The Weekly Digs #169
Still no rain here and above average temperatures 90ºF-100ºF all week. I know I sound like a broken record since I’ve been saying this for weeks. I’m writing it again because all of our actions are affected by weather with homesteading!
Preserving
- Made the first big batch of canned dill pickles 12 pint jars. I share where to find the recipe and a few edits HERE.
In the Garden
- Watered the orchard. This is a big deal because I’ve never had to water it before. It’s also a big deal because we have no water near the orchard.
We took our water tank on a trailer that we normally use for animals and brought it to the orchard. I let every tree have 5-20 minutes of water, depending on size. Our orchard is a quarter mile from our house.
This post contains affiliate links. Here is the full disclosure.
It took a lot of time, but it was good to stand there and observe what was happening around the trees. I found bagworms on several of the trees and picked them off and put them in a bucket of soapy water while I waited.
Our future plan is to move our retired chickens down to this area. But first a fence needs to be built to protect the trees and the chickens. We hope to do this project in the fall.
- Harvesting cucumbers, cabbages, onions, dill, basil, and other various herbs. We also got our first harvest of green beans this week!
- Worked on trellising our tomatoes. This happens often but I’ve been behind so I’m trying to get caught up on this.
- Cam is working on irrigation. I originally thought I’d be able to do it but I’ve been swamped with other garden/preserving/housekeeping tasks. He seems like he knows what he is doing much more than me, so that is probably a good thing he is taking over that project.
- Planted Nothstine dent corn. Two 40 ft garden beds.
Farm Animals
- Pigs are doing well! They have cleared out their first paddock and Cam moved them to a new one today.
- We had an issue with the chicken tractor that housed the meat chickens. They are still fairly small at 5 weeks (heritage breed Delawares), and kept escaping. The door had a small hole where the hardware mesh wasn’t staying put even after constantly stapling it down. After it just wasn’t working, we decided to redo the whole door with plywood. Problem solved, but we lost 3 chicks along the way to predators 🙁
- Cows have been uneventful, which is so good. They are staying where they are supposed to be! I started feeling a little panicked this week because the grass is dying in places.
We have plenty now but I don’t know how this lack of rain will affect us in winter. Last year we only used one bale of hay over the winter but I’m not going to bank on that this year.
Edited to add: I wrote this Saturday morning and at the time of publishing this Saturday night, we got rain! Just a little bit, not even enough to show on my rain meter but it is more than nothing. The plants will be able to rejuvenate some and I am so grateful!
