What's Up?

On the last day of school Lucas had a birthday party to attend.... as if there already wasn't enough going on. Being inside in a loud McDonald's Play Place wasn't exactly my idea of a good time, but he sure had fun.

Papa Doug came to visit Friday night. He was here from Oregon on his way to Council. Cody brought Nevaeh over and we had steaks on the BBQ.

And some plastic baseball in the driveway.

I love sitting by the fire.

There's been a lot of gardening going on at The White House, but progress is terribly slow. Olivia planted some carrots for me. 

Down the road two neighborhood boys were selling plants and honey sticks. I do not need any plants, but I did want to support his ambition so we got two tomato plants of a variety I don't have to put in Olivia's greenhouse. 

How we traveled to the sale. 

And how we got to a garage sale. 

The boys worked with their Dad some Sunday night (until the bugs got too bad) on the retaining wall. 

Emily took me on a 4-wheeler ride.

Monday they finished up their part minus a short side wall. Now I need to shovel dirt and pack rocks.

And this mess still waits for me. The snow is gone and most of the water is pumped out, but the mess is still there. Sure wish it wasn't as we've had 80* for several days and are supposed to have it all week. Then summer will be over... not really, but it probably won't be this nice again.

Fodder Part Two

After much conversation on "where in the yard" we should move the fodder growing operation we decided that inside was really the only place with a consistently lower temperature. Homer brought me home a huge (like 8-ft tall) gardening rack. We initially assembled it with the racks tilting so six flats would fit. 

We quickly discovered that the metal around the edge caught the water. It ran everywhere it wasn't supposed to.

This morning Emily and I changed the racks to slant front to back. If you ever want to teach two people patience and how to work together without losing it this is the project. We only yelled at each other once today. Yesterday was a whole different story.

With this system I only place three flats so they are in the middle of the rack without anything to impede water flow. My husband tells me he can get me another rack (repurposing "junk") so I'll be able to grow the 6-a-day that I want to.

This is this morning the beginning of day 6 (5 days of growth). I had to take the four that are growing out of the house because they are in the wrong flats with holes all over. I'll water today and probably feed tomorrow. It's about 3-inches right now.

Q & A:

Mama Bean wondered where I learned this stuff.  I actually tried it a couple of years ago at my husband's suggestion. (I gave up rather quickly). There are all sizes of pretty expensive systems that you can buy to do this at your own farm. If you google fodder growing you'll find all kinds of commercial operations. He learned about this because they have a system set-up where he works at Chena Hot Springs to feed their horses, goats and pigs. If I can do this year round I will save enormous amounts of money.

Jean wondered about growing other things. Yes, I could, but barley grows very quickly and the seed is much cheaper. I will go from start to finish in seven days. On the 7th day the barley could be up to 6-inches tall. The  barley also makes a thick root mat. It will peel right out in one piece and the animals will eat the whole thing.

Aunt Sandy asked about our costs. A 50-lb bag of barley is $9 (might be 9-something.... my husband picked it up). The seed we buy is "local" from Delta which is 100 miles from here. I get it at the feed store, but will save a few dollars a bag once we drive down and get a trailer full. At his work they buy these huge containers of it even cheaper, but I would never be able to lift that. My chicken feed is also made in Delta so shipping from the Lower 48 doesn't factor into the price. There is cheaper feed at Wal*Mart that is shipped up in trucks, but it is too high in copper. We tried it a few years ago and the copper literally made our Sheep go crazy and become aggressive.

The fodder along with hay would have everyone covered. Hay kills us.... $16-something for a 50-lb bale. I believe we can get it for half that if we drive down to Delta. Big round bales are even cheaper, but I have no where to store that amount.  We are going to have to make time to take a road trip  one day soon. The feed store is frequently out as they were this week and so are we. (I think the feed store actually gets their hay from Washington and Canada which accounts for the high costs).

Fodder Part One

Feed costs for the animals is through the roof. Since my husband always picks up the feed I didn't realize just how far through it was. One bag of layer crumbles for the hens is $25.99!! It's time I got serious about growing barley fodder to feed everyone. 

So far it's not been a great adventure. The process is really time consuming and I'm not having very good germination (my fault... I'll get to that).

Day 0: I put 20 cups of barley seed into my bucket and filled with water. Right here is mistake number one that I'm just realizing five days into this. My measuring container is 4 cups... for some reason my head was thinking it was 2 cups when really it was 2 pounds therefore I've had twice as much seed in my flats as I intended which is part of the problem. 

The next step it to skim off the hulls, dirt, bugs and bad seed that floats to the top. I put that in another bucket that gets fed to Hamsley.

I drilled drain holes in a third bucket. I put it into the green one above and drained the seed. Then the blue bucket went inside the purple bucket.  I filled it two inches over the seed and added one tablespoon of bleach to keep it from fermenting. (The ratio is 1 tbls. per gallon of water).

Then the bucket sits for 24-hours.

Day 1: The seed was spread into 4 trays which should have been 8 if the numbers hadn't been confused in my head. 

I put them in the greenhouse. Mistake number two. It's way too hot. The optimal temperature is 60-65* and my greenhouse has been getting in the 80's each day. Today they will all be moved outside.

Day 3: The trays are drying out no matter how much I water. When the seed dries out it will not grow. I was using flats with holes, but the holes were too big. I took some of my solid flats and drilled 5 small holes on one end. There is a small stick under the end so when I filled with water it takes 4 minutes to drain out. This has helped, but it is just too hot so there has been some drying still happening.

Day 5: This is the growth in the first trays. It is sparse and should be a thick mat. Hopefully, as I make adjustments we'll produce enough fodder to feed the chickens, sheep and pig. The plan is continue the process inside all winter long. 

I'll make another update at Day 10 and let you know if things are getting better.

Figuratively Running

This is snowing fall just last week. The lack of Spring has been pretty depressing. I do believe we are in for a lack of summer as well. :(

My children are allergic to work. Really. So when they actually do something I have to take a photo.

She was flinging snow out of my garden bed.

Should be on the front page of Redneck Weekly. Elijah and a friend took the machine over to the power line to "rip it" one last time. It's the only place there's enough snow to kind of ride.

This right here has to get done. Emily shoveled the ice off the concrete. I hosed it. Elijah and his buddy lined the ties back up. Now hopefully, on Sunday, Homer will finish the wall if the boys show up to help. Once it is up I'll cover the top in rocks and it will look so much nicer.

 My morning animal chores......

Feed and water the new baby chicks. Clean the pen as necessary.

Feed/water Millie (the big dogs are temporarily chained up outside... they jump over their dog pen and poo all over my yard.... a winter's worth has me very upset....we are building a new pen with a high fence).

Same with Mandy.

Then it's seed, papaya and water for ???? (we don't like the name Dew and  haven't given another yet).

Trixie is always happy for fresh seed.

Lonely Pickles. Blueberry died unexpectedly two days ago. Fine at bedtime and dead in the morning. :(

Then I say hello to Andrea, Olivia's new rat.

Freaky Freddie gets some blood worms.

Frankie and Mary are always happy to see me (this is Frank). They actually eat out of Nick's hand.

Then it's off to feed the two little piggies.... er, I mean, pig and sheep. There are also the big chickens, Rusty and Sophie, but I didn't get photos. By the time I'm done with morning kisses and food I'm ready for a nap!!

 Dismal. Brown. Wish the siding was on my house.

Winter ice damage in the net over the chickens. I got two holes sewed up with fishing line and have two more to go.

Hamsley actually rolls over and likes to have his belly rubbed. He's a hoot. (And yes, I'm still going to eat him).

At 11:43 pm it is still daylight and the moon is up. This right here is why we put up with long, dark, cold winters and sometimes crappy Spring/Summers. You just have no idea how wonderful endless daylight is.

Yesterday I drove the kids to school with Olivia taking her rat to class. Drove home and picked up Elijah to drive him to school (front axle or something broke under his car rendering it parked). Drove back home to get Lucas' chicken and took it to school. Finally got back home with all the animals to try and work in my greenhouse.

Work didn't last long. When the kids got home we took Mandy and Millie for a walk/bike ride. Later we went for a really long 4-wheeler ride. (The little ones ride in a trailer behind it. No, that's not legal or probably safe, but it's how we roll).

My greenhouse is bursting. There are 25 flats in the left bed where the strawberries go. Flats in between the tomatoes. Takes forever to water. Not enough hours in the day to tend to it all.

This morning on the very last day of school (with yucky, soggy brown grass behind them).

I sure hope I get to see green this summer. (And I hope we find time to put siding on the ugly old house).

I went down to the picnics at school. Good-bye to Mrs. Rowland and 1st grade.

Good-bye to Mrs. Gaustad and second grade. It's been a wonderful year. These two are at the top of their class and never get in trouble (so unlike their older siblings). I'll miss dropping by the school for social time, but I say.... bring on summer vacation. I have vowed to do more playing and less working.

I really need to work outside, but alas my tired butt is going to drag itself to town. Lucas has a birthday party to attend. McDonald's and then across town to swim. One party is going to consume 4 hours of my evening. *sigh* Would love to skip it. I don't even know these people, but he so wants to go. And now it's time!!