High Desert Home Garden

Winter Update

2012-02-11T19:12:00.002-07:00

A-frame greenhouse with our three hoop houses and the cold frame behind them. We planted beets and cabbage in the cold frame today and last week planted chard and kale and broccoli raab and radishes in the hoop house to the left.

Tons more below the break:

Carrots we bought from Gemini farms

Ginger carrots

Once we added salt and enough water to cover all the carrots they went in the closet to ferment for a week or two.

Fermentation closet; in there now is porter and red chile porter, apple cider and carrots, both ginger and garlic

Pantry above the washer

Burning scrap wood

Flower beds made from hollowed out pine logs

Happy hens

Firewood getting stacked as a privacy wall and windbreak

Chard and kale and radishes wintered over from last summer

Time to build them a proper season extender

Italian flat leaf parsley from three years ago.

The first step in building a half hoop house

This small hoop house is sufficient to feed a small family all year long.

We have been building season extenders like crazy as part of our plan to grow food year round. The goal is to feed ourselves almost completely off this land. If we can grow enough food for ten families then we might make a small income off it. Food security is such a real issue and so many people give it almost zero thought. We are getting serious now. We planted garlic as late as November last year and this year started planting in early February. So we only really took off two months of the whole year from planting. Crazy. We just bought our first automatic vent arm for a greenhouse. Probably going into the cold frame. Another one will be needed for the A-frame greenhouse. We bought 100 ft of plastic sheeting and two 50 ft rolls of Agribond. One 30 and one 50. They are different thicknesses for different degrees of frost protection. So by layering them up we can start things all year. We just ate some mizuna this morning with eggs and the other day harvested radishes, kale and chard for a meal. It is nice to be figuring all this stuff out now. I cannot wait to see where this takes us next. We bought a 21 1/2 Qt pressure canner so we are going to start canning our own beans and soups and chicken or whatever! Anything low acid that we couldn't do before is now possible. Also an addition to the farmstead is a 15 gallon brew kettle and a wort chiller; both very useful pieces of equipment for brewing and we plan to brew up to 30 gallons at a time. Some 10 gallon batches of favorites and some one gallon batches to experiment more. It is all so fun and we are learning so much while doing it. Compost is being made now on a higher level and we are just so busy with everything on our small farm and in life. More posts soon, we promise as this stuff is all a week or two old and there is more that hasn't been photographed yet like the grape trellis we built and other hoop houses. I just put one up where the berry patch was and now will be planted in a three sisters style with Hopi blue corn, acorn squash and Aztec Dwarf White Beans. Corn has been planted here on the Spotty Dog Farm as early as mid April but we wanna push that to March possibly. Parsley and thyme and dill and other herbs are still growing and green in our perennial herb garden under some remay which was kindly donated to us from some farmers up in the mountains north of Santa Fe. The community has grown so strong and new people come see the farm all the time. Young children and older folks alike. We have many potatoes to plant as well as all the seed we have stashed away. One thing at a time though. We still have day jobs and other commitments but we do what we can. Prioritizing has been one of the hardest things lately as we want things to get done and be ready for planting but why cut more firewood when we already have two or three years worth right here? Compost needs to get turned and collected and a third bin built as the second one fills up. Soil needs to get turned in preparation for early spring planting. Hoophouses need to be built along with shade structures for later in the summer. So we really do have a ton going on here right now. More chickens are in the works (sex links are what we are thinking this year) as well as a bee hive or two. I sometimes wish this is all I did but without the day job there would be no farm. Something needs to fund our lives and we have it pretty good so as they say..if it aint broke don't fix it.

New Year Green House

2011-12-31T17:01:00.000-07:00

Building a Greenhouse

2011-12-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Three reclaimed doublepane windows make up each side of this simple A frame.

A little help from Ana

Almost done in one afternoon, just need some hardware to raise it tomorrow.

Got one roost up, six nesting boxes

Milk crate nesting boxes

Omelet

fresh strawbale for the hens

Talk is Cheap

2011-12-06T16:34:00.002-07:00

Roma

Basil

Cabbage in coldframe

Putting up zucchini

Drying hops

Turkey egg

Culinary Sage

Pickling

Marigolds

Bourbon Red!

more pickling.

more birds....

tomatoes

farmer's market

cabbage in the shade

rhubarb

making ketchup

help butchering birds

homegrown turkey

thanks were given

this was today

chicken's new digs

this entire chicken coop cost us probably $20, ten of which was for beers.

cut some firewood this summer too>> about five cords

also planted 25# garlic ..and building beds for spring crops of beets, carrots, potatoes and more! Greenhouse in the works as well, all salvaged building materials and possibly a small woodburning stove. We are busy. Cheers.

Growing Food With 75 MPH Winds & No Rain

2011-12-06T14:15:00.003-07:00

Living Salad Bar

These images are all from May or early June. It only took us until now to post and publish.

Tomato Starts out Day #1

Genovese Basil

Cabbage is doing well

Transplanting Rhubarb

Permaculture

Thyme

Parsley from our seed

Thyme

Dill

Yarrow

Lavender

Oregano

Arp Rosemary Plants

Chokecherry tree

Native Gourd

Native New Mexico Grapes

Tomato

Always be prepared.

Rain Catchment System

Being busy + Dead Computer = Nobloglongtime

2011-05-18T20:11:00.003-06:00

Hop trellis up the house

Sunflowers from last season's seed

Hops on the right and chard and lettuce planted to the left near the footings

Kale from last fall that we overwintered and planted from the last crop's seed

Last year's chile pots being used for sunflowers and marigolds and calendula

Parsley, dill and perennial arugula are up already...first true leaves on some!

Nothing burns better than free wood someone else cut

This is some of the wood I gathered a few weeks ago from a nearby campus with some invasive cottonwoods growing along an arroyo.

The splitter is going to tear up a few more cords of wood this season

Where it's at

Windbreak

Insulated and ready to start pumping...just need an inch or so of rain.

Cabbage in an open coldframe

Mini-hoophouse with coldframe disassembled in the background

We attached the row cover with split open innertubes bicycles. Works even with the 70+MPH winds we've had lately

Mini hoophouse has two types of kale, multiple lettuces, two carrots, mustards, mizuna, spinach and more

A peek of what's growing inside; weeds galore

more soon, we promise... the laptop is getting a new battery next week when the part comes in. The chickens are growing like crazy as is one of our turkeys (the broad breasted bronze) the bourbon red is growing very slowly and took a week to recover from a severe pecking form all the three month old pullets. More soon..., a chicken pasture post is on the way as they look great out there scratchin' around under pinon trees and in the grass.

Also I want to start doing different instructional type videos of building with reclaimed materials, felling trees, chicken slaughter, irrigating from a cistern/ solar powered water pump etc.. any thoughts? Please comment. Cheers..

Life > Blog

2011-04-20T21:22:00.001-06:00

Batter for homemade/ homegrown waffles

Waffles with our squash and nuts and stuff...delicious

Bar-Be-Que

Marigold

MInt

newly transplanted hops

Chinook Hop transplant

Beets!!

Peas are growing very slowly this year.

Kale: grown from our seed. eaten almost every single day.

Seriously, such a staple.

Garlic volunteer in the kale coldframe

Potatoes making some sort of comeback

Beets germinating/ establishing under a screen

Wabi-Sabi flower plot

Sage making a comeback after a three year trim

Traditional planting stick

Spring Has Sprung

2011-04-06T17:01:00.002-06:00

A view from the land behind our house.

Pullets are growing fast:

Turkeys:

Dandelions

Add caption

berries

Strawberries

Strummer-Dog


Tella-Bear

It was 17 degrees the other night but seedling are still strong. Wind and dryness cannot deter our food growing efforts. Some of the mature kale in the fotos above got a bit zapped but there are volunteer tomatillos that made it fine. More soon....

Growing Food

2011-03-30T19:13:00.000-06:00

We have a lot going on here this season. In our new hoop house we have seedlings germinating!

-Mizuna
-Spinach
-Kale
-Carrots
-Lettuce

some of these are already up and we just need to cover it up a little more to increase moisture and germination.

In the other garden we have eight Chinook hop transplants that need to establish. The potatoes I planted a few weeks back are up. The two kale beds are looking good. The kale in the strawbale coldframe is feeding us almost daily and even as I type this we are eating some with pasta and smoked oysters. The older bed of kale is coming back either from old roots or self seeded. Either way we will be eatin' good. Also peas are coming up as well as beets. Clover and mallow is everywhere and the mild weather is treating us well. Mint and sage never even really die back with their warm location up against the house.

Photos of the seedlings and hoophouse to come soon, hopefully tomorrow. Turkeys are growing fast and we are planning on getting some fencing material and building all these birds a pasture outside the coop area. Also need to setup rain catchment better with all the gutters going to the cistern and get a valve on the bottom and overflow on top.

More soon...

Propigating Hops From Rhizomes

2011-03-23T16:43:00.001-06:00

When we first started this garden blog a few years ago we got a female Chinook hop plant. It has since given us bitter and aromatic flowers every season that have been used in all the homebrews from the Spotty Dog. It is also spreading like crazy and it is time to divide it up a bit.

We cut this rhizome with some new bines intact for immediate transplant.

We are also toying with the idea of planting more rhizomes along our south east facing windows as it is the tallest side of the house (for trellising) but also to shade us a little in summer, and for more hops for homebrew of course.

Baby Turkeys!

2011-03-23T14:25:00.000-06:00

We got one Bourbon Red and a Broad Brested Bronze

Here is the Bourbon Red with the little Cornish meat bird.

We are going to design and build a rain catchment system with these components for bird's drinking water.

So far these new laying boxes only have wooden eggs in them. With our broody hen I figured the others might want to lay somewhere else.

Now We Are Getting Serious

2011-03-21T18:18:00.002-06:00

This drylands farming thing is no joke! We are stepping it up with the purchase of this 1650 gallon cistern.

This gigantic cistern is replacing our two linked fifty-five gallon barrels. We are going to use one rain barrel for catchment down at the chicken coop and the other to make compost tea in large batches. The compost tea will feed our gardens and houseplants. If we have excess it can be traded. The proposed rain catchment system at the coop will make hauling water down there a thing of the past, as well as keeping the hens' feet that much drier.

The water we can collect off our roof from both snowmelt and the heavy summer monsoons is enough to easily sustain our whole operation. We will irrigate all the gardens from this tank. Now it just needs to fill up with water.

Overflow on top 1 1/2"

Outlet at the bottom 2"

Supermoon & Planting

2011-03-19T20:47:00.000-06:00

Tonight's Supermoon rising over the mountains

Sowing carrots, spinach, mizuna, kale and lettuce.

We can use shade cloth (potato sacks, burlap, whatever's free) when it get's too hot and sunny for these cold crops and when frost threatens we'll put up the floating row covers we purchased from one of the local nurseries.

We planted everything as above except for the cabbage which is going into the coldframe tomorrow.

This soil has a good moisture retention and organic matter.

Chinook hops are coming up!

Supermoon computer digital photo art

Pullets Moved Outside

2011-03-16T17:20:00.003-06:00

In their transitional brooder:

We got 22 and Ern also has 22. Their 250 watt red heat light is on a timer to turn on at night. So far so good.

Rainbow Layers at approx. one month.

They can eat, drink and sleep in this larger brooder.

We also started some seeds:

Basil and Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

We are still going to start Roma tomatoes and chiles. Irrigation needs to be laid down this week too. Planting parsley and spinach and carrots also. Busy time now.

Mini Hoop House for a Mini Farm

2011-03-05T18:23:00.001-07:00

Mini hoop house (16' x 3')

Built with old barrel rings cut and attached to old deck planks:

Tella is there for scale and field mouse hunting

We are hoping this will produce lots and lots of tasty food for years to come.

We just need to purchase some row cover that will let int he light and moisture but keep it maybe ten degrees warmer. More to come soon. We are wanting to plant spinach in it, but we also have 200 beet seeds soaking tonight to be sown tomorrow. Carrots, kale, cabbage and lettuce are also slated to be put outdoors this week. Peas are in the ground and getting watered as needed.

They Grow Up So Fast

2011-03-03T20:34:00.001-07:00

See the turken in the above photo?

We are already on the second fifty pound bag of feed.

The little guy in the end of the video is the only survivor from the replacements. He is a free meat bird and not a laying hen. But a survivor nonetheless and we all think he is pretty awesome.

We had to cut our losses and get a rebate from McMurray for the ten chicks we lost. The post office lost the first replacement package and the next week they arrived dead or dying. We are already planning on switching to a hatchery in Portales, NM. The stress of days of travel after hatching is too much for some of them.

Edible perennial garden getting worked and irrigation laid down:

Mint up by the house:

Planting peas tomorrow. Snap peas. They are soaking in water overnight. Finishing building the mini-hoophouse tomorrow hopefully too. If that happens we will also be planting spinach. Lettuce is being replanted in the wooden coldframe.

Quick Saturday Post

2011-02-26T16:11:00.001-07:00

It is almost March and we still have some firewood left.

Cutting barrel rings for a hoop house:

All eight rings are cut now we just have to build a wood frame for them to attach to and put some plastic row cover on it. I have a few deck planks that are around sixteen feet long so that might work. Maybe three feet wide. Spinach anyone? Time to plant some seeds this week.

More From The Dumpster Diving Chronicles

2011-02-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

Got a ton of melons, pineapples, apples, cukes, greens and mangoes this afternoon. In this foto Michael is preparing to wheel all that produce down to the chicken coop. The wheelbarrow was loaded and not an easy push. Thanks Mike! Always good to have visitors to the micro-farm.

Dumpster Diving For Nutritious Chicken Feed

2011-02-22T15:22:00.003-07:00

Pretty good score this morning at the produce place.

The girls were very happy to see me with all those greens.

Here they are greeting me at the gate:

Cluck cluck cluck:

This hen was being very vocal about her excitement over the greens and veggies:

Ern's birds always get some too:

Watchdogs:

We have gathered five or six eggs every day for a while now. I got four today and there might be one or two more if I go back around sunset.

UPDATE: Got three more eggs at 6:00 PM for a total of seven eggs today, most ever! Seven eggs from seven hens, wow. These are happy girls.

The chicks are doing great! We lost eight total due to them Pasting up but we have more coming tomorrow or the next day. We are getting into the swing of spring and I am cutting metal barrel rings to build a mini-hoophouse. We should also be planting peas and maybe some other cold tolerant crops. Seed starting in trays is going to happen in mid- March this year. Tomatoes, chiles and basil will be it though. Everything else from the beets to the zucchini will be directly seeded. We are very busy and yet keeping up with everything, having fun, working a lot and saving money. This season looks promising as ever and we hope to build more on what we already have. A pasture or large movable yurt is in the early stages of planning.

Week Old Chicks

2011-02-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

Bartering With Eggs

2011-02-19T13:09:00.004-07:00

At the Santa Fe Farmer's Market this morning I took a few dozen eggs with and set out to barter our excess of eggs for some other things we needed.

Everyone was really glad to trade for eggs and gave me a good value of around $6 /dozen. Our seven hens have been laying around six eggs a day by around noon and by July our thirty or so pullets will start laying. This is a good system to put in place now. Once the season extenders are finished up and dialed in we can be super frugal. Go to the store less. Save more money.

We got cheddar cheese curds, cream cheese, hand soaps and whole-wheat tortillas.

One of our current favorites: Bird in a window or fireman's breakfast or whatever you call it in your geographical region. A nice small meal made with whole wheat sourdough from Real Food Nation.

Homegrown Garlic Powder

2011-02-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

When your garlic supply is supposed to last a season you find creative ways to use it. With the dried bulbs we grind them up in the mortar and pestle and use it fresh in avocados, marinades, dressings, chile and other dishes. It is extremely potent and can cure a cold. Tastes amazing.

Chicks: Day Two

2011-02-15T16:21:00.001-07:00

For the most part they are healthy and happy. They are eating and drinking a lot.

We have lost four so far. Not horrible, but not great. I would prefer to lose none. Last year when we had the seventeen Australorps in the living room we didn't lose any.

The company we ordered them from says they will refund you if claimed within 48 hours, but I think only really one was their fault. It got pretty cold in that shed last night so the chicks you see here are the toughest of the tough.

Hopefully no more losses. But you can't lose if you don't have.

Baby Chicks Are Here!

2011-02-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

A few over fifty arrived this morning to our local post office.

We got the rainbow layers assortment, so they should be mostly female.

They are happy in their roomy brooder.

We have the temperature below the heat lamp at 95 degrees Fahrenheit :

Very cute.

It is so fun to watch them grow into mature birds to provide food for your table.

More to come very soon.

Another Chicken Post

2011-02-04T12:03:00.002-07:00

...I know, enough already, but these gals are one of the main things feeding us right now.

The beets and cabbage and mache were simply planted too late. We planted coldframes in November when it should be more like August. The kale we planted is growing and not dead, just taking it easy in these sub-zero temperatures. The low in the last few days dipped down to twenty six below zero. Crazy. The state is closing most public buildings and schools due to the freezing temperatures and natural gas issues. Space heaters are at a premium and I sure am glad to have so much firewood. Here's what the local paper has to say: link

But back to us trying to feed ourselves. Winter in the Rockies is tough. Fifties and sunny one day and then bam! Thirty below zero. We are talking about building a permanent structure with our double pane glass windows and a rammed earth wall for the back. Hopefully we can use the backhoe to dig out a south facing hill. Then we can have a real chance at growing food for ourselves year-round.

So anyway, here is a bunch of photos of the girls; Braving the cold to feed us beautiful, delicious, nutritious eggs.

These girls are alert and healthy. Getting greens everyday. And now also on a good organic hen scratch with milo and corn.

Produce from local stores is feeding our hens close to 90% of their diet.

The potatoes and turnips we have stashed away will be boiled into a mash one day and fed to the chickens.

Hens love to perch to keep their feet dry.

Their shelters are sufficient but once there are two dozen more chickens we are building a large nesting box/ coop. Somewhere they can lay eggs and get out of the elements. Passive solar perhaps? We will see. Windows might be incorporated to allow more natural light and promote more egg laying. Some exciting stuff in the works. I am in the process of cutting barrel rings apart to use as a small coldframe (like this one), maybe twenty or thirty feet long. We want to plant a crop of spinach under there as soon as we can. March maybe.

Structures:

Chickens Don't Just Make Eggs...

2011-01-28T16:20:00.002-07:00

...they also make manure.

We are amending the soon to be herb garden with a mixture of straw, manure and half broken down food scraps. This is a very rich mix and helps hold water as well as bring nutrients to the soil. We are still building up this garden (the one we buried pots in last year and grew chiles) We are planning on planting mostly perennial herbs here.

This photo is of a section tilled with some compost from last year as well as our homegrown manure:

The three sisters garden from last year got a few trailers of alpaca manure but the ranch sold and now we have our own source of manure. We are growing tomatoes here this year and hoping to boost production by doing a few things different. Hopi corn will be planted in the arroyo and barely irrigated.

The gardens will be getting manure spread on them for the next few months appropriately.

On a side note; we ordered fifty one chicks today and they should arrive the second week of February. We are making a box for them to start their farm life in the neighbor's smaller shed. Also, I am making a separate habitat for them once they leave the shed but before being introduced to the existing flock. It will be roughly seven by ten feet in one corner and they can live in there for a while and get used to each other. Lots of exciting things happening here now. Twenty Eleven is starting out looking good.

Seeds

2011-01-21T17:25:00.002-07:00

We went to Plants of the Southwest this afternoon and picked up some seeds. A great place for native trees, shrubs, veggies and herbs. The Santa Fe location is very nice, complete with an adobe building and a rammed earth/ log beam building. Also a really nice adobe retaining wall as you drive in. They also have an Albuquerque location we have yet to check out.

Seeds we picked up today include:

-Purple Podded Pole Bean (100 seeds)
-Carrots- Chantenay & Touchon (200 seeds ea.)
-Early Wonder Tall Crop Beets (200 seeds)
-Mizuna (100 seeds)
-Dwarf Blue Curl-leaf Kale (100 seeds)
-Lettuce Cutting Mix (500 seeds)

Perennial Herb garden:
-Echinacea Angustifolia (50 seeds)
-Oregano (100 seeds)
-Chives (100 seeds)
-Perennial Arugula (100 seeds)

To be started in trays inside:
-Cherokee Purple Tomato (50 seeds)
-Genovese Basil (100 seeds)

On top of the seeds listed above we also have lots of blue corn, sunflowers, tomatillos and squash from our garden last season.

Just a couple more types of tomatoes and maybe some potatoes and peas and we are set.

Also just tore up the Three Sisters Garden and composted all the dead plant material from last year, so photos of that to come soon. Chickens are laying more than one egg a day now that the highs aren't in the teens anymore. We'll get four or five eggs a day which is some good eatin'. The chickens are getting some nice organic Colorado grown hen scratch and bread from Real Food Nation once it goes stale. I just came up with a system to soak the dry bread in a bucket with water and then feed the hens that slop. They seem to love it and are looking very healthy.

Mailorder Chicks

2011-01-19T17:38:00.001-07:00

Ordering chicks at the end of the month. Just trying to decide on which ones.

We want some flock diversity and right now it is just the seven Australorp hens.

Murray McMurray Hatchery has some nice birds at good rates.

I think we might go with fifty of their "Rainbow Layers" as well as another dozen or so of something else that should lay well.

We're splitting the birds with the neighbor so hopefully that'll help on shipping.

Earthships

2011-01-16T15:48:00.001-07:00

We visited the world headquarters of Earthship Biotecture in Taos, NM. Some cool concepts for off the grid living and sustainable building. We put up a photo album on Picassa here. Enjoy.

Winter Time

2011-01-12T19:56:00.002-07:00

These lucky hens get a serious variety of fresh produce from a few places around town.

On this day they got some cut up butternut squash and mango.

In a month or two we are planning on getting more pullets, hopefully like four or so different types. Hoping to get some tan ones, white ones and just add some variety to the flock. Maybe some turkey toms and guineas too. Just depends on what we can get for a decent price. If I recall we paid $1.75/ ea. for the Australorp pullets.

Snowing while sunny on a hike in the foothills behind our micro-farm:

Wild native Mullein in the Cerros Negros de Santa Fe:

Typical winter scene:

Goodbye Twenty-Ten

2011-01-06T14:16:00.001-07:00

From the table at thanksgiving:

Freshly dug carrots:

Washed and cut; these are so gorgeous!:

(Organic Carnival Blends, will definitely grow again next season.)

feast:

juice :

we killed two roosters, and smoked one of those along with a guinea and a turkey from our poultry farmer down in Socorro.

keeping warm with our trusty wood stove:

There is actually cabbage growing in there:

Snow monster:

Farolitos on Canyon Road (Christmas Eve):

Gingerbread house the neighbors made. We judged a contest and this was the winner:

Becke is good at making things from scratch:

First Snow

2010-11-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

Our first snow was pretty late this year; also very minimal coating. We usually get a pretty good snow by around Halloween. Our last four winters have been pretty intense and I've heard people say last winter was the best powder/ boarding/skiing season ever. So it makes sense we are getting a tame winter. Seems we are starting off winter true to the Farmer's Almanac's prediction of a drier and warmer one. Global warming is a hippie scam. Just pay attention to nature's cycles.

Sprouting seedlings protected a bit from the elements:

Love this thing:

Homegrown Squash Soup

2010-11-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

Very tasty.

Here is the soup all cooked up before being pureed:

Recycling Lumber

2010-11-14T14:51:00.001-07:00

A friend had a deck taken down and gave me all this wood. Some of these planks are longer than the trailer. We might build a pigpen in the spring and maybe some more chicken structures soon.

Feeding Chickens Out of Dumpsters

2010-11-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

This was just one day.

There were also two garbage bags of apples. This is making for some really healthy chickens and some great compost too.

Redesigned Cold Frames

2010-11-14T14:43:00.001-07:00

New design is way more passive-solar. Up against the footings of the house the sun's energy is much better utilized.

The soil has been worked and is wet and ready for planting.

We soaked these beet seeds overnight and they are already sprouting.

Mache is a very versatile green and should do well in these coldframes. This is our first time growing mache.

More Beets!

The kale we planted is doing very well:

Cabbage coming up with an excellent germination rate!:

Look Out Future Generations of Garden Pests!

2010-11-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

This pregnant Praying Mantis had been hanging around our front door for a few days so we relocated her to the 3 Sisters garden area.

Hopefully we will see more and more of these around the gardens.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about these bugs:

"During fall, praying mantis females deposit a sticky egg case on the underside of a leaf or on a twig. If the egg case survives winter, the offspring, called nymphs, emerge in late spring or early summer. The nymphs have voracious appetites and typically cannibalize each other if they don't have an adequate supply of aphids and other small insects."

That garden has always had a ton of aphids and other pests. Maybe this mother to be can help curb that. Only time will tell.

Eggs Are Delicious

2010-11-14T14:20:00.002-07:00

We have been eating eggs from our hens. Some days we get one egg and some days four. They are just starting to lay and once we take care of the two roosters things will mellow out a bit.

It is very nice not to be buying eggs finally.

We had been spending between $4 and $5 a dozen for local, organically produced eggs.

It's nice to see a project come full circle to the end result intended.

More Canning and More Coldframes

2010-10-30T09:49:00.001-06:00

Did four more quarts of some nice yellow and red organic tomatoes. (all free by the way)

They will make some good sauce on winter days to come.

Also we are almost done with our winter coldframe plantings. We have planted so far beets, two types of lettuce, turnips, two types of cabbage and kale. We also planted some hollyhocks the other day so hopefully those get established along the house. Firewood is coming along slowly as there is work to be done on the splitter (a new spider gear, an oil change and tightening down bolts) as well as the chainsaws. But we are very close to the schedule we put in place about a month ago. And with only one more coldframe to finish around the older kale we are really ready for winter.

more to come soon. We just got back online after a few days with a burnt our modem.

cheers

First Egg!

2010-10-25T14:45:00.000-06:00

Australorp egg is on the left and Ernie's Jersey Giant egg is on the right.

Here is our egg on the left compared to one from the neighbor's Jersey Giant hen:

I would make this post longer but I have to go plant seeds and run down the tarps we put up over the coop yesterday. Very windy today and stuff is blowing everywhere.

Cheers

Canned Tomato Sauce

2010-10-22T15:22:00.001-06:00

Made these seven quarts today. About twenty-five pounds of plum tomatoes (those are the little ones) were processed by first boiling and then running them through the food mill. These jars each are about four pounds of tomatoes. The skins went to the chickens along with the moldy ones. Those chickens are eating good these days. Old baguettes and lettuce scraps are among their daily diet. They have been free-ranging inside the neighbor's fenced in dog yard. They get to hang out in the trees eating bugs and weeds. For a while now I have been feeding them organic grain but it is too expensive and I think we have to go back to the conventional mix. Oh well. 70 cents/Lb. Vs. 30 cents/Lb. ...too big of a difference to make that purchase all the time. Their food is supplemented a lot with produce and other things I bring home or from the gardens. Maybe if they start to lay one of these days I will stick with the expensive good stuff, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen any time soon.

Strawbale Coldframe and Post-Frost Plant Fotos

2010-10-22T12:14:00.001-06:00

Kale seedlings from our seed growing under glass! We are going to try to grow food all winter!

Another view:

They are happy little kale plants. First harvest is only a few weeks away.

Halfway open coldframe:

Coldframe #2:

We are building probably three more as we have more windows. The five coldframes will contain kale, spinach, carrots, turnips, beets and cabbage. Seeds are getting sown this weekend. Rainy weather is with us. And we are preparing our rain catchment system for winter which means draining them so trees and other winter plants are getting that water.

Here is our awesome temperature/ humidity monitor:

It has been as cold as 30 on the patio where the outdoor part of the device is. We thought it was crazy how our plants are just dealing with it. Even the sensitive ones like squash and cucumbers.

This is our record of what plants do at 30 degrees:

lemon cucumbers still producing:

Zucchini squash is hangin' in there:

also still producing!:

Some of the leaves have died off but overall these bushes are thriving:

Almost makes me want to build something with these windows around them.

Gratuitous firewood shot:

Winter squash still growing as well:

The Hubbard squash we grew did really well. Thankfully we haven't had any major squash bug infestations. I have heard from other people that their Hubbards got hit but not some other varieties such as Delicata and maybe Butternut. but for us so far so good.

Volunteer tomatillos:

Uh-Oh, Frost Comes To Town

2010-10-17T14:34:00.000-06:00

A light frost zapped most of the leaves on the squash plants, cucumbers, peppers. Whatever else was a bit sensitive. Not much production going on anyways. We have had some cool nights for a few months now so most of these plants get stunted from that. Plus the intense heat of the day and the dryness don't help much.

We harvested about ten pounds of zucchini, the one on the left has seeds for next year's crop:

Harvested the rest of the Hubbard Squash along with some sunflowers (Hopi Black Dye) for seed next year and some for roasting/ eating, but the rest we left out there for the birds. Also the Hopi Blue Corn in the photo is the primo stuff for seed. We got more, just not pictured.

Feels like fall now, i think this foto captures that essence:

more soon...

All In A Day's Work

2010-10-15T19:00:00.000-06:00

This wood was cut, gathered, split (if needed) and stacked all today.

Tomorrow I'll get the two chainsaws going again down at the front of the property, where the dead wood is. I have it cornered. More bucked logs to split tomorrow as well.

This wood will be our nearby reserves for those days that are too snowy to go out to the woodshed.

Still stacking more wood on the side of the shed and then cutting some larger logs for a barter/trade. Should be nice to not cut everything under a foot. I can cut these up to 22"!

More to come soon...

Hunkering Down For The Long Haul

2010-10-12T17:44:00.000-06:00

Our freezers are packed!

Filled every nook and cranny:

And I still need to hit up some friends/ neighbors with freezer space to spare.

Trusty Lil' Red got almost 400 Lbs. of local organic chicken back to the house:

We feed our two herding dogs a diet of raw meaty bones. They also get supplemental dog food along with table scraps and whatever they find out there on their own (grasses, bark probably some rocks too) We have fed our dogs a local and organic diet most of their lives. We are basically following our dog's lead.

The chicken we get is pastured in movable yurts on a farm in Socorro, NM. A small family farm that is very sustainable (also "Organic") . Tom (the chicken guy) calls himself a soil conservationist before he'd call himself a poultry farmer. It is the only poultry we eat. We might also kill a rooster or two in the next few months. We are just steadily moving towards a great lifestyle.

Freezer is so full it wouldn't stay closed:

The solution was to put a ratchet tie around the whole freezer:

Cleaning the tubs Tom uses to transport the chicken:

Woodshed Full

2010-10-08T17:02:00.002-06:00

Five rows deep:

Racks on the side going to be filled as well:

another firewood rack on the patio:

we are filling theses racks one per week and then cutting some wood for a friend and should be done by Halloween.

Fresh Hop Ale Bottling

2010-10-06T19:00:00.002-06:00

Hop Monster, fresh hop ale:

Sanitized bottles drying on the bottle tree:

priming malt, to carbonate the beer in the bottle:

bottles ready to go:

bottling the finished brew:

Canning Tomatoes

2010-10-03T21:21:00.001-06:00

25 pounds of fruit makes roughly 18 pints. (3 - 3 1/2 lbs. per Qt.)

Raw product:

direct from a local farm:

sanitized jars:

outdoor cannery:

final product, just waiting for the lids to pop in:

Know Your Farmers, Know Your Food

2010-10-02T10:51:00.004-06:00

There are so many reasons to can/ preserve your own food these days. We are doing tomatoes today as well as planting many winter crops.. cabbage, beets, turnips, collards, kale... the list goes on. Our tomato crop was practically non-existent this season from experimental growing methods, so we bought 25 Lbs. of romas from a local farmer. Our mason jars are reusable and the tomatoes came in no packaging so once we fill/ empty the jars it's time to do it all over again. Next season we are back to starting tomatoes inside in early spring. Transplanting is more labor intensive but from our research here on our small farm, it is worth it.

We are also in the process of filling up the freezer with chicken for the dogs and us. We buy only organic pastured poultry from a family farm down in Socorro, NM. We got about 50 Lbs. in there now and tomorrow we're supposed to get a delivery that just might fill the whole damn thing. (It's only been plugged in for a week, so we are saving energy with having it used to it's fullest potential. When not completely full a freezer will work harder to freeze empty space so we have water jugs in there now.)

Wood Heat

2010-10-01T20:54:00.000-06:00

Split 'n' stack.

When our woodpile looks like this on we will probably be retired. This shit is crazy. Talk about functional art.

Hopi Blue Corn Harvest

2010-09-27T17:35:00.000-06:00

Hopi Blue Corn:

Partial harvest plus one squash that had broken off the vine:

Partial harvest of our blue corn. Some of it is not blue. Uh-oh. Cross pollination is a bitch.

Many many pests ate/ eating our corn. But still some great seed and food for us down at the Spotty Dog. Cornbread experiment to come as soon as we harvest the rest and get it all dried. Looks like we have enough for at least a few loaves of some blue corn bread. Plus seed for next season.

Homemade Dill Pickles

2010-09-26T09:46:00.003-06:00

Pickling cucumbers chillin'

about half of our jars

Dill in the window

Refreshing the cucumber water, chilling in ice water for a few hours before pickling makes a crisp pickle.

Fresh ice

Sanitizing mason jars

Water bath

Processing the homegrown garlic, dill and cukes.

Dill with jars

Sanitized jars ready to be filled with fresh cukes, dill, garlic and brine

Processing pickles in hot water bath

Late night style pickling

We didn't think we would see this!

Last few jars of pickles in the canner

Ended up making ten and a half gallons of pickled cucumbers.

Pickles are delicious

Thank You Rain

2010-09-23T14:36:00.001-06:00

we got a nice, steady inch and a half of rain in the last 24 hours.

Tomatillo transplants looking great:

Kale plot..planted seed, now just waiting for germination.

Squash blossom:

View of the main garden from the gate:

Three sisters garden:

The current state of the tool shed:

Firewood...

2010-09-18T16:49:00.003-06:00

...heats you twice so they say. But I think the guy who coined this one never really cut his/her own.

I say it heats you six times. Cutting, loading, splitting, stacking, bringing it inside and then when you burn it.

And depending on how efficient your woodlot system is it could be heating you more like eight or even ten times.

Tella agrees:

Tella loves the truck:

this elm and cottonwood was cut down for the city down at the river:

still needs to cure for at least a few months as it is green. Got two truck loads this morning between errands. The logs are huge and I will cut most of them in half again with the chainsaw and then throw 'em through the splitter

half barrel of geraniums on the patio in full bloom:

(also in the barrel are some volunteer tomatoes and a purple wandering jew cutting.)

Fotos of What's Happening Here Now

2010-09-17T14:47:00.004-06:00

current state of the compost bin:

logs with bucking stand:

wood shed and splitter:
time to stack some more:

casita:

Strummer:

shady lady:

3 Sisters:
Hopi Black Dye Sunflowers:
16" & 18":

coldframe materials:
mtns:

Summer is Fading Fast.

2010-09-17T11:00:00.009-06:00

some harvesting happening but mostly just busy. Cutting firewood, splitting and stacking. Getting ready for what The Old Farmer's Almanac is calling a dry, mild winter. Still want a pile of wood the size of the house. Making pickles tomorrow and canning tomatoes next week. three batches of homebrew done. Planting kale from our seed in a coldframe soon too. Many exciting things happening down on the Spotty Dog mini-farm. more soon. photos are hard to take when you are busy living life. we will try. this is an especially beautiful time of year in Northern New Mexico. Just feels like winter is creeping up on us and the wood pile needs to multiply. along with our pantry stock.

some recent fotos:

Sunflowers are pretty:

Chinook plant to be harvested:

We made a fresh hop ale with the entire harvest from this one plant:

Sangre de Cristos up North in Colorful Colorado:

Putting Up Kale

2010-08-28T16:36:00.008-06:00

Kale to be harvested:

After harvest:

put into buckets of water:

cleaned and cut up; ready to be tossed into the boiling water for a few minutes:

blanching pot:

set-up:

after spinning the blanched greens dry, we laid them out on trays to be IQF :

on trays in the freezer; to be put into vacuum seal bags once frozen in an hour:

Strummer's "cave":

Growing Food For Ourselves

2010-08-28T11:32:00.007-06:00

harvest basket:

these carrots have been a long time coming:
purple pole beans, and lots of zucchini squash:

some of this stuff is getting preserved as we have extras or the time.

mullein:
flower:

getting back to work at the orchard this coming week. also a hop harvest & brew day. It will be a fresh hop ale. These are very hard to find in a store as not many brewers are growing anything. Unlike wineries.

staying busy around the farm. hope everyone's weekend is amazing.

Chicken House

2010-08-24T22:03:00.007-06:00

Back To Reality

2010-08-24T11:19:00.006-06:00

We are back from our week-long Southwest Colorado Micro-Brewery Mini-Tour. We took hundreds of photos, slept right on a river and visited almost ten breweries. (that's an average of more than one a day!) The select photos can be seen here (high desert home garden's picassa web albums.)

We are now both back to work in the rat race.Although I had the day off and finished and moved the new hen house. Pics to come tonight or tomorrow of that. Hoping I can get them to sleep up there. Especially in a free ranging situiation they could be closed up. Good for laying though too.

Anyways, more on chickens later. For now it's time to bottle at least one batch of homebrew and eat some pizza.

Here are some harvest and sunflower photos for your enjoyment:

more ( winter) squash:

Homebrew

2010-08-12T14:23:00.005-06:00

two most recent batches of brew in the second stage of fermentation:

Brewed with all homegrown hops. In the past this would have gone up on The Homebrew Blog , but this just makes more sense.

Kale Makes a Comeback

2010-08-10T20:25:00.009-06:00

Kale; bounced back from aphid infestation and looked like it was dying from the heat. Rained a bunch and cooled off a bit, and now the kale is looking better than ever.

Hopi Black Dye:

pollinator friend hard at work:

largest squash harvest yet:

this crazy caterpillar was living on the summer squash plant:
10 gallons homebrew:

both in the primary fermenter in this photo. now batch #1 is in the secondary and getting dry hopped tonight and batch #2 is still in the primary fermenter...tonight it will get racked off.

Bloggity Blog Blog

2010-08-09T21:27:00.009-06:00

Hopi Black Dye:

Native Winter Squash:
Blue Corn Tassles and Sunflowers:
Cosmos & Dill:

Jalapeno plant with a buried irrigation pot:
Volunteer Cocozelle Summer Squash:

purple pole beans:

tiny harvest #1:
tiny harvest #2:

Even Hobby Farmers Need A Vacation

2010-08-09T20:53:00.010-06:00

flock of geese:
river:
camper:

ranch gate:

Garden After Some Rain:

2010-08-04T16:00:00.004-06:00

Will Work For Food

2010-07-27T20:53:00.010-06:00

Went to work up north today. Earned mostly credit for fruit. Spent most of my day getting ladders up trees to get the fruits weighing down the branches and in some cases snapping the branch/ trunk. Lots of pruning to be done, and thinning of fruit was never done so these trees are loaded. The benefit to not thinning is the variety of ripeness and sizes. Most commercial orchard operators will thin fruit in the spring so everything is uniform later for harvest. There is some good stuff going on in this great state agriculturally speaking and after being invited up to many many people's farms I have finally made the time to do so. Brought home 8 Lbs plums and 4 lbs white peaches.

I will be working up in Velarde at least once a week now, if not twice. The idea of working for food is great. The work is hard and it is hot and the mosquitoes are blood thirsty but the fruits of my labors are well worth it. I plan to preserve enough apples, plums, peaches, pears, nectarines, cherries etc. to get us to next season. Plus all the sub par fruit is getting fed to our 25 chickens more regularly. Velarde is on the road to Taos and is right off the Rio Grande. There is a beaver tearing up some of the fruit trees but my friend doesn't want to kill it because they are so important to the river's eco-system. The orchards are irrigated by flooding age old acequias (or ditches) part of the reason the Rio Grande runs so dry down south (TX & Mex.)
I have always wanted to own part of a farm, but couldn't afford that, so this is perfect. This will be an interesting learning experience. I have been trying to branch out and get work experience with some of the farmers I have met in the years living here. This summer is going great so far. Just need to get a mountain of firewood bucked, split and stacked and get some homebrew going and some weeding and eventually canning of pickles and salsa and whatnot. A ten day camping trip to Colorado and beyond should prove a nice reward for some hard work, and the chickens will need some structures to make it through winter and for laying eggs. Lots to do and much already done. Photos of EVES Farm to come in the next few weeks. It is really a trip to be walking down along an ancient agricultural river and see these trees loaded with fruit and just dropping it all day long. There is a serious harvest on those trees. And much more work to be done, at his farm and mine.

the orchard, river & highway:

View Larger Map

more on what we do with all our hard-earned fruit to come in future posts. For now those plums will ripen in a few days and the peaches will probably not even make it to the dehydrator.

Until next time....

Summer Time

2010-07-25T20:23:00.013-06:00

dehydrating mini apricots from a friend's tree downtown:

thank you rain:

winter squash doing extremely well:

first zucchini!:

hops (Chinook & Fuggle) are flowering and ready for harvest soon:
We opened up the gate between the two chicken runs a few days ago and everyone seems to be much happier. One older Jersey Giant hen and the rooster have been in the tractor in the three sisters garden for a day now. It has not been the best conditions for them with all this rain, but the gardens are just thriving.

these chicks have really grown fast:

rooster:

Australorps running away:
the girls love their watermelons:
they have been sleeping under the large nesting box:

cosmos we planted from seed, flowering:
going to work at a friend's orchard up north this week. probably get paid some in fruit and preserve as much of it as we can. Bar-be-que season is at full throttle and these mountains are beautiful.

until next time...

New Chicken Tractor

2010-07-21T18:41:00.005-06:00

A side:

B side:

tomorrow we will put a few of the older hens in here. Try to switch it up as much as possible. Who knows, maybe build a few more. It might only fit three or so hens. Maybe five or six of the young ones. Should be interesting.

Garden Growth

2010-07-19T23:33:00.007-06:00

3 Sisters:

Winter Squash:

Watering with the new 100 ft. professional grade hose:
(it's super nice)

Hopi Black Dye Sunflower:
Already as tall as me and starting to form the giant flower head.

Lemon Cucumbers:

more soon...

Sunset

2010-07-15T14:19:00.003-06:00