The Swimming Hole

This past fall, Kelsi found this 300 gallon stock tank on craigslist for pretty cheap. We are going to use it now for the ducks and geese to swim. Later when we have bigger animals, we can use it for watering them. 

We installed this more than a week ago and we have still not been able to convince the webbed-footed gang to actually get in it. On the right, you can see the stair case we built for them. We even put a platform in the pond to help them get out.

We had to wait for the ground to thaw before leveling a place for it to set. We choose right next to the garden so we can take the "mineral" rich water and use it in the garden if needed. Also, if for some reason our water supply is no longer available we can use this water in the garden to get us by for a little while. Ideally some day we can have it hooked into a rainwater collection system to further our goal of becoming more self sufficient. Baby steps.

Look at that view! Why won't they just go for a swim? They liked their little crappy pond much better than this. They swam in it the first day!

I even added a big bag of fish to coax them in. No luck yet. The only animals that seem interested so far are the cat and the dog.

Thanks for reading! 

For Dinner this week

I love beets! They were reasonably priced this week at the store so we bought a bunch. A couple days ago we had oven roasted beats with sauteed beet greens and stems. We have made this recipe a few times before and it is so delicious! 

I always add ingredients that aren't called for when I cook. If you try this recipe, I added mushrooms before the onions and garlic, and I added feta cheese at the end. I have added fresh diced hot peppers with the onions in the past and that is also good. You can add the stems sooner than the leaves if you want softer stem. I personally like the crunch of the stem in contrast the the wilt of the beet leaves. Serve over your favorite noodle. Red wine vinegar on the whole beets! Delicious!

We plan to grow a ton of beets this summer.

What's your favorite beet recipe?

Thanks for reading! 

The Swimming Hole

This past fall, Kelsi found this 300 gallon stock tank on craigslist for pretty cheap. We are going to use it now for the ducks and geese to swim. Later when we have bigger animals, we can use it for watering them. 

We filled this more than a week ago and we have still not been able to convince the webbed-footed gang to actually get in it. On the right, you can see the staircase we built for them. We even put a platform in the pond to help them get out.

We had to wait for the ground to thaw before leveling a place for it to set. We choose right next to the garden so we can take the "mineral" rich water and use it in the garden if needed. Also, if for some reason our water supply is no longer available, we can use this water in the garden to get us by for a little while. Ideally, some day we can have it hooked into a rainwater collection system to further our goal of becoming more self sufficient. Baby steps.

Look at that view! Why won't they just go for a swim? They liked their little crappy pond much better than this. They swam in it the first day!

I even added a big bag of fish to coax them in. No luck yet. The only animals that seem interested so far are the cat and the dog.

Thanks for reading! 

Poor lil Dolly!

Our Barded Rock Hen (Dolly) had been limping around for a couple days for an unknown reason. We thought she would just 'walk it off'.

This never happened. We brought her inside for a closer look and noticed her right leg was very swollen and she had a wound to her knee area. 

It appeared to have been very painful for her. She refused to stand on it.

So, we went to work. Warm salt water bathes in the kitchen sink!

She would watch herself in the mirror.

She really didn't care for the baths. 

She was very happy when we were done!

and curious.

All better!

It has been a few days now since we started treatment and Dolly is doing much better! Some of you may find it strange that we brought our chicken into the kitchen, but all of our animals are like family.

Thanks for reading!

Would you plant sprouted potatoes from your pantry?

There are a lot of mixed opinions about this on the web. Some say you shouldn't plant cupboard sprouted potatoes because of diseases they may have and how that will ruin your soil. Then the other side of the argument is that seed potatoes are just another way for companies to make a buck. What are your thoughts? Should we plants these sprouted potatoes? Or toss them?

What do you do?

Let me know. I am very curious about this one!

Update on Vegetable Starts

The tomato starts are looking amazing! 

They were way too big for this little tray so on Saturday they got an upgrade in pot size

I took a long time to transplant all of these.

But, they are all happy in their new pots!

We are getting pretty good at growing tomatoes!

Thanks for reading!

What's wrong with our peppers?

We planted a 72 spot tray with peppers but only half have sprouted after a month of waiting!

It's very strange. All of one type of pepper sprouted, but every pod of another type pepper didn't sprout.

Any thoughts? The ones that didn't sprout in the photo above from right to left: first two empty rows are California red from a packet of seeds. Next two empty rows, Jalapeno from saved seed. The next empty row and half are Pasilla pepper from saved seed. Not sure why they never sprouted.

Thanks for reading!