Summer is A-comin' in

The full strawberry moon has come and gone. I made iced tea for the first time this season yesterday -- mainly for the hayers. The first cutting is in the barn: too little too late, but evidently palatable. It is hellishly hot and dry.

We are on Spanish time now, with a siesta in the afternoon to ready us for late days and nights in the barn and garden to take advantage of cooler temperatures. The goats have also adopted this timetable. They snooze in the barn during the hottest part of the day then don't want to come in from the pasture until 9 p.m.

A friend called and mentioned that where he lives, in a very populated part of the county, that a fox is bothering his chickens and that a bobcat has been sighted. How odd, as we have been dealing with a family of foxes and are hoping that OUR bobcat will feast on them. I speculate that it has been abducting cats, as they seem to disappear at a rapid rate. Strangely, kittens appear out of nowhere -- or are perhaps dropped off by city dwellers out on a drive to the country. The two I mentioned in an earlier post have been to all the outbuildings on the farm and seem to have settled on the goat barn loft as their refuge.

What's in my Garden?

Here are some pictures I took yesterday in my vegetable garden. Currently, I'm harvesting kale, chard, snow peas, asparagus, beets, red raspberries... There are blooms on squash, beans, potatoes and tomatoes.

All these healthy-looking vegetables are being raised without chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides!

Out Standing in My Field

The other day, someone who had read my last post, "Weeding is Fundamental," asked me why I have so many weeds in my garden.

I'd like to answer that question here.

I'm an organic farmer who has spent years building up the soil in the vegetable garden with good composted manure from the goat barn. The soil is so nice and fertile that weeds compete to get into my garden. Naturally, if vegetable seed and seedlings grow well, so do all sorts of plants whch were not planted by me, but by Mother Nature.

Although I occasionally complain a little about the time it takes to weed, I actually enjoy being able to think while quietly removing the unwanted plants that I call weeds.

My garden is like subtractive sculpture. As I remove the weeds, rows of well-developed vegetables emerge, looking nice and neat. Of course, I can't keep the entire garden neat all at one time. There are parts of the garden waiting to be harvested or weeded, and some parts that look picture perfect. The areas change all summer long.

Weeding is just a fact of life for a farmer like me who does not use herbicides or pesticides. It's okay. If bugs emerge and all is in balance in the garden, they are eaten by eager birds looking for a quick lunch. If I were to use pesticides, the birds would get a stomach ache or worse, and the bugs would proliferate. Early on, I am convinced that the weed plants shade and shelter emerging vegetable seedlings, giving them a good start.

I use five-gallon buckets to collect the pulled weeds, load them onto my "Mule" UTV, which holds nine buckets, and drive them up to the chicken yard, where they're dumped. Some days I dump three loads: 27 buckets. They are all gone through and eaten by the chickens, guineas, geese, etc.

To me, that is a sustainable gardening system.

Weeding is Fundamental

I get up about five a.m., out by six. Weed, weed, weed. Take care of animals. Weed some more. Take a break.

Do more work. Weed in the evening between six p.m. and nine p.m. Take a break. Fall into bed.

Well, folks, there's a picture of farm life during the growing season. Beets, kale, chard, snow peas are all ready for harvest and marketing. They look really good, but if I don't keep weeding, we won't be able to see them at all. Soon, the berries will be ready to harvest during the cooler parts of the day and the weeding will not get done. The weeds will win. Oh, well. They'll get theirs when winter comes!

The goats are all fine. When the little ones herd together, they look like Daisy Mae's puppies: all alike (nearly) white kids with brown heads. I finally got around to publishing the list of names, so far, in the right hand margin. We still need some ideas for "V" names.

There's been a new calf: Iris. She's Sally's baby and is black with some white on her belly.

Ducky Day

A funny thing happened this week at the Lexington VA Farmer's Market. We participants are usually busy setting up, interacting with customers and keeping records of transactions.

A lady I'd met last week brought me two Pekin drakes to take to my pond, as she had too many and her sole duck was being overmated. They were in an old cage, and I put the two Bobs* in the shade in the adjoining empty parking space while I attended to business.

After a while, someone said, "Take a look at the ducks." I did and was surprised to see a class of preschoolers sitting on the curb to take a close look at the drakes without touching them. It seems that every kid who came to the market with the vendors or shoppers had been over to check them out. I even had several adults come over and ask questions about ducks. If we'd been allowed to sell livestock, I'm sure I could have sold them several times over.

They have now been integrated with my homebase pen of Pekin ducklings at the second pond. This morning, I let them all out with the geese and Runner ducks.

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*All the drakes on my farm are named, Bob. That's because they do not quack like the ducks (females). They whisper, "bob bob bob."

Mr. Mom

Well, it's definitely Mothers' Day down in the goat barn. Harvey Llama has been babysitting for them. Sometimes he has ten or more babies on his back, sliding down, or jumping off. He is very patient.

There are 48 new babies, therefore it is time to come up with 48 names.

The first thirteen are Hubba Bubba's babies. They will get names that start with the letter "U." I have named three so far. There will be a list in the right hand column to indicate which ones have been named.

The rest will get names that start with the letter, "V." They are Bosephus' babies. I've named two, so far.

I'm "The Decider", but you can suggest good names by leaving a comment. My grandson submitted a long list of names, so I'm sure many will come from that, but often people suggest great names that hadn't occurred to me.

By the way, Happy Mother's Day to all!

Count

For those of you who are wondering: 47 as of yesterday afternoon. The majority are female.

This may be the end. I'm tired -- been weeding out lamb's quarters. I'll post again when I feel better.

The Silence of the Lamb's Quarters, Part II

Yes, they seem harmless enough when small -- even though they are already as large, or larger than the planted seedlings and obscure their presence. After the rain, they'll be gigantic, looming treelike plants: silent, but nevertheless deadly!

It is a horror movie in the making, and they must be stopped!

My friend, Pamela, has sent me the URLs of some sites which claim that lamb's quarters is extremely nutritious, http://members.tripod.com/TOADHILL/lambsquarter.htm , is one. She says she LOVES lamb's quarters and that it is delicious.

I have invited her and all her friends to come and harvest as much as they want, but I know a sure way to rid the garden of it. As soon as I find a paying market for it, it will surely disappear, never to be seen again.

So, in the meantime the chickens and guineas are getting buckets of the tender delicacy delivered to their yard. I may be wrong, but it seems that even they, who love weeds, are getting a little tired of it.

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On the goat front: Old Ethel, the Cashmere goat, managed to have two good sized baby goils yesterday afternoon. That makes 38, folks.

The Silence of the Lamb's Quarters

Another two new babies this morning, for a current count of 36. As you can see from the picture at the left, they are looking like a miniature herd -- and that's just just about a third of them!

The land is looking lush and green. Verdant is a good word to describe the landscape. We got a little rain yesterday.

In between barn checks and cleaning, I tried to weed a little in the vegetable garden. Lamb's quarters (the weed) is growing at least as quickly as beets and cabbages. If I don't get it out now, I'll be dealing with tree-sized weeds in a few weeks. I've been picking asparagus on a regular basis. The tulip poplar trees are in bloom and sweet william has joined in.

Quickie

Somehow we've managed to get up to 34 baby goats. That was when I left the barn last night. Management is tiring, but necessary. Things will even out eventually and I'll feel less fried. More details later.