Homesteading 101: A Walk About
It has been a busy two weeks on the farm now that the weather has finally turned the corner once and for all, and spring has most definitely sprung. So much to do, so little time!
For the bad news, our most excellent farm help - Olivia has graduated from college and is leaving our employment after six or seven years working for us. Sigh. We are going to miss her upbeat, cheerful personality and calming presence. The good news is that we are hiring another person full-time who can also stay on the farm when we are traveling. But the animals and all of us will miss Olivia. Change is hard.
Gizmo may morph into an elegant Hyacinth fantasia character any day now, but until then - he continues his sincere search for some sort of understanding of his world.
In this photo, Gizmo is hiding behind a tree. Can you see him?
Gizmo thinks the greenhouse is intriguing... but he is not yet ready to fully commit to coming in.
Living with Gizmo has its challenges, we garden and emu ungardens.
Recently,, we planted out the sweet potato starts. Gizmo does not like the taste of sweet potato plants - but as Jill gardened, he went through and plucked off leaves one by one. Then spits the leaves out onto the ground. Ditto for the snapdragon flowers. As we don’t limit where Gizmo can go, that is the price paid. In this case, Jill dealt with Gizmo pulling out plants by just starting on a different task, and Gizmo soon lost interest in “helping” with the sweet potatoes and snapdragon planting.
That said - one can’t say no to Gizmo easily. He just doesn’t comprehend much. Gizmo is a pet, but he isn’t entirely domesticated. We live with Gizmo with the understanding that we must work with his instinctual quirks, which is ok. It is why he is imprinted on us - so that he sees us as his community. Many poultry breeds and other birds kept as pets are similar.
Gizmo is very sensitive and can frighten easily, so despite his big size we are very careful in how we tell him “no” - and he respects that. With his limited brain capacity, we don’t want him to become defensive or frightened of us. There are emu videos online of emu’s being very mean. and they certainly can be - again, it comes down to careful upbringing (yes, in the house) and being consistent and thoughtful in their handling.
However, we just don’t have the heart to stop him completely from his “helping” us. His sheer delight in both eating our vegetables and ungardening is infectious.
Lettuce
The lettuce seeds were planted at the beginning of March and are now being harvested for our salads. Jill picks the outer leaves of the plants and not too many from each plant, so that the lettuce will continue to produce new leaves. But in a few weeks, lettuce will bolt from the hot Virginia sun. We also cover this crop with netting, which keeps big bird out of the raised bed.
Of note - we broadcast seed the lettuce, just as one does with grass seed. This allows for more lettuce to be grown in a small space, and the lettuce outcompetes most of the weeds. Jill likes to buy a blend of lettuce seeds in bulk for this - rather than a single variety.
Netting
The true intended role of the netting is to stop insect damage, provide some shade, and help the garden retain water. The netting does all this and has a synergistic effect.
Our raised beds are about 4 x 10 foot. For the netting, I purchased plastic pipe and pipe clamps from the hardware store. Then just bent the pipe - which is flexible to fit the pipe clamps. The hoops can be easily removed if needed.
The netting (I used 10’ x 20’ and we either cut off or tied up the extra material) was bought from Amazon, as were the stainless steel clips. Both these products were bought in the spring of 2024 and have lasted through the entire season. We stored them overwinter and used the same clips and nettings again this year - the netting and clips are still perfectly good. The hoops also are still in great shape.
This photo was taken a couple of months ago. It shows the hoops and netting.
Last year we netted the young fruit trees and that allowed them to grow unperturbed from insect injury. The results were astounding compared to other years when we have planted fruit trees.
I highly recommend this netting on Amazon - one of the best things about it is that birds don’t get caught up in it (click on the individual photo to expand the image if you are interested).
Netting with larger holes can trap small birds and they will beat themselves to death trying to get out of it. It is super important to me to buy bird-safe netting.
Cardboard for weed control and water retention
This year we used cardboard as a method for weed control in our tomato patch. The basic idea is to lay down cardboard over the entire garden and then cover with a thin layer of mulch, leaf mulch, compost, or dirt to hold the cardboard down. Holes (or Xs) were cut into the cardboard for planting the tomatoes.
We took those heirloom tomato plants that we grew from seed in the aero garden, hardened them off in the greenhouse, and finally planted them out in a raised bed, as well as in other containers this week.
The roots were planted deep so that strong plants develop. Soon, they will be staked up with sticks from the forest and twine. Right now, they are being allowed to just grow, as they got a little overheated/burned in the greenhouse and need a chance to recover after being transplanted, which they seem to be doing quickly. We ended up with around 12 plants in total.
Not much to look at now - but with luck, just wait a few weeks!
Basil
Like the lettuce seeds, we broadcast seed our basil, as I have probably written about before. It comes up aa a verdant green lawnlike carpet. Then Jill cuts the little basil plants to use as microgreens, leaving just some plants to grow. She then thins again, when they reach a few inches high.
The basil was planted less then a week ago in a 4’x8’ raised bed and has already sprouted.
A pound of basil seed costs less than $30 on the net and, if stored in a dark, cool place, will last for many years of crops.
Our carrots and cilantro have also come up now - we will use the cilantro as soon as possible, as around here it bolts quickly.
Blueberries
We have about six dwarf blueberry bushes outside our front door - this year we plan to net those as the berries become ripe, as last year, the birds, peacocks, and emu all feasted and left scant few berries for us. We also plan to plant more blueberries this year, as blueberry bushes do well for us in the northern “southeast.” They do need to be watered - particularly when young.
Likewise, we have expanded our thornless blackberry plantings. I don’t think the thornless varieties are as tasty, but they are certainly easier to weed, prune, and harvest!
Here I am watering said blueberry plants - while Gizmo begs for treats from the house
.Gizmo begging for treats happens at least twice a day, if not more…
Gonzo the goose
Gonzo is now laying us about five eggs a week. She has a little pile of straw in the barn - and each egg is carefully deposited and covered with straw in the morning, then promptly forgotten about it. Luckily for us, as this allows one of us to collect said egg later in the day. Gonzo hasn’t turned broody - which is why we collect her egg daily, this usually stops broodiness in poultry.
For those who don’t know, a broody bird is a female who develops a strong instinct to incubate eggs and hatch chicks. Some species, like geese, can become very defensive of their eggs when they get broody. FYI - Geese have serrated edges on their beaks that can draw blood as well as pinch, and trust me, geese can and will bite hard when pissed off. The best way to stop broodiness from happening is to pick up all the eggs daily.
Gonzo has numerous watering spots around the farm to bathe in. She loves puddles, the low stock tanks, as well as her own personal wading pool made out of an old plastic masonry mixing container. Now her new favorite is our fountain, recently filled with water - that is located on the porch outside our house. Last year, she couldn’t find a way to get up into the fountain, but now she has learned how to fly into it. She loves to bathe, splashing water everywhere.
Lusitanos
We are downsizing the mare herd slowly - so, we keep telling that to ourselves.
Which is why this young filly named Utopia (shown with her dam) isn’t to be sold. Just when we decide we want to scale down breeding, this beauty comes along - the pinnacle of our decades-long breeding program.
Jill has sold Maeve CAL, one of our broodmares, as well as Ghost, a young stallion this month.
She made this sales video of Ghost last week:
Easter-
Our neighbors, Mercy and Matt Schlapp, visited the farm with three of their daughters on Easter Sunday, after church services.
Below is a photo of Jill and the girls doing a walkabout on the farm.
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American Goldfinches at the feeder outside our bedroom window this week.
Consider a bird feeder and 25 pounds of wild-bird food as a gift to a child in your life -
May you all have a wonderful and productive day!
Robert and Jill
I have to admit today was a good day to daydream off onto your farm. The day to day pressures of living in this absurd blue state has really been getting to me lately. My state rep, Paul McMurtry, who I have called several times over the years votes against my wishes consistently. This vote is on the state forcing vaccinations on babies and kids, and teaching sexual content, like transgender, homosexuality and lesbianism to children as young as kindergarteners. It’s really a sick twisted perverse state here in Massachusetts. I’ve seen some of the disgusting content they put in front of these little kids, it’s content I don’t even want to look at. These people pushing this to me are child molesters, with the ultimate goal of allowing sex with minor children. I think this is their goal. Well thanks for the break from the insanity. The Massachusetts politicians and schools are so disgusting I have to apologize for them, they are disgraceful animals. This is the world we live in, makes me think of the second coming!
I think it’s time to go!!
Gizmo puts a smile on my face with his antics 😂. It is also great to have neighbors such as the Schlapps. Have a great rest of your week. I'm off to Ohio family for my mother's 90th birthday; my mother, who lives in Florida still works in her flower gardens and her 3 mile walk everyday, which is keeping her quite fit at her age.