Welcome, Spring!!

Happy Faces

Tot, wanting more food.


The new calf, displaying his amazing nostril-licking abilities. I love the blue/pink color combo.


A very friendly chicken at a show in December.


And Luigi!

The only way Luigi, aka Wege, Wegemities, or Wege'em-Squeege'em, can express joy is by vigorously squinting. By the way, she's a girl.

Sorry, I'm too tired to post anything more coherent than this.
Goodnight then!

The Manure Patrol

We have a lot of chickens. Too many to count. But they are all bantams (miniatures) and they live in the chicken house, because my sister raises and breeds them for show. They're too special to risk losing outside.
But chickens do a wonderful job on cow pies. After the manure ages for a week or so, the chickens come through and scatter it across the pasture, fertilizing the grass and making the fields a more pleasant sight. We already had a chicken box in the cow pasture, but it's been empty for a few years. So I picked up five new birds this week - the new cow pie patrol.

They don't have names yet, unfortunately. I'm thinking hard!

The rooster, a light brown Leghorn.


One of the three Leghorn hens.


And the Modern Game hen.


They are still adjusting to their new home, so I'm going to wait another week before letting them out. And then, cow pies, watch out!

Lucky birds have waterfront property!

In the Greenhouse

Here it is. Eight by twelve feet of seedling heaven. Outside it's been cold and windy and rainy, yet the greenhouse stays a toasty 65 - 80 degrees (and dips into the 40's at night). You can see why I would spend a lot of time in here - and I do! Even if it's just to read, a little greenhouse therapy makes any day brighter and warmer.



You can see my Sponge Bob watering can - normal watering cans have too big of holes for delicate seeds and sprouts, so I bought a child's version. It's perfect.
I have a grow light above the bottom shelf - tomato seedlings need a lot of light - and two heat mats, fitting a total of six trays. I keep all newly planted flats on the heat with a plastic cover until everything has sprouted. Then the plastic comes off for a few days, and then I move the tray off the heat to gradually "toughen" the plants.



I was very happy when we had a new door put on the other day. The old one was broken and disintegrating, from the big wind storm of 2007. Fortunately it held up just fine in yesterday's wind storm!



I was surprised to see radishes coming up outside. I planted them two weeks ago, and figured they had drowned a while ago. Yet today there is a whole row of them!



Inside, I have onions...


lots of brassicas (broccoli, broccoli rabe, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and kale)...




almost one hundred tomato starts (of 18 varieties)...


and the first okra popped up today...


Also sprouted are almost all the flowers (cosmos, zinnias, statice, petunias, impatiens, four o'clocks, nicotiana, rudbekia, snapdragons, love in a mist, and more I can't think of now), radicchio, greens, and the first peppers and eggplants.



It's going to be a looong wait before the first tomato ripens, but at least I can enjoy the presence of green growing things while the rest of our property gives way to rain water and hordes of ducks.

Brining for St. Patrick's Day

There's only one thing to do when St. Patrick's day is coming up - haul out the brisket and start brining!!



I've never done this before, but with a 9 pound homegrown beef brisket lounging in the freezer, it seemed logical to transform it into corned beef. I'm following Ruhlman's recipe from Charcuterie. Hard to go wrong with that book.


brisket of "Big Mac" the steer

I toasted pickling spices, picked fresh bay leaves from the neighbor's tree, and boiled up some brine. The mixture smells fantastic - I cannot wait for March 17!

Orchids

Here they are! Six new additions to the two orchids I already had:



Epidendrum


Potinara


Dendrobium


Miltoniopsis

I also scored a couple of young, non-blooming orchids for just $3 each. There are so many great deals at the Flower Show on the last day. Though it was a little intimidating trying to push through the mob of orchid-hoarders at every booth! People become crazed when confronted with cheap, gorgeous orchids.


And the Phaelenopsis I've had for several years already. It blooms twice a year for several months at a time - simply amazing!

And outside, the crocuses are blooming! These giant striped ones are my favorite.

This Week

Sorry my postings have been so inconsistent - the cows have taken over my life! But things (specifically Tess...) are finally settling down. She's finally trusting me again, and actually going into the stanchion to be milked. It sure beats milking her in a stall when she's trying to spin in circles! She's giving a lot of milk now - 6 or 7 gallons per day, in addition to what the calf nurses. I'm slowly working my way back into the cheesemaking, so most of the milk for now is going to our friend's pigs. But I did make butter today! It was quite pale for Jersey butter, but then again our grass hasn't come up yet. Give it a few months and it will be golden, even orange. I let the cream culture (sour) overnight to give it a bit of tang, then churned it in our KitchenAid stand mixer as usual.

The (still nameless) calf is doing very well. He is astonishingly active - I've never seen a calf run so fast and buck so much for so many hours a day! I'll have to get a video.

My mom would like to point out that in the back of this picture, you can see Cheerio the horse. Cheerio is our Quarter Horse mare, and she just celebrated her 13th birthday. I'm not sure how celebratory this occasion was for her, however, since she had to wait an extra minute while my mom made us sing "Happy Birthday" to her. She had eyes only for those carrots.

Coming this week:
Update from the greenhouse
Photos from the NW Flower and Garden Show!
My new orchid purchases
AND... my new chickens!