Solstice Celebrations!

Most of the big digging work is done for the outdoor garden. On the 16th I got the strawberry and potato beds ready, and planted. On the far left there is the garlic that overwintered from last year, and on the right is pile of rocks I removed while digging. I do want to change the layup as time goes on but the next steps for the main garden right now is to plant some corn and sunflowers "behind" the rest of the beds in the big open space in the top/north of the photo.

The greenhouse is providing us with plenty of lettuce, basil, kale, green onions, baby carrots, and even starting to produce some pea pods. On the right there you can kind of see the citrus trees we got recently. They won't produce until winter but an nice warm summer in the greenhouse will do them good before they come inside as the winter arrives.

This massive haul of basil told me that I could start selling basil so I updated the farm socials. No basil sales yet but I do sell some eggs here and there. 

The chicken ladies are back to regular production now that Marsha hasn't been shooing them all away from the nests for a few weeks. I also found the hidden cache of 14(!) eggs that one of the triplets had hidden up in the hayloft. I'll have to remember to check up there first if I think she's ever hiding eggs again.

Marsha's doing well with the chicks and they all seem healthy and happy. The rest of the chickens peek through the wire occasionally and I'm glad because I don't want them to forget her. I will need to let them all out in a week or so as the chicks will be able to jump out, but I'll have the next stage set up at that point.

The goat kids' horn nubs are loosing their scabs and number two keeps headbutting everything in sight causing a bit of bleeding. I'm not sure if Marshal has a partial horn or "scur" growing or if his nub scabs are just falling off strangely.

Oh, and believe it or not, baby goat poop is the size of mouse poop!

They do the same pelletization of their poop that the adults do, but because their milk diet is about 95% water and their bodies are so small, their poops come out as a scattering of insanely small pieces.

I'd been using the crate to lock up the goat kids while feeding and milking the adults so they wouldn't be underfoot but I do look forward to being able to use the kid corner for the kids again. One morning I came into the barn to find they had been sleeping on top of the crate. It's not a good idea long term as it's not built for that but they're light enough to not cause damage for now. Maybe sometime soon I'll build a "sleep shelf" in the barn for the goats. It'll have to be modular like the kid corner so it can be out of the way when it needs to, but all the goats seem to prefer sleeping up on the milk stand or really anything that is higher than the floor.

I've been working on my farm notes programming project some more and I don't know why I'm surprised anymore that about half of it is done on the whiteboard instead of on the computer. lol

This was just me trying to puzzle out how I want to structure the storage of the information that I put in. It gets complicated quickly because how it's stored kinda limits how it can be retrieved later... or at least how quickly and easily. None of these is even the final decision I went with. lol I'm very grateful to my wife for many reasons, but one of them is her help when I'm working on programming stuff. She's the best rubber duck and the best code reviewer.

Thanks to Hugslut, I even have a working "minimum viable product" or "just the very basics" version of my farm notes program up and running! This is where I'm keeping my current notes. I had been keeping notes on paper but Hugslut helped me get a proper server started on our home network so I could keep my data there instead of just making an even bigger data entry issue for later. :-) (I know it's not the prettiest thing right now but that's not the part I'm worried about yet.)

In other news, I've been experimenting with the freeze dryer and have so far made apple slices for snacking and oatmeal or yogurt bowls. They're light and crisp and melt in your mouth. So very different from the regular dried apple rings you get in trail mix. I've also made a kale powder that is wonderful to add a sprinkle of vitamins to just about any meal. So far I've tried it in eggs, sauces, and a soup. I've also just packaged some freeze dried basil for storage that I'm thinking of labeling as "better basil" because it's a million times better flavour than the basil I get from the store, AND it keeps so long that it's actually more convenient than fresh.

The next experiment is to run a load that has three different kinds of apples so we can decide which type we like the best as a freeze dried product. I'll let you know how it goes.

All in all, a busy time on the farm. The last blogpost was a bit skimpy on the details because I just needed to get it out and I did NOT have the brainpower to devote to too many words. I hope you enjoy this update as much if not more and I hope to bring you more news as it comes but I can't promise a regular update schedule yet I'm afraid. Have a wonderful Summer!