Fair Days

   My good intentions of blogging once a week have once again taken a backseat to the chores needing to be done around the farm. I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post.  Soon the gardens will be done for this season and that will free up lots of time for indoor pleasures such as writing. The gardens were quite successful this year with such perfect summer weather. My flower gardens all did beautifully and I was able to enter a lot of flowers in the Tunbridge Fair this year in the cut flower category. My entries included sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and celosias. I had sold so many bouquets of cut flowers in the past few weeks that I was really in a panic trying to find enough blooms for the arrangements for the fair entries. Luckily the flowers were in top condition and all received blue ribbons! My greatest honor was receiving the "Best of Show" rosette for a potted geranium I entered. This plant was bestowed with the "Libby Dodge Award" and was such a huge surprise and honor for me. It felt like Christmas when I was a kid!
   The animals are all doing well and the young chickens are finally laying eggs every day now. Unfortunately discovering that we have two roosters in the mix has left us without two laying chickens that we had counted on. I must say that the roosters are truly beautiful to look at though and delightful to hear crowing "Good Morning" each and every day. It's also nice that the chickens, ducks, sheep, and calf are all in the barn and chicken house earlier and earlier each night with the shorter days. That means my day has been ending earlier as well.
   I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely early fall weather.

Cosmos entered at the fair

Sunflower entry

Celosias entered at fair

Zinnias

"Best of Show"

 

Let it Rain!

   These couple of days of much needed rain have given me a break from the gardens and a few hours to catch up on some inside chores. I even spent Sunday afternoon in my sewing/craft room planning this year's Christmas presents to be made.
   My beets have all been just about harvested, maybe a dozen left in the ground to mature some more before pulling them out. They have been tender and sweet and my husband and I have really been enjoying them. One got away from me and became a giant. I don't know how I missed pulling this one up sooner, but now it is way past the suggested eating size of "slightly larger than a golf ball", as stated on the seed packet. It is now the size of a large turnip and probably pretty tough to eat. You can see from the picture next to the quarter it is past it's prime, but a gigantic root crop just the same.

 

 

   My gardening nemesis, the Japanese beetle, arrived in full force in July doing devastating damage to my roses and fruit trees. Oh, how I hate them! I don't use any pesticides in my gardens and the beetle traps you hang in trees seem to import more Japanese beetles to the property. My grandfather used to pick each and every beetle off of his roses, in his extensive rose garden, and throw them in a glass jar with kerosene in it. Well, I guess that killed them! There are so many Japanese beetles here this year it would be a nine to five job for me to hand pick them off. One lucky break this year has been no sighting of tomato hornworms. Those I do pick off by hand to save the tomato crop.

Another rose ruined. 

 

   I hope everyone is enjoying this rainy day, I know the gardens are! Maybe not the animals that are confined to the barn, look at the faces on the sheep who were summoned to the barn when  a thunderstorm was approaching yesterday.



The Ups and Downs of a Farm

   Last week was a stressful week for me. When I went out to the barn last Tuesday morning for morning chores I was greeted by one of our silver laced Wyandotte chickens savagely killed. Feathers were all over the ground and her head was totally gone. This is nothing anyone wants to see at 6 a.m. to start their day. She was one of our young chickens who was being kept in a large dog crate with her little flock at night, because they haven't yet learned to go into the chicken coop with the older chickens at sunset. Whatever got her tried to pull her through the spaces of the wire cage, pretty successfully. The rest of these little chickens are now living in the chicken coop with the big chickens at night courtesy of me chasing them and personally putting them in the coop each night. What a workout! I hope they get the idea of going in on their own soon.
   To further add to my stress Annabelle, our then 2 week old calf, needed to be dehorned. A job I hate. All dairy calves should be dehorned so as not to injure themselves by getting their horns caught on something, injuring other animals on the farm, and especially their handlers. Although a simple process if done at a very early age ( it involves shaving a spot where you can feel the horn buds coming in and then applying a caustic paste to the area the size of a quarter) it does really burn the poor calf for about an hour after applying the paste. After that they forget about it and the result is no horns. Annabelle was a wonderful patient with hardly any complaints. She held up better than I did. I actually didn't sleep well the night before, anticipating the deed. How silly!
   This week seems to be going much better, all the animals are happy and healthy. The gardens are doing beautifully with sunny days and weekly rain showers. We have even enjoyed our first beets and are still picking strawberries. The cut flowers are abundant, with different varieties coming on each week. Homegrown rewards for all the hard work of gardening!

At 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Annabelle drinks one 1/2 gallon bottle of raw milk from a local farm

And oh how she loves that bottle of milk

She also loves grass and clover

Our new barn star

Garden Treasures

   After over a month of not blogging it feels good to sit down for a few moments and write down all the farm happenings. Our sad news is that we had to put our beloved 14 1/2 year old black lab, Millie, to sleep. It was time, but that didn't make it any easier for us. She was a great dog and a loving, faithful companion and we miss her more than words can say.
   On a happier note, it seems Charlotte our two year old ewe is indeed pregnant. If you read a previous post you know we were told by the vet she probably wasn't. A sonogram was done  and the vet saw nothing. She said her wool was so dense that the Doppler was not picking up any signs, and if she was pregnant she wasn't that far along. So April 20th, her expected due date, came and went. When the sheep shearer came to shear our flock, it became apparent that Charlotte is expecting. We have anytime up until June 5th to expect the little lamb or lambs. So exciting!
   The gardens have taken over every waking hour of my time the past few weeks. I have hand turned all the soil with a pitch fork in the existing gardens, raked, hoed and planted some seeds and plants. On Mother's Day my son, as part of my Mother's Day gift, rototilled the new lavender and cut flower garden. Now comes the planting! The garlic, onions, beets and carrots are all up and growing in the vegetable garden. I seem to be weeding all the time.
   While digging in my gardens in past years I often unearth a treasure or two. Usually in the form of an antique glass bottle, a marble or two, and plenty of shards from broken dishes. This year my hard work was rewarded with an antique child's size iron and a commemorative coin celebrating the return of Admiral Dewey and his ship the Olympia to New York on September 28-30, 1899. They don't have very much monetary value, but it really is a thrill to find old artifacts on one's property. So keep digging all you gardeners and I hope you find a treasure as well.

   

Front of Commemorative Coin

 

Back of Commemorative Coin

 

Antique Child's Iron

November's Farm News

   After a month of not blogging, it's time to get back to writing about the happenings on the farm. Daily activities are very quiet this time of year. No garden tasks to attend to, except perusing all the colorful seed catalogs that are showing up daily in my mailbox. It used to be that in January, right after Christmas, they would arrive giving us something to look forward to after the holidays, but they seem to be coming earlier and earlier each year. With too much to do getting ready for Christmas in December, I have tucked the catalogs away in my desk drawer until January. It is such fun to sip a cup of tea by the fire in the middle of a snow storm and dream of next year's garden. The empty palette of a snow covered garden offers endless possibilites of what to grow next year.
   The animals are spending a lot of time in the barn with the exceptionally cold temperatures as of late. Yesterday was hovering near 30 degrees and the sheep acted like spring lambs, running and jumping. It really puts a smile on your face to see them run and play in the bit of snow we have on the ground and act like it is April rather than December.
   The chickens are really not a bit impressed with the snow we have covering the ground, in fact they do not like it at all. They squawk as soon as they come out of the hen house and feel the cold and see the snow. Frostbite on the rose on top of the chicken's heads and their feet is a real concern in the sub-zero temperatures, so they have spent a few days locked in their house with a nice warm light on and are just as happy, and actually laying eggs everyday. The shortened days of winter offer less light and most chickens lay fewer eggs, but my girls have been laying steadily. With holiday baking starting now nothing beats farm fresh eggs in all baking recipes so I'm glad for the extra eggs, as are my family and neighbors.
   Charlotte, our breeding ewe, is now in New York State at Cabin Creek Acres in Schuylerville being bred. The younger lambs miss her terribly and look for her and call her with their baaing daily. Even though she is not the mother to any of them, they seem to rely on her as a mother figure. She will be home just before Christmas, hopefully pregnant. She is a bit chubby from sneaking grain from the other sheep and eating more than her fair share of hay. This extra weight can be detrimental to getting pregnant and to birthing in the spring, so she is on a diet. Poor Charlotte, she so loves food!
   Today's chores include hanging the outside Christmas wreaths and enjoying the upper 20 and lower 30 degree temperatures. After our latest cold snap it will feel downright balmy out. Thanks for your interest in The Farm at Mill Village.

Unhappy chickens in the snow.

Francesca trying to drink frozen water although she has heated water in her duck house!

Sheep happy to be in their barn when it was 1 degree outside.

 

I have no idea where they came from, but these yellow violas are still blooming against the foundation of our house despite frigid temps. Summer lives on!

 

  

First Snow

   This morning we are having our first snowfall in South Royalton, Vermont. Only up to an inch is predicted, but it is our first honest to goodness snow of the season. Since the date is October 30, old timers would forecast 30 major snowstorms for this winter. I don't know if this "old wives tale" will come true, but that is a lot of snowstorms for the winter of 2013-2014. We only just had our first frost last week on Monday, so after a very mild October we are suddenly plunging head first into winter it seems. Yesterday's morning low was 19 degrees and today's was 24 degrees. Brrrrr.
   Last week we devoted to the delivery and stacking of seven cords of wood to heat our farmhouse for the winter. We are lucky to have a 20x24 1930s garage on our property that we store our firewood in every fall and winter, to keep it dry. Also lucky enough to have it only a few steps from the backdoor of our house, a blessing during frigid Vermont winters. The garage seems to accumulate a lot of gardening equipment and "where do we put this?" items in the summer, but come fall it is cleaned out for only the firewood and storage of our porch and garden furniture.
   We also brought our hay home and stacked it in the barn last weekend, and can now breathe a sigh of relief that all the heavy lifting of wood and hay is complete, we'll be warm this winter, and the sheep will be well fed.
   One of our ewes, Charlotte, will be leaving to go to another farm to be bred in the beginning of November. I know we will miss her, but she will soon be back and hopefully grace our farm with a beautiful lamb (maybe twins) next April. The sheep are being lazy laying outside on the sunny days and still foraging for apples. It seems the pace of all the animals has slowed down and with no gardening chores I finally have time to make Christmas presents. So far I have made 4 1/2 presents,  with a lot more to go. So since the weather is chilly and snowy, I am off to my craft room to create. Enjoy the snow!

Sunrise over the barn last Tuesday am

Millie checking out the first frost

First snow!

A poor "woolly-bear" caterpillar caught in the first snow

 

Harvesting and Storing Beets

The past two days have been occupied with numerous garden chores. Unfortunately my bee balm, which was the most prolific this summer that I can ever remember, now was covered in powdery mildew. Yesterday I cut it back to the ground so that it would not infect the other herbs that reside next to it in my herb garden. I had the added surprise of finding a huge creepy spider. I actually took a picture of the underside of it, although I thought it was it's back. My mind said "What is it? Is it poisonous?" I didn't wait to have it bite me. I killed it. O.K., here come all the comments, but I panicked.

 

On to the beets. The first of my beets have been ready for harvest for the past couple of weeks and we really have enjoyed them, but I don't think my husband wants to eat them every night. Beets are great keepers into the winter. If you are lucky enough to have a root cellar they stay firm and sweet with just a couple of precautions. We live in an 1880s house with a dirt floor and a brick and stone foundation, so we have the perfect root cellar.

Pull the beets by hand and trim the tops to 1/2" from the beet itself. Pack them in a wooden box, or in my case I use an old wooden bushel basket. Do not use a plastic tote because you need good ventilation to prevent your crop from getting moldy. Pack the beets in soil, sand, or wood shavings. I place the basket of beets and wood shavings on an old table. This way they are up off of the ground to avoid mold, but still benefit from the cool, dark conditions. Check your beets regularly and remove any moldy or soft beets.

I planted the beets at different dates throughout the summer so I can harvest up until frost. I usually have fresh quality beets for up to 4 months after I put them in the cellar. This year I planted "Soldier Beets" and "Detroit Dark Red" beets. Both are vintage heirloom varieties and really dark red and nice and sweet.

 

 



                                                  Going home at the end of another day!

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