Summer Progress 2019

Bremen’s outdoor market ended on the last Wednesday in September. I started reflecting on the last 12 months thinking about the progresses I have made this year, new ideas, how I can do things better, and where I fell short. For this post, I plan to share thoughts that pertain to the summer months.

What I am most excited about

I located 2 Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiner cockerels in July and added them to CG Heartbeats Farm. Clinch and Cisco will be joining the Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiner hens in November. I hope to be able to give each a few hens to create 2 lines of LCN chickens here. Pen space is a commodity here over the winter months. It may be this spring until I divide the 2 boys giving each of them their own hens. The girls are molting right now, but once the boys join them and they are laying eggs, I will start incubating their eggs.

Clinch and Cisco free ranging

I also made a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. I met with other bloggers and found myself encouraged. Look for a post coming soon about that trip.

Project Updates

I grew 11 new vegetables in 2019. Here they are: Glass Gen Popcorn, 3 varieties of onions, a new garlic variety, Spanish Rojo, carrots, Jacob’s Cattle bean, sugar baby watermelon, red potatoes, butternut squash, and 2 heirloom tomatoes, a cherry variety and a larger one. Foods I produced that were not new: sweet potatoes, German, Music, and Montana varieties of garlic, crooked neck squash, and black raspberries.

I canned tomato juice for the first time. The last time I canned anything was 20 years ago. I feel fulfilled, and strong when thinking about canning again. I find the home preserved food tastes better. Yes, it takes energy beyond what shopping in a store does, but to be honest nothing like cleaning stalls for 6 to 8 hours a day. In some ways it is easy, depending on what I compare it to.  Looking at jars of food stored for winter is like having a full barn of hay before winter sets in. I have been known in the past to compare that to the feeling one gets with having money in a savings account. Canning is future provision. I feel prepared for the coming months.  Of course, to date this year, I have only canned tomato juice, but no the less, I am back at it!

Wild Grapes

I ate wild grapes for the first time this year and tasted a crab apple. The wild grapes tasted rather tart and often I puckered up my face while eating them.  Organic and natural, I ate them on occasion.

Markets

I enjoyed attending the Culver Farmer’s Markets on Lake Maxinkuckee. The breezes kept it cooler in the heat of summer. I met new people and found new opportunities. This market runs on Tuesdays from 5 to 7 May through August and Saturdays from 9am to 1pm Beginning the second weekend of May through the third weekend of October. As I write this, there are 3 Saturday outdoor Culver Markets left. Are you local to Culver, Indiana? Be sure to stop out. If you are not local you may still visit the market, at least through my eyes via the blog post Culver Farmer’s Market.

I attended Bremen Farmer’s Market for the 2nd summer this year.  A variety of vendors came and went while about half showed up almost every week.  Bremen’s Market will be in a new location next summer. There are plans improve the downtown, but while the improvements happen, the market will have a temporary location for the summer of 2020.

CG Heartbeats Table Display for the months of August and September

Winter markets will be starting up soon. I am trilled to see an increase in local indoor winter markets that plan to be open the entire winter. This provides an opportunity for communities to purchase local food. I am researching and learning how to keep food fresh longer without any chemicals or additions to the food. I sometimes stop to ponder what did folks do 500 years ago? 1000 years ago? The human race survived long before the modern food options and diets we have today. The Native Americans possessed countless skills and a lifestyle that allowed them to survive. I believe it important to record and at times use the skills that right now do not seem important for survival.

Chickens

I continue to learn about the three breeds raised here at CG Heartbeats Farm, Swedish Flower Hens, Silver Gray Dorkings, and Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiner and chickens in general. Adding the new LCN cockerels in July was probably the most exciting event of the summer. I also tested the LCN hen’s fertility by crossing them with a Swedish Flower Hen rooster. The chicks are cute as can be and will be pretty chickens. I will, likely, part with these as pretty laying hens.

Swedish FLower Hen/Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiner cross chicks

On a Personal Note

Summer 2019 provided the opportunity to spend with family. A visit with my 93-year old aunt, who traveled 11 hours to visit family in Michigan and Indiana, reminded me of the importance of my relationship with Jesus and that I hope I have a few of her genes.  I love her spunk.  Time spent with cousins, other aunts, a few of them encourage me in my homesteading ventures. I need all of that I can get. I did not take a trip out west this past summer, as I have the last 3 summers. A memory came to me this morning that a year ago, I woke up in Pigeon Forge, TN. That was a special trip. These recollections helped me stay focused this summer, along with this coming Holiday Season and the plans I am making with my sisters. Isn’t it beautiful that as the seasons faithfully come and go, they bring different memories and opportunities to make new ones?

Do you know the biggest change I recognize as the summer ends? While not visible to the human eye, it is rather a feeling in my heart. For the first time in several years, I am content with this journey I am on. As I shared in the blog post Seasons, I typically struggle adjusting to change, even the ones I choose. It has been hard to walk away from my dreams of a barrel racing championship, and my love of foaling out mares. The contentment I feel in the new path, I trust, has much to do with peace that passes understanding, the growth in my relationship with Jesus and less to do with my circumstances.

I feel excited to be growing and look forward to growth across all areas of my life. I recently felt the strong defeat of failure, but then I remembered I had just learned a new thing. I needed the lesson to grow and become better at what I do.  Onward on this fabulous journey!!

Summer 2019

Spring of 2019 is nearing its end, although some days have reminded me that it is indeed still spring as the temps have been unseasonably cool. In this post, I am going to share some of my homestead goals for the coming summer months and take a look back at the past three here on CG Heartbeats Farm.

A Look back at Spring 2019

Our Indiana spring produced a lot of rain.  The saturated ground has created a delay in getting crops seeded, including on this homestead. While I have planted some seeds, there are several that still need to be planted.  The big hold up is getting the ground ready as my plan was to have some ground plowed.  There are a couple back up ideas floating around in my head that will be decided on soon.

I am excited about trying a new to me way of planting corn, beans and a third cover plant.  Right now, I am using watermelon and squash, but more on that later this year. For now, here is a picture of what it looked like as of the beginning of June. 

My first 3 Sisters Garden… This picture was taken June 10. Would you believe now, 10 days later, the plants have doubled in size!!

Using wood chips has proved effective in week control in the garlic gardens.  I planted candy onions in between the rows of garlic.  So far it appears to be working well.  The garlic will be harvested in another 3 to 4 weeks.

Sweet Potatoes

9 Sweet Potato plants with 3 more to be added this week.

I used 3 different methods to start sweet potatoes this year. I, spontaneously, tried removing the sprig from the potato and planting it directly in soil.  To my surprise, the little plant thrived. Thus when it was time to plant sweet potatoes in buckets I removed springs from a potato and planted them directly into the soil. They are doing well. Look for more info on this year’s sweet potato crop on this web site after harvest this fall.

Shipping Chicks

Swedish Flower Hen Chicks

I shipped chicks for the first time this year. This is a first for my journey and I look forward to successfully shipping additional chicks in the future.  If you want to pre-order chicks(deposit required) or have your name added to the list(no charge) be sure to send an email.

Shipping Eggs

I have continued shipping eggs and to the credit of the Post Office, the eggs arrived in great condition for every shipment this year.

Broody Hen

I am always happy for a broody Hen, and in this instance a broody Swedish Flower Hen who hatched her own eggs.

A Swedish Flower Hen went broody for her second time.  One of my breeding goals is to increase the number of broody hens in my flock.  As I understand this is a genetic trait.  I intend to keep all pullets from the group of six chicks she hatched to add to my breeding stock.  The first time this pretty hen went broody she was less than a year old and there was no rooster in her pen, yet.  I ended up giving her fertile eggs from another pen.  You can read about how that ended up in the blog post titled: A Broody Swedish Flower Hen    Breeding goals aside, I find the tenderness demonstrated between a momma and her babies endearing and the beauty of it all warms my heart a way nothing else does.

Silver Gray Dorking

Silver Gray Dorkings

I am excited the fertility has improved in the Silver Gray Dorking eggs over earlier this year. It is not as good as last year, unfortunately, but then summer isn’t over.  Due to the eggs not staying viable long enough to hatch, my next step is going to be adjusting the temperature on the incubator slightly.

Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiner

I am still facing difficulty with fertility in the Lemon Cuckoo Niederrheiners, unfortunately.  I intend to continue to work with this pretty breed.

Grapes

I admit to feeling a bit disappointed to ending up with only an additional 2 grape plants after caring for almost 20 starts over the winter.  I will say I am happy to have 2 more plants in the ground outside.  My latest experiment, if you will, is taking this year’s new growth from a grape plant outside and placing into a jar of water.  My hope is that it will grow roots.  Look for a coming post about the process.

Summer 2019 Thoughts

Finish Planting

For a stretch of several weeks northern Indiana experienced excessive rain.  The first round produced over 5 inches in less than a week.  After the ground was saturated, the rain continued to fall almost daily, or often nightly.  Thankfully, I was able to get some seed in the ground as I mentioned above.  I find I enjoy this venture, planting and learning as I go.  Onion bulb(yellow and white), potatoes, carrots,

Attending local farmer’s markets in Bremen and Culver

One of CG Heartbeats Farm spring market display.

Last year I attended a local farmer’s market for the first time in Bremen, Indiana.  I also attended another on in Nappanee, Indiana on Saturdays.  Over the winter, I found a local indoor market to attend in Culver, Indiana and have continued to attend their outside market.  Their summer market occurs on Sat and Tue. CG Heartbeats Farm plans to have a vendor booth at Culver on Tuesdays (5 pm to 7 pm), Bremen on Wednesday’s (4 pm to 7 pm) and back at Culver on Saturday mornings (9 am to 1 pm).  Products available include seasonal items such as black raspberries, black raspberry plants, mint plants, farm fresh eggs, 4 varieties of garlic, soup beans, decorative and edible popcorn, black walnut tree seedlings, popular tree seedlings,

Maintaining Gardens

Keeping up with weeds and my case, the weeds are actually grass that works hard to take over, seems to be continuous, but using wood chips and chaff, helps to keep them at bay.

Pasture Maintenance

Summer always brings the need for pasture maintenance.  Mowing down weeds (I do not use chemicals on the pastures) and keeping the fence rows cleaned out seem to be 2 jobs that I am always behind on. There are new fences to construct if I am to continue with my plans.  These jobs are a bit tougher for me now as I work to balance my activity level with getting enough rest.

Black Raspberries

I am looking forward to eating these soon! The extras will go to the local farmers markets and my freezer!

This spring I pruned 3 of my 4 Black Raspberry patches.  I am impressed with the berries that are appearing on the pruned plants.  I will also be offering black raspberry plants for sale at the farmers markets I attend.  One of my goals is to also look into shipping plants and selling from this website.

Garlic Scapes

Notice the curl on the top of the garlic plants? These curled tops are the scapes.

As of this week the garlic scapes are almost ready to harvest.  Garlic scapes, you may ask?  These are the top part of a garlic plant that will produce a flower and seed if not removed. The plants energy is directed into producing a larger garlic bulb instead.

Ongoing Projects

There are always chicken pens to clean. I have started a new manure pile leaving the previous one to compost.  I started work on a container garden area, but the progress has slowed in the last 6 weeks. I want to continue working in the beds near the house.  They were intended to be flower beds, but I have been using them for planting vegetables too.  There is an area back of the chicken barn that needs to have old boards removed to the burn pile.  The hold up is I want to remove the hardware on the boards It seems I have accomplished that step, yet.

Personal Goals

One of my personal goals for this year is to spend some time riding again, even if it is only a short jaunt in the round pen or around the pasture. I intend to enjoy these summer months.  A final (personal) goal is to begin playing fiddle again, perhaps practicing on my fiddle again would be more accurate.  What are your summer plans? Leave a comment below to share your plans.