New ideas on the farm

Well isnt that a niffty idea I thought to use on my compost pit when we re build it. We are using cinder blocks for a compost pit but recently we need to movie it. In the past I have put herb plants on top of it but they always dry up or fall down this is a great idea!

This Weekend marks mothersday weekend. For a present I told hubby I wanted him to finish making the aquaponics center. I just can't wait to have it done to start growing things in it.

Not much going on at the farm. We still havent gotten rain and the fires have started. This one started yesterday due to a faulty wire system on the electric companys part. It burned down a few acres across the canal from us and burned down 3 of his much needed hay bales.

The scary part was it was close to 3 small oil wells you can see them on the left hand side. The other day we got 40% chance of rain we were soooo hopeful then nothing :(

On to happier things I have taken up couponing again. I joined a club in San Antonio to keep me motivated. Already I have saved and gotten so many freebies. I am hoping to start up a swap book at our local libaries. Two of the libaries loved the idea and the one I love the most said, "No" they don't have the room. I think I caught the libarian on a bad day :( well her loss and that community it seems.

Still doing cubscouts infact Friday night we have another meeting. Tom my hubby just finished up a camping training session. The cubscouts have done a lot for my husband and my son I am so glad we got into it. They have bonded closer I think.

Talked to my beef man the other day, he dosent have any calfs right now :( but hopefully in the winter he will have some, by then I will be out of beef so its good to restock up my freezer. I ordered 5 broilers from a local chicken producer but it kills me that we havent done R own. Tom would need to fix up a moveable coop the old ones we have could not hold them.

I also need to order new chicken layers but it cost money and we just dont have the extra right now especially right after the huge Easter party we had.


Sam

Future Aquaponics

Well we finally got started on our aquaponics system by cutting the barrels in half. Tom's been on the look out on our farm to find wood laying around to use for the stand for the barrels.

I can't wait to get this system up and running. I really want to grow lettuce in it since its so dangerious to buy it from the stores lately cause of contamination. The idea of fresh fish too is a big plus.

Well not much going on farm. We could really use some rain. We are in stage one of restriction in San Antonio for water usage. Dosent affect us here but it just goes to show you how dry we are up here.

The canal people have decided to build a canal on our property to get to my neighbors house that has about 11 acres...1 acre is the house....so it seems a big deal just to put a lil water on their field. Not much we can do about it, can't really fight the goverment and thats what the BMA is...our lawyer told us to just work with them if we can...so thats what we are doing for now.

They orginally wanted to put the canal smack in the middle of our field but that would have blocked us off from getting to our other side of the field, not an option and we would fight it then I am pretty sure.

Most of my family been in the hospital in and out all this last month. It has to be a record for my family its so strange...Whats the saying, "When it rain it pours" I lost my voice during the process of my family being in and out. Just really tired plus trying to keep up with farm work and homeschooling the same time.

I got us another male goat. He's name is Alfie I will write about him when I get a picture. Thats about it for now. I am going to my first coupon club today I am hoping it will be fun and helpful for my collection of coupons I am starting again. Maybe make some new friends will be really nice too.

Have a great week everyone

Sam

Aquaponics weekend

A few months ago we did an introduction aquaponics class. A few weeks ago hubby got the stuff to make our own so we decided this time to take a hands on class on it by the same guy that did the introduction class.

It was taught at a local farm near us so it worked out really well, the aquaponics system is going to be a learning tool for some disabled kids on a farm. It took more then 9hrs with a few people working but we finally finished it up.

I can't wait to start ours but we have a long way to go with only two of us making it and hubby of course has his own ideas on making his own. We plan to put fish in it, not sure which kind, I perfer perch.

Sam

Hugelkultur

This weekend we finished with digging out our hole for our first Hugelkultur project bed. If you don't know what that is, I am going to put more on it in my gardening blog. http://samsveggies.blogspot.com/

We had a really productive day, we spent the morning picking up sticks around our place for the hugelkultur bed, finished digging the hole. I moved the chicken coop and took them food as well as water.

Made cream puffs out of the fresh eggs we got, watched a show with my family, made dinner, picked up raw milk from the farm down the road and the Sunday paper. Yep it was a really nice productive day. I even made a few phone calls to my family and friends.

I am trying to fight off a cold so far, so good. I got to keep moving. There is always so much to do in the spring. I should be more inside cleaning but I would rather be outside right?

Snow day

Every 10 or so years it snows here south of San Antonio. We get really excited when it does. Water goes off the shelfs, our roads are closed down. I swear most are hwy's were closed that day. No school no work for a lot of folks. I rememered the last time it snowed it was in the 80s and I was a teenager.

I know its funny how we react to snow but you got to remember we have no snow plows and to get us to go to work or school on a snow day is asking for the impossible lol.

So that night my husband and I heard ice hitting our house then later on I guess a bit of snow fell. By the time we woke up in the morning the sun was out already melting everything. My son was able to make a mini snowman & throw snowballs at the cats.

I walked around my chicken coop and fed the sheep, nothing new to them it seems. It was nice seeing the snow glitter in the sun, very pretty. I like snow but only during Christmas time. If I wanted more snow I would have asked hubby to move to a colder climate. I am a sun worshiper I have to admit. The sun gives me energy.

It was a nice snow day, I wouldnt mind another one next year maybe in December but I am not holding my breath.

My chicken catalogs have arrived!

Thats me moving my chickens this last year.

It finally came in my handy dandy chicken catalog with chick prices. I am in badly need of more chickens! But wait do I really want to do this anymore? I used to make a delivery to San Antonio every other week but it gets harder and harder to sell the eggs. Don't get me wrong I love having chickens and I will always continue having chickens but not sure I want to get that many and try again getting new customers.

There is 2 much competition out there & they don't care about the food safety rules that I had followed. If they say its from the farm people believe them even if they are locked in a coop all day long. All the people see is CHEAP and FARM. I saw some the other day and the eggs were so dirty they had poo from the chickens still on it which could be really dangerous if not properly cleaned & chickens get infection. Sooner or later someone is going to get the swine flu or something bad & all the people that sell eggs will be getting a bad rep because of someone that was lazy.

I don't force my chickens to lay having light on all night. As soon as they go into molt I don't kill them or give them away. I have some chickens out there as old as 5 yrs. My chickens are old they lay when they feel it's time to lay. I clean my eggs with warm/water/vinagar. Only a very small handful appreciate the "Pasture raised method" it's good for our field as well as the chickens.

Right now with just the small amount of eggs I am getting I sell to a few loyal customers and anything extra I give to the milk farmer down the road in exchange for raw milk. It suits me fine. I would love to sell at the farmers market because I love the idea of meeting new & old customers. I looked into it once. You have to get a license, have the rug torn out from the back of my van to sell from it. Get a background check & pay the farmers fee. So would it be worth it in the long run? Not sure. I would lose my Saturdays too

Anyways I am still excited about getting more chickens I just need to rethink how I want to run this business or just keep to providing for my home only. I am also thinking of raising broilers just for my family & maybe a few to trade?

Traditions

I love and live for traditions, I was lucky enough to marry a wonderful man that loves to cook and took the time to study and learn from my mother before she passed away. This is our third year of making tamales without my mother. He did an awesome job of cooking the meat and preparing the masa for it. I was kind of worried that no one would show up from my family most of them want to buy those awful store bought tamales, "They taste ok" they tell me. Who are they fooling? Yuck.

In the end we had a whole table full of volunteers plus always someone comes new to want to learn which is fine with us we could use the help. We buy Mexican pastry's the coffee and hot chocolate flows freely. Us older adults have some wine coolers maybe, we talk, we joke, we make fun of someone who is not spreading the masa on correctly.

Its a good time and we ended up with 75 dozen tamales for the year that we divided up among the volunteers the ones we didn't eat yet :) I hope my family continues wanting to do this some of them gripe each year because its at the end of Christmas & every one's tired. I wonder what would happen if my husband decided not to do this for a few yrs would they get used to those store bought tamales? Would they forget about the fun times as we meet up as a family? This is a tradition I hope we never stop.