Homesteading: Small Wonders

and big plans

Gonzo the goose “helping” to tack up Jade

By: JGM

This week, the weather warmed up, at least for this week. By the 12th, the temperatures start dipping again. Although we have had the luxury of traveling this winter to places that were not quite as cold as here, it still feels like a long slog toward spring.

Anyway, over the past few weeks, I have planted many seeds in our hydroponic garden system and in seed trays under grow lights. Lettuce, kale, and peppers have done well. Stevia and tarragon never sprouted.

The lettuce and kale from the hydroponic garden were planted directly into the garden about a week ago. Here they are, ready to be planted.

Now, I could lose them to frost in the coming weeks, but lettuce and kale are hardy. As long as they stay covered with netting, I thought I had a 50/50 chance of them surviving the next month outdoors. Well, one can always hope.

I covered the raised bed with netting to protect the plants from freezing and to stop Gonzo the goose from devouring them. The kale is doing fantastic. The lettuce, sadly, did not fare quite as well. Gonzo managed to get her head under the netting and enjoyed what can only be described as a very satisfying snack.

More lettuce is currently being planted to replace what was lost. Sigh

I used seeding trays to start broccoli and red cabbage. Those very little plants were transplanted directly into the raised bed and are doing fantastic under the netting.

I have also started cucumber, yellow squash, and zucchini. I transplanted those into bigger pots, and they are currently living in the greenhouse with the expectation that they will move outside around mid-April.

Likewise, I started a number of tomato plants called Gardener’s Delight. This tomato was featured on Monty Don’s gardening show a few seasons ago. It is an old German heirloom cherry tomato variety, disease-resistant and indeterminate, which means the vines simply keep growing and growing until something stops them. In my garden, that something is usually frost, gravity, or the end-of-season neglect.

Last year, I tried not to stake or use tomato cages and simply let the tomatoes run free. It was not an unmitigated disaster, but it did make it much harder to control the weeds and keep the slugs from marching directly onto the fruit, as if they had purchased tickets.

So this year, it is back to staking or using cages.

I find that most of the tomato cages sold in stores are generally too flimsy. They seem designed for tomatoes that politely grow to about 18 inches and then stop, which is not how tomatoes behave in real life.

I have had good success using fencing wire, such as no-climb wire, bending it into an 18-inch or 2-foot circle, and then using loose wire, zip ties, or baling twine to secure the ends together. It makes a much sturdier cage and survives the season far better than the store-bought versions.

I may do that again this year.

I find that cherry tomatoes work well for me because I can freeze them whole and save myself a lot of time processing. I just pop the little tomatoes into a mason jar and freeze. Cherry tomatoes are also incredibly prolific, which is a polite way of saying that by August, you will be finding tomatoes in places you do not remember planting them.

I had one tomato plant self-seed last August. I transplanted it, and although it is not producing fruit because it prefers more light, it is doing well in the greenhouse. I will transplant it back outside in April.

Last year I started all my tomatoes from seed using nine different heirloom varieties. Truth be told, none of them were great, either in flavor or production. Yes, we got plenty of tomatoes, but I was not thrilled with the results. They all seemed kind of pasty, sour, and/or flavorless, and very susceptible to insect damage. The best performers were actually the self-starting cherry tomatoes from plants I had bought the year before at Lowe’s. So, as much as I want to love all the heirloom varieties out there, some of them simply aren’t that great.

Gizmo, our blue-eyed dinosaur, and Joey, her new male consort, have finally developed a friendship. It has taken a while, but they now hang out together peacefully. I do not think we will be getting any eggs until next fall, though. Emus lay in the winter, based largely on the amount of daylight.

Gonzo the goose still visits them regularly. In particular, she loves the water bath near their pasture. Back at the barn, where she tucks herself in each night, she has started laying eggs again. She follows us around like a dog whenever we are outside and always has quite a bit to say about whatever we are doing.

The chickens are back to full-time egg production, after what seemed like a long winter’s break. Next year, I need to be sure to have more frozen egg in stored. I planned for six weeks of off time - but it turned out to be closer to 2.5 months. Goose is also laying a mondo egg about five times a week.

This month, we also need to spray the fruit trees with non-toxic dormant oil and give them a good pruning. Two years ago, we made a video with The Epoch Times about pruning fruit trees. I think you all will enjoy watching it.

So, Robert and I have both been slogging it out on the farm.

One big chore this week has been removing all the stock-tank heating units from the animal’s stock tanks. It may seem like a small chore, but rolling up electric cords, taking off the waterproofing electrical tape from the connections, and cutting the various twine that has kept the units in place, so the horses don’t play the toss the heater to the ground and stomp on it game, takes a fair bit of time.

Plus, this time of year, the horse’s winter blankets come off, then are hung on hooks in the barn, only to be put back on again when the temperatures dip. The yoyo cycle of horse blankets is time-consuming.

I have been on a bit of a tear, trying to use up all the produce and meat from last year in my cooking. We have a quarter cow heading for the freezer in April, so I need to get those weird beef cuts that get left to the “end” of the year used up. Some of it is just getting cooked up or used raw in dog food, which they don’t mind one bit.

We have harvested about 20 pounds of lemons and limes this year, and the five trees in the greenhouse are doing exceptionally well. Particularly as it has been a cold winter.

I still have six or seven pumpkins left in storage, as well as 25 pounds of sweet potatoes, which the chickens love cooked up. I just poke them a few times and throw them in the microwave for about three minutes each side. Cooked like this, they are super tasty for humans too.

The stored sweet potatoes are starting to sprout, so it is a little early, but taking cuttings for next year’s plants is worth doing now. This will be year four with the same plants.

Other than all the farm chores and cooking, I have managed to get a fair bit of riding Jade in over the past week.

But despite all the work, the pleasures of the farm happen in those small moments, when one least expects it.

Jade, my wonder stallion and best equine companion ever, and I were riding in the forest at the back of the property on a gravel access road for the power company that cuts up a steep path. The dogs were off in the distance, as they always are, either looking for deer or fox to chase or actually chasing them.

Suddenly, I looked to my left and, running parallel to me in the trees, only a stone’s throw away, was a slinky bobcat, America’s small lynx. He ran at our side - as Jade, and I trotted up the hill and then, at some point, zoomed ahead, crossed in front of us, and disappeared. He was tall - taller than I thought a bobcat would be. Greyish with a shortish, but not completely docked tail. He looked just like the image below.

(photo credits: NPS/ Anela Ramos Kopshever)

I was gobsmacked.

When we first moved here years ago, before the houses were put in and the homesite was abandoned and wild, I thought I once saw a bobcat outside in the middle of the night, but then I wondered if it was just a very large cat. I knew bobcats were in our area, but still. Bobcats are not something one sees very often, if ever.

But seeing him last week. Well, it was on the first warm day, and he looked thin. He was probably hunting the small animals out for the first time this season and still sleepy from the long winter’s nap.

But still, somehow that bobcat running beside me made my heart beat a little faster and made the stillness of the forest feel more intense, more alive.

We are surrounded by spirits of this world and not of this world. And the wonder of that can overwhelm me.

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