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greenstormWe still have frost some nights here still, despite the 20-degree days. Still, if I define summer as the time it becomes almost physically painful to cross a threshold into the indoors, it's summer. Beltaine at least marked a distinct seasonal change. I had forgotten what this was like, to miss it, but I like it.
I got 26 trees to plant at the beginning of the week (work had kept me from picking them up before the weekend and they need to go into the ground as quickly as possible). They're half in the ground now. I've been taking it easy at work, doing shorter days to make up for last week's ridiculousness.
There are a bunch of raspberries to go in the ground too.
My angelica and lovage survived the winter. Comfrey and sorrel and stinging nettles look great. The ducks may have eaten all my sweet ciciley, but it's on the north side of the greenhouse so it may just be slow to come up. It looks like the good king henry is healthy and happy.
I planted more sorrel because there's never enough.
The pigs almost have the orchard field tilled, but I'm not quite ready to move them yet. Some of the apples may need to end up in temporary spaces in the meantime.
There are birds sitting on nests *everywhere*. Every time I turn around someone is sitting somewhere else. It's a little ridiculous, honestly. Currently there are 3 sets of 3 chickens sharing a nest in various places, one hen has just started sitting sin the woodshed, and a hen was sitting this morning in a totally inappropriate place so I need to move her tonight. There are 3 known muscovy nests but I suspect I'm missing a couple, 2 geese are sitting properly (one in the central greenhouse; she should hatch soon, and one in the chicken coop) but there are at least 4 other goose nests being assembled and 3 duck nests. Because some of them are so chaotic I don't expect a high hatch rate, but still I will have plenty of meat to eat this winter.
I've discovered a way to cook muscovy breast that makes me really happy: slice thinner across the breast into 2 or 3 "steaks", bread in flour salt and pepper, and quick fry. It reminds me a little of the steaks I used to get from my Vancouver meat hook-up; they had pounded minute steaks which were easy and quick to cook and this is the same. Because it's such a dark meat I think I was confused for awhile; I like lamb and beef pretty rare, but my muscovy I like more well-done.
My Thea-dog has been collecting goose eggs (which makes it even more amazing that I have so many eggs in the nests still) and distributing them across the lawn. She cuddles them, licks them, and carries them away from birds that get too close to her. It's pretty funny. She still has a collection of other objects there: a safety vest, some sticks and bones, a towel. I suppose I should clean that up at some point. One issue with not having a lawnmower is that I don't have to clean up the yard; geese mow around everything.
I'm reasonably sure that 2 of my pigs are pregnant; I was given a maybe-date of early June from their breeder since she wasn't sure if they were exposed or not. It *could* just be that 2 of them are fatter than the others but there's a very distinct downwards-hanging full look to their bellies; the other 3 are pretty lean and athletic looking. The more time I spend with them when I'm not going in to feed them the happier I am with them. I've been working with them to stay back when I'm carrying food in (they don't push at me but I'd prefer they don't touch me at all and of course they mostly sense with their noses, so it's a work in progress). If I stay in after they're fed, though, they will follow me around politely for scratches and are just generally very engaging creatures.
Avallu has been hanging out in the basement; it's too hot for him outside during the day now. I think he's also missing me pretty hard from last week. Likewise Whiskey-cat has been staying very close.
Anyhow, the farm is going well. Work... has been a bit problematic, but I'm thinking about that part. We'll see what I can do about it.
I got 26 trees to plant at the beginning of the week (work had kept me from picking them up before the weekend and they need to go into the ground as quickly as possible). They're half in the ground now. I've been taking it easy at work, doing shorter days to make up for last week's ridiculousness.
There are a bunch of raspberries to go in the ground too.
My angelica and lovage survived the winter. Comfrey and sorrel and stinging nettles look great. The ducks may have eaten all my sweet ciciley, but it's on the north side of the greenhouse so it may just be slow to come up. It looks like the good king henry is healthy and happy.
I planted more sorrel because there's never enough.
The pigs almost have the orchard field tilled, but I'm not quite ready to move them yet. Some of the apples may need to end up in temporary spaces in the meantime.
There are birds sitting on nests *everywhere*. Every time I turn around someone is sitting somewhere else. It's a little ridiculous, honestly. Currently there are 3 sets of 3 chickens sharing a nest in various places, one hen has just started sitting sin the woodshed, and a hen was sitting this morning in a totally inappropriate place so I need to move her tonight. There are 3 known muscovy nests but I suspect I'm missing a couple, 2 geese are sitting properly (one in the central greenhouse; she should hatch soon, and one in the chicken coop) but there are at least 4 other goose nests being assembled and 3 duck nests. Because some of them are so chaotic I don't expect a high hatch rate, but still I will have plenty of meat to eat this winter.
I've discovered a way to cook muscovy breast that makes me really happy: slice thinner across the breast into 2 or 3 "steaks", bread in flour salt and pepper, and quick fry. It reminds me a little of the steaks I used to get from my Vancouver meat hook-up; they had pounded minute steaks which were easy and quick to cook and this is the same. Because it's such a dark meat I think I was confused for awhile; I like lamb and beef pretty rare, but my muscovy I like more well-done.
My Thea-dog has been collecting goose eggs (which makes it even more amazing that I have so many eggs in the nests still) and distributing them across the lawn. She cuddles them, licks them, and carries them away from birds that get too close to her. It's pretty funny. She still has a collection of other objects there: a safety vest, some sticks and bones, a towel. I suppose I should clean that up at some point. One issue with not having a lawnmower is that I don't have to clean up the yard; geese mow around everything.
I'm reasonably sure that 2 of my pigs are pregnant; I was given a maybe-date of early June from their breeder since she wasn't sure if they were exposed or not. It *could* just be that 2 of them are fatter than the others but there's a very distinct downwards-hanging full look to their bellies; the other 3 are pretty lean and athletic looking. The more time I spend with them when I'm not going in to feed them the happier I am with them. I've been working with them to stay back when I'm carrying food in (they don't push at me but I'd prefer they don't touch me at all and of course they mostly sense with their noses, so it's a work in progress). If I stay in after they're fed, though, they will follow me around politely for scratches and are just generally very engaging creatures.
Avallu has been hanging out in the basement; it's too hot for him outside during the day now. I think he's also missing me pretty hard from last week. Likewise Whiskey-cat has been staying very close.
Anyhow, the farm is going well. Work... has been a bit problematic, but I'm thinking about that part. We'll see what I can do about it.
