New Chicks on the Block and Bucket O' Roots

Aren't they cute?  These are the four new chickens that Sheila and Brad brought to our farm a couple of weeks ago.  We think they are a really nice addition to our farm.  Even though they are chickens, black chested, white polish banties (?), ... I think, they eat like little piggies!  We think we have two hens and two roosters.  So far everyone is getting along well, but that could change when the hormones kick in.  (It sure did with the bunnies!  Another story.)  Thank you Brad and Sheila ... they are really fun and have great personalities.

Guess what this next picture is.  If you think it's morning glory roots, you would be right!  This was, in Anne's words ... a "bucket o' roots."  Not what the Colonel had in mind.  We, (Anne) dug these out of the flower bed.  After shaking the dirt off the roots, we put them in a black garbage bag and estimate that the roots weighed about 20 to 25 lbs.  If we tie the bag up real tight, they shouldn't escape!  We know that we didn't get all of the roots, but what a good dent! Along with slug patrol, we will also start a morning glory patrol.  Thus avoiding hostile morning glory take overs!  Which with morning glory, it could happen over night.  In order to save a lilac and a day lily, we took cuttings from each because their roots were hopelessly tangled with the morning glory.

So, what happened?  After digging and digging at the roots, toward the end of last season, I gave up ... oops!  NOT good!  But thanks to Anne and Doug's help, we're hoping to keep the flower bed semi weed free.  Doug spread some new bark nuggets down, so we have a great start.  Plus, weeding the flower bed keeps us busy while we're waiting for the gardens to dry out! 

Make it a great day!

July 16, 2011 - Farm to Fork Dinner

Farm to Fork

Buffet Style Dinner

July 16, 2011

4 to 7 pm

We are sooooooo excited to be hosting our First Annual Farm to Fork Dinner.  Here's the latest:

Dinner will be served buffet style in three shifts: 4pm   5pm and 6 pm.;
using as many of our farm's veggies as available and may include (weather permitting):
Halibut mixed with grated spuds; Salad; Fennel Carrots; Romanesco w/Northwest Berry Vinegar; Dessert, (Strawberry shortcake is planned); Wine or Hard Cider ... still in the early planning stages ... check back for updates. 

Vegetables (yes, from our farm ... grin, grin, smile, smile, happy, happy, oh, pleeeeeease, Mother Nature be good to us) using recipes from The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook, by Debra Daniels-Zeller www.foodconnections.blogspot.com.  Debra will be on-site to sell and autograph her book; 
Chef Devra, (www.quirkygourmet.com) will be using an open grill to prepare some of our
dinner;
Dinner will be served on the ground floor of our partially renovated heritage barn;
We have assigned times for dinner, but you are welcome to spend the entire evening on our farm enjoying the wildlife, serenity, and sunset;
We will also have local crafts people on-site with their art work;
You will have the opportunity to take a Self-Guided Tour of our WSDA certified organic farm;
Music; (live or DVD, To be determined as of this date 4/16/11);
Door prizes; (lots of door prizes!)
Cost of the dinner:  $45/person;
Still in the early planning stages ... hope you can join us!
Further questions or to purchase tickets:  Feel free to e-mail me at:  bydenmythyme@hotmail.com  

Thank you for your interest in what we
hope to be a really fun, educational event!

Please RSVP by June 30

Nearby Stilly Flood Waters ... NOT on our property.

We drove down the road a bit, just to see what was going on with the flooding, plus we could see flood waters from our house.  AND the Stillaguamish flood WATCH was changed to flood WARNING.  The picture above is looking west to Marine Drive.  The intersection of Norman Road and Marine Drive was closed off. 

The picture below was taken standing on the bridge just west of Miller Road.  Note the branch stuck in the gate. 

And, it rained all day today.  We did some weeding and worked on staying dry!  LOL  Happy weekend!

March 11, 2011

Our thoughts and prayers for the people of Japan, and all over the globe.

Eggstraordinary!

Eggsellent! Ha! Spring is on it's way! Hallelujah! After a fairly, nonrainy, warm weekend, look what our little two year old buff orpington surprised us with on Monday, March 7! Her first egg of the season.  What a sweet way to start the week! 

Okay, so we did take the egg out of the pen and wash it, it was then that we realized ... picture! We should have taken a picture while the egg was inside the chicken tractor with her! 

 

 

Then on Tuesday, she laid another egg!  This is definitely a good sign!

And, you ... make it an eggsellent week! (Sorry, I can't resist the "Punsy" scheme.) Take good care.

Still Winter?

Yup! Took these pictures today, Feb 24, 2011 without the flash, shortly after Doug went to work. BRRRR. We're staying warm and cozy here. Will spend the day working on taxes, doing dishes, laundry and continued reading about permaculture! (The plan was to start opening up the raised beds and get started with some really early spring planting ... ah, well ... maybe next week.)

Got our organic certification renewal submitted to WSDA, ordered more organic asparagus crowns (for the second raised bed of asparagus), 3 lbs. of organic onion sets, and some organic sun flower seeds. All ordered from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds. We already have a big stash of certified organic seeds from last fall and last year ... uh, just can't help myself ... I love seeds!

Happy day!

Does Starbucks Deliver?

No flood waters on our property. Whew! Lots of standing rain water and we aren't able to make a Starbucks run to Stanwood. (Nor was Doug able to get out for work.) But we're good! We took this picture this morning from the living room window looking northwest. The picture below was taken from upstairs using a zoom. Also looking northwest. While it appears that the flood waters are up against the homes in the background, the water is in the nearby pastures and seems to be receding pretty quickly.

Since these pictures were taken, the sun has come out and our biggest worry is to get motivated to do something other than stare out the windows. Roads should be passable later this afternoon. We can then stop trying to figure out a way to get to Starbucks, i.e. hitch hike a ride on the Burlington Northern Truck that was seen driving up and down checking the railroad tracks, wondering whether or not a bicycle would get through flood waters easier than a car, or break out a VIA and call it good! (No, we don't have stock in Starbucks ... yet! LOL) Make it a great day and thank you for your thoughts and kind words. Not to worry, we and all of our livestock are a-okay. XXOO