Countless things have happened since the beginning of Summer. They have come slowly, so in a way, things are still as they've always been.
Animals
Recently, we've moved our goats and broilers (meat chickens) to new pens. Our goats are still visible from the front of the house, with a plentiful amount of trees to provide shade, but still a vast expanse of grasses, blackberry bushes, and thistles to graze on. I have to say that lugging their huge trailer over from one pen to the other is no easy task. We also had to move over their watering and food station to a flat piece of ground. The goats don't like to cooperate whilst moving either. If there is a way to be chaotic, they'll find the loopholes. Moving the trailer in, they'll try to escape or get under it which is very nerve-wracking. We don't want to squish them! Worse, they'll jump on you because they want food. They want food all the time! But when everything is done, and Shamrock and Daisy are situated in their new home, they can be so innocent and gentle. What do we do with them???
Now the chickens are a whole other story. Unlike the goats, we can't just move them in the daylight, because they need to be caught. They are much faster than us. So, we had to wait around until 9:30 p.m. to go into the blackberry bushes (where they like to reside) and pick them up one by one to drop them into the new pen. Sadly, that is the easiest way to move them. They used to sleep in the little hut we made for them, but the blackberry bush seems safer to them I guess. If they still did sleep in the hut, it would be much easier to move them with it. Now that they are in a pen with no blackberry bushes, I thought it would be easier to move them next time, but they've all decided to roost in a tree. At least it doesn't have thorns.
As for the rabbits, today we let them all out to frolic with the chickens. The pen is now sealed so none of them can escape or get eaten by a predator. The baby bunnies are much bigger than when I last blogged, but they can still squeeze through their cage, so we let them out in the end. Marshmallow and Hershey get along with the kids just fine, but Marshmallow and Cookie don't get along well; both being girls. We'll probably move the three chickens sharing the space with the rabbits to the second area, so they can have more privacy and space.
Plants
Where to start? Our raspberries have been planted, and they aren't supposed to produce any fruit on their first year, but we've had a few berries pop up every week. That must mean they're happy! Our blueberries have been producing a lot of berries, but the first many were eaten by birds, so we had to put up nets to keep them away from the birds.
In the hoophouse, the tomatoes are growing very fast. They are growing up the ropes (that my dad set up) at a really rapid pace. Since the days have become sweltering hot, we've been leaving the hoophouse doors open. Some animal took this as an opportunity to indulge on the tomatoes near the ground, so we've set up a mouse trap in hopes of catching it.
Growing in the garden beds are radishes, carrots, peppers, shiso, daikon, melons, gailon, and bok choi. The weeds have been taking over a lot of soil, so we have to be persistent in weeding. The gailon is beginning to bolt, and the bok choi should start bolting too, so we're harvesting those to put in soups and quiches. You can put pretty much anything in quiches. The layers are making about eight eggs a day, so we have found so many ways to use them. Dan tat (a Chinese dessert/ take on egg custard tarts), macarons, ice cream, quiche, and the good old-fashioned boiled/ fried eggs. Back to what's growing in the beds; the shiso is very bountiful. It's a minty-tasting plant, and has a yummy savory taste. It can be wrapped into sushi or blended to make pesto. Our melons are a little late in the season; a little larger than the size of a baseball. The carrots have been harvested; about six inches long. This is our first growing season, so we're testing out which crops grow best with the weather and the soil.
The fruit trees are full of leaves, so the watering system seems to be working fine. The mulberry tree has even come up with some fruit!
Along the eight foot fence, we're growing grapes and lavender to cover it up with some color. The bumble bees and honey bees are enjoying the lavender a lot! We also harvested the wheat next to the hoophouse. It's drying outside in bunches at the moment. We're not going to get much flour out of it this season, but it's all a learning experience for the future.
I think that covers the plants; no kale this year. We still have cans of it on the shelves. :P
Everything Else
Still in construction is our second hoophouse next to the first one, so we can grow more crops indoors next season. The pallets outside of the container have strawberries and basil growing on them, but other than that, we have not been using the container to grow anything else. It stores all the animals' feed, farm equipment, and the Dad's "man cave". Basically where all the storm-trooper stuff is, and where we test things like goat feces to check for worms. Hehe. (Thankfully the goats are very healthy, so no deworming needs to happen so far) The fields are finally being hayed, so like my mom says, "We'll finally be able to see our feet!"
Thanks for reading,
Lauren
Flowers
and honey
The
blackberry bushes that the chickens love to hang out in
Little
Vanilla
Tractor
and sunsets
White
Radishes