Compost Happens

Jake and I went to a panel discussion last night featuring some local farmers discussing how to make small farms profitable. Farming and gardening is such an elegant mix of science and art... I think that's why it all appeals to me so much.

My favorite part of the evening was a lively and lengthy discussion on compost. Such wonderful stuff! After describing the necessary ratio of carbon to nitrogen, one of the panelists offered a "recipe" for composting a cow. Layer sawdust, cow, sawdust, straw, manure. Let sit for five months.
We appreciated this validation... after some discussion about what to do with the contents of gutbuckets from butchering our chickens last year, (the dump wasn't open until several days later, we didn't want to freeze them or bury them in the woods for fear of attracting predators that would bother our other animals, etc...) we ended up composting them. feathers, bones, and all. When we mixed our compost with our new soil for the raised beds this year, there was no sign of chicken!
Now we know this is not only an efficient means of disposing of animal remains, but it also preserves the mineral value of that component of your farm from leaving the premises, therefore saving you the future expense and trouble of having to replace it.
I'm currently scheming about a compost bin/rabbit hutch combo similar to this one.

postscript: The raccoon ate the rest of Agnes' duck eggs on Monday night. I could have cried! We have since designed and installed some safer nesting boxes. Lesson learned.

Yay raised beds; boo racoons

It's official. I'm a raised bed enthusiast.

Tonight's strawberries, below. Extraordinarily, there's ice cream in the house. What goes better with season 3 of The Wire than some ice cream with fresh berries?

Agnes Update: We got home from the weekend in MN last night late- around 9:00, and I scooted over to the duck pen to check if there were ducklings. I saw eggshells! Further investigation revealed that a wily duckling-eating monster (racoon? weasel?) had burrowed into the side of Agnes' nest, rolled out four eggs, and brazenly sat right next to her to devour them. There are four eggs left in the nest, and still she sits, poor traumatized thing. Jake reinforced her corner of the pen with some finer gage chicken wire and plywood. If the eggs hatch before we leave for the weekend, those ducklings are roadtripping with us to M.I.L.'s.

And, finally, because he's just so cute, and I don't want to leave you with images of the wily monster, I give you Whistle in the cabbage patch.

Ten Years

Jake and I went on our first date 10 years ago yesterday (to Grand Portage State Park in MN, where we'd later live, and Thunder Bay, ON!)and were married six years ago on Saturday. We celebrated by canoeing and attempted camping in southern MN.

We paddled, but it ended up being too rainy to camp, so we had a very special and romantic evening at the ComfortInn in Owatonna, MN. Just kidding.

In happier news, Jake gave me a pressure canner as an anniversary gift! Oh, the possibilities! Also, this book, which I read aloud to him in the car on the way to and back from So.Minn. and recommend.

Did you know you can boost the Omega-3 content in your chickens' eggs by feeding them flax seed? Its true. I read it in that book. Just don't feed them too much or the eggs will taste fishy.

My gift to Jake was a Shutterfly book documenting the building of our house. Here's a pic from the book, featuring Jake and I and our girl Carey putting in the whole tree supports for the first floor. I'm holding on to the tree around which our kitchen counter is built.

Look at this guy! I just love him. Happy Anniversary, Jake.

R.I.P. Wheels

Wheels.

When we came home from work last night, she just wasn't there. Probably picked off by a fox... maybe a hawk? Coyote? We haven't seen any of those culprits lately on the premises, but we hear coyotes nearly every night and see hawks and foxes frequently in the neighborhood.
Wheels was one of our original 10 ducks, our first livestock, long read about and planned for, brooded in what is now the greenhouse in the spring of 2009.
She was named by our great friend Margaret, who upon being asked to come up with some duckling names emailed me with "Buttons? Jack? Wheels?" after which I of course laughed and laughed and Wheels was christened. Wheels was always filthy- mudburgers on her bill, greenery hanging off the sides, etcetera.
Wheels, thanks for your whimsy. Enjoy the big pond in the sky.

Kale!

This is some of the kale harvested tonight.

We wanted to get it out of the garden becuase we're supposed to have more severe weather tonight. We were gone for the weekend but came home to driveway washout and a rain gage reading 5 inches! All on Saturday night, apparently.
Some friends we saw in Minneapolis yesterday are hosting a kale-themed potluck dinner party later this week, for which each dish must contain kale. I'm determined not to let anything in this garden go to waste this season, so I guess Jake and I are guests at our own kale-themed dinner party, but this one lasts all week.
I consult my cookbooks. One of Mark Bittman's suggestions is Kale with Peanut Butter. I think I'll start there tonight.

Free Bird

We have a lot of fowl living at S4311 (11 ducks and 8 potential ducks, 2 geese, and 32 chickens, to be exact), but there are a lot of wild birds that call our house and yard home, as well.
Here's the phoebe's nest that was built above an upstairs bedroom window last week.

Here's the front door of the bluebird house. There were eggs in there a few weeks ago, but no peeps coming from inside yet.

Here's three hummingbirds belly up to the bar.

Lots of hummingbird nectar recipes call for a lot more sugar, but I make mine with one part sugar to four parts water. I just heat and stir a bit until its dissoved, I never boil the water, and I never add any food coloring. I make a gallon or so's worth at a time and store the extra in a pitcher in my refrigerator. With two feeders that are busy everyday throughout the summer, this lasts me a good while. Last summer friends came over and we made perfect not-too-sweet mojitos with this diluted simple syrup, which made me feel like I could be a contender for the bronze medal in the country-chic/multitasking olympics.
p.s. Free Bird is a cliche song only because its really, really good.

WDRT

Me and my playlist will be on my friend and neighbor Jane's radio program, The Lucky Lucy Show, on Viroqua's community supported radio station WDRT on Thursday from 1-2! She asked for crowd-pleasing music that would make people move, so get limber.
To listen in, click here.