Gardening With Your Garbage and Recycling - 2

The next romaine stem I rescued from the compost bin was prepared a bit more per instruction in the article I posted a week ago.

Look at the result. 

Just three days and we are sprouting.
This is fun!
My lunch is growing my lunch!

Meanwhile the first one seems to have run out of steam, but we'll give it a bit more time.
http://onthepondfarm.blogspot.com/2014/01/gardening-with-your-garbage-and.html

Gardening With Your Garbage and Recycling

Part of this post is old hat. I have been reusing containers for seed starting for years.

Tube holders from a medical lab.

For an Earth Day project 24 years ago, I had my daughter's first grade classmates all bring in a small container to start marigold seeds. In our unscientific study using milk containers, plastic cups, tin cans and detergent caps, the ones started in the detergent caps tended to be deformed. Hmmm?

We crushed egg shells and stirred up coffee grounds to add to the bottom of the pots just to start talking about compost and feeding the earth. It was pretty basic, messy and fun, and yielded at least one flower for each student. Before school let out for the summer, a lovely garden was planted at the school entrance.

So look what has started in my Cracker Barrel "green house". Lupines from the farm garden. I think they are the purple ones, but we will have to wait and see. Usually I have such a hard time starting lupines, but these are at 50% germination so far, and in 10 days. Pretty pleased if I do say so. As soon as the first seedling popped, I moved the container from the warm spot, to the cool window sill, to try and keep them from bolting. Lupines are a childhood memory for me, so I love to see them in the garden.

This time of year I start to horde all the used plastic silverware that shows up at parties and wherever, and clean it to use as plant markers. The Popsicle sticks are okay for starters, but they rot and disintegrate by the time some of the early starts get into the garden.

I do find them handy to help me keep track of the seeds I collect, and have the labeled, flat little stick ready to go with the seeds.

Wisteria Seed 

How many times have I wrapped seeds in a napkin or old envelope, leaving myself a part of the flower or plant as a hint, only to open it up and puzzle over where it came from and what it is. By then the "hint" is a brown, dry crumble. So labeling fast is smart, but I'm still learning that lesson!

So here is something new that I learned and tried, just a week or so ago. Growing Romaine lettuce from the stem or the heart. The article says to leave a couple inches and perhaps a leaf or two. I had already used this lettuce, and this stem was plucked out of my compost after the reading of the article. I figured, "What the heck!" and threw it in my bowl with some water. And just to be clear, this lovely bowl was found in the town's recycling shed.

One week later, and fresh water every day or two, there are four new shoots. I can't wait to see how this goes. The suggestion is that I can put this in the garden when the temperatures are appropriate. That's such a long way off, but I may try a container from my recycled collection.

Pepper seeds from last night's dinner.

I grew up growing carrot tops in water, and bean seeds in cotton balls in egg shells. At my school in Sheffield, England, the class was called "Nature". What a nice way to learn science.

Below is the article that I saw, and if you search "things that grow from garbage" you can have a lot of fun till spring really arrives. Meanwhile my seed order went in last night, so there is more fun to come.

Garden with Garbage: 10 Foods You Can Grow from Scraps

http://earth911.com/home-garden/grow-food-from-scraps/

Missing The Little Things

We have left the farm, but the farm has not left us. We cannot have a day where a conversation won't end with, "Too bad we don't have some goats for that,", or "The chickens would clean this up".

FIL Francis feeding fries to the hens last summer

Yep - throwing perfectly good scraps into the compost seems such a shame. Watching the chickens waddle over to tear the latest contributions apart was part of the fun, but knowing we were recycling and feeding them at the same time felt good. You've seen the chickens. Healthiest bunch for miles, or at least fattest. Best eggs ever! I miss those too.


Weeding and Weaning - 2011 -Sweet Pants babysitting

We hate having to mow this little lawn. A couple of goats could take perfect care of it, and then knock back some of the brush. Sigh!

We also really miss the bats in the barn (really cool!) AND...AND - the barn swallows.

Now a year ago, I don't think I would have included the barn swallows. By now the barn is full of their mud nests and they are dropping nesting scraps and their droppings everywhere. We had to be careful where water buckets and food sat. Anything of value was covered with feed bags or plastic. But the one thing the barn swallows and bats were good for - BUGS! They ate lots of them.

Mosquitoes. They love me. I can honestly say that in a mere week, maybe even a day (its been wet lately), I get more bites on my body then I did in ten YEARS at the farm. True. True. True.

Never EVER complain about bats, no matter how much guano is in your attic. Luckily for us, it was all in the barn, and yes, I hated them when I first got the spanking new John Deere. Covered it with plastic for months. Then I just finally figured out where there were the least bat homes, and flipped my seat forward and parked there. It is a tractor!

Boots and Brianna May 2012

One of the things I can luckily do, is follow the farm with the help of the new owners, and you can too. Here is the link to Rush Around Farm. They have already expanded and are having new adventures. I'm jealous, but...I'm glad they have taken on the farm as they have. I think you will appreciate what they are doing also.

http://www.rusharoundfarm.com/blog/

Christmas Tree Recycling - Rite of Winter at On the Pond Farm

After a warm start and not much snow, winter arrived the day after Christmas with a pretty messy snow storm. Late that morning, we actually got on the road to visit the new grand baby, and didn't even make it beyond the township limits before we realized our mistake. So we turned around, only to see snow plows going the other way, and for a few minutes the snow even stopped pounding down.

Do we keep going?

No. What's the rush.

There wasn't one, aside from getting back to our favorite new boy.

The next day was a better experience.

So when we got back home, Christmas trees were starting to pile up, and phone calls and emails were coming in asking if we needed trees again. I love our friends and neighbors for this. Not only does this keep the goats happy, it also cuts down on feed costs. I'm sure even the citiest city folk have heard about the price of corn and grains. Wasn't it just last week that I read about huge round bales of hay being stolen. Crazy!

Until the last couple of days of warmer temperatures, we had a field of snow and ice. Of course, now we have boot sucking mud. Where is the middle ground? I think we can hope for that three days in May if we're lucky!

Westmoreland Fair Without Animals

Okay! We start with a chicken quilt. So animals are inspiration for crafts.

Julia's Blue Ribbon Pina Colada Bread

But there is so much to the fair aside from the animals, unless, of course, you figure where these ingredients came from.

  The 4-H Court of Honor.

Preserved goods,...

And the raw materials below.

 Best of Show Handcraft.

 Recycled crafts

Soybeans 

 Wool being spun and woven.

 Is this a swan or a serpent?

Bear Paw Quilt

 

This really was supposed to be about everything but animals, since there is so much to see at the fair, but it seems that the pictures I chose led me otherwise.

Well a few more animals to come as I catch up on the Westmoreland Fair next time.

 

Hand Feeding Hens Or How to Get Fat Chickens

We were talking about Science Fair experiments this week-end. I have decided that an interesting experiment would be to see how long a chicken will eat before it pops or stops eating.  These chickens do not ever stop looking for food to eat. At least goats stop to chew cud and nap. I think chickens only stop when the sun goes down and its lights out.

Here they are getting my father-in-law's dinner leftovers from the night before.  We bring home the so called doggie bags for everyone but the dog.

Egg Decorating To Clean Your Cupboards!

My eggs are coming in like crazy but I have brown eggs and dying them creates muted colors.  I still like things a bit bright and pastel for Easter. 

Here is a Epicurious link to an idea that makes sense, cleans out your old spices and things in your cupboards, and is fun.
Natural Easter Egg Decorations

Put a unique twist on Easter eggs with creative food-based embellishmentsby Kendra Vizcaino

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/holidays/easter/natural-easter-eggs?mbid=RF

I'm thinking I can die my old sesame seeds and get them brighter too.  I have some colored jimmies and nonpareil dots that probably have grandchildren.  I think I have a way to get them out of my cupboard without throwing them out.

Bring Me Your Poor, Tired Trees

OK! Not all of you are going to hop in a truck, train or plane to bring me your tree. However, there most likely is a good place nearby to give your tree another purpose. 

Over at Brooklyn Feed , Martha blogs about Mulch Your Christmas Tree! (On the Pond Farm is mentioned. Yay!!) and has the link for the NY Mulchfest this week-end.  We have the same thing locally through our Loyalhanna Watershed Association (drop them off in the designated area at the Country Market field), so don't let those old trees blow around and rot when they can have one more purpose.

Here, of course, we use them for goat entertainment.  Speckles is very happy!

First they are eaten and then they become hay racks. 

 We are already well into our second or third tree per field. 

I just had to haul this nice big one over this morning, and the girls were most pleased. Do you see Twee's nice udder(on the right)? We are watching for her to kid in the next few days.  Her belly is down to her knees!

As you can see, we have a bit of snow on the ground. Even more of an issue is the wind chill although the sun has taken turns coming in and out. See the ripples on the pond?

I will admit to being blown around in the alley this morning, and I am no feather!! But Jock loves this weather and he needs his walks. Yes. Even when its 19 degrees out side and feels like -2. 

"A tired dog is a good dog."

Kids Day In

This morning the nannies got their grain outside, as the temps were mild (merely 30), and I wanted the kids to get used to the great outdoors. They had other plans. It went something like this.Ever see that dog movie where they eat spaghetti? Shluurp! Wanna get a ride in the wheelbarrow? Cool! Pooo! Try eating this plastic. It makes funny noises.

And if you flap your ears really wide and jump, you can fly.

Threecycling, Treecycling

Initially, the trees arrive to be a snack and distraction for the goats. With the snow getting deeper, it hard to find much to do after the grain and hay is eaten. A walk down to the water cooler is about all the excitement there is, and the gossip is slow. As the wind has become persistent, the trees, or their skeleton have become makeshift hay racks.
Think of it as a stuffed potato, but these are stuffed trees. I take a slice of hay, break it up and stuff it in between the tree branches.The goats can eat the hay, or the tree, or combine the two. I see less hay laying on the ground and blowing across the snow. Even a well eaten tree serves as a good feeding station, and gives everyone a chance at food with less butting.

They're not done with this yet!