I Call Fowl!!

 It's time for an update on our poultry. I'm happy to report the chickens are now out of the coop. Today was their first day out. Today, coincidentally, is the day that we got our turkey chicks and guinea fowl. We got 3 of each. I gave a guy some tomato plants and he gave me back birds in return. I can hang with that.

I haven't been able to get out to see the girls much since we brought them home. Today, this is what I was looking at. They all looked to have all their feathers, so I told Bob to toss them outside and clean the coop out. It was pretty bad in there.

So, all that gross junk is gone. The chickens can now come and go as they choose.

Today, these guys showed up. The white ones are turkeys and the others are guinea fowl.

All 15 Henriettas love being out. They were so cramped in that coop, even though it's pretty big inside.

They are loving getting explore their new world.

This is one of our turkey kids.

You can definitely tell that they have "cliques". There are some of the chickens that really hang together in definite groups. 

The turkeys and the guineas hang out together. It's like having little gangs in the chicken 'hood.

Rose keeps them all rounded up. She's a pretty good guard dog.

Rose patrols the perimeter, looking for birds trying to escape.

They've discovered their wings. 

They've learned about the roosts.

Now, they are eating and  drinking from their new feeders and waters. We put a wading pool in there and added in some dirt so that they can take dust baths.

Tonight will their first night without a heat lamp.
Wish us luck!

Planting Peppers

 It is that time of year again.

I love it when it is time to pot everything up into its permanent home. I love everything about the process. I especially love when I'm able to grow something from seed that got wiped out last year. This year, I'll be growing my peppers inside of the greenhouse. The deer will have to get a meal somewhere else. There's 50 acres here. I think they can survive without my pepper plants.

First, my new thing to grow this year are peanuts. I don't know if this will work or not, but I'm certainly going to try.

They seem to be doing okay.

I've never grown peanuts, so if you have, let me know in the comments how they look.

Now, let's look at the tomatoes. They will start going out next week.

I have been selling these and giving them away. I have room for 60-80 tops. I had 274. Maybe those deer will get a snack after all.

The ones on the white tray are the ones that I'm growing out on the trellises.

I've put them into 3 gallon pots. These are their permanent homes.

That is a healthy root ball if I've ever seen one!

I have quite the assortment of peppers. I do not have any super hots. We're just not into them. I may pick up seeds for some for next year, though. It seems that they would sell pretty good. I don't have to eat them. I can grow them for other people.

They are all in their permanent home now. We'll spread them out once we find all the other peppers homes and I get the eggplants potted up. I may plant out some more, too. I just don't know yet.

Bob helped me out by watering them all in.

Now they can simply adjust to their new space and do what they do best...grow!

Chive Blossom Vinegar

 If you grow your own chives, you'll know that they produce a pretty lavender colored flower. From those flowers, we get seeds. I've been growing the same pot of chives, that I started from seed, for close to 10 years now.
What can you do with chives other than snip them onto a baked potato? Well, there's a lot you can do with them. I like to dehydrate them and powder them up and use them in seasoning blends. I also love to pick the flowers and make vinegar with them. They make an amazing base to vinaigrette dressings.

First, I'll show you all yesterday morning's livestock sighting down in the rock pit.

They like to graze down there. We like to watch them grazing down there. We see deer here almost every day. There were 4 does, but I couldn't over to get the other 2 in a photo.

I asked Bob if he would go out and pick the flowers off of the chives so that I could make vinegar. He agreed.

I did have to tell him to not pull the chives out by the roots.

He used his pocketknife. That was completely fine with me.

He came in with a fairly decent amount. They will continue to flower, so I'm not worried about not leaving enough blooms to reseed. There will be plenty for that and to make more vinegar.

I divided the blooms between 2 half-pint jars. I also snipped in some fresh chives.

I topped off the jars with white wine vinegar.

After that, just put the lids on, put in a dark, cool place for 3 or 4 days and then strain the vinegar. I plan on putting it back into the white vinegar bottle.

Now, I am waiting for my garlic scapes to come on. I hope it's soon!
Enjoy!

Potatoes, Peanuts & Chicks, An Update

 We've had a lot happen on Kelpie Kapers Farm since my last blog post. If you are on my Facebook friends list, you'll know that I was put on oxygen. I have COPD and my oxygen level was of a number that my doctor felt it necessary for me to have supplemental oxygen. Anyhow, I have to thank Bob for stepping up and taking care of things because I can only go the length of my oxygen tubing or I have to put on a portable tank. They don't last all that long, but I do have the means of refilling them here, but it takes roughly 4 hours to do that. Anymore, it's just easier to have Bob go out and take photos. He does an excellent job of capturing exactly what I want in a photo, too.

So, all 15 Henriettas are doing well. They will be going on their 4th week after Friday.

In a few short weeks, around June 9th, they will, hopefully, be ready to come out of the brooder.

I'm can't wait for eggs!
I'm planning on selling the extras.

I chose them specifically for the colors of eggs they lay.

Moving on...

All 10 varieties of peas have germinated and are growing just fine. I love the trellis that Bob rigged up for them. It's nice and tidy looking.

Some varieties are growing faster than others, but that's to be expected. 

I'm most excited about the Roveja Soup Peas. I've never grown anything like them before.

On the end, I have Magnolia Blossom Tendril peas growing. These are the ones that you can get pea shoots from. I just let them grow. They throw off a really beautiful purple pea pod. The peas inside are green.

I really like how my pea garden turned out. I'm hoping that they will create a bit of shade for the lettuce.

Moving on from there, let's step into the greenhouses.

These little tomatoes are almost ready to go out to the people I started them for and I plan on advertising them for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
I have some really rare varieties.

To be quite honest, when I took them out of the trays and put them into the cups, I wasn't sure as to what they would do. They have far exceeded my expectations. I'll be putting 60 of these into my 5-gallon grow bags and they will go out on the trellis. I'll grow around 15-20 more in the raised beds.

Along with the tomatoes, I have cucurbit, okra and herb seedlings in the front greenhouse.

I don't know if they will make it the full 4 weeks or not.
I may have to start splitting them up.

Especially the pumpkins. They are getting HUGE!

Can you spot the pumpkin starts?

Now, let's step into the back greenhouse.

The pepper seedlings are doing exponentially better than I thought they would. To be quite honest, I didn't think they would make it.

Some of them are still super small. This greenhouse is their permanent home. They will grow in here.

The eggplants are in that back corner.

I also wanted to show you how the peanuts are coming along. I have no idea if peanuts will grow in my climate, so I put them into the greenhouse.

They are getting more leaves on them. I find these to be just amazing! I can't wait to see if I actually get peanuts from them.

Heading out of the greenhouses and up onto the deck...

We did a lettuce harvest. This is the first one of any substantial size.

It's nice to be able to grow my own salad base.

I have other lettuce/greens going on the deck, as well.

 These are our grape starts. They will hang out up on the deck. Next year, we're going to turn that lower raised bed, that we grew beans in last year, into our grape garden. We'll put in some T-posts and wire and that's where they will grow.

Let's head over to the potato bin. It's far exceeded my expectations this year. We've already gotten much more full of straw than we did last year.

You can see the green leaves poking up in the middle. Those continue to get covered up. The more they get covered, the more they grow and that means more potatoes when it's time to harvest.

Bob simply tops it off with more straw. It took 3 flakes to cover it evenly.

We find this way to be the most efficient to grow potatoes. We only use a bit of soil at the bottom to plant the chitted potatoes out into. There's no more soil used in this method.

He cracks me up because he has to get that straw even across the top. I like that, though.
I like the symmetry.

This is not even enough, so he went back for another flake.

Now, we will simply sit back and wait for the green potato leaves to poke out of the top again and add more straw.

On a more somber note, we lost a member of our family on Friday. Sasha was such a good dog for us. She came to us when she was about 6 months old and she was almost 17 years old. We miss her terribly here. :( It sucks that we can only borrow them for such a sort time before we have to give them back. Run free, little girl and tell Puppa that we miss him.

 She's running with her Puppa dog again. They are reunited.

In memory of Sasha Piland, 2007-2023