Heeeey y’all! It’s a whole new month with whole new farming fun! Come along and let us give you the scoop!

New Farm Additions

Farm life is all about growth and that is exactly what we are doing! We’ve added 3 Olive Eggers & 3 Easter Eggers chicks. We are very excited to add these sweet girls to the BHG flocks! You may recall that in May our skilled brooder Shrill-x hatched out 4 chicks – 2 boys & 2 girls. They are growing so fast! The plan is to give these girls to one of those boys, Hope perhaps. We have named the 4 chicks as follows: Males – Hope & Joy; Females – Faith & Patience  all qualities we are developing day by day! These chicks will serve as a reminder to not give up in becoming better people.

In other chicken news we are unfortunately being forced to cull two of our original flock – the rooster (Kong) & his cohort at the top of the pecking order (Brownie). The two of them began eating eggs just as we got our eggs Certified Naturally Grown – THE NERVE!!! We have tried everything to stop this behavior but it’s continued. We separated Kong first but we were still not getting the amount of eggs we should so we knew that there was another culprit. Then we caught Browine yolked-beaked & yolk-footed! After seperating her as well the egg count returned to acceptable numbers minus Brownie’s eggs of course. We had planned to cull some of this flock anyway in the Fall so the sting isn’t quite as bad. However, in this time of uncertainty and inflation we are happy to add these birds to our freezer!

Well we did say farm “additions”. Here is the plural. Meet Sonny & Cher! These beautiful thoroughbred kits are only 10 weeks old pictured here. Huge right? Rightly so because they are Giant Chinchillas. Adults average upwards of 17 pounds!They are a beautiful addition to the BHG fertilizer crew! These two have the sweetest disposition! We got them from a local rabbitry. They really know what they are doing and we have learned so much from Lauranna the owner. Before the year is out we may have expansion completed on the farm to add 2 Flemish Giants. That would complete our rabbit wishlist!

This month we will have more additions to the farm but we can’t say what just yet. It’s a secret for now but we will be posting a video over on our YouTube channel. I am so stinking excited!!!

Disappointments

The extreme heat wave we had last month absolutely destroyed all of our tomatoes that were growing in Hoopty.  This is troubling since tomatoes are on demand at our home daily. I’ve accepted responsibility for not planting all greenhouse varieties. You can see me rant about that drama here. However, in speaking with other growers in our area we, have found that they also have had the same result in their high tunnels. Fortunately, we didn’t have a total loss as the tomatoes yielded well before giving into the heat. Some of these went to market, some we ate fresh, and the remainder went into the freezer until we can make time for a canning day. Thankfully since we have a long growing season we are able to start over. We have already started 4 more greenhouse varities and within the month they will be ready to be set out.

In other disappointing news are our tomato trials of Accordion, Pink Fang, & Gezahnte beautiful though they may be are not standing up well against the pest pressure in our area. We do belive the fight against the heat wave did weaken them so we are restarting a few of them as well.

Success

The 3 Sisters Garden plot really took off & was very successful for us! We yielded beautiful pumpkins & tasty corn. With this trial we’ve learned a lot! Summer squash didn’t do so well in this set up for us. While the pumpkins did. Our Blauhilde pole bean is too vigorous for the corn so we will try a different variety next time. There’s still a couple rows of corn left & a few pumpkins left to harvest before we pull everything and start leveling out the ground to prepare for building our simple greenhouse. This structure will serve as our seed starting & seedling storage space. We are still working on building plans. Mr. Bain Home Gardener has a lot of work ahead of him! I so appreciate & love this man. If you have a supportive man holding you down spiritually & emotionally, helping you reach your goals, and smiling while he walks the fire with you – TELL HIM & HOLD HIM TIGHT!

Waiting & Planting

We are patiently waiting the harvest of our sweet potatoes and other potato varities. We like to fertlize them once a month with bone meal. The OMRI Listed brand we prefer has become increasingly difficult to source. When we finally got our hands on some we decided to stock up! We have more potatoes to plant this month, garlic to plant before the year is out as well as onions – all of which require bone meal! Oh – & our last batch of tomatoes too! Supply issues are of serious concern now a days so if there is an product you use regularly in the garden or otherwise, stock up!

Fall Planting

This month will wrap up farmers market season for us and right in time too! We have to get ready for Fall! Fall planting is so important for us! Cauliflower, broccoli, collards, mustards, & the aforementioned all are started now for an Fall harvest and planted again in Fall for Spring! Having the freedom from the weekly markets will make it easier to get everything done. Hopefully our Fall will look slightly better than our Summer has.

So that is what’s going on over at Bain Home Gardens. We are off to get some farm chores done. Till next month…