"My City" Christchurch, NZ

You know my kids, Josh and his young wife, Lindsey, are on a work visa in New Zealand.  They are living in Wellington, and Josh works for the NZ government with the Earthquake Commission.  He assists people who've had losses due to the earthquakes in Christchurch.  Some have lost all, everything, even died or have had family members who've died.  It's tragic.  Lindsey writes about their trip to Christchurch.  It was an emotional trip for them both.  If you'd like to read more about it, her moving story can be read here, or you can click on the picture on my left sidebar... Tell me what you think about the poem she wrote about it when she got home... I will pass it on to her.  I think the people of Christchurch should hear it.

Down On The Farm...

Lots going on around Sand Flat Farm right now. I sure do miss y'all!  Canning season is here!  I have two 5 gallon buckets of plums and four 2 gallon buckets of plums, two more buckets full of cucumbers.  And these don't even make a dent in what's still left on the trees and vines!  I put a bunch of squash in the freezer, too.  I juiced plums all day Wednesday and came out with 5 1/2 gallons of juice. And that was only HALF of the plums!  But K's coming to do jelly and so is my sister and my dad, so we'll have plenty for everyone - AND THEN SOME, I do believe!

What is it?  I mean, one year we have very little rain, or too much rain, or it's too hot, or there's a late freeze, or there's not one.  I guess all the conditions were just right this year.  It's been about 4 or 5 years since we've had such a nice growing season.  I know it's not over yet, and it's getting a bit hot and dry already, but with our mild winter and early spring, it seems that most of the gardens here are well on their way to bringing forth a bounty of goodies!  We do our best on the garden each year, but God sends the rain and the sunshine and makes the conditions just right so our gardens will grow and flourish.

Here's what I did with part of the squash...  I divided it up into the big ones and the smaller skinnier ones.  The smaller ones I chopped up  and put in quart sized freezer bags for boiling or making casseroles. They freeze well.  The bigger squash I cut the necks off and saved the wider parts to slice up for making fried squash.  I'll keep these in a gallon bag and just take out what I need for Tony and I.  There's LOTS of squash and flowers on the vines, so I'm sure I'll be putting up some more of that.

We've got pintos about ready, the green beans are making, the purple hull peas are coming on, too.  The tomato vines are loaded with big green tomatoes - best I've seen in several years - and up to now, no blossom end rot, just hornworms (which the chickens are enjoying!)  Only thing that didn't do as well is my onions.  I decided to plant them in my raised garden boxes, but I believe they prefer the sandy hot soil in the main garden.  They stay too moist in the raised beds. That's the only thing I can figure... You learn something new every year.  Sometimes, the hard way!  Good thing Daddy has gobs of great onions in his garden!

Here's a few current pictures of the garden... if you're interested...

My raised beds below...

Can you see this rogue pumpkin (I think) vine that is growing right in the middle of the corn?  Last year we threw our fall pumpkin remains in the compost and a few of those seeds came up in different spots in the garden.  Think I'll leave those and see if we get any pumpkins this fall!  I hope they're not stealing moisture from the corn, but from the looks of the corn, it seems to be okay!

Gypsy is going around the yard and garden areas digging huge holes to lay in and cool off.  I don't know why she can't use just ONE hole - she's got to have several.  What she does is run down to the pond, go swimming and then come back to the house or garden and dig her a hole to lay in.  She drug up a big ole snapping turtle carcass that stunk to high heaven the other day.  We also found a goat skull that she's been chewing on - thank goodness it was already bleached white.  Now, the turtle - it was another matter.   It still had bones in it... Why do dogs like to roll in stinky stuff?  Then, they wonder why we don't wanna pet 'em. And since Gypsy is a "leaner" and has to be touching us all the time, we could possibly smell like turtle carcass, too!

Even Bug, the chihuahua, has decided that she likes chicken poop - either eat it or roll in it.  I started banning her from coming outside when the chickies are out of their pen. Yuck.  Speaking of chickies...

I liked the light in this picture.  Most of my chicken pictures have one or two blurry chickens. They are always moving, flapping, bobbing, strutting around - (note to self - figure out the correct setting on the camera to prevent blurry chickens.) 

All's well on Sand Flat Farm.  Just busy.  Jelly  season is upon us as well as pickle season, pea pickin', bean pickin', tomato cannin', salsa makin', corn shuckin', puttin'-stuff-up-in-the-freezer season.  That's what's goin' on down here on the farm.  How 'bout you???   ;-)

This evening we let our chickies out to free-range first time.  I thought if we let them out late in the evening, then it wouldn't be long before they would go back into their pen and go to bed.  And they had a BALL!  They had eaten and scratched all the grass from the pen, so they were excited to be out running around in the grass again! Even a few bugs were to be had, too.  The hornworms had arrived here on Sand Flat Farm and I've been picking them off the tomato plants and one even ate all the foliage off one of my jalapeno plants and started on a pepper!  So, the chickies have been getting some big fat green hornworms.  Actually, BB (the bully brahma) has been getting most of them.  I try to move her and give the worms to some of the others, but she manages to bully her way into the fray and grab these delicious worms away from the other girls.

Since you probably don't know what chickens look like, thought I'd share a few more shots.  We've been having fun watching our chicks.  Very relaxing in the evenings.  We had Gypsy on her leash and she slept beside our chairs.  One of the hens got too close, however, and Gypsy turned and I think she would have either grabbed it or would have taken off chasing it.  I'm trying to teach her that the chickens are MINE and she is not allowed to mess with them.

 I set my scratch bowl down for just a second and see what happens?  In a minute, this bowl was full of chicken heads.  We've been giving them kitchen scraps, and I've got a little section in my garden that I've been growing greens for them.  They love fruits - especially bananas and watermelon.

I recently added a couple more hens.  They had just started laying good when I got them.  My barred rock and my Rhode Island Red.  I'm getting nearly two eggs every day.  This is so fun.  Just humor me, K?  I'll move on to something else soon...

I finally got all the front porch posts and railings painted.  I really like how it turned out.  AND, I painted the front door RED.  I love it!  Gives the porch a pop of color.  Still have some work to do, but I'll eventually get it all done.  Still have a couple of flower beds to build, but I need the husband to help me on that project and I've gotta wait til he's got the time and the inclination.

Well, it's time to call it a night.  

I'll try to do better on my blogging.  This is our busiest time of year! Sending you all a big hug from Sand Flat Farm!

PS -  SOUTH LIGHT ART BLOG HAS BEEN UPDATED TOO!  Yea, maybe I'm on a roll...

Cookbook Giveaway!

http://doublenickelfarm.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-cookbook-contest.html

You need to go over and visit at Double Nickel Farm and take a gander at this cookbook giveaway - I'm IN.  Southwest/Mexican style cooking at its best, I'm sure!  If you haven't met Jen and Bill and the "goof troop" (as she calls 'em), well you need to!

More Chicken Poo

OK, girls, I get my turn at talking about my chickens.  I'm LLLOOOOONNNGG overdue.  I'm still trying to figure out what their personalities are in case I decide to name them.  I actually started with 6 chickens, and the next day, I acquired two more so now I have 8 pullets. I added a Brahma and a barred rock.  We sit in the evenings these last few days and just watch these silly juveniles.  They are so funny.  They finally learned to put themselves in their coop at night.  You should have seen me having to catch them one by one and put them in the coop.  Tony was having a hey-day watching!  Did he offer to help??  Nope.

One thing that we enjoy ... when I open the coop in the mornings, they have learned to prance down the plank that I made with the little steps on it.  But their wings are growing, and they've now taken to launching themselves from the door of the coop and flapping furiously trying to fly.  Then they fall in a clumsy pile, right themselves and act like nothing happened.

I haven't named them all yet. Just a couple...  my sister had a parakeet when we were young, and she asked me to name one of them Budgie after her bird.  So, my littlest bird, the Black Star is the bravest, the most courageous, the first one to try everything became Budgie.  Budgie is younger than the rest, she kinda does her own thing altho she gets along with everybody.

The two ameracaunas (above) are pretty shy and timid, they are followers, and they move out of the way when the more aggresive hens come around or look at them wrong.  They're pretty birds, actually, and they have a kind of ruff growing around their necks.

The New Hampshire, the Buff and the Black Aussie are all just middle of the road pullets in temperament. No problems out of them.

This little Barred Rock is the escape artist.  Every time she sees me coming out, she runs to the door and tries to dart out. I really have to keep an eye on her.  She came along with this one...

The Brahma Bully aka  "BB"

Yes, I have one.  A bully hen.  She is a bit larger than the other girls.  She and her co-hort, the barred rock came from the Idea*l hatchery.  They ran a tight ship at their place - they ran with about 50 other chicks and I imagine that BB was the boss of that bunch, too.  If she draws blood or starts a riot, she'll have to... well, let's just say we may have to make other arrangements.  I'm hoping that she'll settle down and be able to stay here at Sand Flat Farm.

These two are buddies.

I may have questions for you chicken people... stay tuned...