The August Garden

I stepped out back this evening to commune with the bees and sulk over the state of the garden. It's been quite a few weeks since I put any real work into it and it sure enough shows. The expanse of lawn in between plots was newly mown but the plots themselves... Oh my.

The goat pen stands empty and overgrown. The girls are off at the farm being bred for (hopefully) Spring babies.

I posted a shot of the garden from this exact spot about 6 weeks ago and it was gorgeous. Glorious even. Now it just looks sad and neglected. I was able to unearth some squash from that mess but the squash bugs pretty much decimated my zucchini and yellow squash.

The basil bed is unruly and completely misbehaving.

As are the hens when I let them out for their evening romp.

When you walk thru all that mess you have to watch out for pumpkins. Everywhere bits of orange peek through the grass. I'm having a lot of success at growing them this year.

I've already picked 10 and then I found these last night. There are probably 10 to 12 more still on the vine and I'm hoping they hold off until the appropriate season for harvesting.

Out of 30 plus tomato plants about 5 are still hanging in there. We have had a very wet very cool Summer and I'm not sure if that was the cause but there was an awful lot of root rot going on.

Last night's harvest is still sitting in the basket in the kitchen. I've got plans to go rip whole basil plants out of the ground and make as much pesto as I can. We are eating tomatoes with every meal because we just aren't getting enough of any one kind to process them. I thought I would be more upset about that considering all the work I put in, but it worked out because my plate is very full right now and I think adding one more task (especially a large one like canning) would do me in.

Baker Creek

This past weekend, Stella and I went on an adventure. Just the two of us. Up into Missouri to attend the Baker Creek Spring Planting Festival.

Baker Creek is a seed company out of Mansfield, Missouri that was started by Jere Gettle at the age of 17. They have one of the largest collections of heirloom seeds from the 19th century. You can read more about them here.

This was my first visit to their farm and I was not expecting such a crowd. Last year over 7,500 garden enthusiasts, organic foodies, hippie back to the landers, homeschoolers and the likes passed through the gates. When we arrived the grounds were already crawling with people. There were so many amazing vendors and presenters that I didn’t even get to see.

The kids tent was a hit with Stella. She loved the cool sand pile and enjoyed playing the free games. After you collected so many tickets you got to turn them in for an organic soda. But only one! I love that everything was as natural as it could be. She opted for some pink streaks in her hair for fun.

It was a little less crowded in their pioneer village. They have a vegetarian restaurant onsite that was donation only. The line was much too long for us to stand in, but the few food trucks at the festival were serving farm to table real food, goats milk ice cream, smoothies, and such. It was amazing to be able to eat and not have to worry about what is in it and where did it come from.

I would have loved to have perused the seed store but it was nearly impossible to get in the door. Everyone else must have had the same idea. So we wondered around, did as much shopping as we could carry, and made plans for next year. Those plans include a wagon, or two. Also a tent since this thing goes for two days.

Some of the amazing things I was able to carry back to my car included:

Some gorgeous hand thrown plates from Cyborg Clayworks. Wooden weapons from SturdiGuns.com.

 

A huge handwoven basket that saved my hide and held so much stuff. Can’t remember the name of the artists though. Some herbs, a few very interesting varieties of tomato and pepper I hadn’t heard of, two honeyberry bushes and a new hop plant. I fell immediately in love with this handmade broom from Laffing Horse Designs. So much so that I ordered a bunch of them to carry in our store.

 

The Baker Creek Spring Planting Festival was very inspiring. It was great to see that so many people care about where their food comes from, even down to the source of the seed. The vendors were top notch, and I would rather spend my money on handmade things any day.

Being gone for only two days, you would have thought my garden would have behaved itself. Of course not. But just coming from a garden fest, I was excited to jump back in.

I started the day off by transplanting some tiny tomato plants out of the nursery bed into a bigger plot. Warren eventually joined me and I would say we put in a good three hours in planting, cultivation, and building our hugelkultur beds. It was a nice ending to the day to sit down in the garden with a glass of wine and watch the sprinkler make idle arcs over all my hard work.

It all pays off in the end.

The One About The Goats

Last year, we brought home three darling doelings. I said darling at the time but that would soon change. One goat was awesome. The other two were brats. All three were supposed to be bred, so we were looking forward to welcoming kids in the Spring. All three put on weight. None of them produced offspring. It was a serious letdown.

The woman whom we had purchased the goats from kept in touch and stopped by to check and see if we had any kids at the appropriate time. She was as disappointed as we, and very apologetic. She offered to take two of our girls back to her farm for a date with one of her bucks. In return, she brought us a nanny who’s twins had just been weaned. It was a win for us. A goat to milk while ours were off getting busy. Our smallest doe stayed home to keep the new goat company and plans are to send her over to the farm in the Fall.

Meet Blueberry. Our dairy goat on loan.


Now let me be clear. I had never milked a goat. I had witnessed goats and cows being milked and I vaugely remember trying my hand at milking a dairy cow but maybe I was drinking and just imagined it. But, I had read about the technique and was positive I could handle it. Like anything else, if I read about it, in my mind I am an instant expert.

Being without a proper stanchion at the time, my goat farmer friend assured me I could most likely tie Blueberry off to a post on the back porch and milk her without too much trouble. This didn’t work. For a few reasons: Blueberry was missing her kids, our porch is out of sight of the goat pen and her new friend Milkle, there was no way to keep her still, and I was a completely inexperienced milker.



Our first session didn’t go well. She danced around the pole like she was looking for tips. She kicked at the bucket and then at me. I got maybe a half a cup off of her. The next time, I got a bit smarter. I tied her off to the outside of the goat pen. Now she was unable to move sideways, just forward and backward. It went a bit better, except for all the hay and other debris that made it into the bucket when she lunged forward and stepped in the milk. It’s a good thing we weren’t keeping the milk from the first week. A few more comical milkings and we worked out a routine.



After she had been here about a week (and we had really struck up a friendship) disaster struck. The gate to the pen was not latched correctly after a certain child went down for a visit. It wasn’t noticed until the goats were long gone. From six pm to eight pm, I combed the woods, shaking a bucket and calling for them. I lost the loaner goat! At this point I was pretty much beside myself.

The next morning the kids and I loaded up and posted flyers. We visited our neighbors asking for signs of marauding goats. We called the radio station and the sheriff. We got a tip at one house. The gentleman had seen them yesterday evening in his pasture with his cattle. We spent another two hours on foot on his property fighting our way thru brush and briars with no luck.

I had pretty much given up hope.

The goats went missing on Tuesday afternoon.
Friday afternoon I got a phone call from a woman who knew where they were. An hour later, I had them home.

Thankfully and miraculously, Blueberry had not dried up. After missing six milkings she still had a full bag. Her production decreased in the next few days, but has since picked back up. We have this milking business down pat now.

Blueberry will evidently be put up for sale this Fall after she returns to the farm and is bred. In the meantime, should her and I become really close I might have to consider making her a permanent addition to The Tiny Farm.