Things are just chugging right along here. I picked the last few mini-ears of corn this morning so this afternoon I will start easing the horses on to the garden grass (it is so green and lush from all the water and fertilizer that the GARDEN didn't use!! ). Today I cooked one of my 49ct/lb turkeys and then went to my moms and we made english peas (from teh garden) and dressing (with onions from my garden). We also baked (roasted?) a butternut squash. Thanksgiving in July! LOVE IT.
Yesterday I put up 6 half-pint jars of strawberry fig preserves and 4 pint jars of regular fig preserves. We have another 2 gallon bucket as well as some on the tree. My Satsuma tree is also making it so far this year! (Last year, after our "record" streak of 13 days below freezing, the Satsuma made fruit and then dropped it every bit before it even started to turn).
A lady at work wants 19 dozen eggs... a week. I had to remind her just because she orders them doesn't mean the hens are going to up production! I average about 3 dozen a week . I do have 2 pullets (supposedly) that are only about 3-4 months old, but it'll be a while before they chip in.
The rabbits are doing a great job at providing fertilizer and not much else. Oops, the black and white one, is not very sociable, but Cheeto and Bon are willing to be held. I have been pulling up the tiny corn stalks and giving them to the rabbits - they love them. Since poor little Emmett the tough chick is gone, I have put Bon in the big wire kennel so he can get some exercise and fresh grass. The chickens are fascinated.
Me too! I could eat turkey everyday. Seriously. I never complain about leftover turkey heheh
So it has been insanely hot here. Mr. Old Neighbor called Saturday and said he wanted to come get some chicken poo from one of my chicken houses, so I told him to get all he could haul. He came at like 5am and said it was "hot enough to bake bricks".
The humidity makes it like you're walking around with a wet electric blanket wrapped around your head and turned on high. *blech*
No more garden... last of the corn and tomatoes are gone. Some peas left but not enough to fool with - I pick them for the rabbits. The figs are still going strong so I'll make some more preserves. I tethered the horses for a little while in the garden Saturday but didn't have time to fool with it since then. I am off work so hopefully I can get out there with them for a few minutes. The plan is to have them acclimated to the lush grass and turn them loose this weekend, then till the next weekend. That's the plan, anyway.
We downed a 40+year old pecan tree a couple of weeks ago and have been hauling it off bit by bit. Today a tree company came and removed the trunk and all for free (they use it in a big BBQ pit). So I am down the only real shade tree I had in my pasture other than the giant mulberry behind the barn. Of course, these days I just leave the big field gate open and the horses come up into my yard where there are a few more pecan trees still.
Tomorrow I take Rio for his vaccinations and to have his knee rechecked. Poor dog always seems to be hurting so we have to do something, whether it is surgery or not.
I already have my ponds producing feed for the ducks (rosy minnows, string algae and duckweed), but it would be nice to produce a people food crop. I though about Australian red claws, but I think our winters are too cold to keep them year round.
They won't over winter where it is cold, but apparently they grow fast. On the site they talk about starting the fry in the cold months in home aquariums and growing them out to eat by placing the in an outdoor pond in early spring then harvesting them before it gets too cold.
By the way Zilla, have you been to see the Colorado Gator farm located in Alamosa, CO? If not you should. They use geothermal heat to heat water and grow Tilapia commercially there. The gators were a way to biologically reuse the waste from the fish cleaning as well as make a secondary profit.