Rain, Rain

Rain, rain...I won't say go away, because the pond is finally up. Overall, the weather has been very mild. We are now in the 50s and 60s, with some cold nights. However, I do wish there was at least little sunshine. I have had to put the lights on in the greenhouse. And I only have two double - dug beds in the garden. I was hoping to be a lot further along than that by now.

The rosemary is blooming and we have had a few days that the honeybees have been out trying to find something. They really are not in a very good mood this time of year...they seem a bit urgent. I even saw daffodils along side the road blooming. My daffodils have leaves up, but no blooms yet, thank goodness. I prefer to see them in the spring, not winter.

Although the pond is muddy now because of all the rain, I have the pleasure of seeing ducks. There are up to six on there, and of course the Blue Heron visits often too. The beaver is back at it, cutting down more trees. There are even a few logs floating on the pond. If he were a good beaver, he would help us cut down those cedar trees that are in the "pasture-to-be."

I guess I better go turn the greenhouse lights off now and hope the sun comes out tomorrow...

Chicken Update

The grab-bag of chickens we ordered in September are maturing nicely. We have three roosters in the freezer. We need to put at least two more there. (We had our first killing cone experience-it worked well for us.) The Barred Rock and Columbian Wyandotte are nice sized. Bruce wanted to keep them around for breeding purposes. I personally want them in the freezer for eating purposes. We shall see. Our multicolor (possibly a Salmon Faverolle) rooster is beautiful, but smaller. I thought we had Black Jersey hen, but it is a rooster. We won't eat him because he has something wrong with him. He had a tumor growth on his chest and his crowing is affected by it. He sounds like a car with a dying battery. We also have a loner, who I though was an "easter egg" hen. But, it crowed. Not sure if it is a dominent hen because of the loner status, or really is a rooster and just small.

I am so excited! Our little hens have started laying eggs. I have had four small ones, and of course, Penny's normal sized ones. We have dark ones and light ones. No white ones yet. I am wanting to order the rainbow laying pullets later in the spring for fun and that should really brighten up the egg basket.

But first, next week, in fact, we have 25 broilers coming. Little leghorns to put in the freezer in about four months. I have shut down the one side of the coop, so all the chickens will get used to only going in on one side. There was only two that roosted in there anyway. I will do one more final cleaning this weekend and buy a new heat bulb. At least these little guys will be all white and boring, so they won't have names to get attached to. I am hoping that they will be big enough before the snakes decide to wake up and come looking for them. It would be wonderful to have 30 chickens in the freezer. That will last us all year, along with the deer and rabbit, and occasional squirrel. That just leaves all the pressure for me to make sure the greenhouse and garden can keep up...great!

Clemson Extension Course

I am so excited. Oh, I hope I get to go. Clemson Extension is offiering a course on sustainable small farms and backyards. They are going to be discussing subjects such as beekeeping (hopefully I can recruit to ACBA), soil fertility, composting, livestock/forages, fruit and vegetable gardening, and marketing excess produce. It is a once-a-week course for six weeks. The only thing is I am not sure if I can come up with the registration fee. I have about four weeks, so hopefully it will work out.

Update 1

What's new at Lost Arrow since we last met? The family has finished planting 2 dwarf apple trees, 2 dwarf peach trees, 4 blueberries, 2 boysenberry and a thornless blackberry bush. We have ordered one nuc (bees) for spring. I would love to have more, but the finances are keeping us from expanding too quickly. Our roosters are finally crowing, just in time for them to butchered. We really did not have as many hens in the last bunch as I would have liked. We have 25 Leghorn broilers coming at the end of January to fill the freezer and maybe a few canning jars, late spring. I am still wanting to order some spring hens to keep the eggs fresh, especially with the low numbers of hens now. Right now, they are all free-ranging around the yard and all but one seems to find their way back to the coop by nightfall. I have a few seedlings up in the greenhouse. I am hoping to get those moved into my first intensive raised bed in a few weeks to have some early vegetables for us and maybe even for the market (not sure about that yet though). I am working on my second intensive bed, a few rows a day. I am hoping to get that done within a week or so and get some potatoes going pretty soon. The garlic I planted in September has come up since our weather has been so mild, so I got that bed weeded. I have been also doing a bit of wire brusing on the deck to get it ready for some new paint this spring. Since our weedeater was out of commission the end of last summer, some of the grass, especially around the house was a bit out of control, and I have been working on that with the hand shears a few minutes at a time. We have hooded megansers on our pond. If I pass by a window and see one, I have to get the binoculars and just watch them for a moment before continuing what I was doing. Even though it is only a couple of weeks into winter, I am thoroughly enjoying this winter and the preparations for spring.

Happy Now Year

No, it is not a typo...I am not going to dwell on the past year. I am not going to live for the future. I am going to focus on the now. What can I be enjoying in this season of my life, this moment in time? That is not to say that I will not plan for the future, or remember the past, but I will not ignore the now, as I can easily do.

I am loving the contrast of the cool temperatures and the bright sunny sky. I have been working on my intensive, double-dug beds for the garden. Since there was a wonderful rain a couple of weeks ago, the clay soil has been great to work with. I am, however, running out of compost...I guess it will be have to be straight rabbit manure soon. After the first couple of shovelfuls of clay, I am taking off my coat and pushing up my long sleeves, soaking up the vitamin D in the warmth of the sunshine. Sometimes I catch myself almost smiling in the joy of my labor. It is an odd feeling to enjoy much of anything in January, which makes it even more special.

Happy Now Year, Everyone!