Monday, May 31, 2010

They are here.

Well, after  9 month's of planning and waiting we finally have our goats. Mrs Phantom chicken farm and I drove to Rhinelander WI this weekend to pick them up. It was a beautiful trip and a nice mini vacation. Lynne at Grasse Acres has been a huge help getting us set up for our little ruminants. So without further ado. Our little does is named Persephone.( Her father was Zeus.) and our little wether (castrated male) is Simon. (we are big Simon&Simon fans.)
We had them sleep in the chicken coop last night due to the possibility of storms rolling thru ,and this morning I found them sleeping in the nesting boxes.The chickens were not impressed.
We have only had them one day and are already enjoying them. They are pretty stinking cute.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Strawberry info.

We have a decent strawberry bed here at the farm. Strawberries are easy to grow if you are patient. Their tendency to send out runners makes them a perfect plant for small nooks in the garden. Maybe everyone should start growing them.  Check this out.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Farms not Lawns

While listening to the radio the other night I heard a story about a local urban farm. {Check out the link.} If you don't, the gist is that Bad Seed Farm has had trouble with the neighbors. Unfortunately the response seems to have been grossly out of proportion with the supposed crimes (having chickens and growing your own food).
There is now a committee of real estate agents, and other small minded people, lead by  Stacey Johnson-Cosby,  that wants to deal with the dangers that this kind of self reliance represents. Her (SJ-C) response  and concerns are nothing more than intolerance wrapped up in a thin layer of  possible, in my opinion, far fetched consequences to property values and neighborhood dynamics. ( God forbid people would use their homes and yards for useful purposes.)

 This Lady really got me worked up.  So I went out, planted some stuff in the back yard and made the decision that the most effective response to this would be.....  Plant veggies in the FRONT yard, too !!

















We appropriately  made a trip to Bad Seed Market Friday night and picked up a bunch of tomato, pepper, squash and herb plants and spent a rather wet day today planting.
 The plan is to also plant some cucumbers and pole beans once we can get a trellis up. We will then add this surplus to the products Phantom Chicken Farm offers. So look for tomatoes, cucumbers ,beans, melons, basil, and squash later this summer.

Sunday, May 9, 2010