sweet potatoes were a bust

I can't even bring myself to take a picture of those measly sweet potatoes to show you all what a failure they were. Obviously they weren't in full sun. The soil there was very rich, probably too rich. Next year they will be planted if full sun in the garden.

Failure :(

Sweet potatoes

We have been planning this sweet potato harvest for two years. We put our first round of pigs on this little plot contained by pallets. In June of 2008 I built this from recycled pallets:

Thanks Ron.. The soil there was rocky clay and could support only the worst of weeds. Originally it was to be a calf pen but it quickly became our hog pen. Instead of shoveling most of the field cow patties into compost bins I simply threw it into their pen. They thrived in the fodder churning and rooting through it making a rich hot thick layer of almost soil.

Then we left it to rest for an entire summer. All the while knowing this is where sweet potatoes will grow next season.

This past spring after struggling with sweet potato slips and their apparent decision not to grow, we finally planted a bunch of different variety slips into the their long awaited place.


We are in the home stretch and waiting for the first killing frost. There are many views on the topic but we plan to dig them that following day. We are extremely hopeful since the vines have completely consumed the old pigpen. Also we had a failure in our butternut squash patch this year.

Sweet potatoes don't directly replace winter squash but we will happily have them in their stead this year. Every year is different on what fails, what is marginal and what succeeds. Mono culture would be our ruin this winter if we didn't plant with diversity in mind. Besides planting a bunch of different stuff is fun.

I will post about the harvest the day following the first killing frost.

It is finally raining...

Tabitha and I cleared the garden for the pigs to go in there and clean it up. This morning we decided to attempt the move. We opened the appropriate fences and gates. Tabitha got a bucket of grain while I opened the pigpen. They wanted nothing to do with her and her measly pulverized pig feed. Tabitha had just cleaned out the freezer and gave the pigs the waste. Note to self, make sure pigs are hungry before trying to coax them anywhere.

The rodeo ensued in earnest. I must admit it was really fun. I love pigs. Our farm is mostly dog proof so we were not in any danger of loosing anyone. First we tried chasing them. Pigs don't react like other animals in this respect. They immediately think it is a game wherein they are the puck and you are the goalie. They rush past just out of reach woofing just to taunt. Did I mention I love our pigs?

After trying several methods we simply relied on their natural curiosity and closing gates behind them. Surely the garden is the place with the most interesting things to eat and root. Finally they realized that it was. We closed them in and they were happy.

Then the heavens opened and praised our good work by offering us with a much needed rain. It has been over a month since it rained here. The grass crunched with each step like walking on fall leaves. Tabitha also put some clothes out on the line just to taunt the mischievous clouds into cutting loose.

We are hopefully going to get more this evening. All that beautiful chicken fertilizer from moving the tractors across our paddocks needs to be rained in. Oh if we get a couple of inches over the next few days the pastures will perk up into a lush cow heaven.

My rain water storage for the chicken coop was down to twenty five percent. I had a broken water fountain and it dripped for over twelve hours. Here is a picture of it filling up. I installed a chain for the water to adhere to on it's descent. I watched it for a while it was hypnotic like a campfire.



I took a video but when I watched it I decided it wasn't worth sharing because the moment was lost. A little video of it seemed stupid while in person it was almost spiritual. It is funny how some things can be captured and others can't.

Rome almost got bit by a copperhead snake yesterday. He actually stepped on it. It was between the house and garden. It struck at him twice but didn't pierce the skin. We were so lucky. I grabbed him up by one arm with a jerk. Luckily he is used to me picking him up by one arm since a baby. Otherwise, he surely would have a dislocated shoulder.

I guess they mostly travel in pairs so we are on *high-alert* until further notice. I raked all the leaves and debris from that area of the yard to be sure the other snake wasn't lying in wait. I showed Rome the dead snake, yes I killed it. I warned him that this snake could kill him and to stay away.

Dehydrating Onions

Dehydrated onions are one of our most useful garden stores. They are wonderful just as a snack--like hearty candy. Mostly we use them by the hand full in soups, chili and sauces. Tabitha also grinds them up and adds them to taco meat. This is about half of our harvest left in this wagon.

By the way, I would like to fully endorse that sprayer.


They have made the entire spraying process better. Subtle little innovations just make things easier.

I cut the tops and peel them in the sink under running water. I leave the root end because our mandolin likes it better this way. I prepare enough to fill the entire dehydrator.

This part of the process is entirely tearless, the running water really helps.

Our old cutting board split in two and we had get a new one. This one is so great, I don't know how we lived without it. That little routed trough around the edge has saved me many messes.


I set the mandolin (thank you Nicole) to the thickest slice possible. We have experimented with all thicknesses and we prefer this because it is yields the most product for the least amount of work.

Kassi is in the background sewing.


I load the racks thickly and over lapping a little especially loose rings. Slabs are best tightly packed.

Having tried every wives-tale to keep the tears at bay, I use the fan method. By the end of the process the entire house is filled with teary gas.

It is a parts-per-million kinda solution. Kassi is very affected by the teary blight.

We store the completely dry onions in half gallon mason jars. Last year we started with one gallon and could have used much more. Onion slices of this thickness take about thirty six hours with vigilant tray rotation. We have a cheap dehydrator with only a heating element. Someday we dream of a better model.


This one has a fan and element, larger capacity equals faster dehydration times with larger loads.

Gratuitous garden harvest photo.

And who will help me eat the harvest?

We have started to add to our pantry. Onions are the first harvest and I have ran through two dehydrator loads of them. This is what I have left to peel slice and load in the dehydrator.


This year has been a successful year for beets. We grew a F1 hybrid from Johnny's called Merlin. We love them. Big healthy and very tasty. Where appropriate we grow heirloom plants but beets are not something we'll attempt to save seeds from in the near future. Although we have been enjoying the thinnings for several weeks, we just got around to harvesting them in earnest. This batch is from the front yard row.

It is very weedy. Our trip to Michigan left this row in shambles. I'll cover this row with a black tarp, kill the weeds and sterilize the soil for a few weeks. After that I'll plant a cover crop. These are the littlest beets after sorting and removing the larger ones for this first batch.

Here are some of the larger ones in the queue for the cooker.

These beets are partially cooked and will cool so we can slip the skins off, slice them and stick them in jars.

As I type the last quart of fifteen is being added to this canner.

These will be pickled beets and here are the spices to be added to each jar.

Other recent additions to our pantry and freezer are two quarts of black raspberries, three quarts of black berries, fourteen quarts of green beans.

The sheep are working out nicely. We have kept them in a fifteen foot piece of snowfence and move it regularly along our fence rows. They are excellent at keeping me from having to weed eat the fence rows.

A simple piece of tarp for shelter and a bucket of water are all they need. We plan to shear them before butcher. I also hope to tan their hides. So far sheep seem to fit well into our farm. Lamb being my favorite meat affords them a little more latitude than usual.

The dogs are doing well. They are shedding their puppy coats and look a little scruffy.

Astrid is an excellent livestock guardian. She also has enveloped our house into her sphere of protection. Visitors are notified that a large dog lives here with a deep menacing bark.

The other night Tabitha went to the barn with a flashlight and Astrid did not recognize her. Astrid ran around at lightspeed to the upper paddock to surround her. Astrid and the boys closed in on her to attack from front and rear. This scared Tabitha and she yelled their "disarm" word. They immediately stood down and marched around with ruffled back fur snorting heavily. Scary but kinda makes a person feel good about personal protection.
Astrid is nine months old and will only get better at her job. She is probably 75% grown in size. The boys, Captain Jack and Ianto will be quite a bit larger than Astrid. They come from larger stock and they are boys. We feel lucky to have these dogs. They are on a raw meat diet plus table scraps. Very healthy and anxious to please.

How does your garden grow?

Of course Tabitha is an excellent gardener. She is diligent, observant and proactive. The problem has been, no mater what we tried our plants still suffered. This year, I believe that our current level of success with our garden is because of two technology improvements.

Copper spray is a powerful fungicide. It is organically certified but dangerous to use. Full hazmat gear is recommended on the label while spraying. We have been spraying weekly and are just managing to stay ahead of the tomato blight.



Pruning off infected foliage and spraying, exposed some fruit to possible sun damage. In the above photo Tabitha used some old tulle as a partial shade cloth.



Neem is another powerful organically certified weapon in our arsenal. It kills indiscriminately so we are cautious to use it only when necessary and in a very focused manner. We like our beneficial insects to live to fight for us another day. The latest thing we have tried is to neem drench our cucumber plants roots. This really seems to have worked on the cucumber beetle onslaught. Cucumber beetles are a sinister foe. They are impossible to catch by hand in mass. By eating the foliage they infect the plant with bacterial wilt that can quickly kill the plant. If the plants survive this first assault the beetles larvae dig into the ground and eat the cucumber plant roots. This usually happens just before the first fruit has a chance to grow to size.



As you can see there is plenty of cucumbers on the thriving vines. We have been mixing a root drench of neem and fish emulsion and pouring it directly on the plant roots. The neem kills any beetle larvae. The fish emulsion feeds the plant. Something else seems to be happening. Tabitha read that the neem can get sucked up into the plant and systemically deter the cucumber beetles from eating the foliage.

We have eaten several fresh cucumbers and a few tomatoes. We are hopeful of a bountiful harvest this season.


The butternut squash seem to be thriving also.


Our little farm is starting to look a little more kempt since our vacation. Here the echinacea are looking pretty.


I have also started digging the footings for the barn. I plan to slip-form these walls and this is my first step. Why didn't I just have this dug mechanically? We didn't plan to have a cement floor in this milking barn at first. After thoughts are hard on my back.



This is Toly's new playground. I am going to pour it in sections. I am about one quarter the way done digging. Each shovel load requires at least three strikes with a pick axe to loosen the soil. Digging in the Ozarks is no fun.



The dirt is back fill for an intended garden terrace. When done the garden should be fifteen feet wider. Every little bit helps.


We also got a couple of lambs from our friends. Here they are hiding their eyes thinking I can't see them.


Immediately after we ordered a new camera battery charger we found the old one. Isn't that how it always goes?

I lost my chi for a little while.

Much has happened since I have made time to write.

We took a trip to my parents house in Michigan for a week. The kids love their grandparents and had a blast. Their yard is like a botanical garden (I'm not exaggerating). One favorite was the coy pond with several huge coy, a water fall and blooming water lilies. Kassi's favorite was the fairy garden with a close second being all the exotic day lilies. The boys were intrigued by all the winding paths and sitting nooks.  Kassi is going to start a day lily business. It will take several years but my Mother is sending her starts of all her pricey exotic day lilies. We plan to encourage this most passionately. Although top soil is at a premium in the Ozarks this is something that could pay for college and afford a little spending money along the way. Kassi is perfectly suited for this. She is passionate about flowers, knowing their names and is not scared to work in her garden.

We butchered fifty chickens in three and a half hours and survived. Our friends came to help and what a huge help they were. We learned so much from them. They have been selling chickens for a few years and had some revolutionary insightful methods. Usually after butchering Tabitha and I are at each others throats, not true for this occasion. Killing animals always makes me feel raw and irritable. Matt, Rachel and family were a Godsend. Thank you.

We have already ate several chickens and find them to be the best we have ever raised. Customers arrived and picked up chickens. Most everything went off without a hitch. We are expecting one hundred and fifty birds within ten days. Tabitha has declared that we need one hundred chickens in our freezer for winter. This seems accurate since we devoured an entire chicken the other night with no leftovers. We will soon be a two chicken per meal family. We like leftovers.

It surprised me how many unnoticed little maintenance tasks we accomplish everyday. This was revealed to me after coming home and seeing our place in a shambles. The jungle garden was unbelievable, impassible and generally frightening. The yard became so overgrown that Bob had to bring his weed-eater to cut paths just take care of the animals. Tabitha's sage and one of Kassi's rose bushes became victim to the nylon whip. The dogs grew while we were gone and so did the pigs. I hardly recognized our replacement pullets.

We brought tons of plants back from my parents. Our rocky path got an entire makeover. We dug the cracks out and replaced the lime base chat with soil and planted some wonderful ground cover. I had to use the shop vacuum to get the chat out from between the rocks. It took several hours but I think most of the plants will survive and hopefully thrive.

You might be wondering why I have no photos of these exploits. Coincidentally this also explains why I have had trouble finding my writing chi. Alas, the charger to the camera battery is missing and has kept me from taking photos of any of these activities. Does anyone know the name of the saint for finding lost things? We need an intervention here.

Recent failure

My Japanese beetle trap was a bust. It does not work and I should have actually used a real trap before I tried to make my own. Milky spore and beneficial nematodes are in my future.

On a up note I did build something that works quite well.

It is a mini chicken tractor for between the rows in the garden.

These are some pullets that are too little to run free and too big to stay in the brooder. We have been feeding them the Japanese beetles that our traps aren't catching. We are catching them by hand again this year--a loosing battle. You can't see it here but they are decimating our pole beans.


Another success is our new garden fence.

It is chicken proof and mostly children proof.

I also drifted closer to my rain water catchment goal.

Here the cow stable steel roof sheds to her stock tank.

This pvc guttering is cheap. That is if you don't use their fittings or mounting hardware. A piece of gutter is around five dollars. While if you were to install it per recommendations you'd spend thirty or forty.

Another experiment is our sweet potato patch. We are using hillbilly mulch (aka old carpet) and cut holes in it for the slips.

I hope it works.

We also took delivery of some of our winters hay. Ten beautiful bales of wheat hay that Mike just put up with his new bailer.

Round bales are not our favorite but these were too beautiful to pass up.

The biggest success of the year is the black raspberry patch. Even having to share roughly half of our bounty with the Japanese beetles we are in berry heaven.

Kassi invented a desert. fresh raspberries still warm from the sun and vanilla ice cream.

Heaven on earth...


Every toy that Toly has been playing with of late has to have a trailer of one sort or another.


Kassi found a clam shell at the creek.

The Japanese beetles have arrived

In only two days since we saw the first one. The devastation is profound. I set my trap and nothing happened. No beetles ventured toward my trap. This stuff is supposed to be crazy drawing beetles from far and wide. My bait was a last year purchase so we decided that we should but new bait. I believe my logic to be sound. My trap should work!

The new bait said it has the sex pheromone and the floral scent. It also said that most other baits only include the floral scent. Humm... I'll see in a few minutes if my new bait worked.

Yesterday we planted sweet potatoes. The cow promptly broke into that new area and destroyed most of them. All those starts that Tabitha has been nurturing, just a hand full left. Arrgh... We replanted them and are hopeful.

The garden drama has officially started.

new pigs

ginger and paprika



jack is feeling better.



ianto is still a little under the weather.


the tarps seem to have helped keep the drenching rain from my intended planting area. i shallow tilled it late yesterday to let the sun do a little more drying. we will try to plant three rows of trellised veggies in this area.