Chickies moving day!

Here's a charming little bungalow - complete with mowable roof! What a lovely example of a northwest microclimate.

The babies huddled under the coop, after being moved to the big house.

Not so scary after all. They seem to all be getting along fine. The older hens hassle them just enough to stay on top of the pecking order.

Check out this mutant dandelion!!! That entire cluster is all one plant. A giant stem & flower at the center, and a whole bunch of separate flowers, from a single giant root. I don't think Roundup is 'ready' for this one.

Lassie & Berry went to new homes today with a nice couple who have other pygoras and 28 llamas. We realize if Stella is going to be our milk cow, we need to be able to work with her without the goats 'butting in'. It's amazing how much calmer the vibe is already. Stella didn't like seeing her goats bundled off in a minivan, but once I opened a fresh paddock for grazing, she settled down to serious eating.

The garden is just about all seeded. A few more carrots and kale to plant later this season for fall/winter harvest. And I ordered seeds for a fodder beet called red mangel -
The famous Red Mangel French Heirloom also known as "Mangel Wurzel" in Germany
and Northern Europe. Known in the U.S. at times as a forage beet for cattle and
sheep, but has an excellant flavor if picked smaller and young. Can grow as
large as 15-20 lbs. Cooked, the texture is that of tender beets, but the flavor
is more potato-like, with a delightful touch of sweetness. If you find ordinary
beets too strong, try this kind.

I even found a recipe for mangel beer!

Mangel-wurzel beer. For a ten-gallon cask, boil in fourteen gallons of water sixty pounds of mangel-wurzel, which has been well washed and sliced across, putting some kind of weight on the roots to keep them under water; having boiled an hour and a half, they may be taken out, well broken, and all the liquor pressed from the roots; put it, and that in which they were boiled, on again to boil, with four ounces of hops; let them boil about an hour and a half, then cool the liquor, as quickly as possible, to 70 degrees Farenheit; strain it through a thick cloth laid over a sieve or drainer; put it into the vat with about six ounces of yeast, stir it well, cover it, and let it stand twenty four hours; if the yeast has then well-risen, skim it off, and barrel the beer, keeping back the thick sediment. While the fermentation goes on in the cask, it may be filled up with the beer left over, or any other kind at hand; when the fermentation ceases, which may be in two or three days, the cask must be bunged up, and in a few days more, the beer may be used from the cask, or bottled. The smaller proportions are here given to suit the convenience of the humblest labourer; but the beer will be better made in larger quantities; and its strength may be increased by adding a larger proportion of mangel-wurzel. By this receipt, good table-beer will be obtained.

Gardening marathon has begun

Name the object?

I found this convex metal disk in the garden dirt. Around the rim it says "DRIVERS PERMIT" "Bellingham, Wash." In the center is a number 3. The back looks like it could possibly have had something soldered to it, maybe a pin clasp.

Potatoes! These are Reddales, a productive long storing red tater. We planted 2 rows of these and 4 rows of a high-protein russet named Butte. While I was digging in last year's potato patch I found 4 Ozette fingerlings, buries too deep to sprout. We roasted them with salt, pepper & olive oil and they tasted wonderful!

Raw materials - hay that makes manure (notice the diligent stablema'am) and the manure makes food. A nice little system. We ran short of hay and got tired of running to the feed store every few days, so we bit the bullet and had 15 bales of 2006 hay delivered. That and our greening-up pasture should see us through til this year's hay comes in. We need to have the 2nd barn half built by then so we can bring in a couple of tons this summer.