THANK HEAVEN FOR ZUCCHINI.

I had big plans for my garden this year. BIG plans people! Of course like most of my homestead plans, they had to be amended. I did after all have a baby the end of May, even so, I've been really hard on myself. 

....And I've also been an air head and didn't prepare that well.

I spent a great deal of those last few weeks of pregnancy just lazin' around. Playing with bunnies, hiking, eating all the extravagant breakfasts Spencer made, and tending to our meat bird flock and preparing for their slaughter.

All the while my garden was crying... 

'Why don't you come take away these weeds, even 30 minutes would help!"

I know, I know. How dare I try to relax before giving birth....

Here's where I burst out into laughter, looking back now, being so hard on myself did not make me want to weed the garden anymore than before. In fact, the negative message I was sending myself, made me want to garden less. 

And that is so not me. I love my garden, I love having dirt under my fingers, and I absolutely love going out to the garden after a hot day and harvesting some organic goodness. 

All the business surrounding us before/after Murphy's birth made our life total insanity. Not to mention now juggling two children's' sleep schedules with my own, heaven forbid everyone has to eat right?

That includes the 3 horses, 3 dogs (1 pregnant), 2 cats, 17 rabbits, 14 laying hens, and 20 broiler chickens...

Lets just leave it at this... I made some sacrifices, and my time in the garden is where it hit. Granted I still had a great deal planted. There were even days when I could get the girls to sleep at the same time and maybe even for a few hours. So, I planted and planted and we had a great garden going.

And we still do, save the... south western.... corner. I'm hoping that's right, trust me when I say I am no navigation expert. 

So I let the horses out.. As I have every summer we've spent here. We live on a little over 5 acres of flat pasture in hay country. So, I let the horses free range the bigger pasture, which we cannot afford at the moment to fully fence. But it gives them a great deal more to eat and space to roam. They usually stay away from the garden... sure they did until the corn became 8 feet tall and they just had to know what that was didn't they... 

I'll get to point already. Long story short the horses ate most of my whole 3 sisters garden, corn and beans, save the squash. And all, I mean all of my Scarlett runner and Kentucky pole beans. All gone. I would be harvesting both right now possibly, since this happened last week. I have spent the time since in sadness and shock, save to say there were a few tears shed.

Then I grew mad at myself again. It was me who said we didn't need a taller fence. That the horses have 5 acres to themselves, why would they want the garden?

Ya Q why would a horse want some lovely organically grown yummies...? Horses hate corn right? Ugh, even I amaze myself sometimes. 

But hey it happened and thank the lord its over... and I learned a lesson... and it will never happen again... Next time I'm trying my corn first! I can't help but feel like I failed a little this garden season, I started with such high hopes.

This is all that't left of the 3 Sisters garden.. oh yeah and 3 green beans.

If it weren't for my 5 amazing zucchini plants I may have washed this season for gardening all together. I've had modest harvests from broccoli, peas, and onions thus far. But everything in the garden pales in comparison to my Black Beauty's. I've never eaten so much zucchini nor preserved this much. 

To ease my heartache I did a fall planting a few days ago. I planted some bush beans, dragon's tongue and provider, I planted more peas, some kale, and a variety of lettuce. We still have enough time to harvest short season crops, hopefully with my amended fence Ill get a last harvest in a month or so.

Pulling fresh produce from the garden makes me feel like a school girl again; showing something off to my friends or whoever. You get my drift. I want to jump for joy every time I see a ripe veggie or fruit just waiting for me! I guess that's most the reason I do it. I can't wait to see the progress and the phases these natural beauties go through before we get to enjoy their goodness. 

I'm sure all my friends and family get tired of my giddiness and stupid pictures of me with vegetables. Like whoopdido Q, another zucchini pic, as if lasts weeks didn't get the point across. Ha Ha

What can I say I love gardening and l love food. And thank zucchini, you made me feel like a real gardener, and not a failure. The only vegetable I hope to preserve out of my 2015 garden When life gives you zucchinis - you freeze them for bread this winter. And be grateful, so I am. 

Cheers all!

SCISSOR BEAK.

There comes time in every homesteaders life when things don't exactly work out the way we wanted. Sometimes rabbits don't conceive, or the pigs get out (or in the house in our case!), the last freeze shrivels those beans you planted last week, and sadly at times we lose animals.

When I purchased a batch of hens from a local feed store at the end of February I had such high hopes. More layers means more eggs for our family in about 6 months. But alas, all homesteaders know that with baby chicks comes the possibility that not all will survive. At about two weeks we noticed something funky about our little Americauna, it came down with a common disorder, Scissor Beak. We comically named him Edward and hoped for the best as he struggled with this complication. Keeping him secluded and trying to encourage as many fluids and food as possible was all we could really do.

Scissor Beak is a livable disorder most common in breeds such as Americaunas and Easter Eggers. I've read and read and read about this ailment for weeks now trying to find an answer, a cure, even the cause. It can be caused by an injury, genetics, or an inability to hone their beaks from an early age. Honing is a technique integrated into a chickens natural desire to peck at things while foraging, in the process keeping their beaks the proper length, shape, and size needed to eat and drink. If they are not able to properly hone their beaks on hard surfaces for maintenance, scissor beak can emerge. The worst part? This disorder is virtually incurable.

There is a theory out there naming genetically weak jaw or facial muscles in these breeds as the culprit. I heard a first hand account from my local feed stores owner who has a three year old Easter Egger with scissor beak. He says she lives out her life perfectly adequate, just needing a beak trim here and there. He informed me that the disorder is common in these breeds due to non-intentional inbreeding, in an effort to bring back what was once a heritage breed.

Not all birds with scissor beak can thrive unfortunately. Often times folks have to integrate a water drip system when the bird can no longer perform the normal water scooping technique as its peers. I've read a few cases where the bird had to be fed in isolation as the pecking order becomes more defined. Using a feeder higher to chin level to make it easier may also be necessary. These birds do not commonly complete physical maturity, but can be slightly stunted if the condition persisted since chick days.

One of the tough truths about a homestead, as I said before, things don't always go the way we want. In our case this was true. She seemed to be a lively chick until that last day. Though her maturity fell far behind her hatch mates and she could not make the journey outside to the new coop, she seemed content enough staying in the stock tank with the newer baby birds. I never saw her refusing to eat or drink, but made note at the fact that her body weight was not parallel to the development of her head and wings. As she began to take on a condor type look I grew more worried. Her beak grew more and more crooked even with the addition of rocks, branches, and chick scratch for honing. We deemed it genetic and wanted to do all we could. Edward passed away march 31st, after a good effort at life.

The hard part is, do I spend countless time and money on this one bird? Or do I see how it goes and leave it in God's hands? We chose the latter, as it is so common to lose hatch-lings already, and we were prepared for that. It's another hard truth of farm life. We cannot dauntlessly effort to save this one bird, when in reality if one of the matured hens pronounced with Scissor Beak, she would undoubtedly, be headed for the butchers block. What? I said it's the hard truth and its true!

This is a homestead and this lifestyle is no hobby for us, yes we love it and at times wonder if we even have hobbies since we spend much of our time choring. The grand scheme of the farm is so much larger than any one of our animals that sometimes sacrifices are made. In the end, all of these animals serve a divine purpose. A purpose we are ever grateful for, to contribute and sacrifice so that our family may eat.

And I'm okay with that.

Q