How does the garden grow

The garden is growing.

We've been picking lettuce for over 4 months now.  Salads taste much better when you know how the lettuce and herbs were grown.

   

A new little turkey

One little turkey has hatched under one of the chickens sitting on the turkey eggs.  That is a real surprise, as those eggs got off to a rough start.  The chicken who finally hatched the egg is the 3rd hen involved.  There are still other eggs that MIGHT hatch, but it is doubtful.  The humans got involved and moved the first Momma hen into a "better" spot.  She heard the other little chicks peeping and decided her task of setting was done.  Once she abandoned the nest, we put the eggs in the incubator for a few days and then had two more hens who were going to set.  We divided the eggs between them.  I suspect they got too cold in the meantime and doubt any more will hatch.


However, I found Wanda's new nest with 16 eggs in it.  It is not in a location easily accessible to people but probably readily accessible to predators.  I'll need to go across the highway and come back under the bridge to take the eggs and move her nest.  I'm not sure if I'll do that or not.  I would hate to lose her to a predator since she is the only hen turkey we have (except for Wilma Wildbird who is doing her own thing these days and shows up only occasionally for a visit and a bite to eat), but I  hate to take her eggs from her again.  If we can capture her we might put her in a separate nesting pen for her to hatch them where the predators cannot get to her.

Two cents worth

"When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one and a flower with the other.. for the loaf feeds the body, but the flower feeds the soul" 
Chinese proverb


In today's economy this proverb becomes even more thought provoking.

Steamboat Springs

I was recently invited to Steamboat Springs to represent High Plains Food Cooperative and Prairie House Herbs as the keynote speaker for the annual meeting of the Community Ag Alliance.  Public speaking is not my forte.  I pondered about what to say, actually considered making some note cards with things listed I wanted to include in my speech.  As it ended up, I just stood up there and talked about how the coop got started and other things which were of interest to me that I thought might be helpful to the group as they considered whether a coop would be right for their organization's producers and allowed extra time for questions and answers.  Thankfully no one asked a question I couldn't answer!  Amazingly it turned out well and I received numerous compliments.

Since I really don't like driving anymore...the thrill is gone...I asked Jan if she would like to go along as the driver.  Her life is rather complicated now (one daughter graduating, one preparing to leave for Africa for the summer, an ex who has decided he no longer needs to pay child support, etc.) and I thought a break would be good for her.  She agreed and that made the trip most delightful.  We had accommodations at The Lodge, an upscale condo with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.  After my speech we went out to dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant and planned on doing the tourist sightseeing thing the next day.  When we awoke it was snowing heavily and the ground was covered in slushy white stuff.  So much for sightseeing!

The producers of the area were having an expo on Saturday morning so we attended that and then headed on home.  By then the roads were pretty much cleared off and the trip was easy.

It was a nice break in our routines.  And, as it turned out, a "last harrah!" for Jan for a while.  On Tuesday morning they sent her (and 17 other people) home from work because their jobs had been eliminated in the United States and sent to India.

Orphan Kittens

It is spring again.  That time of year when cats have kittens and coyotes have cat for dinner.  Our friend, Jane, had the sad experience of losing the mother cat leaving behind kittens whose eyes were barely open.  Prairie House's reputation as an intensive care nursery for cats has spread throughout the county.  Yes, you guessed it, the kittens were brought to us to care for.  It isn't as bad as it sounds, however, because this time it was only a temporary stay.  Jane was leaving town for a few days and said she would re-claim them on her return.  She was true to her word and did come to get them after only 5 days.  She was amazed at the fact they had doubled in size while she was gone.  I think Prairie House has the orphaned kitten care down to a science now.

Jane was sure we needed to keep a couple of the cuties to live at Prairie House.  We told her 10 healthy cats and one invalid cat is the limit here.  No room at this inn for permanent boarders of the feline kind right now.

More Spring Flowers

Quest for a gate

My friend Becky (the Bierock lady) is re-doing her landscaping.  Last year she put in several raised beds (and from the tomato plants we gave her reaped a tremendous harvest when all around her were bemoaning the state of their tomatoes).  She has put and old fashioned pump in one of the beds for a decoration and thought and old fashioned gate would look good on the path between a couple of the beds.  Nostalgically remembering a gate her Grandad had made which was on the old homestead she recalled that it was still there last time she was by the place even though the house and the barn were both gone.

Figuring it wasn't fair to just take the gate, she found a substitute gate and with that and a tool chest full of tools in the van we took off on a road trip.  Sadly, when we got to the homestead the gate was no longer in one piece and now in no way resembled a gate.  Obviously disappointed, we started our return journey and figured we would just chalk the trip up to an outing we each needed.

She has a friend who was a classmate of hers all the way through school who owns a nifty little greenhouse in Colby.  She wanted to check out the flowers for her yard for this year so we stopped in there.  Behold! In his "Junk Pile" he had a perfect gate for her purposes.  He was happy to get rid of it.  She was happy to take it.  And the world is in balance again.  Except, there is now an extra gate.  Not a problem.  It is a nice, white gate.  It will look very nice across my sidewalk at the front of the house.  With a fence coming up to meet it on both sides it will make Prairie House look more like and old fashioned homestead too.

Katie Kat is alive and well.

After being gone long enough for me to give her up as having been a meal for a coyote, guess who came out of the bus this morning with all the other cats.

Katie Kat who is now an adult.  She looked only a little the worse for wear and begged for attention.

Remodeling....AAAARRRRG

It is not a surprise that carpenters charge extra for doing remodeling work vs. new construction.  As you may recall, we are re-doing the upstairs into a master suite.  We have the sunny, south room ready for the trim boards now.  Piece of cake, we are almost done!   And that would have been the case had all the angles needed been the standard 90 degrees....or even a standard 45.  But NOOOOO.  The angles around the fireplace ended up being 34 degrees and 60 degrees.  Not being professional carpenters, we did not have any "magic tools" to help calculate these angles.  Nor do we have a good miter saw other than the nifty wooden box which is a guide but only has the standard cuts available.

Have no fear, we do have the boards cut, and they look like they fit.  It took some time to figure out how to make the table saw do what we needed, but it was a good feeling to see them hug the wall when we put them there.  (I know Dad taught me how to use that thing when he was with us, but that was years ago....)

The problem now is that the floor isn't level there and the high spot makes the boards not line up exactly.  So I will take the dremel tool and file the bump on the floor and then we can nail the trim in.  We were too tired after all that mental carpentry to finish it today anyway.

What a crazy day.

We had a “Cooking with Herbs” luncheon class scheduled for yesterday.  Four ladies were to be here at noon.  We had most of the preparation done ahead of time but there are always those last minute things to be done to make it turn out impressive.

Of course, this would also be the day everything else happens.

Jane came to pick up the juvenile chicks she is buying from us at 8:15am.  Fortunately those were confined to a kennel last night so that was an easy task but it still required time.

We had a real estate closing at 8:30AM which was more complicated than a normal one because of the financing arrangements.

I just got back from that when the guy came at 10:30AM to load up Earl’s inoperable Explorer to take it back to Denver.  That took some time since the battery was dead on the Explorer and you can’t shift it into neutral to use the winch on it without the battery charged.  This guy restores Triumph automobiles (TR4s are his specialty) so he had the proper equipment to get the job done, but the Explorer is about twice what a Triumph weighs.

The luncheon went off without a hitch and the ladies were duly impressed.  (Helped out our bottom line for the month as well.)
 

When I finally got a chance to relax for a few minutes,  Pam called and wanted me to work at the restaurant Saturday and Monday.  I need to add some funds to my bad habit stash so I agreed. 

Barely got off the phone with her when Gary called saying he was ready to bring us a dump truck load of compostable wheat and where did we want it piled.  We ended up putting it in the far corner southwest corner of the property.  He brought us another truck load and now we have a huge pile of wheat that looks like a sand pile.  We will put it in the loader on the tractor to move it around where we need it.  It has fermented a bit and when the wind blows in the wrong direction it is a bit odoriferous.

Maybe things will be calmer today.