And here she/he is:

This squeaker’s name is Cedar. My son said he never gets to name the babies so this one was his to name. We still don’t know if it’s a hen or a cock so I just say she/he.

This baby is almost 4 weeks old but he/she is as large as my other two I hand fed who are almost 3 months old. That’s what happens when a human gets a hold of an animal; over feed and over weight. I really don’t think it’s over weight, just a lot bigger than a normal, pigeon-fed baby would be.

She/he is finally out of the office. Getting way to big for the box and starting to crawl or fly out of it.

The crap all over the front of her/his chest is the liquid bird food I’ve been feeding it. It is a messy process each time but at least I’m not having to force feed the bird into it’s crop. That was scary every time I fed because there was always a chance I was going to miss and shoot food down the wrong pipe. After that, death.

Hopefully we won’t be feeding any more baby pigeons. That season should be over for the year. Today I’m cleaning out the pigeon coop (finally) but first have to run to the store for a gas mask to prevent me from getting Pigeon Breeders Disease. Boy, does that sound fun or what?

Beets are a great produce to plant. You can plant them in the early spring and have beets to pick from June until early October. They can withstand cold weather (except severe freezing), which makes them a good long-season crop.

They’re versatile. You can cook the beet (bulb0us part) and the greens as well. Cook the beet greens as you would spinach. They’re very sweet and yummy.

Beets are a very excellent source of folate, potassium, and manganese. There have been several studies that show that beets have anti-cancer benefits and fiber-related benefits. The combination of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory molecules in beets makes this food a highly-likely candidate for risk reduction of many cancer types.

FUN FACT:  An estimated 10-15% of all U.S. adults experience beeturia (a reddening of the urine) after consumption of beets in everyday amounts. I’m not one of the 10-15%; I can eat beets all day long and never pee any other color but gold. However, The Spouse IS one of those select groups who DO pee pink/red after eating beets. He has a funny story about his first discovery that he was one of those lucky ones, thinking that he was going to have to run to the emergency room after seeing red after using the bathroom.

This is how I cook my beets: washing the beet, I cut off both ends and then cut them up into quarters and put into medium glass pan, drizzle with olive oil and adding whatever spices I like (for sure pepper). Then in a 400 degree oven, roast them for about 30 minutes.

You can also steam them for about 15 minutes which will hold in more of the nutrients.

I was making some beets the other night for myself. I was excited to bite into the red, sweet beet rather than eating the cardboard pizza my kids were eating.

So I got my lovely beets all ready for the oven. I knew I had about 30 or 40 minutes to just walk outside and look at our one apple tree. I had been looking at an apple for the past week and wanted to see if it was ready to eat. I would be right back.

Here is some advice for cooking beets:

Don’t – whatever you do – DON’T put them in the oven and go out and pick apples, feed the goats the apples, wander down to the pond to look at the trout, walk up to the garden and turn on the water, eat cherry tomatoes, gnaw on a cob of corn, feed the dogs the slug-chewed zucchini, water the greenhouse tomato plants, stroll back to the barn, look for eggs in the coop, check on baby pigeons and feed them, ponder the night sky while sitting by the fire pit debating if you should start a fire, realize that it’s a school night and kids have to get to bed, skip with the dogs and go back inside the house, and as you’re walking past the oven and wonder why it’s so hot, you open it, only to find your blackened, toasted, roasted, burned beets that you were going to have for dinner.

Don’t do that; they’re not very tasty. Just a bit of advice.

Wow. Been a long time. Summer flew by with very little heat and very little sun and very little produce in my garden.

I’m also feeding some new pigeon babies. The mother had them on the floor and history tells us that they will die there because the other birds will peck them to death when the mom leaves the nest to eat. They are four days old and probably the youngest babies I’ve ever fed. So far, it’s working.

I’ve pulled a few cukes from the garden, couple of tomatoes, couple of zucchini, yummy roasting beets, and lots of beans. I’m waiting for the corn and the rainbow beans. I’ve only got two pumpkins growing (ugh) so hopefully they’ll be big enough by Halloween for the kids.

Again I have to say this: it has been a very disappointing summer. The weather, for the past two weeks, has been enjoyable but it came a bit too late to really use it. School begins in six more days and we just didn’t have much opportunity for sizzlin’ summer merrymaking.

Here’s hoping for a better season next year. Here’s hoping this isn’t an indicator of a really cold winter this year.

The weather has been awful this summer. Perfectly awful. Just ask my kids. We’ve had NO days with 80′s (until today that is but it’s the end of August) and very few days in the high 70′s and even FEWER days with sun.

Gardens must have sun, must have warmth to grow. Even though last summer I got my garden in rather late (mid-June), it still had a great production by July. Not so much this year. However, as I said, we finally have had some good sunny days and here is the outcome:

I will have a few ears of corn in about a week.

These are rainbow “green” beans. I see blossoms and they should be getting on in a week or two.

First (and only so far) pumpkin in the patch.

This is the saddest picture of all. See all the blossoms and leaves? This is not how a good producing tomato plant should look. It should have fruit on it. When the weather has not enough sun or warmth, the tomato plant pushes out lots of leaves first and then tries to get out blossoms. Too many leaves suck out what can be put towards the fruit and then when it finally gets blossoms, not enough warmth or sun can’t move that blossom into a fruit. So either way, I, the fruit eater, loses.

BUT the good news is that there ARE a lot of blossoms and if this weather can hold out even a couple of weeks, I could be munching on Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. Mmmmmmm.

Oh … and three zuchinni which were given to the big kids to make bread.

Good Planting! …….. Or maybe now, Good Eating!!

There are so many benefits of water, I don’t think we actually appreciate the fact that we have nice, clean, safe water right in our homes.

After living in Thailand for the time that I did, I really did come to appreciate water. We were one of the lucky ones to have running water into our home and had a shower and toilet as well. Believe it or not, many homes did not have those luxuries 1975. Our shower and sink water, however, did not run to any sewer or septic. It ran right out of the pipe into the yard. Yup. There it was, draining into the grass and out to the klong – Thai word for reservoir. Yes; our “grey water ran into a reservoir which then grew water plants which fed water buffalo and the local people who swam and played in this klong. Sounds lovely, yes? No.

The problem with the running water in the house is that you couldn’t drink it because it came from the above klong. You could wash clothes in it (our clothes were washed outside in a hose) and shower in it (as long as you didn’t open your mouth while showering) and flush the toilet. That was pretty much it. You couldn’t brush your teeth or drink it or wash your food from the market in it.

Since I don’t spray the garden with any pesticides, I always feel really comfortable about eating the veggies without washing them. I will sit in the garden and munch on tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries, blueberries, and corn without feeling like I HAVE to wash them. They don’t have wax on them; they don’t have spray. Why not? Perfectly safe.

Until ……… tonight. I was ever so grateful that I had running water in my house that was safe to wash my salad greens. Because I found a friend:

Yeah. That’s a slug. A tiny one to be sure but ……. ACK. I cannot imagine he pure awfulness of biting into that thing in my salad. *shudder*

I typically don’t care about little bugs or ants or things of that sort. But I think that finding a slug in my lettuce would absolutely put me over the edge.

I will still eat the veggies in the garden but for those veggies that have hiding places, I’m going to give them a good washing with clean, safe, fresh water from the house before indulging in a nutritious salad. Yup.

Well, she didn’t win overall. BUT she’s in the paper and in MY book, that’s pretty darn close. Here’s the story:

My daughter has a friend who really wanted to be involved in fairs and animals and such but lives in our town and lives in a rented house and has a parent who is not involved in her life …. you get the pic. So we’ve sort of pulled her along with our involvement with fairs – except for this one this year since my daughter decided to take a break.

This friend bought two chickens and they’ve been staying with our flock. She entered them into our first fair of the season but didn’t do as well as she would have liked. So she invited a local chicken shower/judge/owner over to our coop and let her pick which ones might do better in the fair. She selected our Buff (Siobhan), Rhode Island White (Trouble), and Barred Rock (Kiki) and told her to pick the best two. The friend in the end decided on the Buff and the Rock since they are a heavier breed and ours are pretty good sized.

Side note: if the animal has a name, it doesn’t get eaten. It was the deal we made with the kids.

Well, the friend didn’t end up with a rosette (the best) but instead got a blue for the Buff and a red for the Rock. However, during the fair the 4H kids are encouraged to handle and show the public their animals. Siobhan, the Buff, made it into our local paper.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110806/NEWS01/708069931/0/frontzoom

THAT’S pretty darn exciting in my opinion. Congrats!!

We love fairs. We love fair animals. We LOVE fair food. Seriously. I can gain a good 10 pounds during fair season. Turkey legs, Elephant Ears, Hawaiian Shaved Ice (banana/pink champagne flavor), Super Spuds, any sort of Yakisoba noodles, and the best at the Evergreen Fair, PURPLE COWS.

We have always loved fairs but since we’ve moved here to Washington, my daughter got involved with 4H and goats. And when you’re involved with 4H and goats (or any animals), you are very involved with fairs. Most of the fairs listed below are one, two sometimes three days.

The Evergreen State Fair lasts two weeks. We (she and I since I’m the “Parent 4H” volunteer) stay at the fairgrounds, living in either a camper or tent or whatever we have, for one week of those two during the 4H class showing. During that time, she has to take care of her goats, keep the barns clean and answer questions from the public. By the end of the week, we’re dirty, stinky, and loaded down with ribbons from the shows.

There are several fairs in our area. We’ve already had the first fair of the Season, Silvana Fair:

http://www.silvanafair.com/

Next is Stanwood-Camano Island Fair:

http://www.stanwoodcamanofair.org/

Skagit County Fair:

http://www.skagitcounty.net/fair

San Juan County Fair:

http://www.sanjuancountyfair.org/

Island County Fair:

http://www.islandcountyfair.com/

Evergreen State Fair:

http://www.evergreenfair.org/

This is our last fair of our season because soon after, school begins. Which is one reason this fair is sort of bittersweet for me. I really enjoy having my kids home during summer and breaks and it’s hard when they have to go back to school. This fair signals the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.

Enjoy!

Everyday, you make sure you brush your teeth, comb your hair, take a shower (if you’re a busy mom, you might not get this every day!), and have a clean drink of water and clean food.

What about your chickens? They deserve the same from you. Not to mention, this will produce healthier eggs.

Each day, you should:

Keep their feed and water containers full at all times. They need fresh water every single day, especially during the warm summer months. They can live without food every single day, but not water. However, your egg number will go down if you forget to feed them one day. If you leave the house for a couple of days, have someone from your family or neighbor check their food and water while you’re gone. If they have nothing to eat, they will start pecking at each other.

Clean their water canister, especially get the poop out. Hanging their water from a rafter will help keep the water clean. If they sense that it’s dirty, they won’t drink it and will become dehydrated, possibly contract an illness and die.

Look at your chickens: do they look bright, active, and healthy? Are they running around? Or do you see one that is sitting very still, with eyes half closed? If they don’t look anything close to normal, then you should call or see the vet to ask for suggestions and answers.

Collect eggs every day. If they’re let to sit too long in the box, the hens will peck at them and eat them. Then they will get used to the taste of their own eggs and YOU will be left out. 

Check the coop for varmints and holes. Block or shore up holes where some thing can crawl into your coop or run. If your chickens are free range, when dusk comes, that will be the time when all the chickens are in their nest. Not a single chicken in sight. Secure the area so that predators will not have the opportunity to get in. If you have your chickens in a secure run, check around the perimeter of the run for holes as well.

Another thing that you should know about eggs is that sometimes, there might be dirt, mud, or even worse – poop! on the shell. Well, that is part of having chickens. It will not hurt you. You will not want to viciously scrub the egg clean; you will remove the bloom. 

Bloom is the term that is given to the membrane that is located at the surface of the egg itself. The bloom protects the egg from bacteria that might penetrate the shell. If you scrub the shell, you take away the protective covering.

I clean my eggs by soaking them for a few minutes in warm water and gently rub off the offending matter. GENTLY.

Good Planting!

This is my pumpkin patch. Can you see the pumpkins? You probably can’t unless you look really close. Really close.

Can you see any pumpkins yet?  No? How about now?

There they are!! Little stinkers hiding away inside all those weeds.

Since we’ve had so much rain this past month … season … year, the ground is really soft and so those weeds come and out of the ground with one little tug. It took me about an hour to clean the whole patch.

Now if it would only get warm so the little darlings could grow.  At this rate, I won’t have pumpkins until NEXT fall.

This summer so far, has been rather dismal and dreary. The strawberry crop came in a month late. The corn crop was put in a month late but is still not growing well. Farmers in the area are scratching their heads, wondering how to buck their hay when it’s so wet.

C’mon Summer Sun! Shine down!

Kids aren’t the only ones who enjoy splashing around in water!