Wild Things Farm

All the hummingbird feeders are ready and waiting.......

The bottlebrush buckeye is in full bloom

Columbine is happy, happy, happy!

The coral honeysuckle is on a quest to take over the front porch!

Surely they will be here soon.

Today is a very unsettled day here around the Cumberland Plateau.  Last night at 9:30 the temperature was 39 and this morning at 5:00 it was 60!  Wind blowing, occasional lightning and thunder, sun......  I figured out why!  The "winter-to-spring" button is broken and someone is beating on it!

Gotta keep smiling, and make sure the path is clear to the cave!

Although mud is still the most popular flooring in the great outdoors, spring is creeping through the cracks.  A couple of freezer burned hyacinths stand amidst the bones and skeletons of the front perennial garden, and the spring peepers have been screaming out their mating calls for the past several weeks.

Several sunny days have been enjoyed by the resident farm dogs, Angus the boxer and Hattie the Catahoula.  Angus cracks me up the way he sits with all his legs sticking out in front of him.  I've taken several pics of him in this position, but his "plumbing" shows too much.  I was able to catch him in the pose in the flower garden outside the greenhouse.  Hattie is snoozing in the background.  He can sleep sitting up very well!

 

The warm sunny afternoons beckon me to the woods for a late afternoon stroll.  It's more fun to walk in the woods right now before the ticks, chiggers, poison ivy, and ssssssssnakes start terrorizing the woodlands.  I caught Hattie posing on a bluff just above one of the garden areas:

 

The small greenhouse is getting full of seedlings on their way to becoming transplants, then to garden plants, then onto some lucky person's plate!

The heart of the farm flows out of the mountain bordering one side of the property.  This stream flows year round and is utilized to water the crops and happy hens that live on the farm.  A resident kingfisher enjoys the bounty of minnows in the small pond and the dogs like to play in the water on hot summer days.  Personally, I think it's too darned cold to get in.

 

 

The high tunnel is still producing great fresh veggies for sale and personal consumption.  This winter the tunnel has produced swiss chard, lettuce, arugula, and one harvest of spinach.  For some reason the spinach just didn't grow at all.  I believe the soil got too wet early in the season and just never dried out.  Next year the spinach will be elevated to new heights!

In the right hand side of the tunnel, the stubborn spinach was yanked out and snow peas planted in their place.  The row covers are handy when the weather outside is frigid, but they've only been utilized like two times this past pseudo-winter.  Early tomatoes, beets, carrots, more lettuce and spinach are going into the high tunnel over the next few weeks.

Whew, to be winter time and the "down season", I seem to be awfully busy

Fall is my favorite time of year–always has been. I love the colors of the trees, the cooler weather…..and putting on a jacket after hanging it in the closet last season. You know where I’m going–I put on a jacket this morning to pick peppers and tomatoes and stuck my hands in the pockets and found $6.00 AND a pair of reading glasses. I’m a lucky girl " src="http://wildthingscsafarm.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" />

I know we're not as dry as other folks are, but it hasn't rained around here in several weeks. Needless to say, the irrigation pump has been working overtime. A lot of the gardens have drip tape installed in them which makes watering them as easy as turning a valve.

Two of the gardens, any seedbeds, the orchard and the flower beds all require dragging a waterhose and a sprinkler. This is where life gets kinky. Every time I have to drag hoses around I'm reminded that "you get what you pay for". I've got two 75' yellow hoses that I was really proud to have purchased at the Dollar General Store, about 3 years ago, for $7.00 each. They have worked pretty good but they do kink when they've been rolled up and stretched back out. That means several trips back-and-forth as the hose is stretched out because you can stand there and twist and twist and twist and that kink WILL NOT come out! Another time I had one hooked up with a valve on the end of it for use in the greenhouse. With pressure on it day-in and day-out, I noticed one day that right at the end of the hose was a giant bubble, like 6" in diameter! I had never had a hose to do that before--it never busted, but I cut the end off and put a new end on it and it's still working just fine.

Last year I needed another water hose so I went to Lowe's. Being a farmer on a budget, I opted for a middle-of-the-road "Swan" brand hose. This has to be the absolutely WORST water hose I've ever bought. It kinks in fear when you look at it. If one were to leave it laying straight, never move it, it would be fine. Every time I use it I swear I'm going to e-mail the company to complain about the worst hose I ever bought but by the time I get back in front of the computer the rage has subsided and I forget.

The best hoses are the black ones with the yellow stripe on them and they clearly state "kink proof" on the package. I don't know the name of them but they look like a garter snake when they're laying on the ground. I've got two of them and I pledge from now on to never buy another water hose until I can afford to buy more of these. They do get a kink in them once in a while but if you just wiggle it the kink will come right out--it's magic!

While I'm gardening I prefer to not get kinky

Yesterday my son called and the first words out of his mouth were a question.  I must have sounded kind of short with him because he said "You sound like I interrupted something".  I apologized and after we hung up I realized that this time of year is so busy that I have to interrupt myself sometimes!

Anyway, things are rocking right along here in the kingdom of Wild Things.  Early mornings are always peaceful before the sound of the tractor breaks the foggy silence

This garden is called the Blackberry Garden and that's because the blackberries are planted over there.  The berries are just starting to show their tasty color and I've nibbled on a few of them....won't be long

This year cut flowers have been added to the crop menagerie at the farm.  The two trips to the farmer's market have resulted in violent thunderstorms, but the flowers are pretty so I'll keep trying

 

 

 

This is the first CSA season with the high tunnel.  It's really enhanced the early part of the season with snow peas and beets in the first couple of boxes, then fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in early June! 

This is one of the wierdest tomatoes I've picked.  It had folds and horns on just about every side--but it tasted yummy!

Some parts of the country are dusty dry and hot, but here at the farm it's rained almost every day.  Some folks would say well, that's good isn't it?  You're growing stuff and they need rain.  Well, it's true to some degree, but I'm worried about the tomatoes getting that dreaded blight again, I lost the only Eryngium yuccifolium in my flower bed (Rattlesnake master), the canteloupe planted in the high tunnel have drowned (groundwater level too high) and some of the green beans are hollering for help.

The weatherman says later this week hotter and drier.....I say good.

Weeding Wisdom

(random thoughts while weeding)

We call a doctor's business a practice and a lawyer's businss a practice......definitely a farmer's business should be called a practice.

 

According to the NWS records, April 2011 in Tennessee was the wettest on record.  Yes, on record.  I can vouch for that--the irrigation pond ignored its boundaries and tadpoles moved into the grassy areas.   Last week, Monday and Tuesday, the thermometer read 41 degrees.  The eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and sweet potatoes were shocked!  Now this week the thermometer has been above 80 degrees every day and there's only been .04 inches of rain for the past 10 days.  This makes for very challenging gardening conditions!

In spite of the weather, the tiller was dropped into the soil.......

two crops of corn have been planted with the handy-dandy (but needy) antique John Deere planter.......

and awesome hardwood flooring was installed in the farmhouse livingroom .......

and diningroom

This is the earliest that a lettuce crop has ever had to be pulled and replanted, but the first two lettuce plantings have already been turned into eggs by the Happy Hens. 

Just a quick update.....off to work with me now; my hoe awaits!

Everyone knows (well maybe everyone) that fresh eggs don't peel really well when boiled.  Well, I just collected eggs from the Happy Hens, boiled a few of them for 10 minutes, then put them in water with ice cubes, and voila!  They peeled like a banana.  So there's your wisdom for today!

Ahh, the bluebells are blooming........

 

The trout lilies are too........

 

bloodroot is shining snowy white.......

and speaking of snow........

it's doing that too!!!!!!!

I've never quite had this problem before, but since I've moved into the house I've been working on for 4 years, each winter I'm accompanied by lots of ladybugs.  I mean LOTS of ladybugs.  I don't have aphids in the house, so the ladybugs aren't welcome, and they bite, too!  I believe they are coming in around the area that's been left "sideless" for a chimney.  The insulation showing is shiny foil (hey, it's still a construction project, you know).  Anyway, the bugs are attracted to shiny, light surfaces so I have a major ladybug magnet out there.  Hopefully the chimney will get built this summer

Back to the ladybugs........

This past winter I rigged up a long extension for  my shop vac with a piece of conduit.  It was heavy and awkward, but I could reach the two windows in the gable end of the living room (cathedral ceiling) where the bugs like to gather. 

During a brainstorming session of the problem with my boyfriend, we decided to try one of his bug zappers in the living room (although I personally detest bug zappers).  After I jumped a few times as one was being fried, I kinda got used to the noise and it's much easier to vacuum them off the floor underneath than chase them around a window with a really awkward piece of pipe.  I call

it my "redneck ladybug killer".  Thank goodness they only invade during the winter--I'm having trouble working it into the decor of the house!

This past January I introduced 15 eight-week old girls to the Happy Hens.  The introduction was kind of a smuggling operation though--during darkness.  The older hens are supposed to wake up and think "oh, you've always been here".  Well, seems that is what happened because I've not witnessed any adverse pecking or gang-related activities so all is well in the Happy Hen house.

Today, I went to freshen water, top off the feeder, throw in a few tidbits and munchies, then gather eggs.  Look what I found.......

 

The CUTEST teeny tiny little perfect egg!  Awwwww, my babies are growing up

Late this afternoon--make that "greatly sunny" afternoon I took a break in a porch swing on the west side of the house.  The 4 resident dogs decided to join me.  Me, Hattie and Reuben (the Catahoulas), Angus (the Boxer) and Cooper (the Bad-Haired Terrier) were soaking up some rays when Angus noticed a ball of stuffing (from a comforter someone shredded earlier this winter) about 3 feet from the edge of the porch.  There was a dead leaf barely caught in it so the leaf was waving back and forth in the breeze.  Angus stared at it, cocking his head from side to side when he suddenly decided to attack it. 

His jump sent the whole pack into "attack mode" and everyone jumped up and over the porch rail (it's only about a foot off the ground) and tumbled over each other because Angus was right there tending to the polyester invader.  I had to chuckle. 

Little episodes like this around the farm are better than buying tickets to a movie

Here in Tennessee this winter has become one of the nastiest and coldest that I remember and much of the winter has been spent working inside.   Several projects have been completed inside the house, namely flooring and stair railing.

Yesterday was a late winter "blues gift" of blue skies and a beautiful day where one could get outside and do a few cleanup chores.

Protecting the chickens' domain are two huge sycamore trees.  Anyone who has had the opportunity of sharing the same piece of ground with a sycamore tree knows how messy they are.  I renamed them "Stick-a-more" trees because I picked up a pile of sticks that was about 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall in no time at all.  I burned them on top of a stump I'm trying to get rid of that is in an area where I want to plant basil this season. 

I spent a while in the high tunnel cleaning out crops that just didn't enjoy being in there over the winter.  Broccoli didn't appreciate the cold temperatures so I put them out of their misery and into the chicken pen.  There was also one last bed of spinach in one of the outside gardens that the chickens enjoyed immensely.  I folded endless numbers of frost blanket and stacked them to be ready for unexpected frosts and finished pulling all the wire hoops, posts, and stakes out of the gardens in preparation for that day when suddenly the ground is dry enough to till.  That day seems like an eternity away right now because if you step off the pathways you just might lose your shoe!

The greenhouse is also getting busy.  Seeds have been started on propagation mats for a mesclun mix, lettuce, lots of onions, swiss chard, kale, and arugula.  I've also started seeds for an early tomato to be planted in the high tunnel just to see how early one can get a tomato here in this area.

Yesterday's case of the "wintertime blues" was much welcome--I hope everyone else within shot of it got to enjoy the day as much as I did. 

Any farmer knows that to make ends meet, you've got to get creative!  I'd like to share with you some of the ways items find new uses around this farm. 

The chicken coop is framed out of pallets that metal roofing is shipped on.  They are 9 feet long x 3-1/2 feet wide, they are very sturdy, and a few straight ones and a little imagination go a long way.  The house is now covered with board and batten siding salvaged from a dead tree.   Inside the chicken coop are a kitchen cabinet with 4 nest boxes in it and a chest of drawers with 6 boxes in it.  You could say the Happy Hens have a "furnished house", complete with floor covering made of rubber roofing salvaged from a roofing job. 

The shop attached to the greenhouse is also framed from pallets and the windows are from an old house.   The greenhouse was salvaged for the price of hauling it off on a trailer behind a pickup truck, but the real cost was in figuring out just how all the buckets of gasket materials, different size glass panes and different channels would all work out to make a greenhouse to attach to the shop (without instructions).  It leaks here and there but it's great!

 

An old laundry tub serves as a washing station down at the gardens.

The 3/4" solid oak paneling in the farmhouse was salvaged from a local restaurant being demolished.  The oak covers the bottom half of all the walls in the house, plus made some very usable kitchen cabinets.  The glass doors on the upper cabinets were salvaged from a bookcase that had been discarded.

The floor in the foyer is made of rosewood, salvaged from---you'll never guess---pallets made to ship copper coils.  It hasn't been sanded and finished yet, but it's really unique. 

One of the bathroom doors came from the same restaurant

 

and the other one came from an old house in town.  The kitchen sink (temporary) is an old service bar.  It has a really nice big tub and two side drain boards, but the hole is rather small for a kitchen sink.  I've got my eyes open........

The door under the stairs is a door from one of the Homestead Houses built about 75 years ago.  The backside is a "z" bar.  The wooden latch is handmade and the knob was found at an old house site in nearby Knoxville.   The hinges have been in a box for years and the entire ensemble was provided and orchestrated by my awesome significant other

Feed bags are utilized for trash, and mountains of leaves from a nearby community are recycled on the gardens each season. 

The chickens are the major recyclers of kitchen scraps and garden waste. 

It takes lots of imagination, storage space, and treasure piles here and there to hang on to items that "I'll use that someday".  You never know, that day just might be today!

One of the highlights of Wild Things Farm are the Happy Hens.  They scratch and jabber and do chickeny things all day, every day.  Last week there was a breech in security....aka the fence came loose from the chicken house....so about 9 chickens decided to go for it.  I've actually let all the hens out this time of year to scratch around and "fly the coop" so to speak, just to break the winter boredom.  Well, this day a hawk decided he would also check out the chickens.    I arrived at the pen just in time to persuade the hawk to fly back up into the tree where he came from, but the chickens were all spooked and one buff orpington was "hiding" somewhat under the edge of the coop, but I picked her up and put her back in the house. 

The next day was "wing clipping" day.  One of my jobs as a chicken momma is to keep them safe and you know, EVERYTHING likes chicken.  So, early in the morning, just at daybreak (brrrrr) each chicken was caught and one wing clipped then moved to the pen outside.  When all were done I left the door open and no one offered to come back in---imagine that!

Now, every time I get near the pen to feed, water, collect eggs, or just say "hi" they all run like haints to the other side of the pen.  Maybe they'll get over it soon.

On Monday another group of lucky girls was brought to the farm to be part of the Happy Hens at Wild Things Farm.  They are called Production Reds and they are 8 weeks old.  They spent the first night in a big cardboard box in the shop, the second night in their box in the henhouse, and last night they stayed in the chicken house with the big girls and Mr. Rooster sir.

The coop was originally constructed to house more birds than were occupying it, so now we're up to capacity----except a few more nest boxes need to be built--that's a project for a warmer day.