Summer Happenings On The Farm

My garden is producing pretty well this year, even though I planted it in the middle of May.  I have been getting a lot of tomatoes and go out and pick them every other day.  I have been picking green tomatoes too, they get heavy on the vines and start laying on the ground...if I don't pick them...the ants have a treat.  I am going to have to figure out better supports for all of my plants, this year I tried t-posts and nylon rope thinking if I got 150 pound test strength it would hold the tomato plants up...nope, well...not really anyway.  I guess I need a t-post for every plant or maybe cattle panels and t-posts, then prune the plants too.

I will say this...the chicken poop compost sure helps this sandy soil produce a good crop.  I only spread it on half the garden so far, but the tomatoes, bell peppers and broccoli have done pretty well, that is the half I spread it on.  I have put a little uncomposted pine shavings that ducks and chicks used down the isles in a few other spots as mulch, not much poop in it...but my water melon plants have gone crazy, none have gotten ripe yet...I picked a variety that takes too long to ripen I guess, at least that is what a neighbor said.  He told me Jubilee or Charleston Grey do better out here...I think maybe if I can get my garden in the ground quicker or earlier next year, I could still plant the Black Diamond Variety and Sugar Baby.  I need to get my garden ready earlier!  If I had not moved it and had to break new ground and fence it, I could have a better, earlier crop.

In the mean time, I have been super busy.  I have had to start watering every day, it got up to 102 here yesterday and sand dries out very quickly.  We have had no measurable rain in the past month.  There have been a few spotty showers, but not enough to measure in the rain gauge.  July and August are usually very dry here...the rest of the time it rains quite a bit per month.  We don't have water in the creek anymore and the lake level is dropping rapidly.  I have a feeling, if we had a well that it would have to be pretty deep to still be getting water too.  I know we have underground springs fairly close to the surface, I have been digging to plant a tree and all of the sudden the ground fell away and I could see water.  The ducks and geese have dug holes and found water too.  We have about a foot and a half of sandy loam and then a clay layer, I am not sure what the soil is like beyond that, it is too hard to dig once you hit the clay.  We discover this when we tried digging holes for posts.  Some areas may be a little thicker layer of sand depending on the lay of the land and washout areas...some areas the sand has washed down the hill and the clay is exposed...like my poultry yard, most of the main yard anyway.

I have been cooking and canning lately, first I made 9 quarts of tomato sauce, then 8 pints of green tomato salsa with Jalapeño peppers, 6 pints of red tomato salsa with Habanero peppers and Jalapeño peppers and I think 8 quarts of Spaghetti Sauce with mushrooms and onions.  I have a big tub of ripe tomatoes that I may deseed and try my hand at making catsup today...after I get a few chores done.  I have been harvesting green beans, broccoli, bell peppers and cucumbers too...but cleaning chopping and freezing everything but the cucumbers.  I have not had but five or six cucumbers at any one time...four plants is not enough for pickle making it seems, they almost died too.  I need to amend the soil better and mulch better, since I started watering them every day...they are doing better and growing.

I pulled the last chick out of the incubator this morning.  At least I think it is...the one egg left, the air cell is not shrinking like it should.  These were eggs I took from broody hens and I really didn't know when they would hatch.  I think if it was going to hatch, it would have by now.  The last batch of ducks I hatched has been out in the yard for over a week now, they are getting their wing feathers too.  I have them in the fenced area behind my main coop, last night they went into their house all by themselves...otherwise we would have had to coral them.  The last batch of chicks I took out to the yard are still not all going into the coop at night yet, we have about six to eight a night that we have to pick up and put on a roost in there.  The baby turkeys are growing like weeds, I know I have three male Bronze turkeys and think the buff and almost solid brown one are both females...I need more females!  Locking up the males during mating season doesn't seem fair to them, but at least they aren't able to tear up my female turkeys just having two out.  I have been letting the babies out during the afternoon...the are so excited that the fly...some fly for probably 40 feet or more and have gone over the fence into the pasture area and into my old herb garden.  I will probably move the fencing to that garden when it gets a bit cooler out.  The largest of the babies are the same size as my adult female turkeys.

Update on Mercy...Mercy is doing well, in case you don't remember...Mercy had her wings damaged/chewed off by our first hatched goose Gracie.  Mercy still has one wing, but the feathers grow at a really odd angle, she had a big blister on the wing for a couple of months while she was trying to grow her feathers out...the feather tube was very large on one feather and she kept chewing it as it came out.  Anyway, Mercy does not go into deep water...she can't really use her wings to balance or flap to get out of the biggest and deepest of the pools.  We have been setting her into a pool and watching her bathe, she enjoys it so much...but doesn't like being in water two feet deep.  She likes enough depth to submerge her body...but still be able to stand in.  Ok, now the update...we suspected Mercy may be a boy goose by the wide stance...we now know, Mercy is really a boy!  We discussed changing his name to Mike, but since we have been calling him a girl and Mercy for the past five months and he knows that name, we are just going to continue to call HIM Mercy.  How do we know it is a boy?  Well...he was getting aggressive towards our other males, and mounted one of the females and we saw his appendage.  I am afraid Gracie may be a boy too, but time will tell.  Hope is a girl though, she has developed a keel...Gracie is two weeks older and has not.  Hope is also nesting and has been sitting on eggs in our main coop.  We shall see soon...I may just have to wait a little longer,  if Gracie is a male too...well, I may just have to order some more females from a hatchery next year and we may be selling a male or two.  My husband loves the geese though, and Gracie and Mercy are special to him, so we will see what happens.

Hot Hot Hot

I have not been working outside as much lately, it is very hot and humid and even though I drink a lot of water, I sweat so much that I have lost 7 pounds in one day...in about three hours time.  I try to go out later in the day when the humidity gets lower too.  The water for my poultry heats up, even in the shade and I worry they aren't drinking enough.  I feed fermented feed which helps keep them hydrated, but is it enough?  I change out the water, it is no longer as cool as it was...but the heat index is around 105 most days lately.  I have to water every other day too, my young trees, bushes and garden start wilting if I don't water.  Today is partly cloudy, so not quite as bad as it has been...but we could use some rain.  This sandy soil dries out a lot and fast, I try and mulch around the plants, but I can only do so much at a time.

I have started on the run to my breeding pens, just one wall erected so far.  I will probably get the perimeter walls done and have to add the dividers later....as I can get supplies to do it.  I had the babies out of the house for a short while, but I hatched chicks for someone and got some eggs replaced and hatched them too.  I have one brooder going in the house now.  I have a few more eggs in the incubator that I took away from broody hens.  I have two broody hens left, that are sitting on eggs...my Dominiques eggs are starting to hatch, I hope she is a good mother...I am going to try and leave them with her.  I may change my mind if any get killed...or hurt.  I have another broody duck sitting on eggs, a goose sitting n eggs...and one turkey.  Hopefully I will get housing built for them soon.

I have put a lot of the young pullets and roosters out into the Big Coop and Sidecar.  I put all the older young turkeys into a pen with an adult turkey hen that was injured, she is showing them the ropes out in the yard.  Some of the Bronze turkeys have gotten pretty large and a couple of them have started strutting...at least two are males.  I have one that looks buff (blond) and a dark brown with very little other color...I think they may be females.  Not sure about the Bourbon Red turkeys, they are still kind of young to tell the sexes.  I still have about five young turkeys in a porch brooder.  Still have a lot of young chicks on the porch in brooders also.

I have put all the young ducks into the yard, I have five starting to get their wing feathers now...and nine that are almost big enough to go into the main yard.   I am tired of cleaning brooders and will be glad when everyone of them are out in the yard!  I have a garden to tend to, veggies to can, weeds to pull and fruits to pick soon.  Lots going on here on the farm, it has been a very busy year for me and I still have a lot to do.