Spring is Here!

It is officially spring as of today, so happy Equinox!

We have had very little rain for the last three months (there are cracks in the pastures already), but now that the trees are leafing out, it is almost dazzlingly green on the farm, with some very nice splashes of color here and there.

We have five or so types of daffodils growing on the farm- we can't quite remember if we planted these, or if they arrived here on their own.

Dr. Hurd Manzanita

This particular type of manzanita can grow to be very large, and while manzanitas in general like full sun exposure, this one seems to be quite happy getting only morning sun, having deep shade the rest of the day.  The white flowers are delicate and luminous- a visual treat in an awakening to spring landscape.

Yellow Flowering Currant

Whomever named this one got really creative in the same way that someone names an Irish Setter "Red".  This type of currant is one of many native to California and is supposed to be more heat and sun tolerant than the somewhat showier pink flowering currant we have over closer to our seasonal creek.  This particular specimen gets some dappled morning sun, full midday sun, and afternoon shade, and has quickly grown to being five feet tall, though it is a little on the leggy side for a shrub.

Ceanothus, also known as California Lilac

The ceanothus shrubs are the real show offs of spring here- covered with intense clusters of brilliant blue flowers, they smell lightly of honey.  There's usually a cloud of beneficial insects working away on these- the various predatory wasps, hover flies, bumble bees and honey bees.

Bumble Bee on Ceanothus

If you want to know where the phrase "busy as a bee" comes from, hang out around a blooming ceanothus.

Hummingbird Sage

One of my favorite members of the salvia family native to California is hummingbird sage.  The flowers are very intense, and the hummingbirds do indeed seem to love it.  It doesn't grow in bush forms as many of our other sages, but produces runners underground, and forms a cluster of plants.  It has fairly large leaves, especially for a sage, and a heavenly smell when you bruise the leaves.

And then we have this flower.  It was here when we moved in, just sort of randomly growing in what had been a bit of lawn.  We moved the plants to a patch of ground we later realized was really poor soil, but they seem to be doing fine in that location.  They appear to grow from bulbs, the leaves are flat and iris-like, they get no summer water, and after they bloom, they go dormant like our daffodils.  They are not invasive, but I have yet to encounter them in my native plant wanderings, and we've not seen them in any of the many (many, many) flower catalogs that populate our mailbox.  We like them- they are bright and cheerful- we'd just love to know what they are.

What a Pest!

One of the important aspects of being a farmer is attention to details.  Especially little details.  Noticing the little things, or I should say, the beginning of a problem, allows you to get a handle on things before they turn into big problems. 


This evening, as I was walking by the grape vines that are (hopefully) destined to someday provide shade to our deck and some fall fruit, I noticed something "off" about one of the vines.

Hmmm. Sudden defoliation.  In summer.  Nope, not normal.

Look a little closer, and aha!

Was trying to get a clear view of both caterpillars, but what is clearest is the damaged leaf!

These are either tobacco hornworms or tomato hornworms.  You could probably tell if they were in focus, but the light was funky, and I was in a bit of a rush.  What is strange is that I don't think we have seen these on the tomato plants, which are only a foot or two shorter than our apple trees, and here they are on grapes.  Grapes are not one of their favorite foods, so that makes it especially weird that they aren't in the forest of tomatoes, but on some rather small vines where I was able to spot them relatively easily.

What can I say?  We live to be outliers.

"Head"-on view of caterpillar noming away on a grape leaf.

These are very fat caterpillars, with front ends that remind me of some sort of alien, or possibly hagfish (so gross!).  Those little feet-like appendages are very grippy, and when I tried to pull the first one off the vine, the front end whipped backwards after my finger in attack mode.  When that didn't get rid of me, it squirted some thick green goo out of it's head...unexpected, sure, but not enough to keep me from adding it to the bucket destined for the chicken house.

Hopefully, catching these now, before they burrow into the ground, to emerge as reproductive adult moths in the spring, has helped to nip this problem in the bud.

More Than Veggies In The Garden

You.  See. Nothing.

Summer is most definitely here (two days at 110 degrees this week), which means that in addition to sweating copiously every time we do chores and worrying over our young plants frying their leaves off, we've got lots of farm fresh food. We're enjoying produce straight off the tree- plums, pluots, and peaches, herbs (spearmint in everything), garlic, more eggs as our spring chicks are starting to lay, and a bounty of milk products from the goats- yogurt, ice cream, and cheeses.  The summer produce is starting to ripen as well, which means we finally have some tomatoes and basil for summer salads.  Andy planted a couple of our favorites, along with a sauce/salsa tomato variety which is different from your slicing varieties in that it is long and meaty with less seeds and a lower water content than typical slicing tomatoes.  I'm experimenting with it to see if it will be a regular addition.  My first attempt at salsa was way too hot to eat just with chips, despite using only half a very small jalapeno pepper, but added to tacos, it wasn't half bad.

I went out to the garden yesterday evening to harvest tomatoes to mix with our basil and garlic for a bruschetta (another experiment with the new variety of tomato) which would go over homemade chevre, and while I usually take Stella with me to the garden, this time I left her in house. She's been picking and eating ripe tomatoes off the vines before I have a chance to get to them, and since it is early in the season, there aren't quite enough to share with the dog.

As I neared the tomatoes, I could hear the California quail chattering softly fairly close by, which is not unusual on our farm, especially lately, as I seem to hear them frequently near the vegetables and the bee garden.  I turned down one of the rows, and all of a sudden a male quail flew up from practically under the basil and landed on an almond tree.  Then a female did the same thing. 

Which caused me to stop in my tracks, because little game birds don't let you get within three feet of them without a very good reason.

California quail chicks! Can you find all six?

 

Or several good reasons.

These chicks had flattened themselves to the ground and weren't going to move a muscle, even as I moved ever so slowly towards them to try to get a picture or two.  I became very aware of exactly where I was putting my feet, knowing that they most likely wouldn't move out of my way.

I looked around and found just a few more.

At this point, I realize how lucky it is that I left the dog in the house for once!

It is quite amazing how well the dark stripes match our dirt and the light stripes match the golden color of our grass, and the evening dappling of light and shadows made them blend in amazingly well.  Knowing how quickly they grow feathers, these must have hatched out just hours earlier, and this was probably their first adventure away from the nest.

I didn't want to stress the parents or the chicks out too much, so I retreated from the garden and figured that the family would probably move on and I could get my tomatoes a few minutes later.  As soon as I showed those in the house the pictures I had captured on my phone, a real camera was grabbed, and the garden was returned to, in hopes of finding the little quail family again.

This time, we didn't hear any quail chatter.  We very carefully crept through the tomato rows and finally saw the father quail fly up from the furthest row of tomatoes.

Then we saw mama quail.

I'm just hanging out- probably in the middle of a dust bath, so just move along now.

But no sign of the chicks.  And she was staying incredibly still, and sort of awkwardly positioned.

If you look really closely (click on the picture for a bigger version), you'll see a little head peaking out from her wing.  The rest of the chicks were most likely under her as well, which explains her position and why she wasn't budging.

Andy had found her nest several days ago by accident while mowing- he got close enough to flush her out of the rosemary bush she had nested under, though fortunately, not close enough to do any harm.  The bush is only about a foot and a half tall, but with its dense greenery, it provided enough cover that she escaped the notice of a border collie and a cattle dog that frequent the area daily.  I wonder if the rosemary aroma helped to cover any scent she'd give off too?

We went over to check the nest on our way into the house.

Looks like all of the eggs hatched out, and there weren't any bad ones left in the nest.  California quail are one of our favorite birds- there's something about their shape, the sounds they make when a covey is out foraging and all is well, and the way they move that we really enjoy.  Seeing a little family of them out and about is evidence to us that we have successfully made room on our farm for more than just our livestock.  And while my original intent for that rosemary bush was to 1) have more rosemary available to sell, 2) grow another plant that blooms early in the year for the bees and 3) hide a very ugly permanent thing in our "back yard", I'm thrilled that there turns out to be a purpose number 4) quail nursery.

Fresh produce and fluffeh babies!  Our garden rocks!

Spring on the Farm

The rains have finally come and around the farm there seems to be a riot of growth.  Dormant plants have reawakened and are blooming and/or leafing out.

Daffodils are usually one of the first harbingers of spring around here.

Then come some of our fruit trees

Almond blossoms

Nectarine

White Peach

Sometimes, we find the honey bees hard at work, helping to ensure we actually get fruit from these trees.

Yellow Peach with Honey Bee

Plum Flowers with Honey Bee

It should be interesting to see if our fruit yields are higher this year since we have honey bees on the property full time.  We haven't gotten fruit from our plum tree for the last two years, so we're hoping that the addition of the bees, along with the good pruning it got this winter (it had grown a little wild) will result in tasty fruit.

And finally, we get to our early blooming California native plants

Ceanothus, or California Lilac

We have several varieties of ceanothus growing on the property, from low growing and sprawling to varieties that can get up to 18 feet tall.  They are covered with clusters of brilliant blue to purple flowers, which are usually covered with a variety of bees.

Vine Hill Manzanita

The manzanitas put on a particularly impressive display this year, despite blooming on the late side.  Some types of manzanita start blooming as early as December, making them an important winter food for our native bees.

Pink Flowering Currant

We have a few pink flowering currants we've planted along our seasonal creek and I enjoy their spicy scent.  It's a nice option for full shade in our hot climate, though it can take partial to full sun closer to the coast.

The bees have definitely been busy working away at raising new workers and lots of drones.  Other people's bees have been doing the same, which is why we've been able to add two swarms of bees to the apiary.  Here's the one I caught just two days after we caught our first swarm of the year

Beard of Bees in Coastal Live Oak Tree

Between the two swarms and the two hive splits I did, I have 100% more bees today than a week ago. 

Also, at the rate we're going, I may have honey bees for sale in the near future.

Finally- an update!

I saw a rainbow in July. A real one. From the farm. In this part of California, that is super rare. I'm sure part of the reason we had enough sprinkles to make a rainbow is that I had two stacks of hay delivered the previous day. Actually, I hadn't picked the day for the hay to be delivered. The way our local hay barn works is that you go in, pay for your hay, and they tell you an approximate date that the hay will arrive. In fact, this is not at all when the hay will arrive. It may be sooner than you planned, it may be weeks after you were expecting it. There is no way to really plan around the hay arriving because the Hay Farie will bless you with your hay stacks when she darn well feels like it, and not a moment sooner. And for this, you will be thankful.

July rainbows are about as rare as updates to this blog recently. It doesn't help that in February I had written a very long post, only to have my computer crash and eat it. I re-wrote the entry, complete with lots of pictures, and my computer froze up, forcing me to turn it off and again lose everything.

This was discouraging.

Then, the kids starting arriving, life went a bit haywire, general craziness ensued, and updating the blog went to the back of the line to hang out with the goat paperwork I owe people and intended to get done before show season started.

The February post with pictures was about our little trip up to Oregon. We went for a week, got to see some friends, sampled cheese, saw new places. I would tell you more, but it appears that talking about Oregon makes my computer very angry and I'd rather not lose a post again. I may try to upload pictures later, but I am not promising anything.

February also brought us our first kids of the year, and our very first kid was a gold, polled, blue-eyed doe! I only bred 17 does this year in hopes of bringing down the total number of kids from the high of 76 last year. I still ended up with 51 kids this year: no singles, mostly triplets, two sets of quads, and one set of quintuplets. The last kids were born June 2, and even though I keep trying to compress my kidding season, it lasted too long this year, with the last bottle babies being weaned in early August.

I did get a third lesson on herding in with Stella before she started going through her equivalent of teenagehood, and for a few months put her brain in storage. More training was done on a long line, and having a small herd of wethers to work her on really helped. But, I figured that she needed to get her brain back before I would get any benefit out of taking her to classes again. And, now that she has calmed down a bit and is listening better, I am too busy to go to class regularly.

Stella has managed to train the milkers quite well now- as soon as we go out to the barn to bring them in for milking, the girls get themselves into their stall before they even see Stella. This is good and bad-- good in that it makes that part of chores go quickly, bad in that Stella doesn't have as much to do work-wise, but still plenty of drive and energy.

Show season started in April, and I am hoping to do a seperate post on how the shows have gone for us. In general, we haven't been able to get to as many shows because of either Market committments, or due to conflicts between shows.

In May, I finally got to do the Whole Earth Festival with my English Hills Soap Co. booth. The festival is held for two and a half days in May at UC Davis, and they are pretty picky about who they let in (I had to write an essay!), so I was pretty excited about being there. Walking around and seeing the level of crafts from the other vendors was pretty amazing, and I came home with some unexpected purchases. The booth did well- definitely worth the effort, and I am hoping to be there again next year.

The garden has been doing alright this summer, although the beans were hit so hard by the local deer that we didn't even get enough for one dinner's side dish. The garden is mostly fenced, but determined deer can jump quite high. The tomato plants are huge, and our garlic, onions and basil all did quite well. We are mystified as to why cucumbers do not do well here. My plans to expand the garden area were put off until next spring due to the limiting factor of only having a 24 hour day and general there's-always-something-else-more-urgent-needing-my-attention-right-now-ness. In the mean time, we are making good use of the "goat tractor" to keep the weeds somewhat down in the area that used to be lawn, which also keeps me from resenting the wethers that are still hanging around these parts.

September looks like it will be a very busy month, but I really hope to get some posts up in the near future regarding: show wins, backpacking, state fair, and maybe even baby farm animal pictures.