A Farm Girl's Best Friend

This blog is in honor of the hardest working people on our little farm, and one of my favorite things in the world...BEES! I value these industrious little workers so greatly; they make all the fruit we have growing here possible!


So today I was out weeding our 'salad garden' that has our early crops of lettuce and peas, as well as our perennial herbs. In the corner is a chive plant that is in full bloom now and the bees absolutely love it. So I got inspired to honor these little aerodynamic wonders and ran to get the camera.


These bees were so intent on their task today that they paid no mind to me. I weeded my bed all around this plant and even leaned into and across the chives a few times and when I got close they just flitted to another flower. I couldn't get a good picture of all of them at once, but I counted at least 20 bees working this plant over.


I wanted to show a few pictures of the fruit that they are responsible for pollinating. Here is a picture of little baby blueberries. This is the 2nd year for these plants and they are doing well after kind of being in shock from their transplanting last year. We'll have to be netting them fairly soon so the chickens don't get them before we do! Darn chickens again!


We have two types of plum trees here on our property. I can't even tell you which is my favorite! This is a picture of the baby prune plums. They are the little dusty purple egg-shaped ones that are sooo sweet. This is the kind that prunes are made from. I tried it one year, but my dryer didn't dehydrate them fast enough and they molded. I'll have to come up with Plan B this year.


I don't know the name of the other type of plum that we have, but this one is red, round and baseball sized. When it's really ripe the flesh turns from yellow to a deep ruby red. These are the kind that when you take a bite out of them, there is no way to avoid the juice that runs down your face. I have to give a lot of these away as there is no way to use them all when they're ripe. I also have a wonderful recipe for a plum tart that I will make several times before the season is over! Of course I'll take pictures of that too!!


We also have two mature apple trees that we were blessed with when we bought this property. Here is an example of the apples that are setting now. I was concerned that the bees might not be able to pollinate the apples as the weather was so bad (rainy and cold) when the apple trees were blooming, but apparently they got the job done. The horses will be especially happy for this!


Even thought I don't even have everything even planted in the garden yet, everything I have planted so far is coming up. Here is radishes on the right and bok choy on the left. They are both cold season crops so I was able to get them in earlier. I was also tickled to see that the corn is up. I hope to get a lot more things in tomorrow including beets, broccoli, cucumbers, leeks, basil, parsley...and maybe some bought tomato plants. Sounds like fun!


Frank and I always chuckle about the things we're really lame at. One thing that we can't seem to do wrong, no matter what dumb thing we do to them, is grow potatoes. Like our friend Don Duty said to us once, "They WANT to grow" and we have discovered that this is true. We saved potatoes from last year's crop to use as seed potatoes this year (the first time we have ever done that) and so far they are growing well. We like this variety especially for its good shelf life; we're eating the last of them tonight with dinner, NINE months after they were harvested. WOW.


Of course I can't have a blog without a picture or two of my good horses. The neighbor has a strip of land along his driveway that borders our pasture and he came by and said to fence it off and put the horses on it, which we jumped right on. Here is Bailey enjoying the riches of this new grass. In the thick of it, the grass is up well past his belly, and LB can't even be seen unless he raises his head! They were overgrazing the short grasses in their regular pasture and ignoring the long stuff, so this forces them to eat the more mature stuff and gives their pasture a rest.


There is nothing better than having a big friend who will provide shade for you when you need to take a nap. I actually see this happening just about every day and I love it. These guys are such good friends; they pretty much do everything together. I often have to walk them down about 100 yards of road from their pasture to the barn (when the farrier is coming, etc) and I lead them together, Bailey on the right and Little Bit on the left. Occasionally, a car will come by and talk to us, exclaiming how difficult it must be to lead two horses, especially that BIG one! I just chuckle and tell them first, that they know they better behave or they'd be in BIG trouble. And if one of them actually was to give me any grief, it surely wouldn't be the big one!!

Well, I hoped you liked hearing about what's going on here at Red Pony Ranch. It feels good that school is winding down for the year and we're looking forward to our first summer up here in Washington that we're not teaching summer school. That means we'll have lots of time to take a few trips including one to the beach (my Mom's) right after school gets out, then driving to Wisconsin after the 4th of July and then off to San Diego in mid-August. We're also looking forward to a visit from Frank's brother and his lovely wife. Our doors are always open and we love to feed people, so feel free to give us a call and come on by!

Garden time!

The time has finally come to get to working in the garden!! We are so excited about the all the possibilities of good things to grow and eat! So far we have planted red potatoes (we want some Yukon Golds still), corn, zucchni, patty pan squash, carrots, bok choy and radishes. There is a lot of space left for more things like beets, broccoli, cukes and other things I can't think of right now. You might notice that I didn't say anything about tomatoes or peppers. Well, our climate is a bit cool for those crops, but I still might try a couple of plants of each yet again and hope for a warmer than normal summer!


Our garden shed/pumphouse has a lovely southwest facing side that is nice and warm. I've always wanted to plant something up against it and this turned out to be the year to do it. I found a type of bean that is called Yard Long Bean, which is a Chinese variety and it sounded like a lot of fun to try, but it's a big climber. So Frank so nicely dug up about 5 feet of sod up against the shed to make a little bed for these beans.


Here is the finished bed. I had some concrete edging that I found in the dirt under the cedar and had it in the pile to go to the dump, but it turned out to be exactly enough to edge this bed so it will be easier to weed and Frank can weed-whack up against it nicely. I've got the beans planted in there already although I had to lay some tomato cages on it until they come up well so those darn chickens don't go digging in there. They do love a good patch of dirt to look for worms and bugs in, but not my garden!!


I like this shot because it shows a little bit of everything. The camera is facing northwest, looking past the corner of the garden and at the shed with the new little bean bed. To the right of the shed and before the house you can see one of our nice blueberry plants. There are 4 of these in a row between the two buildings, as well as another row of young raspberry plants. To the left of the shed and further back you can see some red boards with a little white fence (to keep the darn peckers out!) that is what we call our salad/herb garden. It's only 8x8, but it's one we can work earlier than the big garden, so we can put in lettuce and peas nice and early. We also have our herbs in there up against the house: thyme, oregano, rosemary (my favorite) and I'll put the basil out in there once the tender starts are big enough.


Here is Frank filling his bird feeder. This picture was taken facing west-southwest and you can see the previous picture from another angle. He fills that bird feeder every day, and the little birds eat quite a bit of it, but also spill quite a bit of seed, too. Hmmm, guess who runs like maniacs when they're let out of the coop to see if there are any good treats under there? Boy are those hens entertaining!!


This property came with a number of wonderful rhododendron plants that are just now beginning to bloom. They are so beautiful and really are the signal of spring here in the western parts of Washington and Oregon. I need to cut some and bring them into the house.

So there's what we've been up to lately. We're having a lovely spring rain tonight that is watering all those new seeds into the garden. We're supposed to have at least a five day sunny streak when this is over, so things should be popping up all over the garden soon! Of course I'll blog about that, too! Hope you can stand the anticipation!!

A Dentist who makes house calls?

It's the HORSE dentist! I was very lucky that I could get Dr. Julie Eihl to come to our farm and take care of our horse's dental needs. Some are getting older and some just need to be checked to make sure there are no sharp points digging into their cheeks. I became convinced of the necessity of good equine dental care many years ago when I saw a wonderful equine dentist literally save the lives of several older horses at the barn where I boarded. Since then, I make sure that they get seen on a regular (every one or two year) basis.


First we tackled what we knew was going to be the hardest: Miss Lily. Donkeys are notoriously bad with sedation (you give them a lot and they STILL are not as docile as you want and need!) and Lily was no exception. This picture was taken after the fact, because frankly, it was a donkey rodeo. Even under as much sedation as we could safely give her, twice she took a head-full of equipment with her out of the stall and down the aisle. We were smart enough to have closed the barn doors or she would have been GONE. Dr. Eihl was a trooper though, and hung in there to help poor Lily, who really did have some problems that needed addressing. She was getting a 'smile' where her front teeth didn't meet straight across, so that caused her sideways grinding motion to be messed up and thus messing up all her back teeth as well. She got as much of that fixed as possible, and we should be almost back to what should be normal next time in about a year. This picture is Daisy getting a tying lesson while poor Lily sleeps off her sedation.


OK, on to the easy guys. Maddie is always so sweet and this time was no exception. She had lost a tooth last time so this time was important to make sure the opposing tooth wasn't growing too long. The good news was that it wasn't, but that means that because of her age (19), her teeth aren't growing any more. I'll have to watch and make sure that she is able to deal with her hay, and if not, begin supplementing with equine senior and more beet pulp.


Yakki was next and he didn't need much other than just removing the sharp points all horses inevitably get because of the way they chew. These points gouge into their cheeks and make eating painful. Dr. Eihl said that her work on Yak would make his utilization of food more efficient as well. Great...just what we need on Mr. Tubby!!


Little Bit lived up to his 'easy keeper' status by not needing any dental attention at all. Luckily, he doesn't have a problem with people putting their hands way in his mouth even when not sedated, so she was able to reach in and feel everything and was surprised to recommend that he be skipped this year. She said that sure doesn't happen very often!


We saved the biggest, and easiest mouth for last. Dr. Eihl was happy to have so much room to move around in finally! Bailey had the usual sharp points, as well as two big cavities in the same upper 'molar' on each side (sorry, I don't know what they're called in horses). We had an interesting discussion about this, with Dr. Julie pointing out that these almost always are a result of a defect in the tooth (hence it in the PAIR of teeth) and can be filled, but it's not always successful and not necessary unless the tooth looks to be heading toward an abcess. Not treating will eventually result in the loss of the tooth. She felt that at his age (17), by the time he would lose the tooth, he probably would be pretty worn down in all the other teeth and on senior food anyway. Luckily, their cavities are not like our and don't hurt. And I would know, because Bailey is a big WIMP and tells me whenever there is something that hurts on him.


So all in all it was a good visit. Dr. Eihl consented to coming back again, even after experiencing the donkey rodeo. Our checkbook is considerably lighter, but it is a good feeling to know that no one has sharp teeth jabbing them in the cheeks and they are aging as well as can be expected as far as their teeth go. Have you had YOUR teeth checked lately!!??

Lovely Spring

The grass is growing like crazy and we have had to be mowing about every 5 days to keep up with it. In between times we stake out our fat little lawn mowers for a couple of hours a day. Closest to the camera is sweet Maddie, then the chickens closer to the barn, and if you look in the upper left you'll see Yakki's rear end. I love seeing all those blooms on the apple trees! I'm a little nervous, however, as a pretty windy storm is poised to come in tonight. I sure hope it doesn't blow all those blossoms off before they have a chance to be pollinated and make little baby apples. The other apple tree is a later variety and isn't blooming yet, so all is not lost should the worst happen tonight.


Of course in this early spring there is not much to harvest. The hens, however, continue to be quite prolific and I had to take the last of last year's leeks out of the garden prior to it being tilled, so I contemplated what to do with these wonderful ingredients...hmm....sounds like time for a frittata! A frittata is like a quiche but does not have the crust. We like them a lot and you can basically put anything in them you like.


Here I am sauteeing the leeks and some red pepper in a little bacon fat that was left when I crisped up some bacon to put in there as well. Once these veggies cooked down a little, I added a few sliced mushrooms as well and let them cook a while. Once all this cooled down, I added it to a dozen eggs, the bacon bits, a bunch of chopped raw broccoli and some milk. I usually would have put some cubed cheese in there, but I wanted to keep the calories down for now.


This is the finished frittata. It sure turned out very well and it didn't take long for us to polish it off! I think we had it for breakfast AND dinner for a couple of days! It is so fun to make things out of ingredients that we mostly didn't have to buy at the store.


Well, my favorite wheelbarrow, the big metal one the barn construction guys left behind, finally gave up the ghost by totally rusting out around all the bolts that held the bucket to the frame. So when I was at Costco they had one there for $50 so I picked up all the pieces and brought it home. I opened up the back of my van, moved a folding table out and set up shop putting this darn thing together. I wish I would have gotten a picture of all the assorted parts laying in the van and on the table, but take my word for it that eventually it all came together well with nary an extra piece left over to ponder where it should have gone.


This is the finished product. It took me about 45 minutes to put it together, but it was a lovely day and I enjoyed working outside. I am very happy with the quality of this wheelbarrow, especially since I didn't expect much for $50. The only thing that is taking some getting used to is that it's about 2.5 inches taller than my other wheelbarrows, so occassionally I'm bouncing a forkful of pony poop off the side of it rather than going in! Nothing worse than having to pick up poop TWICE! Hahaha. My next big wheelbarrow project is to marry the good frame from the old metal wheelbarrow with the plastic bucket off another old wheelbarrow with a rickety frame and bad wheel!


Another project that we forgot to get pictures of when it was happening was the cleaning and fertilizing of what we call the upper pasture; the one that immediately surrounds the barn. With the boys in the neighbor's pasture, and the donkeys locked in the lower pasture on our property, it allowed us to work on this field by picking up poopie piles and then putting down a good fertilizer. We'll let it rest for at least a month, then put the donkeys up there and lock them off the lower pasture which will get a similar treatment and allowed to rest.


It's hard to believe that 'baby' Daisy will be 3 in July. She is such a sweet donkey without a mean bone in her body and so willing to please. Here is a picture that Frank took of her resting in the sun up by the barn. Even sleeping she's got such a sweet look on her face. We can't even imagine what this place would be like without this precious girl.

Well, as usual, I am apologizing for the significant interval between blogs. There is always something going on, but it's usually quite mundane and I think it would make for boring reading!! Regardless, my readers tell me they just like to know what's happening here, mundane and boring or not, so I will keep on as long as people want to read it. This Friday a veterinarian who specializes in equine dental work will be here to see everyone, so I will be sure to get some pictures of that. Frank and I have also gotten a Wii and have become quite competitive, so I'll try to figure out how to get a picture of us being goofy with that as well. So until next time....have a wonderful time enjoying spring and God bless!