Staying Cool

July

Meet the Animals By Heaven

Hi everyone! I would like to introduce you to our animals starting with the chickens. We have about 35 hens and get anywhere from 20-25 eggs a day. We have one pig and four cows. Two of the cows are at the property, 3 miles down the road, and the other two are here. The two that are here love to be petted because we bottle fed them and they know us very well. They like to have their heads rubbed and enjoy eating Daddy's t-shirts that hang to dry over the fence. We did not name the bull calves because we will butcher them eventually. The little girl cow is named La Vaca which means cow in Spanish. The goal is to milk her someday when she is ready and we are ready too. Maddy is our dog, she is a lab mix and is very sweet. She does have some bad habits but is learning. (Her weakness was chicken killing) We tried to add a kitten this month which would have been really fun except it was wild when papa Ray caught it and as soon as we opened up the box it ran away and we have not seen it since. This past month daddy killed 6 skunks and a few more were spotted yesterday. They live under the chicken coop. There never seems to be a shortage for adventure on our small farm.

Seed Time and Harvest By Noah

In Genesis 8:22 it says,

"While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

Goldendale gardeners suggest not planting your garden until the snow is off of the Simcoe Mountains to avoid any late freezes. Our family usually follows this rule but this year we are glad we broke it because the snow did not completely melt until the 5th of July. We started seeds indoor in March and transplanted in June. We are thankful that no late frosts did come. The weather was unpredictable and it took a long time for the plants to really start growing and a lot of the transplants did not make it. This was the second season for the raspberries and they are doing very well. The strawberries that Uncle Ryan gave us last year are also thriving. They are sending out runners and my brothers and sisters and I are planning on selling strawberry starts to earn money for a family pizza party. We were excited to harvest the first of our asparagus. Asparagus goes in the ground and then you have to wait till the third year to harvest. We have tomato's, rhubarb, potatoes, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, sweat meat squash, cantaloupe, cabbage, water melon, collard greens, flowers, corn, beats, carrots, one brussel sprout that made it and spinach and lettuce that the gray diggers love! We have a few herbs like Annis, mint, lemon balm and parsley. The biggest challenge has been the grey diggers that love to dig tunnels through the garden. Whole plants seem to just disappear with out a trace. We are trapping, shooting and poisoning gray diggers and it does not seem to be putting a dent into the population. I really enjoy watching the plants grow from tiny seeds to giant plants that we get to harvest. I am thankful for seasons and am enjoying this gardening season and looking forward to a bountiful harvest.