Gardner’s California Homestead

[GardnerHomestead]

Finally completed our garden. I did everything in ground last year, battled a lot of gophers. Decided on raised boxes this year. What a huge job that was. My husband did most of the heavy work, built the boxes, moved all the soil, installed underground plumbing, weed guards and mulch. Very happy with the outcome. I’m going to put some zinnias in my chickens window box today and continue to battle the thistle. So appreciative of our life always giving us something to stay busy, never a dull moment.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

I am in envy of your set up

 

[CntryBoy777]

Dig deep for tbe root on that thistle and if ya keep it from heading you'll eventually thin them down...those seed can blow-in from miles in the winds ya get out that way.....I have driven a big truck thru there is how I know....

 

[GardnerHomestead]

I am in envy of your set up

Thank you! I actually didn’t realize the volume of work involved. or I might have just battled gophers lol but I’m glad it’s done.

 

[GardnerHomestead]

Dig deep for tbe root on that thistle and if ya keep it from heading you'll eventually thin them down...those seed can blow-in from miles in the winds ya get out that way.....I have driven a big truck thru there is how I know....

Yes the wind is not our friend. I’ve gotten pretty good at pulling the whole root out with the thistle using a little metal trowel. It’s quite an art. We had a goat head problem when we first moved in. Those are the worst! I was able to get them out before they spread. My father in law used to be a truck driver. He saw a lot of the country. He misses it sometimes.

 

[thistlebloom]

Did you put some sort of wire down in the bottom of your raised beds to deter the gophers? They are so good at homing in on where plants are by the moist earth. We battled them at our old place too. We finally got a couple of cats that were excellent hunters and they were catching multiple gophers a day. Not all cats are good at it and we have had our share of slackers. The two young ones we have now are great mousers, and I hope they catch the gophers who are making inroads on our plantings.

Nice setup BTW!

 

[GardnerHomestead]

Did you put some sort of wire down in the bottom of your raised beds to deter the gophers? They are so good at homing in on where plants are by the moist earth. We battled them at our old place too. We finally got a couple of cats that were excellent hunters and they were catching multiple gophers a day. Not all cats are good at it and we have had our share of slackers. The two young ones we have now are great mousers, and I hope they catch the gophers who are making inroads on our plantings.

Nice setup BTW!

We put 1/4 in hardware cloth. And yes I have two slackers and one who brings us something almost daily. She’s worth her weight in gold!

 

[CntryBoy777]

My father in law used to be a truck driver. He saw a lot of the country. He misses it sometimes.

I came thru Weed one nite and winds were blowing 70+ and they were calling for snow down to 700'....was sleeting as we were on Shasta.....I stopped and kissed the ground in Redding....heading to Fresno...

 

[GardnerHomestead]

Its been a little while, still working from home most days and trying to juggle home schooling, work, and chores (albeit not always successfully). I was gifted an incubator for my birthday this year, its been incredibly disappointing, spiking temps in one part of the incubator while cooling off way to much in others. so my last hatch was a whopping 17 out of 42 eggs. I tracked the ones that hatched and it looks like only the upper corner of the incubator is actually heating to the right temp. So I put some more eggs in but only in the upper corner. i also happened to have a broody hen who is sitting on about 10.

My order of chicks came in from the hatchery, during transit i lost all but one of my olive eggers and one americauna. they cannot replace them because they dont have extra. so i got a refund for them. When all was said and done i ended up with 3 americaunas, 2 leghorns, and 1 olive egger. I also and keeping about 7 of my own lavender orpington eggs that will hatch, should add some nice color to my eggs

Well we had a Guinea fowl tragedy occur this past week, Pepsi (female) and Cola (male) had been settling in really well she even had a little nest in the blackberries. We all loved watching them and their crazy antics. Woke up at about 530 in the morning to them alerting to something in the yard. I look out the window and see the neighbors dog had dug under our fence and had Pepsi in his mouth. . I grabbed the closest thing i could find which was the fire poker and went running out there yelling. He dropped her and took off running. Pepsi was to injured to survive, so my husband put her down and i went and talked to the dog owner. she was apologetic but she just lets her dogs run free. i was so upset. Cola was beside himself calling for her all day. It was sad. My husband was able to obtain another guinea hen from a guy next to his work. As soon as Cola heard Cherry chirping he came running, and they have been inseparable ever since i dont understand why people let their dogs run loose. That lady thinks im crazy im sure but she hasnt seen crazy, if that dog would have gotten to one of my goats then she would have.

We burned all our extra brush because temps are about to go way up, burn season will be over for the foreseeable future soon. Got some sprinklers to water a part of our pasture and our fruit trees. Got all grass mowed/weedeated. We had a late May hail storm that took down most of my flower starts, luckily my garden mostly came out unscathed. the hollyhock looks like it made it though. The last kids of the year will be traded here in a couple weeks. i love having all the babies but it will be less work to be down to 7 goats again. I am looking forward to summer, camping, swimming, all that fun stuff.

 

[rachels.haven]

She doesn't need to see you crazy. She just maybe doesn't need to see her dog again. Free ranging dogs get hit by cars all the time after all, and one person's pet on the wrong property is a predator to another, just like flowers and weeds.
My parents used bear spray when they had a recurrent issue with a free ranging dog killing stock. It made the dog temporarily blind and painted it's face bright red. Odd thing, the owners magically kept their dog in after that.