latest garden ever

It was amazing the amount of rain we had here this spring. Up until the middle of June, my garden looked like this:

Farmboy Iggy said it would be a good year to plant rice.

The dogs assumed we'd dug a puppy pond for them to play in.

A few days of 80s and windy weather though, and we were back to crispy clay.

We finally planted part of the garden June 11th and the other part June 15th. It's the latest we've ever planted. Many seeds we'd ordered won't get planted because the growing season is now too short or the weather already too hot.

This year our garden will hopefully grow cucumbers, beans, zucchini, squash, pie pumpkins, tomatoes, and Iggy's favorite...

...hot peppers. Iggy plans to burn up the world with his conglomeration of hot banana, serrano, habanero, anaheim and jalepeno peppers.

I'm anxiously awaiting Clucky Dickens Salsa this year. :)

Farm Warming

After living here for a year and a half, we decided it was finally time to have a housewarming. We called it our "farm warming".

Farm Man Extraordinaire and Pistol Packin' Papa worked hard at roasting a LOT of pork and then shredding it for sandwiches.

We also made potato salad, baked beans, and homemade BBQ sauce. Guests (all 140 or so) brought desserts, bars, and cookies. We had to move the food into the garage because the house would have burst at the seams.

It was a lovely day, the weather was perfect (which was amazing because it did nothing but rain the days before AND after the party). Friends and relatives were able to come enjoy that patio we somehow finished in the nick of time....

... and tour the farm. People had good things to say about Clucky Dickens Farm:

"It's so peaceful."

"It's so relaxing."

"Your animals look so happy!"

"I love it here."

"Can you adopt me?"

Those are all nice things to hear. But our favorite thing we heard (and we can't for the life remember which guest it was, but it makes us smile everytime we think of it)...

Guest: I like your pigs. So...what do you do with them?
Farm Man Extraordinaire: Well, did you have a pork sandwich yet?
Guest: (silent for about ten seconds, and then...) Oh.

It was a good (and tasty) celebration. :)

this used to be a garage: how to build a patio from recycled materials

When we moved here back in December of 2011, there was a cement block garage that had seen better days.

We tore it down with the intention of doing something lovely with the spot that was left using the materials we'd salvaged.

We finally got that something lovely finished.

It's our lovely patio and fireplace, built with recycled materials from the old garage.

Mr. Farm Man Extraordinare and I decided it would be super romantic to tackle this project together.

Romance on the farm is a little different.

After the half wall was built (on day two), we brought the kids out and gave Farmboy Ooky (10) a mini-sledge hammer.

"Bust out the cement where our fire pit should be, son," we ordered.

Safety first, we wear stylin' eye protection

Next we took the red brick that made the chimney in the original garage and used it to build our firepit.

Mortar + gloves = happy hands

The fire pit set up quick....

...which worked out pretty well because as we were using the mortar that was left to fill some holes in the top of the brick wall, a torrential downpour (complete with thunder, lightning, and hail) erupted.

But farm folk are always prepared.

And so it was that a ginormous tarp was stretched across our project while we cursed and shook our fists at the sky...and went in to eat lunch. Because if you can't beat Mother Nature, you might as well stuff your face. :)

How Much Does It Cost To Raise A Meat Bird?

Well folks, butchering time for the meat birds of Clucky Dickens Farm arrived. At almost nine weeks old, we found a day that all six of us were available to get those meatballs in the freezer.

I had been keeping track of how fast the birds grew in Meat Bird Experiment posts #1 and #2. The unfortunate thing is that I forgot to take a picture of the birds at their biggest, right before we butchered them.

I do have a current picture of them, though. ;)

Okay, so everyone is wondering how much did it all cost and was it worth it? Here's the figures:

25 Cornish Cross Chicks - they actually sent us 28, as it is habit to send extra "just in case"...
33.75

Food for almost nine weeks (50 lbs of starter and 650 pounds of meat bird food)...
185.58

Total cost for chickens...
219.33

From the chickens, we got about 206 pounds of meat. We ended up butchering 25 - one of the original 28 they sent died as a chick and two died just before butchering day. The birds we did butcher averaged about 8 pounds each. Our Clucky Dickens Math (219.33 divided by 206) tells us that it cost about $1.06 a pound to raise our own meat birds.

Financial advantage? I have no clue what chicken costs in the store, so I can't compare it that way yet.

Are they tasty? Oh, goodness yes. :)

Was it worth it?  I'm still deciding. They were worlds easier to butcher than our dual purpose birds have ever been in every aspect imaginable. And one Cornish Rock makes a tasty meal for our family of four adults and two kids. BUT they are disturbing birds. They stare at you and you can hear them asking for food. If they could salivate, they'd be drooling constantly waiting for you to come in and feed them. They reek of desperation...and poop. They eat ALOT. They drink ALOT of water. And they poop way more than ALOT. We cleaned their coop every other day.

So was it worth it?

Hmm. What do you think?

Sunday Scribbles, #101

Sundays at this farmish place are reserved for Scribbles - short, random musings that collect while my mind has time to wander on this day of (supposed) rest. Enjoy, and feel free to add your own in the comments.

1. Church is over and I'm back home. This means I can announce the winner of the completely random,  one hundreth Sunday Scribble giveaway!

2. First I'm going to do something I've never done in a Sunday Scribble ever before. I'm going to go against the ENTIRE reason I started Sunday Scribbles in the first place (a post with no pictures)...and I'm going to post a picture. (Don't tell.)

3. Here's the completely random gift package, because Sunday Scribbles are completely random:

4. There's yummy stuff to eat and drink, artsy-farsty stuff, paper and pens for catching your own scribbles, and other such random bits of awesome for you to enjoy.

5. For WHO to enjoy? Drumroll.....


....Shannon Lunser! Shannon Lunser! Shannon Lunser!

Email me at farmmilkmama(at)yahoo(dot)com and let me know where I can send your package of awesomeness, Shannon!

Thanks everyone for playing along. I look forward to many more scribbly bits of fun, and hope you will stick around to read them. :)

the meat bird experiment, part 2

In my effort to get y'all caught up on life at Clucky Dickens Farm, I realize I'm late in posting about our meat bird experiment that is currently underway.

3 weeks old

They don't stop growing.

5 weeks old

In fact, it's kind of freaky how they get so big, so fast.

7 weeks old

What these pictures don't show is a) how much the meat balls eat b) how much water the meat balls drink and c) how much the meat balls poop. Not kidding. We have to clean their coop every other day.

We take their food away at night (so they don't overeat) and when we give it back to them in the morning, they attack like an angry mob. Their beaks are sharp. I now wear gloves.

Whoever first called them freaky meats was right on. I sure hope they are tasty on the grill. :)

Cash, the guarder of chickens

Cash is our black lab we got back in January. He's awesome.

Our late spring test was to figure out if he'd be able to handle being out in the yard with the free ranging chickens.

Between you and I, I assumed he'd pick off a few before he figured out it wasn't allowed.

I was wrong. Turns out he's just a chicken watcher.

He's pretty awesome. I mean...a chicken watcher?

How did we get so lucky?

Or should I say, how did the chickens get so lucky?

Life is good at Clucky Dickens farm, both if you're chicken AND a dog. :)