After-the-Plant-Sale sale!

The After-the-Plant-Sale Sale
Wednesday, May 25, 4:00-7:00 pm
CCE-Tompkins, 615 Willow Avenue, Ithaca

The Master Gardener volunteers from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County have some perennials left from the Plant Sale this past weekend, and Josh Dolan (who works with community gardens/Gardens4Humanity) has some veggie transplants and woodies left, so we are having a joint sale here at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County, 615 Willow Avenue,
Ithaca.

Getting ready for yet another bonfire...

In the middle of the pic, right behind the mowers' trailer, is yet another bonfire pile! Hubbie and I have been cleaning out the back woods of all the maple that was left over from the large tree that came down. We had the bottom part milled, but the crown with all the small stuff was still there for us the clean up. And of course it had fallen right where I planned part of my woods path and new goat fence!

I use that yellow wood contraption in my tractor trailer to stack and haul scrub and it works like a charm. With that thingy I've been able to get most of the large loose stuff cleaned out. Last year I did not realize I could use our chop saw to cut smaller diameter wood to wood stove size so there is a large stack of relatively good wood left of the bonfire stack we're been slowly working our way thru. I do not feel like going thru it again to separate out the decent stuff. This year we did and now have quite the stack of small rounds in our fire wood house.

Saturday it's time for a bonfire again... hope the weather will hold!

Our new baby goats!

These two are Monica's new girls, born Friday the 6th at around 1030am while Simon and I were mowing the lawn :) We'd checked at 1015am, noticed Monica looked heavy and did not get up to look at us over the door, but no contractions and her water had not yet broken... less than half an hour later, both girls were born and the placenta was on it's way! Man, human births are not like that!!!

Trying to stand under mommy's watchful eye. The little beige headed kid is called "bunny" the other one has no name as of yet.

My kid checking out Monica's kids. He was very impressed by her post delivery cleaning skills, and told daddy later in a surprised voice: "momma goat licking baby goats!" Hey, as long as he does not expect me to clean him the same way LOL

we've got chicks - and 40 of them!

Just like the past three years or so we ordered meat birds and I picked them up April 15th. It is unbelievable, the growth difference between these and my hen chicks! And they behave differently too, much more food oriented -less interested in foraging, but way interested in their human 'mommy' bringing them food! I feed them twice a day a set amount otherwise they'd overeat.

The first year we grew Cornish X meat birds from Agway, great birds but man, they grow fast. And every time they moved around their joints tend to click... it just did not seem natural, a harvest ready bird in 8 weeks! So after that experience we chose Color Rangers, which grow a little less fast (12 weeks) but with hardly any of the health issues.

This year I ordered even more chicks than usual - we only need about 20 birds for the year - as we had several friends and acquaintances interested. So we'll barter some with Eileen for sewing & baby sitting, with Christine from school for beef her husband grows and with a hunter for venison. How varied our freezer contents will be!

Only after two weeks or so they moved to the outdoor "lean too". Still with a heat lamp, at least at night or when it's chilly, until they grow their complete feather coats - and it stops raining!

Alternate Goat Cart

When I found this bike cart it took me a while to think of a way to use it - you won't see me bike anytime soon, Ithaca is not dutch flat - and what a way it is! With guidance of the Working Goats site I devised shafts from 3/4" electrical piping we have laying around (intended for goat barn electricity someday).

One day while Monica was still pregnant - she's due the next week - I figured, what the heck, it's beautiful weather, Monica LOVES cookies, let's see what happens! I had parked the cart in front of their pasture for a few days for them to get used to the thing and with a handful of horse cookies and the new harness we went to work.

First I walked Monica on her leash around near the barn and close to the cart. She ignored the thing.

I put a cookie in the cart seat which got hoovered up real quick.

Then I walked Monica around while pulling the cart myself, sort of next to her and behind her. This made no impact either.

So I took the big step, maneuvered both in position (with cookies) and hooked her up. Now the cart got a good once over, and then it was time for more cookies according to her!

While leading her by the leash we walked around in front of the barn once or twice at the cost of two more cookies and I unhooked her to end on a good note :)

Monica got a nice mouth full of the fresh spring grass as reward!
She's such a good girl!

The balance of the bike cart is perfect for a toddler or two in the back - or some shopping, but nothing major heavy as the floor is just canvas. And it hardly weighs anything either, it is significantly easier to pull than a metal gardening wagon. I can't wait to put it to good use - and Simon can't either, he loves being towed around the yard!

Looking at the pics I do think I'd like to move the shaft hooks up a couple inches, the point up front seems long and leg room seems tight. Guess we'll know for sure when we start using it for real.

Oh, Monica had healthy twins the Friday after, both girls...
Which means I do not - yet - have a boy to wether and train as a cart animal! Go figure, we got five girls from two mommy goats! And if number three Gazelle really is pregnant (starts to look like it) you see we'll get a boy from her, and a girl from her & buck Jamie I'd want to keep...

A question I received recently, if we have any harnesses for sale - I'm sorry but no, we don't. And really, if you look at the pics, and know basic sewing, you should be able to make one yourself fine! This was my first attempt and it looks and works great - so I am sure you can do it too :)

You can get the materials at Jo-Ann's (webbing, fleece and buckle snaps) for about $20 if I remember correctly, tho I did use a coupon of course. There is someone on the internet who does sell them for about $120, I'm sure you can find her with google (I used her pics to make this one).

Greenhouse progress

It's getting there!
The plastic sheeting roof is on, the wall is painted, the windows are in, the doors are hung - and we even started on the inside furniture.

Here my dear hubbie is working on the seedling table, It's fairly tall - and we're tall people already - but I wanted to store empty planters under it and have room for a row of black 55 gallon drums for heat retention. It's actually nice having a tall bench for weeding, tho lifting a full 5 gallon waterer is a little much. Guess I'll need to get another garden hose & sprayer :)

Right now I'm working on leveling the pathway, which has a 6 inch hemlock runner on both sides. I'll recycle whatever gravel is still hiding in our woods and pave the pathway with my treasured stack of collected bricks. Some have neat inscriptions on them and some I even moved all the way from Pittsburgh! Really!

local plant sharing list serv

And here I was thinking I could use one of these :)
It's already available, and even funnier, I know who started it! If only he had mentioned it to me before...

From the Plantcycle webpage:

PlantCycle
From Gardener to Gardener

The intention of Ithaca Plantcycle is to share plants, seeds, tools, ideas, and make it easier for people to turn the hills and terraces and flat lands of Ithaca green. Our primary goal is to promote food security.

Ithaca plantcycle is an e-mail list (“listserv”). There is no cost to join — just visit the Plantcycle information page and subscribe. (Be sure to respond to the confirmation email that you will receive after subscribing; it’s necessary before you can use the list.) Then, if you have something to share, you can send a message to share@plantcycle.net to reach all the Plantcycle subscribers. If you are wish to receive no more than one message a day, subscribe to the digest mode. You may respond to a either the sender or the group.

We are always interested in your comments and suggestions about Plantcycle and your ideas on how to improve it.

Pat and Andrejs

For a couple of years I saved these flat rocks with the idea to make a path or something with them. We found them in our woods, at our property's edge, I even picked up some large ones thru a craigslist ad. But after I again slipped and nearly went on my butt hauling chicken feed down the slope I gave in, got all my rocks and puzzled together this great looking and well working stone step staircase!

I used four loads of five buckets each of gravel as a foundation, and sprinkled that with Quickrete we had left over from the goat barn build before placing the stones. The steps are surprisingly solid, only one or two wobble slightly and might not have at all if we had not used the steps while the quickrete was curing (forgot about that step). But man, was I glad we have an old pile of driveway gravel on our property! That would have been 20 bags of $5 each, geeh.

No, that's not the new door :)
I removed the old door and put this didn't-quite-work greenhouse door in the opening so it does not rain in as much. Had to tie it down with bungees though, this one immediately blew over as well! Maybe we should start thinking "windmill" instead of "solar array" LOL

Indonesian Scrambled Egg & Easy Curry

Needed:
bunch of eggs (we love geese or duck eggs for this)
Sambal Oelek (chinese stores sell this)
soy sauce (thick version, also called soy paste)
pepper and salt to taste

Add table spoon of soy sauce and sambal to hot oiled skillet.
Add eggs, seasoning, let congeal.
Scoop and mix eggs and sambal/soy but keep the chunks fairly large.

This is really good in curry!

I like to make fast & easy curry with:
1 can of coconut milk
curry paste, curry seasoning or premixed curry sauce
1 can of peas
1 can of whole corn
1/2-1 can of pineapple chunks
maybe some bamboo shoots, baby corn or palm heart

from the garden and/or freezer:
chopped string beans
bellpepper pieces
collard green leaves
pak choi greens

When everything is thoroughly heated add the egg mixture.
Eat with steamed brown rice, maybe add a little kurkuma for fun!

almost time for veggies...

Our basement windows have this eerie glow at night... from the seed sprouting setup in my photography studio! Two layers with four halogen lights (two fixtures) each I start my leeks mid February, cabbages etc first of March and tomatoes and peppers mid March. My tomatoes look a little forlorn this year, a little extra TLC needed looks like, but other than them everything else is growing like, well, cabbages!

Leek plants, cabbages (broccoli & head cabbage), basil and more cabbages (broccoli & brussels sprouts).

I find that using the flat lids and the high domes for sprouting, even in the closed "greenhouse" cabinet really help the seeds going. When I first start the flats I only use the flat clear lids and lower the lights pretty much right on top of them. Then when the seedlings touch the lids I raise the light fixtures and switch to the taller domed lids. A couple of weeks before they go out I remove the domed lid and slowly let them acclimate to the air in the cabinet, then move them out to our sunroom and then outside behind the house (back in sunroom at night if night frost is imminent).

Last year I did not use the domes on the tomato and pepper flats - I wanted to use larger starting pots and the lids did not fit - and mice (!) had gotten in and eaten most the young seedlings! I could not believe it...