Spring Break and Child Labor

Happy spring y'all!!! Every year around this time I question whether or not this whole homesteading thing is for me. Every winter I get to be lazy and sit around and read lots of books and knit stuff and be self indulgent. I usually put on a few extra pounds and enjoy doing so! Hmmmm, cheese. And then spring comes; usually it seems to happen over night and I'm never ready to get up off the couch and begin the long haul to harvest. In anticipation of my self imposed pre-spring apathy, Nik took a week off work to help me get the 'stead into shape. The kids also had week off.

We started the week with the arrival of 9 yards of dirt. Now when I look at 9 yards of dirt I think, oh crap that's gonna be a lot of work. When kids look at 9 yards of dirt they think, oh crap! I'm gonna build tunnels and caves and live in that mound for as long as mom'll let me! Which is what Josh, Jason, Stella and about 6 other neighbor kids did. Jason built this crazy awesome tunnel and cave in the center of the mound and proceeded to fill it with snacks, juices and sleeping paraphernalia. And every night he begged me to let him sleep in it. The kicker is that it rained a whole bunch and his boy cave became more of a mud room then the awesome chill zone that he had intended. Throughout the week I'd find random kids, mine and everybody else's, with no shirt or shoes on, wallowing in the mud pile. We're a dirty influence on those nice neighbor kids! Eventually we got all that nice dirt to where it needed to be, namely Nana's yard, to fill all the duck dug holes. We also created this neat little stream and some swales and berms to help direct the water instead of letting it constantly flood us.Whitney Houston (the goat, not the songstress) kept getting out of the Habitat and devouring our neighbors' beautiful food forest, so we had to rebuild about 200 feet of fencing. Before our help arrived, in-laws and kids, Nik and I spent a good two hours "discussing" how we should proceed to put the fence together. I had just finished with an especially witty quip about fencing etiquette when I slipped and fell into the biggest pile of duck poop, EVER! Unfortunalty, the way that I fell encouraged my face to land softly, in said duck poo. I'd rather not gross anyone out, but I have to admit that I ingested enough of my share of duck excrement. Ewww! Needless to say, Nik felt so bad that he let me have my way and the fence got done like I wanted it to. I like to call that feminine prowess.
Half way through the week Nana got an additional 9 yards of gravel to re-gravel the driveway with. I think that I must be innately lazy because looking at that huge pile of gravel and anticipating the work of spreading it, about made me soil myself. Fortunately, Nik and the kids are easy to bribe. The kids required money and Nik's request was adult in nature. Both easily granted! We had some help from my good friend Jess with the gravel but Josh was being such a butt that I think I spent the majority of the time chastising him. He's almost 13 and boy oh boy has he learned to complain! Not from me, I assure you; he probably picked up a few pointers from Nana. At one point I had to threaten to bury the boy up to his neck in compost in order for him to continue to shovel. Not that I would have done it, mind you, but I was tempted! At one point he took the time to research child labor laws and vigorously tried to convince me that I was unlawful in my direction of labor, with regards to him and his brethren. His point was so passionately argued that I consented to offer him a "working" wage, to be redeemed at the end of the week in the guise of a "reward". Their reward was a trip to Wunderland with enough money to see a movie, indulge in some sugary snacks and play the video games.

Because I have given up driving (I'm never ever going to drive again), we had to take the bus with all the kids. Oh man did I get us in over our heads! I often walk or take the bus with my own children and it's usually a pretty laid back experience. We each bring a book and money, each child accountable for themselves, under my direction. We invited the 5 kids that had helped so much during the week and each one of them had a little zip lock baggie containing the money he had earned in addition to bus fare. None of these kids had taken the bus before and they were all excited for the journey to begin. I felt like a mama goose walking her goslings to the water for the first time. It was idyllic, for all of about 10 seconds. One kid would go one way while another went the other, both into an oncoming car or rabid dog or off a cliff. 4 kids lost their bus money and I had to scrounge to find more. One kid tried to hide behind a tree as we herded them onto the bus, in the midst of a temper tantrum. Another tried to sit on a homeless man's lap while his buddy pulled the guys' grayish mustache. The one little guy that was just calming down from his tantrum mode asked an elderly lady if she was an "antique". All the while there's another of my little angels pulling the stop cord over and over and over. And then Nik starts singing "The wheels on the bus", loudly. All on the 8 minute ride into downtown Milwaukie.

    Needless to say, I don't think I'll be attempting this sort of excurs
ion again. The highlights include fights between boys, the mooning of buses, attempted run amuck-ness, picking gum up off the ground and trying to chew it, open viewing of highly intoxicated individuals followed by loudly worded questions. All in all, good times. What really matters is that all the kids had fun and I honestly hope they did, they all deserved it. In essence, spring is chaos, right?

Mushrooms and Green Tomatoes and a bit of Free Geek

What a busy week! A friend brought over 5 lbs. of chanterelle mushrooms that he had picked at the coast. We traded a medium sized frozen chicken and a dozen duck eggs for the 'shrooms. Good deal as we've all decided that we love the chantrelles! They're in the dryer now. We'll seal the dried mushrooms into pint sized jars and freeze for 2 days to kill anything that might still be alive after the drying process. I'm keepin' my fingers crossed!

I've been told over and over again to include some computer based learning in to our curriculum. I've been told that to know the zen of the computer is to know the path of the future. Well fine. After rebelling against technology for years (except for this fine blog! I don't even have a Facebook page) I decided to include some technology based lessons into our studies by volunteering at Free Geek. If y'all don't know what Free Geek is, find out! It's so super duper cool and we so love all the Geeks working and volunteering there. Here's a link to their website, research! http://www.freegeek.org/ We spent 4 hours dismantling disk drives and recycling the different bits and pieces, learning what each part looked like and what each piece did. We're doing the Adoption program at Free Geek; volunteer for 24 hours and earn a computer. Simple eh? And fun! Stella and I don't need a computer but Joshua and Jason are super stoked to be able to earn themselves a computer that they'll be able to use all by themselves a couple of hours a week. See, I'm progressive!
Until super recently, we were able to draw out the growing season and were eating pretty much every day from the garden. Though the last few days have been nothing but deluge and downpour, I'm afraid to take a photo of what it looks like now. This picture was taken just a week ago and look how healthy we are! How happy! I feel like I could write a book about all I've learned this year with the garden and the animals and although I didn't achieve what I sought to achieve, I did learn a lot. I feel we're on the right path and I wouldn't have traded all these ups and downs for a million dollars. Every death, I carry with me and every triumph, I wear on my sleeve. All in all, a good harvest season.

Tidings from around the homestead!

It's been such a busy month! The wildflowers have given way to the sunflowers and the chicks are getting so much bigger. We've also got some new additions to our duck flock.

I'm in the process of planning the Habitat barn and fenced areas. I'm so lost! I found a wonderful book called How To Build Animal Housing and I'm trying to decide which barn to build, how to build it, what materials I can salvage and how I'd like to see the Habitat divided. Ahhhh! I'd really appreciate any assistance anyone out there could offer with regard to my barn issue.

The Three Sisters Garden is growing wonderfully! Because we had such a funky start to our summer, the corn isn't as far along as I'd like, though I'm encouraged by the growth we've witnessed this last month.

And the Spiral Garden is growing wonders! The ducks have fresh grown lettuce in their ponds every day and we have never ending dinner salads. Unfortunately, the peas were a no-show (thanks, in part, to a certain gourmet chicken) and the artichoke has only yielded two tasty buds. All in all, I find myself really proud of our hard won garden.

We've also picked up 4 White Breasted turkeys. Although I realize they're primarily used for meat production, I'd like to see if we can extend their lifetimes and offer our dinner table a healthier alternative to traditionally raised turkeys. So far, these little guys are voracious, so we've taken to adding garden greens and fruit and vegetable table scraps to their meal regiment.

In addition to the new turkeys, we've also picked up 5 new duckies. Two Khaki Campbell's, two Runners and one Peking. They're maturing beautifully in a brooder in Nana's yard, right alongside Calvin, Cooper, Mrs. Quackers and Gretchen. At the time this photo was taken, Wanda had decided to raid the chickens meal and had abandoned her duck and goose buddies for a short time.

Wanda and Daily were the two little duckies that were found at a local school and have grown into beautiful female mallards. Like her brethren, Daily took flight and joined a flock of passing wild ducks and we've not seen her since. Wanda, on the other hand, has decided to remain as part of our family. But oh, how we miss our Daily!

Garden of Weedin'

Despite the July heat, the gardens' have just these last few weeks begun to flourish. Growing as things grow, within a week both the Spiral and Three Sister's gardens were overcome with weeds. Grasses and prickly things and spindly guys that try to pass themselves' off as vegetables. Four days labor and I'm really questioning why we've opted out of the Home Depot style of gardening and their indulgences on pesticides and weed killing chemicals.

Then while munching on some fresh kale, I look over at my beautiful partner, weeding the row next to mine and am reminded of just how blessed we are. Through the ache of straining knees and sun burned shoulders, I'm overjoyed. No matter how many gardens I've helped Mother Nature cultivate, each and every year I'm counted among the lucky few that find their peace playing in the dirt.

Strawberry jammin' season done!!!

Finally finished with the Strawberry Jam!!! Yay! The end tally was 6 flats of berries; 3 wide mouth quarts, 9 regular mouth pints, 3 wide mouth pints, 34 regular mouth 1/2 pints and 52 wide mouth 1/2 pint jars of finished jam; 13 steam burns, 5 consumed days (spread out over two weeks) and 4 1/2 hours spent at the sink, washing jars. I've already given away 9 jars to friends, neighbors and folks that just happened to make me happy. I think this will keep us in jam until the next Hood's harvest, in a year!

Saturday June 5, 2010

Today being the first nice day in what seems like forever, we predictably spent it outside working. No matter how much we do, there's always more to be done. Even as I sit here, mostly focused on not making an ass out of myself on my blog, I'm also cataloging tomorrows' labors. Buy straw and Timothy hay grass, rake out the "barn", do the goats hoofs, trim Meanie's (one of the 9 week old chicks - she's a real meanie!) wings, make some more laundry soap, lay mulch around the fruit trees, set up the outside area for the Freedom Rangers, bla bla bla bla...
But sometimes when I'm outside under the sun and barefoot in the mud, the peace comes and it's all quiet up in here. Just my hands working the soil and my eyes watching a barnyard drama or coercing one of my children into offering their assistance. Beautiful.
Daily and Wanda, our two young elementary educated (they were found at a school down the way) duckies spent their first day hangin' with the big kids. Unfortunately, they were all running around so fast, I couldn't get an adequate picture. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that Daily and Wanda were running away from Mrs. Quackers, Gretchen and Cooper. But every time Quackers, Gretchen and Coop would stop to gobble a morsel of grub, Wanda and Daily would turn around with a question in their eyes and wait patiently. Very entertaining!

And Iggy, oh Iggy. What a funny bird. His crow is actually quite quiet and demure in contrast with the other roosters I've had the pleasure of knowing. He enjoys testing out his voice whenever anyone new ventures into the yard. It seems that he may be a little unsure as to the mechanics of crowing as he actually clears his throat before a series of crows! He's the funniest little man I've ever met!

I also finished planting everything in the Spiral Garden. The Three Sisters' Garden has been done for some time though I believe the crows are actually eating all the seeds, so I'll have to think of something. The Spiral Garden took a little more time. I started a lot of the veggies in my home from seed and I ended up having more room then I expected in the Spiral Garden. So down the road we traveled, to Iggy's old home and The Recycled Gardeners themselves, Debbie and Rick Edlunds. As I've mentioned in a previous post, Debbie and Rick sell vegetable and fruit starts. In addition to selling us a wonderful variety of heirloom and not-so-heirloom starts, Debbie took us around their barn and introduced us to their folk. 72 laying hens, 2 large Nubian ladies, 3 Toulouse geese and two stunning Blue Merle Aussie's. Wow! And we got starts??!??!!? Now that's what I call a fruitful visit! Anyhow, back to the goods. The Spiral Garden now includes 16 tomato plants of which 12 varieties are identified, kale, squash, broccoli, 4 different kinds of lettuce, mesclun, 5 squashes, shelling peas and snap peas, spinach, tomatillos (anybody got any good recipes?), thyme, oregano, sweet basil, purple basil, 2 varieties of cabbage, cilantro, parsley, red onions, chives, sweet onions, sweet and hot peppers. I wonder if I've left anything out. And it's all crazy mixed! Nothing in rows or clustered. Each and every plant is placed according to it's size and light/water needs. This is my first garden that I didn't follow the rules with. Lets see how it works!

Quick compost tea and egg shell fertilizer

Some of my flowering plants needed a little boost of fertilizer and since I just started my worm bin, the most traditional way to make compost tea, and am at this point unable to harvest any worm castings or compost tea, I decided to try to make some tea using a different method. I froze some water in the bottom of a medium sized can and then, when completely frozen, I was able to put some holes in the bottom of the can with a nail and my favorite hammer.

Once the water in the can un-thawed, I filled it with fresh goat pellets, or poop, and placed it above a larger can. After spraying some fresh water into the poo can and letting it sit in the sun all day, I had some pretty awesome compost tea. Since it's super concentrated, I mixed it 10 to 1 with water. Easy, free and made by mother nature!

Did you know that ferns were once super abundant all of the world in dinosaur times? I decided to make a few of my ferns a special treat. Ferns love calcium and egg shells are 90% calcium carbonate. So I crushed 5 or 6 shells in a pitcher, filled with water and let sit for 24 hours. Then watered. Such happy ferns!

Egg shells, as most of us already know, are a great pesticide. They're also a great way to prevent root rot in a lot of plants.

One day in May

What a day. This Saturday in May is beautiful and full of life. Tomorrow is the day that I was first made a mother, 10 years ago, how fitting that it's also Mothers Day.

We dug our hands in the dirt and poured our sweat to sweeten the soil. What a beautiful day was today.

Fencing, firepits and rescue ducks

No matter how hard we work during the weekend, we always seem fall into bed on Sunday night, joyous and grateful. This weekend was no different; we fenced and tilled and raked and worked the soil and rebuilt the fire pit - it was too small - and worked until our backs ached and the sun was going down.

There was like, a million kids over this weekend. I think we had 8 spend the night and 10 during the day on Saturday. The only kid to offer his assistance to Nik was little 1 year old Leroy. Great job kid! You build a mean fire pit!

Much to my dismay, Nik even found time to mow the front yard. Oh how I dislike a mowed lawn! I mean, sure it's beautiful, but it does nothing to entice the goats to halt in their escape attempt if they ever fancy a trip off the property!

Starts, revamped!

Joshua and Jason have taken it upon themselves to be the purveyors of water for our new sprouts. Since we don't get enough natural light in the greenhouse, i.e. the kitchen, Nik decided we needed a nice sun light for our starting veggies. Thank you Nik!

Starts!

We've just finished starting our first round of seeds that we bought from Naomi's Organic Farm Supply in Sellwood. I love them! Naomi and family are just wonderful. We started zucchini, snap peas, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, 4 different lettuce', 3 types of onion, 3 eggplants, butternut squash, bush acorn squash, summer squash, Swiss chard, 3 types of corn (all three multi-colored), 3 different carrots, 2 spinach', beans, 4 tomatoes and 2 snow peas. For herbs we started 2 basil', chives, dill, rosemary, lavender, sage, oregano, thyme and cilantro.

What a relief to have them all started! This is the first step to a happy, healthy homestead.