It's really happening!
We're moving in 7 short weeks (very very bittersweet!) to the family farm.
From now on I'll be blogging Mommy Grow It style over on the farm blog. I plan to post about what is going on at the farm as well as tips on urban homesteading and not-so-urban homesteading.
Go check out the website - comments welcome!
And literally - if you're in Northern Vermont, we'd love to have you come by the farm for a visit!
Showing posts with label urban homestead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label urban homestead. Show all posts
Friday, March 11, 2011
Saturday, November 6, 2010
blue egg : cracked
We got our first blue egg!!!
Ark Boy found it...
... and cracked it :(
That wouldn't have been so bad except he's so well practiced in the ways of green (like insisting that when he pees in any toilet - even public ones - that we don't flush!) that he promptly brought the egg to the compost.
Ren Man was sad. This cracked egg was still edible.
Oh well.
More have since come.
We think only one of the aracauna's are laying so far.
We started keeping track of how many eggs we were getting since the middle of October.
We're up to 50.
And it hasn't been too many!
We gave 1/2 a dozen to a neighbor who we've only given one 1/2 dozen to before.
We definitely haven't given away as many as we'd hoped - not for lack of wanting, for lack of production.
And now Ren Man wants a dozen and some bourbon to do some aged eggnog for a holiday party...
Ark Boy found it...
... and cracked it :(
That wouldn't have been so bad except he's so well practiced in the ways of green (like insisting that when he pees in any toilet - even public ones - that we don't flush!) that he promptly brought the egg to the compost.
Ren Man was sad. This cracked egg was still edible.
Oh well.
More have since come.
We think only one of the aracauna's are laying so far.
We started keeping track of how many eggs we were getting since the middle of October.
We're up to 50.
And it hasn't been too many!
We gave 1/2 a dozen to a neighbor who we've only given one 1/2 dozen to before.
We definitely haven't given away as many as we'd hoped - not for lack of wanting, for lack of production.
And now Ren Man wants a dozen and some bourbon to do some aged eggnog for a holiday party...
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
"baby" chickens
I recently posted on facebook that our baby chickens have started laying (and followed that up with pictures).
Someone recently said: "wow! I saw your fb status - I didn't know baby chickens lay eggs!"
Hmmm.... well, baby chickens don't lay eggs - our baby chickens have started laying ... meaning the youngest addtions to our flock.
No, they aren't chicks any more.
They've been busy growing all summer.
We brought them in to Ark Boy's preschool class when they were new-ish last spring and then we recently brought 2 back in to show the class how much they've grown. I didn't realize how big they had become until then.
This is one of the original birds - Dixie - and the top of the pecking order.
The other original bird, Lulu - she's our lazy layer and I think we should cull her but surprisingly Ren Man is not on board with culling her.
And the not-so-baby babies:
This is Dippy or O'Rien - we have two easter eggers that are identical so we can't tell them apart... we also didn't try very hard to make sure we distinguished them from chicks. They looked like chipmunks when they were chicks :)
And there's all four "babies" with Luna in the front, Soleil behind her, and the Dippy/O'Rien, and furthest back another Dippy/O'Rien.
Having chickens is the best! I can't wait to have a huge flock next year!
In the meantime Ren Man suspects Luna was the small egg layer and she is now molting so the egg production will slow down for the winter. I hear though that Orpingtons (Soleil) lay just as frequently in winter. We'll see...
Someone recently said: "wow! I saw your fb status - I didn't know baby chickens lay eggs!"
Hmmm.... well, baby chickens don't lay eggs - our baby chickens have started laying ... meaning the youngest addtions to our flock.
No, they aren't chicks any more.
They've been busy growing all summer.
We brought them in to Ark Boy's preschool class when they were new-ish last spring and then we recently brought 2 back in to show the class how much they've grown. I didn't realize how big they had become until then.
This is one of the original birds - Dixie - and the top of the pecking order.
The other original bird, Lulu - she's our lazy layer and I think we should cull her but surprisingly Ren Man is not on board with culling her.
And the not-so-baby babies:
This is Dippy or O'Rien - we have two easter eggers that are identical so we can't tell them apart... we also didn't try very hard to make sure we distinguished them from chicks. They looked like chipmunks when they were chicks :)
And there's all four "babies" with Luna in the front, Soleil behind her, and the Dippy/O'Rien, and furthest back another Dippy/O'Rien.
Having chickens is the best! I can't wait to have a huge flock next year!
In the meantime Ren Man suspects Luna was the small egg layer and she is now molting so the egg production will slow down for the winter. I hear though that Orpingtons (Soleil) lay just as frequently in winter. We'll see...
Thursday, October 7, 2010
pantry
Our "baby" chickens have started laying. At least one of them has. I would guess Soleil (our buff orpington) because A)the eggs are typical in color (so that rules out the americanas) and B) she's the biggest of the babies. Here's an egg comparison: the smallest is the baby egg, the roundest is Dixie's (the Rhode Island White) and the longest is Lulu's (the Rhode Island Red).
And half of our apple stash from Vaillancourt Orchard in North West Vermont. These have since been turned into delicious apple butter. Yum!
I said we've been getting into canning. Below is our current stash of canned yumminess. These are the jams - plum made at home, plum/peach made with a friend, and peach made with said friend.
And then most of below is courtesy of Ren Man (because I have to share the fun some). He's done beets and most of the tomatos shown below.
I have been talked out of canning more tomatoes. I missed them so much last year and don't want to go without again this winter! Ren Man pointed out that his mom canned sooooo many tomatoes this year that there is PLENTY. But that means canning is done which is disapointing.
And half of our apple stash from Vaillancourt Orchard in North West Vermont. These have since been turned into delicious apple butter. Yum!
I said we've been getting into canning. Below is our current stash of canned yumminess. These are the jams - plum made at home, plum/peach made with a friend, and peach made with said friend.
And then most of below is courtesy of Ren Man (because I have to share the fun some). He's done beets and most of the tomatos shown below.
I have been talked out of canning more tomatoes. I missed them so much last year and don't want to go without again this winter! Ren Man pointed out that his mom canned sooooo many tomatoes this year that there is PLENTY. But that means canning is done which is disapointing.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Tomatos! and detour explanation
They are finally coming in! I've missed tomatos so much!! The plan was to have enough ripen at once to make tomato paste.
The tomato plans didn't receive that memo so they are staggering their ripening. Maybe we'll dry some. There's a bunch more green ones on the vines - maybe enough will be red at once to make a paste? We just know from experience that it takes A LOT to make A LITTLE of any tomato product.
Detour
Ren Man started the detour/distraction. He was looking up something (can't remember what) on craigslist in Vermont and came across an almost 2k sf home with a huge carriage barn for under 100k. This got us thinking... maybe it would be better to have a house that needed fixing up so we could do that and focus on the farm instead of building a new house and fitting the farm in to that.
So we looked. There were five homes were were very interested in.
After much discussion though (and fantasizing) we decided that being on the farm, building a house to our own specifications, and replacing the trailer that is currently on the building site made more sense.
It came down to this:
OR
we could work on the farm and build our house with less expense to us (so more time to devote to family and farm)
While owning had it's appeals (that I won't detail because then it gets me thinking about it again!) I was having a very hard time imagining being off the farm and commuting (arguably minimally) 2miles to the farm.
So that was the detour.
Friday, July 16, 2010
chicks? What chicks?
We're taking a house-plan detour... more details to come...
In the meantime here are our chickens!!
The above chicken is actually one of the original flock. She's welcomed the chicks with little to no trouble so that's why she's photographed because she was up with them, curious about what the excitement was about.
The "Babies" have gotten more friendly now that they've realized food is included when the run to us :) The "Big Girls" always come running!
In the meantime here are our chickens!!
The above chicken is actually one of the original flock. She's welcomed the chicks with little to no trouble so that's why she's photographed because she was up with them, curious about what the excitement was about.
The "Babies" have gotten more friendly now that they've realized food is included when the run to us :) The "Big Girls" always come running!
Garden update on the home front
Our current garden in suburbia (at least I think we live in suburbs) is bearing fruit. Beans and cucumbers have taken off like crazy and tomatoes are on their way!
We're also part of a CSA again this year. We went with a different farm this year which I regret, but it is what it is.
We have beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, squash, basil, sage, and nasturtiums. We tried to do a shade loving wild flower area again but it's mostly grass. Ren Man says teaches him for buying cheap seed. Oh well. Means less work to convert it back to front yard when we move.
We're also part of a CSA again this year. We went with a different farm this year which I regret, but it is what it is.
We have beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, squash, basil, sage, and nasturtiums. We tried to do a shade loving wild flower area again but it's mostly grass. Ren Man says teaches him for buying cheap seed. Oh well. Means less work to convert it back to front yard when we move.
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