Oh My Goodness- That Snow is Deep

When my husband left for work this morning he told me to have a good day with the dog because there was no way my car was going to make it down the driveway. He has a four-wheel drive GMC Sierra and it sits fairly high. Within ten minutes I couldn't even see his tracks where he walked to the machine shed where we park and after daylight I looked out the kitchen window and said, "What driveway?" Even the dog got buried trying to get through it. I thought I was going to have to dig her out.

At chore time I finally ventured out and shoveled off the porch and then used that big snow shovel to go around the house as if it was a ski pole and found I was right in spite of the hubby stating the heater vent pipes (intake and exhaust) did not need shoveled out because he did just two weeks ago. That should have been my first clue it needed it. It had about a foot of snow over it. The exhaust pipe sending out warm air had actually made a small path, as it were, for the fumes to get out, but the intake pipe had snow caked inside. It shoveled it out all the way to the ground and a fair bit around it and then took the ends off and cleared all the snow out. This is something everyone should check every time it snows. Carbon monoxide will build up inside your home if that exhaust pipe is plugged and the heater will malfunction if the intake is blocked. Other than the fact that the CO can kill you if you don't get it cleared, it can be very expensive to get your furnace repaired from that blocked intake pipe. I couldn't even get around to the side where the dryer vents and I asked my husband when he got home if he would plow a trail so I can. I don't need that blocked up or frozen shut either. It can start a fire from lint that blows out that pipe if it gets plugged and too hot. Check that often also. It can ruin your dryer.

Now to the part where he got home. Sometimes a wife just knows her husband will try, in spite of the obvious obstruction to the driveway, to drive through it. I saw him coming and just told the dog to stand back out of the way with me (we have a long driveway but she would have charged out there to greet him). I waved my arms and shook my head 'no' and then all I could do was hang my head and laugh. He tried to come up the driveway and barely got the length of the truck before it refused to move another inch. He tried to, which means it is stuck really bad. He finally gave up and tried to walk the rest of the way. Now, he is fairly tall, six-one or so, and he about couldn't make it. It went up to his backside. He struggled mightily and laughed a lot, because I was laughing at him and was sort of contagious at that point.The dog in all her Labradorean exuberance tried to get to him and fell so far down I couldn't even see her tail. I don't know how she managed to get out of that drift but she did right about the time he got to her to dig her out with his hands.

Below are some pictures!

                                    That sure is a lot of snow on the barn roof. I hope it holds up.

     There is an LP tank under there somewhere. We're running out of room to put all this snow!

                                    I don't think my farm truck is moving out of the shed until spring.

                                       Yup, he just had to try to get through all that snow.Oops!

THINK SPRING - PLEASE!!!!

Seed Catalogs

With all the freezing cold outside (and trust me; it is freezing cold outside) the thing that helps save my sanity is the flood of seed catalogs I get every winter. (Odd considering I usually hate junk mail.)

The good old fashioned seed catalogs 1) Remind me what growing things look like, as opposed to all the white frozen stuff around me. 2) Causes me to think about experimenting with varieties of vegetables I haven't tried before. 3) Offer help with problems I have growing things.

Case in point: a good many of my neighbors seem to be able to grow strawberries and blueberries. I have spent a shameful amount of money trying to do likewise to no avail. I have yet to harvest a single berry; just a lot of dead plants. (hangs head in shame)

We received a nice big seed catalog from the Jung Seed Company (No, I am not affiliated with them in any way!) and my husband got to it first. He suddenly says, "Hey, I think I found your problem." (This could cover so many things!) I raised an eyebrow. "What?" He smiled. "Your dead blueberries," he elaborated, and handed me the catalog. 

Now, aside from the numerous seeds and plants offered in seed catalogs, they also offer tidbits about why one might be having a particular problem and of course the products they sell to remedy the situation. We had our farm soil tested last year and they all had pretty much the same result: our soil is neutral, as in, not acidic at all, especially around where I plant our food. Blueberries need acidic soil to grow. Well, I'll be. I have some work to do this spring and I will be getting the suggested products either from the catalog or locally if I can find it. Quite frankly, plants seldom survive the journey from any company to our farm anyway (like sweet potatoes-ahhh!), but the seeds and other products do well and if not available locally, I will go to the catalogs.

                                                   

                                    

            Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

             Stock Photo - image ID: 10090261

What I have started is my own gardening book of sorts and you can too. Peruse the catalogs for the types of produce, flowers, bushes, trees, etcetera, you prefer and see if they have growing tips and troubleshooting tidbits. Cut them out of the catalog and put them in a binder by category. That way you can find them easily when you run into something with your plants. This is fairly inexpensive –you still will need a binder and something on which to collect the articles. Print off articles you may find online or cut out agricultural articles in magazines and trade newspapers (I have done this for animal health) and add them to your binder. You can also obtain leaflets from your state's university extension service. It is way less expensive than buying an entire book, or books, just for one or two problems and you have what you need at your fingertips. 

Now, if someone could just help me with those strawberries! 

Just Like Zikan's

There is no getting around it; when you live out in the country, as I do, when you go shopping, you get enough to last a while. There is a store in a spot in the road town nearby however, and though it's not a big box store that can get the super low prices, you can still completely survive using it.

The other night my husband was looking for a can of olives. I have a habit of buying extra items when I go grocery shopping, especially baking ingredients since he also has a huge sweet tooth. This led to his using the at-a-glance method when he looks for anything in the cabinets because he can just declare it not there and I'll find it, which I did. I reached in behind all the baking supplies and pulled out the can. "Just like Zikan's!" I said. He laughed.

What is Zikan's? Think of the general store in all the old westerns you ever saw. It is jokingly (and lovingly) referred to as the Catawba Mall. They sell everything you could possibly need. In one side is clothing, chore boots, baby clothes and items, cloth, sewing notions, cleaning supplies, groceries, even a small old fashioned meat counter. The other side and the basement has everything else: fan belts, small appliances such as radios, coffee makers, waffle irons and the like, dishes, glassware, cutlery, utinsels, pots and pans, paint, plumbing and electrical supplies, sporting goods, bicycles, stove pipe, mops, brooms, buckets, nuts, bolts, nails, tools, garden supplies, fans, small farm supplies like fence wire and insulators, chicken feeders and waterers, even hunting and fishing licenses and gear. There is not much this place doesn't carry and has for more years than I've been here. Considering how much they have, the building is not that large, so they stock things in front of and on top of other items. All you have to do is ask and they can reach, unseeing, into a pile and pull it out. Very few times I've gone in there and they were out of something or didn't carry it at all. Thus the joke, "See, just like Zikan's!"

I'll tell you what; you can shop the Wall-Marts of the world all you want, but if you really want that hard to find, unique item, you need a store like Zikan's.

Boy is it Wintertime!

Living in the country the way I do one really knows it when winter hits, whether the calendar agrees or not. This morning it was -17 when I got up, and the wind is blowing. There are several inches of snow that has accumulated over the week out there and somewhere in the middle of it is at least a quarter-inch of ice. It froze the barn door shut. Now that will be a trick getting open!

As I might have mentioned, I work off the farm as well as on the farm and I have to drive thirty miles to get there (sixty round trip). Let me tell you it is no fun driving on the ice. Even though I am going slow (really slow) my car with brand new tires does not like to stop and it is all over the lane. The wind was so hard the other day it created high drifts in our driveway that I had to just stomp on the gas to get through because I knew, unfortunately from experience, that if I went slow or stopped, my car would be there until the tractor dragged it out of the drift. I'd hate to think how high those drifts would have been had that driveway not been plowed out the day before.

With weather like this it makes me appreciate that I have put up so much food from my garden. Homemade soup made from ingredients I put up seems to taste better than commercially canned soup, but then I really don't care for commercially canned soup anyway. Baking bread and pie also helps to warm the house and fills the air with delicious smells.

It seems like a good day to work on my book or read one. I have also done quilting and worked on projects for Christmas gifts during winter months, and I have discovered a lot of people around here do that too. The embroidery and knit projects done over the winter is often offered up for sale at the farmer's market come spring and summer. I have seen some fantastic works for sale and when I asked when they had time to do them, they said over the winter when they didn't want to go outside, except to feed the animals of course.

What are you doing this winter to stay warm and occupied?

Canning, Canning and More Canning!

It's a good thing I have an actual three days off this weekend. I have a lot of canning to do. Last Sunday we got a dozen jars of Bread and Butter pickles made and they are already delicious! I went out today to pick some more cucumbers and found one I missed last time..oops! The squash that ate Wisconsin is still growing and I think Chaos can see it grow because she growls at it now. I had to do a mercy killing of some of the stalks just so I could find the squash to pick it, but the butternut ones are growing through (and over) the cucumber fence and the watermelons, but then I have cucumbers and watermelons in the squash and and watermelons also on the cucumber fence. What a mixture! Thought I'd check on the tomatoes to see if I had any ripe yet, as they got a very slow start, but it looks like they might be taking off now so I'll keep my fingers crossed that we won't get a frost. We usually do about this time of year. I stumbled upon the carrots that I didn't realize needed dug, but I dug them in a hurry when I saw how large they were. No wonder the Rabbits are after them. I have included some shots below of the produce.

             Look at the size of those carrots!  I do think I should plant them further apart next year though.

                          Basket of goodies: cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions. I need to dig those next.

I guess I missed this one. Ummmm... how am I going to get that out of there? Hubby says to just pull it. It skinned it up some, but it came out. Going to make some more pickles out of this.

Deadly Nightshade

Well, I want you to get a good look at the plant below:

Chances are if you have some ground that has been neglected or ignored, such as an old garden spot, or a field you don't normally mow anyway, it's there. This plant is called nightshade (it gets berries on it from the blooms) and it is extremely toxic. The berries start out green and then then turn black. Several years ago when we lived in Missouri we lost a couple cows and when we opened their mouths to see if they ate something (before we did a dreaded necropsy/autopsy by actually opening them up) we found several leaves of nightshade in their mouths. It only takes a few leaves and the berries are worse. Last year I had several sheep die on me and one I saw dying. It was very sad to watch but he went so fast I didn't have time to call a vet (not that I have ever heard of a cure for nightshade poisoning). My son asked me if I had checked the pen for nightshade, something he knew was there growing around the silos but I didn't. We just barricaded them to keep the sheep from getting behind the silos, but they jumped it and went in anyway. I found the half-eaten plants and knew he was right.

When you mow your rural lot or yard or even weed your garden (I found some in mine this year for the first time), before you get the bright idea to be helpful to the farmer next door and feed the clippings to his animals rather than composting, please ask their permission first. If you see nightshade on your lot, don't give it to them, and in fact please do pull it up by the root- using gloves you will dispose of. You'll notice I am touching this one and I thought afterward how stupid that was and immediately washed my hands. If they mature and go to berries, the birds will plant them for you. If you burn, don't be anywhere near the smoke (or your pets) as this is also toxic. I'm not sure of the toxicity to humans, but I wouldn't chance it. By the way, nightshade is related to the tomato plant, so don't give that to them either.

Thank you from a farmer!!

Chicken Butchering Time

If you don't know where your food comes from, really, then you probably don't want to read this post. If you do, and you understand what a small family farm is about, then go ahead. This is for you!

I got baby chickens in May specifically for butchering. I keep seeing on the packages in the store that the chicken has been 'enhanced with a ___% solution' (fill in the blank). For what?  To fatten it up and make you think you're getting more than you are, because when you cook it, all that 'enhancement' cooks out and you have a much smaller piece than you started with. And, you don't know what is  in that 'solution' other than water (a lot of water) and a lot of salt. I don't mind raising my own meat. I have a cow in a pen right now just to get butchered and if I figure out where to put a pig, I'll get one of those too. Yes, it is expensive, but I know what went into it so I feel safe eating it and I'm not paying for any extra 'enhancements' (thinking of pink slime here).

Yesterday was time to butcher those chickens. I got out my turkey fryer (a gas burner on a stand with a tall aluminum pot) and a large tub with a lot of ice. I am the chicken wrangler, and my husband is the chicken slayer. I caught them and he tied them upside down and then beheaded them. If you don't tie them somewhere, they will fly, headless, all over the place and make an even bigger mess. It is very surreal. We had water boiling in the turkey fryer to scald the chickens. Holding them by the feet we dunked them in the boiling water a couple seconds and then the feathers came off pretty well. Rinse with the water hose and remove the guts, rinse again and remove the feet and toss them into the tub of ice water. We took them into our butchering room, a/k/a the old milk house, with the stainless table (all cleaned with bleach, I assure you) and then cut them up and put them into a fresh tub of icy bleach water. Rinse again to get rid of the bleach and then bag it up and freeze it. Why the bleach? To kill any salmonella. We're pretty particular about that. Aren't you? 

Sequence of the chickens' lives:

 

Baby chicks arrive very hungry. 

                                                          Yep, same chickens, all grown up.

                                                       Finished product, ready to freeze and eat.

Hey, at least I didn't take pictures of us killing, cleaning, and cutting them up!

 

 

Silly Bulls and Rascal Rabits

The funniest thing this morning... I went to the barn to do the chores and I found the silly bull in the water tank! I guess he needed to cool his heels a while. We have a set of head locks out there too. Those are where the cows stick their heads to get to the feed trough and they can be set to lock so that the cattle can be vaccinated or sorted, (or castrated- but he got away when we did the other bulls), or any other assorted things one would need the cow to stay in one place for. Their heads can't come out when in the locked position but the rest of them sure can move. We didn't have it set to lock but we had the adjuster bars in it (so that smaller cattle can be caught) and he somehow got his head in it and I like to have not been able to get him out. Sometimes you can say, "I bet he won't do that again," and sometimes not. Time will tell with him. He doesn't learn all that well, so I imagine I will be dislodging him again the next time he decides cool off in his water tank.

After all the rain we had this spring and summer, most of my garden had to be replanted and every time it rains the weeds grow like it's raining Miracle Grow. My strawberries are a lost cause (one plant survived) and the sweet potatoes were DOA except for three and they died shortly after planting. I don't get it. I have run that tiller more this year than any other and the season is just getting started, mostly because of the replanting, but I usually can get by with only a couple rounds of the tiller and I've already been through there four times this year. I had a nice stand of peas the last time I tilled it; the operative word here being 'had'. Last winter we had rabbits for the first time since we moved here in 1998. I suppose we've had some, we just didn't see them; but this year they are really making their presence known. They get on the porch via high steps, and climb some other ones to get onto our deck and look through the glass doors taunting our poor dog. They ate the strings off of about ten bales of grade A alfalfa hay in the machine shed and of course left 'gifts' everywhere. I told my husband he needed to nip it in the bud and get a small gave permit and then go hunting. He said they weren't hurting anything other than the taunting of the dog of course. I had visions of my garden being nibbled to the ground. Yep, my nice stand of sweet, sugar snap peas are all but gone. They are working on the lettuce and the green beans now.

Just wait until small game season rolls around again. I'll get the permit. Can you say hasenpfeffer?

Mystery Weeds!

I have mentioned that someone has to walk the fence daily to make sure it is still attached and working since deer seem to like tearing it down and sometimes those cows just don't care if they get shocked. I went around a few weeks ago and sprayed underneath the fence to kill off any weeds and grass that could grow into the wire and ground it, preventing the electricity from finishing the circuit. There were areas I couldn't spray because they were too close to water or just plain standing in water (we've had a lot of rain). Trees got in the way of the tractor too. Imagine that; trees don't just move so the tractor can get through!

I have come across some wild strawberry plants growing out there that produce all plant and almost no berry. Odd that I can't even get tame strawberries to grow in my garden but wild ones are taking over the woods and cow pasture. There are some other weeds growing too and I had to look them up to make sure they weren't really 'weed' weeds. I swear we didn't plant them. Turns out it's wild hemp, also known as a variety of pig weed, and just so you know, the ingredient that causes one to get high in the real thing, THC, is not in hemp, so trespassers beware. We won't take it lightly if you come on to our land looking for something that isn't there. Sure looks like the real thing though. What do you think?

                                                   Wild Strawberries and the 'Mystery Weed'

                                         I swear it really is wild hemp or pig weed. Looks real though.