it was time to put away winter.  The Snowman and sled were brought in; the winter flag taken down and it and a couple of others that are showing wear from flapping in the persistent wind the hollow generates, were brought to my sewing area and repaired before being put away for the year.
     As Easter is only a couple of weeks away, that flag was brought out and hung and the blown decorated eggs hung from the grapevine wreath on the door.  Perhaps I will buy some pansy plants to put in the porch side pots.  But today also brought the end of the early spring weather we have had this past week.  Today is cold and rainy, sleet and snow showers are due tomorrow morning and the temperatures are returning to freezing at night this week.

     Soon it will be warm enough for the shrubs to recover from winter, for the Spider plants to be hung from the edge of the covered porch, the daylilies, iris, daisies and other perennials to bloom and the herb and flowers planted in the deck pots.  The garden will be seeded and another growing season will begin.  This year, there will be chickens running in the yard, helping to keep the bug population down and hopefully by midsummer, providing us with eggs.

     Today is a beautiful spring like day.  Already warm enough for just a long sleeve T-shirt and going up to the mid 60’s.  The maples are swelled with buds, the redbuds showing that they will soon be in their lovely pink glory.  The birds are trilling and singing, presumably reestablishing territory and seeking their mates.
     A few days ago as we were coming in to our driveway, we met a car with out of state plates on the narrow state road off of which we live.  The lady and man in the car are professors from Indiana State University and North Dakota University.  They had come down from the top of the mountain where the Biological Research Station is located and she is in charge of a nearly 40 year long study of the Junco birds.  There are two groups of Juncos here right now, both the same species, however some of them stay here year round, the Carolina Juncos and the others migrate, the Dark Eyed Juncos.  They were looking for additional locations to place mist nets to catch and band the beautiful little birds.  After a delightful talk with them and a hike around our property, we offered them permission to set a net here for their study.  This fascinates me and now I am on the constant lookout for the little gray birds.
     This morning, the swifts started making their initial recon visit for nest making purposes.  I am now going to have to be on the alert to keep them from building against the logs.
     In spite of the glory of today, I know that this is just a tease, next week brings snow showers, rain and freezing temperatures at night again.

     Sixteen chicks in their new habitat.  Already they can get out of the 28 gallon washtub.  We started with 17, but when you buy chicks who are shipped within hours of hatching and they are only a day or two old when purchased at Tractor Supply, that happens, especially when it is still winter like weather here.  The remaining 16 are thriving.  The youngest, the Cornish Rock cross for meat, grow quickly and are already the biggest and most active.  They were so tiny on Tuesday, when we brought them home and are now larger than the Red Rocks that were about a week old already on Monday when we brought them home, they already were developing wing and tail feathers, but they have been surpassed in growth.  The remaining Rhode Island Reds and Silver Laced Wyandottes, the potential egg layers are still cute cuddly little chicks.

     Since the first idea of moving to country and buying the land for the farm, we have discussed what animals could provide us with entertainment, income and food.  The first animals added were the dogs, obviously for  entertainment and as guard animals for the property, though the goofy Mastiff guards us by chasing deer, his size up the driveway and greets the neighbors like long lost friends.  We have observed him getting between us and the neighbor’s somewhat threatening male pitbull.

     We did go on to look at the coops and decided that the ones they build are too large and too expensive for my small flock needs.  I discussed with hubby, just buying some framing wood and a sheet of marine grade plywood and building one using some of the extra house roofing metal for the roof.  He decided that was more of a task than we were willing to tackle right now and we had seen a more appropriate sized and priced coop in town, so we went back to measure and ask questions about that coop.  It will house according to the literature, up to 20 chickens, the salesman said 15 was probably more appropriate, so we decided to purchase one and maybe add another half dozen meat chickens.  This will be delivered sometime next week and since we have at least 3 or 4 weeks before the chicks can be moved outdoors, I will have time to put a 12 foot square of chicken wire around the coop to help them adjust and help the dogs adjust to the new critters on the property.

     By mid July, we should be getting eggs and should have a few roosters and meat chickens to put in the freezer.  Farming other than my vegetable and fruit garden has commenced.