Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Quote: It was the Chinese cucumber that I think you called Vietnamese luffa last year. You cook with garlic. Which reminds me the rest of my garlic is ready to be dug. I checked it today. the plants I have were started in doors by my friend. He gave them to me when they were about 4 inches tall and only had a couple leaves, but they grew very fast.
One year my ex mother in law and myself made so much Sand hill Plum jelly the smell of Sand plums makes me feel sick. I have a few of the bushes along my fence line and told myself I was going to go check them but never have. I might be able to stand it with Jalopenos. I love anything Jalopeno that is sweet.
Originally Posted by sharol

Sharol I'd be glad to teach you. Skinning is easy but so is plucking. It depends on how you want to prepare them. I need to butcher a few of my own. Just hate to do it in this hot weather. If you let me get some of my storm mess cleaned up you can come here and I'll have things set up for it.

Thank you so much. I'm at your mercy. As of right now I don't have any real plans for the rest of the month. Maybe you can show me how to pluck, too, it would be a great skill to have.

What will I need in the way of knives or other implements?
You won't need to bring any thing if you come here. I do have a couple of new killing cones I haven't used yet so we can try those out if you like. It really takes nothing more than kitchen utensils to butcher but sharp knives really help. I used some kitchen shears the last few times I butchered and really thought they worked well. If you have some gallon freezer bags those might help. I do have a food sealer as well but it seems kind of hard to get a good seal on uneven things like birds. I often freeze in a zip lock bag and then seal them in the other bag later.
I just got done feeding and watering. It is miserable out there. It's supposed to be cooler but the humidity is so high it feel really hot.
I have plenty to do out there but I really need to do some things inside too. It's kind of a toss up about which way I want to work.

 

[HEChicken]

Hechicken, welcome back! Hope you enjoyed your trip! Sounds like you are very busy with your garden once you are back in town. My garden is not very successful this year. I did have potatoes growing very nicely though. Tomatoes were not that great, corn is definitely a bust as far as I can tell. Carrots are not doing well at all and I'm not sure why. My sweet melon, squash and zucchini are doing OK. You son is awesome that he was helping you tend to the birds and garden. I'm glad you have plenty of ducks though and less broody! I love the story of how the lonely chick was able to convinced the broody to become his/her mama. So sweet....

You haven't had potato bugs? When I returned I found my potato foliage being munched by something and it wasn't hard to find the culprits. The potato bugs are fat, orange bugs that are really easy to see on the green potato leaves, and with enough of them, they can really do some damage. They morph into potato beetles that are yellow and brown striped. Those mate and lay bright orange eggs under the potato plants so that when they hatch they can just crawl up the stems and start eating. In the first few days after I returned, I spent an hour or more every morning and every evening just picking potato bugs and beetles off the plants. I'm now down to a sweep only once every other day or so and I'm hardly finding any so I think I have them whipped but they sure gave me a run for my money

Some things haven't been that successful this year but most of it is looking good. My tomato plants have lots of green tomatoes on them but nothing close to ripening yet. My green beans are producing like crazy and I have to harvest every few days. My basil looks really good. The onions are growing, and there are lots of potatoes in spite of the bugs. The greens have been a mixed bag. The chard, kale and collards are doing really well but the mustard has all bolted. I know it is a cool season crop so I'm pulling out the plants and giving them to the chickens to work over and will replant them soon for a fall crop. The spinach never did well. I grew bok choy this year and it did marvelously until one by one the plants would keel over during the night. DH said they'd look beautiful one evening but next morning would be collapsed. He wasn't sure what was going on with them but by the time I got home they were all gone. Luckily we ate some before I left. I've harvested all but two of the rutabagas I planted and the last two are almost ready. The zucchinis got attacked by squash bugs. I fought them but lost one plant before I even started, lost the second just as I thought I had the bugs under control and lost the third a couple of days ago. The third had no bugs or eggs left on it and sadly, I think it died from lack of water. After all the rain we had, then we had a dry spell and I don't think it got its roots down deep enough and I didn't notice it was struggling until it was too late.

I've also planted a lot of flowers as companion plants this year and they are all doing great. The sunflowers, marigolds and zinnias are all blooming beautifully and - hopefully - attracting lots of the beneficial insects I want working up there for me.

Hechicken, since you are just East of me... how much rain have you had so far? By the time I got home, the rain gauge registered right at 3" but my DH was telling me it has got to be more than that because it practically rained non-stop since I left. LOL Sometimes he could be a bit too dramatic and exaggerate a bit.

I have no clue! We have a rain gauge but DH empties it religiously after every rain so it was empty when I got back. DS said it rained a LOT and the humidity was terrible while I was gone. Since I've been back we've had a few more good rains and Monday of last week got about 2 ¾" but already the ground is dry and cracking. They are saying we might get more storms tonight - I hope we get the rain and not the wind or hail, as it will save me having to water.

While I was gone I was asked many times how many chickens I have and it was a little embarrassing to not even know the answer. This morning I realized I do know how many I have: enough that one can go missing for three weeks and I won't even notice her absence. I went out to do chores this morning and saw a newly hatched chick running behind a hen, chirping its little head off. I had not even noticed that hen was missing and still have no idea where she could have been. I've been collecting eggs daily since I got back so this one was NOT hatched in the coop but I've also mowed the chicken yard since I got back so if she had a hidden nest in the grass, I would have found her then. Unfortunately, this morning I had to run and by the time I got back and went to check on it, Mother Hen and chick had disappeared again. Presumably the hen returned to the nest she's apparently hidden very well, which may mean there are still eggs in it that she is trying to hatch. I've been to check several times but haven't caught a glimpse. Hopefully next time I see her, I can follow her back to her nest and figure out where she has been. Sneaky bird. At least the chick does appear to be a pure NH which is a breed I would have hatched if I'd known she was broody and given her eggs.

 

[chicken danz]

Did I mention I picked my first red tomato yesterday. It was nice sized too. I've got others out there that have a decent size to them but none even close to ripe. I did get the garlic dug while ago. I am impressed with the nice big heads it produced. The first bunch I dug wasn't impresssive at all. I don't think I'm going to get any green beans at all. Those plants are destroyed. I put another wire up for the cucumbers and was starting to try to get the vines climbing up them but the bugs were biting like crazy. I couldn't stand it any more.
I planted two groups of onions. The first ones are doing wonderful and producing huge bulbs. The others did nothing at all and most just died out. It must be timing I guess. I haven't had much luck growing tomatoes or onions at this place before so it's nice to see what looks like a promising crop.
It's obvious though I need far fewer chickens or a smaller garden.
I need to hem some pants. We are having a family get together this weekend and I need to get them done so I have something to wear. It seems every day I either rip or severely stain a piece of clothing. The chickens don't care if I wear ruined clothes but now it seems I have nothing but ruined clothing.

 

[JosieChick]

Howdy all!

I was reading and forgot to multi so here I am at the end and can barely remember! Danz- so sorry about your storm mess, what a bummer! Hope it all gets squared away soon for you. Amelia seems pretty happy here now, she is getting her first molars so that has been a miserable time for her, poor baby. Teething is very hard on her, poor bug.

I have a pile of indian runner eggs under a broody hen right now. She is a hatchery maran that is almost four years old and never in her life ever thought about being broody and she stayed broody on a cross country trip so I decided she deserved a shot at motherhood. So far all her eggs are developing! I also have mille fleur cochins in the bator, I just miss them so much and there seems to be a lot of interest in the area for bantam cochins so I figured what the heck. We may add a few more layers just to sell some eggs but not much else for now.

Has anyone had any experience with angora goats? We are thinking maybe we might actually try to become a working farm and raise fiber goats one of these days!

I am a tad frustrated because the guy who is supposed to hay our field keeps giving us the "next week" answer when I ask him when he is going to be out. I am getting annoyed because the field has gone to seed and is getting pretty tall and stemmy and really should be cut asap and I wish he would have told me he didn't really have time to do it after all instead of stringing us along. I hate to piss people off but may need to find someone else...


Hope everyone is staying cool!

 

[cherwill]

I'm way too behind to try to catch up on everything.

I did see that HEChicken and Tweety have recently returned from long trips. I'm glad you got to go, and glad you're back!

DH was on vacation so we've just been mowing and gardening and running errands. HEChicken, I hear ya on the bugs. We get potato bugs every year on our eggplants. Fortunately, eggplants are extremely hardy. We planted potatoes this year and, of course, got bugs. We just keep picking them off and squishing them. We took a bunch to the chickens once. I think they did eat a few, but they weren't terribly excited by them.

We got a decent amount of peas, including enough to freeze a few bags. We have all yellow beans this year, for some reason. There are Capitano beans, which are long and flat, wax beans, and Soleil beans, which are like skinny wax beans. I've been canning the Capitano and wax beans as they are, but just pickled a bunch of the Soleil. I've canned so many Capitano beans that I'm just giving away the fresh ones now. I'll can some more of the wax beans, though. We also did a very late planting of some green beans, but I don't even care if they're successful.

We got a ton of radishes, and a decent-but-not-great amount of carrots and beets. There are more planted, though. DH has hoed off about half of my second planting of beets, though, so this year's harvest won't be great.

We lost the acorn squash to what I think is probably a root borer, but so far the spaghetti squash and watermelon seem unaffected. Every year we fight a (mostly losing) battle with squash bugs, but this is the first time we've had a root borer. It was in the new plot we added this year, and I know the guy in the plot next to it had root borers last year. With the squash bugs, we usually get an OK harvest before they kill the plant.

There are caterpillars in the beans, but the harvest has been so prolific, we haven't worried too much about it.

I hope everyone has been doing well.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

It was the Chinese cucumber that I think you called Vietnamese luffa last year. You cook with garlic. Which reminds me the rest of my garlic is ready to be dug. I checked it today. the plants I have were started in doors by my friend. He gave them to me when they were about 4 inches tall and only had a couple leaves, but they grew very fast.
One year my ex mother in law and myself made so much Sand hill Plum jelly the smell of Sand plums makes me feel sick. I have a few of the bushes along my fence line and told myself I was going to go check them but never have. I might be able to stand it with Jalopenos. I love anything Jalopeno that is sweet.
Originally Posted by sharol
You won't need to bring any thing if you come here. I do have a couple of new killing cones I haven't used yet so we can try those out if you like. It really takes nothing more than kitchen utensils to butcher but sharp knives really help. I used some kitchen shears the last few times I butchered and really thought they worked well. If you have some gallon freezer bags those might help. I do have a food sealer as well but it seems kind of hard to get a good seal on uneven things like birds. I often freeze in a zip lock bag and then seal them in the other bag later.
I just got done feeding and watering. It is miserable out there. It's supposed to be cooler but the humidity is so high it feel really hot.
I have plenty to do out there but I really need to do some things inside too. It's kind of a toss up about which way I want to work.

Ahhh yes, the Vietnamese luffa. A very yummy vegetable indeed. I did want to plant some but ended up not. Now I wish I have some to cook the soup with.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

You haven't had potato bugs? When I returned I found my potato foliage being munched by something and it wasn't hard to find the culprits. The potato bugs are fat, orange bugs that are really easy to see on the green potato leaves, and with enough of them, they can really do some damage. They morph into potato beetles that are yellow and brown striped. Those mate and lay bright orange eggs under the potato plants so that when they hatch they can just crawl up the stems and start eating. In the first few days after I returned, I spent an hour or more every morning and every evening just picking potato bugs and beetles off the plants. I'm now down to a sweep only once every other day or so and I'm hardly finding any so I think I have them whipped but they sure gave me a run for my money

Some things haven't been that successful this year but most of it is looking good. My tomato plants have lots of green tomatoes on them but nothing close to ripening yet. My green beans are producing like crazy and I have to harvest every few days. My basil looks really good. The onions are growing, and there are lots of potatoes in spite of the bugs. The greens have been a mixed bag. The chard, kale and collards are doing really well but the mustard has all bolted. I know it is a cool season crop so I'm pulling out the plants and giving them to the chickens to work over and will replant them soon for a fall crop. The spinach never did well. I grew bok choy this year and it did marvelously until one by one the plants would keel over during the night. DH said they'd look beautiful one evening but next morning would be collapsed. He wasn't sure what was going on with them but by the time I got home they were all gone. Luckily we ate some before I left. I've harvested all but two of the rutabagas I planted and the last two are almost ready. The zucchinis got attacked by squash bugs. I fought them but lost one plant before I even started, lost the second just as I thought I had the bugs under control and lost the third a couple of days ago. The third had no bugs or eggs left on it and sadly, I think it died from lack of water. After all the rain we had, then we had a dry spell and I don't think it got its roots down deep enough and I didn't notice it was struggling until it was too late.

I've also planted a lot of flowers as companion plants this year and they are all doing great. The sunflowers, marigolds and zinnias are all blooming beautifully and - hopefully - attracting lots of the beneficial insects I want working up there for me.

I have no clue! We have a rain gauge but DH empties it religiously after every rain so it was empty when I got back. DS said it rained a LOT and the humidity was terrible while I was gone. Since I've been back we've had a few more good rains and Monday of last week got about 2 ¾" but already the ground is dry and cracking. They are saying we might get more storms tonight - I hope we get the rain and not the wind or hail, as it will save me having to water.

While I was gone I was asked many times how many chickens I have and it was a little embarrassing to not even know the answer. This morning I realized I do know how many I have: enough that one can go missing for three weeks and I won't even notice her absence. I went out to do chores this morning and saw a newly hatched chick running behind a hen, chirping its little head off. I had not even noticed that hen was missing and still have no idea where she could have been. I've been collecting eggs daily since I got back so this one was NOT hatched in the coop but I've also mowed the chicken yard since I got back so if she had a hidden nest in the grass, I would have found her then. Unfortunately, this morning I had to run and by the time I got back and went to check on it, Mother Hen and chick had disappeared again. Presumably the hen returned to the nest she's apparently hidden very well, which may mean there are still eggs in it that she is trying to hatch. I've been to check several times but haven't caught a glimpse. Hopefully next time I see her, I can follow her back to her nest and figure out where she has been. Sneaky bird. At least the chick does appear to be a pure NH which is a breed I would have hatched if I'd known she was broody and given her eggs.

Hechicken, I haven't looked very closely to the potatoes. I did notice bright orange caterpillar looking bugs on the sunflower leaves (well... I think it was sunflowers... could be some weeds). DH and DS harvested 1/4 of the red potatoes last night. It filled the entire 25lb rice bag to the rim and bulging! Do you know how long they will keep in the cool basement? I'm hoping they will stay long enough for me to use them all up. I do use them to cook for the GPs so they will get used up one way or another as long as they don't go bad. Kechi has a new farmer's market that just started over a week ago. It opens every Thursday from 4:30pm to 6:30pm (I think). I wonder if I could set up a stand to sell some potatoes and eggs there.

I have also lost count of my chickens and I don't have that many either. But it's cute that you have a mama with a little chick behind her and maybe more coming! I hope you found the nest.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Did I mention I picked my first red tomato yesterday. It was nice sized too. I've got others out there that have a decent size to them but none even close to ripe. I did get the garlic dug while ago. I am impressed with the nice big heads it produced. The first bunch I dug wasn't impresssive at all. I don't think I'm going to get any green beans at all. Those plants are destroyed. I put another wire up for the cucumbers and was starting to try to get the vines climbing up them but the bugs were biting like crazy. I couldn't stand it any more.
I planted two groups of onions. The first ones are doing wonderful and producing huge bulbs. The others did nothing at all and most just died out. It must be timing I guess. I haven't had much luck growing tomatoes or onions at this place before so it's nice to see what looks like a promising crop.
It's obvious though I need far fewer chickens or a smaller garden.
I need to hem some pants. We are having a family get together this weekend and I need to get them done so I have something to wear. It seems every day I either rip or severely stain a piece of clothing. The chickens don't care if I wear ruined clothes but now it seems I have nothing but ruined clothing.

It is nice to hear that you have a good sized ripen tomato! I'm not sure I'll get good tomato crops this year. Maybe I'll just have to count my blessings that the mislabeled "beefy" tomatoes turned cherry because we do have them coming out our ears! I have completely forgotten about the garlic I planted early this Spring. I wonder if they all died due to the freeze.

Clothing... yup... I wear stained (thanks to blue kote) and clothes that can no longer be worn going something to tend to the chickens. I'm messy and clumsy so new clothes don't stay new very long for me either.

Howdy all!

I was reading and forgot to multi so here I am at the end and can barely remember! Danz- so sorry about your storm mess, what a bummer! Hope it all gets squared away soon for you. Amelia seems pretty happy here now, she is getting her first molars so that has been a miserable time for her, poor baby. Teething is very hard on her, poor bug.

I have a pile of indian runner eggs under a broody hen right now. She is a hatchery maran that is almost four years old and never in her life ever thought about being broody and she stayed broody on a cross country trip so I decided she deserved a shot at motherhood. So far all her eggs are developing! I also have mille fleur cochins in the bator, I just miss them so much and there seems to be a lot of interest in the area for bantam cochins so I figured what the heck. We may add a few more layers just to sell some eggs but not much else for now.

Has anyone had any experience with angora goats? We are thinking maybe we might actually try to become a working farm and raise fiber goats one of these days!

I am a tad frustrated because the guy who is supposed to hay our field keeps giving us the "next week" answer when I ask him when he is going to be out. I am getting annoyed because the field has gone to seed and is getting pretty tall and stemmy and really should be cut asap and I wish he would have told me he didn't really have time to do it after all instead of stringing us along. I hate to piss people off but may need to find someone else...


Hope everyone is staying cool!

Poor Amelia! Teething can be quite painful. But I'm glad she is settling in well though. Sad to see you go and happy that you still jump in here to post an update from time to time. Your Indian Runner mama is great! Broody all the way there!

I'm way too behind to try to catch up on everything.

I did see that HEChicken and Tweety have recently returned from long trips. I'm glad you got to go, and glad you're back!

DH was on vacation so we've just been mowing and gardening and running errands. HEChicken, I hear ya on the bugs. We get potato bugs every year on our eggplants. Fortunately, eggplants are extremely hardy. We planted potatoes this year and, of course, got bugs. We just keep picking them off and squishing them. We took a bunch to the chickens once. I think they did eat a few, but they weren't terribly excited by them.

We got a decent amount of peas, including enough to freeze a few bags. We have all yellow beans this year, for some reason. There are Capitano beans, which are long and flat, wax beans, and Soleil beans, which are like skinny wax beans. I've been canning the Capitano and wax beans as they are, but just pickled a bunch of the Soleil. I've canned so many Capitano beans that I'm just giving away the fresh ones now. I'll can some more of the wax beans, though. We also did a very late planting of some green beans, but I don't even care if they're successful.

We got a ton of radishes, and a decent-but-not-great amount of carrots and beets. There are more planted, though. DH has hoed off about half of my second planting of beets, though, so this year's harvest won't be great.

We lost the acorn squash to what I think is probably a root borer, but so far the spaghetti squash and watermelon seem unaffected. Every year we fight a (mostly losing) battle with squash bugs, but this is the first time we've had a root borer. It was in the new plot we added this year, and I know the guy in the plot next to it had root borers last year. With the squash bugs, we usually get an OK harvest before they kill the plant.

There are caterpillars in the beans, but the harvest has been so prolific, we haven't worried too much about it.

I hope everyone has been doing well.

Speaking of eggplants... my previous eggplants that I planted outside a week before I left for the trip didn't all make it. I think out of the bunch, only 2 made it and they are on the smallish side. I'm sad because I love eggplants. They taste really good in curry. I've seen a lot of caterpillars and if it is not because I'm afraid to touch them, I'd have picked them up and fed them to my birds. They give me the heebie jeebies.

So sorry you lost some of your crops. I'm in the same boat that this year's crops are mainly a bust.

 

[sharol]

Hechicken, I haven't looked very closely to the potatoes. I did notice bright orange caterpillar looking bugs on the sunflower leaves (well... I think it was sunflowers... could be some weeds). DH and DS harvested 1/4 of the red potatoes last night. It filled the entire 25lb rice bag to the rim and bulging! Do you know how long they will keep in the cool basement?

I get beer flats from the liquor store and store potatoes one layer think on them and criss cross them so that they get lots of air. If you leave them in the bag, they may draw damp and rot from the inside of the bag out. Last year they lasted until we used them up in November. We used the last of them (red potatoes) about the middle of November, and only lost a couple to rotting and spoilage.

I remember one year I had them stored that way in the basement on the floor in a stack, and my cat peed all over them. She had recurring kidney problems, and they had flared up without my noticing and she was looking for somewhere to urinate that didn't hurt, I know, but I was really angry and sad over the loss that year. (I forgave the cat -- she was my baby -- but I didn't forgive myself for a long time.) That was lots of years ago, but I still store them out of reach of my animals.

 

[chicken danz]

Howdy all!

I was reading and forgot to multi so here I am at the end and can barely remember! Danz- so sorry about your storm mess, what a bummer! Hope it all gets squared away soon for you. Amelia seems pretty happy here now, she is getting her first molars so that has been a miserable time for her, poor baby. Teething is very hard on her, poor bug.

I have a pile of indian runner eggs under a broody hen right now. She is a hatchery maran that is almost four years old and never in her life ever thought about being broody and she stayed broody on a cross country trip so I decided she deserved a shot at motherhood. So far all her eggs are developing! I also have mille fleur cochins in the bator, I just miss them so much and there seems to be a lot of interest in the area for bantam cochins so I figured what the heck. We may add a few more layers just to sell some eggs but not much else for now.

Has anyone had any experience with angora goats? We are thinking maybe we might actually try to become a working farm and raise fiber goats one of these days!

I am a tad frustrated because the guy who is supposed to hay our field keeps giving us the "next week" answer when I ask him when he is going to be out. I am getting annoyed because the field has gone to seed and is getting pretty tall and stemmy and really should be cut asap and I wish he would have told me he didn't really have time to do it after all instead of stringing us along. I hate to piss people off but may need to find someone else...


Hope everyone is staying cool!

No experience with hair goats. How about Alpacas? It is quite profitable I understand. I have an ex class mate who she and her husband both quit their jobs because they make more money on the alpaca fur. A little costly to get started but a lot easier keepers. In my case I figure I am going to be allergic to all their hair so I'm not tempted. Are you going to have time for a working farm with a new baby? I just had a feeling you two were going to start getting ready for number two.
Poor little Amelia. Doesn't seem possible she is getting jaw teeth already.
If you decide to get back into chickens again let me know and I'll send you some eggs. No bantam cochins but I've got lots of other stuff. I am trying everything I can to keep from hatching. I don't offer eggs to anyone but I'd be glad to send you some. I'm trying to keep from starting up another incubator. And of course this one I am using is overflowing. I thought I was done with peacock eggs until the India blues start laying again in late summer. But the whites gave me an egg yesterday. My boys are all molted and you can't tell them from the hens much.
I have a ton of Sebbies left. I thought I had mostly girls left but the last group I got turned out to be mostly boys. I've got three that were hatched late season with crooked beaks. I finally figured out it was because they were getting calcium depleted. I guess next spring I'll put them on layer feed. If the grass had come back in their pen I think they would have been fine. There's just way too many of them out there.
Originally Posted by cherwill

Quote: I keep saying I will get a count on my chickens when I decide which ones I am going to keep. But it seems that the number and the birds are always changing.
I worry about my garden since I dug the garlic. I understand it helps keep the bug population down.
My grandpa used to grow all their food. He used to store his potatoes on frames that had chicken wire suspended over them. He laid them out flat on a concrete floor and he had potatoes until the next year. I think the clue is to keep the air flow around them and have them in the shade. He had a building where he stored all of his gardening produce. I don't have the space for that but it would be nice. If a person had an unfinished basement where they didn't have to have other things it would be perfect for food storage.
My potatoes are still blooming and very green. So I'm not attempting to check for harvest yet. I may have to plant some late green beans and see if they do anything since this first batch is destroyed. I need to do some tilling and stuff first though.
I am getting a couple of cats this evening. I sure hope they will be good mousers and stick around. I haven't figured out where to feed them yet that the dogs will let them eat without stealing their food. If this works well I might get a couple more later. I just don't need any chicken predators out there.