Around the Yard - June 25, 2019 @goldenoakfarm
Broilers in their coop in early morning
That is not really the yard, but I took it from the yard…. They are doing fine. The Barreds have figured out how to slip under the edge of the coop when it is being moved. They will soon be too big for that shenanigan and will also be going out into their big pen by the end of the week.
My husband came home with 2 of these huge bales last week. They were so heavy they bent his truck’s tailgate. It was so heavy it lifted the salt filled back tires of the tractor off the ground when he tried to move it.
We’ve not been able to open this one yet and I’ve been real hesitant, that bulge on the bottom is a bit alarming….
Catalpa the day after Solstice when it stopped raining
McIntosh apple June 2019
It didn’t get pruned this year, my pruner wasn’t available. And there were not many flowers and even fewer apples. It was too cold for the bees many days.
Mountain laurel – these are all the flowers this year
Small garden weed disaster
I’ve been thinking a scythe or weedwacker then 9” of hay mulch might fix it…
East Shed garden
Old North garden – Canterbury bells, Sweet William, feverfew
West garden – perennial foxglove in all the weeds….
West Herb garden - catmint
South Herb garden - heliopsis
South Herb garden – L – R: heliopsis, four o’clocks, white sage, wormwood, mugwort, peony
New Herb garden – Row 7, bottom to top: perennial onion, oregano, chives, marjoram
These have to be moved into the Big garden real soon….
Sunday afternoon I looked out the office window and something was moving in the New Herb garden. The gate was shut. Mr. Woodchuck had gotten in somehow.
So I chased him around the fence a couple times and he was insistent he had gotten in by the northwest corner, where the fence was raised up about 3”. But he sure couldn’t get under it again. So once I was sure that’s where he got in, I opened the gate and chased him out. He was one pissed off chuck, chattering his teeth at me and glaring. When they get that mad, you have to be careful, as they will attack. He’d bloodied his nose banging into the fence so many times.
Then I hammered the post down and closed the gap. He glared at me from under the car.
Really enjoy your posts. Made me chuckle a bit with the chickens escaping because I'm sweating right now from catching 3 that escaped when I moved the tractor just a minute ago. Also, I'm afraid that bale is full of water. You have a really beautiful setup.
I'm afraid it's full of black slime.....
You've been visited by @nateonsteemit from Homesteaders Co-op.
That's kinda funny about the woodchuck. Do y'all wrap your hay bales to keep them dry? I've never seen that before...
A community marketplace of ethical, handmade and sustainable products available for STEEM, SBD (and USD): https://homesteaderscoop.com
follow: @homesteaderscoop
There are 2 ways of preserving hay. One is to wrap the nearly dry hay. If the wrap remains intact, it will ferment and thereby improve the nutrition of the hay.
The second way is to wrap them right after the hay is cut while still green and let it ferment. They call this haylage (like silage).
The first 2 bales were the 1st kind, and we are afraid this one is the 2nd kind....
How do you keep marjoram alive in the winter? It's a warm climate plant? Here we tried growing it, but the winter kills it.
Posted using Partiko Android
I am Zone 4A here and it has done fine. Sometimes it is mulched, if I have the hay in autumn, but lately, mostly not. Have never treated it different than the oregano it usually grows near.
Wow. Probably is some very Hardy cultivar because the one that is grown around here comes from Greece and it's certainly dies at temperature below 0 centigrade. Even Wikipedia says Considered a tender perennial (USDA Zones 7–9).
Posted using Partiko Android
Not sure of where I got it as I think I planted it in 2009 in the Big garden. It was transplanted to the New Herb garden last spring, and is about to be transplanted back to the Big garden due to construction, this morning actually. It's never been fazed by all of this...
I lost a LOT of stuff to winter kill this winter, but this plant was totally unfazed....