Goings and Comings in April

So garden is going.  The tomatoes have been planted, and the peppers, with covers made by the wonderful Robert!  The potatoes are all planted, also.  The basil, lemon mint, sage, marjoram, oregano, rosemary and thyme are in planters.  The strawberries have been weeded and already have some flowers!  YAY!  The rhubarb has been moved from the raised bed to a new spot in the new, extended garden area and already has new growth.  I really don't think there is any way to kill rhubarb.  hmmm

So the goings at Shelley Hill Farm are below.  R1 and R2 were sold to a family up north.  The kids are going to be showing them, and were very excited to get them.

Monica,

Rachel,

And Phoebe were all sold to a gentleman and are off to new adventures.

Momma turkey and her 11 babies were attacked by coyotes and did not survive.  The other two hens and their nest was attacked also, all babies/eggs destroyed and one hen was hurt, but she has recovered, so now we have Mr. Tom, and two turkey hens.  They have started laying again, but am not sure if they will sit again this year or if we need to wait until next year.  Time will tell.  If they do sit, we are going to be putting one of the movable chicken tractors over her/them while sitting and hatching to protect them better.

On the cooking front, I made egg noodles using a pasta maker and they turned out fabulous.  Made fettuccine and linguini noodles.

With homemade alfredo sauce, can't be beat!  yummy yum yum!

As I was driving Kara and Liam to school the other day, I passed a chipper truck that was chipping up someones trees, stopped and asked if he had any chips we could have to do the garden paths in.  He said not at that time, but I got his business card and mom called and voila, three days later two truck loads of FREE chips!!!!!  Woo Hoo!

So we have been busy moving chips, not all done yet, to the garden paths.  Much easier than having to mow and such.

Liam's Seattle Stars team was in a tournament, the Seattle Elite Tournament held in Kirkland, and won first place, being undefeated!  Awesome tournament and they played very well.  Yay.  Go Stars!

Kara's softball season is almost done for the year.  They have three more games this next week and then are finished.  What fun!

Later!

Mid April Happenings on the farm!

So remember the three turkeys that were sitting?  Well the first group has hatched.  This is the momma hen that was in the blackberries in the front yard and out of 14 eggs, she hatched out 11.  They follow her around the yard everywhere.  They are very cute!

This would be momma hen sitting on all her chicks to keep them warm.  They wander a little bit and then rest and wander and rest all day long.

The other two hens are still sitting, so hopefully in the next week we should have more.  They were sitting on the same nest together with 26 eggs in it.  Not sure how they are going to decide whose chick is whose, but we shall see.

These are the covers Robert made for the raised beds so mom and I could plant the tomatoes!  They have  breathable covers on them that let sunlight and water through but keep it warmer underneath.  Fabulous job as always Rob!

This would be the view under the tunnel.  Tomato plants galore with lettuce on the left side.  The lettuce was started from the cut bottoms of organic leaf lettuce purchased at the grocery store, put in water overnight and then planted!!!

This would be the asparagus bed the second year of being here.  Lots of new asparagus to be picked.

These are the garlic bulbs planted last fall.  In the front is the early garlic and behind that is the late season garlic.

This is the celery, again purchased organic celery at the store, cut off the bottom, soaked in water overnight and then planted.  They are starting to grow!  yay!  There are also leeks and onions from last year in the bed!

These are the chicks we hatched out from the incubator on February 22.  They are in the chicken tractor and doing very well.

These are the chicks we hatched out on April 6.  They are not fully feathered, but love to be outside pecking at the grass and then huddle under the light to stay warm.

I purchased a manual meat grinder and we ground up chicken (from two roosters we butchered) and turkey (from the first Mr. Tom that was in the freezer and the two hens we just butchered also).  It worked fabulous!  Was very easy to use and not too much work.  I just ordered the food processor attachments to do everything an electric food processor would do, cut, slice, julienne, make bread crumbs, et cetera.  It should be here the end of this week!!!

Kara went with her friend Noelle to the Huskies softball game Saturday afternoon.  She had a great time and said the Husky mascot was fun!

So Liam's team had its second tournament this last weekend in Wenatchee.  Sun yay, but still cold, as I was bundled up, but did get nice color on my face.  Anyway, Liam pitched in the first game.   These are short videos of him pitching.

Anyway, all is great on Shelley Hill Farm.  We are now getting about 12-14 eggs a day from the 21 hens we have, though there might actually be more as the new Buff Orpingtons and Light Brahmas get creative with their laying places, so we may not have found them all.  We did sell the R1 and R2, Rachel's kids.  Monica had her kids, triplets, however unfortunately, none of them survived.  Not sure what went wrong.  The first and third born never took a breath and the second survived for a day.  So darn.  Monica, Rachel and Phoebe are fine, however.  Still not sure if Phoebe is pregnant or not, as she was bred later than the other two.

Anyway, have a good one!

Happy April Fool's!!!

Happy April!  Things have been wet, windy, and very rarely sunny up here the past month.  Feel like the ground is just soooooo soggy and wet.  Very, very ready for the rain to back off for a little bit.

Below is the first time I have ever used a pressure cooker.  Tried a pork roast and it turned out fabulous if I do say so myself!  lol

This would be the recipe I used.

And here is the finished product with homemade herb bread!  yummers!

So I am still knitting and finished a pair of fingerless gloves last weekend.  They turned out wonderful.  Nice yarn, merino wool and silk.

So we had a surprise 70th birthday party for mom, who is modeling her hat, neck scarflet and the finger gloves from above that I made.  She had a great time!  Was surprised when her friends showed up so I guess I pulled it off!  It was a wonderful day sunny and nice!

The same day was the BBQ for Rob's birthday and here is the family picture from that day of Rob, his sisters and mom.

So I started some sourdough and am going to try making bread using this from now on.  Along with pancakes and such.  Put it in a half gallon jar and it's now in the back fridge waiting to be used.

The three midget white hens have laid their eggs and are sitting now.  The eggs should start to hatch in the next two weeks, I think.  Not sure the exact day they started to sit, and they take about 4 to 5 days longer than chicken eggs to hatch.

Below, two of the hens decided to sit together on 24 eggs.  Rob and I are wondering how they will split them up when they hatch.  I guess we will see.

And below the other hen is sitting on 14 eggs in the blackberries in the front right of the yard.  Total, that would be a lot of turkeys if they all hatch, but we will see.

Kara made the SHS Varsity softball team and plays third base.  She is having a great year and lots of fun with her teammates.  This is here below in her ready position as the pitcher pitched the ball.

And finally for today, I made aebleskivers this morning on my new cast iron pan.  They were awesome!!!  Didn't stick or anything and talk about yummy!  

Had mine with raspberry/blackberry jam.

And here is the recipe I used below.  I did add one teaspoon vanilla which was a great touch.  Perhaps adding cinnamon or cardamom would be nice also.

Have a super duper day!!!

March Snow!

So this is what we woke up to Tuesday morning.  School was two hours late start.  Very pretty!!!

Mr. Tom strutting his stuff in the snow!  lol

So Kara made the Varsity softball team at Stanwood and is very excited.  Liam is playing baseball for the Seattle Stars this year.  Notice how Liam is now taller than Kara.  lol  Anyway.......

They both ended up being #7 on their jersey's this year.  That way Rob and I in our "old" age can remember which kid is ours.  hahahahahahahahaha

Kara's games start this next week and Liam has tournaments in Wenatchee and Seattle in April.  Let the ball seasons begin!

Later!

More for Monday

 Enjoy!

Just had to share!

Exciting Monday Morning!

Good Monday Morning!  This would be the picture I saw this morning as I looked out the back door before going to feed everyone (though one thing is missing as you will see in a moment.)  I thought "Oh cool, the babies are out and so is everyone else."

Then in the background behind the goat house, I saw what was not steam but smoke and thought "Holy Shit!"  That would be why there is no picture of the smoke as I was hauling ass to get the water to the goat house.  

Apparently the goats had knocked down the light and it fell flat on the floor right next to the wall.  The house was filled with smoke and I was afraid if I picked up the light, the whole thing would go whoosh up in flames.  Of course this would be the morning the hose was frozen as it is only 30 right now at 9:48 a.m.  I grabbed the goats water bucket and went into the goat house, after picking up the light (and there was no whoosh just more smoke) dumped the entire bucket on the hole in the floor and the side piece of wood.  I refilled the water bucket three more times and dumped it on there to make sure there was no more smoke.

This would be the hole in the floor of the goat house and * right where that * is is where the piece of wood was that was closing the goat door, now removed.

That would be the piece of wood that was blocking the goat door on the left, the piece of log that was holding it in place and the hole in the goat house floor from outside.

This is the lovely light that the goats knocked down and landed face down.  The light still works, though there is black soot covering the entire inside of the metal casing.

All is well, goats and kids are fine.  Monica still has not had her babies, but should be soon.  We had a scare with the R2 as he had diarrhea, but gave him probiotics and cinnamon and it cleared right up!  He is bouncing around just like R1.

Below are the baby chicks, we had 24 hatch out but have lost 4 so are down to 20 now.  They all seem to be doing great and are very loud chirpers.  lol  A few have feathered feet, a few don't, a few have copper heads and some have white/yellow feathers.  Am excited to see what they look like as they grow.

These would be the veggie starts in the front window that will be planted this week.  Onions and kohlrabi and lettuce will be planted.  All the tomatoes will be transplanted and kept inside, obviously haha.  There are herbs, watermelon, and sweet peppers also that will be transplanted and kept inside.  We got some nice "blankets" for the hoops in the garden to keep it warmer as they are transplanted.  Still lets in light and rain through them.

Well, that is all for my exciting morning.  Thank goodness I didn't have to call the fire department as Rob was working and that would have just been weird.

Later!