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Author Topic: Gardening  (Read 13528 times)

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Offline Johnm

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #90 on: June 06, 2021, 12:30:41 PM »
Hi all,
A very good gardening season so far in Northwest Washington. Plants that like cool weather--shelling peas, onions, garlic, lettuces and potatoes have been very happy, since it has been a cool, wet Spring for the most part. This past week had a couple of hot days (for here), in the high 70s and 80s to help the beans and tomatoes, which really like the hot weather. Ginny has found some tomato varieties that thrive out here in recent years, and I used to think you had to live in the East, Midwest or South to be able to grow good tomatoes. Other plants, like squashes, Delicata and Potmarron, are coming along nicely, as are cucumbers. It looks like we'll have a bumper crop of strawberries, too.

Kidding season has been occupying us lately, and we're both pooped. Jasmine had to have a C section, but her buckling, Nugget, is a beauty and a sweet little guy. Last night between 2:00 and 3:00 AM Lulabelle gave birth to a doeling, Nettie Lu, who had a leg back, so it was a strain for Lulabelle, but she came through like a champ in her first kidding. I'll attach a picture of Nugget.
All best,
Johnm

Offline Slack

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #91 on: June 06, 2021, 02:17:17 PM »
Congrats on the newborn kids John!  A C section and a leg back and at 3am.... exhausting indeed.  I'm glad everything turned out A-ok.   

Good year here for tomatoes... which is about all I do anymore.  I got them in early and we have plenty of hot weather for them... my plants are 6 ft tall and I've harvested a couple of dozen tomatoes so far.

Offline Johnm

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #92 on: June 06, 2021, 08:49:29 PM »
Thanks, Slack! Wow--6-foot tall tomato plants, you obviously have the right climate for tomatoes in El Paso. And already harvesting them--we're a long way from being there. Do you make sauce or salsa? It sounds like you have enough to do that. Congratulations!
All best,
Johnm

Offline Slack

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #93 on: June 07, 2021, 09:12:44 AM »
Johnm, vine ripened tomatoes are like gold... salt and pepper is how I like them (and we have plenty of fresh salsas on the border).  I took extras to Marfa for a gathering this past weekend and they do not last long.  I do like to make Chow Chow in the fall with green tomatoes if I have them.   Most of the sauces I make are pepper based. Salsa macha, made with dried peppers, is a favorite,  I have also recently subbed to reddit's r/hotsaucerecipes - which has some very interesting recipes, both fermented and fresh, using a variety of fruit, hot peppers, veggies, spices etc.  ... I plan to branch out to some of those.

Offline harriet

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #94 on: June 07, 2021, 10:30:49 AM »
Hello Nugget!
Congratulations on the successful gardens all.


Offline Johnm

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #95 on: June 08, 2021, 08:30:58 AM »
Thanks, Harriet! Our second goat, Lulabelle, kidded Saturday night, around 2:15 AM, a little doeling named Nettie Lu. I"m attaching a photo of mother and daughter. NOTE: For some reason the site software rotates the photos. If you rotate your computer 90 degrees clockwise, you can view the photo as it was taken.
All best,
Johnm
« Last Edit: June 08, 2021, 08:34:17 AM by Johnm »

Offline harriet

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #96 on: June 08, 2021, 09:20:09 AM »
Thanks for posting Nettle Lu and Mom' picture  - I think it displayed correctly on my computer  - exciting time for you and Ginny I would imagine. 

Offline Johnm

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #97 on: June 08, 2021, 09:46:51 AM »
Yes, exciting and tiring! I'm not used to the all-nighters. But it's wonderful to be around new life. And these baby goats' coordination develops so quickly, it's amazing. Nugget is a week-and-a-half old and he's tearing around the paddock and jumping up and down off the play structures. In a little bit Nettie Lu will be able to join him in the romps. And then the moms can concentrate on eating.

Offline lindy

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #98 on: June 08, 2021, 09:58:06 AM »
1977 or 78 I was working on a project in a small farming community in Eastern Washington. A couple of friends I made owned a sweet little goat ranch, about 20 acres in the foothills of the Cascades.

They came into some inheritance money and decided to treat themselves to a late winter canoe trip in a warm place. They asked me to take care of the property, warning me that three of their goats would likely give birth while they were away. But they said 99 times out of a 100 the goats take care of everything on their own and wouldn’t need my help except to clean up the mess and make sure the mama had access to water laced with some iodine.

This Staten Island born-and-raised 20-something, who never had a pet growing up, had to deal with a 1-percenter, 2 or 3 in the morning, during a howling blizzard, near-zero temperature. Same as Lulabelle, her kid had one or both hind legs bent backwards/sideways, and mama was screaming in pain.

My friends had warned me, “And sometimes you just have to reach in there and pull ‘em out.” What a mess! I had to somehow secure mama so she wouldn’t thrash all over the place.

That’s enough detail — believe it or not, youtube has many vids of goats giving birth if you need a visual aid. Mama survived, kid survived, somehow I kept the contents of my stomach down. Thankfully the other two births didn’t require anything on my part.

A great memory for a city boy.

Lindy

Offline Johnm

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #99 on: June 08, 2021, 10:08:00 AM »
Wow, I don't envy you that experience, Lindy. That was a kind of cavalier thing for your friends to do, leaving you in the lurch like that, with no previous experience. I'm glad it turned out okay, but time sure slows down in those circumstances, doesn't it?

Offline lindy

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #100 on: June 08, 2021, 11:02:20 AM »
I never felt that way, John. Of course, I’m leaving out lots of details, like my friends giving me the phone number of a neighbor who was also raising goats, in case I needed help. But she lived 10 miles away, and I wasn’t up to rousting her out of bed in the middle of the night and asking her to drive in whiteout conditions.

Something else I learned during my time in that community: ranchers, farmers, their kids, and their kids’ friends see death on a regular basis, and have a different attitude toward it.

I need to be careful about making sweeping statements — goat ranchers have different ways of relating to their animals than beef cattle ranchers, and family farmers react to animal deaths way differently from corporate farmers. But overall, reactions to losing animals in small family farm communities are very different from what most of us are accustomed to. One of many lessons I learned there.

Lindy
« Last Edit: June 08, 2021, 04:11:51 PM by lindy »

Offline Rivers

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #101 on: June 11, 2021, 10:12:16 PM »
Yep it's a different world out here on the farm. We had somewhat romantic notions before landing here. We soon found out that everything is trying to eat everything else, and/or steal their food. That includes foxes slaughtering the poultry, goats eating your herb garden, chickens eating the ducks' food, etc etc. It's frickin' endless.

You need a totally warped sense of humor, so I'm very fortunate in that respect.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2021, 10:15:06 PM by Rivers »

Offline Rivers

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #102 on: June 11, 2021, 10:45:47 PM »
This year I decided it was time to extend the short growing season up here in the NE USA so I resolved to build module #1 of a high tunnel. Then I realized there was no flat ground on our south-facing hillside where I could put it. We went ahead and built it anyway, it's been lashed to the big barn for the last two months. It's 14 ft W x 16 ft L x 11 ft H

Meanwhile I've been working on leveling a good spot for it to live. This required construction of what has become known around here as "The Great Retaining Wall of China". My retaining wall construction knowledge was zero when we started so I did a lot of research and quickly became more confused than I already was.

The wall is now almost complete, the plot will be level and the high tunnel set in two weeks or so. All earlier germinations we've been transplanting to bigger pots for easy management, a strategy I totally recommend if you're behind schedule as we gardeners often are.

I'll try to remember to post some pics when it's all set up.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2021, 11:57:18 PM by Rivers »

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