Let There Be Light!

The night gardener struck again! This time just G since I was on baby duty. 

He installed a bright light on a tree near our garden that covers the majority of the garden. 

Our garden's weed population is thriving. 😅 Look at that lush carpet of grass! 

I did a little hand weeding when Jaron hung out with his grandparents, but I barely made a dent. G brought home a stirrup hoe and targeted the walkways between our veggie beds. Much better!
 

We wanted to get the "easy" stuff done before the big rainstorm today/the rest of this week. 

Expanding Orchard

G brought home some more plants for our orchard.

We now have two cherry trees and a Bartlett pear on the east side of the driveway.

We added a couple more honey berry bushes to eventually grow together into a hedge.

Some apples are coming along on our existing trees:

Potatoes coming along nicely too:

While G planted, I did some spot weed whipping around the bases of the trees. I left some of the clover long and also left some grasses I knew would not grow very tall. Come on pollinators!

Remember when our goats got out? One of the mamas broke this apricot tree; she was trying to make the leaves more accessible and the trunk cracked. I am attempting to fix it. I should have done it a week ago, so the odds of it working are kind of low. G pounded a stake in and pulled the trunk upright. I sprayed tree pruning seal on the crack. 🤷‍♀️ We'll see if it works.

Inherited Cabbage

Can you guess from the picture what I made today? 

A friend of G's gave us a couple heads of cabbage. What better use for them than sauerkraut? 

I've tried a few recipes over the years, and my favorite so far is the one my grandma gave me for my first batch. 

In addition to the recipe variable, I had been tinkering around with different sizes of cabbage shreds made with different means. Last batch, I settled on using the food processor for most consistent sizes. G likes smaller, finer shreds for using on hot dogs and brats. I enjoy eating sauerkraut just plain 😅 or as a salad topping, where a thicker shred would be appreciated. We had enough cabbage to do both, about 6.5 pounds.

To make the thicker shreds, I tried using our new mandolin. It was quick and effective, and easy to clean. Depending on the angle of the cabbage, I got different lengths of shreds.

Here is the fruit of my labor. The container on the left is a fermenting lock and weights that G brought into our marriage. The container on the right is one of the canning jars I inherited from my grandma and a silicone fermenting lid I'm testing out from Mason Jar Lifestyles. I didn't buy the weights that go with the lid, so it's also an experiment to see if not having them makes a difference. 

 I'll do a taste test in a few weeks!

Hyperbaric and Squid School

Our home hyperbaric chamber arrived in four boxes in the mail. A few weeks later, one of the main guys from the clinic we visited in New Orleans came on a Saturday to install it for us and teach us to use it. 

It's pretty simple to use and extremely safe. We don't have to take any of the precautions we did at the clinic in New Orleans - fiber content of clothing doesn't matter, you can have your cell phone or a tablet inside with you, paper/books are allowed, etc. The one thing they stressed is the going "down" and "up", aka the pressure change. It takes time for the chamber to build up pressure. When your time is up inside, it takes 10min or so to decrease pressure to unzip. 

The first couple times we used it, G dove with Jaron. 

The first day, Jaron got hot and hated his wet diaper and got hungry. The second day we fed and changed him right before he went in; he still hollered. Bored perhaps? Third day, we added a bunch of books to keep Jaron entertained. All is good until Jaron notices where he is. Then comes the crying and screaming. We actually cut our #4 dove short because he was so upset.

G's theory is that it's still too boring in the chamber, even with the books. I think that's part of it. I think he misses me or wants to eat for comfort or sleep. I also think he is bored (the car seat is also a not desirable place these days). And I think the pressure is getting to his ears, especially these past three days. 

This week was also infant survival swim lessons for Jaron. They'll take babies as young as 2 months old. The infant class is done with parents in the water with their babies, and the skills they focus on are mostly to get them used to being horizontal in the water. They learn to float on their back, spend a little time on their tummies (too easy to gulp water there), practice their head going under water, and practice "falling" into the pool/flipping to their backs right away (this is done by sitting them on the edge of the pool, counting to three, and guiding them off the ledge sideways/backways into the water. 

Poor Jaron is not a fan of the cold water. He wants 90 degrees! (apparently the perfect pool temp). It was so bad, you could see his teeth chattering. His teacher let him use a baby wetsuit for the last two days of class. That helped, but he still didn't like putting his bare legs in the water (held them in the air like a dead bug) or his ears. Maybe that's why he hasn't liked diving in the chamber this week... Too much water in his ears. 

Bag of Bags

Knowing how much I love elephants, a friend gifted me a pair of elephant pants from Thailand. Unfortunately, they've always fit a little small, so I hardly ever wear them. I decided to turn the pants into a couple of bag sleeves. 

I cut the legs apart, then cut each leg in half; the pant legs seemed too long to be a single sleeve. My mom assisted in sewing a cuff for either the top hanging string or elastic bottom depending where the cut was. 

In no time at all, I ended up with four sleeves. Two are filled with T-shirt rags, one for upstairs and one for downstairs.

Two are filled with plastic grocery bags- stuff from the top, pull what you need from the bottom. Easy peasy. Again, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. 

Hang on a hook or nail. ✅

Chick Feeder

Making a no waste chicken feeder has been on my list for a long time. Not my picture, but what I'm hoping to build:

I had all the supplies, just needed to do it. We were going away for a weekend and wanted to make chores simple, so I figured it was time to make it. 

Instructions said to cut the holes with a hole cutting drill bit. I don't have one of those, so I tried a couple different ways... 

Jigsaw - too bumpy and couldn't get through the plastic 

Box cutter - hard to make a perfect circle, didn't easily cut through the plastic 

Drill bit- painstaking to drill enough to get it to punch out

In the end, nothing worked great. I paused the project until I can get my hands on a circular drill bit. 

Berry Season

It was my dad's birthday last week, which in our family is the indicator that strawberries will be ready soon. 

I kind of forgot about the strawberry patch I planted last year, west of the orchard directly into the grass. Mostly because you can't see it from the tall grass. 😅 

We were out of town for the weekend and our neighbor did chores for us. Right before we left, G noticed some bright red berries in the patch, and he told her that she could pick them for herself. She did pick them! However, instead of eating them herself, she froze them for us. How sweet! 

There were a lot more than I anticipated! 

I recently read that rosemary is a companion plant for strawberries, increasing their flavor and fertility. I have a couple rosemary plants I plan to add to the patch hopefully this week. Stay tuned if we notice a difference afterwards!

Peacock Candling

Day 12 of peacock incubation and I finally got around to candling them. According to my quick Google search, that's around the time the embryo begins moving inside the shell. 

I could see wiggling and moving inside 12 of the eggs! It's amazing; every time I saw the twisting and fluttering, it brought a huge smile to my face. 

Three eggs had veins developing, but I didn't detect movement. Not very worrisome since it's right around the time they'd start moving. Five are probably quitters but they were questionable enough I left them in. Those I marked with a permanent marker where the air sack is so the ink wouldn't absorb through to the chick. I'll candle again in a few days and see how they've progressed! 

Chicks Escape

The chicks have a tendency of escaping onto the pasture (and Jip) side of our backyard.

We haven't figured out exactly how they do it, but we think they are sneaking through the woven wire fence. That will not happen forever; they're very close to being too big to squeeze through. However, it's still makes us paranoid that Jip will get one of them.

I solved the problem by attaching deer fencing to the wire fence.

Amazingly, I had two pieces that fit perfectly in the two areas I needed to cover.

If the chicks still get out, I give up; there's no other place for them to escape.

Our hatched ducklings were getting too big for their box in the garage. They got moved out to the shed as well, back in the area where Svetlana and her kids used to sleep.

It didn't take long for them to acclimate to their new home. I think they'll outgrow it sooner rather than later at their current pace. We'll have to give the trampoline and overhaul...

Hilling Potatoes

The little one seemed content to chill on a blanket while I hilled my container potatoes. 

Ideally, I would've added more soil when the plants were about 4 to 6 in tall. Unfortunately, Jaron didn't have the patience at that time and the potatoes were much taller than that. 

I was able to add a lot of soil to make it so about 4-6 inches are showing. I'll add more in about a week and continue adding layers as the plants grows, up to an inch below the lip of the container. 

The above container got a little lopsided because of that teeny tiny potato started (bottom right of the photo). I thought about burying it, but in the end am giving it the chance to grow bigger. 

When it came to the sweet potatoes, Google was not very specific about whether hilling sweet potatoes actually improves their production. 

I added a bit of soil around the bases of the plants. We'll see if it makes a difference. 

Since the potatoes are out in the orchard, that makes it easy to check for fruit. I was able to harvest a handful of Honey berries. There were enough that I didn't feel like I should eat all of them as I picked, so G will actually get a chance to taste these! They are similar to blueberries, perhaps a bit more tart. 

 

Trimmed

Isn't that a beautiful sight? 

It's even more beautiful to me because prior to this, all those rows of trees were jammed with tall grass. My brother, home early from work, volunteered to mow lawn while I weed whipped. 

I found a patch of wild strawberries among the windbreak. These berries are so small and delicate, you must eat them immediately when you find them. 

Rosemary is a companion plant that can boost strawberry fertility, so I sprinkled some seeds around the patch hoping they'll take root. 

More damage from the goats' adventures... They enjoyed a snack of colorful begonias. The poor planters...

G brought replacements from the garden center and they look pretty close to before. 

In other news, both Gracie and Celia moved their kittens next to the garage. The kittens have a heyday in all the piles of things that haven't been put away yet. 😅

 

More Shelves

I finally got around to adding shelves between the studs in the laundry room. This is behind the door, so it's perfect for the goat/chicken stuff that might be a little dirty or gross. We keep the door open most of the time, so it will be out of sight. 

There's an electrical wire running up the stud to the right which is why I didn't add shelves there. I could use a jigsaw to cut out space for the wires, but I'm not that desperate for space yet. Maybe I'll do another bungee cord storage option there. 🤔

 

Trouble

Svetlana and the other kids also figured out how to use the trampoline to get to the chicken side. Some of the more agile jump directly onto the trampoline, but two of the kids use the wood pile there to bounce up and over.

It wouldn't be a huge deal, except we have been tossing chicken feed outside on the chicken side- which the goats love to eat. Again, annoying, but not the end of the world if they eat that. Except... we also moved the barrier so the chickens could forage along the garage/get to the front yard. 

Last night after supper we heard Gerda (the one goat who can't jump much) calling for the others. They had escaped! We found them before they got too far, and G herded them around the garage while Jaron and I stood strategically to usher them back into the pasture. 

Unfortunately, we didn't solve the problem and they ended up out again about a half hour later. This time they did cause damage. 😩

My native prairie plants for the medicinal herb garden...

The plum's leaves are stripped and the apricot is snapped at the base... 

Our poor hostas... There used to be hostas every foot and a half in this bed. 😭

Hostas are tough; they'll recover. I'm so thankful there's a fence around the rest of the orchard or they no doubt would've gotten all our fruit trees. I expected all the berry plants along the fence to be gone, but they must not have noticed them. They aren't super leafy yet. 

After they got out that second time, G put up a piece of fence on top of the trampoline between the fence and the goat shed. It kept them where they belong overnight at least. My first task for the day is moving the wood pile. And then come up with a long-term plan for the chicken area/trampoline...

Bouncy

It finally happened. 

One of the kids jumped on the trampoline and into the chicken pen.

She couldn't figure out how to get back to the other side and was pretty frantic. Once the trampoline was shifted away from the building, she was able to make it back to her pack. 

Pretty soon we're going to move the goats to our front yard to eat down the lawn. G put up some temporary fencing; all we need to do is hook it up to the fencer and train the goats to run away from it when they get shocked. 

 

Growth Update

We have apples coming! 

 And honey berries!

And currants!

One lingenberry bush continues to grow.

The rest look like this:

The blackberry bushes (one alive, one dead). 

And finally, the potatoes: 

Sweet potato -

Two more sweet potato varieties- 

Potatoes from a garden grown potato from last year -

 Red potato- 

Kennebec - the one that stored the best for us last year -

And another red potato- winner of the best growing one so far!