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What's New on the Farmette!
It's time for an update on my wee farm. First, it has a name. Mike & Faith FARMette. Or for shorter MF FARMett. Nudge nudge, wink, wink"
First the new CHICKENS! As most of you know I lost most of my flock to predators last fall. I trapped 2 huge raccoons, 2 smaller ones, 2 big possums, and one nasty chicken eating feral cat.
Bastids. Still pisses me off. We added 5 feet of height to the run fencing, a latching door on the old coop. We only had the 3 left, and BIDEN (the whitest chicken ever) just died this week .of old age. They also have a new chicken house. 8x10, commercial nest boxes (no more buckets) and MyMike built a roomy roost.
But HURRAY it's chick season! Added 5 Auracana (blue egg layers), 5 Golden Comets, 2 Barred Rocks, 3 Black Sex Links (or Black Star), and 5 Golden Laced Wyandettes. Oh and a English Game Hen (really petit eggs) and a Ameracauna/Japenese Bantam ROOSTER.
All are doing very well, growing into real chickens really fast. Another month and the eggs should start a comin'!
I hope as time passes, if the Roo does his rooster duty, my flock will be self sustaining.
The newest hens are what are called dual purpose birds. If it turns out that 20 full grown chickens are too many, well, then, ummmm Chicken Dinner Deluxe.
I had a Turken that was sold to me as a hen, but - Surprise, Surprise, it was a crow-less rooster. Or it was a really aggressive lesbian hen. Pecked the bejesus out of the little game hen (her back feathers need to grow back). When I let the young "uns into the run, the damn thing went after them with evil intent. But they were just too fast for the necked neck demon bird.
I was working on behavior mod with it, but then" back to that in a second.
We also added a Rabbitry. I bought a breeding trio. One buck, black as night (for now). He is called a tri-color because through the seasons his fur will change hue. And 2 breeding does. One came preggers but due to my inexperience her kits were "born on the wire" and they died.
So the rabbits names are Gaia (Earth Mother) Maia (Goddess of Spring) and Lempo (Finnish God of Frenzied Sex; you can imagine why). FUNNY SIDE NOTE: Rabbit bucks have sex for 30 seconds then fall over in a faint (anybody you know?), then get up and smoke a cigarette and go again. Well, mostly they just get a deep drink and go again, but hey, literary license.
So Gaia (btw the mom of Maia) is at day 29. She's made a nice little den in her nest box, but hasn't started pulling her tummy fur yet. So I'm waiting for her to "kindle". INSTANT UPDATE! Eight kits were born on April 17th! All healthy and Mom is doin' her duty by "em.
Which brings me back to the EVIL Turken. Every few days I move the bunnies to a playpen in the grass, with sun and shade for relaxation and stretchy room.
First I have to wrangle the dogs inside. They are OK with the chickens, but the rabbits are totally "prey" animals and Dooley and Lady go crazy when the buns are free.
Anyhoo, Gaia (pregnant 3 weeks) had her day in the Sun and Fresh Grass. That DAMN turken jumped into the playpen and started to attack her. My PREGNANT doe! The Bastid!
Running to the play pen trying to pull it off, he farkin' raked me with his/her feet.
Grabbed that suckers body in my left arm, and it's neck in my right hand. KA TWIST!
Roasted it up two days later (ya gotta let "em age). Fed it to the dogs. Glad to see it gone.
Peace descended on MF FARMette.
Now to the gardens:
Got the potatoes in before Valentine's. Over 30 plants. Should yield about 5 #'s per plant. A month later the onions went in between the rows.
I've already pulled some unbelievable "new" potatoes oh soooo yummy! Most of the potato plants have begun to flower. Did ya know that you should wait until the plants die back, wait another week for the skin to get set before you pull "em? Yeah, me neither.
Meanwhile, the new potatoes are going to be et. Period.
The young chickens think it's damn skippy to jump up on the Potato & Onion Patch fence and root around in the patch. ARRGH! So I made some water bottle shakers. I put in some dried beans (from last winters harvest) in and made very noisy maracas. First you have to shake them angrily, then toss them in the general directions of the garden, and hoo boy, they scatter.
They stay out of the garden I call: Big Vegge. Don't know why. They are chickens after all. Inscrutable.
Anyway, the Big Vegge is 10 ft x 40 ft. Cucumbers, radishes (on the second planting) more cucumbers, then spinach then watermelons (the personal size sort), then more spinach, then the Edemame Soy Beans (personal fave), then lettuce, Chinese cabbage, more lettuce and a row of beets.
I don't know why, but beets don't do well in my yard. Each season I plant a row in a different location. To no avail. Shite, I buy them canned from the Save-A-Lot. But I keep on tryin'.
Then there is a row of Tenderpick Beans, and a row of Roma II, just to fill in the space. Then comes the Yellow Crookneck, then more spinach.
What can I say, I love real spinach!
Gotta tell ya, tomatoes (no success in the past) at $3.49 a pound, I planted 24 "mater plants. Tucked them between leafy greens and squash.
On the end, planted 15 strawberry plants. These are perennials and will produce year after year.
On the fence line there are 12 more potato plants, and 20 Mammoth Sunflowers. Gonna have my own bird seed baby!
Then there is the herb garden. A little 3x6 spot. The same garden bed that got me started 7 years ago. I'm doing curry, and all the herbs I use for every day.
Oh, yeah, the "Kitchen Garden". Sweet Peas, Red & Green leaf lettuce, Bok Choy, real chives, cayenne peppers, green peppers, and 6 Roma Tomato plants. Oh, and eggplant. Slow grower so it's easy to forget.
Beans & Roses Garden (apologies to Axle Rose) has Tenderpick, Roma II, Kentucky Wonder Beans and Frijoles Negros. Another 8 tomato plants, and some romaine lettuce too.
As to the roses part. Hubby gives me rose plants for Valentines, and they live and thrive in the back footage of the bean garden. I get to clip roses throughout the summer months. Cheap glass vases from the Dollar Store hold them for my enjoyment.
The new dill seeds got lost in our Florida sand. So I gave up and bought a dill plant from Garden Gate Nursery. Ya oughtta go there. It's wonderful!
The orchard in the front acre has survived the weird winter. Except for one pomegranate. So I've got to get another for cross pollination. There are peaches (THREE) on the Florida King, already, the Turkey Fig, Persimmon, Nectarine, Fuyu Pear, and Gala Apple made it through and are thriving.
The Melrose Mandarin Orange has blossoms already as does the new Meyer Lemon.
I purchased "root stock" fruit trees last year and just have to remember to be patient. But it's hard. Easy to forget them, way out there in the front"
We fenced in the middle .75 acres to secure the chickens and keep out predators. I chose "goat" fence. Don't tell my hubby that we're adding milk goats in the future, it'll just freak him out.
We had our septic system and field re-done. And a fresh aquifer well is on the list. So long as MyMike has a J.O.B. we're going to make MF FARMette as sustainable as we can.
Plans to add solar panels (one at a time) is on the agenda.
If he gets laid off, well, then, we grow it all bigger.
Here is my mission statement:
A row for us, a row to share, a row to give away, a row to sell.
If you can get to the FARMette, you won't go hungry.
