Double Up Farm

I am a list maker and a planner. Each day, I have a plan for what I am doing that day - gardening and livestock kick that plan in the butt almost every day.... Pickling was NOT on the list today, but as I was weeding the top half of the garden (which WAS on the list), the cucumbers advised they were ready for the first batch to come off the vine. And oh by the way, so were about another thousand zucchini (okay, there were 12, but it felt like 1,000). So...we are interrupti

This has been a busy few days, and one of the very best parts has been the addition of some new farm family members!! On Wednesday I got a call from a lady who had rescued a few kittens from Animal Control, and could Tails of Hope Rescue take them in. Well, TOHR is full, but my barn always has room for a few more. So off I toddled to the big city (Albemarle), and came home with two little 6 week old kittens. We have fixed up a secure zone in the tack room, and installed th

A couple of my dogs are herding types, and I have often wondered if I could train them to herd my sheep (hint: no) Last weekend my friend Trish and I drove up to Maple Grove Farm to watch herding trials. I guess it sounds like a weird thing to do, but we had an amazing time. They were on hold waiting for a scribe, and Trish volunteered to help since she has scribed for horse shows. So we got to sit with the judges. So very, very interesting. They have another event in O

This really started on Saturday, with a busy day at the Farmer's Market - lots of fun, but 8-9 hours on my very sad knees made for a painful night! One of the activities at the market was a cooking demo for a shaved salad, so I made one for dinner tonight. Delicious, but it really needed some feta cheese. Sunday, I went with a friend to watch herding dog trials. Wonderful people, cool weather, amazing dogs and wonderful sheep. They needed a scribe to take notes, and my f

A little over a year ago, Thorin Oakenshield was attacked by a hawk and badly injured. She lost the sight in one eye, half her wattle, and partial use of one wing. But to my amazement, she recovered. Today i found her laying on the ground in the rain. As far as I can tell, she was attacked by the other hens (or to be precise, I think it was Keesha - the Sea Witch). Her wing may be broken, her head is lacerated. She does not seem to be able to move much, but she is eating

I went outside this evening to weed the garden. I was totally side-tracked by the chickens and realized, finally, after 55 years, what it is I want to do when I grow up: I would like to sit and watch chickens!! As I have noted, the Evil Hen (who I really should have named Ursula), has adopted two chicks, who are now named Cinder and Ella. Yes - it is the year of Disney!!! The reds are Attina, Alana, Adella, Arista, and Ariel. The Golden Comets are Jasmine, Esmerelda, Anna,

So there is a thing some chickens do. They think it is time to hatch their eggs, so they sit on the nest for weeks and weeks and weeks - it's called going broody. They don't lay their own eggs, but they steal the eggs the other hens lay. And it doesn't matter to them that they are not fertilized, by god, they are hatching some eggs! There are lots of mean things you can do to "bust a broody", but I have found the best way to handle it is to just get them some fertile eggs,

I have become one of those people who are excited beyond measure when Friday rolls around. I like my job, but I love my life outside of my job. This afternoon after work, I tackled the buttercups. For many years, I sprayed them so my horses could graze on the remaining grass without getting an assortment of horse ailments from eating weird stuff. But now, I try not to poison the earth, so I figure if I mow them down it will control them. It doesn't, but I feel better. I

Our favorite hens have always been Buff Orpingtons, and we have always named all of them Ethel. My best hen ever (Ethel) used to stay out in the evening and wait for me to call her, and come running for me to pick her up and carry her to the coop. So now, when I have chicks old enough to move to the big coop, I spend time with them each day "Ethel-izing" them. This involves encouraging them to sit on my lap, cuddling them, feeding them - basically insuring they can never be

I just adore chickens - fussing about with them, building little things for them, insisting they cuddle even though they hate it. The babies arrived on March 19, and spent 3 weeks growing up in an extra large dog crate in my basement. Then they moved to a section of the chicken coop, segregated in a pen with heat lamps for a week. Then the pen was enlarged to half the hen house. Now I put up an outside playroom for them during the day and the heat lamps are gone - just lik

A few years ago I launched the "if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em program" at the farm. I was so tired of trying to control the wild garlic, that I just gave in and started harvesting it and eating it. It is pretty tasty, and for a while my family ate Asian style pancakes with every meal made from the wild garlic. There are a couple of other weeds that threaten to overrun the property - one of them is chickweed. I know you can eat chickweed, and I have used it to make healing

Nobody whines like a big dog - except ME!!! While I was off living the good life at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, my beloved husband was home breaking farm equipment. The tractor broke down again, and when he took the MTV to pull out the tractor, the bolt holding on the back end snapped (a moment aside here to question why an all terrain vehicle would be dependent upon a single bolt - it's a bit clearer now why it was such a good price....) So, my plans for property based

It is too early to plant, I KNOW this (and learned it the hard way). But, we are having an unseasonably warm spell. And this morning, I opened a drawer in my office and found this package of seeds. I have no idea why this would be in an office drawer, but surely this is a sign that I should be planting RIGHT NOW.... #Gardening #FarmLife

We said goodbye to our wonderful Hanna this morning. After 31 years, her heart failed and she seemed content to move on to the next adventure. Johanna came to live with us in 2009, after she retired as a brood mare. She is the mother of my beloved Jostein, so we called her Hanna - not that you could ever confuse the two. Unlike the average Fjord, we kept her mane long. She was not quite sound, but even when I could no longer ride, I would sit with Hanna to feed that part

One of the best things about my house, is the large, covered porch. I can leave things outside, and know that they will not get wet even in heavy rain. This morning, I slipped into my boots, only to find one of them filled with about an inch of icey water - oh such an unpleasant surprise. Apparently our porch roof is leaking and rain had filled my boots. Well, this is not an acceptable state of affairs, so today after work, I zipped out to the scrap wood pile, selecte

Sometimes I wake up in the morning with so many ideas running through my head, I can't decide what I want to do first. Yesterday was about doing things that had to be done. Today is about doing things I want to do - but how to decide? I want to make some soap I want to make some new dog toys I want to start some new sets of dryer balls I want to plant my new elderberry bushes I want to mulch my garden I want to groom the horses and dogs (who are all blowing their winter coa