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

It's Chick Time At Kelpie Kapers Farm

 We did it!
We took the plunge.
We bit the bullet and bought our chicks this morning. After wandering through Wilco Farm Store several times and getting an idea of what breeds of chicks they get in weekly, I had it narrowed down as to what types I wanted to get.
I was even willing to get a Leghorn or Rhode Island Red, if necessary, even though they were not on my top 5 list. Bob got our coop all set up as a temporary brooder. We have a radiant heat brooder. We have a heat lamp. It's warm during the day for the next few days. It was time.

We have this set up to where the chicks can get under the lamp if they are cold and they can get off from underneath the lamp if they get too hot. We have a digital thermometer in the coop and I can monitor inside our fifth wheel. It also works to monitor both of the greenhouses.

My greenhouses are running pretty warm right now, as well.

This is just a temp brooder. This will be their coop after we're done. We'll remove the box. I have 18 nesting boxes in here, so I can house a huge flock, if it's something we decide to do in the future.

They made us a heck of a deal at Wilco. I was only going to get 10 chicks. The salesperson had Novogens on sale for $3 each. They had some left from last week and then got a new shipment in today, so she told us she would sell us 5 for $9. I was, initially, only going to get 2 of them. Now, we have 7. I'm okay with that. They were on my list of must-have breeds.

I was super excited to see that they had Silver Lace Wyandottes and Gold Lace Wyandottes. I wasn't expecting those, at all. I got one of each. That's 9 chicks. I got my 2 Americaunas. Those topped my list because they are the ones that lay blue eggs. They also had Olive Eggers in. I wasn't expecting that, either. I have 2 of them. I rounded out my flock with 2 Copper Dominant Marans. Getting a Copper Marans was at the very top of my list. I am beyond happy that I was able to check off every breed that was on my top 5 list. Later, down the road, we may brood some Rhode Island Reds and, perhaps, a Leghorn. But, right now, I'm beyond satisfied with what we have.

So, we're getting everyone settled in. They can get out from under the heat lamp if they are too cold. They have food. They have water with chick electrolytes in it. They've already christened the pads that we put down for them by pooping on it. They've discovered where the food is. They know where the water is.

They sure are cute little buggers!

This one is playing hide and seek with me.

I think the above is one of the Copper Dominant Marans.

The buff colored ones are the Novogens.

Discovering the food.

They are pretty active and vocal.

Cute little nugget!

We've even named them! We are going to call them all Henrietta. That way, there's no mistaking any of them!