On The Blog

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 intothe flock by mid December. We will see how this shakes out.

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

Winter on the Farm

The garden is put to bed, the horses have donned their winter coats, the canning is finished and it is time to slow down here in the north Idaho/western Montana area. Well, for some folks. Winter on the farm is a little different.

Those of us who have animals know they require just as much attention in the winter months as in other seasons. Our horses and cattle, goats and sheep must have the proper forage foods and clean, available water as in other seasons. Sometimes that means dealing with the occasional frozen hose or hydrant.These days most folks have traded in the old faucet/heat tape combo for frost free hydrants. I have used both and frankly, I was thrilled the day we went to all frost free on the farm. My dad was relentless in his water planning. We have frost free hydrants in the barn and the chicken house. And I hate dealing with frozen hoses so much that I unhook and hang them up to drain after each use all winter.

This year my chicken flock was joined by two Pekin ducks. They were the last two left after chick days and I like ducks so I took them. Both turned out to be males which was a bit of a surprise, but even more so, they turned out to be guard ducks. Not only will they engage any dog that intrudes into their territory, they also break up fights between hens and roosters alike. Who knew?

I have had ducks before and overwintered Pekins as well as regular mallards. But Pekins have a habit of turning the area surrounding a water fountain into a swamp. That is OK during the summer, but in the winter it can make a real mess in the chicken house. So this year I gave them their own open water space. The chicken house already has a sand floor so I just built that up with more course gravel, with small rock as a top layer. The water pan goes on top of that with a heat lamp overhead to keep it from freezing. We are now three weeks into this project and so far, no swamp! It is draining great! The chickens have their own water fountain on the other side of the house.
This year in September we had a garden wide freeze at the farm and it took out the tomatoes as usual. I had been told that I could just pull up those tomato vines and hang them inside the greenhouse and the fruit would continue to ripen. It is true. However, damaged fruit will also continue to rot. So, in the future, I may use this method but will remove any fruit with any freeze damage. But the better way is to hang the vines before they are frosted. I have done that successfully and had ripe tomatoes well into early December.

Also new this winter is my greenhouse experiment with growing beet greens. When I put my beets in the root cellar I noticed that a couple of them continued to send out leaves. So I planted them in the greenhouse and they are doing great, producing tasty leaves under the grow lights. The beet roots are fairly large, about 4" at the widest point. I look forward to seeing how long they continue to grow. And I wound up with three very vigorous eggplants. They bloomed in the greenhouse but failed to fruit up. Still, they are healthy right now, just drinking up the sun and growing well. It will be interesting to set them out next summer and see what they do.

Birch Creek Farm is always running an experiment of some sort. We finally won the battle of bare root tree deaths. Birch Creek is on very sandy soil. So without a lot of mulch and extra soil to hold the water, a bare root tree just will not take. So, we started putting bare roots in 5 gallon buckets of dirt from the mulch mountain and leaving them in it all summer to create a decent root ball. We have not lost a new tree in three years. (Note: these buckets DO have drainage holes. Very important.)

As we move into the true winter months we will be keeping an eye on wildlife habits and threats to the farm. I saw an owl in broad daylight the other day and coyotes continue to move ever closer to a unsuspecting meal. As farmers we have to learn to live with the wildlife around us and respect it. So, we will provide a little corn for the turkeys and some suet for the birds. Deer and elk will try to get at the hay and the salt lick. They have already eaten what cornstalks and pumpkins we had out for decoration. We will likely find a moose in the corral one day and promptly head the other direction. They are interesting but nothing to mess with. And we will continue to enjoy winter on the farm.