Happenings on the Ranch

I am happy to announce we have two new baby goats on the farm.  Our youngest doe, Bambi, gave birth to her first kids on Thursday; one boy, one girl.  They are both doing well, although the little girl has needed a little help.  Our older doe, Onyx, is due any day now.  I just love having babies on the farm!  I’ll try to post pictures of the new little ones this week.

The mud I was commenting on last week has now frozen due to the drop in temperature this week.  I would much rather have frozen mud than the boggy mess that was out there before and now the sun is out so some of it should dry up soon (fingers crossed).   And, surprisingly, our chickens decided to start laying again last week so we have several dozen eggs available if anyone is interested.  Which is good for us, since I refuse to eat store bought eggs and was going through a bit of a withdrawal on anything made with eggs!!

Of course, the sun coming out reminds me that spring is just around the corner!  I am so excited and all geared up to start planting.  I have to pace myself, though, so I don’t get seedlings started too early and not have the right weather when they are ready to go outside!  If you haven’t signed up for our 2010 CSA program yet, you still have time.  Get your share of the harvest each week for 24 weeks from May through October.  It really is a good deal and your early payment really helps with our farm budget in the off-season.

Speaking of off-season, I’ve begun freelance writing again for some additional income.  I write articles for clients who need advertising or informational articles for their blogs or websites.  I also edit, update and search engine optimize web content.  I decided to put together a quick website and blog specific to my writing; the site is www.karinvelez.info.  During some of my research time for a recent project, I came across a pretty good article site called TreeHugger.  The authors and articles all focus toward Sustainable Living which we, of course, are a proponent of.  There is a pretty wide variety of subjects on this site, but most of them pertain to green living, sustainable lifestyle and alternative energy and can be a pretty good quick read.

Until next time!  ~ Karin

Yep.  It’s been that long since I blogged.  I really thought that after the main part of the season was over, I could take a little break and then have plenty of time for updating everyone on farm activities and manage the new CSA sign ups.  Boy, was I wrong.

While the pace hasn’t been as frantic as it was during market season, it’s still been pretty busy around here.  We’ve had seven new potbelly pigs born, have two goats due to kid soon, baby chicks to care for, new pullets that started laying eggs (despite the cold weather and short daylight hours, which is amazing), a grant proposal to write, school application to submit, general clean up, website issues (that still arene’t resolved) a weekly winter market and the work that goes with it …. whew.  Let’s start at the top!

Lola, our mama potbelly, and her mate Ito are the proud parents of seven new babies.  Born on November 9th, they are all doing so well and Lola has proven to be a terrific mama.  They will be ready to go to their new homes in about another two months.

Our two female goats are also getting ready to  have their babies.  Onyx is an experienced mom who always has the most beautiful strong kids.  She is due around the end of the month and, as is normal for her, is already huge!  Bambi is a first time mom so we are monitoring her closely.  She is due in February.  Can’t wait to have fresh goats milk again and make some fantastic cheeses.

Our spring flock is coming along nicely.  We have 15 production red pullets who will be great egg layers along with the one cockerel who’ll be their mate.  In the same flock are 17 White Wyandottes, a mix of males and females.  The females will also be added to our layer flock and the males, except one great looking cockerel, will become someones dinner.  They run around freely during the day right in front of the house, rather than with the older chickens, to keep them from being picked on.  They also like to come up on the porch and visit when the door is open!

And, as I mentioned, some of our five-month-old girls have started laying their first eggs.  Although the age is right, it’s unusual for these breeds (i.e. not commercial production types) to be laying when the temperature is below 65 and the daylight hours are less than 15 hours per day.  That being the case I am extremely optimistic about their production level when spring hits!

Some of you know we purchased our first greenhouse earlier this year and have been in the process of putting up one 20′ x 48′ house for spring production and some winter growth.  What we’ve also done is put together and submit a proposal to the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education foundation for their 2010 Farmer/Rancher grant program.  We want to find a way to increase winter production in our area using greenhouses and completely sustainable heating and watering systems and a much lower cost than traditional methods.  Our hope is that if our experiments are successful we can share this information with other small farmers, thereby increasing the amount of local produce available during the winter months and create the possibility of winter CSAs for this area.  I know many of you hate when the regular market season ends because it becomes much more difficult to find locally grown produce.  We’re hoping this will enable us and other local farmers to provide more to you during the winter season.  Keep your fingers crossed … we’ll hear back from the committee in the Spring.

The school application is strictly mine.  I’ve decided to go back to school to get my bachelors in horticulture from Texas Tech University.  My application has been submitted for the Spring 2010 semester, so we’ll see.  No worries …. most of my classes will be done online so I won’t be going anywhere.

As far as the website issues go, some of you have experienced problems with downloading the 2010 CSA contract.  That, along with updates to the site, are something I have been trying to fix; however, my server connection is not cooperating.  I’m still trying to work through it but, in the meantime, if you need a copy of the contract please shoot me an email.  I’ll be happy to send one right over.

Speaking of CSA, if you are interested in taking advantage of the 10% discount we offer for early sign ups the deadline is Dec. 31st.  Pay for your share in full by that date and you can automatically take 10% off the share price.  That’s a pretty significant discount and we do that as appreciation for letting us get an early jump on ordering seeds for next season.  Just let me know if you have any questions.

I think that does it for this update.  I will be doing a three part series on the creation of our greenhouse once I can get organized enough.  In the meantime, come see us on Saturdays from 10am to 1pm at the Grand Court Retirement Center at 107th and Wornall.  There are still some fresh veggies available along with great baked goods, organic fair trade coffee, holiday gifts and more.  This market is indoors, which is great, and will continue through spring.  We hope to see you soon!

~Karin

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since I last posted.  It really seems like it was only a few days ago!  Just goes to show that time flies when you’re having fun.

The seedlings that were planted a little over a week ago are coming up beautifully.  We have a very well defined routine to how the seedlings are started.  Since each type of plant requires a different way of sprouting, we have created zones in our starting area. 

Some plants require heat, but no light at first.  These are started in recycled styrofoam egg cartons on the top shelf.  The heat from the shelves below rises up to warm the bottoms of the containers so the soil gets to around 75 degrees.  We close the tops of the cartons to give them the darkness they prefer and to keep in the humidity.  Once they sprout, the cartons are opened to let in the light and they are moved to the next shelf down which provides both light and warm air.  When the plants are strong enough and they outgrow their little egg cartons, the strongest plant in each ‘pod’ is transplanted to a styrofoam cup.  The egg cartons are washed, dried and put aside for the next round of seedings.

Some seedlings require light and heat.  These are placed directly in small styrofoam cups on the top and middle shelves of the next starting unit.  They get light from our lamps and heat.  Once they have sprouted, they are also moved to the next shelf to get both light and warm air.  Once they are bigger, the weakest plants in each cup are removed.  Then we run a fan to move the air around the seedlings for a couple hours per day.  This simulates a light breeze and keeps the seedling from getting ‘leggy.’  The lights above these seedlings hang very close to their cups, also to prevent legginess, and as the plants grow the lights are raised higher up.

Some seedlings prefer dark and cool conditions to germinate, others cool and sunny.  These seedlings are started in a seperate area away from the heat and covered with newspaper if they need it to be dark.  These end up being placed by a sunny window when they’ve sprouted, are rotated so they don’t grow one direction leaning toward the light and also get a fan periodically.

The styrofoam cups we use serve multiple purposes.  They retain moisture and are sturdy.  When we are ready to plant the seedlings outside, we can cut the bottom of the cup off and use the remainder of the cup as a protective collar while the seedlings adjust to the soil and get stronger.  Once they are no longer needed, we reuse them all over the place.  Breaking them into big chunks and using them at the bottom of potted plants to help with drainage (much lighter than rocks), insulation for the chicken coops and other shelters, and more.  Believe me, we hate the thought of using something that’s not biodegradable; however, it’s turned into the best and least expensive way for us to start hundreds of little plants and we make sure to use every  last one of them so they don’t end up in a landfill!

In addition to planting, we’ve got 27 little chicks pecking around.  26 of them will be used for meat and one has become my little buddy.  “Lucky” was brought to me a few nights ago by our son, Devon,  and was barely clinging to life.  Since he (she?) is of a different breed than the others, he isn’t getting as big as fast.  From what I can tell, he was trampled by the other chicks.  Believe it or not, I performed mouth-to-mouth, er, -beak, and after about an hour of working with the little guy he was back up and bouncing around.  Hence the name, “Lucky.”  He now spends most of his time in a protected area of the brooder and I let him out several times a day to socialize with the other chicks while keeping a close eye on him.

“Lucky” the chick.

Our laying flock is also doing quite well.  We usually have breeds that lay brown eggs but have a few Brown Leghorns this year that are producing the most delicious, almost jumbo-sized white eggs.  The youngest girls are just now starting to lay and we are hopeful for a very productive year.  The biggest thing, as always, is protecting them from the predators.

Hens by the coop.

This week we will be starting more early plants and, yes, we are trying eggplant again this year.  Keep your fingers crossed!

~ Karin