I wanna blog on maternity leave!!!

This is a test of my blogging app. It worked once, then it didn't. Here's hoping it will again


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Gardening: death and rebirth

Ok, now that I have figured out how to make the iPad function as an all in one blogging machine, I can tell you about the "farm"s latest exploits.

I don't know if I told you before, but we planted late last summer hoping to get some good summer veggies. Well it was unseasonably hot, even for Arizona and so everything died without so much as a tomato to show for it. Needless to say, it was disheartening.

So this winter my mom and step Todd brought us some transplants for lettuce, kale and broccoli. They were lovely and all signs pointed to us actually getting to eat out of our garden this year. I faithfully watched everything all winter long, watering and fertilizing, even singing to the plants with Maggie. Every day i'd go out and find that my plants seemed to be getting smaller rather than bigger. That's no good right? I assumed it was from birds. I had ruled out my chickens as the culprit since both beds are fenced with chicken wire, and the ladies have their wings clipped so they can't fly all that high. So I started putting chicken wire domes over all the plants.


Above you see the wreckage of my romaine as it looks today.


They still kept shrinking, and they had tell tale signs of bird damage. I didn't know what to do! I was frustrated because finding time to get out of the house to pay close attention to the garden while still paying close attention to your suicidal 2 year old was hard enough and the efforts I had made weren't working!!! This is why people quit gardening. Because you have to take the time to find solutions to problems that are usually a matter of observing something minute, or knowing something about plants. I am ok at the former, but the later usually involves very long books that a working farm mommy of two doesn't have time to read.


Well, low and behold, one day we observed our not so minute detail. Talulah. That chicken has more personality than all our others combined but she's also more ornery than the rest. She had figured out how to get UNDER the fence and was standing there scratching and pecking at my garden until it was nothing but stubs! By the time we caught her in the act and confined her to her coop and run (no more free run of the backyard for these girls!) the beds were trashed. Only the peas and strawberries hadn't been harmed, but they were growing very slowly.



So here we are in march. I planted tomatoes and peppers around the 10th (about a day before we caught Talulah, poor peppers!) and faithfully watered and fertilized. But two of my tomatoes seemed to be dying the second I put the into the beds. It's so disheartening. The peas and strawberries are still out but not really producing anything edible. So I bought some bigger strawberries in the hopes that a nice nursery transplant will fare better than a home depot one.


Now begins the waiting game. But while we wait, I was surprised to find some of my lettuce has grown back as well as some of the arugula. God willing, I'll get a salad out of this yard yet! I am also seeing signs of life from the presumed dead tomatoes and new leaves have grown on the chicken ravaged peppers.


I welcome your gardening advice. Right now all I know is to fertilize once a week and not let my chickens out into the garden anymore!! But I feel like there is probably more to it.

Maybe someday my peas will come...



- farm girl

This is a test

My new iPad just arrived. I'm hopeful it will help me update more if I can figure out how to take photos and put them into the blog without ever having to go to the desk top. So this is just a test to get cake picture to upload!

Happy Harvest!

Now, when i say Happy Harvest, I mostly mean "Happy Week After Halloween" since i actually have no crops to harvest.  Yet.

Our family did Halloween at our church this year, we took our car and set up some decoration and did a "trunk or treat".  It was really a great time, the kids had a blast.  We brought Tallulah, who was a good sport, met the people and shook wings all that.  Many of the kids got a kick out of her and we answered lots of questions about chickens and eggs and "where you get the nuggets" on a chicken. There were tons of kids saying "I've never seen a REAL chicken before" as if i were holding a magical beast!

Maggie as a bee

Micah the Bawk Bawk

Kids and Cousins, and... is that a chicken?

Micah and daddy

A good time was had by all but it gave me time, sitting there handing out candy to mostly strangers, to consider food in our lives.  I hope i am not being overly political when i say this, but there seemed to be an obvious economic divide in the types of people that came by.  The first wave of people were obviously very poor.  That group had no costumes, mostly ripped clothes and a very strong smell to them.  They were also mostly overweight.  After that various groups showed up, mostly middle class people.  It was that first group that got me thinking though. In that group, the adults had no shame in having a bag of their own.  Unlike the middle class groups that followed, they didn't even try to hide behind a baby saying they were collecting for their infant.  They simply held out their bag and demanded their treat.  No joyful cries of "trick or treat!" from them.  Or their children for that matter. For a lot of people, this degradation of our society makes them angry, but in this case it made me very very sad. 

The poor eat very poorly.  I read an article in The Economist recently about food deserts in the United States and how difficult it can be to come by fresh food in lower income areas.  I think that Tucson happens to do very well in the fresh food category, although to hear some of my friends talk, we are in the middle of the Sahara.  Us middle class snobs have the luxury of quoting "Food Inc" to decry grocery store tomatoes and Monsanto but ultimately any tomato is better than no tomato and proprietary produce is better than no produce at all, right?  I suppose many would consider that a matter for some debate.

Although, I have mentioned before that people don't know how to cook any longer, so this aim to get  produce (proprietary or otherwise) into the hands of poorer citizens might all be for naught since many cannot prepare the food in a way that they would want to eat and fast food restaurants might now start accepting food stamps, so why bother? With heart disease, diabetes and obesity being diseases found largely in poorer groups now and a lack of health insurance making treatment of these diseases harder to come by, one must wonder: Is America just too lazy to save itself?  Or do we just lack the knowledge necessary?

Fifty years ago, having a flock of chickens and a veggie garden in your back yard was a sign you were poor, trying to avoid grocery store costs and being prepared against hard economic times.  Poor people canned their food and made their clothes worried about waste.  Now these things are larks for the middle class.  

I don't know what the answer is or really have any suggestions.  I do believe teaching people to cook is essential to getting our country back on track.  I truly believe one of the worst decisions the public school system ever made was to phase out Home Ec.  But will it ever be enough?

Its the time of year when we get ready to say Thanks to our family and to our God for all of our many blessings.  And since I'm just an urban farming blog, far be it for me to tell you what to be thankful for, but if i might, i challenge you to be thankful for your kitchen, your back yard and even your Monsanto tomato.  Those who have signs in your kitchen that laud your inability or unwillingness to cook, consider what you are saying.  You have a range, you have pots, you have rice and beans, tomatoes, cheese, flour, salt, clean water.Yyou have access to more food than you could ever eat and you have internet access to learn how to make all of these things into a delicious dinner if you wanted.  

All the while, there are people out there who are obese, dirty and dont know how to do anything except demand a hand out of processed sugar.  I'm not sure who failed who here, but i know that i am not always the hardest most joyful worker or the best example of how to live and as a person of privilege, maybe that's my responsibility.  Food for thought. =)

 

Happy Harvest. From Tallulah and I.

Long time, no update!

So i havent updated since the middle of the summer mainly because life got the better of me.  There is a lot to do with a little fake farm and two kids under four and a full time job.  So i appologize for my lake of posting.


We got our garden planted in Aug.

Which turns out to have been too late.  For this year anyway.  I may have been too optimistic since i was told by several seed people that you could plant from July 15- Aug 15 and be fine.  I think we should have aimed more for July 15!  Although it was also unnaturally hot all summer long! its still in the nineties and its late October!  Yuck!

So after a week i was really hopeful, i had little sprouts:

Unfortunately, it never really got any bigger than that!  They grew up about three inches then gave up!  just sat there as tiny little sprouts.  I actually got really excited when they were at three inches and plucked out the excess tomato plants (youre only supposed to have one, not three!) So the weakest ones that i pulled, i transplanted one into one of my window boxes just to see what would happen.  Wouldnt you know it, its my biggest plant?  over a foot tall and looks like it might actually give me some tomatoes!  *sigh*  

Turning to the second bed, it had corn, cukes and watermelons planted in it.  the watermelon vine is HUGE (sorry no picture!) and spreading everywhere but no watermelons YET a few flowers have fallen off leaving little green balls that MIGHT be watermelons? The corn had a few stalks grow but a lot stayed small then withered in the heat.  I am not sure what makes one stalk grow like crazy and the one right next to it wither and die, but it was sure strange.

Overall i was pretty bummed about my farm.  My chickens wander the yard pooping on EVERYTHING but didnt lay eggs, my garden was jacking up my water bill like crazy but not producing any veggies!  Total bummer and i felt like such a failure as a farmer.  I'm not too ashamed to tell you i've been very very stressed with life and work lately and the farm failure was really just another crushing blow to my already bruised ego.  

Then yesterday happened!  Luis went to check on the chickens after we got home from the gym last night and what did we find?!

A small white egg!  Since it is white (it is, the light is just weird in the coop) it is either Polish or Talulah.  However because its so small, and i dont see another one in there this morning, i think its Polish!  Crazy polish might have been the first of our chickens to lay an EGG!  This is miraculous because Polish is an ornamental breed, shes not really a big egg-layer.  Although just because its a small doesnt mean its not Talulah's.  She'll eventually lay big white eggs, but since shes new to it, its normal to have smaller eggs at first.  So i'll try to keep you posted when we get our next eggs.  Hopefully our other girls follow suit soon!  

Then miracle of miracles we also found THIS:

That there is an honest to goodness ear of corn!  Growing in MY back yard!  Now since there arent too many other tall stalks (about 5 total grew tall enough to produce) it may never get cross pollinated enough to eat* but it will make good chicken food none the less!  

So i am very excited to have had SOME success in the garden.  This weekend i hope to pull out the front bed that did nothing at all and replant some winter veggies.  (Kale anyone?)  i'll make sure we mix in some of our own compost this time since that was what was in the boxes and all of those are doing great!  

Happy Harvest to you all!  Come see two of the chickens and I at Northminster Presybeterian this Halloween!  Our Trunk or Treat car will be farm themed and I think im taking Polish and Dorothy to be petted by the kids!

When chickens wont come home to roost.

Farm fans REJOICE! For today is a day of great celebration in the land of Ruvalcaba Farms!  We have procured dirt! it will be dropped off Saturday morning, hopefully moved into its home by Saturday afternoon and planted Sunday after the farmers market! HUZZAAHH!!!!! pictures and separate entry to follow.  But today's post is about chickens!

So every night, after they have walked around in the yard eating weeds for a few hours, the chickens put themselves to bed.  They all walk up into the coop and cuddle up in the windows.  For whatever reason, they sleep there rather than on the roosting bar.  All of them just troop right on in there... except for Other White Chicken. 

Girlfriend really is her own bird.  She's a chicken among...other chickens.  If you remember from earlier OWC and Polish came to us after our initial five chickens (one of which was Betsy, the rooster).  Even though we only got them a week after the others and they've spent the vast majority of their lives as a group, OWC and Polish tend to stick together.  OWC typically takes longer to leave the coop when they get let out for the night and Polish usually sticks close by until OWC makes her way out.  When all the girls are pecking the weeds near the gate, OWC and Polish are pecking the weeds under the slide.  And more often that not if someone is squawking and tearing across the yard with a chihuahua in hot pursuit, its OWC or Polish.  Its not that they are outcasts really; when Zero attacks one of them, the other girls will eventually swarm him to remind him to back off.  Its just that those two tend to occasionally act like a separate flock within a flock.

So its no surprise that while all the chickens are going inside for the night OWC is roosting on every thing EXCEPT the inside of the coop, with Polish keeping a watchful (if not lone) eye on her from the window.  Not the same window as the others mind you. 

that's plywood that i use to hold the door open while they are outside.

Typically, i let them do their thing outside while i make dinner and usually i come out after dark to find them all tucked in and OWC perched on the brick grill next to the coop, like shes hoping to become dinner later.  You cant see it here but shes usually all hunkered down with her belly on the brick and her head down by her chest.  She fully intends to sleep there every night. At least until someone puts a fire under her and cooks her up. Usually i have to pick her up and put her back inside with her other ladies. 

"Time to  get off the grill and go inside OWC"-Me "Eat me"-OWC

OWC.  A rebel without a cause.  Unless, of course,  "not roosting inside" is a cause.  then shes pretty much a rebel with a cause.  a ridiculous cause. 

"what are we gonna do with that bird?"

Farm Update!

I have been getting lots of questions about the status of the farm.  I'm a little ashamed to tell you that on the "growing things" front, we are at a stand still.  A lack of two days off in a row and a lack of pickup truck are making it impossible to get dirt for the beds.  So for the moment they still look like this: 

Empty, barren, full of dirty plastic (that had been spread out over them to help burn off the weeds).  As soon as we can afford about $300 worth of dirt, we can fill them.  But really unless that happens next weekend, we will likely miss the last summer planting season.  then we will have to wait til mid September to plant for the fall.  Not that that is so far away. just a bummer.  No tomatoes for us. =(

Basil: Purple and Sweet

Thyme in the foreground, Oreg in the background

In the mean time, we have been growing herbs in window boxes next to the house with mixed sucess.  The basil is doing very well.  We also have thyme, parsley and oregano that are doing well.  Our Cilantro, which used to occupy that lower orange box with the parsley all died off, this the bald spot on the edge of the parsley.  The three empty green boxes on the bottoms were just planted today in a mix of our compost and potting soil.  They contain cantaloupe, watermelon and pumpkins.  Im not sure which is which because i failed to label them! so it
will be a surprise when they show up.  I also threw some pumpkin seeds down on the ground next to this set up just to see if they would grow.  I'm told pumpkins will grow pretty much anywhere. So its just an experiment.  i'll let you know how it goes.



On the other hand, the chickens are doing lovely!  I hadnt posted many pictures of them because they were in their ugly phase.  Chickens have a very ugly phase between the time they are chicks and the time they are pullets.  They look like pigeons with chick heads.

See? This was Esther about 2 mo ago...

Sadly, Betsy did turn out to be a rooster so i sent her/him to live with a nice family on  a farm.  Literally.  Or at least i hope its literally.  More likely than not they are planning to eat him in a few weeks.  But that's better than the other crazy fear i have which is that they are using him in a cock fight.  Lets hope that's not it! I'll need to screen my applicants better in the future. Really i just freaked out when he started crowing.  I didn't want the police called and all my other girls forced to leave over one stupid rooster.  My neighbor was kind enough to haughtily tell me that its illegal to have roosters so she's very glad she hasn't heard any crowing coming from my yard. I tell you, if my ladies ever need lessons on how to be a cluck-y old hen, i'll send them to that lady. Sheesh.  

Anywho, the girls are big enough now to free range in the yard for a while.  so when i come home from work i let them out and they wander around eating weeds. 

That's Esther pecking the weed and Ruth behind her.  Dorothy's butt is behind them both

Since monsoons started its helpful to have some girls who are willing to eat the never ending supply of weeds in our yard.  Its also humorous to see them all around the kid's play things.

After it starts to get dark (or rain) they put themselves back into the coop and settle in for the night.  You know the expression "hens coming home to roost"?  That's a real thing.  With no prodding at all they will just walk back into the coop and roost.  Whats roosting?  you see that 2x4 in the picture of young Esther? That is a roost.  Its just a bar or plant that they can sit and balance on.  Chickens, for some reason, dont like their butts to touch the ground while the sleep.  Three of mine sleep on that bar (Polish, Ruth and Other White Chicken, not ironically the bottom three on the pecking order) while the other three (Esther, Dorothy and Talulah) roost in the window and like to stick their heads out and watch the rain.  They are funny girls.

I wish i had a picture of it, and maybe i should just do a whole post on it, but the sleeping habits of the girls are really very cute.  Dorothy, the second in command sleeps with her neck stretched out across Esther (top chicken)'s neck.  Their necks are longer than they appear when they stretch out and so if you look quickly it looks like Ether's striped body has a brown head and Dorothy's brown body has a black striped head.  Talulah just looks at them both like they are whacko's and shoves her head out of the chicken wire window and lets the rain drip off her beak.

So there you go, an update on the girls.  No eggs yet, but we suspect Talulah will start laying eggs at the end of this month or the beginning of next mother.  They've all been put on layer feed to help them produce healthy well shelled eggs!  

There is now talk in our household of a pair of pygmy goats for the milk. but that will require us to bulldoze our hen house and build a new structure, part hen house part "goat cave".  But first we need to get some dirt! what do you think?