We were pushing it but thanks to Old Man Winter for delaying his arrival we managed to get all of our birds dispatched and into the coolers! We started at Mo’s house and her 30 birds then moved over to ours and our hodgepodge of 18 or so birds. Nearly 50 birds done, mess cleaned up and only one minor boo-boo. (I cut my finger a little!) All finished before it started to freeze.
Good job!
#Relieved #grateful #fillingthefreezer #stockingthepantey
Spent the afternoon at my friend Barbara’s White Gold Farm observing her milking operation and made mozzarella cheese. She has dairy goats as well but we focused on the Holstein side of things this time. She has two cows in milk, Sadie and Sally.
Barbara is our 4H Leader in addition to being our friend for our entire tenure here in Alaska. I met her through an ad I ran for childcare way back in the day. She’s been a constant ever since!
Before we got started on the mozzarella she let us sample a Monterey Jack cheese she made back in January. So good. The flavor is just so much better than commercial/store bought cheese. We are inspired to try making some different types of cheeses now!
While there, we got to see the cutest little calf ” Sir Loin” 😁. He’s about three weeks old and belongs to Sally. Nothing cuter than a baby cow. 😍 Except maybe a cute little boy experiencing a cute lil calf for the first time.
The kids got to experience the shear size of these cows, much larger than previous experiences! And learn a few things about milk production. The cheese making was the best part, because it tastes so good!
Good food and good company, nothing compares!
AK Boy came inside after chores concerned about his favorite duck, George. He said she had some frozen gunk on her face and maybe there was something in her eye. So if course I said “bring her in and we’ll take a look”.
He was back in a flash, pet carrier in tow, with George. She did have something foreign froze to her face below her eye but there didn’t appear to be any damage or injury. She was dirty and stinky and I decided to give her a tub of water so she could clean herself.
What was I thinking?? 🤔
This duck was so happy to have some warm water to swim around in. She preened and cleaned and fluffed and flapped until there was water everywhere in the bathroom. Every. Where. I even found water on the ceiling. 🤨 But she was one happy mother ducker.
After an hour in the soak she was allowed to stay inside (in her pet taxi) to get thoroughly dry before returning to the barn.
I told that boy NOT to get any ideas about a house duck. We were not having a pet duck in the house. 🦆
These puppies are more than enough! Although a single duck might be less mess! 😜
Last Friday we stayed home from work due to Dean being under the weather. So the kids and I used the opportunity to start on the garden plot, do a little barnyard clean up & to get some fresh air. The garden plot was quite the mess.
We enjoyed watching the goats and ducks being released from their winter quarters and go a little wacky on the barely there green grass blades
First thing we did was assess the old derelict greenhouse frame. It needs to be disassembled, repaired and re-sheeted with siding and greenhouse plastic. Lil Bit and I took stock of our materials so we could plan the new structure. As it is currently, about 15 feet long and 8 ish feet wide. We’d like to maintain that size, just move it over to the left about 2-3 feet.
Then we found a couple old pallets that we hauled up to the garden plot to add to our existing compost bin. The original bin was filled up over the winter with kitchen scraps and barn litter. We’ll let that side sit and work this summer to add to our beds next year.
Then we got started on the clean up part. Thing 2, AB and Lil Bit all pitched in. We cut down all the wild raspberry canes, some Willow shrubs and tall grasses down. We raked up dead grass and leaves to fill our new compost bin about half way. The kids hauled barn litter over and dumped into the old bin. I gave some of the raked up dried grass to the goats, they loved it.
I cleared out the strawberry patch of last year’s dead leaves & weeds, cut the runners loose and mulched with fresh straw. We topped off the two beds and all the tire stacks with more soil. And we stretched an old tarp (that we repurposed for ground cover & saved from going to the landfill) out over the area we just cleared to keep regrowth down to a minimum. We will eventually top this with sawdust and wood chips for pathway maintenance after we build the new beds.
This tarped area is where we plan to construct two more raised beds and put additional tire stacks around the fence perimeter.
Lil Bit’s 4H project is gardening so she has been busy tending her starts in the mini greenhouse in our bathroom. And getting more excited by the day to start her outdoors garden & greenhouse.
While raking and checking for signs of new growth we discovered the lilac Thing 1 planted last year has some buds on it!! It’s always a happy day to see your plants made it through the winter!!
Besides the greenhouse renewal & new raised beds to build, we have some fencing repairs to make. I’d also like to test our soil this year so we can make amendments based on need. We’ll see how that goes. 🤪So our work isn’t done but we feel good about getting it started.
Food self sufficiency is something any good Alaskan Sourdough knows a good deal about. And you use what you have to make your garden work. We’re not buying a bunch of fancy stuff, just making do with what’s around the place.
My first summer in our home (2015) I had high hopes for a bountiful harvest from my new (to me) garden plot. We even constructed a small greenhouse to help extend our season a little bit. I planted all sorts of things like potatoes, tomatoes, okra, herbs and squash. I was so excited! I mean, what could go wrong, I’ve been gardening most of my life and usually pretty successfully at that. Well, Alaska throws a mean curve ball.
Besides planting most all the wrong things, I had no concept of Alaska’s surprise hard frosts nor her relentless sun beating down day in and night too. And exactly how much water one needs to apply to soil that really never gets enough of the stuff. Neither did I appreciate how fast grass and weeds grow here.
To say that my first Alaskan garden was an epic failure is an understatement. It was so devastating, all that work, time and $$ down the drain, that I haven’t really gardened since, with the exception of a container here and there and cold hardy flowers. (I mean petunias.)
This year we’re giving it a full-on go again. Mostly because my oldest daughter wants to do it. It’s her project and I’m offering a little support along the way. At least she’s starting off with a little more experience in Alaskan summer weather cycle and what’s really best to plant here. And no, there’s no plan to grow okra.
She’s started out with measuring the garden fence to get an idea of how much electric fence we need plus square footage to plan out her scheme. She’s plotted 5 raised beds, hugelkulture style, and a variety of tire towers and containers around the perimeter. Plus an update to the greenhouse which needs a new skin.
Her planned crops include potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, herbs, peas, radishes, blueberries, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and flowers, some edible.
There’s the existing compost pile (that Thing 2 made years prior for a science project) that she’s expanding to double the capacity. Plus she’s already made her strawberry bed with tires and shared plants from Nancy, our neighbor up the road. Nancy is the sweetest. She’s taken the girls under her gardener’s wing and been bringing them plants and sharing information (and ice cream too apparently) with them. This relationship I approve of, not sure about the ice cream tho. Lol
With each passing weekend we try and do a little more work on the garden prep. We are still frosting at night here in our little low spot at the bottom of the hill. So waiting to go to the greenhouse to buy plants, but soon we’ll take out a small loan to make the trip.
I’m very excited for Thing 1 and her goals of gardening and am trying to support her as much as possible but she really is doing most of the work so far. Plus she is carrying on the garden tradition of her Papa Alaska. Who certainly had it figured out with his two massive green thumbs.
We’re doing what we can to produce food for ourselves, in that old sourdough spirit.
Alaska on my mind... 