August happenings on Shelley Hill Farm

Okay, so it's been a while, but things have been busy, busy, busy like usual.  Liam's last baseball tournament was in Steamboat Springs, CO, at the end of July, and we had a super fabulous time!  They took 6th place out of 27 teams from all over the U.S.  Not too shabby.

Now, Liam is playing football for the first time ever.  He is having playing well and learning the positions he is put in.  They have just been scrimmaging with other teams and league play will begin in September.  Will keep you posted on that.

Below are pictures from the garden and such taken this morning.

So below, you can see that we are becoming inundated with zucchini!  Who doesn't.  I only planted three plants of yellow and green, but hmm, perhaps only two next year.  To the right of the zucchini are some beets that were ready to be harvested and I even got four carrots!!!  Woot!

So Mom and I decided to dig up one potato plant (Yukon Gold) to see if they were ready to be harvested.  Below are the potatoes from one plant, 26 or so, and hmmm I think we will be in potatoes for the winter big time as there are three 4 x 12 foot beds and one probably 6 x 12 foot bed.  YAY!!!

Squash that is growing, at this point, I am not sure what kind these are, as some came up and some did not.  I tried to look online at what I ordered, but hmm, guess I need to keep better records.  lol

Though I think these are small pumpkins below.

This would be the large potato bed of Yukon Gold.

Out of I think like 12 slips of sweet potatoes, only four survived and seem to have taken off finally now that the weather has warmed up.

The pole beans are doing their thing and just starting to produce!

The rhubarb we moved is doing very well, obviously, haha.  Gonna try to make some rhubarb wine this year.

These would be the yellow and green zucchini plants in the front and pumpkins in the back.

Harvested some of our red and white storage onions yesterday.  They are now curing/drying out.

These are the four turkey poults that we have left that hatched out.  One of the momma hens is sitting on 10 eggs that should hatch out beginning of September.

Mom, Raymond, Kara, and I repainted the chicken coop and feed shed a barn red and then I trimmed in white.  Looks very spiffy if you ask me.  lol

Also, Rob installed a feeder outside (gutter) as we were just putting food on the ground and when rain comes that would not work so well.  Rob will be making an awning for the top of the feeder so the rain won't get in.

This would be Mr. Marty patiently (yeah right) waiting for breakfast this morning.

And here are Gus and Ashley.  Ashley has definitely grown since we got her and she is becoming more approachable and less skitterish.

Here is the repainted feed shed.  Looking good!

These would be the last hatchlings of this year.  The dark ones will be meat chickens and the blonds will be egg layers unless roosters and then will be meat chickens.  There are 21.

This is the second to last group of chicks hatched out this year.  They are now 12 weeks old.  Again the darker ones will be meat chickens, as they are all roosters.  The light brahmas will be layers and hopefully a new light brahma rooster to replace Bob, because Bob has no game.  The ladies all run from him and his advances.  Don't know if it's his curled toes or what, but they want nothing to do with him.  He does manage to catch one once in a while, but really, he needs some help.  lol

We will begin picking blackberries very soon, gonna be making some blackberry wine also, can't hardly wait, but will have to as it will need to sit for a while.  :)

Just replanted this bed with green onions around the outside and three different kinds of beets on the inside.

These are our leeks.  We are putting paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls around the base to blanch them out so there is more white than green farther up the leek.  More to use then.

These are the peppers in this bed.  There are different kinds, orange, red, and Nardello peppers, which are orange and red, but longer and skinnier.  All sweet peppers.

This is the onion bed I pulled the other onions from above.  I tried to pull some of the bigger ones to give the smaller ones that I filled in the holes with room to grow.

This is dill, which we pulled right after I took this picture.  Hopefully will be getting some cukes this week to do some pickles.

This is one end of the tomato bed.  Again, I believe we put too many plants in one spot, did less than last year, though, but will probably need to do less again this next year.  There are Roma, cherry and many different kinds of tomatoes.  Lots of green ones, the only ones that have ripened so far have the cherry tomatoes.

These would be the cherry tomatoes below.

Thought the raspberries were done for the year, but here they go again.  Yay!

These are new starts below from back to front, of broccoli, lettuces, artichokes and Brussel sprouts.  We had four artichoke plants this year and got about 15 artichokes altogether, so was going to start more for this next year.

And these new starts are from back to front, Napa cabbage and lettuces.

This would be the corn down front.  I believe it is probably like 8 to 9 feet tall!!!  That would be the sweet corn.  On the right the shortest is the blue flower corn and then popcorn and then the sweet corn.

These are starts on all of them.  YAY, can hardly wait.

This the one apple tree we have that is producing.  The apples actually look pretty good even if the leaves on the tree don't.

This would be the one cluster of Asian pears that we have on the tree.

And last, but not least, there are 7 pears on our pear tree.

Just been busy weeding, picking and replanting in the garden.  Definitely been enjoying the warm weather.  Heading back outside to weed.  Will try to blog again sooner rather than later!

Gardening and things....

So, busy baseball weekend last weekend.  Played in Puyallup and Lacey, and TADA!!!!!  They won five out of five games!!!  Champions!!  Seattle Stars!!!!!

This would be the trophy and shirts the team received for winning.

This is Liam pictured with both his coaches, on the left is Coach Shane and Coach Nick is on the right.

These are all the boys in their new T-shirts with the trophy!!!

Had a busy day today, below Mom and I mulched the potatoes,

Rob cut down some sapling alder trees to use as a trellis for the pole beans that are finally taking off.  There has been so much RAIN!!!  Better than none I suppose.  Mom and I had to unwind the beans one by one and rewind them around the closest poles.

Okay, so we are looking at the Yukon Gold potatoes below and what the heck is that???  There is what looks like a tomato plant growing OUT OF the potato plant?  Anyone every heard of such a thing?

If you look close at the picture, you can see it is literally growing OUT OF the potato stalk.  hmmmmmm.

These would be the pumpkin plants, sugar pumpkins for pumpkin pie and such!!!

The yellow squash with teeny tiny yellow squashes started.

The zucchini plants with zucchini starting to grow.

And these are the sweet potatoes.  They are doing okay, not fabulous.  They definitely like the weather nice and warm, which it has not been.  Perhaps we need to cover them to keep it warmer all around them.  But they are growing.

That's all for now.  We have 32 more chicken eggs that will hatch the first week of August, the other turkey hen hatched out six poults, two have not made it, but there are still four left.  We sold Red the year-old buck, so it is just Ashley, Gus, and Marty holding down the back now.  They do a pretty good job though.

Leaving for Colorado on Saturday for a baseball tourney for Liam.  Kara and I are driving, and Robert and Liam will fly.  Will definitely let you know how that goes!!

Later!

Oh, and in case anyone did not hear, Kara passed her driver's test, so on her birthday, she just has to go in and pick up her license.  Watch out on the road after August 21st.  lol  :)

June, In Closing

How are you all doing?  Been busy with Liam's baseball, end of school, and gardening.  Oh, and the animals!!!

Below is the new manual butter churn I purchased off Amazon.  It works beautifully in about 5 minutes, voila, I can't believe it's butter.  hahahaha  This was with 2 pints of cream at a time, made about 1 pound of butter and the leftover whey I used in the bread I made.

Mom and I picked our first batch of garlic, which is drying now in the garage.  This is Pink Chinese, an early variety of braiding garlic.  We also have Italian Late, which is good for storage also.

The very first strawberries of the year!  Yummy!!! and the first batch of parsley!

Robert got creative with the clippers before one of Liam's baseball games and put his number on the side of his head.  Looked great!!!  Liam thought it was cool!

Went down to Dad's for Father's Day.  Got to see their new condo.  Very, very nice.  This is the covered deck they have.  Dad BBQ'd steak and Audra made very yummy baked beans and Waldorf Salad!  Great company and food, can't be beat!!

The "men" obviously having a very serious discussion on the porch.  hahaha!

And now for the wonderful news!!!  Both of the turkey hens have been sitting and when we got home from Father's Day, one momma had hatched out 9 babies, out of 25 eggs.  However, her nest was in a very damp spot so I am sure that did not help.  Two did not make it, unfortunately.  One got caught outside the cage and couldn't get back in.  Two others Mom brought into the house as the same thing happened, and she kept them warm on a heating pad.  They were in the brooder with 4 baby chicks and one did not make it.  So there are 6 outside with momma and 1 inside with the 4 baby chicks.  All 7 are doing well!  Success!!!  The other hen probably has about 3 more weeks before hatching and she is sitting on 6 eggs, so hopefully more turkeys on the way.  The cage below is around her nest and she goes in and we close the door at night, so that works much better than before.

The squash are taking off with the couple of warm days we have had intermixed with the rain!

The potatoes are growing best out of everything, I have to say.  I did just purchase some potato bags to be able to store them in to keep throughout the winter.

Then I got a wild hair and weeded the flowers around the house and decided I did not want this flower bed in the back anymore.  Mom and I moved 4 to 6 plants to different places and removed the rest along with all the thistles and dandelions.  Liam was the one manning the wheelbarrow that Mom and I filled.  We are going to plant more potatoes as we have a bunch that sprouted and do love potatoes!!!

Busy with baseball this next month with Liam.  His season ends at the end of July with a tournament in Colorado at Steamboat Springs.  Kara and I are driving, should be fun as we got a new stereo in the Toyota so no more static feedback.  Robert and Liam are flying and we are picking them up in Denver. Will definitely be making a trip to Leadville to see Tim's bench by the reservoir.  Liam has never been and Kara was only 6 months old when he passed so does not remember.

Later!!

New items found!

Had a great time at the Mother Earth New Fair!  Ran into Erica and Homebrew Husband from NW Edible.  Had a great time with Mom, Raymond, and Robert.

Below, are the sourdough starters that I purchased and have started.  Am excited to be making some bread items from these two.

 There was a fabulous booth Pepperjackhome that had reusable paper towels shown below!  One side is cotton and the other is diaper cloth.  Soaks up spills fabulously and can be washed and reused!

At the same booth, there were reusable snack bags like below,

And a reusable sandwich bag that velcroed closed as shown below,

Below are the garlic scapes that mom cut and then dried for us.  I fried some up with some veggies the other night that were fabulous!

Below are the sweet potato slips that finally got planted after warming up the soil under the plastic.  I have four left in the house that are still growing/sprouting leaves and will plant them soon.

Mom's friend Cleo brought down some potato fingerling starts, so we have planted those and hopefully will have a little crop!

The potatoes have grown wonderfully!!!  Need to get some straw to mulch with along with the grass clippings.

All is going well on Shelley Hill Farm.  Liam has a baseball tournament this weekend we will be going to and the kids are out of school on Friday!  Kara will be a Junior in high school next year, wow where does the time go and Liam will be in 8th grade.  The animals are doing well and both turkey hens are sitting now, the one probably has about a week until hatching and the other just started and is sitting on 11 eggs.

So hopefully will have more turkeys for butchering in the fall.  The first group of chickens will be processed the first of July.

Have a good one!