Survival of the Species

Puttering in the garden is the only activity that sets my brain free from the daily concerns of running a farm business, wondering what’s for dinner, will I have time to bathe my dirty dog tonight, what are those (bleeping) politicians going to screw up next, and so on.  It’s impossible to have stress in the garden, and that’s one of the reasons I spend so much time out there.  Time to recover from daily brain damage, time to listen to the birds, time to touch the dirt/compost/vermiculite/peat mixture that our veggies love to sink their feet into, to feel the cool greenness of our growing “children” who want nothing more than to end up on our dinner plates.

Shuckin' and Chivin'

My garden in autumn always looks like a hurricane went through it.  (My apologies and sympathies to so many out there who actually did go through some horrid storms this year!)  The tomatoes are at an end, still struggling to ripen before the rains descend, their leaves yellowed and tattered and pathetic.  Peas have come and gone a couple of times now and the stragglers hang on the fencing with their tongues hanging out, making seeds for next year.  Same with all the beans.  The cucumbers Bruce uses to make The Best Pickles In The Known Universe have succumbed to the cool and the chickens today are happily munching on all the immature ones left on the dead vines.

New chives under protection of fading cornstalks

Spud Berries and Other Distractions

Long ago and far away in a remote village in central France, a mere stone's throw from Chambord, we hopped into Dad's Van Ordinaire and headed to the local dump.  This place wasn't shown on any tourist map but it should have been well marked... even highlighted.  Aside from being the town's social gathering place on Saturday mornings, it was a literal treasure house of wonderful things, barely used, lovingly given up for adoption.  First come, first served.

A stainless steel goldmine!

Fin de Bagnols

Bagnols is a sweet little town in the heart of the Beaujolais grape growing and wine producting region of France, and I can't imagine a finer place to enjoy those delicious, sweet and tender green beans the French are famous for. But preferring to avoid airplanes, we now grow our own Fin de Bagnols from heirloom seed.

We don't know exactly why these beans were named Fin de Bagnols. It's a delicious little enigma since, in French, the word "fin" has about 50 different meanings.  It could mean "the end of the town of Bagnols," although the town still exists.  Or perhaps "at the edge of the town of Bagnols." Or "fin" could be taken to mean "thin, slender, or very fine."  Pas de quoi.  They're French beans and that's all we are ever likely to know.

Fin de Bagnols - delicious French beans

If in Doubt, Rout it Out!

No, this is not a picture of Bali, the most beautiful and serene spot on earth, where I'll be off to in a couple of weeks.  December isn't especially kind to Bufflehead Pond Farm and its denizens, and this denizen in particular is getting out of Dodge for a couple weeks.  But not until the rest of my garden is prepared for spring, with all the new raised beds built and filled with rich delicious compost and dirt for our new green babies...

The Big Chill

Don't go in the deep water unless you can swim

You don't want to own a bunch of equipment unless you can repair it.   Nobody can afford to take their tractor, implement, tool, system, whatever to a retail repair place every time something breaks.  Recently, due to the weather clearing for at least a few hours, I decided to use my tractor mounted wood chipper to chop up some small branches and limbs that I had trimmed from trees surrounding the area close to the house.  We use the wood chips as mulch and as ground cover in the garden area and a few more spots around the farm.  Here's the set up.

So I'm chipping away and there is a rod which is attached to the feed roller which allows the operator to raise the feed roller from outside the feeder chute. Obviously this is the only safe way to clear a jamb in the feeder.  So this rod breaks free at the weld where it attaches to the feed roller mechanism.  Did I mention that this is a Chinese designed and manufactured chipper?  Not my first problem with quality but the only chipper I could afford in this size.

So back into the shop to effect repair.  I have a small MIG welder that has paid for itself just doing little repairs like this.  I grind the area where the parts will be (re) joined in order to have clean surfaces.  Had to be creative with a couple of clamping pliers in order to hold the parts in place.

Parts joined.  Weld isn't the prettiest but should hold.  But wait there is more.

In order to prevent a future failure I added a short brace to the handle rod.  Made these two braces from 1/8" steel that I had laying around the shop.  Welded one on each side and back in business.

Fun & Healthful Dog Food from Kitchen Scraps

For all of you who have asked us for advice on feeding their pets, I wish we could.  We are not experts in animal nutrition, so all we can talk about is what we do for our little muttlets!

In short, we mainly feed raw and organic selections made from beef, chicken, turkey and occasionally bison.  We buy from a local manufacturer, and keep it frozen until we’re ready to feed The Skids. 

Chicken/Turkey Gourmet Blend

But this can be expensive!  So what we also do is save our cooking scraps and make homemade meals from fresh, wholesome people food.  Here’s how: 

• First, no grains (wheat, barley, oats, corn, rice, etc.), no potato or sweet potato.
• For carbs, add carrots and carrot peelings and fresh or fresh frozen apples.
• For green, add broccoli stems and spinach
• For meat, use everything left on the bird (chicken or turkey) except the bones.

It takes a month or two to accumulate enough scraps from cooking, including complete chicken and turkey carcasses, with everything going into doggie bags in the freezer.  Then, when the freezer is bursting at the seams, we thaw it all out and blend it together in the Cuisinart, supplementing a little fresh carrot, apple or spinach, as needed.  I freeze it all in convenient meal-sized zipper baggies! There’s nothing in this blend but really tasty food, and The Skids go crazy for it! 

We supplement their “store-bought” raw meals with this very tasty treat.  It’s fresh and wholesome, I know exactly what’s in it, and they thrive on it.  But your dogs might be different.  We are not soliciting comments on our choices, nor are we recommending that anyone else do this, but for those who have requested ideas, here’s one we enjoy doing for our furkids! 

Enjoy!