Snowfall at Dun Hagan

We're starting to see some semi-regular rain now. It's still not what we normally get, but it's a sight more than what we've been getting so I'm happy with it.

One of the reasons I'm happy to see it is that I can finally get all of the bags of shredded paper off my back porch and in the hen yard where they belong! I haven't been spreading any because with everything being so dry it would simply end up blowing all over the place making a big mess. If it gets rained on once in a while it'll mostly stay put as I want it. There's about twenty bags of paper out there now looking brilliant against the dull background.

I like the shredded paper because it's a major "brown" in that it's a big carbon source with virtually no nitrogen in it so it can soak up a good deal of the nitrogen in the copious manure the chickens put down. Along about the end of August or beginning of September I'll rake it all up to spread on the incipient fall garden much as I did last winter for the spring garden that is bearing now.

Initially I had some concerns about toxins in either the paper or printer toner, but after spending a few hours reading MSDS sheets for the toner and reading up on the paper I decided it would be OK. The toner is mostly comprised of carbon black and some polyester resins, none of which seemed to be a reason for concern. There's a major poultry outfit in Australia that's doing what I'm doing with their shredded office paper.

The paper I forked out of the hen house for the spring garden pretty well disappeared completely in about two to three weeks after I tilled it and the manure in then watered it a time or two. I still haven't fertilized the garden yet and it's all new ground never before planted so it's just the paper/manure that's powering it.

I like the sustainability of this. The paper is a waste by-product that would eventually end up at a recycler and the hens are going to produce manure no matter what so if I wanted to conserve it as much as I can I'd have to come up with the browns from somewhere to mix it with. That's 12-15 wheelbarrow loads of litter that I didn't have to rake up and helps to replenish the nutrients that are lost out of the cycle. A win-win situation so far as I can see it.

I'll be loading the dryer this weekend with a couple more batches of squash to dry for the winter. We'll be eating the first okra as well now that I've cut enough. Naturally I forgot to put my gloves on before cutting the pods and it ate me up as it always does. I may even pay the exorbitant price the market wants for wild caught Florida shrimp to make some gumbo this weekend.

.....Alan.

School's Out

Summertime and the living is easy. The new birds have been in the chicken tractor for several weeks now so I thought it safe to let them out to stretch their legs a bit so today was the day. They didn't venture very far from the safety of the tractor, but they did take a small taste of the relative freedom of the corn patch after having never known anything but the inside of the tractor and the brooder before that.

The corn patch is inside the garden fence so they can't go far, but forty by eighty is a lot more than eight by ten so I think it'll keep them occupied for a while.

The garden continues to do well though the first signs of powdery mildew in the squash is beginning to be seen. This weekend I'll start the milk sprays to see if I can slow it down. The Success variety of summer squash is supposed to be powdery mildew resistant, but I suspect that's resistant in the more northern states, not the high disease pressure we have here in Florida. Still, if it will slow it down a bit the milk sprays may be enough to keep us in squash for longer than we usually manage. No sign of pickleworms yet nor mosaic virus.

The first blossoms on the okra have been opening. Not a lot of height on the plants yet, but they're stocky and dark green with good leaves so the by now well composted chicken litter seems to have done them some good. The sweet potatoes are beginning to run nicely. Need to get some Epsoms salts to the peppers, they're acting a little sluggish, but we've had enough sweet peppers for our needs thus far.

As of last weekend I've now put up thirty four pints of yellow summer squash relish thanks to my not keeping the squash picked as often as I should so some of them got way big. The relish makes for a good way to use squash that are too big for normal cooking, but not so old that they've turned woody. There's nothing I like better on a hot dog or hamburger.

It appears that I'm going to have a nice fruit set on the muscadines, maybe even enough for some jelly in addition to fresh eating. Next year there'll be jelly for sure.

I've twice now read of folks successfully getting fruit from concord grapes here in Florida so I've about decided to give them a try myself. This far south they're not supposed to survive due to Pierce's Disease, but maybe things are changing?

We haven't gotten a lot of rain since Barry, but we haven't gotten a bit, just over a half-inch so we're not as water stressed as we were a month ago. I for sure have got to start mowing the grass now. This is about my least favorite outdoor chore, but we bought acreage so around and around I go.

.....Alan.

A little relief at last.

When the weather is dry then well water is a good thing when applied in a timely manner, but there just isn't anything like THREE AND A HALF INCHES OF RAIN to make a garden stand at attention.

Tropical storm Barry has come and gone. He was just an all night rain storm for us and a blessed event he was too. I didn't have to water anything at all and the whole place is looking better. Of course he did get the grass to growing so I now have to start picking up deadfall preparatory to mowing again, but it's just as well.

Yesterday I picked a five gallon bucket of yellow squash and a few green sweet and hot peppers. Along with some onions from the winter garden I now have twenty four cups of shredded squash, peppers, and onions in the refrigerator mixed with a bit of salt to draw the juices. Tonight I'll drain them then combine with the vinegar, sugar, and spices to make a big batch of squash relish. I've never seen anything like it in the grocery and I like it better than anything on a burger or hot dog. None of mine have ripened red yet so we did buy two ripe sweet peppers to add some color contrast to the mix, but other than that all of the veggies came out of the Dun Hagan garden.

Noticed yesterday that the first okra blossoms should open today, tomorrow at the latest. Except for the peppers seeming to lag a bit everything in the vegetable garden is doing well. Haven't fertilized at all yet except for the hen house litter that I put down and tilled under a month or so before planting. Considering the planted part of the garden is all new ground never before planted I'm happy with it. This coming weekend I'll feed the peppers a bit. I've found that a taste of Epsom salts perks them up. Magnesium leaches out of my sandy soil pretty quick.

Last night I drove in the T-posts for the garden partition fence and laid out the wire, but haven't had time to secure it yet nor have I figured out how I want to do the gate. This coming weekend I hope to have that done then I can start letting the birds in the chicken tractor out for an hour or two in the evenings when I'm home. Saturday morning I took the eight pullets that I raised for the parents of a friend of mine over to them so I now have only twenty five in the tractor. By the time August roles around and they are ready to start laying I should have the second tractor finished and they'll start their slow procession across the orchard into the pasture. In late November or early December they'll make their way at a stately pace back to the corn patch where there should be a good stand of winter rye awaiting them. They'll over winter in the patch then back across the orchard into the pasture so I can till the corn patch preparatory to the spring planting.

I'm hoping to eventually hammer this out into regular cycles much like spring, summer, winter and fall.

We'll see.

.....Alan.