Progress Update...... Thursday 11/13/14

So, I took a stroll around the farm today taking photos of our progress so far. Fair warning it is not much :)

I started with the quietest rooster ever, Old Rusty. I was promptly photo bombed by our current steer. He even stuck his tongue out at me......

A new home.... A new garden.... A new adventure

    Scurvy Elephant Farm has a new home. After living in a rental house for a year we purchased an older brick home (1971) on a few acres. There is some old landscaping, but garden wise we are starting from scratch.  It will be a lot of work but we are looking at it as a blank canvas where we can take what we have learned with past gardens and paint away. Rick disassembled the green house, moved it and reassembled it so we have it. The winter garden is mostly in 25 gallon pots. We will spend the winter building the new garden and working the area around the patio and hope to have everything ready for spring planting.

Here are a few "before" outside views.

The wonder that is Cutting Celery and other perennials in the garden ......

I love to cook with celery, I always have. It adds that little something to almost everything. It is also considered a negative calorie food, meaning you burn more calories eating it than it contains. What is not to love about that? The downside of conventional celery is two fold for me. First, back when I bought store bought celery I almost always had to freeze the better part of what I had purchased because I rarely managed to use it all before it went bad. The second downside is geographic. I live in Florida which is not the most conducive climate for growing conventional large stalk celery.  A few years back I was introduced to Cutting Celery Apium graveolens var. secalinum. In our area Cutting Celery grows as a perennial year around. The stalks are not as large as conventional celery but work wonderfully in cooking. If you are looking for celery to smear with peanut butter, stick with traditional.

As the Garden Grows........ May 5th 2014

Welcome back to another installment of "As the Garden Grows" as we share the evolution of a new garden. It has been a VERY wet spring here in north Florida thankfully our raised beds have kept us growing and healthy through many inches of rain :)

I can attest to raised beds making a garden much more manageable when life is crazy busy. Having been in nursing school since this garden was started (I just graduated last Friday) there really hasn't been much time put into maintaining the garden.

Symbiosis around the homestead....... part 1

Websters dictionary defines symbiosis as, "the living together in more or less intimate association or close union of two dissimilar organisms, a cooperative relationship." We are finding that the more symbiotic relationships that we can build between the different components of our homestead the more harmony we have, the healthier the livestock/garden/system is and the more money we save.

As I loaded old hay in the back of the truck this week I started thinking about all the ways we are integrating and building symbiotic relationships and thought "what a great idea for a blog series" so here we are.

Captain.... there be duck eggs here!

Sorry, bad Star Trek reference.............

So last year we bought an incubator and hatched chicks from our Delawares, gooslings from our Buff geese and some turkey eggs from a fiend. I was HOOKED!

Last year I purchased 11 Pekin ducklings with the intention of keeping a few breeders and harvesting the rest. Fast forward almost a year and the ducks are laying eggs and we are seeing mating behavior. Last week we started saving duck eggs.

Before pictures..... AKA the cute and fuzzy side of rabbit farming........

These are our current cuties. There is just something adorable and sumo wrestleresk about fat baby bunnies. These three are extra special because they are the last litter from Blossom one of our two founding does. The other founding doe and our founding buck were retired a week ago and after this litter is weened Blossom will retire as well.

As The Garden Grows ......... 1/11/2014

I am a few days late on posting this week thanks to some really cold weather and the beds staying closed for several days. We had a couple of nights in the low teens and twenties with a daytime temps that didn't break freezing if you factored in the wind chill. Normally the bed covers are only held shut on the ends with bricks but due to wind predicted to accompany the low temps we stapled the ends closed. In this buttoned up state there was no peeking until the temps returned to normal and the covers could be opened. This was our first REAL test of how well the hoop covers were going to protect the garden.

Drum roll please........................

Homemade Pizza in 30 minutes.... Start to finish..... Crust and All........

This is the easiest crust I have ever made and it was good! Before you get too excited, I have not made many. I make bread all the time, even made some darn good 45 minute yeast rolls New Years day but, pizza crust requires planning ahead, or so I thought.

Happy New Year..... 2014.... a look ahead.....

Wow, its January 1st 2014, time does fly!

We are not big on New Years resolutions around here, more of a goal and lifestyle list for us.  

We have been working on stepping off the mass consumerism, everything has to be bigger, faster and more convenient bandwagon. The main plan for 2014 is to be more diligent in this endeavor.  Our instant gratification throw away society is out of control.

As the Garden Grows.......... 12/23/2013

A weekly chronicle of the first year of a new garden.

Scurvy Elephant Farm moved to a new home this fall necessitating starting gardens from scratch.  This presents an opportunity to chronicle the process from the start. As life permits Monday's will be "As the Garden Grows" post days. 

Without further ado lets get started!

Winterizing the garden, hoop frames and covers installed to grow year round.

Although our winters are mild here in north Florida, we do still get a few freezing nights each year. With the edition of hoop frames and plastic we hope to keep right on growing all winter.

Materials for each hoop cold frame 

4 - 10ft  3/4 inch grey pvc conduit per frame @ $1.88 each

8 - 18inch pieces of 1/2 inch metal conduit per frame (already had these, I buy 5 ft sections for $1.29 each and use them as garden stakes they outperform wooden stakes by miles! )

1 - 100ft x 10ft roll 6mil plastic sheeting $69 ( we covered 3 frames and have enough left for at least 2 more frames)

1 - 12ft 1 x 4 per frame (used free wood from a local business that puts scrap out for free)

staples

So each frame cover cost aprox $24 to build

A garden is born.......................

I have been without a real garden for a while. We moved to the new property in August, the weekend before the fall semester started. Then I had back surgery, which really slowed the garden progress down. Thanks to a helpful husband and a really mild December, the first four raised beds are built and partially planted.

The project began with free wood I drug home.

Prickly Pear Jelly...........

I have been eyeing a rather large Prickly Pear just up the road from the farm ever since we moved in this fall. I comment on the ripening fruit and my desire to turn it into jelly. Thanks to a post from a friend about the need for gloves during this process to avoid bright purple hands, I finally went and picked some today. I am a huge fan of free fruit you can turn into jelly and other goodies!

I Love Thrift Stores! ........But, there are rules......

I love thrift stores! After all what's not to love? You never know what you are going to find, so it is an adventure. You are saving a lot of money by buying used. You are reducing the amount of "stuff" that fills our landfills. In many instances you are coming home with higher quality products than otherwise fit your budget.  You are also keeping your hard earned dollars at home working in your community, many times going directly to a local charity. So, thrift store shopping is good for your wallet, good for the planet, a rewarding pastime and ultimately good for the soul :)

Here are some of today's treasures  ( solid maple bench/table $5, 3 yards of flannel $1, milk glass mixing bowl $3, pastel metal hanging planters $1, huge bag of paperback books for daddy .25 each, three nice flannel shirts $2, white leather nursing shoes $3.......

THE GOLDEN RULES OF THRIFTING

Rule #1 You don't always find what you went looking for, (if you went with an agenda), but you almost always will find treasures, so slow down and really look.

Rule #2 Don't bother stopping at a thrift store when you are in a hurry. This relates back to rule #1, you need time to slow down and look.

Rule #3 If you significant other is not into thrift store shopping, DON'T TAKE THEM WITH YOU! Seriously, you will not enjoy it, you will feel rushed and there are laws against killing them for ruining your adventure.

Rule #4 Think outside the box. You may not need a giant clear glass cookie jar but that same cookie jar would make an awesome terrarium that you can keep to enjoy or give away as a gift (think cheap, unique, personal gift).

Rule #5 It is not ALL about YOU! Keep your eyes open for cool gift ideas for Christmas and Birthdays. This is a win-win situation. You get to save money on gifts, plan ahead and have your very own adventure doing it.

Rule #6 Take the largest vehicle you own when thrift store shopping, you never know what you will find. Wouldn't it just suck to find the hot tub you always wanted, its only $25 and you are in a car when you have a perfectly good pickup in the driveway at home?

Rule #7 Be careful who you share your adventure with. If you and your dear mom collect the same thing, DON'T TAKE HER! Think harmony in the family, you don't want a wrestling match in the middle of a store you would like to be able to come back to. Plus, as mentioned above, there are laws against killing people while thrifting.

Rule #8 Vacations are awesome thrifting opportunities. While in different locals you may find region specific treasures that would never show up in you hometown thrift store. Plus, thrifting is cheap entertainment while traveling.

Rule #9 If you have friends and family that are "above" thrift store shopping, for heavens sake don't tell them thats where that lovely set of silver you just gave them came from.

Rule #10 ...... This is the very most important rule of all.........Have fun :)