Fruit Trees and Berry Plants

I have also started an orchard. So far, I have 5 fruit trees and 1 hazelnut tree. When I am done, I want to end up with 4 trees each of cherries, apples, plums, pears, and at least 4-6 hazelnuts. Right now, I have 2 cherries- an Aaron, and a Sweetheart
1 apple- Shamrock
1 plum- Peach Plum
1 pear- Highland
1 unknown hazelnut
These poor fruit trees I bought at a closing out sale about 3 years ago, and have been in pots for all that time, moving from place to place with me. I planted them before winter set in last fall, so by next year, I am hoping to get a bit of fruit from them! I had 7 cherries off the Aaron this year... VERY yummy. I had a few cherries off the Sweetheart, too, but I am not too crazy about them.

I am also starting a berry patch. Right now, it is very small, but I am going to add to it every year. I have 10 Blue Crop blueberries, 1 Elliot blueberry, 1 Black Satin thornless blackberry, and planted underneath are Quinalt and Totem strawberries. My hope is in the next few years, I can expand this to 100 blueberries, 60 blackberries, and 60 raspberries. Oh! I almost forgot... a friend gave me some Cascade berries to try. Out of 10 transplants, I ended up with just 3. I don't really know what these are, but am willing to try something new! Plus, I've never met a berry I didn't like!

You may wonder why I am doing the berries, fruit trees, and all gardens in raised beds. First of all, the drainage in the winter around here sucks. If I didn't use raised beds, I would lose everything I planted. I also like the fact that the raised beds warm up earlier in the spring, and are a bit easier to weed. The only downside is the cost of putting them in. But, I guess once they are in, I will never have to do them again, so that's not too bad.

More Crazy Days...

Well, the day started out pretty funny. I had a client coming to pick up his dog this morning, and he got so distracted looking at the goats and the horse that his car ended up in my ditch! He had to call a tow truck to get him out.

Yesterday, I worked very hard, and got the turkey coop all shingled and guttered, and put a rain barrel under the gutter for water (STILL waiting for that first rain in over two months...). I also finished dog proofing the second chicken coop, the 30 Dorkings I have in there are almost ready to start coming outside. Maybe another week or so?
Then, I harvested all my onions. I know it is too early to do this, but with my water situation, I am trying to harvest what I can before it goes rotten. This saves me from watering it, too. Next, I will have to do my potatoes. I am putting off harvesting those as long as possible, as I want a decent sized potato, if at all possible! Now I need a root cellar...

A root cellar will be one of my major projects for next spring. I will probably get it dug out at the same time as I get a grey water tank put in the ground. That way, next year, I won't have to worry about water as much. I will save all the rain water from the roof of the house for the garden.

I started getting my first little Early Girl tomatoes this week. And sweet million tomatoes. I just eat those like candy. I am still hand-watering these, as I hope to continue to harvest off those for 2 or 3 months still. The weatherman keeps promising me rain, but he never delivers!

Thinking up a title is too hard for me today...

I got my little turkeys yesterday. That was fun! I got to see the farm where they are raised, and was introduced to 4 different heritage turkey varieties. I saw Narragansett, Ridley Bronze, Bourbon Red, and the Blue Slate. Funny, I realized when I got there, that I had NEVER seen a grown up turkey before. Just in books and on the internet...
The breeder, Margaret, is a world of information. I just love the farming community. Everyone is so helpful, and more than willing to share their knowledge with others, and they don't even charge you a consultation fee!
I only ended up getting 5 more birds. That makes a total of 8. Two less than I'd hoped for, but it will give me the experience I need to do more next year.
I really, really need to get the run built SOON. The poults are going to be ready to go outside any minute now, but if it doesn't rain soon, I won't be able to get the fence posts in.... not sure what my plan B is, but I think I'd better come up with one soon!

I have been absolutely exhausted the last few days. Partly because of blood loss from the quadrillion mosquitoes that have erupted from nowhere the last week or so, and partly because my business is booming right now. This is definitely a GOOD thing, but I didn't know keeping 9 or 10 dogs all happy and exercised was going to take it all out of me! I have had my share of challenging dogs lately. Then again, there is nothing I would rather be doing, so I guess I should stop whinning about it!

When it cools down tonight, I am determined to finish my turkey coop- I just have to put a gutter on, and shingle it, so if/when it does rain, my little turkey-lurkeys won't get all wet. I have put the new ones in a dog crate in the coop to begin with for a day or two. I am hoping I can get them all introduced without any fights going on.

Chicken Little is also making his way back to the flock today. I couldn't stand his stinkiness inside the house anymore, so I put him in the chicken coop, still inside his dog crate this morning. I will keep him there for a day or two, as well, then put him in with the flock at night when they are sleeping, and see how it goes. Wish Chicken Little luck! I don't want him to get beat up again.

Workin' workin' workin'

Today was MUCH cooler, so I worked on scooping up all the horse poo in the field, and put it into my garden beds. I am putting in 3 wheelbarrows full of poo into each bed. Today, I got two beds done. That's alot of poo!! The weatherman is promising me rain in a few days, and if it really does rain, I want to be ready to turn the soil in my gardens, and get to planting my fall crops. I still have 8 more beds to add poo into, but will have to wait until the horse gives me more. Never enough poo to go around;-)

Tomorrow, I get to go to Saltspring Island to pick up the rest of my little turkey poults. My first three are still doing very, very well. I will take some pics when I get the whole brood together. The breeder said she also has 4 Bourbon Reds for me! So, I guess I will be doing 2 types of heritage breeds. That is exciting! Then I can see if there is a difference in taste and meat quality. And size.

I also need it to rain to soften up the soil so I can dig some fence posts in for the turkey run. I haven't been able to do that yet, the ground is like cement. The way those little turkeys are growing, I will need to get this done sooner than later!

Chicken Little

Well, Chicken Little is surprising me! I thought for sure he would die the other night, I stressed him out so bad, and he was bleeding so much. He was quiet the first night, but by the next morning, he was cheeping away, and eating and drinking. He seems quite active, too. I checked out his neck this morning, and you can barely tell anything happened. I am going to give him a couple more days to recouperate, and then see what I can do about reintroducing him to the flock. I will have to do this very carefully! Maybe now that he has exclusive access to his food and water, he will grow big and strong. I'm not sure why the others were picking on him, if he was weaker, or if he had a little injury to begin with. I'll probably never know.

Adventures and MisAdventures

So, big adventure on the farm today. Once, I read that the word 'adventure' meant something bad that happened to someone else, but seemed exciting to you. Yep, that about sums it up.
First, a little background. Last week, I took in a dog to board- I'll call him Timmie to protect the innocent. He is from the ministry of children and family services. I said I would care for him until his family could get sorted out, or until they could find a new home for him. This dog obviously comes from a home where he had the run of the place. He thought he was King. The first couple of days I had him, he tried to bite me when I put on his leash, refused to sit, and basically acted like a bad-ass. I wouldn't back down, and have been working hard on earning his trust and respect.
He is the only dog I have boarded so far that I keep on a leash outside in the yard. Most of the dogs I board love it here, and love and respect me, and therefore get alot of freedom. Not Timmie. So, everytime we go out, he is on a 20' lead.
I'm out with my two girls, and 3 other regulars, and Timmie. We are exercising, and having a good time. Suddenly, I hear a terrible commotion from the chicken coup with all my new little poults in it. I tie Timmie up quickly, and rush in to see what was going on. Well, all the chickens are beating up on one little chicken. I know if this continues, he will die. He has a big hole in his neck. I get in there, and after alot of flapping about and squacking, I catch the little guy. I come out of the coup.... and notice Timmie is GONE. Crap is the first word I say. Then, when I spy him bootin' it down the driveway to the gate, I said a whole lot of other bad, bad words.
This guy is DETERMINED to go. I can tell. I tried the happy calling, to see if I could cajole him into coming back. Nope, not a hope in hell. So, I start running. My gate is pretty secure. I haven't had anyone escape yet. But, this is a little dog hell-bent on running. He tries 3 times to squeeze under the gate, meanwhile, I am running as fast as I can down the driveway. Have I mentioned my driveway is really, really, really long???? And I don't run that fast....
He gets out. Some more really bad words come out of my mouth. I have 5 other dogs trotting around me, so happy that we are running! I get out the gate, lock it behind me, and tell the dogs to STAY, and hope that they will....

Now, I am running, running down the road, WITH A LITTLE CHICKEN STILL IN MY HAND, trying to get this damn little dog. He turns around, looks at me coming, and scoots into the woods in my neighbours yard. I tear down the driveway, and cut him off. I am sure the only reason I caught this dog is the fact that his 20' lead got caught on a branch. My lucky day. Hahaha. I get the dog, and he, with this poor little bleeding chicken still in my hand, walk back to the yard. You can't imagine my relief to see all my wonderful dogs and boarded dogs just sitting there, waiting patiently for me to get back.

By this time I literally have sweat pouring into my eyes. It is hot, about 30 c or so, plus the adrenaline rush, plus the running. I can barely see. The dogs are all inside the yard, and notice I have a chicken in my hand. Yummy! Stumbling down the drive, making sure all the dogs listen to me, and don't try to rip this little chicken out of my hand, well, that was another adventure. I found an empty dog crate, and put Chicken Little into it, then Timmie goes into his crate. He needs a time out.

I have just set up the poor chicken with feed and water. I have no idea if he will survive or not. You can't say I didn't try....

I am going to drink a gallon of water now, and put all the dogs away for an hour, so I can recouperate. I need a moment.

Timmie will have a leash on every day until the day he goes home.
Which I hope is soon. I don't need another heart attack.

The Goats

When I bought my farm, it came with two goats and a goose. The goats were a male and a female, named Burley and Thistle. The goose was just Goose. I wasn't sure about the histories or anything about these goats, but found out they were rescues, and were at least 10 years old. Not sure how long a goat lives??? Anyway, Thistle died that first winter, just before the Big Snow came. Unfortuately, I have no idea how or why she passed.

Anyway, soon after, the Goose became VERY territorial, and wouldn't let anyone near 'his' goat, Burley. I knew that goats need to have a little friend to play with, and figured I would have to get a new goat at one point. Somewhere in here, I rented out my pasture for a horse, Review. I seriously couldn't have found a better horse for the property than him! He is friendly, and extraordinarily tolerant of all the dogs that are in and out of here on a regular basis. Even if one barks at him, he just stands there and gives it the 'look'.
The owner of the horse helped me to find a new little goat for a friend for Burley. This little guy is about a year old, and came with the name of Franklin, or Frankie. She also helped me to find a new home for the terrorist Goose, after he bit her husband in the back. That was scary! The goose went to a really nice home, with a girlfriend goose, and a big pond, and is apparently very happy there. It took a while, but now Burley, Frankie and Review are all best buddies. Frankie is a brat, and very cheeky, and you can quite often see him climbing on Review's back. Review is the boss of the field, though, and is quite good at keeping them all in line.

It is a huge bonus to me that I now have access to all the horse manure Review can give me... wonderful stuff for the gardens!!