Happy New Year from Little Bit Farm!!! Things are going well around here, and it promises to be a joyful 2015 as our lives will be filled with weddings, new grandbabies, and all manner of exciting things! I am joyfully planning my new year!

      We have finally managed to get our pasture fence problems dealt with, and I am proud to say the goats have no choice but to stay in the pasture! So thankful for the help of my husband, sons, and daughter(yeah it took all of our labor) for that! This is major progress for protecting my future garden!!!

      I am so excited about spring! I have a bunch of new hens which should be laying. I have rabbits which I will start breeding ASAP! I am excited about a new gardening year, and I am planning to make it an effective one!  I have a new greenhouse which hopefully I will finish this weekend so I can get started on plant starting!

     I currently have vegetables growing in the house. I have pole beans blooming and almost topping their four foot support. I have peppers with babies, and blooms covering them. I have already harvested one pepper. I am harvesting mustard spinach greens. And I have a squash which should start blooming soon. I water, and walk by and shake the peppers and beans every day to insure pollination. When the squash starts blooming, I will be there with a paint brush to pollinate every bloom.

                                                                     Baby Pepper

                                                                   Mustard Spinach

                                                        More Baby Peppers and Blooms

                                                                           Squash

           
                                                                      Beans Blooming

                                                                     
                                                                     Beans Climbing

Disappointing Farm Year

   Well things have not progressed very quickly this year. Early in the year, just after getting my garden in, I was called away for six weeks to help my father as he was very sick with Multiple Myeloma, and had fallen, breaking his arm and hip at the sites of the cancer. I was very happy to be able to travel to him, and assist my mother. I took my amazing daughter with me, and she assisted me. I ended up taking over the cooking for awhile, in the hopes of building my Dad's health in the most basic way. Fortunately his cancer is now in remission.

    Unfortunately my garden was attacked with a terminal disease as well, weeds. I have a serious perennial weed problem here, gardening require constant attention to control the weeds. I did get some vegetables, but numerous problems including broken mowers, broken tiller, too much time away from home and other issues created a bad situation for gardening. However, we did get some vegetables.   Praise God that if it is in his will there is always next year!

     However, there are some good things happening. I now have these two: 

Mama De La Guzman's Lechita!

Hanz Cody Herondale

         Cody is on a short leash. He has an overly assertive personality, which is going to get him off this farm, as soon as he produces daughters.  He is only here because his Mama was a 2 gallon a day milker. So for the moment he is my hassle. We put some foam balls on his head, but they were the wrong kind and tore off. Getting some more today.

         Mama is not much of a milker so far, but she had almost weaned her baby before I got her. So we'll see how she does next year. I am currently drying her off, mainly because I am not sure if she was bred before coming here a couple months ago. I want to give her two months rest so she has a successful milking year. So she should either kid in January or Febuary if she was bred before coming here, or she will kid in March or April if I'm lucky and Cody is the Papa. Lucky being relative, as that also means I go longer without milk. I have so been enjoying fresh milk the last couple of months, and I really am not looking forward to being without it again. However, sometimes sacrifices must be made to insure greater production later.

I thought I'd write some about my progress here at Little Bit Farm. Well, in the last few weeks we have built, and partially covered a greenhouse. The small greenhouse is built of two cattle panels compressed into a hoop house between some T-posts, with 4 mil plastic. The T-post have padded cloth covers over their ends to keep the posts from poking through my plastic. This has worked quite well.

In Oklahoma, the wind is quite rough on anything covered in plastic. So far my method has held up well. The plastic is secured to the panels with duct tape. My son helped me frame the ends, and we are installing a table of wire on one side for seedling trays. I hope to finish the greenhouse this week, and seed my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. I'm crossing my fingers tonight as we are having quite a wind storm. Growing anything in Oklahoma is a matter of trial and error.

Today the grandkids and I went out and planted a scatter garden. We scattered several quarts of seed. This garden is part of an experiment in permaculture style gardening. This was as low tech as it gets. The kids and I just threw the seed far and wide.I am going to take notes on what sprouts, what wins out against the weeds, and late frosts, and what survives to bear a crop. This is going to be a limited care garden.

My purpose in the scatter garden is to watch how nature handles, what I usually work so hard for. The area that I planted is a smaller old goat pasture/pen. It is mostly covered in thick dead grass, at the moment. There was a little of everything in the seed mix, greens, corn, beans, peas, innoculent, root crops, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, and so forth. I will also go back out there at the beginning of next week, and throw a variety of culinary herbs, and flowers into the mix. Then I will watch carefully.

One year, I had a cat pee in a bucket of dry beans that my kids had taken the lid off of. I took them out and dumped them all along the fence line in tall grass, and you know nearly every bean came up. They did not survive to form a crop, because that year we had a dramatic drought. However, I believe they would have in a normal year. The plants just took off.

So this year, I will have a traditional garden, and a multi-layered scatter garden, and observe the results. Hopefully, I will get to see some exciting things happen!  I know the grandbabies had a ball throwing seeds around today. The whole idea was worth it, just to watch them have a ball getting it started!

Wow, the wind is really blowing tonight! Oklahoma is a challenge for any plant. Our hard rains, ice storms, wind storms, tornadoes, periods of drought, and hot summer's, make it so that a plant has to be tough to survive! However, Oklahoma is also one of the most fruitful states, with incredible plant diversity. We have wild plums, pears, Apple's, peaches, blackberries, currants, blueberries, and a whole host of other useful plants that grow here. As tough as a plant has to be here, our weather also guarantees tenacity in our plant life, and also in our people.

To change the subject, we are getting eggs hand over fist from our 18 hens right now. I actually have two hens that are brooding now., which means soon, we should have baby chicks. This is great! My whole goal is to create a flock that reproduces itself, and provides eggs aplenty. Some people want just eggs. Some people want lots of meat. Me, I want both!  And I don't want artificially generated meat either from animals that can't exercise because they are too fat! I want meat from healthy normal chickens, whose bones ate strong so they make my bones strong!

I figure I would like about 22 more hens. This gives me a few eggs to sell, and plenty to eat, as well as some to share with family. It also gives me plenty of settings for meat! There is nothing like naturally raised young dryers, raised to that perfect tender age and fried to perfection! There is something about that meat with just the finest flavor, that melts into your mouth! Or, that wonderful chicken and dumplings which has those oh so good for you minerals just simmered into the broth, which surrounds the tender meat, and is balanced by the light and airy dumplings, which melt in your mouth!  There is only one place I can eat that way, and it is right here on Little Bit Farm!

So here I am writing my first post of 2014. Things are moving along here on Little Bit Farm. I have ordered and received my early spring seeds. I have, with the assistance of my boys, erected a greenhouse frame, and purchased plastic to cover it. I have also made plans on how to approach my garden this year with regard to weed control and such.

   This year, I am experimenting with several new techniques. For my main early garden, I am using cheap, blue, tarps to control weeds. I am going to level my raised beds, lay down the tarps, and secure them with u-shaped pins. Then with a box cutter, I will slit the tarps where I want to plant, in the shape of a capital I. I'll then fold back the edges, pin, fertilize, and plant. This will give me paths that won't grow to weeds, providing me with a clean place to work as well.

           
               My mom is visiting this week, and today we are going to make seed tape today. This way, I will be able to simply lay the tape in the row, lightly cover, and reduce thinning.  This will really help with the root crops that do better with some space between. The carrots will be planted with some radishes to help mark the rows and get two crops from one row.

               Speaking of multiple crops from one space. My second experiment is an experiment in growing a plot more like nature. I have done a lot of investigation into permaculture. Permaculture is a practice of planned gardening that uses natural methods of producing food. One of the many components is working with nature, and combining many types of plants in an area to take advantage of the abilities of the various plants to resist pests, pull nutrients from the soil, and shelter one another. This allows for better soil conservation, and produces food with reduced effort.

                In the past, I have suffered with several stubborn weeds and grasses. I'm tired of the trouble that tilling seems to create on this plot of ground, so I am looking for methods to work with the natural system, rather than against it. So I am going to pick a plot, and just scatter seed. I have a lot of old seed. I am going to create a seed mix full of herbs, flowers, vegetables, vines, and fruit, and just scatter it with a hoe to just cover the big things. Then I am going to let it alone, let nature take its course, harvest any crop God provides, and study the results.

                 My intent is to actually do this in two places. One of these gardens will be here, and one out at my property. This will give me two soil types, and two different weed bases, and also two different animal and pest populations. By doing this out at the property, I expect to learn some things about how to manage the wildlife there. I also expect to learn about drought resistance, as neither plot will be watered. I also hope to learn about naturalization of plants. What plants will naturalize? What plants won't?  I am excited to see the results, and I will blog about it as I go. Of course, all of this will be in addition to my standard plot as a control as well as a hedge.

                 So that is what is happening here. I wish everyone a spring of growth and discovery!

So here we are in the latter days of fall. The year is winding down once again. I have been working on pears, and I purchased a bunch of pumpkins and winter squash due to my absolute crop failure this year. Got them for very little money after halloween.

    Many people don't know how to store squash and pumpkins. They do not store well in a cellar. They need warmer storage than that. The best place to store them is on cardboard, under a bed, in a cool room of the house. However, they must be watched. Speaking from experience, you won't like what happens when you neglect to do so. I have stored some varieties till May the following year this way. Just make sure you store only the ones that have a piece of stem still attached. Otherwise they will spoil quickly. Just use the ones with no stem right away.

   So why bother to store them? Well first of all they are a nutritional powerhouse! They are also just good tasting food. Yes there are all the favorites, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, mashed, buttered, seasoned squash. However, they are also delicious stuffed with savory meat, baked in chunks with onions, simmered in beef or vegetable stew.

   This week I am going to make a fabulous french soup from an heirloom squash from that region called, Galeux d'Eysines . This fabulous squash is extremely juicy, and renowned by french chefs for soup. Often people call them peanut pumpkins, because of their habit of forming rough warts due to sugars built up in their skins during storage. People buy them often as a novelty for their fall display and miss the fabulous flavor of them cooked.

   In the following link is a pretty good recipe for the soup as I make it. However, I use homemade chicken stock from my chickens, rather than veggie stock. I probably will leave my pumpkin soup chunky as I enjoy something to chew when I eat. The typical french recipe calls for blenders and such, but I like the rustic route better, and it is less work. No you don't get that smooth babyfood quality, but lets face it, I'm no longer a baby! Yummy French Pumpkin Soup.  It should also be noted that this recipe, unlike somes has you roasting the pumpkin which concentrates the flavor, and save a lot of time peeling, and dicing pumpkin.

    So I've been spending a lot of time on fall butchering. In the spring I purchased 50 baby chicks, most of which were roosters. I ended up with about 8-10 hens out of the lot. I have been harvesting them for quite awhile, and I am currently butchering the last of the roosters that I will not be keeping.
    In August, I purchased another batch of 25 chicks that were all pullets. These have been being raised in a chicken tractor, and will soon be moved into the regular henhouse, once the excess roosters are gone. They are so lovely, a mix of Easter Eggers, Barred Rocks, and I think some regular White Rocks as well, though as they came as a mix I could be wrong. I am sure they will go on to be a fine laying flock.
    As I have been butchering my mix of roosters, I have been reminded of why for some years Buff Orpingtons have been my go to chicken breed. They lay well, and do so even in winter. They are quiet and generally gentle. They also make a nicely weighted carcass upon butcher, and pick out clean. They will also brood their own eggs sometimes. Over all, they are excellent chicken, and after I butcher these roosters, I won't have many of them.
    One thing I can say, my home raised, natural, dual purpose chickens far outperform store bought chicken in nearly every respect. Their bones are strong. It takes all my strength to break one of my chicken's leg bones. When I cook them, the bones do not all fall apart, though the meat comes off the bones. My kids have remarked that the meat is a little tougher than store chicken, but to my pallet it is simply meatier, chewing like good steak, with body, rather than turning to mush when boiled. Most of all the flavor is simply so much more chickeny than store chicken. The stock is just to die for!
    One thing I am really looking forward to is a time when my chickens are reproducing themselves. I do not want to have to buy large amounts of chicks, because I do not want to have to butcher this many all at once. I'd like to get to a point where I can walk to the chicken house at any given point and grab dinner. Now that is a proper chicken system, very little storage space needed.

    Today was the first big day in the garden! Winter time is a time of less physical labor. It is a time for eating warming foods, and working on indoor projects. The tasks of winter are not heavily physical. Since I had a case of pregnancy related heart failure in 2006, winter is a time to simply keep warm for me. I have always been a cold-natured person, and since the heart failure, I am more sensitive to cold. Certainly my family notices, always telling me that I want the house too warm.

   The first days of gardening in the spring are a time when my body reminds me that I haven't been doing as much over the winter. Tonight as the result of my first real day of planting, I am aching. However, there are a few things that I do to help the process of returning to the garden.

    One of the first things I do, is purposely start working late in the afternoon. This insures that it is the warmest part of the day, and also that I do not over-extend myself. The sun going down, then becomes my timer.

    Another thing that is important is to stay hydrated. Today, I found myself feeling pretty blah toward the end, and I knew I needed to go drink some liquid. I went as soon as I realized and got a drink. When it is cool out, it is easy to ignore your body's signals for thirst. Cool wind, and late winter sunlight are often more drying that you realize. It is very important to drink enough, even when you don't feel like you need it. Muscles suffering from dehydration cannot carry the load you put on them. So drink plenty of fluids!

   It is also important to eat good meals, when you are asking your body to do work that you haven't done all winter. Today, I was shoveling, hoeing, weeding, and planting. It didn't take long for me to start to feel the effects of this difficult work, which at the end of the summer, is not near so difficult. I had a sandwich before going out, but felt the need for a few carbohydrates, when I cam back in for my water.

   Another thing that is helpful, is to make sure that if you have to cook a family meal after returning to the house, that you have an easy meal to prepare. Tonight, I made the third meal from a 10lb. bag of chicken that I have served. We had chicken tacos.

   The other day I roasted half a bag of chicken for dinner, one night. At the same time I boiled the other half for chicken stock. I took out half the chicken, and made a pot of chicken soup with the help of a few Ramen noodles, and some vegetables for another meal. The remainder of the chicken, I stuck in a ziplock in the refrigerator. I also put several bags of stock in the freezer for future meals. Tonight I used the chicken from the refrigerator for chicken tacos, and fed the four of us that are in the house tonight.

   So tonight I had a good nutritious meal ready within about 15 minutes of coming in the house. The only thing I wish is that the chicken would have been home raised. However, I am still in recovery mode from the great animal annihilation of November 2012. Even so, I've got lovely chicks just doing fantastically, and today we got 5 eggs from our few hens that are just beginning to lay. So grateful for those 5 eggs! Won't be long until we will have beautiful chicken to eat right here on the farm.