Hope springs eternal...

We've taken part in that annual leap of faith known as a garden, yet again. In the left foreground are tomatoes, 3 rows of potatoes near center, and onions, mangel beets & cukes to the left. In the left background are mixed rows of shallots, carrots, radishes, beets, kohlrabi, 3 kinds of lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage. There's corn near the fenceline and to the right are green beans (including 2 kinds right out of a Bosnian garden, thanks to a coworker) and onions.

Here's the squash pit. It was a giant heap of manure & straw that we cleaned out of Stella's stall last summer. After a good going over with a tiller, it was perfect for planting our butternut, buttercup & delicata squash. I had planned to grow Uncle David's Dakota Dessert squash this year, but somehow left it out of my seed order. We'll try it next year. We're already planning for next year's squash pit, and planning to dump this year's stall clean-out in paddock 2 to mature into another squash pit.

It's been so green and lush lately that even 3 cows can't keep up. So we need to scythe down the weeds and seedheads once in a while. Look at Doug peeking out from behind mom.

Fergus got a new swim jacket. He always gets tired while swimming at Birch Bay, and this helps him stay above water. He got the hang of it very quickly, but the water was still so cold he didn't swim long. Stew tore off a toenail in his rush to bolt out the back door the other night, and we though a saltwater swim might help. It didn't, but he looks to be healing up anyway.

Here's Maggie, demonstrating just how tense his life is. Or is he catatonic?

And Fergus, either doing his impression of Magnus, or maybe a roadkill possum.

Nettle braggot - Seven Trees style

Start with as many nettles will fit in the picking basket. We only use the top few leaves of young plants. They'll regrow soon and we can harvest more for drying.

Then bring 1.5 gallons of water to a boil. While the water is heating steep 1 pound malted oats (this should add a nice sweet-nutty flavor and a creamy mouthfeel) 15 minutes or until the water reaches 170F. Take the oats out and add 3lbs dried malt extract. Normally we use liquid malt, but we had bought dried so we could make this recipe when we felt like it, without having to run to town for malt. When the malt is dissovled completely, add the pile of nettles. Boil while stirring occasionally for 50 minutes, then add 2 to 3lbs honey. We just spooned in what looked like a quart jar's worth, since a quart of honey weighs around 2.5lbs. Boil 10 more minutes, then set the kettle in a sink of ice water to chill rapidly. Strain into the carboy and top up with cold water. Add yeast (we used Northwest Ale yeast from Northern Brewer), mix and put the airlock on.

After 24 hours or so, the nettle braggot yeasties (oh yeah! a braggot is loosely defined as a beer-type beverage made with both honey and malted grain) decided to take advantage of the extra sweetness to mount an escape attempt. Things have settled down now, and in a week or so we'll transfer the braggot to another carboy to finish fermenting. A week or so after that, and it goes into bottles. Two weeks after that, and we can drink it!
We put the new trailer to good use this weekend by picking up a load of wood. We've gone through nearly double the wood we did last winter, so we want to make sure we restock as soon as possible. Sometimes when summer heats up, the woodcutters aren't allowed into the forest due to fire risks. Then everyone is backed up and on waiting lists, sometimes until the rains come back in the fall.
No wonder Magnus doesn't want to venture outside! Toshi and one of the Red Stars were having a conference on the back porch. The flock always seems to ignore the 'no chickens on the porch' rule, until they get caught and chased off.
Last but not least, a little down time with the house critters in front of a warm fire.

We enjoyed the spring weather preview Saturday, temps in the 70's and a lovely breezy sunny day. The greenhouse sprouts are in the ground now - lettuce, chard, spinach, broccoli and onions. We'll be planting more over the next few weeks, with the warm weather plants - beans, tomatoes, peppers, squash, corn, melons - going in late May.

Stella is still going gangbusters as a milk cow. I've taken the luxury of skipping a couple days of milking here & there, so we can use up all the milk she provides. This week we made a soft cheese with chives, roasted garlic and cracked pepper mixed in. A gallon of milk netted 2lbs of it, with 2qts of whey left over for the dogs & hens. We made 4oz of butter from a pint of top cream. Over a quart of yogurt. And tonight I'll start a pint more of cream souring. Yum!!!

Time to start shopping for an ice cream maker.

Chores, happy helpers, harvest!

Too bad I couldn't include the lovely smell that went with this particular chore. Our septic has a filter in it that must be dug up, extracted and hosed off every 6 months to a year. Next time I do this I plan to build and install a riser, so I don't have to dig it up -- each and every time. The system started draining better as soon as I was done this time, so it was definitely time. It's always something right?

30 bales of hay unloaded up front had to be hauled to the barn in the background here and stacked, but fortunately I had my happy helpers to jump on and off the bales chasing each other, and generally being in the way. It was actually quite entertaining. The kitties were also very helpful in this department though I did not capture either of them on film. For some reason everybody loves when we bring in hay... always incessantly smelling it, and generally all over it in some way or another. All I can figure is it has the exotic smell of grass from a couple miles away, and maybe residual odors of mousy activity from the time it spent in a barn elsewhere. At any rate... it's always a big hit around here.

Here's a happy harvester indeed, with a few fat onions in hand, basket of fresh picked tatties at her feet, and standing next to the tomato "trees" as we like to call them, owing to their height. The garden has been gifting us well this year with bounty and everything seems beyond happy with cow Stella's composted manure and a few applications of nettle tea, which is all the additives we've ever applied.

What to do after a hard day of hay bale bound and chase? Well... you get the picture. Note the toothy grin on this canine! It's a farm dog's life...

Weekend @ Seven Trees - in pictures

Another lovely Sunday

Check out these 2 garden inspectors! Newt is the black kitty between the chard on the left and beets on the right. Crichton is facing the lettuce/onion row. The usually hang out in the cat jungle that we silly pink monkeys persist in calling the potato patch.

Here are the barnyard inspectors, checking the stability of the siding girts of the barn addition. These kids are going on 4 months old, and should start laying any time. Unfortunately they like to lay in places they shouldn't, as the next picture illustrates.

Can you spot the 2 eggs in this picture? (Hint: click on the picture for a larger version.) One is from a Sussex hen, and we think a Black Star (i.e. Peeps or Poops) is laying too. We're planning to put up some netting to keep them out, so we don't lose egg production to hay mow accidents.

Three-day weekend

One rafter girt up. Another one will go on the backside of the posts after the rafters are fastened down.
Here are most of the rafters up, but still needing their lower ends tied down with the metal hurricane ties.

The garden is coming along nicely. Except for the amaranth. So far, not one seed has sprouted, so it looks like we'll try our mangel beets here later this summer. We've been able to harvest lettuce and spinach and some beet thinnings.

And of course, Newt being cute. She just had to jump on top of the barrow full of Stella's green chop.

Stella is learning to back up on voice and hand command. Next up is learning to walk forward on command, which is easier to teach with copious treats. Toshi is taking to his role as man of the flock quite well. He scouts out choice bits of grain and bugs for the ladies and calls them over to partake. He also makes sure everyone gets to bed on time. His occasional attempts at mating have so far not met with success, but he's still young.

Weekend recovery...

Managed to get a few things done this weekend, despite a slow start. This is a temp cross fence run out of cattle panel to open a bit more grazing for the 4 leggeds. Eventually I'll pull the cattle panel for the last of the perimeter, and then redo this run in field fence.

Tranplanted these from the backyard. They wound up where the expanded vegetable garden went, so they have been moved to the front yard where we hope they'll eventually grow into some screening.

Hopefully next weekend will be even more productive!!

Happy hens make tasty eggs!

Taking a break from turning sod - humans and critters. The hens follow right along and scarf up bugs and worms as each sod chunk is flipped. Sometimes you have to stop and wait while they jump right in and work. It's kind of meditative and productive at the same time. The hens are friendly and mellow and seem to enjoy working with us to make the new garden space. It will be a bit sad when the project is over and the hens go back to chicken-only work.

We're lunching on eggs laid about an hour ago, after a long morning of garden work. It's really cool to know we feed the chickies, they feed us, and we all work together to help grow more food for us all.