Gardening and Valentine's Day

Today after schoolwork we worked in the garden.  PD#2 used the little red wagon to haul my tomato seedlings to the garden.  After planting 72 tomato seeds only 26 germinated and sprouted.  Not a very good germination rate, but I am sure if I had a greenhouse the rate would have been better.  I transplanted the 26 seedlings to the raised bed.  The rest of the egg cartons containing the ungerminated seed I dumped into a prepared bed, raked the soil lightly and am waiting to see if any more will sprout there in the sun.  It was a beautiful day today, so I am hopeful they will sprout.  If not, I'll plant more seeds.

We also planted 50 onion sets/plants in two prepared bed areas.  I raked the entire, small pile of chicken/goat/horse manure and hay pile into the area where we will be planting corn in a few weeks.  I am hoping to get six rows, but PH thinks four is more likely.

The lone peach tree we planted last year has flexible branches, so it is a possibility that the goats didn't kill it.  They continuously stripped the leaves from it, no matter how hard we tried to fence them out.  This year we are hopeful our new fence will keep them out.  Plus, we have installed an electric fence (solar charged) to divide the acreage in half.

One of the baby goats born yesterday, the white one, we named Poppy.  Poppy is not doing so well.  She is very wobbly still, lies down too much and won't nurse.  She keeps arching her back which is not a good sign.  Tonight her mama started acting strange after eating a scoop of sweet feed.  She acted like she was choking, and had continuous saliva/drool drip from her mouth.  I believe she has an impacted cud, and am praying she recovers.  We will check her cheeks again in the morning, if she makes it, to remove anything.  I will run to get mineral oil in the morning to dose her, plus get a calf bolus (like a laxative) to help.  I am praying she will be recovered in the morning though, but I think it means no more sweet feed for her.  I am putting a bale of alfalfa on the shopping list for Thursday so that all the mamas will get additional nutrition while they are nursing in these early days.  Plus, several goat blocks would be a good idea, along with more DE for worming.

The all black doeling we named Holly (I wanted Nightshade but was outvoted).  That little girl is very active, and definitely knows where her food is, I wish she would show her sister!

For Valentine's PH and I went into the small town closest to us and had dinner, the kids stayed home, and we brought them dinner.  It was really nice to be able to sit and eat without fussing, or running someone to the bathroom.  Honestly, I was so happy and relieved when PH suggested going without the kids.  I love them, but it was a stressful day and I needed some quiet time.

PS#2 is taking a sign language class for toddlers at our home school co-op.  He really isn't into practicing the signs, but he is obviously paying attention because when I do them, he can tell me what they are, he thinks it is a game.  When signing the word "Jesus" he thinks it means the entire song of "Jesus Loves Me". ;-)  He is also studying Creation, and Phonics.  The fourth hour he either stays with me in my Emergency Prep class, or plays in the nursery with his little friend Monkey Boy.  ;-)  I stay with PS#2 in his first three classes.

PD#1 is taking a Science course on energy, a guitar class, a devotional class for young ladies, and a high school writing course.  PD#2 is taking a class on major U.S. Rivers and Water Conservation, an Art Class, one called Pizza Party (a unit study on Italy) and Music.

Have a good week, and I will check in later this week to share what we have done to prepare and to get your progress.

Update on "What I've done to prep this week"

This is my entry on another blog when the blog author asked the question of what everyone has done this week to prepare:

1) Ordered additional seed for our seed bank, and our garden from Baker Creek Seed
2) Worked on gun safety, loading and target practice with family
3) Ordered 2 DVDs (one Stargate Season 7 – okay it’s a stress relief, and a DVD “Homestead Blessings: The Art of Soapmaking”
4) Prepared garden
5) Purchased one item from each category on Master List
6) Made bucket toilet, been having everyone use it, then showing kids how to deal with human waste.

That's about it....what have you done lately to prepare?

Ham and Bean Soup

I made ham and bean soup today, it's still cooking away in the crock pot.  You may not think this is significant, but it is!  I don't like beans.  I found this recipe online, and it looked good, despite the beans.  I even TASTED the broth to see how it was...I lived!

The "plan" is to have PH try it, if it likes it great, we'll have it tomorrow.  If not, I'll can it and it will become part of my emergency food, " if you are starving, you'll eat it" pantry.  It smells good, and the taste...needed more salt it was kind of BLAH.


PH is finished with barn construction, but has been welding a couple of hay racks for the horses out of scrap pipe.  Pretty cool!  I had mentioned to him I wanted to buy some from the local feed store, but FREE is always better. 

What have you done to prepare this week?

I've decluttered and gone through items to make room for more storage.
Inventoried the freezer
Talked to my FIL about hog butchering (he's a wealth of knowledge)
Started preparations to make deer jerky for the first time


More later, coyotes are prowling gotta go....