Three Sisters

The Three Sisters Garden of the Iroquois is made up of corn, beans, and squash. Our pasture area never grew to fruition and so it is being transformed into a massive site for composting and gardening. The first planted row is a Three Sisters Garden.

As our animals' pens are cleaned, their manure is set in thick rows in the pasture area so that it can decompose and become fertile soil. The goats produce the best manure as they are picky eaters and tend to leave behind the bits of alfalfa they don't care for. Their leavings are a nice balance of poop and dried plant material, perfect for composting.

A dip along the center of the wide rows is made. The seeds are set in and covered lightly. Using old soaker hose covered with straw has already proven a simple and effective way to irrigate. The seedlings have shown themselves today:

Alpaca Shelter

This ugly but functional house was built from 12 wooden pallets, some 2x4s and corrugated metal roofing. The pallets are bolted and screwed together for added strength. It is about 8x8 feet inside and provides good rain shelter for the fluffy boys. The best part of all: they actually USE IT! The alpacas shelter inside or on either side of this new house, depending on where the sun is in the sky. On a real hot day, the shade in there feels pretty good. When it cools off some, I'll be adding siding and my favorite barn red paint.

My design is slightly based on the one here: http://www.petdiys.com/gallery/wood-pallet-pasture-shelter/  I didn't cut my pallets at an angle though, as electricity is limited to a generator at the ranch, and I don't like to mess with it much. My version was built with a battery powered screwdriver/drill. My roof has less of an angle and is mounted on the 2x4s which were set at a slight pitch atop the pallets.

This project took me about a week to finish as I can only work on it when the weather is tolerable and for as long as my drill had a charge. Two people could probably finish this, if they have electricity, in a day.

To Raise or Not to Raise?

Summer was harsh on the Gigantic Garden. The extreme heat, well over 100 degrees most days, and the lack of a strong, humid monsoon really took a toll on production. We had a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes, a decent crop of potatoes, maybe 7 zucchinis and 5 cucumbers. That's about it if you don't count the pretty sunflowers. Our young trees are straining to survive and all this with daily watering.

I've always believed there is no better water for a garden than rainwater. The evidence is clear after a nice downpour, when the plants stand at attention and act like that's the first real drink they've had in weeks.

We've always had raised beds in the garden, beginning with thin rows, then wider rows, but I built a prototype raised bed with rubber fence slats to see if the extra depth of loamy soil will help roots develop better and soil be retained and moist more so than a wide row on the ground.

I'll decide in a few weeks if I want more of these contraptions (which are very easy to build).

Today it was planted with peas, spinach, lettuce and green oinions. There is an existing fruit tree and surviving potato plant already in the bed.

Bellowing Update

Since her first date, Ms. Karma has not bellowed.

The consensus is that she's knocked up. Good job, Doc Mary!

First Date Update

Karma's first date didn't go as planned. Doc Mary showed up. Ms. Karma made her way (albeit a bit suspicious) into the milk stall and I managed to get her mother's halter on her and lead her the rest of the way into the headgate. Cookie, her ever faithful friend, had to be coaxed out of the milking stall.

With the bribe of hay and sweet feed, Karma was positioned to meet her first boyfriend.

After a pelvic exam, Doc Mary confirmed that indeed, our little heifer was in heat. Karma is very obvious about being in heat. She bellows all day long and wants nothing more than something to pet her and rub her and whisper sweet nothings in her ear. She also jumped up on Cookie's back to let us know what she wanted done.

Doc Mary went to retrieve Karma's boyfriend, but returned to say there was a problem. Oh no! It seems the frozen miniature Jersey straw burst in the tank, spilling all over the bottom. Um ew. Karma was left with no date or...the second choice of a handsome straw of Dexter semen.

After some deliberation, we opted for the Dexter. We believe our previous steer (Baby Cow) was a Dexter. It's an Irish breed of cattle known for being small and also dual purpose (meat or milk). Doc Mary has both miniature Jerseys and Dexters at her place. She did say that Karma is a small Jersey and breeding her to a standard size bull was not a good idea.

The decision made, she went in from the upper hole to feel around and be sure when she was going in from the lower hole, that she had things in the right spot. Karma seemed pleased with this attention, which was a little weird, to say the least, but I guess she can't be too choosey as there are no bulls nearby to pick from.

Doc Mary found the right spot, pulled the trigger, and that was that.

First Date



Karma eyeing me.

Karma has a date tomorrow. Her first date ever, and it's with a mini Jersey bull. Well, sorta. More accurately, Karma has a date tomorrow with Doc Mary's gloved hand and a straw of mini Jersey bull semen. She has been leery of the milking stall ever since the tattoo, ear tag, shot ordeal. So (pictured) I'm trying to convince her that the milking stall isn't always where bad things happen to sweet milk cows. It's a place where she can find alfalfa, bermuda, sweet feed, and mesquite bean pods before we quickly close the gate and the headlock and well... you get the idea. There a several reasons we don't want a bull to borrow or keep. Bulls are strong and when there's a lady cow in heat, they want to get to her. Like male goats in rut, they will push a person aside or plow through whatever is keeping them from their lady-love. I don't want a bull. I have enough trouble with my sweet milk cow getting her way because she's so big and strong and spoiled. We're trying AI this first time and opted for mini Jersey because that was what was available and because a smaller cow is a good thing. 

What's Happening in the Heat?

Sunflower in the Garden

The end of the school year is always a big adjustment around here. With the kids sleeping in and me being able to stay up late, the timing gets all out of whack. Not to mention the blistering hot heat of summer in Tucson.

I've found some ways to get around the heat, if I be good and stay on a schedule. First off, the farm chores still need to be done. A lot of people see pictures of the farm critters and think how nice it must be to have them. Milk goats need to be milked twice a day without fail. The critters need to be fed and watered twice a day. There are not-so-fun maintenance tasks like hoof trims, castration, pen cleaning, egg collecting and composting, but my point is, you still have to do all those things even when it's 100 degrees outside.

At first we all stayed up to ungodly hours and then slept in to go do chores around 11am. If you live in Tucson, you know that's insane. It's just too hot. By the time chores were done we were heading out at high noon, covered with sweat and melting in the heat.

So I now get up at the old school time of 7am and often head out to the ranch alone. While it's easier to get all the chores done with everyone, the truth is, I don't handle the heat well. I turn red and get dizzy. Plus, I like to hang around and do extra chores that don't get done when the whole family comes and wants to get in and out fast.


Pumpkin, our wooly ram. He's not very orange anymore.
Check out the nice metal feeder!

Chores like sweeping the pens and moving the poo to planting areas. There's something satisfying about a nicely swept sheep pen. Plus, after learning to spin wool, I now understand why alpaca is better than sheep fiber. Sheep lay down to rest anywhere--even in their own poo! Ew!

That means wool is skanky nasty stinky messy poopy stuff out here in Tucson where pasture just won't happen without some good monsoon rains. (Please rain.) So I hurry through the morning chores and then try to squeeze in the extra stuff.

To help with keeping pens cleaned and also to cut down on hay waste (my sheep never waste hay--they will eat it even if it falls in poop--gag) I purchased two metal feeders with drop pans. Goats are not as frugal as the sheep and will not eat stuff once it falls on the ground and gets nasty, so they got one too.

Freshly swept sheep pen.

There is always something that needs to be done. On the list is fence repair and lots of it. The goats are hard on fences and much of theirs needs to be reattached to the t-posts and more t-posts need to be pounded in for reinforcement.

I'd like to do some minor rearranging in the goat pen for ease of cleaning and to have additional areas for seperating animals when need be.

I still need to build two more rooster pens. This requires the aid of the child who begged for their lives when it was rooster eating time. He's not as motivated to build them each houses as he was to save them from being dinner. Plus, keeping a rooster in with the hens is nice and all, but he's a very efficient rooster and his constant attentions are making the hens go bald. He needs to be moved out.



Darius playing dead.

The alpacas, who are fattening up nicely and like to play dead to scare the heck out of me, probably need a better shelter in case mosoon rains really do come. (Please rain?) And they probably will move further back into the property. They get stared at a lot. I don't mind so much, but it's kind of weird when strangers pull up, stop their car, get out and come to the fence and start snapping pictures.

As I have gotten older, I am valuing my private time more than before. I don't necessarily want strangers to stop and hang out at my farm--the one place I go to find some peace of mind and get back in touch with nature. Plus, maybe the alpacas don't want people staring at them when they have to go potty. Poor guys.

The other trick is to come out after the sun goes down to do the evening chores. This works very well as long as everyone has a flashlight to navigate with. Some extra chores can get done at night too, but unless there's a full moon, it's not as easy to see what's getting done.

My husband and I think maybe we should be vampire farmers. Sleeping all day, staying up all night? Yeah. I could make that work.