our homestead: photos from my week

1. Honeysuckle blossoms
2. Orange poppies in bloom
3. My noble eagles (4 of my 5 sweet chickens)
4. My shadow, Banjo the shepherd mix
5. Wild roses in bloom
6. A wild rose up close (can you smell it?)
7. One of a handful of minky gray ducklings I have...I wonder what they will look like later
8. El Pato- used this to make sweet potato enchiladas

our homestead: I guess we might need a farm name

Peeking in on momma and babies

I grew up with chickens and ducks. I remember my dad built a chicken coop so beautiful it could have been a playhouse. And I remember being very naughty and chasing and being chased by our roosters, or looking out my window to see my little toddler brother squeaking in dismay with a rooster in hot pursuit. Poor, stressed-out roosters. I remember eating green eggs about the same time I was reading Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Suess and thinking, hey, what's the matter with green eggs?! I also remember our plump, white ducks would come running when you'd call, "Duuuck, Duuuck, Duuuck!". Something about their eggshells seemed to always produce richer colors when you'd dye them for Easter, as opposed to our chicken eggs.

 

 

Since then, my mom has always kept birds and is truly the Chicken Master. I'm sure she'd appreciate this title. This year she applied for her WSDA egg dealer's permit, so she can now officially sell her colorful Araucana chicken eggs at the farmers market in pretty, pale blue paper egg cartons. I still think she's undercharging.

 

 

In envisioning the life I would like to have in the future, tending a flock of birds was always in there, along with growing my own vegetables, fruit and flowers. Pretty simple desires. Anytime I head down to the coop and bring up some eggs, or pluck a few radishes, green onions and arugula for a simple spring salad, I feel the satisfaction that I can provide a little food for myself and my family on my own terms. I guess it's okay to take a little bit of humble pride in the knowledge I'm cultivating for myself. Every year my garden gets a little bit better, and every year I'm able to grow more. I think it's important to keep this kind of knowledge alive, so hopefully I'll be able to impart that which I've learned to others later. I still consider myself quite the gardening greenhorn, but sometimes I surprise myself with my own knowledge when helping others. I guess you don't really realize you know something until you're able to teach it to someone else.

 

 

Anyway, back to the birds, this is the first year my husband and I have my dream flock of birds. The first year I don't just have to rely completely on my mom's overfilling wire egg baskets of goodness, though I do adore her beautiful green and blue eggs. The coop our birds are living in won't be winning any style awards (it was pieced together with random boards and bits of wood- I guess you'd call it "refurbished"), but it's functional and comfortable. My birds have a nice yard to roam about, a big open coop full of straw with poles for roosting and a couple nest boxes, a tall window and a spacious lower section (the "nursery") to house my ducky babies and their momma away from the rest of the flock while the ducklings are itty bitty. The duckies even have an enclosed outdoor playpen that keeps them safe from eagles and cats.

 

 

The ducks have a tub of water to splash in and a hanging feeder which I fill with Scratch and Peck feed at breakfast time. I also keep a bowl on my counter for kitchen scraps which are safe for the birds to gobble up such as vegetable trimmings and fruit peels, old bread, leftover rice and noodles, etc. Usually I'll bring this bowl down to the coop and give it to my birds in the morning. I also like to head over to the vegetable garden and pluck fresh kale, arugula and chickweed for my birds. I even planted a separate potato patch for the ducks for making them mashed potatoes later in the season.  Next year, I plan to devote more of my garden to the birds, to cut down on feed costs while providing them with excellent nutrition.

 

 

My husband and I are exploring raising ducks for eggs and meat. Our plan is to start very, very small. We'll probably stay very, very small. Which is good. Everyone's heard the ills of the mass-produced meat industry. I want to know the meat that I eat. Already, my husband and I don't eat a lot of meat, but  I feel that if we are to eat meat, we should be the ones to raise it. I had a friend say to me (who eats meat), "How could you eat something you raised? Don't you love animals?". Yes, I definitely love animals, and that's why I want to know, appreciate and care for the animal I eat. I think people are far too removed from the animals they eat...we have lost the connection between the animal and the styrofoam-and-plastic packaged chunk of pink stuff in the grocery cooler case or the $0.99 burger at the drive-through window. I want to feel connected to my food again.

 

 

Anyway, as we adventure down the road into raising meat ducks, we're also discussing selling some of our duck in small quantities to local restaurants and farmers markets. I can think of a few upscale restaurants which are currently serving Moscovy duck. I would also like to provide locavores with a good duck to roast up for Christmas while attending a winter farmers market. I guess we'll have to think of a farm name then.

our homestead: garden growth updates

Here's a collection of photos I took of my garden today to document growth.

Our little vegetable garden

The lower potato patch

Potatoes

Arugula

Peas reaching up

Golden chard and 'arabian nights' nasturtiums

'Painted Mountain' corn starting to peek out

I've started digging beds for my heirloom sunflowers

Tomatoes growing taller and taller

Check this out! Way earlier than last year!

Some of the plants are up to my hip in height

'Painted Mountain' corn I'm growing in pots to either transplant or to sell at the market

our homestead: gratitude

I'm grateful for all of the signs of summer around me.

I thought I'd take the time to write about some of the things I'm grateful for right now. Throughout my journey, there is always plenty to be grateful about. I'm grateful that summer is right around the bend. Once again, our trees are full of green leaves, the sun has been warm and plants are growing and blossoming. The vegetables and flowers in my garden and greenhouse grow taller and leafier everyday, and I've started enjoying fresh greens, tender radishes and sweet little onions from our backyard. I even have enough to share already, as I brought my friends a basket of produce from our yard yesterday.

Straw from my husband.

I am grateful for my loved ones. I have a very supportive circle of family and friends. Good people. I love my husband very much. He's my best friend and is very helpful, attentive and funny. The other day I came home to 4 bales of straw waiting for me (I'd recently run out). Aww, my hubby knows the key to my heart (haha). I was able to plump up my bird's home and nests with a fresh layer of straw and can always use straw in the garden for mulching. Lucky me!

Somebody's nibbling on the cat mint...

...it's a happy Ghosty Cupcakes!

I'm grateful for my silly troop of furbabies: Spyder Munggins, Ghosty Cupcakes, Oswald and Banjo. They're my snuggle buddies, floor cleaners, walking companions and co-pilots. I'm also grateful for my flock of feathered friends down below.

Two of my khaki campbell ducks and one of my buff orpington chickens

One of 14 ducklings so far...

And I'm grateful for our successful first hatching of moscovy ducklings! The last time I counted, there were 14 ducklings down below with more eggs left to hatch. My guess is we will get a second hatching in a couple of days (one clutch of eggs was newer than the other). I've never seen ducklings so small before, as often the ducklings you can buy at the cenex are at least a week old. These little puff balls are so adorable and I've been peeking in on them once a day to watch them splash in their little water tray and gobble down fresh salad greens.

our homestead: ducklings hatching

Right now as I quickly write this blog, my ducklings are hatching down below in the coop. This morning while I was doing my normal duck routine (let the birds out, refresh their water, check their feed, check for eggs), I had the thought to check on my brooding ladies, as their "due date" was last week. I opened up the nest box and noticed a cracked egg shell and my ducks (two are brooding right now) were both sitting in the same nest box. So weird. I began to move one duck over to her original nest box and saw a tiny, tiny pair of pink feet and some yellow feathers peak out. WHOAH! DUCKLINGS! I bet the second brooder was sitting in the wrong nest box because she wanted those ducklings (talk about baby fever). I have a feeling her clutch is right about to hatch as well. Anyway, I took some hurried photos and ran around finding materials to build my ladies and their babies a separate partition from the rest of the flock (to keep the ducklings safe). My guess is I'll come home from work this evening to find even more ducklings. I'll be sure to post better photos soon...I just didn't want to disturb my gals too much or their little darlings. Anyway, here are the quick photos I was able to snag...

our homestead: garden's growing

My little garden is off to a good start. I am beyond happy that the growing season is here again. Every morning I enjoy the ritual of letting my birds out, watering the plants in my greenhouse and watching the growth of my vegetable garden while casually plucking weeds. I'm fairly tired from a busy day of working the yard and I'm about to go sit out on the porch for the remainder of this warm evening we're having to listen to the sounds of nightfall and to smell the sweet scent of my white lilac (it seems to emit the most perfume at dusk), so I'll post a few photos of my garden's current state.

Wild numbers of sunflowers are popping up every which way around my yard. Aww, we'll be so lucky when they are all flowering.

Nasturtiums, German Chamomile and poppies are all growing.

Velvety and tangy 'Apple Mint' growing taller everyday. I'm looking forward to some summer mojitos made with this. Yum!

Our main vegetable patch (we have a few other patches scattered around the yard). This is also where we grew our garlic patch last year. I made some nice raised beds and everything I've planted here is coming up.

I've already snuck a few 'French Breakfast Radishes' from our radish patch. Oh so sweet and adorable.

One of my little broccoli plants. This is my first year growing broccoli.

Potatoes! This year I planted two potato patches: one for us and one for the ducks. I read that mashed potatoes make for a good filler food for ducks, so we'll be able to stretch our feed dollars more.

Baby 'Lacinato Kale' peeking out of the soil. Waiting to be braised with some lemon and chickenstock.

Our arugula patch. Soon this will grace my homemade pizzas with pancetta and goatcheese. Oh baby! 

Itty-bitty kohlrabi: one of my favorite vegetables. When it's full grown, its stems will swell into little green baseballs. You peel them and snack on them fresh or can roast them up. They are in the cabbage family and taste like sweet broccoli.

'Arabian Nights Nasturtiums' peeking out of the ground in the vegetable garden. Their flowers are supposed to be red, white and purple in lieu of the usual orange and yellow. They'll help ward off certain insect pests and will be a sweet and spicy addition to our salads.

Fava beans! These guys are sweet and nutty, like a delicious lima bean (har har), and can be planted with peas as they are more of a colder season bean.

Snap and shelling peas coming up below my branch pea trellis.

My tomatoes are in full swing in the greenhouse. I think they are taller and healthier than they were last year at this time. In fact, I'll have to go back and check, but I'm not even sure I had them out to the greenhouse yet last year.

I also have lots of tomato flowers blooming, meaning I'll have tomatoes sooner this year than last.

Oh what have we here! My first "tomato".

Here's one of my 'English Brown Turkey' figs, leafing out.

And the peppers!

This is my happy place.

our homestead: transplanting sweet peppers

Peppers, on a journey to the greenhouse

The last sunny day we had around here I was able to transplant my 'little bell' sweet red pepper starts out to the greenhouse. I was waiting for the weather to warm up just a tad more (especially night time tempertatures), since peppers need some more heat than tomatoes to thrive. They're now all nestled into the greenhouse amongst the tomatoes.

Baby peppers in their new home

All I have left in regards to starts growing on my windows are some 'Five Acre Farm' melon seeds I saved last summer after enjoying one of their melons at the farmers market. I guess they are an heirloom seed passed on to them from a Grandmother: a small, cantaloupe-like melon with a pale green shell with black speckles. I remember they almost looked like large eggs. I plan to let the melons snake around the ground of the greenhouse, whereas I'll have my tomatoes and peppers supported vertically with twine. My theory is that the melon plants will act as a living mulch, keeping the soil's moisture level up during the heat of the summer. It's amazing how hot it can get in my greenhouse on a sunny day...especially since I don't heat it. I had to open the window recently because my greenhouse themometer read 100 degrees!

Oh, and all the while I was working in the greenhouse, getting my peppers situated, these two pups were hanging out in the shade with their new friends, the Muscovies: