Catching Up From a Very Busy Spring and Into a Hot Summer

This year has been so busy for me. Most of it was planned so there were very few surprises. Still, I found myself guilty of the very thing I encourage farmers and gardeners to not do: try to cram a whole lot of life into a very small time frame, particularly, May through September. We hit the ground running in April with plants starts, a small remodel, incoming family visits and haven’t looked back. And it is only the end of July!

This is what we do here, in North Idaho.

The perception is that winters are long. Summers are short and when the daytime temperature hits 60 degrees with a few hours of continuous sun we are off like a shot. Buy some seeds! Find the hoses! Buy more seeds! Locate and dust off the lawn furniture and the lemonade pitcher. Buy the rest of the seeds, potting soil and amendments we could possibly need, because once we tie into this yard and garden thing, we are in it.

I started A LOT of plants under the grow lights in my house but had the good sense to wait until April. This sort of self control is new for me. I generally shop the seed catalogs, make all the lists and draw up the garden plans before January clears the calendar. Then, of course, there is nothing left to do but wait. Me with a cup of coffee, or 5, staring out the window waiting for spring. Everyday. This is actually where the idea of full blown retirement becomes a problem…….January. At least with a full time job I have something to do when I can’t be in the garden. Not looking forward to the retirement evantuality, really.

There are actually other things to do to prepare for spring. About 5 years ago I began keeping a weather journal. The content of these journals tell a story about weather in real time. The process forces the casual weather watcher to take in more details and note the surprises that come along. Like frost. Like the random thunder storm. One begins to ‘feel’ what the weather is going to do. Wind , air pressure, rainfall, humidity and even the dew point become important information when farming is more than a hobby, like it is for me. I actually grow food to put by for the winter. Currently I have three varieties of tomatoes in the tomato house. I freeze apples as they ripen and fall from the tree to make applesause fresh during the winter. It is so much better than canned! We turn the plums, purchased peaches and apricots into chutney for winter meat dishes to spice up meals. Potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and even grain on occasion are put away for winter use. I have increased the dried herbs I grow to include dill, oregano, basil, green onion, minced garlic, thyme, chives, marjoram, tarragon and savory. What a diference in taste when I grow, harvest, and dry my own herbs! So, watching the weather matters. Some of the herbs, like basil, and vegetables like green beans, summer squash and tomatoes have to be protected from frost. Keeping track of weather conditions just makes sense.

On a larger scale, weather plays a part in tending the meadows for proper forage, soil protection and even carbon sequestration. I don’t plow my meadows anymore. I wait for the autumn rains to help the left over dried grasses lay down and dampen before I disk, lightly chopping the organic matter into the soil. Then I seed back drought resistant forage grasses and harrow it in, one pass only, to make sure the little furrows that hold the seed and water succeed. I do lose some carbon, but if the seed bed is good and strong, this treatment need not be done yearly. Although this is my normal plan, the autumn rains do not always come in late September through October as they once did. In 2025 I finished the meadows the day before Thanksgiving. It was a very dry autumn. In addition, our first frost which used to occur in late September sometimes does not come until late October. Sometimes, not at all.

It is impossible to farm and keep livestock without enough water. One horse can work through 250 gallons of fresh water in no time and believe me, you want them to. 50 chickens go through 20 gallons of fresh water every 2-3 days in the winter and far faster in the summer. When it is hot the hens have both indoor and outdoor water available. Here again, weather matters. Livestock must be cared for. The garden itself has to have about 30 minutes of consistent watering everyday to make sure plants are healthy and strong. I do most of that watering first thing in the morning or close to sunset in the evening. Waiting for rain in the summer months is challenging, but, wind is worse.

It is the end of July. We have been close to 90 degrees for weeks, it seems, with very little rainfall and there is no serious rainfall in the forecast into August. While this weather can be challenging, it is a great time to succession plant. If you haven’t already done it, a second round of peas, green beans, and carrots can go in the ground. You can also put left over sprouting potatoes in and by October, at the very least, you will have “new” potatoes which are delicious! You can plant all the greens and even beets if you want but the roots may not have eneough time to mature. Still, beet tops are amazingly nutricious and don’t mind cold temperatures.

Well, that is the catch up overview for now. One unusual thing is our broody White Leghorn. She just is not letting go of it. So, my grand daughter asked if we could let “Brooda”, her name for the hen, set on some eggs. Generally this is done in the spring to make sure any new chicks are big enough to be in the big house by winter. If Brooda succeeds, there will be 8 new chicks to merge into the flock by mid December. We will see how this shakes out.

On The Blog

Successes of the Season
and Some Disappointments

Quite a lot has happened since July. We endured weeks of fires driven by the same heat and wind that kept my garden
and orchard struggling to stay hydrated. We were successful with getting the irrigation system in so the later part of
summer saw zucchini, green beans, potatoes, garlic, dill, and strawberries produce well. However, the corn failed to
germinate. I used a new seed source, unfortunately. I had used seed from this company before and had no problem. But some of the seed I used this year was from 2025. All of the seed was kept dry, cool, and in a dark box. It should not have gone bad over the winter. When the corn, two varieties, failed to germinate in the soil, I did the wet paper towel test on another packet - same seed, same year, 2025. Out of about 50 seeds only 6 fully germinated. This was truly disappointing.

None of my cucumbers from the same seed company germinated but I did have better luck with the squashes and zucchini. The dill produced very well as did the nasturtiums.

I found out that deer love nasturtiums. I also found out that nasturtiums can tolerate a severe trimming and come back even more beautiful. Like many other gardeners this year, I lost my entire cherry crop to the birds. This problem is easily remedied so I will be ready next season. There are still plums and some small apples and crab apples to harvest. But the lack of water did impact the orchard. My Filbert nut trees and black walnut produced well this year but the English walnuts have not come back yet from the -25 degree winter we had a couple years back. They will recover, I am confident.

Brooda the broody hen hatched only one chick in two tries with 12 eggs. It had nothing to do with her. It had everything to do with a rooster . The eggs simply were not fertile. We lost the chick but do not know why. It happens sometimes.

As a farmer I always hope I have provided everything the soil needs for full production, providing food for my family and to give the excess to the food bank. But every once in a while something happens to suspend that progress. And this time it had nothing to do with the soil and everything to do with arthritis.

About three years ago I began to notice that I could not get on the riding lawn mower to trim the orchard as easily as in the past. Getting into and out of the work truck was painful and my hip began to get very weak. The real test of joint failure occurred when I was in Israel and had the opportunity to go for a ride on a camel. Once you are up there there is no coming down until the camel keeper has made sure we reached our destination, a smoke filled Bedouin tent with a fire in the center upon which coffee beans were roasting. The smell almost made me forget my aching hip……and the coffee was amazing! I came home from that trip knowing I had to do something about this hip before I crippled myself. This was the year.

The surgery was supposed to be in July but was postponed until August. This meant that I lost the entire final month of summer when the succession plantings should have been tended to. It is three days before the autumnal equinox as I write this and the night time temperatures have begin to dip into the mid 40s. Nothing except the various salad greens will grow now, so, the garden is effectively done. I am a little sad about this.

On the other hand, I did get some lovely Albion strawberries, a beautiful rose bed, and some thriving lilac shrubs. These wins will have to do. Like all other farmer/gardeners, with the end of the garden season comes the unfettered dreams of next year. It is, after all, only 8 months away…seven if I add the garden starts in April. And there will be garden starts in April….absolutely no sooner. Really. I mean it this time. No starting tomatoes in March…….no matter how I am plagued by spring fever.

I hope your yard, garden and farm season was productive and you found peace and contentment from life’s challenges among the flowers, trees, vegetable beds and along the creek side as I did. Now that my hip is on the mend there is garden planning to do. And I still hold out great hope for Fairy Garden next year. We will see.

Moving Into the Next Gardening
and Farming Season

Hasn’t this autumn weather been just wonderful? I have lived here my whole life and fall is one of my favorite times of the year. One never really knows what sort of color we will see spread over the fields and forests. We know the Maples, Tamarack, and Burning Bushes will be spectacular, but, it turns out there is more. Much, much more. One only need slow down and look.

We are running our Autumn Photo Contest and I hope many of you will participate. After all, America is a big place and a photo from anywhere you have been this season is the one we want to see! The more color, the better. There is more information about the contest over on our Home Page.

For the last two weeks the grandkids and I have been picking up tools and putting things away. We have been gathering the filberts from the orchard and found that a family of Blue Jays are trying to harvest these nuts as well! Who knew?? I am still getting most of the fruit and the process is very much like a treasure hunt. As I shake the long slender branches I am reminded that this area needs a good pruning. As soon as everything goes dormant we will proceed with this task. I wonder…will this be the year I finally make that amazing chocolate /filbert biscotti recipe? Maybe. We will soon be harvesting the black walnuts. And those gems, they belong in two places: in the silky caramel of cinnamon rolls and in chocolate fudge. So worth the wait and effort to harvest and cure.

Beyond these efforts we have decided to expand the hen pen this fall in preparation for spring when we plan to include some ducks. Ducks are cute and fun, and their eggs are deliciously rich. And….ducks are really, really messy which is why we are waiting until spring. The new hen pen expansion will encompass the part of the barnyard most in need of cultivation, fertilization, and weed control. Hens are great at cleaning up problem ground and by early summer the space will be ready for a “pond”. And by pond I mean a rock lined swale with really, really slow drainage. We have plenty of water to refresh the small pond everyday to keep our ducks healthy. This will be a new adventure for the grandkids as well.

This is also the time of year that we pull together manure from the barn and corral, and from corners of the field and chicken house. It all gets dumped into one big pile where it cooks all winter. Literally……somewhere in late winter when the frost comes out of the compost we use the backhoe to re pile the mixture and the steam just rolls off of it into the cool air. This steam is a wonderful sign of success. The grandkids don’t understand the wonderful workings of compost yet, but they will. This is us being good stewards of all God has blessed us with and making it all work together to give us better crops with better nutrition.

So, for the next few days we will enjoy putting the beds to bed, chopping leaves for the the compost pile and orchard floor. We will go for walks in the forest to find beautiful dogwood twigs heavy with burgundy red color to marry into autumn bouquets of dried grasses, dried strawflower and marigold, dried roses and even some golden fern to finish. We have wreaths to finish and pumpkins to display. What a wonderful time of year! What will you do with your time this season? Happy Autumn!

Jessica Herbig 9/11/19 Jessica Herbig 9/11/19

Dealing with the Broody Hen

This is one of my Feather Legged Banty hens. She was actually hatched on the farm herself three years ago. These are her Buff Orpinton/Rhode Island Cross babies, hatched June 2, 2014 at Birch Creek Farm.

Chickens are a staple of the small farm. They "talk" to us. They are where we get the social concept of "the pecking order" (who gets to rule the roost). They give us eggs, manure for the garden, and a reason to go out and do that final check of the farm each evening when we shut them in for the night.

Anyone who has had a flock of chickens for any length of time will eventually experience the broody hen. She is easy to spot: she won't leave the nest. Period. Or at least it looks that way. In reality she does leave the nest for food and water- just not when people are around. She is nesting and cannot be swayed from this effort. She will sit there until she produces a chick. This can be a good thing.

New baby chicks can cost anywhere from $2-3 each in the spring time. Once purchased, baby chicks need food and water continually and special chick starter food. They need to be kept warm with a heat lamp during the cooler seasons and sometimes, for no apparent reason, they die. A farmer can be into this project for $50 quicker than you can say "Oh, honey....they are so cute!"

If you have a broody hen and you want to add birds to your flock, let her set. If you have roosters, the eggs she is setting on are likely fertilized. I would remove her from the rest of the flock to a space with a covered nesting box. If she continues to be broody, giver her 4 eggs you know to be no more than 1 day old. Mark the date down in a notepad and count 21 days - that is the due date. make sure the hen has food and water. Then go on about your farming business.

On the due date check the hen for babies. You don't even have to touch her. You will hear the unmistakable sound of "peeping" the moment you enter the room if any have hatched. Baby chicks hatch with the yolk sack still inside which they consume for the first two days. After that, they need food and water so make sure the feeders and waterers are short enough for new chicks to use. The hen will show them how to drink and eat. In fact for this purpose I use a shallow baking pan and just dump some chick starter in it and it doesn't even have to be medicated.The hen and the chicks will all just jump in there and eat all they want. After about a week, if you can safely turn the hen and babies out into a fenced space/yard, the hen will teach the babies to "scratch" for food. They will follow her around and go under her if they sense any danger. Just FYI: should a snake appear looking for a meal, the hen will make very quick work of it. At the end of the day, the hen and her babies will go back into their space and sleep for the night. You need only shut them in.

By the time the chicks are 3 -4 weeks of age their mother will have already taught them to roost so be sure and have a bar of wood fixed up off the floor for this purpose. A simple piece of 2" x 2" will work fine. If the new family can stay in their space for several months, until the chicks are full grown, this would be the time to introduce them to the rest of the flock. Watch for any chickens who try to hurt the new babies. Sometimes this attacking behavior only lasts until they all get to know each other. However, any repeat offenders go to the butcher. There is no good reason to put up with mean chickens.

This early summer, between three hens I have 11 new baby chicks. That is enough to replace any laying hens and odds are some of the chicks are males so they will go to the freezer for winter.

I hope this has helped those of you who are dealing with broody hens. It is easy once you get the hang of it. And really kind of fun! If you have any questions just email Kathy at kathy@coopgasandsupply.com.