I really must post more regularly on here as there has been a lot going on since I last wrote.
The rabbits have finally started breeding. Well one of them has, but unfortunately both times she has kindled on the cage floor and the kits have died because they were cold. Partly my fault as I didn't get to them in time.
Continuing my experiments with the Ruth Stout method of gardening, I had laid down four hundred foot rows of hay last fall. I planted potatoes in one of the rows and the other three I attempted a three sisters planting of corn, beans and squash. All the seeds were heritage seed from Baker Creek. The potatoes were from one of the local feed stores.
The potatoes started to grow really well and then we were hit with an unexpected frost one night which looked to kill about thirty potato plants. I trimmed off all the black damaged leaves and hoped they would recover. They did and I now have over sixty well established planted that I have hilled up twice with more hay.
The corn is doing really well also. Out of all the seeds I planted, about six have not shown. The beans and squash didn't do so good. For every corn planting there was a bean planted next to it. I have about fifty percent germination on the beans. The squash did very poorly and I only have a couple that germinated. I may need to start them off in pots when I do it next year. Actually I have recently learned of a way to use eggshells as seed starters and I will try that. You take the eggshell and carefully bore a hole in the bottom for drainage, fill it with compost and plant your seed. When you are ready to transplant them in the garden, you just squeeze the shell to crack it and plant the complete thing in the ground. This gives the plant lots of vitamins and calcium as the shell breaks down. The roots 'hatch out' the bottom of the shell. This idea came from a really cool family that post video on YouTube. They go by the username Survival HT. Thank you guys.
Talking of eggs, the main project this year was to start keeping laying hens. I built a chicken coop from plans I found on the net that use cattle panels bent over to form a Quonset structure. It has a wooden frame around the base and the two panels are attached to it. More panel is used for the ends and a door is built into one end. The whole structure is then covered in poultry netting and then tarps for weather proofing. It can be moved around the field so the chickens improve the ground it is on, they are then moved to a new spot and the first spot is now clear for planting. We were given two Barred Rock chickens by a colleague at work and we have had them for about two weeks. It took them just over a week to settle in but they are now giving us eggs!
As the laying program is now successfully under way, I am looking at meat chickens for next year. Again they will be on a pasture rotation system and after reading up on the subject, we have decided that the usual Cornish Cross chickens are not for us. If we are going to raise our own meat then it will be tasteful in more ways than one. The CC birds suffer too much when they get to slaughter weight as their legs are not strong enough to carry them around. This would make it impossible to use them in a pasture setting. Instead, we will try to get Freedom Rangers. These are colored birds that grow a little more slowly than the white birds. They don't get as heavy as the white birds either, but the taste is so much better. We may even try raising our own stock once we have the initial flock.
We haven't made any hay this year as we have so much still left from last year. The two year old hay is being used for the no till garden and if we run out I will just cut some from the field and bale it as I need it. I have a friend lined up to come and brush hog the field at the end of the summer. The reason for this is mainly to hammer the Horse Nettle population. This is a poisonous plant that is not good for livestock. We are hoping that cutting it just before it get to flowering, we can knock it back some. We will see if it works.
I eventually want to run some small livestock over the land: I'm still not sure whether it will be goats or hair sheep. Whatever it is, it will be dual purpose for bot meat and dairy. I'm still reading up on that one.
All in all, we are having a good year. There has been quite a lot of rain so far this year and it has definitely helped the plants to grow. Unfortunately it has also made the grass row and I hate mowing the lawns. Let's hope we don't get infested with the locusts and grasshoppers like we have done in the last two years.
