I hope you're happy - all you folks singin' over there in Oklahoma - now you've got ME started in...! (That was a takeoff on Dogpatch, USA, from the Lil' Abner musical, BTW!)

Sheets are flapping in the breeze on the clothesline - warm and humid - sky is overcast and has looked like rain for the past 2 - 3 days, all that's come of it is a shower or two - not enough to keep the farmers out of the fields. We've had some pretty brisk winds lately, and with it being so dry, the scene was reminiscent of the Dust Bowl yesterday - areas on the highway where you could barely see to drive for the blowing soil - scarey! My thoughts are with the farmers - so many around here on the edge financially anyway, and the cost to plant a crop... Wish I could believe that a couple of bad years would encourage folks to farm in a more ecological manner, but all that happens around here is that little farms get swallowed up into big farms and out come the fencerows and old outbuildings and in come the four wheel drive monsters.

I woke up this morning and wandered out to the garden in my pjs, as usual. One dead tomato out of the 20 that I planted yesterday - no big problem, I've got some spares. Need to get my peppers planted - multicolored bells, bananas and a mix of hot peppers; then decide if I ought to put my beans in the raised beds or in the area I'm working up for raised beds next year... Mums are up about 18", time to cut them back and root the cuttings - so much to do, so little time! (Although I will admit to spending some time yesterday lying flat on my back and watching the clouds go by!) I've got a 5' X 75' area between the road ditch and my berry field that I'm thinking about putting all my spare garden plants and some seeds in and setting that harvest aside for the Sr. Citizens or food bank - I'm sure the Bible scholars here could point me toward the right verse that encourages us to set aside a portion of our crops for that purpose.

The humingbirds have started their mating dance and are draining the 3 feeders on our wrap around porch at least daily, and visit the petunias in my hanging baskets as well. The trumpet creeper and honeysuckle are budded but not blooming yet, so I may have to go down to the store room and dig out a couple more feeders to get them through. Noted 4 barn swallow nests in the eves of the shed, but I don't see any occupants - hope thay haven't passed us by this year - they, along with the bats, make a big dent in the mosquito population. Maybe I'll pick up a couple of citronella plants my next visit to the nursery and plant them by the porch - wonder if they're prone to grow out of control?

Well, I suppose that I had better go hang my next load of wash and get those peppers planted - first I've got to find a shirt to cover the sunburn I got yesterday in the garden! So tell us....what's going on on your homestead today?

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), May 12, 2000

Answers

Goodmorning Polly well i'm doing laundry to I have a longer growing season then you so i'm making friends with my chickens by plucking tomato worms and hand feeding them to the ladies. Started my peppers late this year and sowed them right into the ground so i have to go and dicied whats a pepper and whats a weed then thin them out. I broke a 1" pvc pipe with a digging bar yesterday(i've seen more damage done with a digging bar them with a backhoe)so I have some digging to do to day and im not real found of shovles so i'm wasting some time on the fourm see if i can learn somthing new (mabe wasting isn't the right word)seems my coffee cup is empty so off I go health and happness to you and yours (and all my friends out in country side land)

Shaun

-- shaun cornish (shaun-terri@juno.com), May 12, 2000.

I can't get moveing very fast today! I send out cards, & letters about our family reunion comming up in June. The baby ducks & geese are out in there pen in the yard! The sheltie is standing guard. The chickens are free ranging around the babies pen today. The cat can't decide if she wants in or out--she is so old & almost blind so she stays pretty close to where we are. The tomatoes & peppers are all doing well! My salad garden is picking through the ground! I need to put away winter clothes from the closet & drag out all the warm weather clothes today! See what we can still fit into! ha! Hubby & I are going through the "middle age spread"! I haven't filled my hummingbird feeders yet! But all my flowers in the yard are in bloom-- we have out all the lawn furniture--& it is hard to come inside now! I want hubby to get out the grill--as I am so ready to fix meals on the gas grill instead of inside! I have all the windows open & the curtains are blowing, with a nice cool breeze, today! The camper is out in front of the house ready for me to get it cleaned up from winter & get it packed --so when ever hubby is ready to go all I have to do is load the last minute things! We love to camp & fish! I need to start some lunch & call hubby in from down at the shop--as it will soon be time for him to leave for work today! Have a great one Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), May 12, 2000.

Getting over my mad at the neighbor kids. They decided to rip apart the chicken wire on my chicken tractor. I can't prove it however, as I did not see them actually commit the crime. I lost 3 of my already small flock, including the one I thought might be a rooster. ARGGHH!!!!!! So repairs have been made, and now I'm thinking about getting more chicks. Maybe meat birds this time? Other than that I am looking forward to some sunbreaks today, it's been raining for almost a week. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), May 12, 2000.

We got hit by a late spring storm yesterday -- nasty snow is back, and I'm glad I hadn't put any bedding plants out yet (NEVER before 24 May!!). Couple of tornadoes touched down in the province yesterday, too, so I'm keeping my eye out for that. Temperature is supposed to be back up to normal by tomorrow, but I'll believe it when I see it. The weather sure has been strange this year.

Got to run to the post office and pick up the mail later...might drop by the library too, because it doesn't look like I'm going to be doing any gardening any time soon!!

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), May 12, 2000.

Annette, is it possible that you've been attacked by a racoon? They are very proficient at tearing apart chicken-wire pens and making off with the inhabitants.

Mostly I've been spring-cleaning and getting ready for my sister's visit with her two-year-old in a couple of days. We had a few days of hot weather (record-breaking) but it's back to nice, but a little cool to have all the windows open -- oh, well, at least I got the house aired out. I'm not complaining, as soon enough it'll be summer and hot. It is so nice to see the trees starting to get green again, and the daffodils and tulips blooming in the yard. We have a few tomato plants on the window sill, but I don't think we are going to put in the whole garden this year. I don't know -- maybe we shouldn't count on selling -- but I'd hate to put all that work into getting things started and then move. The lawn needs mowed -- still trying to get the garage straightened up -- lots to do! Time goes so quickly!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 12, 2000.

Well, now you've gone and distracted me off into what's becoming a bad habit lately, talking about homesteading.

We're in another La Nina drought here in North Florida so our fire danger is going up and up and anything that's not irrigated is getting drier and drier. So, given the present conditions I'd like to know where all the doggone mosquitoes are coming from?!! There's not any open water for at least a half-mile from around here, maybe even more. Am I being afflicted with dry-land mosquitoes? Dang if I know but they'll near pick you up and carry you off in the twilight of the evenings.

In spite of all that things aren't doing too bad. I've cut all the broccoli out of the garden and we're working on the side shoots now. Once the heat started going over 80 in the afternoons it pretty well went toes up on us. Got some sort of stem rot problem in the yellow squash so I've lost a few plants but the remaining ones are going strong and I've probably picked six or seven pounds by now with what looks like plenty more coming. Grilled the larger ones the other night with some burgers on our new gas grill. My wife and I decided to make it our mutual wedding anniversary gift (May 1st) to each other and we're loving it. A nice piece of preparedness equipment to boot.

The sweet potato plants are growing nicely now that it's hot and so are the pole limas and pole green beans. If those speckled butterbeans can make beans the way they make vines we're going to be eating the silly things every night. I've measured some of those vines growing at better than six inches a day! Apparently the real heat is what the field peas were waiting for too since they've suddenly shot up. The watermelon, canteloupe and okra took off too and look to do well.

The corn is pretty well at head height or better now and is beginning to tassel out. The butternut squash is vining so I'll have to start training it to the fence I want it to climb. The scarlet runner beans are blossoming and boy are those flowers red! If they can take the heat I'll definitely plant them again next year. Still got plenty of posts within hose range on that fence so I'm toying with the idea of planting some pie pumpkins and cucumbers now that I'm sure they won't cross with my other cucurbits (I'm saving seeds).

With the heat and the drought causing problems we've been raking the leaves up from around the house and putting them down as mulch in the garden so I can cut down on watering so much. No problems with our well yet but I don't want to court any either. Getting the leaves up and away from the house also serves the dual purpose of eliminating fuel sources near to any building in case of brush fires. The county just put in a week long burn ban because of high fire danger (for the second time).

The chickens have been moved out into the henhouse for several weeks now. I still have to paint it, build a larger feeder (the chick feeder is now too small) and put in some wiremesh flooring under the roost area so I can more easily gather the collected manure for the garden. I'll have five roosters to butcher come early July, a task which I've always hated, but I'm determined we're going to eat those birds. This will leave me with two Barred Rock and two Gold Laced Wyandotte hens (the other three I raised for friends).

I wanted greater genetic diversity so I'm getting a Barred Rock rooster from my mother after I slaughter mine and will be installing him as Boss Bird. His name will be Cogburn and we've christened the hen house "La Casa Del Pollo" which should be "The House of the Chicken" if I am remembering my junior high school Spanish correctly. The roosters I'm slaughtering aren't named but the hens are Emily and Charlotte (the Bronte' sisters) and Helen and Clytimestra of Greek mythology (my wife is a classicist). Not that naming them will keep them from going into the pot when the time eventually arrives but it suits us to do so.

So, except for the drought and a stupendous car repair bill about to come home to roost things are doing alright on the Hagan homestead.

........Alan.

The Prudent Food Storage FAQ, v3.5

http://www.ProvidenceCo-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), May 12, 2000.

Alan, I dont know If your scarlet runner beans will do this but in california were I live I planted some three years ago and they keep coming back on there own ,were I have them I dont rototile[on trellis] and this will be there fourth year. I transplanted some of the roots to another bed and they are coming back as well.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), May 12, 2000.

It's been wet and cold here all week. New snow on the mountains, right out our back door (well, almost) at around 3500 feet. Sunny today, and around 55. Of course I had school the first part of the day, and then my mom took me out to lunch so we could celebrate what the two of us were doing together exactly 48 years ago today! Anyway, now I have to dig in the garden, move sheep fence, move rams to new pasture, double check on how the new goats are doing, get eggs in, rig up a clothesline (just in case we can dry clothes outdoors one of these days), and think about dinner. Oh yes, we are putting up a common horse fence between our place and next door...2 x 8 doug fir boards which will need painting white. Since it's starting to look like Churchill Downs around here, I am thinking about how to re-do my front yard...like how about ornamental plants (a novelty!) So, will take a pen, paper, and tape measure out to do some planning. Gonna put bands on the last ram lambs, but probably not until tomorrow. So glad it's not raining!! Pretty laid back day, actually!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), May 12, 2000.

How about it, folks, shall we gag Alan until our gardens are at least all IN!?! Or just move to Florida en mass?!?

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), May 12, 2000.

Can't do that I picked my frist tomato today and my squash is almost ready!

-- shaun cornish (shaun-terri@juno.com), May 12, 2000.

Kathleen, no raccoons in the area, and I found cheep cocoa puffs and a pair of kids toy binoculars right next to the pen. The roost was also removed. This is not the action of a possum. No feathers, no body parts and the next door kids were just facinated a few days before I found the vandalism. Also, their 'pet' crow had just escaped. Nothing conclusive huh?

Oh well, at least all of the chickens were there this morning. City life is so great. NOT!!!!! This leaves me with about 14 chickens. I did figure that I would loose a lot of them do to preditors and my own ignorance (first flock), but I never expected to have the pen vandilized! Let's see if they can get through the rabbit wire I stapled over the chicken wire. This makes 8 I've lost. At least none of them were my 5 year olds pet. If I can just keep from loosing anymore, this summer I might be able to replace the ones I lost with meat birds. This batch is supposed to be my layers with extras to cover for nonlayers, suprise roosters, and loses. The bare minimum number of layers for may family is 10, so I don't have many more that I can loose.

Thanks for your interest. Its good to be able to tell someone about this. Especially since I can't go and accuse any of the kids I think are involved. After all, it might not be them, it might have been an accident (I don't think so) they might have been responsible for only part of the damage. And the last thing I want is to start a war with the parents. After all, kids like that are pretty spoiled, and anything they do wrong is the other persons fault. I've had one war with a renting neighbor last year, I don't want another. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), May 12, 2000.

Annette -- Seems to me your problem would be fixed by installing some ELECTRIFIED fencing. Fried kids, no more problem. However, you might be eating fried chicken for a while, too. I think I'd be taking the toys to their mother and asking her, in front of them, if someone had lost something on YOUR property.

What is it with kids being so destructive anymore? I mean, I sound like my dad here, saying "In my day..." but I KNOW we never did anything like you hear today -- and it's generally not teenagers, either, they're getting younger!! Most of them under ten! What the heck is up with this?

I personally think that it's because they don't have proper supervision. We used to think that my mother had eyes in the back of her head -- and nailed up on trees around the farm!!! She knew EVERYTHING we did!!! In detail!

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), May 12, 2000.

This wasn't exactly a typical day but it sure was a blessed day. the man the landlord had do water pipe work here came back today to apologize and pay for ruining my flowers/bulbs. I told him no, It wasn't that bad, I shouldn't have complained. Well, I'm glad I did complain. He offered to till up the rest of our garden with his super duper tractor and tiller. (We don't have a tractor etc.) Who am I to stand in his way. I couldn't believe it. Our grden was big before, you should see it now. We had already decided to plant less with more variety this year. Now I've got lots of room to do just that and it will be much easier to keep the weeds from taking over. Otherwise, the lettuce, chinese veggies, and onion are ready. The potatoes are waiting to be hilled again. Broccoli and cabbageare doing well. Two loads of laundry on the line. The cats were "helping" plant a flower garden. The chickens are fussing at each other. And the new black lab is waiting to go for a walk.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), May 13, 2000.

Loved reading about all your days on the homestead from all of you on this thread! This weekend I put rabbit wire on an older wooden door and my husband roughed in the wall at the end of our new rabbit enclosure for our Angora's. They are already in it in their hutches but when finished it will have a grassy patio that the rabbits can play in some times and they will be well protected from coyotes, snakes, WILD DOGS, etc. etc. etc.

We're having to water our garden very day because it is SO DRY here in north Alabama. We really need a long gentle rain. I have lots of egg plants, two kinds of tomatoes (about 20 plants) crooked neck squash, two kinds of other squash, my green cabbage have heads about 5 inches big now, and the okra is just beginning to come up as are the cucumbers...

I am supposed to already be at my job of newspaper reporter this morning but am taking a little longer than usual to get going because of a weather change last night that has affected my allergies...it is about 15 degrees cooler than it has been and I have a sore throat plus other allergy problems...so I've been making phone calls and doing other stuff from my home office before I have to go pull arrest records at the sheriff's department and local police departments...

I have two more Angoras that need clipping...the woman I bought them from had not cut or brushed their hair all winter so they were a MESS! The rest of them are really turning beautiful now that I have the mats cut out of their hair and trimmed them short about 3 weeks ago. Hopefully we'll have Angora babies before long. I'm trying to wait until we get the rabbit house finished.

Hubby plowed in the upper garden this weekend and planted four rows of field corn. (we like it better than the sweet)

I also transplanted some "jew" to give to our mother's for Mother's Day yesterday and started a hanging plant of it for us too.

My day would be perfect if I could just hang around here and do homestead work instead of having to be out "making a living" but we're getting there and with a home office I really can't complain too much!!!

-- Suzy in 'Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), May 15, 2000.

Can I join in this from England ? Weather here today on the east coast has been windy and about 63F. Finished planting things into my polytunnel cucs, toms, peppers,lettuce, aubergines, basil. Goats out all day despite the wind, lambs growing by the minute! Ive sent my money across the sea to subscribe to Countryside as there is nothing as good in the U.K.

-- Sue Cuthbert (Fareacre@btinternet.com), May 17, 2000.

Okay, I'll bite - What the heck are aubergines?!!

-- Polly (tigger@moultre.com), May 17, 2000.

I had to laugh at the aubergine question! I knew exactly what it was, because that was what i called them, when i moved here from Germany, 8 years ago. It is what is called eggplant around here. I'm glad I'm not the only weird one around. karin

-- karin morey (wind_crest@hotmail.com), May 17, 2000.

It's not warm enough to plant out our tomato seedlings yet,not until memorial day.Should put the squash in soon though, and the sunflowers. Our lilacs are just about to open,saw a hummingbird outside the kitchen window yesterday.The goats are out in the pasture grazing happily on the abundant pasture-over 40 of them! One of my favorite does,a yearling, surprised us with twins a few days ago.For a while we weren't sure she was even pregnant! They are tiny though- look like little toys running around,jet black just like their mother. This morning when I was milking,looked up to see a mangy creature running on the neighbors land,less than 100 feet away.Boy,I thought, that's a scrungy looking dog,haven't seen that one around here before,wonder whose it is. It kind of looked like maybe it was part coyote-then I realized it was a coyote! Running right next to my goat pen full of baby goat kids in broad daylight!!! I jumped up and screamed and yelled at it,it ran away after a puzzled moment's glance at me.The goats never even noticed it!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), May 17, 2000.

Okay - which one of you jokers turned off the heat!?

It was up in the high 80's here in E. Central Illinois last week - I was having to sit guard duty on the thermostat to keep the guys from turning the air conditioner on. Got up this morning about 6 and it was a balmy (NOT) 42 degrees, grey and cloudy - BRRR!! Supposed to be in the nineties next week - go figure...

Tomatoes are doing well in the garden, although I need to replant one that the wind broke off - we have been having some really strong, almost constant winds for the past week and a half. When I planted my home grown pepper plants, I followed some advice that I had read somewhere to put a kitchen (wooden) match head down next to the plant - to protect against cut worms and provide phospherous. They almost all croaked, and the ones I did manage to save, by pulling out the matches and watering like crazy, are stunted and unhealthy looking. I bought some more plants at the nursery, so I guess I will pull up the others and replant - maybe not in the same place however. Live and learn, I guess. The zucchini is coming up, and so are the sunflowers. I had planned to plant about 16 rows of sunflowers and then cover crop what ground I didn't use for melons and pumpkins, however, the guys planted the sunflowers while I was sleeping and put them in just about every available inch of ground!! I have some old strawberries that I'm going to tear out this year, guess I can put the melons and pumpkins there, or put the pumpkins along the sweet corn after we cultivate it again. I have baby broccoli coming on - can't wait for the first fresh batch to hit the table (if it makes it that far!). Have a few more things to plant in the garden - still don't have my peas or beans in, bought some sweet potato plants and more onions while I was at the nursery getting the peppers, also some Indian corn and mini Indian corn. (Wasn't someone here looking for mini Indian corn seed?)

Went out this morning and hoed the garden, then hoed all 21 rows of new strawberry plants. I hate to use chemicals if I don't have to - as long as the weeds don't get ahead of me, I'll stick with the hoe. Need to run a load of laundry and go put it on my new, handy-dandy, hi-tech solar clothes dryer (clothesline). Pop has a pathological hatred of clotheslines, I believe related to a time when he was mowing the lawn and almost garrotted himself. He had refused to allow me to put up a clothesline in the yard ever since we moved back to the home place, and I was making do with 25 feet of line strung across the front opening of the shed. I finally brought home the poles and wire and pitched a fit and then we sat down and hammered out an agreement - I've got my clothesline (Yippee!), but I have to outline the area of it with landscape timbers and fill it in with wood chips so he doesn't have to come near it while he mows. Fair enough I reckon!

Well, I need to go rummage through the shed to see if I can find some fence staples - going to use them to fasten the ends of my hog panels to some scrap 2x4's Hubby brought home from work, then go set up some arches in the garden - wish me luck!!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), May 20, 2000.

Oh, the mere idea of weeding between rows and rows of vegetables already up and on their way onto my table makes me sigh! I just went out and busted up the soil to get ready to put up my bean teepees...just in anticipation of having the soil warm up one of these days! I have strawberries blooming, though, and lots of rhubarb, chives, some arugula....and cherries and blueberries are forming on the stems. I have been getting lots of miscellaneous weeding done, and general cleanup which always makes me feel like I am doing *something*. Sheep still need shearing. Between waiting for a part to come in for the shearing machine, and waiting for fleeces to dry out, we have gotten behind. We have been doing a lot of entertaining lately, too, and have a garden party to go to at a friend's tonight...probably stand around in our parkas!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), May 20, 2000.