Unfortunately we could not post about the impending wedding at the time because of an odd issue (you could try and guess and never figure it out—it is so weird it is beyond most peoples thoughts).  Luckily, now, we are done and life beyond wedding planning can commence. Yeah!…and all went very well. Also, when I get some of the pictures I will put some of them up of the flowers and set up. We had a great photographer and our daughter was married next door at our neighbors barn.  We’ve seen a few of the pictures and they are fabulous. It was a really great wedding… though as my husband would say: I was busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest”.  Many of my “helpers” were very unhelpful. If I had known that…I would have hired some.  Lesson learned: don’t always count on family to help. They mean well….but…..

Anyway. Back to my woodstove. We’ve used it a number of times so far and it works great. It does take you a couple of times to work out firing it, setting up your pizza making supplies, cooking, turning etc. I will say no one yet has actually burned a pizza though we’ve eaten one or two with a bit more ash on them than we probably would have chosen. No biggie…the ashes really won’t kill you and you don’t taste them. I say this with experience since it was my pizza that ended up with the most ashes.  My son was learning to rotate and ended up pushing the pizza all over the oven.

Notice that the top of the oven is filled almost all the way with cement. The first couple of times we fired the oven it was not all the way full. Just a thin “coat” over the dome to help hold everything together and add a bit of sealing.  Not only had the cement cracked in a few places…which allowed a small bit of smoke out (I must have a grout joint not fully sealed) but it also did not retain enough heat.  We used a fair bit of wood those first few times to get just a small spot of white/normal brick color on the ceiling. The bricks get smokey at first and all black. When the fire is hot enough for pizza it will carbonize the soot and turn the bricks back to their normal color…eventually turning most if not all of the oven that way.

Eventually, when we had a spare moment, we filled the cavity all the way to the top of the dome with cement. We then put in two full bags of loose perlite on top and then filled in the last 5 or 6 inches (about that anyway) with cement again. Wow! What a difference that made. The next time we fired the oven not only did it not take as much wood or time to get it hot, but we got almost the entire oven without soot.  Since that evening was warm the oven was still uncomfortable warm to the touch the next morning. And that is without a door since we still have not made one.  When we are cooking the pizzas we do use a few chimney bricks up near the very very front to kind of hold in the heat a bit when we are getting it going. Hopefully though we’ll have time to make a door soon. The roof needs to be first though since every time it rains you have to allow a period of “drying out” so you don’t crack your stove. So we must have a roof, and soon, because we get plenty of rain in the fall and winter here and I would like to be able to use it then.  Also, once the roof and flashing is on we’ll extend the chimney. It will make for a better drafting of the smoke.  By the way that is our 2 year old Great Dane Meili (pronounced somewhat similar to “may lee” and is mandarin for beautiful one) in the picture. Sometimes the picture doesn’t show though so your not confused…it’s just the computer, or the Internet or something :-)

Next is a picture of the stairs and patio finished. We built this so family could safely make it up into the house while here for the wedding.  The original owner had a falling apart set of stairs and no sidewalk or anything to the door.  We had left it mostly “as is” since we were remodeling but felt this was a very good time to change that. We love it and there is much less dirt coming in the house now too!

We polished the retaining wall both because we like the look of it and because we needed to hide a few “oops” spots. This was our first time pouring such a tall cement object and we had a few issues. All of which are hidden by the polishing….thank goodness. I have to admit when we first pulled the forms I actually saw visions of us jack hammering it out. Looks great now though. Amazing what a bit of polishing can do along with a willing husband. We own our own polishing equipment and though I do not remember where we got it, we have used it enough that we have had to re purchasing polishing discs.  Polishing concrete is fun, easy and gives you lots of options. If I had known we were going to do this I would have put some colored glass and such into the wall pour.

Lastly, as an update on my Silver Fox rabbits, I have a picture of one of the females we are keeping.

Actually both of these 9 week old does are staying with us. The blue Silver Fox is the first one for us. We chose not to purchase any blues since we were not completely sure we appreciated the color. However, since we had her born here..we’ll keep her. And actually now that she has silvered out I think she’s actually pretty attractive. She does have a nice longer hair coat….my personal favorite…which helps. Silver fox have a range of length that the coat is suppose to be. I personally like the bunnies that have the longest of the range. That must go back to the fact that we used to raise Angora bunnies. However, these do not need brushing (A super plus!!)Over time we should have a few more born and then we’ll eventually offer some kits from them.

Notice that the black Silver Fox doe in the picture has a floppy ear right now. )Bad girl! I told her it makes her look like a lop cross but she didn’t care) It will stand up within the next few weeks and only flops since she has a wide upper ear making it a bit top heavy.  My thought, since they always end up standing up, is that either: the babies are too lazy to hold the heavier ear up or the muscle needs to be built up more. Or both. Probably the muscle but you never know since I have seen bunnies have it up, then down, then up, then down, then finally up for good.  Sometimes they’ll be a lefty one day and a righty the next, which again leads me to believe they have a tad bit of control over it.

Oh yes, and for those of you who stumbled on our blog because we pasture raise our bunnies. Right now, our neighbor has a horrible dog (it has just made about 8 months old) that they occasionally “forget” to keep chained up. It killed the 3 turkeys we were raising to smoke for the wedding after aggressively working to get into a cage we use as a poultry/rabbit cage. Thank goodness it wasn’t the rabbits…though they would have ran. The turkeys were “sitting ducks” since they did not know where to run too.  The dog is above and beyond what a wild animal would attempt because she has the time and inclination to work at it. Yes, the neighbor paid us for the birds but since we seen the dog since then harassing the rabbits in the cages….we are keeping them all up until the dog “moves on”.  Take any meaning from that you will…..though I am looking for a non farm family to adopt it.

And for those of you who read this for other than livestock reasons. Please remember as sweet as any dog ever can be to humans that does not mean that the dog will not ENJOY killing any animal it can harass to death including larger ones. And though my neighbor’s dog actual did attempt to eat the turkeys, most dogs don’t even care or know what to do with the dead animal. It is a game that even the smallest dogs will “play”. All dogs will do it —even livestock guard dogs while they are learning to guard. Unfortunately we can not own another goat or free ranging animal until this dog is gone since we know it will attempt to enter our pasture and kill it. Please….make sure your subdivision family and friends realize how dangerous their sweet little lap pets can be to other peoples animals.  Our neighbor blamed it on her kids and so our son made her son help butcher and gut the one turkey that was still usable for my dogs.  We could tell he still had no understanding of what his dog had done….especially since they’ve since “forgotten” to put it up again. More than once.

Anyway…have a great weekend all! Keep busy and have fun :-)

Flickr link to woodstove pics.

Of course I made a few oops. Ran out of blocks twice now….and need about 7 more to finish completely…..but overall it is standing and will work I am almost 100% sure.

I will hopefully be able to post about my mistakes and how I did or did not fix them. Some “mistakes” just make my wood burning pizza oven different than other people’s ovens.  Nothing was impossible on this project but if you do it you will have to use some tools (and possibly rent, buy or borrow said tools) that many are not used to, or completely comfortable with using. However, having said that, these “uncommon to most” tools (like a grinder with masonry blade) are not difficult and just require a tad bit of fortitude and gumption. Oh yeah, and some hearing protection, eye protection and a bit of water to wash things down with.

Please enjoy the pictures though there are not many. We have worked very hard and have more to do before Labor Day.

We’ve butchered a bull calf with the much needed help of 5 great helpers. That was a LOT of work. He was a much bigger calf than he looked to be.  We butcher here on our property because of the fact that we have so much trouble getting back the majority of “odd” parts that we desire to keep. The butcher rarely gives us back many bones—just a few pounds even though I always say I want them. We also have trouble getting back our leaf lard — most butchers don’t seem to even know what it is (funny odd isn’t that?). Tongues and other dog food parts are also almost impossible to get back. They “forget” they say and give us a small discount on our butcher costs. Big deal…we’re out good dog food and bones for soups and stews. A discount is no help for that. However it is always huge amounts of work to do it ourselves and something we procrastinate about because of the labor involved on larger animals.

Beyond that we’ve also had some litters of rabbits born. Not all my does took this time —a couple of first timers missed —but we’ve still been busy upgrading some more rabbit “infrastructure” to ease our chore load when we have so many rabbits with kits at one time.

I’ve also been doing some sewing. I am trying to work out some fit issues for a dress needed later in the year for our “formal” family shin dig which brings me to:

The Pizza Oven

We have poured the patio and the attached pizza oven slab. Here it is the day after it was poured:

That is my significant other’s backside as he bends over and does a bit of grinding on a few rough spots of cement.  We are not the practiced professionals that make perfectly smooth concrete—-but we do own concrete polishing/grinding tools since we did our counter tops and a few other polished concrete projects in the past. Lucky for us since it helped us to smooth those “oops” spots. Especially on the retaining wall we did which looks o.k…but definitely needs a bit of help. It will look better with a bit of fill cement and the stairs attached though I will be the first to admit it is not the most beautiful retaining wall I have ever seen. At least not right now. It is however VERY structurally sound. Just a bit bumpy on the outside. Better to be ugly on the outside and good on the inside and not the reverse.

With the purchase of some blocks we now have most of the Pizza Oven base started:

Originally we were going to mortar the base like ever one else does and to level everything but I had a bit of trouble working the level part out. Mortar is not my thing. (I also can tile but it takes me for ever to make sure everything is “just so”)  As it turns out though we did such a fabulous job of leveling our slab that with a small bit of mostly hardened mortar to shim with, I was able to make the blocks do what they needed too up to row three.  We then filled them to within a few inches of the top with cement. It took 10 bags to do that and you can see it in the picture below.  In the picture above you can also see the water fountain we picked up years and years ago at a salvage yard that we forgot we owned. We are going to hopefully work out a spot to put it in near the patio. It will be kind of neat I think.

In the walls of the base rebar comes up all 4 corners and a number of side blocks.  We will use the un filled space to tie in the rest of our blocks (row 4) and the actual slab that will make up part of the oven bottom.

We also have used metal to span the front and back opening. I do not have pictures of the front in place but you can get the idea from this picture of the back below (see the metal in the very foreground of the picture):

It is kind of like a little track to rest the span blocks on. I want something somewhat contemporary looking so no arches for us. We also wanted the back open so we wouldn’t have little bugs, rodents or even larger varmints living under the oven  — a very real possibility here.

Those three other metal pieces in the back ground of the picture will be fitted into a hole we will cut into the fourth row blocks. (I will post pictures when we have it done to show what I mean) They will support the floor and be cemented into the walls.  I am a bit short so 4 blocks then the 6ish inches of floor slab and other things on top would be too tall. However, 3 blocks would make it so short that everyone else would have to stoop too much. Beyond that we did not want to leave a permanent wood support system under the  oven like some sites do. For one, the back is open allowing it to show which would be tacky looking.  In addition though I just don’t think leaving a wood frame to partially support  a very heavy brick/concrete oven is quite the way to go. Just our thoughts — but then we have a bad tendency to make everything a bit over built.  We have decided that this might be our new tornadoe shelter when were done though.

Just kidding.

Kind of :-D

Anyway…things are coming along.

It is hot hot hot here and we haven’t seen appreciable rain in a while. I am now watering my garden but I have cherry tomatoes coming in. Squash too –but the borers have already found them and they are on their way down, and some are out now. Cucumbers are beginning and I have a few beans. Just a few but that is because I decided not to plant lots of green beans—we just don’t eat them enough.  We also have fresh basil, oregano and thyme.  This is the first time I have had all three and they really (really!) make a difference in Italian style seasoned items.

Things still to come: Corn is tasseling, okra is growing taller, cowpeas have put on good growth and the sweet potatoes are finally starting to get big thank goodness. Thank goodness because the top growth will eventually smother the weeds that are really working hard to out compete the sweets. It is much work to keep ahead of the weeds during this type of weather. They seem to be the only thing that grows really well with reduced rain.  The peas have finally finished and we are letting a few set seeds and we have turnips still struggling along though all but a few of our potatoes have died back. Bummer on the potatoes because most didn’t really do much this year unfortunately. Hopefully it will be a good sweet potato year.

Summer seems to be in full swing though technically we aren’t officially there yet.

I think I need to go to the beach but then……who will weed while I am gone?

Which means I’ll have to beat them back when I get home. Always a bummer.

The smell of something rotted.

Of course everyone has mice in their garden sheds and so my first thought was that one had died in or under the shed and I just couldn’t find it.  We had something similar occur in our garage recently (the cat played with it and let it go off to die behind something) and so the assumption was that something similar had occurred. My Jack Russell also told me that something was in there and consistently sat in one area…looking down…and whining. So…I knew something was up and figured it was under the shed.

After about 2 weeks of rot smell I asked my son to get under there and find it. I even offered to pay but he didn’t take me up on my largesse.

So the other day, as our Great Dane rounded the 275 gallon water tank and startled something (I heard the eeeek! that it made but didn’t see it) I then became sure that it was a field mouse (we have big ones!) or a rat possibly.  I even heard it moving under there so…..

Grabbing a shovel I wedged away the log that is positioned to keep stray cats from using the underside as a kitten raising area and called over my Jack Russell. She’s a great mouser and I was sure she could quickly dispose of whatever was living under there and causing my shed to smell of rot.

We (the Dane, my daughters mini weiner, and myself) heard the Jack Russell go under, run around, bang into something and then……………………………..

a bit of a “smell” started to leak out.

Hmmmmmm……..I thought and then…………….

A bit more smell started to come out. A stronger smell.

I frantically began to call my dog and the other two. The first I was afraid was going to get bit or worse and the other two I worried would either get bit and/or acquire the smell problem I knew was soon about to run out from under my shed.

I began running and the Dane and Weiner began to follow me. Half way to the house the Jack Russell caught up stinking and reeking with one of the worst smells any human has smelled! We even had to shut the house windows since she was smelling up the inside just by her very presence outside.

As you may now realize…yes, we have a skunk. Not just any skunk I might add, but a mother skunk with 3 or 4 babies under our shed.  (We can see them when we look under from the other side through the wire mesh buried in the ground and meant to keep critters out from under the shed).

After a good serious rub in the dirt  and 8 baths with strong dish soap and some hydrogen peroxide the Jack Russell smells only slightly. My shed however still REEKS. And I do mean reeks with a capital R. It’s been almost a whole week since the incident. Luckily the dog was not bit which tells me, along with the fact that we have not seen our guest at all during the day, that Mrs Skunk is currently not rabid. (Our area has the highest rate of rabies in our state)

Now? We are considering smoking the female and her offspring out and then throwing in moth balls in to keep her from coming back.  We tried live trapping (with the ultimate end being death for the trappee)….but she’s obviously to smart for that since we haven’t gotten her to take the bait of even the most succulent cooked goose.  That’s even though she ate one of our young Muscovies the night we forgot to shut the duck house.

Did I mention she’s nesting on the shared duck house wall? How ironic. The skunk keeps all the other predators away but…..

My son says he’ll smoke her out—but his idea involves actual fire.Funny thing about that idea though ……I’d like my shed still standing at the end.

My husband’s and my idea involves smoke bombs instead. Now? Just a quick trip up the highway to acquisition said smoke bombs at the fireworks store. Then? Well, I’m not sure but I will update to tell of our success or failure. Maybe with pictures.

And the Jack Russell? Well, as I said she’s the best mouser and that’s because she is persistent. Persistent to the point that she is more than ready to take that skunk back on to our chagrin and annoyance.

And as you might notice I said she was persistent…….but not the smartest :-D

So, not only did we invest in some seeds just for them (chicory being one of them) we also purchased a scythe. Now we wanted a scythe anyway, but had just never really had the money to spend specifically for a scythe. Yet, this year we broke down and purchased one. Well actually two. One for grass and one for brush.

Here’s the grass blade and we got the mid size blade. Now? My husband would like the longest grass blade. Little did we know then though.

Here’s the brush blade. It’s shorter, but meant to cut through actual small saplings. Up to an 1″ maybe?? Can’t remember for sure. The snath on this one is for my height, though my husband says it’s not that big of a deal for him to use it for brush.

Do we like them? Oh yeah.

As a matter of fact, my husband has found that he finds it very “zen” and really enjoys it. He has only been using the scythe for about a month, maybe a month and a half, but he is quickly getting better at it. It does take a bit of getting used to…but overall it is not difficult. Just different. By the way..I use a small hand sickle to trim around trees and fence lines were particularly nice weeds like to grow. I forgot a picture of it but it looks exactly like you think it would, and is called a hand sickle. Remember to learn how to sharpen your implements as dull tools take more time and are less enjoyable to use —this includes scythes, sickles, hoes, knives…..everything that cuts. Sharpening is a skill well worth learning.

Time wise my husband can cut a fairly large area in a very short time. And this brings me to the post of the day. Making hay.

A couple times a week, as long as it will be dry for a couple of days, I have him cut a swath of grass. A swath about….10 foot by 40 foot.  Maybe a bit less, maybe a bit more depending on how thick the grass, clovers and weeds are. Also depending on how old the grasses are at the time. If they are way past their prime we just cut it and wait for rain to grow it back again and spreading/raking/kicking it out so it doesn’t rot in a huge clump. We are not fast enough to utilize our entire property yet as you can imagine. Also, some areas are easier to harvest than others and have better grass.  Please remember too, not to harvest harvest harvest and never run your rabbits or poultry over it, or spread manure or some fertilizer (please use organic) back across the area. If you harvest grass/hay for years from the same spot without adding something back you are really doing the soil, and grasses, a disservice. As a matter of fact the grasses and weeds will change to ranker stuff because of lack of fertility, be less nutritious, or just grow back more slowly and less densely. Overall…not good.

Anyway, once the grass is cut I rake it up and put it in my big garden cart. It takes about two trips to get all the grass out of the area and laid out. (We do have nice grass in some areas so it is really thick were we are cutting this year) Some of it I will use that day and night and maybe the next day too for feeding the rabbits but the rest gets laid out onto the driveway to dry. If I lay it out in the evening I will go back the next morning and afternoon and “fluff” it.  If I lay it out in the morning I will fluff it in the evening. Usually…I leave it overnight on the driveway, however if I expect heavy dew, or visitors that will need to park there—I rake it up and bring it into the garage in my garden cart or wrapped in an old sheet.

(this grass is almost completely dry — just a few semi moist areas were it laid out thicker. I will be bagging it tomorrow for sure. Notice the color please—that is what you are aiming for)

The next day…lay it back out. Usually all but the thickest weeds will be mostly dry. If it’s cloudy, cooler, damp, or about to rain—it will take a bit longer. Do try NOT to let it get rained on as that defeats the purpose. Your goal is GREEN dried grass. Yes, most hay you see is yellowish, but quality hay is suppose to be shades of green.  If you leave the cut grass laying on grass in the pasture or yard it will take longer to dry (except in the hottest part of summer) and will lose more of it’s color, and nutrients.  If you expect rain…wrap it in the old sheet to store it out of the way. I have left half dried grass in a sheet for a couple of days and laid it back out on the next sunny day to finish. The sheet does not trap moisture and allows it to breathe, thus keeping the quality of the grass.

Now…is this serious hay making? No way. I am sure there is a much more efficient way of drying it if I ever decide to try making it for my cow. However, for my rabbits…it’s fine. Yes, it’s a bit of labor. But not that much (really) and this winter I hope to be feeding my rabbits home grown hay. I know right now, this very week, we saved at least $15 a week by feeding fresh  grasses. That is a minimum…it could be a tad more but since I don’t feed only bagged feed I don’t know if I save just one bag or more like a bag and a half or two bags. Without any babies we feed about 20 rabbits a week regularly. By making and using my own hay also means that I will save this winter. Maybe more as I get better at knowing what and how to feed without relying on a bagged formula.

When fully dry you need to store it. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we have plenty of folded and stored feed bags. We always keep them and often use them as trash bags. I stuff, as hard as I can, grass deep down into the corners of the sack. Adding more and more until I have to sit on it a bit to hold it in. I fold over the left and right sides of the bag, then the front and back edges. I tape it, with packing tape, front to back to hold the “flaps” down and then around the width of the bag to keep the first piece from “popping” free at the ends. Then, throw it up out of the way and store it.

No bags? Try 55 gallon drums, feed storage drums, trash cans, lawn and leaf bags, or just really big piles in an out of the way DRY place. That’s how they used to store hay—loose and out of the way.

Grass got ahead of you? Try using grass seed for “grain”. Rabbits love it. Drying it is easy easy easy. Some grasses have more seed than others and are really easy to use. Others are smaller, but the rabbits really like the stalks too so no big deal.  In the middle of summer do watch out for Dallisgrass seeds though. I am not sure about rabbits but dallisgrass seeds can have a “fungus” when it is very hot and dry and give ruminants (those 4 stomached animals) a condition called “staggers”. It is an obvious sticky black fungus—can’t miss it. It kills ruminants by causing them to “stagger” and fall down. Ruminants can’t lay down flat for long periods of time because of the way their food ferments. Flat laying down (with their head laid out flat too or completely on their backs) for too long causes bloat which kills them. Or they stagger into water and drown. Rabbits though…they aren’t staggering anywhere so…..probably not an issue but hey why feed it if you know it’s got fungus. Besides it’s really sticky and icky. I hate touching it and we have to wash the dogs because it will stick their fur flat. So google it and avoid it. Other than that have fun making hay!

Later this year we will be having a pretty big family “shin dig” here at our place.

Since we will have bunches of family here and we have never had the chance to get our landscaping done…. we are now working on it. Partly our goal is to landscape so it will look nice…but partly we want the “old folks” to be safe while they are here coming in and out of the house. I mean..we don’t want the old fogies falling down and breaking a hip!

And since we needed to add on to our small entry stoop, patio, landing (whatever you want to call it) I also decided to add a Pizza Oven area.  Yes, a wood burning Pizza Oven.

I am capitalizing the words since I think it’s so cool. (seriously I have wanted one of these for about as long as I have owned houses)

Now of course I can not afford to have some one come and build me a wood burning oven. They start in the many many thousands and go up range. But…I have looked online and acquired some books and dvds over the years and am pretty sure this is a doable project for us.

One thing people seem to find odd is that we will have it in our front yard. So to speak anyway. We have an odd shaped property but it is basically going to be in what most consider the front since the main door is there.

However, my back yard patio area is due south—which means that it is often in full sun and frequently HOT in the summer back there. Great in the winter ……but sunny and hot in the late spring/summer/early fall when the oven would be most in use.

Well, except early in the morning.  And truthfully I can definitely say my goal is NOT to bake pizzas at 6 a.m in August.

Luckily my house sits back from the road. By almost an acre and almost at the end of a dead end road. So…it’s not like we’re on a highway or anything.

So…my dead line is the first of September. Actually I should say the last week of August so I won’t potentially be mortaring bricks and blocks the night before people arrive. I am not sure I will make it but I am really really going to try. And since a Pizza Oven is something many people would like to do I will chart our progress and you can see what we do and don’t do correctly. I am sure we will have a glitch or two but hopefully they will be small and not too noticeable. And definitely not structural!

In these first pictures you can see the basic outline of the new 12 foot by 21 foot patio and the small “square” (If I remember correctly it is about 60inches by 65 inches) that will be the base of the oven. Over time there will also be a sidewalk, retaining wall and stairs down to our driveway/partially bermed garage.  We purchased this house without even a stoop into the house. It had two rocks to step on and you had to step up off of them about a foot (quite the drop if you didn’t pay attention coming back out). The lack of patio contributed greatly to everyone trekking mud in the house.  This “advanced” landscaping that we are putting in should control even more the dirt that seems to continually make its way through my front door.

And since I won’t have to sweep as much I’ll be able to bake bread and pizza right?!

She is a very cute, gregarious and curious American Chinchilla rabbit.

This is Beatrice’s new home:

Yes, Beatrice lives in a mobile home. But it’s a nice mobile home and she does like it so very much.

In the picture of her home you can also see her friend.

This is Rose:

Rose is a Creme D’Argent rabbit. She too is very sweet –though not quite as gregarious as Beatrice, though almost so. (Beatrice is a hard rabbit to beat for gregarious)

Rose too enjoys living in her new home.

Right now they are in the front yard and not the pasture. Every day they get to watch all the people, cars and dogs go buy (oh yes…and an orange and white cat whose coloring reminds Rose of her relatives)

Beatrice and Rose frequently converse with the neighborhood mini weiner named Buster. He’s not much taller than they are which makes it easy to chat through the wire.

Eventually Rose and Beatrice will grow up and become mom’s. Now though they get to hang out in their home eating clover and grasses. In actuality they are being conditioned to live together and will always be together. Two together is easier to care for than one at a time and it gives them “somebunny” to snuggle with.

Slips getting a sip

Recently we received an order of Nancy Halls and White Yams slips from a sweet potato and onion supplier. I planted them a couple of weeks ago and they are pretty o.k.  The White Yams were not very rooted when I got them and though I stuck them in water for 4 or 5 days then planted them I have lost about half. Oh well.

At the same time I had ordered those slips, I also ordered some heirloom varieties from a place in Oklahoma called Duck Creek Farms.

The reason I ordered from two places was because I was unsure if the heirloom slips would make it too me. The reason for my skepticism was that for a number of years, I had tried and tried to get some from Sandhill Preservation without luck. They do not “go down the list” and put those they can’t help at the top of the next years list. They just either: send you slips so late in the season that you can’t grow them out for long enough to really achieve any size  or, send you your money back and then have you do a “first come first serve” the next year. I tried 3 times and finally gave up with them. They tried to tell me my season is long enough but truthfully….starting slips at the end of July is not something that I recommend for my area. Yes….our season MAY allow for the full time of growth BUT it is SO hot and dry at that time that trying to start slips then can almost be a guaranteed failure without steady daily water and shade screens or covers for the first few weeks or so.

So my skepticism extended to other heirloom sweet potato providers (ahhh one bad apple they say…)

So…when Duck Creek Farms web site said that they could not yet ship (earlier in the month)  I worried that yet again the same thing would happen as with Sandhill.

But…to my eternal surprise and delight my slips showed up yesterday.

AND to make it even better these are hands down the nicest slips I have EVER received from any company. (Thanks Duck Creek!) You can see them getting a sip in the picture above.

I will say at this point I highly recommend them for sweet potato slips. Highly.

For those of you curious enough to look here is their web site link: Duck Creek Farms

Of course that’s what happens when you farm. Whether “hobby” farming, backyard farming, or even hundreds of acres farming, you are always planning for the next season(s).

When we till, we’re prepping for spring and summer gardening.

When we plant, we’re planning our food for months down the road and sometimes even into the winter by drying and canning.

Winter chores help us in summer and summer chores help us in winter.

When raising baby animals we know it will often be months, if not a years, before their “products” come to fruition for us. Want fresh eggs? Well that takes months of growing of the chicken or duck until the first one is laid. How about young lamb or a cow to put in the freezer. Animals take much longer to raise and see through to an actual “product”. Sheep take a year to the first lamb, with cows taking about 2 years total to their first calf, and the actual butchering of a beef cow can take almost 3 years from pregnancy to butchering (but it can be shorter—just depending on how young/old you want to butcher your cow at)

Planning is always something that always needs to be done on a farm and  though it seems like we should not have to think of Thanksgiving or Christmas when it’s not even summer yet, I would like to point out that now is the time to begin thinking about our turkey dinners or we’ll be unprepared when fall arrives. Hams can take about the same time as your turkey or much longer depending on how you want them cured.  If that is the meal you will raise for your family, now is again, the correct time to begin planning and to find your young piglet to raise.

For this year I am actually incubating some turkey eggs  so I had to start a tad earlier than even most will have to.

But even if you will let others hatch your bird, now is the time to begin your search for poults to grow out. Watching on craigslist or going in with others for an order of babies from a hatchery is the best way because who needs 15 turkeys from the hatchery? I, like I am sure most of you, don’t really want to grow them for others…I just need one or two for myself.

That is why I am incubating turkey eggs. I purchased 2 dozen Bourbon Red hatching eggs while picking up a new Silver Fox doe for my farm and will sell whatever hatches beyond the two that I desire to raise.

Another way to get eggs if you aren’t visiting a breeder or have one near you  is to do a “want to buy turkey eggs” on Craigslist or try eggbid.com or even ebay. You’d be surprised how many places will be selling eggs right now.

Of course, poults, just like eggs, are kind of seasonal. Turkeys do not lay year round (or even close to it) like ducks and chickens can and will. So, as I mentioned earlier…you must begin your search, or place your order, now.

Then, when Thanksgiving rolls around, you can listen to all your friends and relatives say “Oh what a beautiful bird you cooked and raised, and how tasty and moist it is”                   (the moist part comes from brining it—please don’t forget that part or he could be a drier bird after cooking).

At least I hope that’s what you hear and not: “How COULD you eat Mr. Turkey?!?!”

And just so you know…since we are talking of corn…I don’t really like corn very much.  Though it can be attractive when its tall and blowing in the wind.

I also don’t really eat corn very much though I did find a pickled corn relish to can that I do enjoy.

I only have a very few recipes that I make that have corn included in them but I am trying to find more.

I don’t really like corn bread southern style. I prefer “yankee” cornbread which is basically not really corn bread.

I hate corn on the cob (more because it gets between my teeth than any other reason) and find plain boiled corn kind of boring.

Yet ever time I have room for it I do grow corn. Why even though it’s not my favorite? Well, one is that my family does enjoy it, so that’s pretty much reason enough.  Another though is that corn was, and in some areas still is, a major staple for many people. And I’m not just speaking of the American Indians and their three sisters or about the deep south were corn breads and pones were eaten extensively — because that’s just the baby steps of corn use. In Mexico and Central America where it comes from corn has a long history and a couple of civilizations reached their pinnacles based on the culturing of it. In those areas corn is an integral part of their history. One that says many things about their lives and heritage. I envy them for still having that and I think it is something that most of us Americans have trouble understanding because we are so without history and heritage. Or at least really long history and heritage.

Most of our families have been in America long enough that we have quit using foods or cooking specific dishes that were considered staples to our families. Switching instead to the standard “American” diet. Many of us no longer know the family stories that used to go with each dish and the recipe as they were handed down from mother to daughter or son. Unfortunately many a grandmother died, taking her recipes with her in her head. Now…most of us eat homogeneously. Actually, most of the world seem to be going that way.

Supposedly there are, or were, over 20,000 varieties of corn in Mexico and Central America alone. Most are grown by very small farmers known as campesinos, meaning small scale farmer, who passed this corn seed down from generation to generation. Imagine if as a young man or women your grandparent told you to hold out your hand. When you did they then took your somewhat calloused and youthful hand into their softer and much more winkled hand. As they lovingly held your hand they deposited seeds into it, maybe even colored pink or blue or red, and then told the story of their grandparent placing almost these very same seeds into their hand when they were young. Can you imagine how you would feel about that? The connection would be very deep especially if your family ate this food regularly and had recipes with stories —both funny and sad—to go along with them.

Unfortunately corn is an extremely endangered seed in some places genetically speaking — in my opinion anyway. As far back as 2004 85% (according to U.S government records) of corn was from GMO seeds. Basically if you eat any non organic corn here in the U.S…you probably eat GMO corn. No let me rephrase that: you are eating it. Statically it would be very doubtful for you NOT to. And don’t forget corn is hiding everywhere: soft drinks, yogurts, chips, meats and on and on.

Even if you have switched to buying only organic corn—for whatever reason —that wouldn’t completely solve the problem of genetic loss through GMO contamination. In 2007, just one organic seed supplier, found that 6% of their organic corn was contaminated with GMO. Now I am not going to go into the pluses or minuses of GMO seeds. Really…I don’t agree with them but that is neither here nor there for this article. What I would like to do is just to bring to awareness, as the growing season starts, that some seeds are in danger. Real danger of becoming extinct. And though it’s hard to consider corn at risk since literally everyone eats it in some form or fashion and there are (again literally) hundreds of thousands of acres of it grown……..heritage forms are going quickly. As I write this Mexico, Central America and other countries are struggling to keep out GMO seeds for health and also heritage reasons.

Maybe the solution though is for every one to grow a small patch of corn—hopefully a heritage corn of some sort but any non GMO form would be great—and then we could help save all these diverse genetics. Just like many people put in a few tomato plants we can also put in a small patch of corn. After we harvest that fresh sweet ripe corn to eat (cut it off the cob for me please) we still have those fabulous stalks for our compost or better yet: Our fall decorating. Every scarecrow needs some corn stalks to hang out with. Or hang on.

Corn, though it is a somewhat heavy feeder nitrogen wise, is an easy enough plant to grow because it is simply a form of grass. Nothing more. If you can grow grass, which I believe most of us are capable of, well then by golly you can grow corn. And though most people feel they don’t have room for corn they probably do. Except those with only balconies or maybe postage stamp back yards—in your case you may be right.

Corn pollinates best if it is not too spread out. The better the pollination the bigger and more filled in the ears will then be. One of the main problems that new corn growers complain about is the lack of correct ear formation. Gaps —were the rows don’t look straight or seeds are underdeveloped compared to their neighbor—are a sign of poor pollination. That is a pretty common occurrence in a home garden if you don’t realize corn is wind pollinated and has to “bump” its neighboring corn plant for the tassels to exchange pollen to the fullest extent. The more effective the pollination that occurs, the better the cobs develop and fill in with yummy seeds. It is also why block planting corn in smaller gardens can produce better results than trying to plant like the commercial farms in wide spread out rows. Rows designed for machinery to move down. Machinery we (the small gardeners) don’t use or own. Besides….block planting saves space.

However if you can’t block plant, but would still like to help save some corn seed and grow your own fall decoration, plant along a fence if you must. The only difference is that you will have to go out when the tassels start to shed pollen and gently “bang” them into their neighbors to help them get the best transference they can. Not too difficult. Actually kind of fun. Your neighbors might wonder what you are doing banging around corn plants, but that gives you the opportunity to spread the word about helping to save seed genetics and teach them a bit about gardening. Always a good thing in my opinion. I know that sometimes all this self sufficiency “stuff” seems overwhelming. But if we just remember that planting corn and tomatoes and other veggies is no more difficult that putting in our pansies or petunias each year — we could all supply at least a bit of our food for not much effort. Organic food at that. It would also go a long way in helping with genetic diversity which is the main thing I am trying to encourage by writing this.

Lastly I would like to point out that corn needs to be isolated by a ½ to a full mile from other corn varieties so that wind pollination does not occur. Not as effective for the corn as being next to another plant but it does exchange some pollen that way too. Saving your seeds may be a mute point, if you are surrounded by a commercial corn farm, since they will cross with your neighbors crop. On the other hand if your neighbors corn tassel later/earlier than yours you should be fine.  However it is you will still help just by ordering and planting a more uncommon variety and the corn will absolutely still be edible. Just by purchasing these more uncommon seeds we help point out that all people do not want to eat the same exact flavor, color and taste of whatever —and that my dears is a super good thing. Even if we have to repurchase the seed again next year there will be no stupid cardboard tomatoes and tasteless corn for us thank you very much. Besides I always did like a lot of color in my bowl, so make my corn soup pink please. Or maybe blue?