Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Got the Amish paste tomatoes, pink banana squash, and black zucchini planted late Tuesday. Need to figure out how I'm going to mulch all these rows, maybe I'll use newspaper and the half composted wood chips.

I'm excited the garden is starting to look really nice. I have most of my plants moved to the new garden now, just have the plants that are too heavy/big or are rooted in place left. I think I'll try to get a few of the little rooted ones moved tomorrow morning before work. The deer have gotten into the old garden zone at least twice now, but there's not much left they apparently consider good to eat.

One of the plant groups I'm in on FB shared a post about a Fig festival later this month. I think it's somewhat close so I will see if we can go. Hopefully it will be a fun time and I can pick up some more cuttings of varieties I don't have yet.

 

[Baymule]

You keep planting, some day you will have a food forest!

 

[Ridgetop]

Be careful that the elderberries are edible. The ones we have growing wild in our field are Mexican Elderberries and the fruit is supposed to be poisonous. However, it is also supposed to have medicinal properties when properly prepared. A lot of poisonous plants have medicinal properties when properly used. And acorns that the Chumash used to make food are poisonous unless you boil and leach the poison out of them. The resulting dry stuff was mixed with water and cooked into flatbread of some sort.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Be careful that the elderberries are edible. The ones we have growing wild in our field are Mexican Elderberries and the fruit is supposed to be poisonous. However, it is also supposed to have medicinal properties when properly prepared. A lot of poisonous plants have medicinal properties when properly used. And acorns that the Chumash used to make food are poisonous unless you boil and leach the poison out of them. The resulting dry stuff was mixed with water and cooked into flatbread of some sort.

They should be edible since I bought the elderberry cutting from a website that was selling food plants.

Acorns have tannins in them, which I think are considered toxic instead of poisonous, but definitely need to be leached out before humans can eat them safely. I still have acorn flour I started months ago sitting in the fridge, I probably should finish that and try making something.

 

[Ridgetop]

Let me know what it tastes like when you make something. I think the Chumash made a sort of porridge as well as a flatbread. Our elderberries are Mexican Elderberries. Some Hispanics here collect the berries occasionally I'm not sure why.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Got 3 more plants moved to the new garden, all 3 will need to be repotted.

We've been looking for a double stroller and finally found the right brand on FB marketplace, for a really good price. We didn't want to pay over $300 for brand new. We are getting it this morning.

 

[Ridgetop]

Twins?!!! Or double to hold Newbie and Munchkin?

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Twins?!!! Or double to hold Newbie and Munchkin?

Double to hold munchkin 1 and munchkin 2. It's the kind that you can take the car seat and just snap it into place, so you don't have to wake up the baby by moving them from the car seat to stroller or back. The car seat snaps into a base that is strapped into the car, so again, you don't have to wake up the baby by moving them from one to the other, and you can get multiple base units so you can swap vehicles easily if needed and not have to fight to get the seat strapped in each time.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

It's supposed to get over 100 degrees today, and the stupid blue hen has decided to go broody. I threw her off the nest yesterday and this morning, but I don't think she's stopping yet. She is also very pecky, but at least I'm used to that and didn't get nailed yet. She pecks hard. Good side of that is she had 4 eggs for me to grab yesterday. Nothing this morning but I think it was too early and no one had laid yet.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

One egg this morning, hen still broody. I might buy chicks this weekend and stuff them under her after setting up a mini pen inside the big pen. Either that or finally get rid of one of the extra roosters and use his pen. If I do that Friday I can check to make sure she's still broody before I end up buying chicks. I bought chicks for Mom's flock and the darn hen refused the chicks and we had to use a heat lamp.

I got side tracked this morning with plant stuff and forgot to turn the misters on. The rabbits were fine but I think it was because the temps have been lower recently, with highs below 90. Forecast says it's supposed to get back to 98 by Monday.