Small Miracles

Picture taken two days ago

Yesterday my daughter found one of our ducks laying near the gate to their pen not moving. I had just come in from working out in the yard and was in the kitchen making dinner when I looked up to see her picking up a limp almost lifeless duck and walking towards the house. I rushed out to see what had happened. Our duck had classic signs of poisoning. Paralysis of the wings and legs, unable to hold its head up, unable to swallow, and shallow breathing. We immediately took her into the chicken coup to the table and I had my daughter go mix up a Tablespoon of Epsom salts in 2 cups of water and grab the eye dropper. For the next two hours my daughter, her friend, and I took turns sitting with little miss duck and forcing the water in even though it appeared she couldn't swallow it. Most of it just went out the side of her mouth and down the front. We watched helplessly as she twisted her head back onto her back and had convulsion. Apparently some of the water was getting in because she started pooping everything out. Not a pleasant thing but necessary. That was the purpose of the Epsom salts. But it didn't seem to be helping and if I had been able to put her to sleep quietly I would have. I couldn't figure out what she could have got into. None of the others were sick. I was afraid she had wandered over to the neighbors fence where the neighbor is carefully growing a row of alder trees (considered a weed here) complete with chemical fertilizer and slug killer. I don't use anything in my yard that an animal, wild or tame, can't eat. Since we live near a wetlands and on an island, I also don't want to be the cause of chemical run off that pollutes the water. In all fairness I can't point a finger at the neighbor. There are other things in the environment that can make a duck sick and I have no proof the duck was anywhere near those trees. However there is now a makeshift fence up to keep my ladies from wandering over behind the neighbors fence.

At 9:00 I decided to put her in a basket and bring her into the house. I sat her on the coffee table where I could watch her. I was sure she couldn't live another half hour. Her breathing was down to about 4 times a minute and was raspy and sounded like she was drowning. By this time she was laying flat and couldn't move at all. It was just a matter of waiting for the end now. When bedtime came and she was still barely living I put the basket in the small bathroom off of the laundry room and went to bed knowing I would be burying her in the morning. The cat got me up at 2am to let her out so of course I went to see if the duck was gone yet. I turned on the light to look and saw her just laying in her bed flat. Looking very dead. But when I reached in to touch her to see if she was breathing she jumped, feebly flapped her wings and stood up swaying like a drunk! I couldn't believe it. Maybe it was just a startle reflex the last bit of energy before the end. I took the basket back into the kitchen to see if I could get her to drink out of a little bowl but no luck. Still couldn't swallow. She did poop the biggest stinkiest poop ever though so after adjusting her bedding so she didn't have to lay in it (undignified for a dying anything) I returned her to the bathroom and went to bed.

This morning my daughter got up at 6:30 for school and came down stairs to find miss duck standing in the living room with one of the cats staring daggers at her. She just waddled slowly over to her and my daughter was yelling at me that the duck was walking. She was also quietly quacking by the time I got my rob on and out the bedroom door. First thing I asked as I quickly scooped her back into the basket was "is there any poop on the floor?" Apparently all that nasty stuff was gone cuz there wasn't a mess anywhere thank god. We tried fresh water again and she drank like gangbusters. Then it looked like she was looking for food so I went out to the coup and got some poultry food, moistened it with a little water and she ate that dipping each bite into the water dish. I can't believe she is up and about. I will take her outside later to see how she does with the others but right now she is resting in her basket with a towel over it to keep her in. She is our miracle duck for sure. My daughter calls her her birthday duck.

Memorial weekend! Yay!

Memorial weekend. The Man has three days off in a row and we are taking one of those days to go for a ride on the Harley. I spent most of Saturday outside in the garden mostly building up the potato towers. (see march 8th blog, Fifteen days and counting) I did most of them with the straw and then had an idea. Why couldn't you line the towers with brown paper bags from the grocery store? They still hold in the soil and they go in faster and leave more room for growing in the towers and they compost. After having to buy a bale of straw at $9 it is also a lot cheaper. So I did two with bags as an experiment. I guess the down side of that is the bags wont add as much compost at the end of the season. Decomposing straw really adds a lot to soil but at $9 a bale I think I would rather spend my money on compost.











Earlier I had started peas in the house in toilet paper and paper towel tubes cut into 2 inch sections and placed in a cake pan or flat plastic container. I added soil and one pea per tube and kept them watered with the intention of planting them in the garden with the tubes. One container had a paper liner in the bottom. Not a good idea. The pea plants like to attach themselves to the paper on the bottom and it is hard to pull them off. The other container had no paper liner on the bottom and the roots just slid right off and I was able to plant them with a minimum of disturbance. I also grew them under a grow light and noticed that after awhile the paper tubes gave off a moldy odor. (They went out on the porch after that). But at least I have a row of peas that will hopefully produce something. The rest I planted in the garden in the normal way even though it was late.

My original 6 chicks that were raised by my Buff Orpington are now teen agers. They are still trying to find their place in the flock. The four Americana's will lay pretty green/blue eggs and make a lovely dozen  for my customers. The other two are Dominique's a breed on the endangered list. The one with the scissor beak will probably not be much of a layer but is such a pet now that she thinks she can fly up on my shoulder any time she wants. She is all personality.

The two silky mom's are busy raising their brood together. They definitely know which chicks are who's but seem to have reached an agreement to not fight with each other and that makes my job easier since I only have one chicken tractor to put them both in during the day to keep them safe from the other birds.

With all these pictures this post wouldn't be complete without a picture of the geese.

This next week promises to be very busy with a 16th birthday coming up. Because the man and the oldest girl have unusual work and school schedules I am having to do different birthday things on different days. One day will be a family dinner at home with the requested home made mac and cheese and a chocolate cheese cake for the birthday cake. Then the hard stuff will be done on two other days. I will let you know how that turns out.

What the H$&#? My newest Rant.

A couple months ago I went shopping at my local Costco. Like most of us I like buying the best quality stuff at the least amount of money in large sizes and since I preserve food that includes vinegar. Now maybe most of you think "vinegar, not a big deal" and maybe it isn't but I use vinegar in a lot of different food not just pickles. The other day I hauled out the jug of Heinz apple cider vinegar to make coleslaw while The Man was sitting there watching me. He pointed out that just under the words "Apple Cider" and just above the word "Vinegar" the label said (in small lettering) flavored distilled. I couldn't believe it. Why would a trusted brand make an apple cider vinegar that was artificially flavored? The ingredients say it is "distilled vinegar from grain, natural flavor with caramel color,diluted with water" to get the 5% acidity. I immediately called my Bro to rage about this new deception by big food industry and to check what his smaller bottle of vinegar contained.

His said from apples. So did the vinegar at his local store. So why this? When we both looked it up the only conclusion we came up with was they are trying to make a cheaper product for mass market stores. The label didn't actually say what grain it is made of but the web site claims their products are made of corn or apples. I assume it is corn. Probably GMO corn since you virtually can't find anything but GMO corn on the market and corn is probably cheaper than apples. The web site claims that apple cider vinegar and wine vinegar are the only vinegars that are gluten free since they are made from apples and grapes respectively and only vinegar such as malt vinegar is not gluten free because they are made of grain so that wasn't a reason. I consider this a dirty trick since I try to avoid corn as much as possible. In this day and age thats like trying to avoid breathing. Go figure. So I guess what I actually bought was colored white vinegar. Hmmmm. So what is the lesson here?

1. Don't trust any company and throughly read each label! Great. That should make a two hour shopping trip turn into four.

2. Make sure what you are buying at your big box stores is what you think it is and if not COMPLAIN! Chances are they don't know it either.

I quit buying Crest toothpaste at Costco in the large 4 pack because there was so much water in it that it would run out of the tube if the cap was off. I thought I was imagining it but it happened with more than one purchase of toothpaste. So maybe there is a pattern developing here. I've always wondered how Costco could sell something so much cheaper and always chocked it up to selling mass quantities.

I'm all for being self sufficient and making a lot of our own food. However I think of cider vinegar as a simple ingredient that is to be used to make other things not something that is made up of other things. Why can't I trust a company to produce a simple ingredient without trying to make it a concoction of several other things. I have a feeling when the effects of peak oil become more noticeable  we may all be making a lot more of our own "stuff". Don't know what peak oil is. You will before long and it will be up close and uncomfortable. If you want a quick, not too in depth explanation go here and watch this video from Mother Earth News. (The link is near the end of the article.) High Gas Prices got you down? (Peak Oil) The video will be quicker than another rant from me.

Books, Obnoxious Animals and Noxious Weeds! (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)

 Ever had a weed you hated? This is one of mine. Thistles come in two forms here and you have to be able to identify the one you are fighting with. A Canadian thistle grows in worn out soil and spreads by underground runner roots. Just for good measure it also will bloom and form thousands of seeds from purple flowers that blow away in the wind to sprout somewhere else on your property. I truly hate this plant. I have battled it for years. I just found an article on getting rid of this obnoxious weed and it makes perfect sense. Pulling the damn thing sure doesn't work. The one thing I know is you have to cut it down before it even looks like it is going to bloom because even though it is cut the flowers will still bloom and make thousands of seeds after cutting and laying on the ground. So if you have this thing check out this link.

http://www.truehealth.org/acanthis.html The picture above is of what we call a bull thistle or spear thistle. It is fairly easy in comparison to eradicate. But you have to get all of the long tap root which can be nearly impossible. Years ago I went with a friend to a garlic farm in Oregon. One of the things we did while we were there was thistle hunting. I have since used this technique to get rid of these "prickers" (my youngest calls them that when she accidentally steps on them with bare feet.) You will need salt, a cutting or weeding tool, and gloves of course. But beware! The stickers still go through the gloves so handle with care. Simply slice off the thistle at ground level then put a pinch of salt on the exposed root. Works like a charm for me. And I have had some in my front yard that are about 2 feet in diameter.  You will have to keep weeding other plants out as they come up from seeds but eventually you will see a difference and you don't have to rely on poisons which don't work on thistles anyway and can make your animals sick if ingested.

 
I love curling up with a new book. Reading in the winter time is the one thing I really look forward to and sometimes I have to be prodded out of my comfort zone by friends to read something I don't normally read but I have seldom been disappointed with their suggestions. My brother is a writer and until recently I had not been asked to read anything he had written. Perhaps he didn't want to deal with my criticisms. Ya I can be that way. However I was asked to read (and proof) a copy of one of his stories and guess what? I liked it! So much so that I read another and liked it too. I suggested that instead of dealing with agents that only want to handle a proven writer (read easy money) that maybe he should try putting one up on Kindle. After all, those agents are going to be unemployed soon due to downloadable e-books and not so high and mighty. (Ya, ya I like having a real book in my hands too but I also didn't want a cell phone and now look at me.) So he did. It took some time to figure out how to do it and the learning curve was steep but low and behold he is selling books! He writes mysteries mostly and is very good at painting word pictures. To view his stuff and reviews follow this link. Don't have a Kindle reader? Did you know you can download to your computer and read anything you can get as an e-book? Here is a link to his stuff. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=schankel&sprefix=schankel Oh and by the way. I just set up the hammock in the backyard and now when I have an hour or so I can lay in the hammock and read and still be around my animals and in the fresh air. So take an hour or two for yourself. You deserve it.

Busy days

I seem to have gotten very busy since my last post. Trying to get the garden in, raising geese and ducks, raising new chicks, dealing with broody hens, a graduating senior, two birthdays, and the work here is coming fast and furious. I'm working on the garden between rain and wind storms and temperatures that are 10 degrees below normal. The potatoes are up and need to be mounded. I am still tilling and re-tilling and pulling out the stupid grass that keeps re-sprouting.  I have some lettuce in and some peas. I am also bushwhacking nettles, and what I believe are cow slips, (a big leafy wet plant) in my spare time. I simply refuse to let them take over the area we cleared last summer.

One of the new chicks developed a scissor beak as it grew and I know a "real" farmer would have given it a good whack and been done with it. However this little girl is as sweet as can be and I am a sucker for a Charlie Brown anything. Because I am concerned that she isn't able to get enough to eat I have been making her a wet mash from chick starter and water three times a day. That seems to be working and now when I come out of the house she comes running across the yard to look up at me and ask "where's the food?" She follows me, hopping up on the table and then on me while I am making her mash. She is fearless. Everyone that sees this comical little bird thinks she is cute.

In the mean time I have 4 other birds that have decided to go broody. Two silkies (of course) a bantam light Brahma and a black astrolorpe. I think I have cured the bantam and I am working on the black one. However both Silkies want desperately to be moms. So I bought 4 more chicks. Two for each hen. The black Silkie is a natural mother and didn't mind being moved from her original nest to a dog carrier on the table and instantly tucked each Buff Orpington chick under her. The white Silkie was a little more difficult. She wasn't about to give up the original nest and had a fit so I moved her to a carrier after dark and let her settle in over night before adding the chicks. She is now a good mother of two silver laced Wyandots. The chicks are giving her a hard time since they want to explore their nest and she wants them under her wing. I don't think I will ever brood chicks under a lamp again. Giving that job to the hens is great.

Now the man thinks I'm nuts and I have too many animals. Isn't he the one that was saying I needed more layers to keep up with the demand for my eggs? Since I still don't have housing for my geese I guess I better not push my luck.

The geese and ducks are now 9 weeks old and fully feathered so they are staying outside at night in a predator resistant enclosure. That makes my job a little easier because I don't have to clean up the coup after them every morning. The fenced pasture is up and usable for now and handy to have during the day when they need to be out but I am anxious to get it finished with a real gate and nest houses built. I love my geese and one in particular seems to like me. My youngest named him Sebastian. He likes to be on my lap and gives be goose hugs around my neck. Ok. So I am nuts.

Our oldest graduates from high school so we have announcements to get out, pictures to pick up, parties to plan and registration for college. She is in running start this year which means she did her high school senior year and college freshman year at the same time so she will be going into college as a sophomore next fall studying marine biology. Right now she is in crunch mode to get everything done.

Our youngest has her sweet 16 coming up first week of June. That is a special birthday so I am trying to decide what to do about it. We have a tradition of giving our girls a real ring on their 16th so I have to go shopping. I hate to shop.

The man also has a birthday. He wants heated riding gear for the bike. That means a trip to Olympia about two hours south of here (after the ferry) to visit the company that makes it. We will be taking the car for that. I am not riding that far on his Harley in what will surely be rain.

How about a recipe? This dessert starts out as one batter and separates during baking into fluffy cake hiding a creamy layer of lemon pudding. Try it!

Lemon Pudding Cake

1 Cup granulated sugar divided (3/4 cup and 1/4 cup)
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. fresh lemon zest
1/2 Cup lemon juice
2 Tbls. butter, melted
2 large egg yolks
3 large egg whites (room temperature)
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350. Coat eight 4-6 ounce oven proof ramekins or custard cups with cooking spray. Place in a baking dish and heat a kettle of water for a water bath.

Whisk 3/4 cup sugar, flour, and salt in a medium bowl. Add milk, lemon juice and zest, butter and egg yolks. Whisk until smooth.

In a clean glass bowl beat egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating until stiff and glossy. Fold the egg whites into the batter (it will be thinner than other cake batter and it's okay if a little lumpy). Evenly divide among the prepared ramekins.
Place the roasting pan of ramekins in the oven and carefully pour in enough boiling water to come almost halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake the pudding cakes until golden brown and the cakes have pulled away slightly from the sides of the ramekins, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the ramekins to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve warm or at room temperature.

Garden days

Yesterday we had a day with sun! So I took the opportunity to work in the garden getting one of the 4 sections ready for planting this weekend, we hope. I had two rain showers while working but they were light and I didn't melt. All my birds helped. Including the mom and chicks. The chickens got busy scratching up
bugs and loosening the soil. The geese were just plain cute and wanted to eat every weed I pulled up so they were in my face much of the time. The ducks ate slugs.
 What can I say but thanks. It was fun and it was looking good when we quit but I still have a little work to do before I can plant that section. Today it rained so much and was so cold I had to leave the geese and baby ducks inside. Some places north of here even had snow and the night time temp is suppose to be in the upper 30's.


It's suppose to be warmer and sunnier this weekend so I am still planning to put in lettuce and peas. So much for growing your own food. The only thing growing here is the grass and weeds. Peas are normally planted by March 15 and supposed to be planted when soil temps reach 50 degrees. That's not happening this year so I am doing something else. Emma kitty has her own idea. Maybe I should take the hint. But instead I am determined to prove my brother wrong and get a crop out of that cold garden. I have saved paper towel and toilet paper rolls and I am now cutting them into 2 inch section to plant the peas in. When they sprout and it is warm enough I can plant them in the garden and still get peas before it gets too warm for them. It's a lot of pea plants to have in the house though. I am just doing one package

(about 120 peas) that way. I will start the rest in the garden later and maybe get peas over a longer period. I checked the potatoes that I put in a couple weeks ago and they are sprouting and getting leaves. I'll be mounding soil up around them and building the straw walls in their raised beds before ya know it.(see "Fifteen days and Counting)
The geese are still growing by leaps and bounds. They are starting to get their pretty white feathers but they are still very soft and cuddly. The man named one of them Mimi because she startles easily and screams like a girl. It's cute but I wish she wasn't such a scaredy goose. Sebastian (if he is a boy) is a snuggler. He likes to be picked up and snuggles into the crook of my neck and falls asleep. People that saw them a week ago and then saw them this weekend can't believe how big they are. They are very gentle birds so you can't help but like them.

Guess I better get back to work. Can't sit around all day blogging when I have gardening to do.

Little Mother, Big Babies, Cold Spring and Rhubarb

My broody hen is proving to be a terrific mother. She is a Buff Orpington and I love that breed. They are good egg layers, lay well in the dead of winter, and are gentle friendly birds. They do seem to go broody too often for my taste but I just keep taking them off the nest and separating them from any thing that even resembles a nest for a couple of days and they get over it. I find there is a lot of information about brooding chicks artificially and very little about hens that brood chicks naturally. So far I recommend letting a hen raise chicks. You save a bundle in electric bills cuz mom keeps them warm. That 250 watt light has always put a spike in our bill. The mother also takes care of introducing the babies to the rest of the flock. A definite advantage. You do need a separate area that is dry and shielded from the elements where the family wont get bothered by the rest of the flock. I am using a dog crate located in the other half of my coup. I guess the down side of it is the chicks will be less people friendly but I am making a point of handling them to see if that makes a difference. And she lets me because she has been handled by me since she was a chick. Sure she still puffs up like a balloon and even gives me a peck once in awhile but then sometimes she doesn't seem to mind at all. There are a few things you have to do with a hen that is setting tight on a nest. Make sure you get her off the nest once a day to eat, drink, and do a poo and watch to make sure they do because they will try to get right back on.They will set until there is nothing left of them and even if you get them to take a daily break you will

Mom showing babies how to take a
a dust bath. 

find that they lose an alarming amount of weight. Even after the chicks have hatched (or you have slipped chicks under a hen in the dead of night) you have to get her off the nest once a day. She wont leave the nest until she thinks her brood can or will follow. That takes a few days.

So in a previous blog I mentioned that I was going to try sweet potatoes in the garden this year. However, everything I have read about growing them says you have to go to a lot of effort to warm up the soil in northern gardens before hand. This wouldn't be a problem normally except we are having the coldest, wettest spring since 1954. I am having a problem just trying to get the garden ready for peas and lettuce. We even had two days of snow (it didn't stick around long) last week. So maybe next year. I have started tomatoes even though my pessimistic brother says I won't get any of those either. I will prove him wrong unless our "Climate Change" (AKA-global warming) dumps a blizzard on us in July.

My goslings and ducklings are growing inches every day. I now have behemoth birds with downy fur that still can't be turned outside in the cold wet weather. Even though they are big they have no protecting oil coated feathers yet and get easily chilled when wet. It's a good thing they don't jump or perch on the side of their box or they would be out of it a long time ago. This box is at least 2 ft. high and they are still peeking at me over the top. I let them out for a romp and some grass mowing in between showers but it hasn't lasted very long.

One of the things I look forward to in the spring is rhubarb pie. I have a type that is pink all the way through and sweeter than the green kind. I make jam and freeze some of it raw for winter and there is never enough. If you aren't a fan try this recipe. It will change your mind about rhubarb. The secret is the egg. You may need a little more sugar if you are using the green type of Rhubarb.

Rhubarb Pie
4 cups rhubarb, in bite size pieces
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
dash of salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Make a double crust pie pastry from your favorite recipe. Mix sugar, eggs, flour, salt, and cinnamon and toss with rhubarb. Put filling in pie crust and top with second crust or lattice crust. Place pie on a cookie sheet to catch drips. Bake 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 and bake 30-40 minutes or until fruit is tender when tested with a fork. If crust browns too quickly cover lightly with a piece of foil.  This makes a great cobbler too. Just omit crust and use a crumble type topping before baking.

No Room at the Coup

First day after delivery by the post office

At the time of my last blog I had just received my order of Sebastapol geese and ducks and since then they have kept me running. I made the comment to The Man that I didn't remember this much time and work when I got my last order of 12 geese years ago. Then I remembered that my gander, Zeus, had taken the whole bunch and raised them himself. I had taken the little guys outside on the second day I had them and Zeus just marched in and took over and I never had to worry about them after that. (See my profile picture with Zeus) He raised all twelve and didn't lose a one of them. Zeus had a thing for me anyway so probably thought I had hatched out the babes myself. At any rate the 4 geese and 4 ducks that I have are running me ragged. They play in the water (no matter how I have it set up to avoid this problem) and soak all the bedding (which I have to change at least once a day). Maybe I was wrong about that diaper thing. Because I have been playing with them to get them to imprint on me  they scream their stupid heads off when they can't see me.  I can hear this all the way to the house. They also are growing amazingly fast.    

one week old

   I swear the geese are an inch taller every time I go out to the coup and that is several times a day. I take them outside for an hour at a time, weather permitting, and they follow me all over the yard. I have to be very careful not to step on one. The ducks are not as friendly but the geese want to be held and snuggled and are very curious about everything. The ducks just want to mess in a mud puddle. Being the momma duck I can't let them do that quite yet but I have taken them into a warm bath tub of water for a little swim. 5 minutes seems to be the limit then I spend 55 minutes drying them off  with paper towels and a heat lamp so I can take them out to the coup again. Ya! I guess I'm busy. I love them though. They are so much fun.

You may be wondering why there isn't any room in the coup. A week after I got the geese/ducks the feed store called to let me know my order for 6 chicks were in. I set up another box under the heat lamp and went to get them. My original plan was to let my broody hen have a chick or two. She had been setting on an unfertile egg for at least 20 days at this point so I put a chick under her and took the egg. She seemed baffled at this but willing to keep the baby under her wing. She also kept sitting in the nest so because I was concerned the baby wasn't getting any food or water I started changing it out with another chick every 12 hours and letting the chick that had been on duty eat and drink. She was showing no sign of getting off the nest. I finally decided she was stupid and put all the chicks back in the brooder and took her out to the chicken tractor to try and break the broody habit.  She fussed and clucked all day and that night I had to put her back in the coup so she would be safe from predators. At this point I had two large boxes on the eight foot table with various babies, a broody hen under the table on the floor with food and water, a flock of chickens in the other half of the coup doing their roosting thing with two out of the three silkies that were trying to go broody perched on separate perches. Any extra space was taken up with supplies like chick grit, chick food, extra water, a carry box for taking the water birds out for a stroll, fifty pound bags of layer pellets, 2 bales of bedding chips, scratch, light bulbs, poultry dust, assorted animal pharmacy items, an egg gathering basket, two portable dog carriers, etc. All of this in an 8 X 12 ft. building.

Last night I went down to check on every one just before going to bed. That stupid hen had found her way to the top of the table and climbed into the box of chicks. She sat on all six of them all night and is very proud of herself. This morning I moved her and the chicks to the dog carrier under the table along with food and water. She and the chicks seem happy so I guess I will just keep an eye on them.                                          













                                                                                                          

Duck, Duck, Goose.... and One Trick Chicken

The big day has arrived and all eight birds (4 geese and 4 ducks) made it in one piece which in itself always amazes me. All it would take is one postal or fed ex employee to drop the box or be a little careless. Much to their credit I have never had a dead bird show up in the mail. These little guys came from Metzer Farms in California and shipped from San Francisco or Oakland which can sometimes be kinda cold but the babies were packed with a heating pad and a container of Gro gel which was empty when they got here. Since it was loose in the box its hard to say if they ate it or dumped it over. As usual I got the call from the Post office at 6am which was fine since I hadn't slept much for two days. I was so sure something awful was going to happen to this batch of birds. It's been 5 years since I had Sebastapol geese and I was a little anxious to get them. The man stayed in bed this time while I went to get them and when I got back I woke up each of the girls by putting the peeping box next to their sleeping heads. Needless to say there was a stampede coming down the stairs to the kitchen where I was trying to give them their first drink of water. I had lots of help and the man decided there wasn't any sense in trying to sleep through that. They are beautiful birds and already I think I have picked out one of the male Sebastapols.

Many hands, light and happy work.

Remember the chicken with the broken, bleeding toenail that ended up in the house watching TV with The Man? Her name is Sadie Hawk-ins (She has a predatory look a lot like an eagle). She is at it again. This time with a little trick she learned all on her own. It's really kinda cute and she seems to love doing it. If I raise my arm up and pat it with my other hand she jumps up and sits there like some overgrown parrot. After checking out my clothes for any little crumbs that may be lingering there she actually settles down and perches. She likes to ride around the place like that and if I am not walking she will fall asleep. She is quite comfortable and it's her only trick....so far. She is way too smart for a chicken so I have to wonder what's up with that.

My last blog I wrote about trying to grow sweet potatoes this year. I made the assumption that sweet potatoes have very long vines that need to grow up something. However I can't find a thing on the web saying that is so. So if some of you southern sweet potato growers have that information drop me a line. Maybe the vines aren't as long as I thought. I will be trying Georgia Jets because of the shorter season. In the mean time I am in the midst of setting up my regular potato "pots" and growing three kinds. A purple potato called "purple majesty" a red "Chieftain" and my favorite "Yukon Gold". I will be growing a lot more of them this year not just because they taste better but also because I know there are no chemicals on them. Potatoes are on the list of one of the 10 dirtiest foods you can buy (unless its organic). No pun intended. You can also cook them so many ways that they never get boring.

Here is a question for you readers out there. Lately in view of recent events and with the specter of a food shortage, higher prices etc., (which I have already been noticing)  I have been wondering, what do other people store up in their pantries for that rainy day? Living on an island you have to sort of think about what you would do in the event of a catastrophe. You could be cut off from supplies for a while. And that includes animal food. Click on the comments button at the bottom of this page and shoot me a list of your favorites. Flour, rice, and beans seem to always be on that list. The Man suggested stocking up on lids for my canning jars. I thought that was a good idea. They are sometimes harder to get during canning season. So what good suggestions do you have?

Fifteen Days and Counting

Photo from Metzer Farms
www.metzerfarms.com

I'm talking about my order of Sebastapol geese and Khaki Campbell ducks. This time of year is always exciting especially when I have an order of birds coming via mail. It's kind of like waiting for Christmas or a new baby to be born. (Alright, so I am being Anthropomorphic)  Not at all like strolling into the farm co-op and buying new chicks. There is the preparation of arranging the nursery (brooding area) getting in the supplies, and looking ahead at what you need to do for when the little things grow up. Then you wait. Fortunately raising them is only a 3 or 4 month process as opposed to 18+ years, doesn't include labor pain or changing poopy diapers and satisfies my need to have babies around. I also don't have to worry about college funds:-). Right now I am in need of what I call the play pen.
This will be a fenced area off of the two current runs and coop area and will include doors from each run that I can open independently to allow birds from one or both runs access to a large grassy yard. It wont be as predator proof as the runs themselves because the birds wont be spending the night in it. Because I have predatory birds on my property it will be netted on top.(see Feb.12th post-Harbinger of Spring) Right now I have to be outside in the yard watching and listening  for hawks and eagles while my chickens are out in the yard. A play pen will allow all my birds access to grass and give me the opportunity to be doing other things without worry. If I am in the garden or otherwise working outside I can let them out to roam the property giving the play pen forage some needed rest. I will post photos of the new digs as we build it. Undoubtedly The Man will have some new fangled gadget that he will want to put on this. Can't wait to see what that will be. It's always a surprise. But then again,  maybe not.

I have decided to try and grow sweet potatoes this year and no I am not in Texas. I know we are not suppose to be able to grow them here but I have a plan. I am going to order slips from a seed company here in the North West that claims they have a variety that matures in 80-90 days. Using paper pots made by yours truly, (see last weeks blog) I am going to start them indoors. Then using the same technique I used for growing potatoes last year I will plant the started vines in the garden, pot and all when it warms up some. (I may rip off the bottom of the paper pot before planting). What I did last year for regular potatoes was create raised beds with chicken wire and straw. (See photo) To do this you take a length of chicken wire that will make a circle about two feet wide and wire it together to form a bottomless basket. Place the basket on the ground where you intend to grow the potatoes and pile good well draining composty soil mixed with bone meal in a hill in the center. Start lining the inside of the walls with straw pulling the soil up against the straw as you go and refilling the center as you need more soil until what you have is a wire pot with a straw liner and soil inside.This worked really great last year with my regular potatoes and when I was done with the pots the soil and decomposing straw made lovely friable soil for the garden bed. The only thing I did different was I dug a hole in the native soil the same size as the wire "pot" so there was more depth, put down a layer of good yummy soil and then planted the seed potatoes covering them with another layer of good soil. As they grew I kept adding straw and soil until the pot was fully line and filled in with soil. Each one of these "pots" yielded 15 to 20 lbs. of the best tasting taters I have ever had! But back to the sweet potatoes. They will need a trellis to climb and although I would like to grow them on the wire fencing the deer would just eat them. So I would rather tease and tantalize the little #$%&@  and keep them just out of reach. Using a wooden spacer fastened to the fence post I will put up another piece of wire fencing just out of reach of their cute little noses and grow the vines on that. Now that's the plan. We will see if it works. With the use of a dark mulch to warm up the soil I am hoping for the best.

Last but not least I want to introduce the latest member to our flock. Her name is Sophie and she is a white Silkie hen. She is integrating nicely and has learned quickly that when I call the flock to go in for the night she and the other two silkies can just wait outside the gate (instead of going in) and they will get special treats. Now all three beg like dogs for their share of the nightly scratch served separately. Perhaps they would like it on a silver platter with their tea?

The Frustrated Gardener or (What to do on a snowy day in Spring?)

Alright, maybe it isn't really spring but I have been trying to push it. I have even been out in the garden weeding and cleaning it up and just trying to get ready for when I can really do something serious there. So today? What to do? Make paper pots for starting seeds. Really very easy.

First find a can of something with a diameter the size you want to make your pots. It shouldn't be more that about six inches since that would probably be more of a challenge than you want to deal with. In fact if you need six inch pots use the bottom half of a paper half gallon milk container with the top cut off.

 My favorite size can was a can of pineapple. Take one sheet of newspaper and lay it flat on a table. Don't unfold it.  Fold it in half again length wise so it is about 5 inches wide and 30 or so inches long. Take your can and set it on the paper so there is about 1 1/2 inches of paper hanging over the bottom. Roll the paper up jelly roll style around the can until the paper forms a tube. Tape it together to hold it. Fold the overlap over the bottom to form a pot and dampen the paper. Set the can upright and push down on the paper bottom to get a good crease. Now you can either slip the paper pot off the can or leave it on until it drys.  When dry, fill with potting soil and plant your seeds. Make sure you set your pots in a water proof tray so you can water them without ruining your window sills or where ever you have them setting. When your plants are ready for the garden, just plant them paper and all. It will decompose and add to the compost of your soil. You can open up the bottom of the pot if you want to just to give your plant easier access.

So I am sitting here watching the snow come down and thinking maybe I should go start a new jar of sprouts. At this time of year it is the closest thing to having fresh produce as I can think of since I don't have a greenhouse. Simple to do too if you have a wide mouth canning jar. Make sure to sterilize the jar. You can get the sprouting seeds in the bulk food section of many grocery stores or your local food co-op. Soak 1 1/2 Tbls. of seed in water over night. Drain the next day and let them sprout in your window. Just make sure you rinse them 3-4 times a day to keep them healthy to eat. They will take about 5 days to grow. You can get a screened jar lid from your co-op store or just use a paper towel rubber banded to the rim of the jar between rinses to keep dust out. When they have reached good size you will want to dump them into a big bowl of water and skim off the hulls and unsprouted seed.

Maybe next year I can convince the man to build me a greenhouse.

Harbinger Of Spring

Beware the eyes of ...... POTATOES! Yes the spuds in my garage are growing eyes. Looking for fertile ground in which to grow their offspring. I can't wait. The potatoes I got out of the garden last year were the best I have ever tasted and I knew there were no chemicals on them. The farm co-op had potatoes already so I bought mine. Last year I waited and had to take what they had. This year I bought Yukon Gold, Purple Majesty, and Chieftain (buttery gold, purple, and red potatoes respectively). I can taste them already.


Another sign of spring? Apparently the first three months of the year we have a type of  hawk (a small one fortunately) that spends time in this neck of the woods. We had a very close call with one yesterday. I happened to look out of my kitchen window as I so often do to check on my girls, just in time to see a small hawk take down my little 1 1/2 lb. bantam rooster. I don't think I have moved that fast since my kids were tiny and in trouble. I was out the door, across the deck, and to the edge of the property in a flash. That nasty little bird was dragging my poor boy across the ground in an attempt to get his "dinner" away from the screaming, crazy, WILD thing coming at him. It left without its meal and I picked up what I thought was going to be a very dead rooster bleeding and in shock. Needless to say he ended up in the house where I cleaned his wounds and kept him warm until he regained his composure and his balance. He wasn't walking too good. Kept falling on his face. After spreading a towel out we propped him up with rolled towels on one of the kids beds. And carefully fed him water with a medicine dropper. Would you believe that tough little guy was outside bossing his ladies around an hour later? He does have some battle scars though. He is missing quite a few feathers at the base of his tail and his comb and wattles are bruised and bloody. (you can click on the pictures for a closer view) I think I will keep the flock closer to the house for a few months and not let them out of the run unless I am with them in the garden. That will make them mad at me but better than being bird food.

So the last post I was about to make a prime rib roasted in Kosher salt for Candlemas. Well it turned out so yummy that I am doing it for Valentines day. I even got feed back from a parent of one of the kids friends that was here for that meal. Guess she went home raving about it. The next roast is almost twice the size. It is really very easy to do. Especially if you have an oven with a meat probe that keeps track of the internal temperature. My family likes beef rare. So I cook it to an internal temperature of  125 degrees then take it out and let it sit for 20 or 30 minutes with a piece of foil over it and a tea towel. It keeps cooking, sets the juices and comes out perfect. 135 is medium rare. Here is how its done.
Buy a prime rib that has had the bones cut off and re-tied back onto the roast. Set the probe in the roast according to manufactures directions. (If you don't have a probe you will have to use a meat thermometer near the end). Using a pan that is at least 3 to 4 inches deep pour a thick layer (1 to 2 inches) of course Kosher salt (not table salt) and set roast bone side down in it gently seating it into the salt. Pour lots of salt over the roast building up the sides until the meat is completely covered. You can use a little water sprinkled on the salt to help pack the salt on. Just cover the roast kind of like burying your spouse or significant other in the sand. (ha)! Roast at 325 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes per pound or until your thermometer registers the correct temperature.

This sounds like a really scary recipe to try especially with such an expensive cut of meat but it is really easy and really yummy. There are a lot of recipes on allrecipes.com/ Just search salt roasted or salt encrusted prime rib. Some cook it longer at a lower temperature and some higher for a shorter time. Some even season the roast before burying it with things such as Lipton onion soup mix. I wont go there but I did season mine with an apple wood smoked salt and some fresh ground pepper. So here are some pics of my roast. YUM!

Make sure you take all the salt off before slicing and serving. Really worth a try so DO IT!
P.S-Did you know you can click on any of these pictures to see them larger? Let me know how yours turns out.
Next post I will be making pots for seed starts. I want a little jump on the tomato season this year.