Lots to get to

As if anything ever slowed down around here...might take a few sittings to get through this entire post.

Around the Farm:
It has, unfortunately, been over a month since I posted the "Days in the Ground" table.  Feel kind of bad about that.  But anyways, what's done is done, and below are the current stats:

Days in the ground
Plant	# Days
Lettuce	107
Potatoes	80
Carrots	80
Onions	80
Peas	66
Nasturtiums	66
Tomatoes	49
Bell Peppers	49
Rosemary	49
Green Beans	49
Cucumbers	49
Corn	45
Beans	45
Strawberries	45
Squash	45

Charantais Melon                10

As you can see, the lettuce has been in the ground over 100 days.  The Lettuce has been an interesting adventure.  It began by getting 12" of snow dumped on it, and had some trouble getting going.  But once it did start, it grew very well.  I have learned this year that it grows A LOT better when you give it A LOT of water.  Who'da thunk it?  Even so, it did not perform as well as hoped, with only 3 plants really producing any lettuce of eating size.  The worst news of all is, it didn't really taste good.  I mean, sure Lettuce isn't supposed to taste like a T-Bone steak, but it had a bitter-type taste to it.  Could have also been that the leaf I had was not the freshest, and I normally would eat it with carrots, salad dressing, etc.  I chalk this up to a half-success.  Next year I will grow it in a slightly different location getting better sunlight, and it will be in a cold frame (can't wait to finish building that).

Next, potatoes.  Wow, what a crazy vegetable.  In the Square Foot Gardens (SFGs) I planted 6 total plants - 3 Red Noreland and 3 Yukon Gold.  The Red Norland immediately shot out of the ground, followed a couple weeks later by the Yukon Gold.  I noticed the Red Noreland plants appeared to be turning yellow above ground, and slightly brown/black.  As far as I can tell, this meant they were "done" growing.  The stalks and leaves eventually all shriveled up and died, and when I pulled 2 Red Noreland plants, I had 14 potatoes.  More on that later.  Overall, I think these went pretty well.  Still eager to see how the rest of the potatoes will do.  In addition, I planted 6 "test cases" (3 of each) in a clay filled bed, with really poor soil, and I really did not pay much attention to it, other than watering it when I remembered.  After pulling up 3 of those plants, I found potatoes that were just as good or better than the SFG's.  Needless to say, that was surprising.  Encouraging, though.  Hopefully next year will yield more potatoes per plant, as opposed to 1 or 2 per plant this year. 


The carrots are confusing me.  2 squares, same soil, same water, same location in sunlight.  And yet, one is producing very well, while one is not.  After checking one today, it is about 1/2 the size of my wife's pinky finger - not very big. 

The onions - not too much to say about these.  They appear to be growing well, though I need to dust off the top level of soil so they will expand.

I had a beautiful red bloom on one of the Nasturtiums this morning.  Dang, I really wish I had taken a picture of that.  It's gone now, unfortunately, but it sure looked good!

Tomatoes & Peppers - you suck.  Supposedly easy to grow and very tolerant, they have been a complete failure.  I'm not terribly upset about it though.  This isn't to say they're done for the year, but they are nowhere near where they need to be.
*edit* As I wrote this a few days ago, something amazing happened - two tomatoes showed up!  They really look like peppers, so I'm kind of confused, but I'll let them keep growing and we'll see how they turn out.  Pretty cool :)  Bell Peppers though, are still producing nothing.

Rosemary - Well to be honest, I wasn't even sure if this was planted.  I spilled the seed pack, haha, so I was *hoping* one just happened to land where it needed.  Haven't seen anything.


Beans & Peas - The Green Beans are growing very well, albeit a tad short.  They have just produced runners and starting to climb.  The Peas have been hit by bugs very badly.  They still seem to be growing but it must be hard when you're being targeted above everything else by the insects.  After putting down a fertilizer (more about that later) they SHOT up, from approximately 3" tall to approximately 7" tall in just a few days.  Amazing.

Cucs and Corn - Growing well, but still early.  Eager to see how these turn out.

Strawberries - I don't really know, to be honest.  I still think that I may have just planted a bunch of dead strawberries, but on the other hand, I have a lot of "green stuff" growing there.  It might be weeds.  I have no idea.

Squash - Eh.  I just don't know yet; the verdict is still out.  Some really bad winds broke them over but they appeared to recover.  They have flowered, but they are FAR from the size of other people's plants.  They were planted a tad too late, but they really should be doing better.

Cantaloupes - Just planted these a few days ago.  I put some stones behind the plant so they will absorb some heat, which melons love.  They had a few sprouts, but pests attack one of them.  I can't wait for these.  Really hopeful these turn out well.


Livestock

First off, the rabbit.  I just do not know about this guy.  To be honest it seems like he has turned more into a pet.  Reason being, the manure he produces, when dried and put into the garden, merely attracts TONS of pests and they end up killing plants.  That's definitely not what I wanted.  So, that leaves 1) figuring out what to do with a ton of manure, or 2) breeding him for meat/selling rabbits.

While breeding him with a doe may not be extremely difficult, it's the sweltering weather in Texas I am worried about.  Not to mention needing a market for the rabbit and/or meat, governmental restrictions on selling meat, etc.   Not sure how that would go, but it would be an undertaking to say the least.

Secondly, the meat chickens.  Words can't express how I feel about this.  Literally - I have tried to come up with some.  It just feels so...right.  First off, it was dang cheap, which will surely grab my attention any day.  Secondly, (from what Tara says!) they were fairly easy to raise.  They were humanely raised and humanely killed.  We had our first dinner with the chicken last night, along with some potatoes from the garden.  The chicken tasted amazing.  The potatoes tasted...weird.  It was like tasting a potato for the first time.  When people told me "you will be so surprised how your food tastes straight from the garden" I frankly brushed it off, but wow was I wrong.  The potatoes had an earthy taste, not in a bad way though.  Delicious.  We made some spicier than normal chicken, and it was delicious as well.  Very happy with this :)

I would really like to put up some pictures, but since the last two weeks have been an absolute disaster, in nearly ever aspect, they'll just have to be put up later.  I promise.  As soon as everything cools down.

And last but not least, the great Fence Debacle.  Another 5 fence posts have blown down.  I have now realized I am in the wrong business - you can make a killing off removing fence posts and installing new ones.  Wow.  Unbelievable.  No thanks, I'll just cut my arms into pieces installing my own :-\

Alright, if you haven't been able to tell, this post was written over several days, so it's kind of a conglomeration of crazy stories.  Another one occurred last night, just when I thought it was all winding down.  I went to the garage to turn off the sprinklers for tomorrow (didn't want them to spray on the fence-pulling stuff in the back yard - go figure).  When I went into the garage, I noticed water on the ground.  What could that be?  Then I looked up and saw that my clock was off.  The power had gone out (it's a GFCI outlet, so just the outlet goes out).  Well, I wanted to say a lot of words that shouldn't be said.  I thought them, that's for sure.  I also wanted to punch some things.  Over $200 worth of meat, down the drain.

After cooling off a little (no pun intended), I checked the meat in the freezer, and did some investigation.  It had been approximately 27 hours since the freezer went out.  The meat was still frozen, but it had slightly thawed around the edges.  I think it will be safe, obviously if cooked to the proper temperatures and handed carefully.  Just really, really irks me.
     Then Katie came to my aid.  She pointed out that, on a "real" farm, you might not lose your freezer power to a freak outlet, but you might lose 20 chickens to a coyote.  You might have a herd of animals inflicted with some disease, and you have to kill them all to save themselves.  While mine happened a little farther down the food chain, nonetheless it happened.  Just time to move on and don't give up due to an accident.

Thanks a ton for checking in and reading my blog.