But we woke up to just a light dusting. Yep, it’ll probably come later on, I thought as I drove seed orders to the post office. I was sure glad the roads were clear and just wet. With the spring-like weather we’ve had lately, I have been getting antsy to plant. Well, I did plant — inside. Today, I’ll continue transplanting our peppers into larger pots. The ones in the greenhouse look very nice.
Will’s working at getting some of the swamp pads down in the cow yard, under the big stock tanks so the cows don’t have to wade in mud to get a drink. That’s going to be very nice, having a solid platform for them to walk on.
I haven’t seen any more robins. Nor are there any spring migrating birds around the feeders yet. My sister who lives down by Duluth, is starting to have them so it won’t be long now. When they show up, I’ll add another feeder in the front yard, so they all have plenty of room.
I was hoping to plant quite a bit of wheat this spring, but we just found out the combine Will and his friend bought somehow got water in the engine and cracked the block. What a big disappointment! Maybe we’ll figure out something yet. It would be too expensive to fix. That’s life, though. Maybe I’ll just plant less and hand-harvest it? We’ve done that before. I was hoping to have enough harvested wheat to feed the chickens too. We’ll see… — Jackie
Interesting how you are visiting
About hand harvesting wheat. I
Purchased a hand held sickle from
Lehmans hardware in Ohio last
Year to experiment with a small
Patch of wheat. Sounds really
Ridiculous, as I live in central KS
Wheat country. But I’m always up
For a learning experience Wanted
It to be strictly organic and have
The grain mill to make flour. So
We’ll see how that idea turns out
Holding off on the gardening, last year
Got anxious and had to restart 3 times
Due to Kansas Spring Weather. So
Just waiting and reading the Calendar.
It still may hit us. Last night, we got 6″ and they have us under a winter weather warning for the weekend. May be up to a foot or more. We’ll see. But we’re all nice and cozy so let it snow! Happy Easter all!!
Here in the Copper Basin Alaska the last week has been lows of around zero and hogs just above freezing bright sun no snow. Not much sign of even a little melting. Getting set to start peppers and tomatoes. Running slow because I spent part of last week in the hospital to get about twenty pounds of excess fluid out of my body. My daughter helped me get everything in the house an I hope to have trays filled and ready to plant by tomorrow.
It’s really kind of lucky it’s so cold, Howard. That way you won’t feel behind in planting! I’ve planted a little late and found the plants did just as good as when I’d planted earlier. I hope you’re feeling better. Hospitals tire us out so much!! Get to feeling spry. Happy Easter!
Bummer about the combine. We got about 5″ in Ely overnight and are on the edge of another 6-10″. I hope we are as lucky as you and get just a dusting. Put some cardboard down to establish the space for a new bed in my “Chicken Garden”. It will be next to the area where our 10 hens will hang out and so I can easily toss weeds and bugs to them.
How much wheat do you actually get from one wheat plant? I have some wheat berries I have been storing and wondered if it might be a good year to do just a tiny plot to learn about it. Any thoughts?
OH and HAPPY EASTER!! He is Risen and boy does it make a difference in my life.
Yes, it does! Happy Easter Nancy. You’ll get a small handful of wheat berries from each one you plant. Even a smaller plot will give you enough to at least bake some bread. We got about 6 inches last night but it’s pretty much melted away so we can stack more on top of it over the weekend. Oh well, we do need the moisture.
Thanks, Nancy, for that note of testimony! And I add an “Amen!” Regards from far north California, Redding.
I read your column all the time but very seldom leave a message. I have been gardening, farming, canning for 50 plus years but still have things to learn. Besides giving me encouragement when it seems like no one where I live is interested in gardening, etc, I enjoy reading about your family and experiences with farm machinery, etc. It reinforces what we do.
I also enjoy hearing about the weather in different areas from people who comment. I do wish they would say at least what state they live in when they talk about the weather.
I do have a question. When you transplant your seedlings to the second pot, do you put them in Pro-Mix? Do you fertilize them? Sometimes, it is a little early to put mine out and they start getting too tall. I never have trouble with them once I get them in the garden but I am often holding my breath as they get taller and taller in their small pots. Happy Gardening!
Yes, it would be helpful if commenting folks would let us know what state they’re in. I read people planting potatoes and know it’s sure not in Minnesota! Yes, when I transplant, the plants go into ProMix. I don’t fertilize them unless they’re starting to yellow a bit later on. Then they get fish emulsion or MiracleGro.
lol – I am in N. IL – 5a to 5b zone. And I did get potatoes planted today – the rain that has come down was slow and soaking and spaced out nicely time wise. We were behind on precipitation for the year but no more.
I’ll plant a few more rows in a couple of weeks. It is hard to not dig some new potatoes a bit before the vines start dying off. No idea why my paternal side always planted on Good Friday. But it has worked for generations and who am I to argue?
Catnip is coming up so I picked a little for the cats today. Can’t stop the garlic, it is 4-5 inches tall already. Most of the daffodils have bloomed.
Charlene, that’s why I like Jackie and her blog. I don’t know anyone who I can talk to about my love of canning, except Jackie. Regards from far north California.
Whew. A farmer s luck- finding a piece of equipment. Plans made only to have equipment compromised with damage. Hand harvesting wheat is nt easy. Wishing you a lucky equipment find for a repair. Your photos are a lovely reminder Spring is coming.
Yes, spring is definitively coming! We have it kind of tough as we are in a very low-agriculture area. Any old (affordable) equipment has long gone to the scrap yard. It’s expensive to haul equipment long-distance. So, we just keep looking. We’ve harvested wheat by hand. But, as you say, it is a lot of work, even with modern stuff like using a kiddie swimming pool to thresh into.
You’re The Agriculture! What a prolific garden you’ve made outa log off area. Happy Easter from The Columbia Gorge in Oregon
I’m just wondering, for the chickens, do you even need to do more than cut and dry the gran in sheaf? Would they enjoy scratching it out of the heads themselves?
I had planted my raised bed and this week we got down to 37 one morning. Pretty darn close to freezing and here we had all turned off the heat for the summer! lol!
Glad you did not get that snow!!!