Lettuce Love One Another!

  I have come to a conclusion about most self sufficient type folks: we have a massive block about receiving. Whether that means receiving equipment, funds, advice, or help many of us seem to freeze up or retreat or just be painfully awkward when we are faced with a situation in which we are being offered something. I think I will attribute this to our deep deep desire to be strong and independent...or at least to be perceived as such.

  We believe the pinnacle of success is reached when we are dependent on no one but ourselves, or even better: when we can help sustain others! Oh the bliss of sharing your produce or eggs with neighbors! It makes you feel almost giddy to think of someone else enjoying your hard work! We are very comfortable with giving (except for our prized foraging spots...we'll take those to our grave thank you very much), but receiving can make us feel like we have failed in some way.

Achievement unlocked: I shared lettuce and other greens!

  I don't know about you but I have things I'm extremely good at (in homesteading and life in general) and things that...well...perhaps are best left to the professionals. If I tried to sustain myself on my halfway there homestead right now we'd be eating a lot of salad greens and not much else. BUT! I have salad, my neighbor has eggs, hey presto! a complete giving/receiving circuit because we are both abundant in something the other needs. Similarly, when you purchase something from your local farmer or forager you are acknowledging your need for the cabbage or mushrooms or whatever while simultaneously filling their need for the cash you brought with you. All needs are met, everyone wins. This is how successful communities are nourished.

  The sticky part for me though is when the item I have to offer is not a physical item at all, but time, experience, research, network, or some other less tangible resource. I have a heck of a time putting monetary value on those things. Which would tend to make me easy prey for someone seeking to take advantage of that but I have a secret weapon! I have surrounded myself with the shield of a loving community. I have really incredibly real, honest, and caring people in my life which is an enormous blessing for uncountable reasons but the one that pertains to today's topic is this lesson that I am learning: If I could not fathom and am made uncomfortable by taking tangible and intangible resources from my community without reimbursement of some kind, aren't I making my community uncomfortable when I don't allow others to reciprocate toward me? Yeah, let that one sink in all you givers!

   We give plants water, care, and protection to enable them to reciprocate that with tomatoes, cukes, and greens. We give our horses and dogs food, water, shelter, and love to enable them to reciprocate with services of protection or transportation. We give our farmer's market vendors money to enable them to reciprocate with tasty produce. We give our communities love, support, and inspiration to enable them to reciprocate the same when we need it.

Lettuce love one another, so we can be loved in return.

They're Heeeeeeere!

     About a month and a half ago we ordered 15 rare heritage cross breed poults from a farm in Illinois that has exciting mixes like chocolate palm and sweetgrass turkeys. What did we get? I have no idea. We ordered the cross breed mix that were supposed to have a paper with them to give us an idea of what they might be but there was no paper. Oh well, small potatoes! Because the most important thing is that even though they threw and extra poult in in case of death by shipping all of them arrived at our local post office this morning peppy and peeping!
   That was the easy part. At the beginning of July we cleaned out and chicken wired off a juvenile pen for them so the big turkeys don't squish them or spread diseases too easily. Well.... that didn't work. They squeezed through chicken wire, fell out of unknown holes in the hutch, and were just generally running around in peeping chaos.
  Ok, thought I, maybe Blucy would be cool with them. After all we had given her those three commercial poults to mother when she was still trying in vain to hatch out the rest of her now defunct eggs. So I brought a cute speckled fellow over to her nest.

BIG MISTAKE.

    Letting out a hiss that could rival the orneriest Canadian goose Blucinda savagely pecked at the hapless little thing. As is hightailed it out of the nest out came Blucinda with wings unfurled and beak agape like some sort of guardian to the gates of hell itself. Even Arpee ran out of the pen in the face of her fury. Scooping up the poult, I ran like the coward I am back into the juvenile pen and enlisted the only help I had (a toddler and a bouncy six year old) to keep the poults out of the adult pen while I figured out what to do.

   We had wrapped an old metal picnic table frame with a double layer of chicken wire months ago thinking to use it for incubated chicks' outside playtime. Our incubator really soiled the sheets this year so it stood abandoned by the garden. Perfect! I rolled it into the baby pen and my kids practiced counting as they scooped the floofs into their crib. I added the bottom half of a broken pet crate turned upside down for a rain and sun shelter with a paving stone on top to keep the wind from taking it, a little waterer, and a dog dish of poult starter feed. Patting myself on the back for my quick thinking, I borrowed the other old plastic picnic table from the pheasants and used that as a lid. But I hit another snag.
  The poults huddled in a corner looking dejected and miserable. Even though I'd dipped beaks in water like I was told no one seemed to have the slightest interest in food or water.
   Hmmmm.....
  Aha!! We've been having issues with one of the quails, Honey. She has taken to eating six eggs a day. Well I had the perfect job for her royal chubness! Sixteen new babies to look after. I put her in with the poults and they immediately decided she was just the ticket and mobbed her for snuggles. This did not thrill her, but never one to pass up a free meal she set to on the dish of poult starter. Six of poults followed suit. Then, apparently thirsty from the excitement she quail scuttled over to the waterer and helped herself followed by seven of the little peepers. After that she decided she had enough fun and started cricket chirping the quail distress call. I scooped her out and put her back in the quail pen and then returned to the happy sight of poults pecking the food, scratching at the grass, and sipping the water.
  So that's our excitement for the day! Now excuse me while I scurry out to the bird yard every ten minutes to check on the new arrivals like the crazy poultry lady I've become.

 A very displeased nanny quail.

Big sibling Thanksgiving and daddy Arpee come take a peek before being shooed into their own area.

Set it and Forget it!

   I have never really had a successful garden. I lack patience and focus which tend to be pretty crucial to the whole process. I am an eternal toddler with too much to explore to be bothered with stationary chores. Luckily there's a garden method for me!!! I present to you one of my favorite garden beds I have going right now: The in ground keyhole!

First I removed the sod from the future key hole. This was in...April? May? Something like that. I have sand instead of soil so I can pretty much dig as soon as the snow melts.

 I framed out the cut out part first and then dug down about....12-18"

 Waste not: some poles from an old exercise machine made the structure for the compost basket.

 I retrieved very rotten, myceliated, grubby, wormy, spongey sticks and small logs from the woods. These are far enough into the decomposition process that they will begin releasing nitrogen into the soil and they help retain moisture AND they keep weeds from spreading runners AND they attract beneficial biodiversity. Yeah. All that. It's pretty exciting. 

 Chicken wire for the compost basket. The purpose of the basket is rather like compost tea: as the compost decomposes the rain will wash the nutritious particles into the garden giving your plants a boost every time it rains! Not to mention the whole circle of tiny lives that plays out with the worms and bugs attracted to the compost. 

 A layer of bird yard waste. Mostly poo and straw. The extra heat will speed up decomposition and extend the growing period by keeping it warmer just a little farther into the fall. 

 The completed frame. Adorably heart shaped.

 I shoveled most of the excavated dirt back in and then just let it hang out until planting time! We use the basket for household compost and all I did for planting was scatter some lettuce, nasturtium, spinach, and tatsoi seeds and then covered them with a little black dirt to get things started. That. Was. It.  No weeding except around the blocks, no extra fertilizer...nothing. 

Tah dah!!!! Here it is on the first day of July. I harvested lettuce for the seventh time last night so that is acutally not as full as it was previously but still rather impressive. (The bare spot is courtesy of a turkey)

There you have it! And the best part? The price tag!!! Because I had the cinderblocks and a piece of chicken wire on hand this cost me $0 to build!