Spring Happenings on the Ranch

Just thought I'd give you a peek at some of the goings-on around here.

We've planted carrots, spinach, peas, cosmos, kale, lettuce and broccoli in the garden. 

That's a brussels sprouts plant that overwintered.  I'm hopeful but not too optimistic that we'll get any sprouts.

That's dirt on her face, not freckles.  She loves being outside in the garden.

We bought 50 pounds of Kennebec seed potatoes.  It was very sunny when we planted the potato patch, so we tried to protect the baby's head. 

Our potato patch consists of 4 rows of potatoes, each about 100 feet long.   We planted them in the middle of a field to be farmed. We are hoping to grow enough potatoes to feed us all winter, with plenty to spare.

We have lots of baby chicks growing.  Most of them are for meat, just a few are for eggs.  This picture was taken 2 weeks ago, and they are already alot bigger.

Most hatcheries sell Cornish Cross for meat chickens.  They are bred to grow really big really fast.  They are ready to butcher in 6-8 weeks.   Many die of heart attacks before they are ready to be butchered, especially if they have access to chick feed at night.  Their legs can't support the weight of their bodies, and it's just gross.  This year we decided to try Araucana chicks instead. They won't be quite as big as the Cornish Cross, and they should be ready to butcher in 12 weeks.



We've started branding our calves and hope the weather cooperates so we can finish this week (but it doesn't look promising).  We've done some farming, trying to grow our own cow feed to save money. 

What are your spring happenings?

Preparing for Winter with Firewood

A fun winter chore for our family is to collect firewood to heat our house.  We live in an underground house so we are well-insulated.  We can go all winter without turning the heat on if we keep the fire going.


The creek in early fall.



Because our soil is very heavy clay and very alkaline, the only place trees grow on our ranch is in the creeks.  When the trees die the branches flow downstream and into our fields.  Then we have to clean out the fields before we cut our hay.  So, by gathering firewood we are killing two birds with one stone- keeping the fields a little cleaner, and heating our home! 



The grass is so long, it's hard to see much, but this is where we gathered our wood.



My husband cuts up the dead trees with a chainsaw to make them more evenly-sized.  Then we pile them on the 4-wheeler trailer and haul them home.  It's a family event.  Even my 2-year-old likes to pile the wood up.  I take the baby on my back if the weather's nice enough.

We try to stack the wood neatly against our retaining wall.



Our wood supply covered in fresh snow.



This year we were super busy, so we didn't gather any wood until November.  Last year we had a blizzard the first weekend of October!  Luckily this year it stayed dry until we got some wood collected!  It's hard to gather wood that's frozen to the ground.  Now we have a stash to last us a couple months.