My First Giveaway

It's getting serious now.  I mailed off for my first garden seeds today - after checking with Ferry Morse to make sure the varieties I want weren't available with them.

I've found several useful resources on the web for the upcoming gardening season. The USDA has published a new "Plant Hardiness" map.  I noted this:  "No posters of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map have been printed. But state, regional, and national images of the map can be downloaded and printed in a variety of sizes and resolutions."    So, feel free to print or post the image of your state.  I just couldn't figure out how to resize the image here for KY.   We are now officially Zone 6b where I live. 

I'm trying to think more in terms of 3-4 seasons of  gardening as I plan.  I still have kale and Brussels sprouts in the garden!   I want to stick (mostly) to veggies that seem to grow well for me, although I have to try one or two new things.  Here is a link to varieties of vegetables that are favorable for Kentucky.  It says "Spring crops [of cauliflower] usually fail," so I will keep in mind if I choose to grow cauliflower, I will save it for Fall.   It lists some varieties of onions that are 'long day,' but I had always read that we needed 'intermediate.' (see previous post)  So I have a few more choices to pick from.  Good thing, since intermediate varieties seem rare.  Onions and leeks can go in during spring along with salad greens (I want to try 'corn salad'/ mache this year) peas, radishes, and the strawberries should come back. 



The summer will have the usual beans, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.  I would like to try a bush variety of cucumber I found, and I'm trying to figure out if winter squash has the same pest problems as summer squash?  If not, I found a bush variety of Acorn squash. Urban Farmers always have to think about limited space. 

I'm not breeding bunnies, and I don't have lambs on the way, so this is how I'm looking forward to Spring.

Which brings me to the giveaway.  Over the years I have compiled a chart of "companion plants" for vegetables and herbs.  (It is a Word document, not a PDF)  I did not see copyright warnings on any of what I used, and it was truly from many websites over several years.   

Companion planting is not the 'magic bullet' for gardening, but I found definite improvements in the health and yields of many of my crops by using the system, and will continue to do so. If anyone would like for me to share - lets say the first 6 people to leave a comment saying they would like a copy - I will either e-mail or snail-mail one to you. 

Have you started planning your garden yet?   

   

  

The Garden Bug is Biting...

I found a blog today I really like.   Preserving Abundance is a new blog by Kathy Harrison, author of  the book Just in Case.  There seems to have been a shift in the 'preppers' world, from doom-and-gloom to living sustainably - something many more can embrace - and this is the focus of the new blog.   Kathy still has her "Just in Case" book blog, but this one is expanded, with photos, videos, recipes and more. 

Still thinking about spring planting, and wondering if Fayette Seed is open yet.   I've been sorting out what to plant and where - in the garden or in pots.  One thing I want seed for this year is onions.  Boy, do I feel like a dufus.  I have been planting sets each year and wondering why I never get any full-sized onions. Maybe everyone else already knew this, but in reading  the seed catalogs more carefully,  I think I have figured out that sets only grow scallions, or bulb out a little bigger, like golf balls.  For full sized onions I need an "intermediate" variety for this area (which I knew) and to grow them from seed!  Duh!  Onion seed can and should be started now, since they take a long while to grow, so I am ready to find some seed.

I have grown carrots in pots before, and want to try them again.  Shorter, stubby varieties are recommended.   I will still grow eggplant - one of my favorites - back in pots this year, and bush beans.  Peppers did so well for me last year, but I don't need any more hot ones, I may try sweet banana, or some other type of long roasting/baking peppers.  I don't think I will do potatoes.  They were fun, but take up a lot of room. Leeks in the big pots the potatoes were in, tomatoes, my usual herbs.......

Just one more chicken story...... Gracie laid her first egg this week.  I thought she had earlier, but it was Dolly's.  I found her, sitting in a corner of the coop, eyes wide open, making little scared noises, like "I don't know what's happening.."  Abigail settled in beside her and began to make comforting 'twirring" noises.  Like a midwife, Abigail coached Gracie through laying her first egg.   How sweet!  But they have all been on strike ever since!  Nothing else for a week!   I can't complain though. It is winter - and a blessing to get any eggs at all during these months.

Truffle is out playing and doing his favorite thing - chasing the cats.  I feel him nuzzle my ankle from time to time while I type.  Fiona, on the other hand, is more obviously trying to crawl into my lap.  Why is it they love me best when I'm on the computer?

A Couple of Finds

Something I have looked for for a long time is a nice, leather-bound copy of just The Psalms, to use for personal devotions.  I didn't think it would be hard at all, but it was, surprisingly so.  New Testaments with Psalms are everywhere, and I probably have a couple of those, but I've always had an objection to New Testaments.  It's like carrying around half a Bible (really more like 1/4).  I have known people who never read anything but the New Testament, with the possible exception of the Psalms and Genesis.  Weird.  On the other hand, because of their nature, the Psalms are devotionals, so are suited for that use.

Anyway......I finally found this on ebay.  It has very large print - so in a pinch I could use it without my glasses (!!!), and the added benefit of being an antique - printed in 1911.  I wasn't looking for that, but it's pretty neat.

The other thing I found is this.  

I love jewelry and have done some jewelry making and beading for years. Brooches/pins are one of my favorite types of jewelry and I have many - usually inexpensive costume stuff. One form of jewelry I'm not in love with are necklaces. I've got a lot of pendants, drops, and other bits in my jewelry box though. Then I thought of this. It's a brooch with a hook on the back that ladies used to hang a little watch on, but I could use to hang my pendants.  (the 'watch' in the picture is a piece of printed cardboard so the seller could show how it was used)   There were hundreds on ebay, but I liked this one.

Can anyone besides me see the outline of a sheep's head/face in the design?  

Coming out of hibernation .....

....maybe a little bit.  

Believe it or not, I like the kind of weather we are having today - damp, but not raining, foggy, chilly, but not frigid. Great for working outside.  This morning I 'stripped' Francis  and Dolley's cage.  Most of the time I use the 'deep litter method,' just putting clean shavings on top of the dirty.  When it gets so deep it's easily kicked out of the cage, and has broken down almost completely, it makes an incredible amount of dust - which can't be good for any of us.  Out it came, and was added to the compost heap(s).  The pine shavings leech nitrogen out of the soil, but the chicken poo adds plenty back in, so it's a well-balanced addition to the pile. Include green clippings and you've got the makings of 'black gold' - compost.  I left the new pine shavings in big compacted chunks as I put them in the cage.  The chickens enjoy scratching them apart, then 'arranging the furniture,' -  making heaps and hollows that are just as they like.

Here they are in their freshly-clean coop.   I was trying to get a decent shot of Francis for a potential taker.   He is afraid of the camera, but Dolley loves it, and kept sneaking into the shot.   He has grown into quite a handsome boy, but look at the difference in size!    He's definitely breeding her, meaning fertile eggs, but her blue and the Orpington gold don't produce a nice result color-wise. Think mud.  He's gotten Abigail at least once (Orp and Brahma would make a nice cross) but Gracie (for purebred Orps) is scared to death of him and stays out of his way, when the cage doors are open. 

I have been given the phone number of a lady who might be willing to take Francis on her farm.  I don't know why I haven't called her yet.  I think the main thing is the idea of putting him outside suddenly at the worst time of the year. He is sweet and will let me pick him up and cuddle, so temperment - wise he is fine for a pet. If I kept him I could get fertile hatcing eggs for sale or to give away, but he does crow (loudly) and I just don't like whole squawking, violent aspect of the breeding.  Outside in a coop is one thing, right in the middle of where I live is another.   Maybe I'll call her this afternoon. 

On the other hand, the other girls got out for a few minutes on the deck for some fresh air and to clean up some birdseed.   They were having a good time until a hawk swooped low over the deck, chasing a Mourning Dove.  It spoiled everything and they ran for the door and wanted back in. 

Unlike my ambivalence about keeping a rooster, I love all my bantam girls.  They make great pets - with benefits.

Today for brunch, I used some of those benefits in a fritatta. I'm sure I've talked here before about buying some of my dehydrated food. I've tried drying potatoes without success, but I've bought some hashbrowns inexpensively from the company on my sidebar. They come in a #10 can, (large coffee) are easy to store, save freezer space, and store forever.  While I was using the kettle to make a cup of tea, I just covered the potatoes with the same boiling water to rehydrate them.   Be sure to salt the water you rehydrate in.  Like grits, if you wait to season them until they are done, you'll pour on the salt and they'll still be bland.   By the time I had finished my cup of tea, the potatoes were ready to go.  Drain, and put in the pan, browning - covered- as usual, with butter or oil as you choose.   When they are browned, reduce the heat,  pour some lightly beaten eggs over the top, add some spinach (I used kale, because I have it still fresh in the garden)  Cover and cook, flipping over once.   Yum!     

I've been messing around a little with some jewelry making, but don't have anything finished to show yet.  I need to be spinning and working on fiber things.  The Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival  is only four months away!!!!

Until I next emerge ..... from Wren Cottage.

 

 

Just in time for the New Year

This may be January 2, but today feels like the real holiday.   Yesterday was a dud, with no parade on TV and no bowl games.

Today we have all that, plus our first snow of the season (not sticking) and the questionable chicken's first crow.   Right.  Definitely a male.  :(   He began jumping on Dolley and crowing all in the same day.  I had been calling him Francis, since that name could go either way, but there is no question now.  

Fertile eggs are not a problem, I guess, other than the ick factor. I just don't want a bald, traumatized hen that can't get away from him.   All 3 of the girls are in the same coop now, and not liking it much.  Both Dolly and Abigail are pretty dominant, and they are squawking it up to establish a new pecking order (neighbors not home today).  Putting Grace in with Francis when she starts laying would give me purebred bantam Orps, if I wanted to sell fertile eggs for hatching, but she is SO shy, she could handle it even less than Dolley. 

That boy's got to GO!

Re-homing a rooster at any time is very difficult, and at this time of the year.........Besides, he's been inside all this time, and putting him outside at the coldest part of the year seems cruel.   Taking him to the butcher is out of the question.  Sigh..... not sure what I'll do. 

Dec. 11

today (note bigger comb and wattles)

 If you know of anyone who would be at all interested in a PET........he is not at all aggressive, in fact he's a big....well...chicken!  He skitters around at anything he considers alarming, but since I can catch him in the close confines of his coop, I can easily pick him up and hold him.   He doesn't want to admit it, but he likes it.   

As for the girls, Abigail and Dolly have been laying sporadically all season.  I began keeping a light on by the coop when it started getting dark really early.   Abigail molted in the late fall and is still looking pretty ratty, but the new feathers are emerging.   

January means seed catalogs and planning the spring garden.   I saved a good many varieties of seed, and if I buy any, I think I'll buy local.  Sure other seed companies have exciting pictures of new varieties, but will those varieties, grown in a very different part of the country, grow well here?   Ferry-Morse Co. , which I blogged about last spring, is here in KY, has an organic line, and has signed the 'No GMO' pledge.   They can be found everywhere from TSC to Walmart.   I think they will be my go-to source

A day late, but I hope everyone has a happy, healthy New Year.

OK, so it's been a while ......

....but it is that time of year when nothing much is happening on the Urban Farm.  

This urban farm took a decidedly rural turn this morning though.   I was in the kitchen, beginning to put together some breakfast, when I looked out the window and saw a COYOTE trotting down the street!!!!!  Granted, my townhouse neighborhood is on the very edge of town, with a big meandering lake and farm fields beyond, but this was startling!    I ran outside to get another look at it, and make sure I wasn't seeing things.  Nope, definitely a coyote, trotting down the sidewalk. (so much for the stray cats that have been around for weeks)  A neighbor was just pulling in, and looked at me with eyes and mouth wide open.  "Was that a ...."  Yes!  He said he grew up on a farm, knew exactly what it was, and couldn't believe what he was seeing.   One more reason I'm glad all my livestock is inside!

I still have kale and brussells sprouts in the garden.  The sprouts weren't big enough for Thanksgiving.  Christmas maybe?  They are completely unprotected, so I can't expect them to grow much.  I'm just amazed they have lived this long.

Mostly my interests have turned indoors, though.  I dusted off the spinning wheel (literally) oiled 'er up and did some spinning, and I have also pulled out another winter pastime, jewelry-making.  It's so easy, everyone and their brother can do it, so it's not much of a 'sellable' item.  It has to be something really special and priced for the average person to afford - not an easy combination to achieve. But I enjoy choosing components, making, then wearing something - much as with making a garment from fiber.

The auction house I went to so frequently for a while has moved to different nearby town, and and changed the times of their auctions to the middle of a weekday - when I can't go.  That is NOT a bad thing for my purse, but I do miss the fun of finding something I love for just a few dollars.   Perhaps sadly, I have renewed my relationships with Ebay and Etsy.  With my newly-discovered Scottish heritage in mind, I bought a couple of charms on-line for my charm bracelet:

A thistle - the national symbol of Scotland

....and a 'croft' cottage. 

This one has several meanings for me.  Scotland, and small-space farming of course, and it reminds me of a blog-friend Homeschool on the Croft, who lives and farms on a modern-day croft (what we would call a small farm) in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.   Most importantly though, it reminds me that big things can come from small beginnings, and God answers prayer.   In the 1940's, two women in their 80s, one totally blind, and one crippled with arthritis, lived in a tiny stone cottage on the Island of Lewis in Scotland, just a few miles from where Anne of the homeschool croft lives today. They despaired of the next generations ever finding a realationship with God.  The churches were emptying, and the young people were just not interested.  As they were prayer warriors, they held their concerns up before God.  It's a long story, but you can read about it here (The Hebrides Revival) and other places on the internet.  God's presence came down on the islands of the Outer Hebrides, and it was one of the most exciting moves of God of the 20th century - the results of which are seen today in Anne's deep faith, and that of many in her community.    All because two crippled, old, poverty-stricken women prayed.               

       

I did it again - the National Horse Show

Once again I went to an event and forgot to bring my camera!!!! 

It took me a while to figure out the horse show this week here at the Kentucky Horse Park was a big deal.  Cynically, and especially because the emphasis seemed to be on the sponsor, I thought they had dreamed up an event to keep the ball rolling after the World Equestrian Games here last fall.  After a while, I realized this  National Horse Show was the National Horse Show - as in the one held in Madison Square Garden in New York for forever.  To compare another species, it would be the same as if the Westminster Dog Show would come to Lexington, and the event is about the same age, 120-something years.   

A friend and I went yesterday for the last day - the day with all the big stakes (championships) classes, and it was terrific.  The crowd was sparce in the afternoon, but picked up in the evening for the $250k Open Jumper Championship.  That's right, a quarter of a million dollars - no small potatoes. Except for the "end-zone" area of the arena (shown in the background below), the crowd was not packed, but respectable.

photos by Matt Goins - Lexington Herald Leader  

This was our vantage point - although a few rows up. The jumps were terrifying - 6 feet high and with spreads equally huge.  This was one of a triple combination  - only one step in between.   Some horses were so smooth, they made it look almost easy.    But one jump that seemed very plain and 'easy' was the undoing of many.  We couldn't understand it - until a visitor from Arizona, obviously an expert, explained to us that it was an awkward distance from the previous jump.  

It was the top-of-the-top echelon of show jumpers.  There were competitors from all over the world, including several Olympic Team members, both from the US other countries.  

The sponsors seemed to have learned their lessons from the WEG - no more $100+ tickets.   We got in for the price of a movie, and it was on-the-edge-of-your-seat exciting.   Everyone would hold their breath during each ride, groaning if a rail came down, afraid to 'jinx' it if it looked like someone was going to jump clean.   If they did, the instant they landed the crowd would erupt in cheers.   

Here is the winning rider collecting his $75k check.  (The top 12 placements were money winners) We joked that it might pay his transportation bills to get to the show.  :)  I talked to folks sitting around us, asking where they had come from and what they thought of the facility.  To a person, and from what I have read, all the participants are thrilled with the arena, the Park, and especially the easy accessibly.  Can you imagine trailering horses into mid-town Manhattan?  

It was a very fun time that we both enjoyed enormously.  I think it will grow in popularity in the same way the Rolex Three-Day Event has.   I'm putting it on my calendar.