April showers bring May flowers. May snow brings anxiety!
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Monday, June 22, 2020
High Altitude Gardening, Pat 5 - Garden Protection
The next installment on high altitude gardening is up.
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Getting Ready for Goats
This video has been a few months in the making. As such it has a few different video and audio recording techniques that are sort of hodgepodged together. Sorry about that.
A friend of ours had a couple of goats, and asked us around the beginning of the year if we wanted them. Their daughter had been taking care of them and now that she was off to college, they were looking for a new home for the goats. Free goats should have been a clue, but we missed it.
We were not ready for goats. We had no shelter, no fenced in areas, no infrastructure for mid to large size animals. So, we decided to put them in the garden area with was fairly protected. At the time, there were no plants in the ground, so as a temporary area it made sense. We built the temporary shelter shown in the video.
Lucky for us a global catastrophe hit and delayed the arrival of the goats for a few weeks, which gave us some more prep time. Once they got here, we found that they had been more pets then animals, and for the most part thought that they were people. People that did not enjoy being locked in a fenced garden area with little companionship other than themselves. We quickly found that the garden area was not going to work to house goats, even temporarily.
So, we fenced off an area next to the garden. We moved the shelter into the new area. Too bad we didn't film it, because you would have all had a hoot watching Mam Bear and I move that thing. You will have to stay tuned to find out how the new goat area has worked out.
A friend of ours had a couple of goats, and asked us around the beginning of the year if we wanted them. Their daughter had been taking care of them and now that she was off to college, they were looking for a new home for the goats. Free goats should have been a clue, but we missed it.
We were not ready for goats. We had no shelter, no fenced in areas, no infrastructure for mid to large size animals. So, we decided to put them in the garden area with was fairly protected. At the time, there were no plants in the ground, so as a temporary area it made sense. We built the temporary shelter shown in the video.
Lucky for us a global catastrophe hit and delayed the arrival of the goats for a few weeks, which gave us some more prep time. Once they got here, we found that they had been more pets then animals, and for the most part thought that they were people. People that did not enjoy being locked in a fenced garden area with little companionship other than themselves. We quickly found that the garden area was not going to work to house goats, even temporarily.
So, we fenced off an area next to the garden. We moved the shelter into the new area. Too bad we didn't film it, because you would have all had a hoot watching Mam Bear and I move that thing. You will have to stay tuned to find out how the new goat area has worked out.
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Milling Your Own Lumber
Our latest video on making your own lumber.
Now I just need to learn how to pressure treat it.
Now I just need to learn how to pressure treat it.
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
June
June started off so promising but unfortunately didn't continue that way.
Two nights ago we had a bear try to get in the chickens.
He was unsuccessful, for which we are very grateful. Our 33 chickens are safe. For the moment. I think we'll have to electrify. He'll keep coming back.
He was successful in getting into the garbage.
This morning, June 9, we woke to this.
Snow. An inch. And still coming down.
I pulled in as many of the potted plants from the deck as I could. I don't yet know what we've lost in the garden. I'm devastated. Defeated. Our garden was doing pretty well. We had worked so hard to maximize space, planted so many things. This year was the one we were finally going to get a full year supply of veggies. We'll head out to the garden later and see how much we lost.
I'm going to need a lot of chocolate to get through this day.
Two nights ago we had a bear try to get in the chickens.
He was unsuccessful, for which we are very grateful. Our 33 chickens are safe. For the moment. I think we'll have to electrify. He'll keep coming back.
He was successful in getting into the garbage.
This morning, June 9, we woke to this.
Snow. An inch. And still coming down.
I pulled in as many of the potted plants from the deck as I could. I don't yet know what we've lost in the garden. I'm devastated. Defeated. Our garden was doing pretty well. We had worked so hard to maximize space, planted so many things. This year was the one we were finally going to get a full year supply of veggies. We'll head out to the garden later and see how much we lost.
I'm going to need a lot of chocolate to get through this day.
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Early Morning Garden
One of my favorite things is to take a walk in the garden in the early morning. Especially now that so much is happening. The plants are so small every bit of growth is huge, new seeds pop up overnight, it's magic. Here are some photos from my walk this morning.
This is about the only early lettuce we managed to keep Baby Bear from pulling up. Can't wait until it's ready!
Our chickens are great layers.
Last year the kids liked to wander and eat fresh peas off the plant. Sometimes we found half of the pods left attached to the plant as Baby Bear would come and just take a bite without picking it. I planted extra this year in hopes we'll get enough to freeze.
Raspberries grow wild up here but trying to grow this cultivated variety for bigger, juicer berries has been difficult. This year is the year! I hope. Maybe we'll actually get some berries.
Yarrow is one of the medicinal herbs we grow. Many herbs won't grow at this altitude and climate. This one we have to watch to make sure it doesn't take over everything.
This spring has been crazy. We had snow as late as May 24th. One week later we were up to almost 80 degrees F. The jump from snow to hot has been hard on the plants but I think we've settled down. For now.
This is about the only early lettuce we managed to keep Baby Bear from pulling up. Can't wait until it's ready!
Our chickens are great layers.
Last year the kids liked to wander and eat fresh peas off the plant. Sometimes we found half of the pods left attached to the plant as Baby Bear would come and just take a bite without picking it. I planted extra this year in hopes we'll get enough to freeze.
Raspberries grow wild up here but trying to grow this cultivated variety for bigger, juicer berries has been difficult. This year is the year! I hope. Maybe we'll actually get some berries.
Yarrow is one of the medicinal herbs we grow. Many herbs won't grow at this altitude and climate. This one we have to watch to make sure it doesn't take over everything.
This spring has been crazy. We had snow as late as May 24th. One week later we were up to almost 80 degrees F. The jump from snow to hot has been hard on the plants but I think we've settled down. For now.
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
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