Update to the last post

Well the first of the thirteen eggs we set earlier this month has hatched out to a cute little turkey. There are five more of his/her brethren in the process of pecking themselves out of their Calcium Cottages. Hopefully the rest will finish in due time.

Made a new purchase last week and it got here just in time. The four females Narragansetts seem to have taken on the task of repopulating the Island all by themselves. Between them all we collected sixty (60) eggs from various nests and have started them in the  new incubator so that they will all hatch at approximately the same time. we will be up to our tushies in turkies as there are already 22 in the sliding cage. I accidentally  killed one of them when He got caught under the cross bar and I turned him into a turkey pancake. Won't make that same mistake twice! So with the 22 there, the 16 hatching on the kitchen table, and the 60 in the new incubator, that comes to 98 if I added it right.  But the good thing is that 12 of them are spoken for already.

The Cauliflower row is my first failure of this season. I guess I brought them outside a bit too early even though they were ensconced in hoop houses covered with Agribon. To stressful an as a result they all "bolted for the sky". I had just tied up the leaves over the heads to keep the blanched. NOT!  So I moved on down to my #2 raised bed and planted three more short rows and hopefully we will have some at the end of the summer to pickle and enjoy fresh.

All the tomatoes look like a mangrove jungle! I can't even walk between rows. They are covered in small tomatoes and tons of flowers. After the last hard rain I mixed up a batch of Enz-Rot, 2 tsps. to a gallon of water and sprayed them all till they dripped to try and get some calcium absorbed.

All the Golden Bantam corn, an heirloom variety, and another hybrid have all come up and are past the stage of being pulled by crows.That is if they survive the hail of #5 bird shot sure to engulf them! I also planted a bunch of northwestern Blue Hubbard squash. These are about 15 pound ones, NOT the 40 pound monsters we used to grow as kids.

Piggies are doing well and are now almost up to my size!  In another couple of months  they will be ready to be retired to the chest freezers in various basements. TIFN

OBTW, has anyone opened their eyes and seen just what it is our illustrious presidente has done and is doing to this country? Just wondering!!

What's happening down on the pseudo farm?

Here we are in the almost full bloom of summer and we are diligently trying to bring down the levels of frozen food in four different freezers. They still hold the remnants of two pigs who had been turned into various forms of sausage, breakfast, sweet and hot Italian, Cajun. Then there was also the home cured honey/maple syrup bacon that still needs to be savored. All the various cuts of meat that come from a piggy have all been slowly disappearing. We made in the vicinity  of 850-900 lbs of various types of sausage/keilbasa etc using a fifty/fifty mix of venison and pork fat and meat! It is absolutely delicious!

After we had dispatched all the piggies we turned our attention to the approximately 25 Narragansett turkeys that we had been raising all summer and fall. They mostly went into the freezer with all their bodily parts still intact. Three or four were split in half before freezing and the remainder were put in our new 100 pound smoker and processed for almost 24 hours. Now there is some fine eating. I think they lasted a grand total of a week or so!

So about the 10th of April we had our next batch of piggies show up for a summer of leisure in the Taj     Mahal of pig sty's. There, they get to lie about in the sun working on their tan, all the while dining on the finest that the Depot, BIG, OPOBS, and  my pocket book can provide. They came as young and svelte piggies of about 30 pounds and have begun their middle age spread. They are about 130/150 right now but will probably be about 280/300 by the time they expire.

The four female Narragansett's have so far contributed about 25 live birds out of almost 80 laid. Thirteen were hatched just four days ago and then that heavy all night rain came and they all died from hypothermia from the water running right  through their nest! Bummer! Mom has commenced laying another brood. We also have another batch of 16 incubating on the kitchen table from one of the others who lays the eggs but disdains setting on them for 28 days! So we called TPS,(Turkey Protective Services) and they let us foster them. Well at least till November/December.

So the total garden is all in and doing well. Nothing to do now but keep after the weeds and bugs and other pests. Did get six high bush blueberry bushes planted this year. Also planted twelve Georgia Jet sweet potatoes, of which only nine survived the transplant ordeal. These are good winter keepers and should last throughout most of the winter in a nice cool environment.

Got the usual assortment of sauce and eating tomatoes coming along really well. The Pontiac Red potatoes should be ready by 4 July potato salad. The Kennebec's were started two weeks after the others and will be the fall/winter keepers as they will stay snuggled in their dirt beds till the tops have died and gone to veggie heaven.

All kinds of other stuff going well like, bush beans,  Pinto's, Red Kidney's for storing, cukes, winter and summer squash, peas, okra  carrots, beets, two kinds, and various other green eatables.

Well, it will soon be time to start canning and dehydrating another years worth of yummies to get us through the troubling times a coming! TIFN