You Can Tug My Feathers for a Price

Liam's new favourite activity is "feeding" the chickens.  In reality, this equates to tugging on their feathers and then tossing grain in the air in their general direction in order to get them to come close enough so he can tug on their feathers some more.  We are continuing to work on the concept "gentle and soft" so this is very good practice.

Tug

Tug

Toss

Tug

Tug -- and repeat...

A few days ago we spent almost an hour feeding the chickens.  Liam was delighted.  Delighted might be a bit of a stretch to describe the chickens' feelings about this event, especially those that bore the brunt of the feather tugging.  However, all the chickens were good sports and those that ventured close enough got to eat a lot of snack grain.  Perhaps this made enduring a bit of feather tugging worthwhile?

Bee Update:

I did another hive check today to see how the three new queens are doing.  They have been in the hives for four days now and I had to go in to make sure that the worker bees had released them from their cages.  A queen bee is introduced to the hive in a little white cage with a candy plug.

Over a span of three or four days, the hive acclimatizes to their new queen and the bees eat through the plug to free the queen.  The next step is to wait another week to give everyone a chance to settle in before I do a thorough hive inspection to make sure each queen has begun to lay eggs.  So far, so good.

Caught Red Hoofed

Somebody has been eating the bark off the trees in the back paddock.  This is really bad for the trees and can kill them so it was important to curb this undesirable behaviour right away.  As a temporary fix I surrounded the tree trunk with fencing and barricaded it with patio furniture until I could get my hands on some chicken wire to protect the trunk properly.

It was a mystery which ovine was the guilty party until yesterday when I caught the two lambs red handed (or red hoofed as it were) with mouths full of bark.  Violet had pushed her way through the cast iron chairs and had stuck her head through the gaps in the fence while Abbott stood on watch.  Sadly, he is not very good at being a look-out since I made it right up to them before he noticed I was coming.  Neither lamb looked particularly guilty at getting caught and both pranced over to me asking to be petted.

I have since secured a roll of chicken wire and have proactively fenced around all the important trees in the back paddock.  Donkeys are reportedly renowned bark eaters too so I figure we might as well get this chore done now since we would inevitably have to do it once Charlie P. arrives in a few weeks.

How We Fared at the Fair

For us, the Carp Fair is like the farm Olympics.  It is so exciting to find out how we fared in all the categories we entered.  It is also fun to calculate our final prize tally of gold, silver and bronze place finishes to see how we did overall.

I am pleased to report that the Kehoe MacLeod family of Gael Glen Farm had a very respectable showing at this year's Carp Fair.  We placed in exactly half of the categories we entered, with six 1st place finishes, five 2nd place finishes, six 3rd place finishes, one 4th place and one 5th place finish.

First Prize

1. Outdoor Decorating Challenge

We made the local newspaper!

Our fancy plaque that we do not get to keep. :(

2. Grapes

3. Marigolds, larger than 2"

4. 9 day pickles

We wonder if the other two entries were disqualified?

5. Display of honey products

My display before judging

Proof that I won!

6. Samples of beeswax

Second Prize

1. Carrots, longer than 5"

2. Jalapenos

3. Other hot pepper (chili peppers)

4. Ale
5. Lager

Third Prize

1. Apples

2. Carrots, shorter than 5"

3. Red peppers, sweet

4. Pears

See our sad looking pears on the right?

5. Berry honey wine

6. Apple cider

Fourth Prize

1. Honey, light coloured

Yay, we placed!

Fifth Prize

1. Maple syrup, extra light

Our highlight item was winning 1st place for our beeswax which came with a $20 prize!  I was also very happy to place in the honey category (even if it was 4th).  This is a competitive category with lots of entries and it is won every single year by the same two people who always take up the top two spots.  It is pretty much my goal in life to beat them in the honey category.  Though this year I did beat them in both the beeswax and honey display categories, which is something, but some day I will beat them with my honey!

Our major disappointment was that we did not do better in the pickling area.  Happily, Ian won with his 9 day pickles which justified him spending nine days making them! I also thought that our display of three herbs was really nice in comparison to the other entries so I was disappointed that we did not place here; maybe the judging panel did not consider spearmint an herb?

Our biggest surprise was placing with our pears and apples.  As you can see, our pears are in a sorry state.  Not only does my pear tree refuse to produce normal sized pears - I get these miniature pears instead - my pears were ripe really early this year so I tried to preserve them in the fridge for several weeks until fair time.  This was not particularly successful and I ended up having very few green pears to choose from for submission.  

Likewise, the apple trees in our orchard are very young and are not yet producing full sized apples.  It was also not a particularly good apple harvest year for us.  The apples that we submitted came from the wild apple tree near our back compost bin.  We are shocked, not only that they placed, but that they actually beat out other entries!

Overall, we are very pleased with our results and really enjoyed attending this year's fair.  We loved the petting zoo, corn dogs and free chocolate milk.  We even had a chance to speak with an exhibitor about how to clean and begin preparing sheep fleece to be made into wool.  This will be handy information come spring when we shear our sheep for the first time.

Thank you Carp Fair for another great year and we are already thinking about how to improve our entries for 2015!

Roasted Roots

I am happy to report that our preparations for the 2014 Carp Fair are complete.  All of our entries have been submitted and everything was judged yesterday.  I cannot wait until the weekend to see if we won anything.  We submitted the following items:

1. Field pumpkin
2. Field squash
3. Apples
4. Grapes
5. Crab apples
6. Carrots, longer than 5"
7. Carrots, shorter than 5"
8. Green peppers
9. Red peppers
10. Jalapenos
11. Other hot pepper (chili peppers)
12. Pears
13. Parsley
14. Display of 3 herbs (spearmint, thyme and Cuban oregano)
15. Marigolds, smaller than 2"
16. Marigolds, larger than 2"
17. Echinacea flowers
18. Dill pickles
19. Bread and butter pickles
20. 9 day pickles
21. Icicle pickles
22. Dill beans
23. Pickled beets
24. Blueberry jam
25. Crab apple jelly
26. Honey, light coloured
27. Maple syrup, extra light and light coloured
28. Display of honey products
29. Tea biscuits
30. Tomato soup cake
31. Berry honey wine
32. Apple cider
33. Ale
34. Lager
35. Aloe vera plant
36. Miniature tomatoes
37. Samples of beeswax

Lots of entries, huh?  It took us a ton of time to pull it all together, and to package and label everything.  Luckily my mom was able to come over and she helped a lot.  She did the flower arranging for us and I must say all that of our flower entries look mighty fine.  She also helped me with my honey display which now looks much, much better.  I think we might have some winners here!

Since we submitted in both carrot categories, it required me to pick all of the carrots remaining in our gardens.  

As such I had a carrot surplus and was able to make roasted carrot, squash and pumpkin soup.  The great thing about this is it made a bunch extra so I could stock the freezer with this hearty meal to pull out on a snowy winter day.  I am thinking maybe for lunch on Christmas day after my annual afternoon snowshoeing excursion.

We will report back on the outcome of the fair on Monday's post.  Keep your fingers crossed for us! In the meantime, we will be enjoying our roasted carrot soup with some fresh homemade bread.  Hopefully, you are having something healthy and delicious for lunch today too!

Missing Monarchy

I told my bee hives to shape up or ship out and unfortunately, they chose to ship out.  Seriously? Unfortunately, this leaves me queenless in three of our five hives.  I am not impressed.  What kind of queen abandons her hive as winter approaches?  An irresponsible and negligent one, that's for sure.   I can think of many other suitable adjectives but you probably get my drift.

Bad bee

The unfortunate state of our hives warranted a call to the local bee supply store that, luckily, is managed by a very knowledgeable and experienced beekeeper.  I explained about my queenless hives and (to my dismay) the very knowledgeable and experienced beekeeper agreed that I was indeed in a sorry state.  Truth be told, I was hoping for an "it's not so bad" but that is not what I got.

It is pretty late in the season to have the hives grow a new queen themselves.  It is possible if the weather holds out but it is risky.  My safest bet at this point is to requeen my hives with a mated queen purchased for a whopping $26 per queen from the bee supply store.  I had a bit of a heart attack when the very knowledgeable and experienced beekeeper said that it is also quite late in the season to secure queens and he was not sure if he would be able to get some for me.  Luckily he called back a few hours later and said he was able to get me my three mated queens after all.  They will arrive on Thursday.  Thank goodness.

I explained our latest bee conundrum to Ian over dinner and he wondered aloud if we are just unlucky beekeepers or if everyone has this many bee related problems.  I do not have an answer to that but regardless we will just keep powering through, learning from our mistakes and hopefully becoming more successful (or at least less unlucky) beekeepers next year.

Sage Storage is Wise Preservation

Every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas, as I stand in the grocery store and stare at the cling wrapped bundles of sage for $5, I wonder why, oh why, didn't I grow sage in my herb garden during the summer?  Of all the useful and delicious spices to grow, it took me until this year to get some planted on the farm.  Luckily, it grew to be huge and fragrant and so, was very much worth the effort.  With all my outdoor plants on the decline, it was time to cut the sage, dry it out and store it until it is turkey cooking time.  I was so excited about this task, I forgot to take many "in the process" photos but the end product turned out amazing.  My cling wrapped bundle of sage is about four times what you buy in the store and smells simply amazing.  It makes my mouth water thinking of cranberry sauce, my dad's stuffing and my mom's pumpkin pie.  I am glad Thanksgiving is coming up soon!

My herb garden.  The sage is the purple bush on the back left.

The dehydrator was the perfect tool to dry out the sage.  I put the whole bush in at once
and ran the dehydrator overnight.  It was dry as a bone come morning.

Finished product: cling wrapped sage.  The herb is so easy to use when packaged this way.
You simply hold the bundle upright and squeeze along its length until lots of crushed up
sage leaves sprinkle out the bottom.  Perfect.

Squash Fest

It is time to harvest our squash and pumpkin - yes, pumpkin, singular.  We only got one.  Normally we are overrun with squash and pumpkins at this time of year.  However, these particular veggies did not grow very well this year much to the dismay of our sheep who were looking forward to a pumpkin feast.  We read that when you have a surplus of pumpkins you can let them freeze outside and then defrost them one by one throughout the winter as a delicious snack for the livestock.  Sadly, our one pumpkin will not go very far.  Especially since we will likely eat it ourselves in the form of delicious pumpkin pie.  We are thinking about doing a post-Halloween suburban neighbourhood drive-by to pick up some old Jack-o-lanterns to use for sheep snack purposes.

Our 2014 squash and pumpkin harvest

In the meantime, we will enjoy roasting up the squash that we did harvest - except the nicest ones which we will enter into the Carp Fair this coming weekend.  

Carp Fair selections

I am especially looking forward to roasting the squash seeds - nothing says autumn like roasted squash and pumpkin seeds.  Not to worry though, our sheep and chickens will not be completely deprived; we will feed them the pulp and the roasted skins.  They will think this is quite the delectable treat.

First Frost

I have been wondering when the first frost of the year will hit and last night it did.  Good thing I was prepared and covered up any important plants with bed sheets.  I have a few plants I am trying to keep alive until the Carp Fair next weekend (namely my marigolds, zucchinis and herbs) so they are the lucky ones who get tucked in nice and cozy under a bed sheet at night.  After the fair though, all bets are off!

This morning on the farm

Frosty lawn and gardens

Ever Think About Adopting....a Chicken?

This past weekend, Gael Glen Farm welcomed five new feathery friends who needed to be re-homed.  These brown hens are actually the cousins of the Lohmann browns that we adopted in the spring.  They are the same breed, from same farmer and are the same age.  Our newly adopted birds used to live in a beautiful little coop at Liam's on-call nanny's house where they could free range on the front lawn.  Sadly, they were being systematically stolen by a neighbourhood coyote and each day the flock would lose one member.  They were very well taken care of at their old home but in the interests of safety they have come to live with us here at Gael Glen Farm where they can free range in the security of a chicken run surrounded by an electric fence.

Our new additions are adjusting well.  The first night three of the five new birds tried to sleep outside and I had to pick them up individually, bring them into the coop and place them on the roosts.  However, they have since gotten the idea and now come in on their own.  I have one bird who is a bit of an escape artist and so is scheduled to have her wings clipped in the near future.  The chicken run is divided into halves so the grass has a chance to regrow on one side while the hens eat it up on the other.   The escapee hen keeps flying into the cordoned off side and then cannot get back over to her comrades.  At least she is not flying over to Emily's side of the fence since we know what happens in that scenario.

We are glad our new chickens are taking to their new home and are establishing their position in the pecking order.  Just call us Gael Glen Farm and Avian Rescue - haha.

That's Nuts!

Autumn is nut harvesting time at Gael Glen Farm.  We have two nut bearing trees on the farm, only one of which is edible.  In the front yard we have a prolific Horse Chestnut tree.  Unfortunately, horse chestnuts are not good for anything really - definitely not to eat even for horses.  I think squirrels are likely the only ones really excited about these nuts.

Horse chestnut tree

For the first time since we moved to the farm, the Black Walnut tree in our back yard has produced nuts.  We are super excited about this since many people say black walnuts are the best tasting nut.  They are expensive too at about $14/lb.

Black walnut tree

Black walnut on the tree

Today I picked as many nuts as I could reach and we ended up with a bowl full.  We cracked off the green outer husk by crushing the nut with a cast iron frying pan.  Under the green shell is a stinky yellow substance that stains everything and smells really awful.

We rinsed the nuts discarding any that floated and then laid them to cure for one month on clean, dry newspaper.  

We will return to the nuts in a future post when we are ready for next steps....I can already taste the maple walnut ice cream I am going to make using our home grown black walnuts and Ian's homemade maple syrup.  Mmmm...