Farm Maintenance continues. We finished painting the flat bed trailer and wiring it for new lights! Yay! This is the first time it has had working lights since we got it. We were using some temporary ones that attach by magnets from Harbor Freight in the meantime. Funny how long temporary is sometimes. . .
After finishing the trailer, we knew we needed to take care of the rust spots on the tractor to keep it in good stead for a long time to come. We sanded the rust spots and taped off the 1920 New Holland sticker and sanded off the ones that would not be easy to paint around. We found a brand of paint called Majic at the Tractor Supply store that was in the blue color for older Ford tractors. It worked great! I used some black appliance epoxy I had on hand for the grilles. For the side one, I took it out to spray it, and for the front one, I put a piece of brown Kraft paper on the inside and taped it off. It turned out well.It was time to process the Cornish Cross chickens, so we set everything up and were able to process the 20 chickens in about 6 hours, which included cutting them up for use. We found that we are able to use it better this way and it does not take up so much space in the freezer. We let it rest for more than 24 hours in the cooler before freezing. We have had the opportunity to have some, and it is great! We will definitely be raising Cornish Cross again. My husband says that now his chores are about 20 minutes shorter per day, without having to take them food, water, and moving the chicken tractor twice per day.
Our old greenhouse plastic has fallen into disrepair. The only thing we have used it for the last two years is for lumber storage. This did not bother our bull, however, as he just let himself into the new back door to see what was in there.
We have almost finished our calf barn extension. At this point we are waiting 30 days for the treated lumber to dry out a bit so we can stain it to match the old section. We really needed some space for hay storage, so the new section is two feet taller with a wider and taller door to get the tractor into. We used some clear corrugated roofing to put a window in for the connection of the new section's roof to the old roof.
We did a little experiment on harvesting. I used a shovel to harvest two rows of beets, and my husband used the tractor to harvest 5 rows of potatoes. In the same amount of time I harvested two bushel baskets of beets and separated some of the smaller plants to replant, while he did not even get a bushel basket of potatoes. This is the first time we have tried replanting the beets at this time of year. Sadly, we had a potato crop failure. Funny how no matter how many potatoes you get, it doesn't seem to be less work. You still have to dig even if you haven't found them.
We used solar distillation to harvest some mint essential oil for a new batch of soap. It involved using a large bowl for the mint, putting a small bowl on top, wrapping it in plastic wrap and putting a rock on top, then placing it in the sun. I went back in and added more mint for a second day to get more essential oil. It takes a lot of plant material to get a small amount of oil, but we had plenty and it did not take much time.
This year we experimented with some new items for the freezer. Pesto sauce due to a bumper crop of basil, and garlic buds jarred with oil. Last year I tried just drying the garlic, but many cloves dried away to nothing, so I am going to see if I like this better. Thanks to the Anders family for the spare baby food jars!
This year we experienced a bumper crop of beets and got 28 quarts for the pantry! Two of the fingers that I was using to skin the beets felt like they had arthritis the next day. . .I love canning as a team sport with my husband, as it is not as pleasant with just one person. We make a great team! Another new thing for us is we have had a pear crop! Finally our fruit trees had a good enough production for canning at about 7 years old. We found out from a youtube video that is is better to pick them and let them sit for a couple of days to sweeten up. We will be canning pears this week. Currently they are laying out single file on a table in the basement so they can get some air and not rot while we are waiting to can them. We have three varieties of asian pears along with some moon glow pears.
Our neighbors shared a melon with us that is new to us. It was delicious! Thanks to the Ramzan family! Through research, we think we have pinpointed it as a Charentais Melon (aka French Canteloupe). As we liked it so much, of course we are saving the seeds. . .
In other news, I have discovered yet another use for the velcro cord ties - a belt loop to hold the end of my belt down when I don't have a belt loop! Yay! Those things are so versatile - I've used them to tie cords, to sew curtain tie backs, to fix a curtain rod inside our car for car camping, and now a belt loop.As far as bits and bobs, I made soap today, my husband bottled beer today, and we have both sliced and chopped cucumbers waiting to be processed into relish and pickles. Until next time. . .
