Parenting lesson #1

Parents are forever asking me advice on raising children.  Most of them don't actually take the unconventional advice.  In their defense, my kids do call me Warden.

Here's my tip of the day:

Parents should take an island vacation......

While their 16 year old son scoops the chicken poop out of the egg mobile.

Any questions????

Gardening in Hawaii??

Only I would tear my eyes away from this....

To focus my energy on this...

Yep.  My fabulous husband brought me to Hawaii and I packed all kinds of farming and gardening books.  Hey!!  In my defense, it's hard for me to find time to research new ideas and get my supplies ordered during my everyday crazy life.  I plan to be a better, more efficient gardener this year...all because of Hawaii👙🍹🍀☀️

Aloha!!

Roll out the welcome mat...

After losing half of our laying hens to a stray dog, we welcomed 100 beauties to our farm.  We added a combination of Black Sex Link and Gold Star.  They came to us at about 24 weeks of age so they have already begun laying.  Our current hens were as welcoming as we expected.  Not one hen fight yet:):)

What do you do when you have a lot of Daves in your life??  Label them!!

This is "Horse Dave",  our magical horse whisperer.  He is by far the most knowledgable man I've ever met.  Any subject, any question, any project, he will have seen it, done it, taught it.  I won't give you his contact info.  I will not share him.  But here's his picture....you can look at him:):)

my December "fix"

The last time I had to buy kale, spinach, and beet greens was in April.  My spring goodies took off like a rocket and we were eating those babies right up to the hard freeze.  When I had to buy it at the store again in November, I vowed to find a way to grow AT LEAST kale and spinach inside.

It's not working as well or as quickly as I like, but I do pinch off some "infant" leaves to eat every day.  

It used to be the bulk of my plate. 

Now it's the garnish on top.  

I don't care.  

It's fresh, I grew it, it's not sprayed and I know these little plants will soon find their way into my huge garden where they can EXPLODE and feed my family until Mother Nature says "Stop"

.....and it begins:):)

The seeds are beginning to arrive!!  Like a kid in the candy store, I'm sure I ordered more than I need, but one can never have too much harvest....or candy:)

How do I stop 9-yr.old Leah's constant request, "Let's do a craft!!  Let's do a craft!!  Let's do a craft!!"??

I order 1,050 blank egg cartons, buy some tempera paint, make a stenci of a chicken and put her to work.  As of today...30 down, 1020 to go.

Watch for Fiddlestix Farms eggs in your local yoga studio.  

Too cheap to buy slips!!

I have attempted to grow sweet potato slips in the past, but had various obstacles to keep me from succeeding.  Most of those had to do with my ignorance and/or laziness....

****One year I started them in glass jars in May.  Perfect if I wanted to plant in September when everyone else was digging their beautiful tubers.

****One year, before I knew about bud nip, I bought cheap potatoes from the local box store.  Nothing grew....but I started them on time!!

*****One year I was too lazy to go buy toothpicks to hold up the potato & used nails instead.  Ewww....rusty squishy mess.

*****Last year I want to the right store for the starter potatoes...in January, bought toothpicks and grew some beautiful slips which I planted in my raised beds.  

 

Here we are this year.  Older and supposedly wiser.  I will post pictures of their progress....if they show any.

First task of the new year....

Well, it may be below freezing outside, but the seed catalogs are knee deep and I'm gearing up to order WAY too much of everything.  If you are a Fiddlestix CSA member, you are in for a treat this year. I'm going to double my garden space, double my vegetable varieties and assemble a few hoop houses to get a jump on the season.  I plan to photograph and blog my way through the whole gardening season.  I'm building this business on grit, persistence and stubbornness, but I'll try to bring it across as joy, thankfulness and sarcasm.  Join me:):)

Joel on his tractor. Loving life on the farm.