Little stuff

Nothing significant this morning, just little stuff.  The tom turkeys are very interested in mating but the hens have a headache.  They aren’t laying eggs yet.  Mr. and Mrs. Mallard have decided to move out of the barn and take up new digs some where else.  I think they’re in the old duck house.  Each [...]

Hybrids

I’ve been meaning to write about hybrid seeds and haven’t gotten to it yet.  There’s a ridiculous amount of misinformation being repeated as fact.  How about:

You can’t save seeds from hybrids.

Think back to the people/person who told you this.  Carefully sneak up behind them and SMACK THEM ON THE HEAD! And if you’ve repeated this [...]

Showing off the Undies!

Normally I wouldn’t show off undies on the blog but these are worthy of an exception. These undies will make you smile.  I didn’t make these.  My friend Jan makes them for her Waldorf dolls.

Cats!

When I was a kid we had an awesome dog. He’s one of the two smartest dogs I’ve ever known. As a pup he had the bad habit of digging holes. Really big holes and he could do it in record time. If you left him outside alone for 10 minutes [...]

Leeks & Artichokes

It’s snowing again today. According to the weather forecast it’s going to clear up and be sunny by the end of the day. The sky will be clear overnight and we’ll have a little sun in the morning before it clouds up again. Some things seem to never change.
I’ve completely lost patience [...]

Delayed Spring

Right click on the picture to get to the full sized pic. Welcome to my world. Watch your step.
I know I’ve complained too much about the lack of spring. I’ve tried to keep a sense of humor about it which became obvious when I planted peas in the snow (they haven’t sprouted yet). Lucy mentioned [...]

Planting Peas in Zone 5

My name is Robin and I have a pet peeve. Using the USDA hardiness zones to decide when, what, how and where to plant anything in the summer garden drives me up a wall. Hardiness zones have nothing to do with what you can grow in the summer. There’s a tab at [...]

Seedlings

Early Girl tomatoes. These are going out to the greenhouse in April.

Going some where.  Hopefully a hoop house but we still have 2′ of snow on the field.  I’ll spread these out soon, they’re too crowded.

Nadia eggplant.  I’m trying these for the first time on the advice of a friend and fellow greenhouse grower.  One [...]

Motherly Advice

I wasn’t going to blog about this but changed my mind this morning. This is related to farming. Monday was a very bad rough awful please God make it stop day. I was overwhelmed. I’m a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, vegetable grower, shit shoveler, dog exerciser, poultry watcher, egg collector… [...]

Dial Up

I’m on dial up for a few minutes this morning.  I haven’t been able to get a signal from the tower since 5:45 pm yesterday.  Peas didn’t get planted yesterday because of the wind.  Nothing like having your raccoon face sand blasted by granular snow. I’ll get them planted today and when the server gets [...]

Kind of maybe possibly feels like spring might come some day

It’s not above 0* but the wind is blowing and we have the cloudy sunny cloudy sky.  It kind of maybe possibly feels like spring might come some day.  Not Thursday as scheduled, but some day.  Personally, I think we’re at the beginning of the next 10,000 ice age.  Global warming?  Ha.  Remember the 70’s?  [...]

Natural Springs

We went snowshoeing yesterday. There are several trails across our property.  They interconnect and lead out to the heath at the back of our property.  More pics later – I need to get the plant stand out of the rabbitry and into the house before the seedlings get leggy.

Hearing stupid statements like “plant your peas [...]

Germination!

The spinach is germinating. It hasn’t broken the surface yet. The Haukeri turnip and pac choi I planted January 31 saved themselves by popping up over night. I was going to replant them today. If it hadn’t been for the rain in February they’d have germinated earlier. Three inches of [...]

Grass Fed Cheese

It doesn’t get better than this.  This is extra sharp cheddar cheese made from grass fed cows’ milk.  It was made by members of the Amish community north of me.  It’s raw milk! It’s less expensive than that creepy Land O’Lakes processed, dyed “American cheese.”  Real cheese – $5.95 a pound.  Creepy “cheese” – $6.99 [...]

Maine Nature News

Maine Nature News is online. There’s a great photo of a raccoon that’s not so sure mating season is worth waking up.

Another Must Read

Cathy at Maternal Gardens has a through provoking blog today.  I’ve paid close attention to Cathy’s entries because she’s accomplished so much in so little time.  She is one very determined woman.  When the idea of ducks came up the ground was frozen.  Bill thought she should wait on the ducks until she could set [...]

Grass Fed Groceries

We are beginning to run out of meat so I’ve been grocery shopping. I put my order in at Done Roving Farm yesterday. This morning I met Paula and Steve at the local mom ‘m pop store in the next town over. We exchanged two orders of soap and my order of [...]

Sunrise

Wake Up America! by Alan Bishop

Alan gave me permission to reprint this. I think it’s something everyone should read. You can visit Alan’s Homegrown Goodness board online.
Wake up America!
Your local farmer, produce suppliers, and mom and pop stores need you more than ever, and chances are your going to need them!
A call to end “Big Box” mentality in [...]

Another Egg

Know what this is? It’s a poor picture but I’m too lazy to put down my Apricot Wheat beer, walk the whole 15′ to the kitchen and take another picture.