Author: Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm

June – Happy Father’s Day

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Uncategorized

Chris was up at the crack of dawn this morning to spend Father’s Day with his two kids.  That may come as a surprise, since he has no children – but they showed up last evening, claiming to be his kids and moved right in.

Yep, moved right in to the barn where they are keeping company with Pono, the miniature horse.

Actually, we’ve been expecting them and had met them as newborns.  Chris had prepared for their arrival  by making sure the pasture fence was secure and building a small run-in shed inside the run-in shed where they could be a bit more protected from the elements – and from Pono – who is much bigger than they are.  Everything was in place — until it wasn’t.  About a half hour after everyone was safely tucked into their new home in the pasture, Chris went to check on them – and the kids had escaped!  They were down by the beehives, just exploring their new home.  It took some corralling, but we got them back in the pasture and hammered a board in place where there was a narrow four inch gap.

We named them Heidi and Peter, from the classic children’s story Heidi by Johanna Spyri.  It’s Arianna’s favorite book and we read it together all the time.  Heidi goes to live with her gruff grandfather in the mountains.  Peter is the young boy that lives down the mountain and is the goat-herder.  So our resident goat “kids” have been named after Heidi and Peter.

And already they are eating out of his hand.

Happy Father’s Day.

Two goat kids
Our new goats – Heidi (black) and Peter (brown)

 

 

 

Goats eating out of hand
Heidi and Peter eating out of Chris’ hand

 

Goats looking out the fence
No more escaping!

 

May – A Terraced Garden

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Uncategorized , ,

I’ve always wanted a terraced garden, and the sloping hillsides on No Rhyme or Reason Farm definitely need terracing.  A match made in heaven, I suppose, except for the sweating and sore muscles that came along with it.  My new fenced in space is now terraced for all the things that will permanently reside in the garden —  fruit trees, raspberry bushes, blueberry bushes, strawberries and asparagus.  And I have space left over in the lower part of the garden for potatoes and squash and whatever else I can shoe-horn in as the growing season gets going.

Now I just have to be patient and wait — and wait — and wait for the fruits of our labors.

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Fruit trees, raspberry bushes, blueberry bushes and strawberries.
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All sloping down hill in plain sight of the bee hives — I sure hope they know to come pollinate my garden.

 

May – MORE Chicken Drama

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Uncategorized , , ,

We moved those sweet little fluff-balls of baby chickens who had grown into noisy, smelly teen-aged chickens to the coop.  A friend had said our two remaining “old hens” would mother them.  Not so much.

The one hen was downright mean to them, and the teenagers cowered in the corner.  When we saw the mean “mother hen” pick one up and shake it by it’s wing, we knew we needed to do something.  We unrolled chicken wire inside of the chicken coop and divided the space so that the new residents have their own space, and the two crotchety, old hens have their own space.  At least for the time being.  We’re waiting for a week to ten days until we give them common space again.

In the meantime, we let the old hens out for their daily stroll where they scratch the dirt and eat the grubs and ticks and anything else they can find.  Except this time, something went wrong.  When we went to put them back in the coop – we only had one old hen.  The other disappeared.  There were no feathers, no note saying she ran away from home — nothing.  We waited until it got dark out, expecting her to return home and say she didn’t want to run away from home after all.  But she didn’t return.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if it was the mean one that went missing, but it was the other one — not that she was nice, but at least she wasn’t mean.

Then Saturday morning the chicken riddle was solved (no… not the age of old question of “why did the chicken cross the road?”, but our chicken riddle… where did the chicken go?).

We saw a FOX sitting in the yard eyeing the chicken coop, waiting for breakfast!  Now we only let our remaining hen out on supervised recess.  We’re down to getting just one egg a day until the teenagers get a bit older.

In the meantime, we took a look at our trail cam and found a good picture of our fox trotting past the bee hives.  Now that I have his picture, I think I’ll put up a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster for our chicken killer.

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The “teenagers” get their own section of the coop.
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Behind bars and separated from the mean hen.
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The hen out roaming in the yard — also known as Fox Food.
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The Fox – captured on our trail cam, wandering past the bee hives and looking for breakfast.

 

 

May – Teenage Chickens

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, chickens, Farm, Homestead, Uncategorized

Remember those cute little fluff balls — baby chicks that we brought home from Tractor Supply.  They were so cute and cuddly, how could you not fall in love with them.  And, they were no trouble at all living in a small box in our living room where we could keep a close eye on them.

But they are growing.  I think they’ve hit the teenage stage.  They’re big enough to be a pain, but not big enough to put them outside on their own yet.  They stink, they make a mess and they’re noisy.

But, there is a chill to the air today, it’s threatening to rain — and it’s Mother’s Day.  What kind of parents would we be to push our “teenagers” out of the house on Mother’s Day?  so we’ll wait until tomorrow — and then it’s off to the coop.

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So cute and cuddly.
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Not so cute and cuddly.
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Messy, stinky, noisy and time to move to the coop.

May – Raising a glass (or more)

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Uncategorized

I’m all in favor of raising a glass of my favorite beverage at the end of the day — but this farm gives new meaning to raising a glass.

Over the course of the winter, as the ground has frozen and thawed, frozen and thawed, the heaving has raised a glass — or pieces of glass.  And I assure you, “all that glitters is not gold.”  As I work in the garden, or crisscross the lawn, something will glitter and catch my eye; and it hasn’t been gold yet.  No, it’s been shards of glass, pieces of pottery and even daggers of a broken mirror.  It’s a never ending battle of me against the things that will cut my feet if I ever dare to walk barefoot around this farm.

My one day yield – slightly more than 1/2 a pound.  I’ll raise a glass to that.

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Just over half a pound of glass in one day!

 

April – Making the cut

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm After, Before, Chester County, Fruit Trees, Uncategorized

We’ve been trying to get fruit trees planted since we moved here.  We bought three apple trees a year or so ago at an Amish mud sale and we’re training them to espalier along a fence line in the back yard close to the patio.  However, I still wanted peaches, pears and cherries.  I always seemed to be too late to order them from the Adams County tree farm (seriously, I think you have to order them five years ahead of time — they are ALWAYS sold out).  Then I found out about Kauffman’s Fruit Farm.  They sell bare root fruit trees in the spring.  We picked them up a few days ago — six tall twigs in a big trash bag.

We’ve been preparing space inside the garden fence to protect our new “orchard.”  And I’ve been reading the book “Grow a Little Fruit Tree,” that basically says plant the tree and then chop it off at knee level.  WHAT!?!  The premise is that where you cut it becomes the main trunk, and then the branches grow from there — giving us an orchard that is accessible without climbing ladders or trees.

Chris dug the holes and held the twigs straight while I filled in the dirt and tamped them down all snug in their new garden space.  And then I took the garden clippers — and ruthlessly cut each one down to almost nothing!  I sure hope this works.

And if it does, there is just enough space left for two apricot trees – which we’ve ordered already for next spring.

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We brought home a sack of long twigs.
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Chris dug nice deep holes for the bare roots.
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We made sure they are standing up straight and filled in the holes.
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And we cut off the tops of the trees so they are about knee high.  The cat seems to know there will be no climbing up these trees today (or ever!).

 

April – (5-2)+6=eggs

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, chickens, Farm, Homestead, Uncategorized

We started out with five hens when we moved in to our farm.  Our builder gave them to us as a house warming gift and we’ve been nurturing them — and enjoying the eggs — ever since.  But apparently they are getting old.  We’ve had two of the chickens die over the last several months, I think from old age.  Apparently laying an egg a day can really wear you out.

After a trip to tractor supply, we ended up with six baby peeps — two Red Sex Links, two Barred Rocks and two Ameraucanas.  Right now, they live in our living room — under a heat lamp and keep us entertained with their peeping.

Arianna came to visit them and couldn’t believe her eyes!  Chickens in the living room!  In a house where we have NO indoor pets.  Even our cat is an outdoor barn cat — which is a good thing, because I don’t think an indoor cat and six peeps would get along well in the living room!

Once they grow a little bigger and get their feathers, we will introduce them to the “old” ladies in the chicken coop and they will all have to learn to get along together.  Until then, we have peeps in the living room!

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One trip to Tractor Supply and six chicks later…
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They are settling in to their box in the living room,
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With a heat lamp to keep them cozy.

March – Precious Drops of Liquid Gold

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm After, Before, Chester County, Farm, Farm to Fork, Homestead, Maple Syrup

We’ve tapped our two maple trees – but I think we started too late.  Nevertheless, we got four gallons of sap.  It looks like pure water and taste like… water.  I expected at least a hint of sweetness or a tint of color.

We set up the outdoor burner, connected the propane tank and got out the turkey roasting pan.  I poured two gallons in and started boiling, adding more sap as evaporation would allow.  Six hours later, after sitting outside in the cold on the patio, I had two quart jars of lemonade looking liquid.

The next night I emptied those two quarts into a pot on the stove in the kitchen.  I figured by then most of the evaporation had already happened, and cooking it down further wouldn’t make my kitchen “that” sticky.  I boiled and simmered and boiled and simmered and kept measuring the temperature.  As more evaporated, I moved it to a smaller pan, and then to an even smaller pan.  And I kept boiling and simmering and taking it’s temperature.  Finally, after about three more hours of undivided attention – lest I burn the whole batch, I had SYRUP!  Yes, I tested it with the hygrometer and did some fancy math calculations that involve a chart and testing the temperature vs. the Baume scale and the Brix scale – but it was officially at the syrup stage!

I very carefully poured it into ONE of the 8 oz syrup jars (I bought a case of twelve, just to be optimistic) — and it filled it about two-thirds of the way.  Yes, four gallons of sap gave us about two-thirds of a cup of syrup.  But it’s really AWESOME syrup.   It’s thick and rich and tastes like maple syrup!  And the kitchen smells like a Waffle House.  I can’t wait to make some waffles to go with it!

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Cooking down four gallons of sap.
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Yes, there is snow on the ground – but it’s time to boil the sap.
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All we got was two quarts of boiled down sap.
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So we cooked it some more.
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And the put it in a little tiny pan and cooked it some more.
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Until we got about two-thirds of a cup of REAL syrup. The phone is to give you a perspective — this is not a very big jar — and it’s only half full — but boy will it taste good on our waffles!

March – The First Harvest of Spring

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm After, Before, Farm, Garden, Greenhouse, Homestead, Uncategorized

Well, Happy First Day of Spring.  It doesn’t matter that it’s going to snow today.  And it doesn’t matter that it’s going to snow even more tomorrow.  If the calendar says its the first day of spring — then it’s time to get things going in the garden.

In an effort to instill a love of gardening in Arianna — we’ve had a tradition every spring.  We plant jelly beans.  For some reason, this only works in early spring up until about Easter time, after that, the jelly beans just don’t seem to sprout.  We water them and then check on them in the morning.

This year, the garden was muddy, and since I have a perfectly good greenhouse just waiting to sprout seeds, it seemed like the perfect match.  We took a selection of good looking jelly bean “seeds” and a few candy speckled eggs, just for good measure and planted them in the flower pots left behind from my herbs last summer.  And it worked — just like every year!

Happy Spring!

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We carefully planted the jelly beans, watered them and waited overnight.
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Looks like she’s happy with her “crop” of lolli-pops that grew overnight!
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Especially the ones that grew from those speckled eggs!
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Happy First Day of Spring!

March – Another Hobby on the Farm

Jeanne at No Rhyme or Reason Farm Chester County, Farm, Homestead, Maple Syrup, Uncategorized

Chris gets a big green tractor, I get some blue plastic tubes.  But it’s okay – I’m as excited about my new project as he is about his.

We have two very large Maple trees on the farm and I wanted to tap them and make Maple syrup.  I went to the aptly named “Tap My Trees” website and ordered the ten-pack of spiels (the things you put into the trees) and blue tubing so the sap can run into milk jugs.  Then I’ll need a turkey fryer (or at least the burner part) so I can boil the sap outside,  until it gets close to the syrup stage.  Then I can bring it inside to “finish it off” and use the hygrometer (which I also bought) to tell when it’s at the right sugar content to make awesome Maple syrup – from our own trees – on our own farm.  Of course, this is all in theory.

I’ve been waiting for those spring days when the temperatures are above 40, but the nights are below freezing.  This week seems to fit – so Chris drilled two holes in each of two trees.  We hammered the spiels (the drain-type things) into the drill holes, attached the blue plastic tubing and put the other end of the tube into empty milk jugs.  Now we wait — and collect the sap every night.

It can take 12 gallons of sap to make one quart of Maple syrup.  That’s almost as bad as the ratio of collecting those green black walnuts husks, shelling them and collect a few little shelled nut meats.  But I guess anything worth having – is worth putting the work into it.  We will see how this goes — pancakes, anyone?

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Drilling the holes
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We hammered the spiels into the tree and connected the tubing to some milk jugs.
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And now we wait…
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For that precious sap that we collect every day until we have enough to boil it down. Fingers crossed.