Gobsmacked by God's creation! I know what you mean. In days of my misspent youth, was riding my motorcycle in central (flat) Colorado and out of the corner of my eye, not that far away, a bald eagle was taking off from the ground. Nearly ran that bike into a ditch, but the memory is still fresh, some 60 years later. "Gobsmacked" nails it.
The greatest thrill I got is driving through Custer State Park and driving up a steep hill and seeing at the peak of the hill a Male Elk standing tall and majestically with a magnificent set of Antlers. Why was he standing watch? Protecting his harem of 5 females as they passed by him and crossed the road. Then he bounded off after them. I wish I had had a camera!
A gobsmacker for sure! In a slightly different category with the deer family, albeit smaller, whitetails, although still approaching 200 lbs each, at 80+mph on the bike cresting a hill, two of them, one trailing the other maybe 10’ apart, were so close to me I didn’t have time to brake or even slow down, I went between them, pretty much frozen. Me, not them, eyes finally blinking, wondering how in the world I survived.
My eyes aren’t what they used to be. Top picture, I thought, “Nice boots”. Oh…wait…
Thank you for this wonderful homesteading update.It’s motivated me to get out and start prepping for tomatoes. I use the frame of a chicken run I found on Amazon and tie the plants up to the top rails. They can grow wherever they like, but are easily kept off the ground and high wind is not an issue. The little amount I have to do on our property exhausts me. I really don’t understand how you have energy for horses, for dogs, for fowl, for writing, for travel, for speeches - for being so generous with your time for people you don’t even know. It’s truly inspiring.
I treasure that video you made while riding Jade. After losing my mare after 23 years and being that gimpy old gray mare myself - what joy it brought me riding along with you! Thank you for sharing adventures with gardening and all about your feathered friends on that beautiful farm in Virginia. What a gift you and Robert are to this world!!
Early morning, right before dawn, I could hear 2 owls talking to one another. I stepped outside to see if I could see them, I did, they were right next to each other, big birds the size of an eagle, at the top of large White Oak. One heard me and flapped her wings, thats how I saw them, like 50 feet away.
That was last fall, now I hear them almost every night, I saw one of them in the same tree a few weeks ago, answering to her mate a little ways away. They are a mated pair of the Great horned owl, the biggest of all our owls. Cant wait to hear/see babies!
We saw some out there.. Owls. but rarely.. they are actually quite camouflaged.. I think we heard them.. our dogs would let us know if anything was on the property.. even a bumblebee. (the German short hair pointer.. who is long RIP.. who we still think of.. he is buried out there on the Farm... where my son still lives.. anyway I better go.. never saw a great horned owl.. I think the biggest chatterbox birds are Crows.. even here.. ROFL.
I wholeheartedly recommend lime water for storing eggs; I have kept them in good condition in my unheated/uncooled pantry for over a year.
The whites will get pretty runny after 6 months, but the yolks stay firm and plump. Unlike frozen eggs, you can still enjoy them fried or boiled.
Just add enough slaked lime (sold as pickling lime or "sal" in the Mexican food section of your grocery) to get to the saturation point in a lidded container of water and add your UNWASHED eggs. I generally use a one gallon jar or small lidded bucket.
Right now I'm using up stored pullet eggs from 2 years ago in my dog's food, and they're still edible.
That is really interesting.. hmm.. wow. "STILL EDIBLE" you mean for the dog right ? ROFL
actually I didn't know that.. when I was in Fauquier last week.. we drove by a farmhouse where the chickens were roaming in the yard.. (it is farmhouse) and when we lived out there our neighbors had chickens but I don't remember ever storing eggs.. every one ate eggs all the time. VERY USEFUL INFO for those who have "extra eggs".
Thank you for a glimpse into your farm and all the beautiful creatures! Also, I really appreciate the honest view you provide regarding the difficulties of growing your own food. It certainly is not "set it and forget it". Jade is gorgeous.
Refreshing to focus on nature and the marvelous wonders of the blue green planet. I am saddened by how we continue to create money, making schemes that pollute mother Earth.!
Thomas, that's one good reason to love these homesteading stories - takes one's mind and imagination right off the other ongoing storyline humans insist on creating.
Early Spring is a wonderful time! In my tiny back garden, having done all the tidying up, I'm now back to stepping out every morning while the kettle boils, to check on the growing sprits on my roses: ahh! Here's praying for no more frost ...
Yes, I agree: don't be afraid to plant fruit trees. My millennium project was just that - I planted five dwarf apple trees in my tiny back garden. Some are doing so well I have to give loads of apples away. Others ... well, I might be able to get one apple because the squirrels always beat me to them! They are also - sadly - very fond of the buds and now the blossoms on my camellia. Yesterday I found one placed on a branch on one of the apple trees: thank you, squirrels, for decorating that tree before it starts flowering!
You are so industrious, and I love to read about all you two do on your lovely farm. I had such dreams when I was younger (now 83) but life intervened. We had a working cattle farm and feedlot, plus a Mercedes repair business. I did plant a large regular garden (no greenhouse) and kept it watered, harvested, and in the freezer. Now have a couple raised beds for my obligatory okra, squash and green beans. I need to try your German variety of tomatoes. Here in north central Alabama tomatoes of any variety haven't done well lately. I love to read about your farm and the animals, particularly horses. Jade is a wonder horse. Bless you both!
The best tomato cage is made of concrete reinforcing wire. It is made of 10gauge, 6x6 wire mesh. Comes 5' wide. Cut 84" or 14 sections. You need a small pair of bolt cutters or large fence pliers. Pair of gloves helps. The horizontals that are on one side without a vertical will wrap around the opposite vertical to lock all in place. Just take a turn around the adjacent horizontals. Then cut out the horizontals on the bottom leaving the verticals for spikes to drive into the ground. Just locate where you want it, lift and shove into the ground. Watch your foot :) You will never need cages again. I can send a pic if you want to email me. Could not see how to do that here.
Thank you sooo....much for your service and medical advice. You have helped my wife and I one hell of a lot!! I do pass this on. Ron
The concrete reinforcing wire, that's a great idea, and not just for cages. I live in a small town in MO, an old subdivision on the side of a ridge. And I have a carport outside the kitchen door rather than a garage. All this is relevant because the deer have proliferated this past year, and the recent snows have made it painfully obvious that their fav route up and down the ridge twice a day is right along my driveway (down in the morning, and up in the evening). I have the photos to prove it, and now I've seen them from the window. They even have the nerve to sometimes take a shortcut thru my carport and by the kitchen door. So in the spring, I will ask the subdivision to get rid of them... In the meantime, I want to block off the carport, as it's too dangerous to have deer parading by beside my doors and windows, especially as people are leaving for work... The concrete wire might be perfect for that, plus I could put tomatoes alongside the outside of the wire. I have plenty of small rocks with which to discourage the deer if they want to stop and browse on their way up and down.
Tomato flavor, that is a byproduct of your soil and growing conditions like sun and water, so a particular Tomato will taste different if it comes out of your garden vs the neighbors'. The only way to know for sure, is try different ones. I grew up with Starfire sub-Arctic tomatoes, which were heavenly (and early) on our farm. I have some seed, but I haven't tried growing it yet in Missouri. When I do, it might not taste the same... A good place to start would be the local farmer's market. If the tomato is grown locally and you like the taste, it's worth a try. Keep one of the tomatoes for seed, get rid of the gelatin on the seeds, and go for it.
My tomato cage experiment last year worked pretty well. We have the upper trellis above head height for the indeterminates, but to help them get going, four #3 rebars about 3' long pounded into the dirt for strength around each plant, and then branches and twigs zip-tied together on an as-needed basis until the vines reach the trellis. Very natural. And fun to design and build.
I'm here in Yorba Linda CA and I love seeing your life on your farm! I helped my friend care for her 2 horses for several years, then they moved away. I enjoy farm chores and being outdoors. We have bobcats here in our neighborhood, as well as skunks, possum, rattle snakes, roadrunners, squirrels, coyotes, red tailed hawks, turkey vultures, and even a pair of bald eagles in the Santa Ana River nearby. We are backed up to Chino HiIls State Park. Thank you for sharing this!!
As for the Stevia and Tarragon. Both are erratic in sprouting. I think Stevia likes cold stratification first, followed by warm and moist, which means bottom heat. Tarragon, you don't say what kind. French tarragon, seed is finicky, Russian tarragon less so, and Mexican/Texan tarragon a good substitute (it's not actual Tarragon). I would use bottom heat on Tarragon seeds. In fact, most seeds seem to like bottom heat, with few exceptions like Poppies and a few others that Johnny Seed and others will tell you about, that prefer to be cold... I don't use any special agricultural tools for this, just home goods. Cold-stratifiers like Milkweed and Ginseng seed, Tulip bulbs, etc go into a covered pot in the back of the kitchen fridge, with Date Sowed and Date of Earliest Emergence marked on them, so that I don't get them out too early... The picky seeds that like to be warm, I then put those pots on my nice big heating pad, and the seeds just jump up... If you give them what they like, they will produce. I was told that Milkweed will be erratic if not cold-stratified. So for an experiment, I counted out precisely 30 seeds one year, and put them in the fridge in January, took them out around March 1, and gave them bottom heat. All 30 came up, more than I needed. Ditto Tomatoes, if you give them bottom heat, they will ALL sprout, even old seed. Btw, this is an area where AI is actually useful. If I suspect that seeds need certain conditions, I just ask my browser.
Yes, of course I love the Extension offices, all of them, and I call them. Example: I love wild rice, and I found out that they now grow wild rice in the hills of Calif, amazing. Ditto the University nurseries, like U of Minnesota for their Northern Lights azaleas that I bought as insurance for the Global Cooling period that we are entering. Ditto the Arboretums, and my fav is the Missouri Botanical Garden, nearby. I buy own-root roses only. I love the Canadian Explorer series, anything Parkland, anything Kordes, for disease resistance and hardiness... BUT Extension offices are not the gospel. I once had a huge problem with Trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, in Indiana, that a previous homeowner had planted on the east side of a house I owned, and which was destroying the house. I tried all the old tricks to kill it, but no go. So I called the Extension office, and they said, "Douse the soil with diesel fuel and set fire to it". I was horrified by the diesel fuel alone, as the vines are by a cistern. So I told them, "Well, this is right beside my wood house. And I live right in town on a major street; the Mayor lives 3 houses down. I think the neighbors might object, and so would the cops." His response was "Then you need to dig down at least 18 inches, and remove all the roots you find. Even then you won't be 100% successful." So I did the digging. A few roots still came up, and I think my husband used a welding torch on them. We didn't kill them all, but they stayed manageable with a torch.
LOL - my inherited Trumpet vine still sneaks in undaunted sprouts any/everywhere it can. Nevertheless, diesel and fire are not on my list of deterrents. Gotta draw the line somewhere...
“We are surrounded by spirits of this world and not of this world. And the wonder of that can overwhelm me.” Well said! Speaks to “the fellowship of the mystery” in Eph 3 and that our struggle is not “against flesh and blood” in Eph 6.
Gobsmacked by God's creation! I know what you mean. In days of my misspent youth, was riding my motorcycle in central (flat) Colorado and out of the corner of my eye, not that far away, a bald eagle was taking off from the ground. Nearly ran that bike into a ditch, but the memory is still fresh, some 60 years later. "Gobsmacked" nails it.
The greatest thrill I got is driving through Custer State Park and driving up a steep hill and seeing at the peak of the hill a Male Elk standing tall and majestically with a magnificent set of Antlers. Why was he standing watch? Protecting his harem of 5 females as they passed by him and crossed the road. Then he bounded off after them. I wish I had had a camera!
A gobsmacker for sure! In a slightly different category with the deer family, albeit smaller, whitetails, although still approaching 200 lbs each, at 80+mph on the bike cresting a hill, two of them, one trailing the other maybe 10’ apart, were so close to me I didn’t have time to brake or even slow down, I went between them, pretty much frozen. Me, not them, eyes finally blinking, wondering how in the world I survived.
My eyes aren’t what they used to be. Top picture, I thought, “Nice boots”. Oh…wait…
Thank you for this wonderful homesteading update.It’s motivated me to get out and start prepping for tomatoes. I use the frame of a chicken run I found on Amazon and tie the plants up to the top rails. They can grow wherever they like, but are easily kept off the ground and high wind is not an issue. The little amount I have to do on our property exhausts me. I really don’t understand how you have energy for horses, for dogs, for fowl, for writing, for travel, for speeches - for being so generous with your time for people you don’t even know. It’s truly inspiring.
I treasure that video you made while riding Jade. After losing my mare after 23 years and being that gimpy old gray mare myself - what joy it brought me riding along with you! Thank you for sharing adventures with gardening and all about your feathered friends on that beautiful farm in Virginia. What a gift you and Robert are to this world!!
Early morning, right before dawn, I could hear 2 owls talking to one another. I stepped outside to see if I could see them, I did, they were right next to each other, big birds the size of an eagle, at the top of large White Oak. One heard me and flapped her wings, thats how I saw them, like 50 feet away.
That was last fall, now I hear them almost every night, I saw one of them in the same tree a few weeks ago, answering to her mate a little ways away. They are a mated pair of the Great horned owl, the biggest of all our owls. Cant wait to hear/see babies!
That is so cool! We don't seem to have any owls near us.
We saw some out there.. Owls. but rarely.. they are actually quite camouflaged.. I think we heard them.. our dogs would let us know if anything was on the property.. even a bumblebee. (the German short hair pointer.. who is long RIP.. who we still think of.. he is buried out there on the Farm... where my son still lives.. anyway I better go.. never saw a great horned owl.. I think the biggest chatterbox birds are Crows.. even here.. ROFL.
I wholeheartedly recommend lime water for storing eggs; I have kept them in good condition in my unheated/uncooled pantry for over a year.
The whites will get pretty runny after 6 months, but the yolks stay firm and plump. Unlike frozen eggs, you can still enjoy them fried or boiled.
Just add enough slaked lime (sold as pickling lime or "sal" in the Mexican food section of your grocery) to get to the saturation point in a lidded container of water and add your UNWASHED eggs. I generally use a one gallon jar or small lidded bucket.
Right now I'm using up stored pullet eggs from 2 years ago in my dog's food, and they're still edible.
I have thought about liming - now for sure, that is what I will do next year!
Very interesting.
That is really interesting.. hmm.. wow. "STILL EDIBLE" you mean for the dog right ? ROFL
actually I didn't know that.. when I was in Fauquier last week.. we drove by a farmhouse where the chickens were roaming in the yard.. (it is farmhouse) and when we lived out there our neighbors had chickens but I don't remember ever storing eggs.. every one ate eggs all the time. VERY USEFUL INFO for those who have "extra eggs".
Thank you for a glimpse into your farm and all the beautiful creatures! Also, I really appreciate the honest view you provide regarding the difficulties of growing your own food. It certainly is not "set it and forget it". Jade is gorgeous.
Refreshing to focus on nature and the marvelous wonders of the blue green planet. I am saddened by how we continue to create money, making schemes that pollute mother Earth.!
Thomas, that's one good reason to love these homesteading stories - takes one's mind and imagination right off the other ongoing storyline humans insist on creating.
Early Spring is a wonderful time! In my tiny back garden, having done all the tidying up, I'm now back to stepping out every morning while the kettle boils, to check on the growing sprits on my roses: ahh! Here's praying for no more frost ...
Yes, I agree: don't be afraid to plant fruit trees. My millennium project was just that - I planted five dwarf apple trees in my tiny back garden. Some are doing so well I have to give loads of apples away. Others ... well, I might be able to get one apple because the squirrels always beat me to them! They are also - sadly - very fond of the buds and now the blossoms on my camellia. Yesterday I found one placed on a branch on one of the apple trees: thank you, squirrels, for decorating that tree before it starts flowering!
Squirrels! Ga! They eat everything they can possibly access...
Too right! And what the squirrels leave alone, the slugs and snails get! That's why I've now have roses everywhere ...
LOL - you know, you can eat rose petals - just as long as they have not been sprayed.
never say rose petals - that discolours them. Anyway, the only spray i sue for my roses is diluted washing-up liquid, to get rid of aphids.
heading out now. :)
You are so industrious, and I love to read about all you two do on your lovely farm. I had such dreams when I was younger (now 83) but life intervened. We had a working cattle farm and feedlot, plus a Mercedes repair business. I did plant a large regular garden (no greenhouse) and kept it watered, harvested, and in the freezer. Now have a couple raised beds for my obligatory okra, squash and green beans. I need to try your German variety of tomatoes. Here in north central Alabama tomatoes of any variety haven't done well lately. I love to read about your farm and the animals, particularly horses. Jade is a wonder horse. Bless you both!
The best tomato cage is made of concrete reinforcing wire. It is made of 10gauge, 6x6 wire mesh. Comes 5' wide. Cut 84" or 14 sections. You need a small pair of bolt cutters or large fence pliers. Pair of gloves helps. The horizontals that are on one side without a vertical will wrap around the opposite vertical to lock all in place. Just take a turn around the adjacent horizontals. Then cut out the horizontals on the bottom leaving the verticals for spikes to drive into the ground. Just locate where you want it, lift and shove into the ground. Watch your foot :) You will never need cages again. I can send a pic if you want to email me. Could not see how to do that here.
Thank you sooo....much for your service and medical advice. You have helped my wife and I one hell of a lot!! I do pass this on. Ron
The concrete reinforcing wire, that's a great idea, and not just for cages. I live in a small town in MO, an old subdivision on the side of a ridge. And I have a carport outside the kitchen door rather than a garage. All this is relevant because the deer have proliferated this past year, and the recent snows have made it painfully obvious that their fav route up and down the ridge twice a day is right along my driveway (down in the morning, and up in the evening). I have the photos to prove it, and now I've seen them from the window. They even have the nerve to sometimes take a shortcut thru my carport and by the kitchen door. So in the spring, I will ask the subdivision to get rid of them... In the meantime, I want to block off the carport, as it's too dangerous to have deer parading by beside my doors and windows, especially as people are leaving for work... The concrete wire might be perfect for that, plus I could put tomatoes alongside the outside of the wire. I have plenty of small rocks with which to discourage the deer if they want to stop and browse on their way up and down.
Envious of all the life in your life..
Tomato flavor, that is a byproduct of your soil and growing conditions like sun and water, so a particular Tomato will taste different if it comes out of your garden vs the neighbors'. The only way to know for sure, is try different ones. I grew up with Starfire sub-Arctic tomatoes, which were heavenly (and early) on our farm. I have some seed, but I haven't tried growing it yet in Missouri. When I do, it might not taste the same... A good place to start would be the local farmer's market. If the tomato is grown locally and you like the taste, it's worth a try. Keep one of the tomatoes for seed, get rid of the gelatin on the seeds, and go for it.
"Sweet One-hundred" cherry tomatoes. Totally reliable in flavor and abundance.
My tomato cage experiment last year worked pretty well. We have the upper trellis above head height for the indeterminates, but to help them get going, four #3 rebars about 3' long pounded into the dirt for strength around each plant, and then branches and twigs zip-tied together on an as-needed basis until the vines reach the trellis. Very natural. And fun to design and build.
I'm here in Yorba Linda CA and I love seeing your life on your farm! I helped my friend care for her 2 horses for several years, then they moved away. I enjoy farm chores and being outdoors. We have bobcats here in our neighborhood, as well as skunks, possum, rattle snakes, roadrunners, squirrels, coyotes, red tailed hawks, turkey vultures, and even a pair of bald eagles in the Santa Ana River nearby. We are backed up to Chino HiIls State Park. Thank you for sharing this!!
As for the Stevia and Tarragon. Both are erratic in sprouting. I think Stevia likes cold stratification first, followed by warm and moist, which means bottom heat. Tarragon, you don't say what kind. French tarragon, seed is finicky, Russian tarragon less so, and Mexican/Texan tarragon a good substitute (it's not actual Tarragon). I would use bottom heat on Tarragon seeds. In fact, most seeds seem to like bottom heat, with few exceptions like Poppies and a few others that Johnny Seed and others will tell you about, that prefer to be cold... I don't use any special agricultural tools for this, just home goods. Cold-stratifiers like Milkweed and Ginseng seed, Tulip bulbs, etc go into a covered pot in the back of the kitchen fridge, with Date Sowed and Date of Earliest Emergence marked on them, so that I don't get them out too early... The picky seeds that like to be warm, I then put those pots on my nice big heating pad, and the seeds just jump up... If you give them what they like, they will produce. I was told that Milkweed will be erratic if not cold-stratified. So for an experiment, I counted out precisely 30 seeds one year, and put them in the fridge in January, took them out around March 1, and gave them bottom heat. All 30 came up, more than I needed. Ditto Tomatoes, if you give them bottom heat, they will ALL sprout, even old seed. Btw, this is an area where AI is actually useful. If I suspect that seeds need certain conditions, I just ask my browser.
and. . . https://shop.iastate.edu/extension/
type in Search bar:
"PM0874"
for detailed help planting from seeds. . .
Yes, of course I love the Extension offices, all of them, and I call them. Example: I love wild rice, and I found out that they now grow wild rice in the hills of Calif, amazing. Ditto the University nurseries, like U of Minnesota for their Northern Lights azaleas that I bought as insurance for the Global Cooling period that we are entering. Ditto the Arboretums, and my fav is the Missouri Botanical Garden, nearby. I buy own-root roses only. I love the Canadian Explorer series, anything Parkland, anything Kordes, for disease resistance and hardiness... BUT Extension offices are not the gospel. I once had a huge problem with Trumpet vine, Campsis radicans, in Indiana, that a previous homeowner had planted on the east side of a house I owned, and which was destroying the house. I tried all the old tricks to kill it, but no go. So I called the Extension office, and they said, "Douse the soil with diesel fuel and set fire to it". I was horrified by the diesel fuel alone, as the vines are by a cistern. So I told them, "Well, this is right beside my wood house. And I live right in town on a major street; the Mayor lives 3 houses down. I think the neighbors might object, and so would the cops." His response was "Then you need to dig down at least 18 inches, and remove all the roots you find. Even then you won't be 100% successful." So I did the digging. A few roots still came up, and I think my husband used a welding torch on them. We didn't kill them all, but they stayed manageable with a torch.
LOL - my inherited Trumpet vine still sneaks in undaunted sprouts any/everywhere it can. Nevertheless, diesel and fire are not on my list of deterrents. Gotta draw the line somewhere...
“We are surrounded by spirits of this world and not of this world. And the wonder of that can overwhelm me.” Well said! Speaks to “the fellowship of the mystery” in Eph 3 and that our struggle is not “against flesh and blood” in Eph 6.
"The fellowship of the Mystery." Also beautifully stated.