Farm Update: July 3

I haven't done a farm post in nearly two months. I have various excuses: rain, rain, and then a bit more rain. A wedding. The outrageous heat. But truthfully, I had energy for one blog, not two. There you have the unvarnished truth.

For future reference, here are a few stats:

*3 chicks survive from the May clutch. I think two are hens, but unsure still. They are nine weeks old today.
*Ethel is broody on four Ameracauna eggs, one week in. 
*It's a bad tomato year. I have about 25 plants in the garden, but the Mini Orange plants are performing badly because of excessive rain - rotten fruit. The 2 plants in pots with drainage did better.

*Matt's Wild Cherry tomato plants are doing okay. The 3 plants that overwintered on the porch have done extremely well. I should try that again. I had abundant cherry tomatoes all through June, which is early. The rope trellising is not a good solution for tomatoes. We need a new plan. Cages are too short for vining varieties.
*Cucumbers are bearing very well. The pickling variety turn yellow quickly. But the rope trellising is perfect for cucumbers. We will do that each year.

*I started my Blue Lake bean plants too late. I have 8 plants in a bed fenced against rabbits. Difficult to weed. Pepper plants also in there, and growing well.
*The greens bed was fabulous. We could not eat or sell even a majority of it.
*Babies' Breath and Chamomile did not grow well. Heavy rain destroyed the first and heat/weeds destroyed the second.
*Carrots appear to be growing well. No sign of orange root yet. I sowed seeds on March 29.
*A good year for onions, which were put in as sets last fall. At the end of June their tops were down enough to pull them. They're curing on the front porch. Then I think we'll store them in the frig.

* Each year our potato harvest improves. Adam harvested them today. He'll brush off the dirt and we'll store them in the spare bedroom.

*I've had decent farm sales at the market, selling nearly everything. 
*I have so much tomato sauce left over from last year that I'm cooking it down and turning it all into tomato paste, which Adam uses most readily in cooking.

Reduced by half, after simmering for a day

*We ate some peas this year, but did not freeze any. We don't tend to remember what's in the deep freezer, and garden produce sits there for a long time, uneaten. Need to improve on that.
* I made a batch of tea tree soap in February, one of lavender in March, and just made a mixed batch last week. I've steadily made batches of Healing Herb Ointment, Bee Balm, and Insect Repellent Lotion Bars, all of which sell well. I'll make a bit of ointment for ourselves today because we use it so often.
*Herb beds are doing very well, if weedy. I made a large batch of herbal tea (mint, lemon balm, tarragon, lemongrass), and sold the first tin of it at the market on Saturday.

*Adam's willow tree starts are doing extremely well. Thicker wands have grown better than thinner ones. 
*My seven loofah vines are looking very good. They won't bear until autumn. I sold almost all of my last year's loofah scrubs.

I think that's about it! If you want to know more about what's happening in our lives -- the roof, the wedding, the dogs -- skip on over to my other blog, Through a Glass Darkly. Thanks for stopping by!

Ramping Up the Soap Business

I had a great day at the Oriental Farmer's Market on Saturday. I sold out of Bee Balm and Insect-Repellent Lotion Bars, not to mention selling a lot of soap and some lip balm too. My inventory is at the lowest it's been in a long time. Time to get to work! Thankfully, I already have two batches of soap at home, cured and ready to sell next week.

the soap scents in these new batches

I'm also out of plantain salve, so I picked some new plantain leaves, and they're now infusing into the oils I use in the salve.

It looks like something from the murky deep.
I keep my various body care recipes in the back of my handwritten cookbook. It was given to me as a wedding present 28 years ago.

I'll be making that salve, scented bath salts, lotion bars, and bee balm this week. I'll be ready for those customers on Saturday!
I've also been saving seeds as some of our garden plants go to seed. Here I'm saving radish seeds.

I also saved peas, spinach seeds, and some  Matt's Wild Cherry tomato seeds.
I sold four packages of tomatoes and four cucumbers at the market. We have so many tomatoes coming in.

My tiger lily bed has been just stunning. I failed to take a photo of it, but I did cut many of the blooms for a huge bunch in a vase for church today. They were gorgeous.

Adam and I returned home this evening from town to find chicken feathers in two spots in the pasture. It looks like Ruby became an escape artist and is on the loose. But there's no chicken carcass, and the dogs are not going crazy, barking at a barn bay or up a tree. And there's not enough feathers to indicate any real carnage. We don't know where Ruby is. She's not responding to my cooing calls of love and treats. I hope she turns up. Adam locked up the dogs tonight, and we're hoping we find her strutting around in the morning. We'll see. She's my best layer, and I do hate to lose her.

Beating Last Year's Record?

I remember precisely the day last year when I ate the first red tomato from my garden. It was June 1st, my birthday. It was my garden's present to me. I was despairing of making that same date this year until I strolled through the tomato beds yesterday and saw this!

It's ripening! And it may well be red and edible before Thursday! Yippee!

I know I put this photo of my hilarious chickens (I kid you not, I first typed "children" there, before noticing my mistake) on their apple tree branch in the banner header of this blog, but I just had to post it here too. First time they'd ever all four hopped up there together.
This past week I made lots of new bath salts (in lavender/bergamot), lip balm (in peppermint, lemongrass, and coconut mango), and lots of these lovely lotion bars, all insect-repellent:

These bars sell like hot cakes once the mosquitoes come out. As soon as I say "insect repellent," customers are happy to plop down their money for a bar. And they work really well -- citronella, lemongrass, eucalyptus, tea tree, lavender, rosemary, and cedarwood essential oils (that's a LOT of oil), blend to keep the buggies away, and the coconut oil, infused dandelions, and beeswax make it so good for your skin. When's the last time you put on an insect-repellent product that was good for your skin? What's not to love? I sold so many on Saturday I have to make more this week. They are $5 for a 3 oz. bar that lasts a very long time.

Adam cut out two new Red Robins (well, actually cardinals) for farm decor. We took down the old one on the farm gate, hoping to sand and repaint it, but it was too far gone. He used it as a template for these new ones. Now I must paint them.

The watermelon seeds have cooperated beautifully.

And my new lambs' ears have taken happily to their new raised bed tire container.

We continue to get gorgeous eggs every day. The chickens are healthy and happy with lots of free-range space and a safe coop.

Our nice gas weed eater was stolen from our garage while we were out of town to the wedding, but a very kind friend has given Adam his old weed eater that needed a little TLC. Adam opened it and diagnosed a faulty fuel line. He will repair it this week.

As he tinkered with tiny engines and hoses, I did this ~

~ after a few farm chores yesterday.
I've decided I am now a farm wife. That's my new occupation. I spent many years thinking of myself as a teacher, and of course I will always be a mom even when my kids have flown the nest. But I'm quite ready to stay home, tend chickens, fiddle in the garden, sort seeds, mess with soil in the greenhouse, fuss with farm dogs, move plants around, nurture vegetables and battle weeds. It's my next stage of life, and I'm looking forward to it! If you need me, I'll be in the garden.

Seeds

This morning -- a blustery, chilly morning -- I thought it would be fun to read my farm posts from this time last year. How fascinating to see that so many of the things we started early (January or first of February) in the hoop house, didn't do well.  Potatoes, ginger and turmeric, broccoli, wax beans, etc. Perhaps it's good that we're not starting anything in the greenhouse quite yet.

The tomato seeds we ordered arrived in the mail yesterday. We ordered fewer varieties, eliminating many types from last year that didn't perform well. As soon as I have shelves in the greenhouse, I'll start these, but Adam has to recover from his pneumonia first before he can do that work.

Reading the old blog posts reminded me of what did do well at this time year: herbs. I started cilantro, dill, thyme, and parsley in the greenhouse, and they germinated quite well and transplanted into the garden beautifully. For the first time in my life I have abundant thyme that's overwintered. Cilantro self-seeded and is popping up randomly. Today, instead of starting those herbs in pots, I decided to strew some of last-year's leftover seeds right into the dirt of the herb garden, giving it a little covering. I did this with some leftover thyme seed and some dill seed. Adam needs dill for his pickles.

One thing I need to get into the ground as soon as possible, is peas.

Adam is frustrated at being too sick to work outside. He is sitting on the couch drinking coffee and writing in his hand-crafted books. Last year he started tomato seeds under a light in the barn office, but they didn't germinate well because of the cold, and I had to redo them in March. It's important to learn from previous years on the farm. I'm glad I have this blog for that reason.

Today is perfect for packaging my two batches of soap that are in the middle of curing.

 Lots of tea tree oil soaps, some with oatmeal, 3 oz. - 4 oz. per bar.

Here's a pretty, large bar, nearly 6 oz. in size, wrapped just for Valentine's!
Keep warm out there, folks. Spring is coming!

73 degrees in February!

Granted, it's only barely February, but 73 degrees! Ain't that grand? Yesterday Adam had to do pastorly work in town, but today he is back working on the farm. He put stringers on the hoop house.

 This hoop house is solid, let me tell you!
The 2x4s that run from front to back along each side and along the top of the hoops are called stringers ... at least, that's what we're calling them. The stringers are screwed to the metal hoops.

 These metal straps do that job.

 The hoops are attached to the front and back walls using bigger metal straps.

Last year's hoop house didn't have metal straps ... it had duct tape. I kid you not!
While Adam did that hard work, I strolled around the house lot looking for signs of spring. Daffodil bulbs are popping up in random spots in the "lawn." (I use that term loosely.)

 Instead of mowing down the daffies for the next 9 months, I decided it was time for these to find a new home. I dug with a trowel below the bulb.

 And gently lifted the entire thing out.

 Then it's easy to slip the bulb out of the soil backwards - grasp the bulb and pull the stem down through the dirt.

 Voila!
I dug a few.

 I spent a few minutes in my herb bed, currently snoozing for winter. Last fall I placed the dry, cut basil branches over the oregano and thyme to give them a little protection. I removed that. I also cleared out a section in one corner (upper right hand side, in the photo) and sprinkled more of my cilantro seed there. I figure if the cilantro is self-seeding and coming up right now, then that should work. I covered them lightly.

 My poor little bay tree looks dry and dead, but I cleared out around its base and there are green leaves there. I hope it survived the winter.
In other rather desperate farm news, we had a SKUNK. I woke at 4:55 AM, night before last, and discerned the distinctive aroma of said critter. I told myself it was my drowsy imagination. We assumed the dead animal was on the road somewhere and hoped the aroma would go away. Yesterday. But it didn't. It got worse ... especially around the barn. This morning Adam found the dead skunk in the back bay of our barn. The bay door was shut with a bar across it. Ned has been doing this most of today:

 The skunk probably entered through another bay without a complete door, and there are holes from most of these bays into others. (The barn is a mess. The chicken coop, which is also a barn bay, is only vaguely secured.) We aren't sure how the skunk died, nor why it didn't get out the way it got in. Adam threw it over the back fence into the ditch, but Ned apparently still thinks it's in there. His nose is seriously confused.
The big farm behind us (such a dead-looking place) is being worked as we move into spring. When the tractor was harrowing it this morning the seagulls followed in its wake, looking for fresh worms.

 I've made two batches of soap lately. Two weeks ago I made one with tea tree, tea tree/oatmeal, and lemongrass poppyseed bars. Yesterday I made a batch with lilac and linen bars. Those last two are fragrance oils.

lilac soap bars

tea tree with oatmeal, tea tree, and lemongrass/poppyseed

 Just so you can see it, here's what a long log of freshly made soap looks like. That's probably 3 to 4 pounds of soap.

One word about soap molds. Originally Adam made me long rectangular wooden soap molds. Those were fine, but I tired of lining them with freezer paper (see above). So he made me molds from PVC plastic that could be disassembled and washed, with the idea they would not need lining paper. But they did. And eventually they warped slightly (bowed out), allowing the liquid soap to leak. Ugh! The batch of two weeks ago suffered this catastrophe -- and believe me, a fresh, liquid soap catastrophe is a real catastophe. I had mere moments to find something else to pour this fresh soap into! I had some silicone baking pans that worked.  But yesterday I opted for my old wooden molds again. Very nice. Very solid. The log of soap above was just taken from one of those molds.
That's it for now! It's a lovely warm afternoon, but I have to go to work soon. The plastic sheeting for the hoop house arrives later this week, and today we started ordering seeds. It's about to begin!!!

Tomatoes, Chickens, Soaps, Rains

Yesterday, my ripest little tomato looked like this:

Today he looked like this:

Tomorrow he'll be ready to eat! Yippee! I have loads of plants with cherry and full-sized fruit. I can't wait! This particular plant is a Matt's Wild Cherry. So many look like this:

Adam is busy working on a chicken coop. A good friend offered us four young hens if we could make a good, safe place for them. We weren't really planning on chickens just quite yet, but I'm quite excited! The chicken area is this:

 That door opening leads to what will be their coop.
It's on the left end of the barn.

Adam bought a new roll of chicken wire to add new fence and reinforce existing fence.

He also put in two new solid posts.

He's building a new fence so that we don't have to walk through the chicken yard to get into their coop to collect eggs and clean up. He will build a small door for them in the side of the barn that will lead straight into their yard.
The back of the fence has openings too large -- they would go straight through it. So he's layering chicken fencing over it.

inadequate fence

Just having Ned in the barn, on his rope, with his door open, should cut way down on any predators. We've discovered Ned is a mouser and a rat-catcher. We're quite pleased with that!
I mentioned I made a second batch of soap. It turned out so pretty! Look!

lavender, tea tree, sandalwood

 I sprinkled little soap shards I had leftover from the previous batch, all along the top. I love the look.

a long block of lavender soap, ready to be cut

 Close-up view:

And the rains. Hurricane season is beginning, and I'm concerned about the heavy rains we get sometimes. On May 11, our entire house lot was under water, like a lake. We have low areas.

They drain right into a hard black pipe.

It feeds directly into a ditch that has remained absolutely full since May 11. It isn't draining out.

That ditch in turn drains into a larger ditch on the side of the highway ... which is also still full all these weeks. This is the reason the side ditch won't empty.

This ditch is the problem, and it's the responsibility of the department of highways, DOT -- I called today and filed a report with them. Hopefully they'll attend to the drainage before we get another gullywasher.
I'm off to work! I hope your day is going great!