No Such Things As Free.... Mulch?

I give you: free mulch:

Granted, the cost of a thing is not merely calculated in dollars and cents. But, as far as dollars and cents go, apart from the gasoline -- which is admittedly expensive these days -- this mulch was free. 

Surely the rhetorical hook has been set and you are wondering, "how did our clever hobby-farming friends get such a gorgeous pile of free mulch?" 

As with most things that are 'free' in this world, you have to 'know someone'. For us, generally speaking, that someone is Grandpa Don. Stephanie's maternal grandfather, Grandpa Don has been featured in several Magdalen Farm blog posts in the past. He is a character and a half: an 80 year old that can chain saw and split heavy maple tree trunks and do snow mobile tricks all day, provided he has access to enough of Grandma Arlene's cookies and homemade jams. Grandpa Don is also a 'collector'. He has buildings full of everything you could ever want or need. In this case, he has a mulcher.

Let's backtrack for a moment: As Stephanie and I discussed ways to improve our farm over the long, snowy winter -- er, fairly short and rather mild winter -- I stated that putting mulch between our raised beds and in a few other areas would really spruce up the joint. But thinking back to my days of lawn mowing and landscaping with Gaffer's Lawn Care I remembered that one actually needs a great deal of mulch to cover any sizable section of ground and that one seldom gets a great deal on such a great deal of mulch. Amidst these bleak midwinter ponderings I recalled aloud, "doesn't Grandpa Don have a mulcher?"

"I think he might...," added Stephanie, (known to Grandpa Don as Stephers). "Does he? It's so hard to keep track of such things."

Well, in fact, Grandpa Don does have a mulcher and about a week ago he dropped it off for us.

"That's all good and well," you're probably chuckling to yourself, "but a mulcher doesn't get you mulch without some branches to feed it."

But piles of old branches, my friend, is something of which we have nary a shortage. 

Since we moved in we've done a great deal of tree trimming and have also cut down a number of scrub trees that had grown up close to buildings and had begun to wreak havoc on the foundations. These piles had made for some charming, decorative landscape ornamentation... I can't even type that with a straight face. These piles needed to be gotten rid of and we were planning on burning them all this spring, but instead we've been mulching them. So far we have made somewhere around four cubic yards of mulch.

With that bounty of free mulch on hand (and plenty more yet to be had), we've had to decide how best to employ the woody fruits of our labor. The Mulch-Use Priority Rankings (MUPR) currently stand as follows:

1. Vegetable Garden Paths
2. Flower Beds Around the House
3. Main Flower Garden Paths and Beds
4. Raspberry Beds Along the Pine Stand

The great thing about our free mulch is that the actual creating of the mulch has been a lot of fun, too. It is a wondrous process to take something that was an eyesore, run it through a loud, vibrating contraption and have it shoot out into a lovely pile of garden-beautifying goodness!

I figure in the end we'll probably create around nine yards of mulch this spring. So for those 729 cubic foot of eye-pleasing, weed-blocking goodness we extend another hearty 'thank you' to our kindly benefactors: Grandpa Don and Grandma Arlene!

Belated Chicken Post

The six weeks between March 1st and April 15 have been some of the busiest for Chris and I, and virtually none of what kept us occupied was farm related.  Thus this very belated post:

A Barred Rock, considered "dual purpose" because they are
good egg layers and large enough to be used for meat.

A Leghorn hen.  These white egg layers are the breed used in
large-scale egg factories.  In their prime they lay an egg a day.

A young Red Star - the brow egg layer
equivalent to the leghorn.

A curious Sussex 

The molting Barred Rock.  Hens go into
their first molt between 12 and 20 months.
Over the course of 2 weeks they will replace
the majority of their feathers and egg
production will almost completely stop.

Two Buff Bramas snoozing in the sun

Rats!

No seriously, rats.

Truly, a rodent of unusual size

Stephanie proudly displays her largest victim yet

Hildegard and the Skunk Tail

What are the odds...

Missing the cut on getting into the earlier post by only a few short hours, Hildy vanished for an hour or so this afternoon. We called and called for her and were getting our coats on to go look for her at the VFW -- a favorite haunt of hers when she's on the lam -- when she turned up.

Now, whenever Hildy disappears she usually returns with some sort of treasure and it's generally someone else's trash. Today was a new one for us though. As we went outside to scold her for flying the coop -- so to speak, for, she doesn't actually reside in our coop -- we realized we had something new on our hands...

Here's what we encountered: a euphoric puppy delightedly playing with her favorite new toy... a skunk tail!

Hildegard

As our regular readers are well aware, this spring we added a dog to our bourgeoning menagerie and named her Hildegard. She comes from a local breeder that has cross-bred a few different traditional European guardian dog breeds and developed a sort of "Northwoods" Guardian Breed. These dogs are big enough to fend off wolves and coyotes and gentle enough to bond with livestock.

Little 10 Week Old Pup

Hildy, as we call her, has been for the most part a very happy addition to our farmstead. It's been great fun to have a furry little ball of affection 'assisting' in our projects: from harvesting rhubarb...

... to feeding the chickens.

Her best friends were far and away the pigs. Needless to say she was sad to see them go, though she hasn't seemed to mind getting pork drippings on her kibbles when we make pork roasts!

She has grown from a shy and utterly adorable little pup to a big, sprawling, hyper and bounding bundle of long-limbed energy. According to our calculations she is now around eight months old.

Scanning the Horizon for Predators

Her primary purpose on the farm, apart from being enjoyed by us, is guarding our pigs, turkeys, chickens and future livestock. Yesterday she bravely stood at the edge of the field barking at a crow that was munching on something a few hundred yards off... what a dog!

Off to see about a potential threat: the vicious and beguiling black bird

With the frigidity of Northern Wisconsin winter beginning to creep in, we had to build her a dog house. 

Naturally she had to inspect throughout the building process

Since she hates being confined we weren't sure how she would take to it, but when it gets below freezing she seems to love it.

Early morning wake-up call

In getting Hildy to 'bond' with our animals we were supposed to more or less ignore her so she could attach to them instead of us. We more or less utterly failed in that venture, but we're not entirely sure that we care, since she is very loving and a good companion.

Asking if we think maybe she should come inside for a visit

Fall Update

Greetings Friends of Magdalen Farm!

Wow-- it's been almost five weeks since our last post... far too long, we know. Since time for an extended update isn't currently unavailable and since you all seem to like our video efforts we decided to get creative and do a short video update.

We've taken a slew of pictures during our various projects over the past month, we just haven't had (or, I suppose, 'made' would be the better word) the time to put the post together. So, here's a pictorial smattering of what we've been up to.

Fresh Milk and Cream from Farmer Steve

Huntin' for Dry Oak

Carrying Dry Oak

Potato Plants Before Harvest

Potatoes Hardening Off

'Taters emerging from their perfect soil! 

'Taters Abound!

Neatly stacked and ready for storage in the root cellar

One of our harvests of tomatoes ready for saucing

A batch of fresh salsa

Canned Tomato Sauce 

Wild grapes

Wild grapes getting cooked into jam

Straining the grape remnants

Homemade grape jam

Homemade apple cider

Pumpkins!

Pumpkin elements: seeds for toasting and flesh for cooking

Steph loves these little guys! 

Our covered bed for fall gardening, including a lettuce blend 

Lettuce close-up! 

Hildy inspecting our work, while we frame out her house

Winter Chicken Care

As any faithful reader will know, the number of animals on the farm is slowly decreasing. This past summer bustled with animal activity - feeding, watering, occasionally chasing and riding - and the barnyard was filled with their noise - contented grunts, silly gobbles, stately crows. But as the cool weather came, so the animals left. By Monday morning all that will remain is a dog, a cat and 45 chickens. With the chilly fall air and recent frosts our thoughts and tasks have turned to preparing the place for winter. Of chief concern is the health and well-being of our chickens during the long winter months. It is no small difficulty for a hen, accustomed to ranging over the barnyard and field, eating bugs, grazing and soaking in sunshine, to be shut up in a coop for several months in the cold of winter and expected to produce an abundant supply of eggs. However, with a little research and planning we are confident of keeping our flock healthy and content during the frigid months ahead.

Space: Although the existing coop is delightful (an original structure to the farm), it is not big enough to house 45 birds over the winter. Thankfully, expanding the coop will be quite simple. The coop occupies the South-west corner of a large out building. Adjacent to the coop on the North is the pig pen, and running the full length of the building to the East is the stock barn. The three pens each have their own door and are not accessible to each other. However, a small chicken door cut into the interior wall of the coop would allow chickens to access one of the other pens. Our plan is to allow the chickens access to both the coop and the stock barn during winter.

Light: As mentioned, the coop is one of the original structures on the farm, built in the 1920's. The homesteaders, Chris Christiansen and his family, certainly knew what they were doing when they laid out plans for the farm. The coop is perfectly situated on the South side of the barnyard, with big windows to capture all available sunlight. Like humans, chickens also need sunlight for vitamin D. But an added need for sunlight is that a hen's egg production is based on the amount of light she is exposed to. As days got shorter egg production decreased. Of course, once electricity came to the farm the concern with shortened days disappeared, but the health and well-being of the chickens is still well served by the big, South-facing windows. Additionally, the South exposure helps to keep the coop warm, even in the cold of winter.

Feed: A well balanced diet is perhaps the most important part of keeping chickens healthy throughout the winter. Currently our chickens have access to the entire barnyard, where they feast upon bugs, grubs, worms, frogs, toads and any vegetation that catches their fancy. They also get a steady supply of high quality organic feed, fallen apples from our tree and green beans (the beans are left over from the field behind our house, planted by the farmer that rents the land. Although they were harvested a few weeks ago, a few plants still have beans on them and we've been picking buckets full every few days for the birds). Obviously, once winter arrives the bugs, grubs, worms, frogs, toads, vegetation and green beans will disappear from their diet. What to do? Cold weather crops! Thankfully many very nutritious crops can withstand frost and, with a cold-frame, even snow. The cold-frame is currently planted with crops primarily for the chickens - a wide variety of lettuce, cabbage and turnips. We also have several mammoth kale plants in the garden, that seem quite impervious to the frost and a pile of pumpkin and squash. Of course, the garden and cold-frame can only get us so far with the severe cold of our winters. But, greens will remain on the chickens menu, by means of seedlings and sprouts, started indoors under grow lights. We have stocked up on last years seeds and will be serving trays of broccoli, cabbage, alfalfa and bean sprouts along with spinach, lettuce and various other leafy greens come this February.

Spa: The final key to maintaining healthy, happy birds during winter months is to provide them with a full-service avian spa - which consists of nothing more than a sandbox. Chickens love to take dust-baths. It soothes their skin and prevents mites from finding a home. Plus, watching a hen kick up dirt into her feathers and roll in dust like a dog is perhaps one of the most enjoyable parts of keeping chickens.