Shari’s Gone Country

For the first time in three years, we’ve successfully raised some veggies!

That had us “looking at our options”, since canning or freezing much isn’t really part of Mom’s plan. She is happy to put up a small amount (if she’s in the mood and feeling well enough) of things like jam, pickled beets, etc. Only one problem. We didn’t raise any fruit or beets.

We have successfully raised shallots; garlic; white, yellow and red onions; potatoes; a few tomatoes; broccoli, and soon we’ll have loads of squash.

Our neighbor, Jill, who’s a life-long resident here got us interested in the Cedar City Farmers’ Market. It’s an informal affair on Saturday mornings. Held in a local business’ parking lot, we all set up our tables and wait for the crowds… and they do arrive.

I’ve been selling our sheep fleeces as “garden mulch”. Ok, it’s not what you would normally think of… but think this way… awesome moisture retention, great insulation, and a long-term nitrogen source, as well as a good “soil conditioner”.

We’ve been taking several dozen eggs from “Mom’s Hen House” and never, ever come home with any. Of course, we keep her money separate and make sure she get’s it. Oh, also this past month, I had another article published in Small Town Living. This time, it was “Mom’s Hen House”!

With four lambs left, I’ve made up some flyers and hopefully will sell them privately (at the market) for custom butchering. If not, they go to auction the first Thursday in September. They’re about 80 lbs now, and that’s perfect for really tender, tasty lamb.

Besides that, I need their space.

Meet our new addition… who’s about to bring us another addition. We picked her up yesterday afternoon. We’ve been told she’s due anytime between now and the end of the first week of September.

Her original name is “Cowgirl”, but as soon as Mom settles on a new name, it will officially change. I’ve been calling her “Sweetie Pie”.

She’s a 2 1/2 year old Corriente/Texas Longhorn cross and is bred to a big ol’ Herford. “Curly”, the daddy weighs about 2000 lbs. Sure hope she doesn’t have any issues with calving… we’re really rookies on this one.

The plan is to raise her calf (assuming it’s a bull calf) for meat. We’ll re-breed her in a month, so we can get a “summer calf”. If we get a heifer, we’ll probably not re-breed her, rather take her to auction when we can. I’m not sure if we want to bottle-feed a baby as we head into winter, here.

Mom said today, our farm is now complete. She has no desire for pigs, ducks, turkeys, peacocks, guinea fowl, or cats. As for me, I still want a donkey to guard the sheep.

On a sad note, this past Thursday, we lost a ewe lamb to apparent bloat. She was fine in the evening, and I think I saw her early in the morning, but found her in the shelter, still warm, but very dead. That means we’ll go into breeding season with four full ewes being bred and possibly three ewe lambs. It’s always questionable whether or not a ewe lamb will breed before she turns one year old (next April).

This past week has been a very busy one, for sure.

First, we teamed up with “neighbor Clyde” again to dig 23 post holes. His old tractor and 12 inch auger got a real workout. The first two posts were done up front where we’re replacing a fence with a gate. More about that later.

The next major project was 21 post holes for our “desert-style” round pen.

We’re making this one with cedar posts and some kind of fencing. It is a 50′ pen, just like the “real cowboy type” steel pen. The major differences… it’s a lot cheaper, you can’t climb on it, and it’s not portable. A mere 2 hours 45 minutes later, with lot’s of sweat equity (literally) the holes were all dug.

Oh, we also bought our new steel round pen, having returned the borrowed one several months ago. At nearly $1300, that was a major expense for this year. Now we have plenty of room to work the horses.

The garden is coming along nicely. In fact just today, we harvested our first broccoli.

Shortly we’ll have onions and shallots. The rhubarb was cut a couple weeks ago, and has been a nice addition to our table.

This year, maybe… just maybe, we’ll have fresh tomatoes. By putting them in the greenhouse, we’ve been able to keep them alive, and even have gotten them to polinate.

We all make the habit of giving the little blossoms a shake-shake each time we water. Yes, there are many green tomatoes right now… time for them to start ripening!