March Homestead Happenings

 It's that time of year again, the time of year I live for all winter long. We're getting some really nice days out. Bob's whittling down his honey-do list. We are just waiting on the last few things we'll need to start brooding our chicks to get delivered and we'll get the coop set up and then we'll go figure out the 15-16 chicks we want to get. I'm just going to say this. Chicks are expensive!

Bob's out there building the chicken run as I type.

We had a friend come up to help Bob move the coop into place. I was really thankful for that.

We bought this coop off of Facebook Marketplace last year. We paid $100 for it. It's a big coop. There's 18 nesting boxes. Realistically, you can have 4-5 laying hens per nesting box. I'm not going to have anywhere near that number of chickens, however. My chickens aren't going to be crowded.
I haven't decided what breeds I want to get, I just know that life is too short for boring white eggs, so I prefer them to have colors.

Bob had to use the panels that we had up for my tomatoes last year. No matter, he's just swapping them out and adding 1 more onto there. I'll still have my tomato garden and it's going to be expanded so that I can fit 60 indeterminate tomatoes onto the trellises.

Bob's going to take this chicken run back to the hog pen. The coop is in the middle of the area. We need to trim those fir branches and the run will be topped with a heavy duty tarp and bird netting. Not only do we have ground predators to contend with (coyotes, bobcat, raccoons and, quite possibly, a cougar), we also have air predators (bald eagles, hawks, owls).
We want our chickens to be as safe as possible.

Bob said he will run some more wire along the bottom of the pen. It will discourage things from trying to dig. A coyote probably wouldn't be able to dig under because we're located on the rim of an old rock pit, but something smaller could do it, possibly.

We have learned that the coop is almost 10-feet wide.
I may have him spin it so that a person can walk past it. I haven't decided yet and it's something that I'll need to discuss with Bob.

So, within the next two weeks, we plan on having our chicks brooding in the coop.

Buying supplies for these chicks was not cheap, either. I still need to get a bag of playground sand, a small pool or container to put the sand in (chickens need to be able to take dust baths), and I suspect we'll be getting another watering set-up for out in the yard once they come out of the brooder. We've dropped $300 so far getting this set up. Chicks are going to run me $4-$7 each.

Here's what our pig pasture looks like. We've already decided that we just can't do it. We cannot raise a meat pig. We'd get WAY too attached to it. That pasture will be better used for something like dairy goats and a mule instead.

Here's the front pen. I would like to use this for turkeys. I would not have one single problem raising turkeys for meat.

About a week ago, I got my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants all seeded out.

I have some pretty obscure varieties this year, like Stoney's Neighbor's. If you couldn't tell, there are times when I will buy a variety for the name alone. I also planted out a variety called Fuzzy Blue Balls. What can I say? I find it hilarious!

The tomatoes have been popping up like crazy lately. Bob was out there this morning and he said there's been like 30 or so pop up.

I can't wait to meet them all.

The garden is starting to wake up. Here is my old rhubarb plant.

I planted out 1/2 pound of Red Musik garlic last October. It's been thriving over the winter.

My eyesight must be going. I already posted the pasture photo.

I'm hoping to get a bumper crop of garlic scapes from these.

I planted out an entire bed of Walla Walla sweet onions.

My big bed is planted out with Red Express cabbage, Tonus broccoli, Primaru onions, Falstaff brussels sprouts and a Tiger Laeta viola plant.

The netting is over the top because we have a feral kitten. She's a cute little thing. Bob's been working with her to gain her trust. We plan on adopting her. He's been able to pet her a few times. Anyhow, I already know that cats look at raised beds like huge fun sandboxes and I'm not into it.

Close up of my garlic. It's super easy to grow. It just takes a while.

Bob's got the frames up for the greenhouses. I think I'll be able to raise some peppers, okra, melons, etc. in there. At least, I hope I can!

I never get tired of looking down that tunnel. It's fantastic!

Rose likes to come out and help.

The raised beds are all tucked in with dead leaves. We'll take some of these off and toss them into the compost pile and we top it with some fresh soil and compost. We figured out what went wrong last year as far as bogus soil. The company wouldn't listen to me and they sold me the wrong type. We went and bought a yard of the right stuff.

I love looking at that greenhouse tunnel from every angle imaginable.

Here's what it looks like from down by the far side of the chicken pen.

This is such an awesome view! I can't wait to get the covers on them. I'm not going to rush it, though, because I don't want to lose it if we get some heavy wind gusts.

Rose is the world's best helper.

I've obtained a few of these barrels. Unfortunately, they have a hole cut into the top. I think we'll cut them in half and use them for raised beds. 

My tomato garden looks weird in this photo. It's all put back up now, though, with an extra panel added on.

It will soon be time to get these out and start riding again! I can't wait!

I have a cubic yard of soil in the bed of my truck waiting to fill grow bags and ready to go out onto the beds. We'll probably need 1-2 more before it's all said and done.

So this is what we've been up to here on Kelpie Kapers Farm. How about you? What are you looking forward to the most about spring?

End Of January Garden Happenings At Kelpie Kapers Farm

 I think a good start to 2023 would be to show you all what's going on around Kelpie Kapers Farm. First, I'll attempt to walk you all through what I plan on doing as far as getting a flock of laying chickens going here.

Bob put up the fence so that the cats could go outside last summer. They didn't really use that pen all that much, to be honest. They like to go out into the yard with the dogs and they seem to mind pretty well doing that, so that's what we've been doing these past several months. We are going to expand that pen. I'm going use 3 more of those fence panels to trellis tomatoes and other things on. I had planned on planting out 100 indeterminate tomato varieties, but I think that 80 should suffice and I can use the other panel for cucumbers and winter squash. Anyhow, that will leave 6 panels to build a chicken yard. The yard will be 20-foot long x 10-foot wide. We plan on putting the coop inside of it and we also plan on putting a bird netting or a tarp over the top to keep flying predators out. We just need to figure out a solution to keep them from going through the gap at the gate. We also need to figure exactly where we want to put this. I think having it partway under those fir trees will be a great thing for helping to shade it during the heat of summer, but I also have to think about the fact that raccoons do climb trees, so there's that to factor in, as well.

The rhubarb is doing quite well. I believe that I'll have a bumper crop of it this coming year. I have 2 plants. I'd love to add about 3 more, but I'll have to see if I can get these seeds to grow or not. I'm not going to buy anymore crowns. Bob covered it with a bit of soil.

See? It's healthy and thriving in it's blanket of straw.

There's the 2 rhubarb crowns enjoying their place. Now, I just need to figure out how to keep Rose from walking over them.

Here is one of the two beds that I planted out with garlic at the end of October. I plan on harvesting it sometime in later July or early August.

Here is the second bed of garlic. They are growing right along just fine. They even went through our 3 day deep freeze.

I poured a small amount of milk over the end of this log last spring. I knew what would happen and just look! So cool! I love having fungi grow!

Bob started doing some cleaning down on the terraced garden. On the next day that it's not raining, you all know where I'll be.

We have to add some serious amendments to these raised beds. That soil that we bought in bulk flat out sucked.

Here is the start of the first 20-foot long greenhouse. I'll be able to grow some serious crops in there!

We're not putting the cover on until winter's over, though. We don't want to lose this. We just need to figure out where to put the second one.

I plan on putting okra, melons, winged beans, cucamelons, butterfly peas and all my peppers into the pair of these greenhouses.

One frame up and one to go...as soon as we figure out where to put it. Bob is even contemplating parking his car over on the back side of the trailer and putting that other one alongside of that one. I suggested putting it out front. I'll let you all know where we decide.

Mid-September Garden Harvest

 It's that time again. It's been a minute since I posted a garden update. We are actively harvesting now. I've put up several jars of pickled items. I've made a lot of stuff with blackberries. We're picking our tomatoes when they've reached a blush stage. Ideally, I'd leave them on the vine to fully ripen, but we are running a month behind this year, so when they blush, they get pulled unless there is higher temperatures in the forecast and no chance of sprinkles.

The above photo is one of my Reisetomate tomatoes. They are an oddity, for sure. From what I've read, they aren't the greatest tasting things, but they are sure a conversation piece.

Don't mind my volunteer tomato. We still don't know how that happened, but we're going to roll with it and see what it does.

We got a small rain prediction for today, so we thought it best to pull all the tomatoes that were beginning to blush. I'll ripen them up inside instead.

We just need a few more weeks of warm weather and I'll get a harvest. It won't be enough to sustain us through the winter, but, at least, have an idea of how many I'll need for next year.

Growing my own, from seed, was easier than I thought it would be and it's opened a huge door as to the varieties that I can grow. I'm approaching the 200 varieties mark in my personal seed stash for next year.

The Sart Roloise tomatoes are stunning. Absolutely stunning.

This volunteer ....er tomato just cracks me up. It's starting to flower.

Bob's getting some weeds cleaned out by one of our strawberry patches.

We decided to see if we could find any potatoes. We didn't. We'll have to wait for a bit and dig down into the soil at the bottom and see if my method worked or not.

We only tried in one corner, to be honest. Who knows about the rest of this contraption.

These are cannellini beans that I'm growing out for someone else. How it works is that they send me a small number of seeds. I grow them out. I send them back between 60-100 seeds and the rest are mine to grow out from then on. I like doing that.

More cannellini beans. These are one of my favorites. I always have a can in my pantry and after next year, I'll be able to have a supply of them dried.

Here is the Sart Roloise I picked today. This is just a stunning looking tomato.

Tomatillos, tomatoes, and some Dragon Tongue beans so far.

I was able to find some cannellini beans that were dried out. Bob harvested some rhubarb and I picked the okra, cucamelons and the Tanya's Pink Pod beans.

That Jing Orange okra is pretty to look at. It tastes really good, too. I haven't cooked it. I just eat it raw.

A view of today's harvest.

More of the harvest.

Bob went down to the bean bed and harvested any that were dried. This is my collection so far. These are for our own personal use. I grew some stunning looking varieties this year, for sure!

My Black Beauty zucchini plant is starting to really produce. I'm going to be turning zucchini into crushed pineapple in a later blog post.

These are my Jealous Neighbor F1 cucumbers. You can see that we overlooked one and it got a bit big. These are a hybrid variety that I ordered from a company in Ukraine, so I won't be able to save seeds from them unfortunately.

Rose says THANK YOU for reading!