Making Friends with the Postal Employees

This time of year I will get the call every month:

"Hi, Kathy. This is the West Omaha Post Office....

We have a live delivery for you."

And every time I come back with:

"YES!!!  Is it the baby I ordered?"

"No ma'am. It is chickens/turkeys/ducks/, etc...."

Today it was bees...20,000 of them!!

"Hi, Kathy.  This is ***** from the West Omaha Post Office.  We have a live delivery here for you."

"AWESOME!!  Is it the baby I ordered?"

"No, ma'am.  It's two boxes of bees and one bee seems to have gotten loose.  We'd like you to come get them as soon as possible."

"I'm on my way right now."

If I hadn't been in the car when I got the call, I totally would have worn my bee suit into the post office.

Last time I received bees, there were 30,000 and I hadn't even put my hives together.  This time I'm still not as prepared as I should be...many of my new hive parts are being shipped....but I'm not scared beyond belief at the constant "humming" from the boxes. 

My job while I wait for my new hive parts  is to feed them a mixture of 50/50 sugar water....

....the same thing I feed Mary Kate:)

I know how to set the queen. I know how to feed the sugar water.  I know how to put on my beekeeper suit.  That's the extent of my knowledge.

My "kill" number for bees is currently holding at.......

30,000, not counting those "farm" bees that land on my kids.

We all have to be good at something.

Feeding the Foxes

My enemy list is growing:

In early April we purchased these five little cuties:

Five ducklings, 3 varieties.  We were all so excited! 

We had one duck named Lucky last year.  She was kind of a "rescue" duck from my city-dwelling sister.  We put her in with the laying hens where she looked like a GIANT!  She quickly became the favorite.

During the winter, Lucky officially changed her name to Unlucky.  The above scoundrel ate her.  

I wanted her replaced because I discovered that when the chickens stop lying in the cold, dark days of winter, ducks do not.  She supplied enough eggs to allow us to get through the winter without buying one single dozen!!  

The new ducklings were raised for about 6 weeks with the new laying hens.  They were growing too big for the small room, the hens were starting to pick on them and we wanted them to be able to have a small pool of water in which to prove their "duckiness".  Those reasons prompted us to to move them outside to the former pig pen.  It was lined with wire panels so they couldn't escape.  

The fox went right over and got all five in one night.  Grrrrr......

Our dedicated farm hand spent the night outside and shot one fox, but we're certain there will be more to follow.  I can only hope we have more bullets than we have foxes.

You killa my ducks, we killa you.

Exercising Patience

Winter is over!  Winter is over!!

I know you are all wondering if I have forgotten about the garden baskets.  Ummm.....NO!!!   

I did take the month of December off from thinking about the garden, but I jumped right back in!!!

I spent January drooling over the seed catalogs, making my wish list.  

After I added it all up I realized I had been a little "over-zealous".  I know, hard to believe, huh?  I cut it down to a reasonable amount (I mean, I probably don't need 10 different varieties of eggplant) and placed my order.   

Shipping takes A LONG TIME.  Like....a WEEK!!!!!  During my long wait we made the binders with the seed separators/labels and sketched the new rotations of plants.  You see, if one rotates the garden every year, it tends to "confuse" many of the pests that bothered the previous crop.  Those of you who have been with me from the beginning know my yearly battle with the squash bug.  Truly, the devil shrunken to the size of a beetle. 

Not this year, my evil, ugly enemy.  Not this year!!!!

February:

Seeds came!  WooHoo!!  I almost kissed the mailman.  We have two....one woman, one ugly....this was "ugly" day.    Again, I almost kissed the mailman!!!!

While I was waiting so patiently, I had an idea.....one that just might work!!!

Y'all know I can never have a garden season where I don't "experiment" with something.  This year I attempted to make my own seed tape.  Anyone who has planted seeds knows what a pain it is.  The seeds always scatter with rain or watering.  The seedlings always emerge like a forest in one area and like a dessert in another.  The market solved this problem by making seed tape.  The seeds are perfectly spaced on long strips of thin paper that eventually disolves into the ground leaving seedlings in a perfect row.  

Genius.  

Expensive!! 

I decided to make my own using 1-ply toilet paper/paper towels and a mixture of flour/water. It looks good, but will it work?  No clue.  I hope so because I did ALL my carrot, radish, beet, spinach, lettuce, greens and green onion seeds that way.  Not some.....all.  

That's me.  Go Big or Go Home.

Who pays the price?  You:) 

Fiddlestix Farms: Chapter III

Even though baskets stopped late October, the garden work did not.  I decided to try an experiment by placing some bales in the garden to see if the winter snow would melt into them making the spring preparation easier.  In the fall, straw is a high-priced commodity because farmers stock it to use as winter bedding for their animals.  I happened to have quite a few moldy bales from our own fields, so I went for the double experiment.....setting HAY bales out in the FALL instead of STRAW bales in the SPRING!!

Oh, I'm so daring and bold!!

I used shredded paper from our clinic and cardboard boxes from everyone I know to line the area between the bales to try to keep the weeds out.  

Fall is the time to put in garlic as well.  I intended to save cloves from the spring to plant, but we ate them all.  It seemed like a great idea right up until October  planting time and I had to spend $90 on starter cloves.  

The garlic/parsley pizza was totally worth it.

I will NOT have the same problem this fall.  I planted about 10 times what I did last fall.  Boom!!

Sneak peek.....it's growing nicely:):)

Start collecting garlic recipes, y'all.  I'm fairly certain you can have as much garlic as you would like this year....except what I'm saving to plant this fall. 

I'm slow, but I do learn.  

New Addition

The text came to me Sunday morning:

"Looks like we're going to be grandparents this morning to a new calf."

Joel was missing a cow when he went to count them and found her in a far-off thicket.  Perfect timing if the goal was to help deliver a calf.  Otherwise, unfortunate timing.

Side note:

For a guy who LONGED for the days when the expecting father was only allowed in the waiting room and called back to greet the wife and newborn, he was PUMPED to be involved in this birth. 

I'm trying not to have my feelings hurt.

We call her "Red Tagged Momma"....mostly because of the red tag in her ear:)

My daughter, Morgen, names all the animals on the farm.  She started with "Baby Hamburger" but landed on "Lucille".

She weighs about 25 pounds and we are determined to make her the friendliest calf on the farm.

The momma has been fairly patient with the kids being in the pen.  She did charge Maya once, but it was just a warning...thank goodness.  Scary, but not scary enough to keep me from sending Levi in the pen.

Hey, it's no worse than those parents who shove their child on the strange Santa's lap.  Anything for a good photo, right?

Shocking Trip to Whole Foods

The WHOLE season last year I heard, "Mom, that is SO much food for $12.50"

This year all I heard was, "Mom, that is SO much more food for $25!!"

I am not the grocery buyer in my family so it is true that I probably don't have a realistic grasp on pricing my produce.  I base it off of what I would want to pay for it.  I'm not in this to lose money.  I'm smarter than that.  I'm also not in it to become independently wealthy.

I decided to prove my family wrong by doing a cost comparison with a store I consider to have the same standards I do....Whole Foods.

This is the basket I sent out the door the afternoon of the "great experiment", so the contents were fresh in my mind.

Mary Kate was a willing, but slightly embarrassed partner.  I made the decision on the way home from her muddy soccer practice, so she had to shop in her socks.  I tried to convince her that at least half the population shops in socks & no shoes, but she wasn't buying it.  I did what I do best...turned a task into a contest.  Loser buys the winner dinner.

Game on.

First we each made a prediction on what the total basket price would be.  Then we decided on the prize (so we knew how much effort to put in).  Sushi.  A rare treat.

Mary Kate: $83.00

Me: $60.00

Task number one:

Fill a basket with $25 worth of organic produce.  It didn't take long.  A few sweet potatoes and three colors of peppers....$25.  

I couldn't believe it!! I tried to exactly replicate my basket, but they didn't have purple bell peppers, and I only chose the standard orange sweet potato because they were on sale that day.  

I knew at that time that I was going to have sticker shock by the end of the experiment.  I ALMOST decided to drop my basket and go home with my task incomplete.  I like my perpetual state of "ignorance".

"Oh, no you don't," demanded Mary Kate.  You DID NOT drag me in this store IN MY SOCKS for nothing.  First, we WILL finish what we started and THEN you will buy me a mountain of sushi!!"

Wow.  That must be what I sound like every day.  My poor husband.  

We selected, weighed, recorded and computed our way through the greens, peppers, roots, potatoes, tomatoes & spices and then we reversed our path returning every item to it's original spot. You didn't think I was actually going to buy them did you???

Whew!!

Well....drumroll....the total came to:

This total excluded the items I couldn't  find...Brussels sprouts, tatsoi/mustard greens & Lima beans.

We moved to the sushi section with me talking about how many calories are in sushi and how one should only have but just a bite, lest you rip your soccer shorts.  

She's smarter than that.  THREE ROLLS $$$$.

On the way, I snapped a few Photos of the other items I have in common with Whole Foods.   

Again, I have no complaints about the store.  They have many, many expenses I do not.  I get it.  It certainly does make me thankful I have the opportunity to grow my own food because without it, I would find it nearly impossible to feed my family the way I deem "proper".

Is it Worth It?

Before we raised our own meat, we ate so many beans!  Those and eggs were our biggest source of protein.  The last year has been "dreamland" for my guys as we have abundant meat in the freezer.  

I have always wanted to grow my own dried beans...because many said I couldn't!!

WRONG!!

Growing them was really easy!  I (well, Gemma) simply planted them and left them to do their thing.  Once they dried on the vine, we picked them and hervested  the already dried beans inside.

After letting them sit on the counter for two weeks to ensure they were completely dried, I had to decide whether to store them dried or can them.  Knowing how much quicker canned beans can be made into a meal, I decided NOT to pretend I will be more prepared for future meals than I usually am and decided to can them.

As you might guess, I've never done this before.  As you might also guess, it was somewhat of a fail.

The first step was easy:  rinse, sort and soak overnight in warm water.

The next step was also easy:  replace the soaking water with fresh water and put on the stove to boil.  So far, so good.

Here begins the problem.....

I decided to undertake this project on a Sunday morning at 6:30. It took MUCH longer to get it to boil than I thought. 

Once it boiled, I still had to pack the beans in the jars, seal the lids, place in my canner, seal the canner and go through all the steps to pressure can.  

Well....It was about 7:30 a.m. when I realized I was not going to be able to finish what I started AND get to my favorite kickboxing class at 8:00 a.m.

You know I'm a problem solver:

"Mary Kate, you HAVE to get out of bed. I need your help on the kitchen."

"How important is it?"

"SUPER important".

Wow!  She disagreed that my kickboxing habit was more important than her sleep early on a Sunday morning.  

#crabbyteenager

She dug in & I left with a parting....

 "Have fun.  See you at church."

Well...she didn't have enough time to finish the pressure canning before church either and it's not anything that can be interrupted once started.  She tossed the job to her sister, Gemma.

Three important inserts:

1.  Gemma had already been to church.

2.  Gemma has NEVER used the canner.

3.  Gemma doesn't pay much attention to instructions.

When we returned from church, at 11:00, the beans were still processing.  They were due to be turned off at 9:45.  

"Gemma, why are these still cooking?"

"I don't know.  I guess nobody shut them off."

"Wasn't that your job?"

"No.  Oh....wait a minute.  Mary Kate set the timer before she left and told me to shut that off when the timer beeped.  I thought she meant shut the timer off."

"So you thought Mary Kate would simply set a timer to have you shut the timer off?????"

"Yeah, I thought that was weird, but most things you guys do around here are weird."

That's how I ended up with mostly a refried bean product on my hands.  

Eighteen jars of it.