Cheese and other things...

Our friend, Michelle, came and visited for a few days this past week.  That's why I haven't done any blogging...  I was busy with other things.

The chicks are 2 weeks old now.  They're doing very well.  One is a lot smaller than the rest, but I think it will catch up in good time.  I have no idea if it's the one who was hatched last or not.  I could just be smaller.  Not every Rhode Island Red is as big as other's.  That's just the way it is.  But, they're all healthy.  They have their flight feathers on and are starting to get tail feathers.  They look kinda awkward at this stage.

The weather has been stormy.  We got 8.5 inches of rain over the past week.  Which is good, because that means we're out of that awful drought from last year.  It's not good because some of the bigger local rivers are above flood stage.  My friends, Gena and Kevin live right on the Spring River.  So far their safe and sound.

Michelle and I took a long walk down to the NW corner of our property.  There's a 3-season spring there and we decided to see if we could build up some small pools and have some deeper spots.  I'm hoping I can modify it somewhat and put a few small fish in there.  If I can get it to remain wet all year round, maybe I can turn it into a nice natural pool or something.  I'm researching how exactly to do that without hiring a backhoe.  In other words, I want to do it myself.  Naturally.  Without making a huge impact on the natural setting.  I'll have to take the camera down there with me and document my progress.

When we were looking for property we wanted a place that was wooded, away from the main road, without neighbors and with running water.  This lovely place met all but the last criteria.  Now, it seems there IS running water for 3 seasons.  We didn't realize the stream/creek was ON our property until we had the land surveyed.  Now I know for sure that there IS a spring down there (at least when it's the "wet" season).  We know there are fish in the stream further down on the neighbor's property.  So, if it runs enough that fish are on their property, maybe I can make it so there are fish on OUR property.  I'd really like that.

Michelle and I decided to do some cheese making on Friday.  We made mozzarella.  We tried making ricotta too, but the recipe we used for the mozzarella used up all the milk fat, so the ricotta didn't turn out.  Oh well.

Michelle's husband Jerry works for the State Park system at Powhatan State Park.   Check out their web site. Powhatan State Park

Normal Spring weather

The chicks hatched almost 2 weeks ago now.  They're growing quickly.  We've only lost one so far, and it had a stomach tear from not separating correctly from the egg.  Poor little thing.

Plants are coming up nicely. Our garden had to be reseeded after it rained and got cold.  And now it's cold and rainy again this morning.

I hope to have more spring pictures to post soon.  I finished making a coiled basket as a birthday present, but forget to take a picture before I gave it away.  Darn!

Anyway, Peanut was out playing and chasing squirrels and chipmunks yesterday.  The hummingbirds have made their appearance. 

Happy
Spring!

Crazy weather

This week has seen some wild weather.  On the 16th, it got up to 90 degrees... and then by the evening of the 18th it was 37!  That's hard on the plants and animals.  We had very strong winds, and several inches of rain (I'm not sure how much because our rain gauge developed a leak).  The weather forecast warned of frost the past 2 nights, but we escaped that thankfully!

Our trees are in full bloom.  The peaches, plum, cherry, pear and blueberry are all blooming.  I haven't seen any blooms on the apples yet.  The dogwood is just starting to bloom.  The redbud are done already.  My lilac are blooming again!  I'm so excited.  I took some pictures earlier in the week (before it got windy).  Have a look.

Spring is really shaping up nicely.

Now let me show you what our "landscaping" looked like 7 years ago....

See. No flowers... No bushes.... just rocks and weeds.  No walkway.  I laid that stone walkway myself that first spring from rocks that were lying around in the yard.  All those bricks were just stacked up or lying around also.  There was no patio either.  I did all that.

John helped me a lot, but he was busy cleaning up the workshops and getting them organized.  Man, what a mess he had to deal with!

I bought a lot of plants those first few years.  Some lived and some didn't.  I'd lived in the Puget Sound area for 17 years before John and I got together.  So my gardening experience was NOT up to the challenge of gardening in Arkansas.  Washington has 3 seasons; warm and wet, warm, and cold and wet.  In 2004, the area I lived in got 300 days of measurable precipitation.  That's definitely NOT Arkansas.

Here we have 4 seasons.  The low temps in the winter can be downright cold, 11 is the lowest we've seen in the past 7 years.  And the summer highs can be damned hot at 111!  YIKES.  Some years we get so much rain that the Spring River floods 3 times... and last year we had a drought with no rain for 5 weeks.  None.  Not a drop.  And it was over 100 every day during that 5 weeks.  That's really hard on the vegetation. 

The native plants do very well.  But those nice "cottage garden" plants I wanted just don't survive.  Luckily, we were bless with LOTS daffodils, irises, viola and day lilies.  So that's what I've been moving around.  And I think it's coming out very nicely.  Have a peek at a few pictures from the height of the drought last year.

I love to take a walk in the woods at see what new colors I can find.  That's always an adventure.

Daylilies are tasty, very good in a salad or stuffed with creamed cheese and covered in tomato sauce.  Yum!

Our veggie garden is off to a good start.  I need to check and see that everything survived that nasty weather.  Hopefully I won't have to replant everything!

Ok.  Off to feed the chicks (13 in total), and get on with the morning. 

Gardening progress and baby chicks

My elbow is almost back to normal.  It's so nice to be able to use my arm without that constant bone pain.  What a relief!

We had chicks hatching this past weekend.  They started on Thursday morning and the last one hatched on Saturday.  They're so cute.  Little balls of fluff.  And when they're not sleeping, they're chirping and looking for something to eat.

Chicks in the brooding box

We have 14 in all, 7 Rhode Island Red (the darker "brown" ones), 3 Brahma Cochin (yellow) and 3 mixed (Copper Maran and RIR).  The RIR chicks are destined for some friends.  The others will be additions to our flock.

When chicks are very small, you need to put rocks in the water dispenser so they can't drown.  I have only had that happen once, but it's very sad.  I hate seeing a small death that could have been prevented. 

I really dote on my babies.  I check on them often.  The brooder box is located on our back porch.  That way they're safe from predators and out of the weather.  Depending on the weather, they'll stay on the porch for 2 weeks or so.  They have to be able to regulate their own body temperature and large enough to withstand any exposure before I move them to a larger cage. 

If their mama had been taking care of them, she'd protect them and they'd nestle into her plumage for the next few months.  Until they're too large to fit under her any more.  But I don't have any plumage, so they have to be protected from the weather by my cage location and a lightbulb.

It's been fairly wet (thankfully), so it took us awhile to get the garden planted. 

I started our seeds in yogurt cups and had them on the back porch next to the brooder box.  They got a good start.  And so, yesterday, we got them all in the ground.

Seed starts and brooder box

I got all our seed for this year from Baker Creek.  They are nice folks.  The catalog is beautiful, and full of information!  http://www.rareseeds.com/

We're growing several varieties of squash and melons, 2 varieties of blond cucumbers, 2 varieties of red heirloom tomatoes, carrots, beets, okra, asparagus, onions, garlic and potatoes.  I'm sure I'll find a few more things to stick in the garden because I still have room left!

Garden before planting

The little section on the upper right that isn't plowed is the asparagus bed.

Garden after planting

Notice, the asparagus bed is now center left.  The tomato in the foreground is a small yellow that I overwintered in the house.  The plant in the pot in the background is a red chili that we've dug up and overwintered every year for the past few years.  It's not toooooooooooo hot.  Just right for our family.

The boxed in area is for the carrots and beets.  I'll be planting marigolds and nasturtiums along the border, as bug deterrent.

Last week when I was out taking pictures, a small garter snake was checking out the garden.

Can you see him?  Green  and yellow in the center of the picture

 My husband and son had seen it earlier in the day.

Our landscaping is looking very nice.  I "stole" the tomato cages my husband made last year and have them around my peonies.  We won't need tomato cages for some time yet, but I need to get those peonies staked before they start to bloom.  We can make more tomato cages. 

Peonies with commercial cage support

The lilacs are getting ready to bloom.  I love the smell of lilacs.  At my parent's homestead, 2 large light purple bushed had grown together to form a "cave".  My aunt and I used to play in there and pretend it was our fort.  Our dog Herkimer would be forced into playing in there with us.  Those are fond memories for me.  So when we bought this property, I got 4 different colors of lilac and planted them in a square.  Now they will form a nice space for someone else to cherish (who know, I may be the one crawling in there!)

Ok.  That's all for today.  I'll discuss more gardening, landscaping and chickens as the spring and summer progress.

Go outside and enjoy the beautiful day!

Today's project

Our friend, Jennifer, has a cabin a few hundred yards across our southern property line.  Since she's not here very often, she doesn't have a phone line.  And out here in the woods that means she has no internet access on her laptop.

She's able to access our unsecure network if she sits outside in our driveway.  When we found that out, we told her she's welcome to come sit inside the house anytime.  Sometimes she's here and we're not.  So, we decided to make her a little spot that she could use to surf the web.  This rocking chair is actually adjacent to the wireless internet inside the house.

So, the chair needed some serious TLC.

It's been out in the barn since it got cracked during that big ice storm back in 2009.  My handy husband John did some securing with screws.

Screws on the front and back to secure... and then it started raining.  So I moved the whole project inside.





The first step is to decide what kind of material you'll weave the seat from.  I'm using cotton strapping I got from The Shaker Workshop.  http://shakerworkshops.com/

I used red and tan, because that matches our greatroom color scheme.  I've had this strapping since we started working on the house, back in 2006.  I'd woven a seat on this particular rocker once before with these colors.  But then the chair was broken, so I took the strapping off.

Attach the first color onto one side of the chair seat rung.  I used staples.  The next time we're at a hardware store I'll get some nice brass tacks to complete the project.

Start wrapping the strapping around the 2 opposing sides of the seat.  And then you need some help with your wrapping....

I had lots of help.

Once you have wrapped strapping around that whole side of the seat, you have to start your weaving.  Again, you have to attach the strapping with a staple.

I wove with a basic over, under (plain weave) pattern.  It's important to know that you need an ODD number of rungs/straps in order to weave and change the "shed" with each pass.

And here's the finished project.

I had some other things I had to get done this morning.  We're supposed to have really awful weather later today.  In fact I believe we're under a tornado watch!

Anyway, I have eggs in the incubator which should hatch on Friday.  So I went out to the barn and got the brooder box John built for me.  I got it all set up on the back porch.  That way my little babies will be warm and dry regardless of the weather.  That's very important because they won't have a mommy to care for them.

I've also got seeds coming up and I've moved them indoors so they don't blow away or get drowned in the coming rains.

My brooder box is filled with wood chips.  Those babies need a nice fluffy place to live.

I'll add a watering bottle and a small dish for very finely ground food once I have babies in there.  

Rhode Island Red chicks from 2012

John and Joshua got all the onions and potatoes planted last week.  And Josh did the second pass at tilling the veggie garden.  Now, as soon as the weather cooperates I can get my seedlings into the ground.

Notice the yellow and green garter snake?   The weedy section on the south end of the garden is where the asparagus and garlic is growing.  I haven't had a chance to do any weeding yet.  But the asparagus is coming up!

The flower bed is also in need of some weeding.  But the peonies don't care.  They're coming up anyway.

The violets I dug up from in the woods are blooming.  Spring is in fully swing.  My arm is doing MUCH better.  I'm very glad about that.

Talking dogs & cats

Whenever you think of "country living", 2 of the essential companions around the homestead are cats and dogs.

I got my first cat when I was about 3.  And the first dog at about the same time.  My first cat was a black tuxedo cat.  I don't remember her name now.  But she was a nice cat.

My first dog was an interesting character.  His name was Herkimer.  His mom was a Beagle & supposedly his dad was a Bassett Hound.  He was a black & tan, about 15 inches high, pretty stocky and had a little stubby tail.  My Mom, Aunt (Linda - who is exactly 16 days younger than me) and I were at a local farmer's house when the mom was having the puppies.  This particular pup was going to be drown because he didn't have a tail.  I was outraged!  "You can't kill him just because he doesn't have a tail!"  The farmer told my Mom that he'd let it live if we promised to keep it.  I was very distraught, so my Mom promised.  And about two months later he came to live with us.  Now that I'm an adult, I realize he was exactly like a shorty Jack Russell Terrier.

He was a great dog.  He put up with a lot, living with two little girls.  My Aunt and I grew up together almost continuously.  Oh sure, we each slept in our own beds at our own houses (we lived on a dirt road and our homes were about 1/2 mile apart).  But we played together all day long, every day.  Herkimer was pushed around in doll carts.  He was dressed in doll clothes.  And he got to slide on the slide with us.

My Dad was in the Navy until I was 13.  But, whenever Dad was home he and Herkimer were out in the wood.  That dog could find a rabbit anywhere!  He was also a good squirrel dog.

Herkimer lived outside most of the time, by his choice.  He loved to sleep on the back porch.  That way he could chase whatever came into the yard.  It was his self-appointed job.  And since we lived in an area with bears, cougars and bobcats - he was our guardian.

I have so many fond memories of that dog.  He was a great person.  He lived to be 13 years old.  I cried when he didn't come home one day. 

When I was talking to my Mom a few weeks ago, we talked about him.  Mom told me there are still a lot of little black & tan Herkimer dogs out there in the Sweet Valley Pennsylvania area.  He sure did his job passing his genes along.

One cold winter day, a small black kitten showed up at our house.  And Herkimer let her stay.  We named her Sapphire, after a singer names Sapphire Ruby according to my Mom.  She was a long haired Persian. She didn't have the very flat nose, but still the long lovely hair.  She was a beautiful cat.  She had many litters of kittens that we found homes for.  Sapphire was also an outdoor animal.  She came in the house on occasion but not often.  She was a great mouser.

Now that I'm living out in the country again, we have a cat and dog.  We got Rusty when he was 5 weeks old within the first months we lived here (May 2006).  Here's a picture of him as a baby.

Baby Rusty

Rusty is another great mouser.  He's always bringing us treasures.  He also brought us a full grown rabbit one day when we were sitting on the back patio!  WOW!  Good job Rusty.  We got Rusty neutered as soon as he was old enough.

We got our first dog, Bo in the fall of 2006.  He was an older pup who'd been offered for free in the local newspaper.  I fell in love with him immediately.

Bo

He was supposedly a Beagle but he had a short tail.  He was taller than a Jack Russell.  He was smart.  He slept outside, by his choice.  He loved to chase rabbits and squirrels.  And he HATED opossums.  He caused a great fuss one evening because a opossum was eating his food!  John took the .22 and shot it.  That dog was terrified of guns!  He ran away and hid.  The next morning, John showed him the dead opossum.  He was totally uninterested!  Sadly, Bo was hit by a truck and killed in May of 2007.

We got Peanut later, in the fall of 2007.  A friend of ours, Chris, brought her to us.  She'd been living with a family who was abusing her and so Chris took her.  When she came to live with us, she was in heat.  Once her heat was over, we got her spayed. Here's Peanut when she first came to live with us.

Puppy Peanut

I realized that Peanut's black and tan face was so familiar to me... making me think of all my fond memories of Herkimer.  Notice that Bo had that same kinda face.  My kinda face.

What a good dog Peanut has become!  She got off to a rocky start with the birds.  She did kill 1 chicken when we first let them out.  But wearing a chicken tied to her collar all day has cured her of that.  She's never hurt another.

She saw a hawk kill a chicken one day and now she hates ANY bird that flyes over our yard.  She chases off across the yard after them, barking!  "Get out of here you bad bird!"  Hawks, buzzards... she doesn't care.

We let Peanut sleep outside when she wanted, initially.  But one early morning she decided to chase the coyotes off down into the hollow and came back covered in blood!  Thankfully, it wasn't HER blood.  But she's not allowed to sleep outside at night since then.  If she was a bigger dog, or we had more than 1 dog .. then maybe we'd let her sleep out.  But she's one little dog so she'd be coyote food.

But she LOVES to hunt.  She's a great squirrel dog.  And she's chased off racoons.  And opossums.  Thankfully, she's never tangled with a skunk.  We did catch a skunk in a "no kill" cage, but the cage was small enough that it couldn't turn around and spray.

We've had some great times with these 2 critters in our household.  Rusty is always into something....

Marcie and Rusty

We had some friends visiting in July of 2007, and Rusty slept on Gary's head!

Rusty and Peanut are both getting older.  Rusty will be 7 this year, Peanut will be 6.  They've grown up to  be such wonderful companions.  Rusty wants out every night, so we let him.  Peanut sleeps in the house at night.  Rusty sleeps in the house every DAY.  It's a cushy life.

Peanut, July 2012

Rusty, July 2012

We had another dog for about 8 months.  We got her as a young pup, and named her Bella.  Sadly, she was hit by a car right here in front of the house.  What an awful day!

She was growing up to be a nice dog.  At about the time Bella died my brother-in-law Joey and his family came to live with us.  And they brought their dog, Molly.  Peanut and Molly got along well.

Molly

 
Joe and Lisa and their sons had come to visit before and brought their dogs.  Moe and Weeny (Molly's parents).  Peanut loved playing with them.  We hadn't gotten Bella yet at that point and I think Peanut was lonely.

John and Lisa, Moe and Weenie

 Here's another picture of them.

Moe and Weenie

Peanut and Weenie

 Now that it's been a year, I think I'm ready to start looking for another dog.  Peanut is lonely.  Sure, she has Rusty to keep her company.  But that's not the same as having another dog to play with.

The past few nights, there's been another cat around.  Rusty got my attention wanting in.  When I turned on the light before I opened the door, there was a Japanese Bobtail sitting there!  What a surprise!

I'm hoping I can make friends with it.  Even if it chooses to be an outside cat, I can't in good conscience let it go hungry.  And so I'll feed it and try to gain it's trust.  I wish people wouldn't "dump" their animals in the country!  It's so WRONG!

I've loved animals my whole life.  I've never abused one, let it go hungry.  I had to give my cats away before I got stationed in Japan in the mid 1980's and that broke my heart!



I found a Japanese Bobtail kitten eating sushi in the garbage can when we got to Japan, and we kept her and named her Nezumi (rat, in Japanese).  She came back to the states to live with us, and passed away in 1996.  I loved that cat.  She was all white with green eyes.  God, what a personality!

If this stray cat is as nice a cat as Nezumi was, I'd happily make her part of our family.  I can only tell it's white with black.  I don't know what gender it is yet.  I guess we'll just have to see what happens.