heal

Darn these knees! The swelling wont go away. I have so much to do. I have 3 trays of  72 tomato plants, plus another tray with 16 plants. I have squash plants, more broccoli, and green peppers. I have more beans to plant... That is not counting my herb garden!
.
Heal knees... HEAL!

organic tomatoes

plant us

I have finished the romaine lettuce planting, It was planted in waves. We are eating delicious green crispy lettuce every day. It is fabulous. My duckies love it as well. I highly suggest you plant this type of lettuce with your cold crops. It doesn't do well in the heat of the summer, but what an awesome spring harvest, Best part is, we harvest it and eat it within 30 minutes. My labor of love has been fruitful thus far. I even have more romaine seeds germinating! What a giver those seeds are. I have a couple of bowls, filled with dirt and poof, salad. Easy to plant, even if you grow it in containers and even if you thumbs are not green. I promise.

I hobbled up the hill and pulled some garlic for tonight's dinner. Penne pasta and some salad.

baby garlic and romaine

in the garlic patch

garlic freshly pulled up

My poor Deer has an udder giving her trouble. Rusty and I got her flowing last night. She was so cute, licking me while I milked her. The milk looks white, so she should be ok. Today I went in and stripped all the milk on that side again. My goodness she is a good milk producer! Oprah, her kid, is definitely not having feeding problems. Every time I pick her up she does a golden yellow stinky baby turd. Not unlike a human newborn's poo. I then immediately put her down, and out comes the pee. A good sign that she is getting milk. Just like a human baby. My kids gave me plenty of experience for dealing Deer's kids. I am not going to say anything about my udders. Nope, not going there.

My duckling are getting so big! They spend their days now outside in a duck-shangra-la. Swimming pool, shade tent, water, clover and grasses, and fresh greens. They have been upgraded from chick food to flock grower food. Big duckies.

The President Day chicks hang out with the ducks when it is time to eat. But certainly birds of a feather really do flock together. Both flocks are not really interested in the other.

free roaming chickens

that is washington, the cockerel, with his head up

pekin and indian runner ducklings

storm, a runner duck

cloud, a runner duck

duck pretending to be a swan

Evidently, Tractor Supply got some chicks mixed up. I bought 4 Brahma straight run chicks. They grew up and, well, have a look...

2 brahma chicks

2 brahma chicks with some mixed chicks

2 brahmas, and 1 not a brahma

I am not brahma. I am a cornish rock.

So. yes, this chicken was bought with the other brahmas chicks. It is a cornish rock, a chicken bred to be a meat chicken. It will eventually die from it's sheer size. The mortality rate is high, even for their short projected life span. They eat and grow rapidly. This particular chicken can barely walk it is so big. So you are looking at an organic meal. There is one already in the freezer, it was killed by meany pants the Rhode Island Red Roo, or a hawk, but if it was a hawk, why was it left for dead? I have to come out of denial and put the blame where it belongs...

murderer!

If my knees don't heal, I will have to break it to Earl that he will have to be my riding pony. 

Earl

Although, I am not too sure he would want to be a pony or have anybody ride him. I can tell by his body language. :-)  He is such a good boy. I adore him. How about a donkey cart Earl? We can get matching hats.

Well, I guess you might want to take a look at the bunnies, now that I am showing everybody. Here they are with their Momma, Tahoe. They are sweet little puff-balls! It is almost time for them to move out of Mom's house. They are all eating bunny food. Good job Tahoe. I know motherhood is not easy. But we do our best.

That is the farm update. Stay tuned for more... and there is more coming! Just wait and see.

aromatherapy

late spring garlic and wildflowers

wild wonderful ~crow

bad news

I notice on my blog stats, that if there is a debate going on on my facebook page my views here go way up. Not that I am a huge fan of debate. Debate sounds like an argument to me. I would rather talk to somebody. As in hear them, and hopefully, they make an attempt to hear me. In conversation, I am listening. I don't think you can communicate with somebody unless both people are listening, or at least one person is. Sometimes all you have to do is listen. Maybe that is all a person really needs, to be heard. That is a conversation as well.

You know, bad news does travels faster than the good. The television news stations always highlight the grittiest crime on their broadcast. Or perhaps a horrific accident. They don't open the news with "Church holds fundraiser for tornado victims in the South." It might get a spot later on in the broadcast, but not the highlights. If TV stations did, I am sure less people would be ready to tune in at 5:00 for details.

I like to see the positive in each day. I like to talk about it. So, here are some pictures of my herbs, and the start of my garden. Super boring. Super beautiful. Stay tune for more of the mundane!

parsley

basil

early crops

romaine, cabbage, broccoli

romaine, cabbage, broccoli

two rows of carrots

I am going to the market tomorrow! Whohoo!

to market to market jiggity-jig

~crow

near death

Ok maybe the title will get you in and perhaps FOLLOW MY BLOG! I put up a cute little sign and everything. I know you all are reading though, and I appreciate it very much. However, my ego needs the follows. My soul needs to write. Can't we all get along?
 :-)

So, here is the near death as promised. As I was taking the auto egg turner out of the incubator yesterday, I dropped an egg. A duck egg. I quickly put it back in the incubator and did a little duck prayer energy light thing for it. So, tonight, I wanted to candle my eggs before I went on *lock down* and I checked the broken egg. That ducky is still alive. Phew. Now I need to keep it alive. More light, energy and prayers sent. Yes, I can pray and blog. You just missed the pause, while I visualized pure light embracing the egg and saw a good healthy duckling.  No big mystery. You can ask for what you want. God doesn't always say yes. But the asking... that is hope. Hope is the belief that things will work out. Hope sustains the spirit in the worst of situations. Hope does not have to come near death. Hope can be in the same place at the same time with joy. Because joy is hope, only manifested.

I hear peeping in the eggs. It is early for that, but my neighbor Shirl told me his banties always hatched before the others. Shirl is right about many things. He is a simple man. Not stupid, but he lives a simple life. He grows a garden every year, he has chickens, and dogs. He likes to hunt. He cuts and stacks his own wood. He keeps his property neat and tidy. He likes to talk. He is a faithful Christian, He lost his wife recently to cancer. He has grown up children and grown up grandchildren. He is alone most days, working. I see him sometimes during the day and try to catch his eye and wave. I want him to know I appreciate him. I know I have talked about him before. Funny, or interesting at least, I have way much more in common with him than I do with most people.Yes, so the banties are coming early. Everybody else is due to hatch on Tuesday.They are the itty-bitty cream colored eggs pictured below. Shirl didn't think they were fertilized, but he told me to give them a try. I cant wait to see him tomorrow.

most of the chicken eggs were on the turner, the duck eggs I turned by hand

Speaking of chicks... the president day chicks have decided they are big enough to do some free-roaming. During the bad storms that hit the South and came up here in WV, I had moved them to the little red barn. I knew that their temporary housing would not withstand fierce winds. They were confused, but seemed to adjust to the new surroundings. I kept them in there yesterday, because I was not going to be home all day. I like to keep a close eye on outdoor newbies. So today Rusty and I were trying to gather them and bring them back to the temporary run. Well, catching that many chickens proved to be difficult. One panicked cheep-cheeping from one chick makes them all panic. So we decided to just open the door and lead them up. Well, they found some fresh green grass and deep dark moist earth and happily began free roaming. They all stayed nearby and found the coop when they wanted to rest. Like they had been doing this all along! Meany pants, the Rhode Island Red Rooster chased the little chicks. The littles were from a hatch after the Pres Day chicks. So we caught only the young-ins and are keeping them within the safety of the run. The President Day chicks are now free roamers! Tonight is the first night closed up in the coop. Rooster is in the barn perched above Deer the goat's stall. She can take him. The knee bone is connected to the leg bone. So. of course the coop was moved to where I thought was a better place for my chickens. I am always re-arranging things.

Rusty got his portable electric fencing up for the goats so we can pasture them. Of course my buck got out a few times. No brain no pain. But my poor deer's first experience was licking the pretty yellow plastic that held the electrified wire. Zap. In the mouth! It was hard for me to see. She tested it out one more time, then stayed away from it the rest of the afternoon. It was hard to coax her out of the pen to go to her stall. Poor girl. But she has her own place to sleep and I have her food and fresh water waiting for her in her stall. She even had a surprise carrot in there. That eased my guilt. I am pretty sure she is with kid. I am watching her milk bag, as that will be the only sign to tell me she is near ready to give birth. I am hoping for a doeling. One buck is enough. I want the gentleness of the females and of course I want goats milk!

Speaking of goats. I have been talking to a really nice lady who breeds myotonic goats. She just had a doeling born and sent me the photo. OMG cute. Big ears and white with very light cream spots. Her mom is a beauty and I fell in love instantly. I hope she sells her to me. She has several nanny goats that are kidding and she might keep one. I need to write her and see how she is doing. Her, as in her and the goat.

I was going to go to the market to sell plants this weekend, but I think I will give some of my plants another week to mature. The ones that are planted in the garden have found their "legs" and seem to have perked up. I have seeded a bunch more Summer crops and they should be peeking up through the dirt soon. They are now in my warm sun room, germinating. I need a greenhouse. I am going to have one. Watch and see. Oh and there is two rows of carrots planted by moi.

The baby bunnies are growing overnight. They are four different colors. I am unsure of what to call the colors with the exception of one true blue. I will post their pictures up for my rabbit friends to have a look. They are so darn cute. Tiny bunnies, tiny ears and noses and feet. They no longer look like mice. Yoda, their Dad got to spend late afternoon into evening in the chicken run. I was so busy at the end of the day that I did not go to bring him in until dark. Usually he will hop away, not wanting to be caught and brought back in. But tonight, the sun was down and he was out there just still. He was not scared. Just still. Sort of in a bunny meditative state. I picked him up and told him he was a very good bunny and tucked him back in his cage for the night.

All is calm. All is well.

From wild and wonderful West Virginia I send you brightest blessings.
~crow