happenings 'round the homestead

October 13, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

Fall is here and it is lovely! Our days have been full of great things, both in and outside, both with friends and family, and a good balance of play and work. We've really been enjoying this fall so far!

Things around our little urban homestead are going well too, for the most part. We are down to 8 chickens, from 11 earlier this year. We lost 2 of our pullets this summer - one to sickness, one to a hawk, and one of our older hens to sickness or egg-binding, as well. And while all of that is not great, we are happy that the 3 remaining pullets are starting to lay and our egg production is slowly increasing - just in time to drop off for winter! Ha! Out of the breeds we got this spring, I'm loving our Golden Sexlink! She is an egg-laying machine! She's been laying for several weeks now and I don't think she's missed a single day. We will definitely be adding more sexlinks to the flock next spring. As for Oak, that boy loves his chickens. Yesterday he played outside for about an hour and a good portion of that he spent sitting on a stump by the chicken coop, just talking to his chickens. They have good talks, he and his ladies.

The garden is slowing down, just as it should be at this time of year. We had our first frost this week, but my sheltered garden seems to have been spared. I think I'll pull the tomatoes and peppers this weekend, though, and try to get a cover crop to sprout before the hard freeze happens. The temps are cool enough now that the remaining green tomatoes are unlikely to ripen. All that will remain, then, will be the green beans, a few carrots, and the cover crops I planted in early September. Not bad, for the middle of October!

We added a few new structures to our little backyard this summer and we've so been enjoying them! Dan built us a shed, a firewood rack, and a fantastic sandbox for Oak! The benches of the sandbox fold in as a lid, in order to keep all of the neighborhood kitties out - as well as any free-ranging chickens. It's so fun to see the backyard become more and more of what we need/want for this season of life. Our backyard may be small, but we're making the most of the space and I love it.

garden notes :: june 2017

July 7, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

Wow! July is here and in full swing! I snapped a few pictures of my garden last week before heading out of town with Dan and Oak to Milwaukee for Summerfest. We're once again spending the whole 11 days of the festival making music and selling merch, all with a toddler at hand. It's going well, but I miss home, I miss my garden, I miss my chickens, and I especially miss my kitty. They are all in good hands, though, thankfully. All of that missing has made me want to share a few of those garden pictures with you as the June garden is now a thing of the past.

This was an interesting June! We had a week or two of really hot weather at the top of the month, which made the radishes bolt and slowed a lot of growth on my beets, turnips, and lettuce, but then that heat was followed by a lovely mixture of rain, sunshine, and temps in the 70's. It was perfect June weather. A few days before leaving town, I was able to harvest the garlic scapes, a handful of red currants, a couple radishes, oregano, and quite a few handfuls of peas.

I think I'll return home to find my Asiatic Lilies blooming, zucchini blossoms, and a few ripened or almost ripened cherry tomatoes! That will be lovely!

garden notes :: may 2017

May 29, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

I can't believe there is so much going on in my garden at the end of May! The garlic is huge, the herbs are going strong, the seeds and seedlings are planted, and the peonies are blooming! I even picked my first radishes!

As I mentioned in my last garden post (which was my last post...life has been busy!), I'm taking a bit of a different approach to the garden this year -- I'm planting a wider variety of vegetables, which means I'm planting a smaller quantity of each. I'm hoping this leads to more food that can fill our table throughout the summer, more of a continuous harvest from the garden, rather than nothing in June/July and everything in August/September, and less waste from too much coming in at once. We'll see! The only thing I'm a bit concerned about not having enough of is green beans. I freeze a lot of green beans and we eat them all winter long. I'm not sure that planting fewer beans was the right decision, but hopefully the cucumbers and acorn squash that will grow in their place will make up for it, especially since I usually buy both at the farmers market on a regular basis. I'll keep you posted.

The creeping thyme that I've been slowly working to grow as a ground cover between the steps in the garden is stronger than ever in some spots this year and completely dead in others. Maybe someday I'll have a carpet of green down that path...maybe someday.

How about you?? What's happening in your garden these days?

garden notes :: april 2017

May 3, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

May has arrived and spring is here in full swing with tulips blooming, perennials returning, and trees leafing out. We've had lots of rain, which has been much needed, but a bit dreary. However, it looks like we're in for quite a few days of sun, which will wake up everything that hasn't already awakened from winter's sleep.

With all of that, I thought I'd take a few moments to share a few garden notes with you from the month of April...mostly because there are actually notes to share! We had very little snow in the Twin Cities this winter and a warmer than average March, which meant that the ground was actually workable 6 weeks before the average last frost! This meant that I was able to plant my first round of peas in the first week of April, and two weeks later, I planted another round of peas, lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets, broccoli, turnips, and arugula.

This is the first time I have had more than peas planted before May, partly because of weather, but mostly because of a lack of planning! There are actually quite a few things that can be planted before the last frost, but it means taking advantage of those few dry spring days to prep garden beds and get things in the ground. This year I actually had time to do that! (Toddlerhood is so much more conducive to gardening, if you ask me! And only working outside of the home part time...that helps too.)

I'm taking a little different approach to my garden this year, focusing on planting more variety in order to better fill our table throughout the summer, rather than trying to fill the cupboards. I'll leave the task of filling the cupboards up to my farmers' market hauls. A few new-to-me things I'm going to try this year are beets, turnips, acorn squash, Napa cabbage, and heads of lettuce. I'm also giving a few things another try after unsuccessful attempts such as cucumbers, zucchini, and broccoli.

I'm so excited for the garden this year, as I feel a new sense of motivation. Having a new baby last year and being in my first trimester of pregnancy the year before, meant that the garden didn't get as much attention as I'd hoped over the past two summers. But this year shall be different and I'm so excited! I'm excited for the new mouth at my table to feed our garden's bounty to and I'm excited for long days spent outside playing, planting, and cultivating. It's gonna be good. So good.

How about you? Have you planted anything yet?? What garden dreams do you have for the summer?

our new brood

April 14, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

Chicks! We have new chicks! And let me tell you, watching chicks grow through the eyes of a 13 month-old is absolutely wonderful. He LOVES his chicks! He walks his little push cart past them and stops to say hi and check on them periodically throughout each day. He talks to them and says good morning and goodnight. He feeds them spinach and gives them kisses. He knows to be gentle with them and does a pretty good job carrying that out. And he is very diligent in telling us that the heat lamp is hot. Our experience with our first batch of chicks 4 years ago was so much fun, but this is an entirely different kind of fun and I'm loving it.

We got 5 chicks this time around. One Rhode Island Red, named Rosie the Red. One Golden Sexlink, named Marilyn (Monroe...of course). One Barred Rock, named Fingers II...we lost Fingers I to a raccoon last fall and while they are different breeds, Dan wanted another Fingers. And lastly, two Black Australorps named Dumpling and Noodle Soup. That gives us a total of 11 birds, but we are planning to cull 3 of our older hens by the end of the summer in order to make room for the youngins and hopefully revitalize our egg supply for next year. Our egg supply is up, but definitely not where it was before when our birds were younger. It will be sad to say goodbye to our older hens, our first ladies. I'm not ready yet...but I know it's what is best for us and so I'll be ready when the time comes.

But for now...CHICKS!!!!!! Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate and happy spring to all!

sugaring

March 24, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

We made maple syrup! Dan's been talking about tapping our trees for a few years now and this year he made it happen! We really didn't know what to expect going into it. We have 3 very large silver maple trees and our neighbor has a medium-sized sugar maple that he let us tap, as long as we promised not to kill it. Dan did all the research, gathered the supplies, tapped the trees, and collected the sap. After less than 3 days, we had collected about 20 gallons of sap, mostly from the two trees on the front of our lot and from our neighbor's tree. For some reason the sap from the tree behind our house ran slower than the others. This past Sunday, Dan spent the entire day outside boiling the sap down over a fire. He built an outdoor stove-like fire pit out of bricks and our neighbor's camping fire grate, on which a fire burned from about 9:00 am until 9:00 pm slowly boiling down our 20 gallons of sap. Oak and I joined him outside as we could and several friends and family members joined us around the fire throughout the day. It was fun to make a day of it with family and friends, just sitting around, drinking beer and tea, watching sap boil and a fire burn. It was quite lovely, although a bit chillier than the forecast had predicted. Around 9:00 pm we brought the boiled down gallon of sap into the house where we reduced it even further down to half a gallon. We used a candy thermometer and a drip test to help us know when we had reached the perfect syrup stage. After straining and bottling it, we ended up with over 4 bottles of honey-colored maple syrup! The syrup is delicious, with a slight earthy flavor, which we really enjoy. By the time we were done with the whole process, it was after midnight and we were very ready for bed.

The overall process was easier than expected. The sap collecting was simple and productive. The boiling process was also simple, but it took a long time. For next year, we have hopes of burning the fire hotter and speeding up the boiling process a bit. While we definitely didn't come out ahead as far as costs go, as we had to invest in the necessary supplies this year, it was well worth the cost, time, and effort. We are so glad we did it and we're excited to make it an annual tradition on this little urban homestead of ours!

earning their keep

February 20, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

We FINALLY have eggs again after at least a 2.5 month break! I haven't posted about our chickens in quite awhile, but they are still here, healthy, and slowly getting back into earning their keep around this place. 2016 was a rough year for us in the chicken department. We lost Chicken, the chicken to the cold in the winter. We lost Trudy in the summer after we found her egg-bound and decided to cull her as she wasn't likely to make it through the night. And we lost one of our two pullets, Fingers, to a raccoon in the early fall. So, we now have 6 chickens, 3 of which are 3 years old and not very productive any more. March will bring some new chicks into our home, which will be fun for us all and will be very helpful for our egg supply. I'm looking into a few new breeds and am excited to add a few more heavy producers and bit more variety to our flock! Raising organic back yard chickens in the city is not very economical, but the eggs are so delicious and watching our baby boy get excited to see and touch the chickens makes it all worth it!

garden notes :: 6.18.16

June 18, 2016 Megan Rodriguez

I can't believe my garden has been planted for over a month now, but I have yet to share it with you! That baby of ours has been keeping me busy!! I am happy to report, however, that the garden is growing strong! We've had many rainy days followed by warm sunny days and my plants are thriving!

The garlic scapes are ready for picking! I have a penne dish planned for tonight with sautéed scapes and asparagus with either goat cheese or parmesan to top it off. Yum. The peppers are also doing well. I planted them a little closer together this year to make space for other things, and I think it's going to work out. I'm excited about a new jalapeño that I'm trying called Biker Billy. It's supposed to be spicier than a regular jalapeño, which my husband will appreciate. I'm also trying a new basil this year called Amethyst. It's supposed to have thick purple leaves, but right now they are still pretty thin. I'm excited to see how it does.

Tucked behind the peonies in the picture above and next to the spreading mint is my new Redlake Currant bush. The plan is to espalier train it up the side of the house in order to hide the ugly cords and piping. And of course, to eventually have a nice harvest of red currants each summer!

I'm also very pleased with the progress my creeping thyme ground cover has made over the past year! It's starting to really fill out the space between the stepping stones! Since I decided not to use raised beds in my garden, it's been very important to me to create a living boarder for the soil in order to help reduce soil runoff. I think by the end of next summer it's going to be performing it's job quite nicely.

The tomatoes are growing like weeds this summer! I arranged them a bit differently in the garden this year in order to give them all more equal access to midday sun, which makes me hopeful for a bountiful crop! My pole beans got a new trellis this year! Dan built this wonderful little frame for them to climb up. In the past I've grown them at an angle up to the neighbor's fence, but this new frame will keep them more in the direct sun and will make it easier to pick them from both sides. I'm rather excited about it.

I've been dealing with a few pests this year. Potato bugs have been helping themselves to my tomatillo's leaves and the four lined plant bug is attempting to make itself at home in my herbs. I've been handpicking the potato bugs and killing the larvae every day or two and I'm planning to just keep a close eye on my herbs and act only if I need to. Pests. Boo.

And last, but not least, the peas!! I've never grown peas...why?? I'm not sure! This year, however, I decided to try them in this somewhat shady spot along the fence. I've tried several other things there and have not had success with them. So this year, I decided to try some peas since they can tolerate a bit of shade. Dan built a little trellis for them too and they seem to be enjoying their home. I started them a bit later than I'd hoped to, so hopefully it won't be too much longer before they start producing, but we'll see. I also snuck in a row of radishes in front of them. They seem to be enjoying their somewhat shady spot as well.

How about you?? What do you have growing in your garden this summer?

happenings 'round the homestead

May 11, 2016 Megan Rodriguez

It's been a full few weeks around this little homestead of ours! With all things baby, a trip out to Michigan to visit family, and spring springing around each corner. Flowers are blooming, perennials are up and filling out, the garden is waiting for seeds and seedlings, and the chickens are enjoying the longer days, the rain, and the sun! I love the softness of the spring blooms--lavenders, whites, and light pinks. The flowers tend to be small and delicate, just like spring.

The busyness over the past few weeks has made it a bit difficult to get the garden up and running as I'd hoped. The soil needs to be worked and there are peas and raddishes to get in the ground. However, it will all get done eventually, it always does! I did get my pots planted on the deck with lettuce, swiss chard, and arugala. The garlic, rhubarb, and herbs in the garden are also doing well! The rain we've had over the past few days has made things really start to take off! We'll have garlic scapes in no time!

We got two new chicks a few weeks back and they are about ready to join the older ladies in the coop. They been spending their days in the yard and nights under a light in the garage, but they are very curious about the older hens and can often be found looking at them through the fence. These two little ones bring us to a total of eight chickens. The time has come for us to begin to stagger our flock and keep it young and productive. We have decided to cull two of our hens this summer/fall for meat. More on that later...but for now, aren't our new little chicks cute?? Their names are Violet (the brown Ameraucana) and Fingers (as in Chicken Fingers...yes...). Fingers is a Maran and she will lay chocolate brown eggs! I'm so very excited!

Next week will hopefully bring lots of sunshine and time in the garden! How about you? What's happening around your homestead?

when keeping chickens doesn't go as planned

February 19, 2016 Megan Rodriguez

When we first got our chickens almost two years ago, we told ourselves that they were not pets, even though we were decided to name them. We planned to raise them for eggs, and eventually meat. While some backyard chicken keepers let their chickens live, retire, and die of old age, we decided from the beginning that wasn't the road we were going to take. We wanted to raise chickens for food and in order to do that, we decided that at some point we would cull (a nicer word for butcher) a few of them in order to keep our flock young and productive.

Well...what I hadn't expected was that the first chicken to die on our watch would not be by our own hands, or by a predator, but instead would be because of the cold. Two weeks ago, we lost our first chicken...Chicken the chicken, one of our two Plymouth Rocks, started molting at the end of January and within a few days she had lost a lot of her feathers. The week that she died was a tough one for us. We were both rather busy, I was coming down with a nasty cold, and the short, cold days left us with little time to really check on how our hens were doing. The morning of the day she passed, we both saw that she had dropped a lot of feathers and we told each other as we left for the day that we needed to check on her later that day and make sure she was staying warm enough. However, by that night she was gone. She had lost many more feathers while we were gone that day and her little body was unable to withstand the cold. Dan found her when he closed them up for the night and we were both so sad to know how she had died and that had we been home that day we probably could have saved her.

It was in that moment, though, where we cried together as we mourned the loss of our first hen, that we also knew that we needed to honor her by trying to save as much meat from her body as we could. Some may view this a morbid or inhumane, but coming from a family of hunters and meat-eaters, we've both learned that if you take an animal's life (or it dies on your watch), then the best way to honor its life is to not let its death be in vain. So, Dan did his best to keep what he could of her body in order to further nourish our family.

Chicken is the one in the front of the picture above and on the right in the picture below.

Since she died we've had a renewed sense of responsibility and stewardship for our little flock. They seem so self-sufficient at times, but we've been reminded by Chicken's death as well as two close calls with a possum and a raccoon that their lives are actually pretty fragile and its our job to ensure their safety and health. Our other girls have all faired the cold very well and their egg production has started increasing again with these longer, sunnier days. With our first hen gone, we've also started thinking about what lies next for our little flock. It might be time to cull a couple and add another round of chicks. We shall see as the next two months unfold. What we do know, however, is that we enjoy raising backyard hens and despite the challenges and expenses, we are excited to keep moving forward and to simply learn from the past. We miss Chicken, the chicken, but we are thankful for the eggs she provided, the meat in our freezer, and the joy she brought to our backyard. Rest in peace, pretty bird. May your life and death teach us how to be the best chicken keepers we can be.