Famous or not, the pigs still need to
be fed, the goats need to be milked, and the seedlings transplanted
into the garden. Mucking around in manure keeps me humble.
Watching the pigs has been a lot of fun this week. I swear we can
see them grow, and no wonder – every day, they are getting a gallon
of milk or fresh whey from cheese making. They are so used to us
already that they let us sit with them while they eat, and we scratch their backs for them.
Unfortunately, one of them (named
Porky) has what I believe to be an umbilical hernia, so we have to
return her and switch her out for another piggy. It's strange how
much we already feel bonded with all three of them, so letting one go seems sad.
It feels like summer here this week!
We are gardening in shorts and T-shirts, and the kids jumped into the
(cold) pond yesterday. I have been transplanting all the beautiful
little seedlings I raised in the greenhouse, and now they live in the
garden, where hopefully, they will be spared by slugs, flea beetles,
and other assorted monsters. Asparagus stalks are shooting out of the
earth, surrounded by their friends the Jonny Jump Ups. It's not a
bad way to live, surrounded by flowers, I think. Eva loves swinging
in her swing underneath the dogwood tree. It's not a bad way to
live, swinging under a blooming dogwood tree, no? The goats get walked to fresh pasture every day. Not a bad way for them to live, either... The problem is that Quasar, the new goat, hates to walk on the leash, so I often end up pulling and pushing her. Sometimes, she flops herself dramatically on the ground and refuses to go on. Doesn't she realize this is the way to lush, green, sweet grass?
 |
| In this photo, only two of my goats are present. Quasar pissed me off too much doing her drama queen show, so she had to stay in the barn. |
Many people envy my yearly onion crop.
“How do you DO it?”, they ask, and I don't really know if I am
doing anything special, but I will show you step-by-step how I grow
mine, so you can try it.
In the middle of February, I sow onion
seeds (Walla Walla and Copra from Territorial Seeds) into 4 inch
containers in the greenhouse. Two and a half months later, they are ready for their
new home in the garden. I give them a little hair cut first if they
are flopping over. Then I take them out of their containers and put
the whole block of soil into a bucket of water, so the soil gets
washed away gently. When there are only roots left, I gently tease
apart one plant at a time, and then place it into the earth. I
fertilize with manure made from my goats, and organic fertilizer.
Voila! Nothin' to it.
 |
| Kai rescued a humming bird from our living room. See it in his hands? |
No comments:
Post a Comment