We're One!

There was a comedian once that had a real funny line about being one. We all wanted to become teenagers, then 21, but never 50 or older. He said something like, wouldn't it be funny if babies went around announcing to everyone, "I'm one!" Well, I guess that's what we are going to do, because today Thoughts From Frank and Fern has now been out there 'on the air' for one year.

It has been a very interesting year. We have learned a lot about blogging, but more importantly, we have learned more about other people out there. People that are doing what they can to be more self-reliant. People that are very disillusioned with the direction our country is going. We have 'met' some very good folks over the last year. 

We've shared a lot about ourselves, and we would like for you to share something about yourself in the comment section. Please, no personal information like names, locations, or company names. Tell us about your activities that lend toward self-reliance, radio communications, livestock, gardening, or anything else you would like to share.

Pearl and Copper as a baby

What you know about us? Our names are Frank and Fern, which are pseudonyms. We live in southeastern Oklahoma, are now both retired educators, we lived in Alaska for a number of years, and we garden a lot.

This is one of Frank's favorites.

We have a Great Pyrenees named Pearl, who is a working dog. We have goats and their babies. We have chickens, and we currently have a pecking problem. Frank and Fern both do ham radio. Frank much more than Fern. But we do carry radios and communicate with them around the farm all the time, everyday. All the stuff mentioned above, we do because we enjoy it. But we also believe that someday it might be needed in a collapse or survival scenario. We thank God daily for everything we have and for many things that we don't have, like a television. So, now, if you would just provide a little information about yourselves, we will promptly share it with the NSA. [He has been making me laugh for more than 30 years, and shows no sign of slowing down yet!] Remember, humor is the essence of survival. 

Please share with us. We would really love to hear from you! 

Thank you for a great year. 

From the humble hearts of Frank and Fern. 

Chicken Cannibalism

Hello, Frank here.

Good morning, everybody. Remember those cute little chickens we hatched 11 weeks and 3 days ago? Well, for the most part, they're still growing strong, and most of the birds are healthy. All except the 7 that have been killed.

Let me try to explain what's going on here. First, I'm not exactly sure what is going on here. About three days ago, I noticed one of the baby chickens had a blood spot on it's back down close to it's tail. Many birds have a gland there. Well, one of them had a little bit of a bloody spot. I went and got my little bottle of Pick No More, formerly called Anti-Pick. It's a dark, redish colored substance that has some great coating and healing properties. Well, the color causes birds to want to peck it. You ask, "Why would you use this?" Because apparently, it has a taste that chickens find vile or putrid. If you'll take and put a couple of drops on some healthy birds, the birds will pick at it, clean their beaks off and not pick at it again.

So, here we had our little injured bird, still healthy, though. Skin is not broken, it had a couple of feathers plucked out and some blood spots. Birds like to peck red, but unlike the medication Pick No More, birds love the taste of blood. Normally, one treatment, add a few drops to some other birds, and the problem is solved. Why do birds do this? Who knows. Some type of vitamin deficiency, too many birds in a small space, some birds are just more aggressive than others. But, like I said, with this type of problem with this gland, normally one treatment, and it's finished.

Well, the next morning, I had two dead birds. It's ironic that not all birds are carnivores. I would say most aren't. But, once you get a bird that is, then you'll have to isolate the bird and get rid of it. It's kind of like eating eggs. If a chicken, for whatever reason, accidentally lays an egg and it falls to the floor and breaks, most chickens will hurry over to eat that egg. The shell, yolk, the whole thing is just gone. But every now and then, you'll have a bird figure out that they can get into a nest box, move the eggs around enough until one cracks, then you have a broken egg and it eats it. There are ways to stop this. Instead of once a day, gather the eggs three or four times a day so there are less eggs in any nest box, therefore, no eggs to break. This will normally solve the egg eating problem, but not always. Sometimes you just have to watch them, figure out which one it is, and get rid of that bird.

Back to the cannibalism. At this age, most of the birds you can tell whether they are male or female. Most of them, but not all of them, every now and then you'll miss one. We separated the males and the females. The Black Australorps have a single comb, which you envision when you picture a standard chicken. The Easter Egg chickens don't, they have something similar to a pea comb. It is easy to tell the sex of the Black Australorps by the size of the comb. It's sharply more difficult to tell with the Easter Egg chickens at this age. Yes, a few of the Easter Egg roosters will stand out, and say 'I am a rooster' and 'I am a dominating bird'. You know, it's kind of like the first kid on the block that started shaving before anyone else? The other roosters will grow up and they will be good roosters, but there is always one or two that becomes a rooster first. There are also some roosters that are what I call recessive type roosters. Some of them will always be that way.

Okay, so we separated the males and females to the best of our ability. Two separate pens, no access to each other. The next day in the rooster pen, I have two more dead birds. It's kind of like, once a chicken knows it's defeated, they seem to just get weak and give up. They just kind of lay down and die. 

So, that narrows down that it wasn't the girls that were doing the pecking. I'm not saying females will not peck a bird to death, they certainly will. But in this case, it's probably one of the bigger, more aggressive boys. You know, the one that started shaving before everybody else?

All toll, we lost 7 chickens, unless we had one die in the night. When the sun goes down the activity quits, normally. I had planned on waiting to butcher these birds at 13 or 14 weeks. But the reason I am raising these roosters is for me to eat, and not one of them. Don't get me wrong, they do not eat the whole chicken. It seems that once the blood stops flowing, they quit eating. Now, if I were to leave the bird there for a longer period of time, they would consume more, but this is not the case this time.

So, this morning we are going to butcher about 10 chickens. I'm going to butcher the ones that I can obviously tell are males. And I hope that this stops the problem. If it doesn't, then I'll butcher everybody else that's in the male pen, even if I inadvertently butcher a couple of females. I have raised chickens like this, in a home flock type setting, on and off for about 20 years. I have never had this problem to this severity before. They've had a good, strong diet. The adult birds aren't doing it. Some how or another, the pecking just started, and somebody has developed a taste for blood. It can happen with other animals too, especially carnivores. 

Here in a couple of days, I'll post how the butchering went. It would have been a scheduled post anyway, it's just a couple of weeks early. I don't know if I've mentioned the Pick No More before, but you might need a bottle or two around if you're going to raise chickens. It's not just for pecking problems. You can have a bird cut it's foot on chicken wire. In the winter time a bird's comb might freeze and bleed a little. You want to stop the pecking of blood

as soon as possible. And if you need to, you can also isolate a bird for a few days until the bleeding stops, if the Pick No More doesn't stop it. There are other medications around that help suppress bleeding. Some of the older guys used to use just a little bit of white flour. Others used a black pine tar type of substance. You can buy these products at most animal supply dealers. I use Jeffer's. I buy them by the case. There are twelve 4 oz.bottles in a case. I keep one out in the chicken house all the time.

These kind of little emergencies happen, and we do the best with what we've got. The dead chicken carcass. Get rid of it whatever is the best way for you. Some people put them in an empty feed sack and take them to the local dump. If this practice is illegal in your area, and you choose to do it, make sure there are no identifying items in the bag with the dead chickens. You know, like junk mail with your name on it. Food for thought.

We'll talk more later. Frank

Fresh Herb Cheese

Well, it was time to try a new cheese. I ran across a recipe for Garlic and Chive Cheese in Mary Jane Toth's book, Goats Produce Too! and decided to give it a try. You can look back at some of the other cheese making articles to see some specific techniques like using a double boiler, what the curd looks like when it is ready, using a cheese press and making buttermilk culture.

This is a very simple cheese. The milk is heated to 86 degrees before adding buttermilk and rennet. Let it sit for 45 minutes covered. Then slowly raise the temperature while stirring the curd until it is hot to the touch. I was unsure of how long to heat the curd using this method. I would rather be given a specific temperature, but this time I had to make my best guess. I think I might have cooked it too long, or got it a little too hot, I'm not sure.

After the curd was cooked, it was time to pour off the whey. Next, the recipe called for rinsing the curd in very warm water, another new step I hadn't done before. Then, after the curd drained in a colander for about 10 minutes, it was time to add the salt and herbs. The recipe called for garlic powder and chives. I don't have garlic powder, and my chives didn't smell much like onions. So I substituted a small head of garlic and two small green onions from the top of one of my multiplier or walking onions. The amount of garlic powder was 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. After I chopped up this small head of garlic I figured that was about right. The amount of chives was to taste. Well, we like onions, but I wasn't sure how strong the flavor would end up being. I didn't want it to be over powering, so I only used two small green onions.

The curd was starting to stick together after it drained in the colander, so I broke it up with my hands. Then after I added salt, garlic and onions, I mixed it in by hand again. It just wouldn't work with a spoon.

The next step was to put it into the cheese press for several hours.

Finished. Remove and chill for 6 to 8 hours before slicing. Well, by now it was bedtime so we weren't able to try it until the next day. We jokingly said we may just have it for breakfast. But we didn't.

We did have some for lunch. It is a pretty cheese, and has a nice, subtle aroma of onion and garlic. It is a very mild tasting cheese, with a very subtle taste of herbs. I could have easily added twice as much garlic and onions and it wouldn't have been a strong flavor. I also think I pressed it a little too much because it is drier than I expected or than I would prefer. So, next time I won't press it as hard or as long. Another factor that can affect the moisture content of the curd is how high the temperature is, and how long you cook it. That is another adjustment I will make.

Other than that, it is a very nice, fresh cheese that doesn't take a lot of time. Frank thinks it will make great grilled cheese sandwiches. I am already thinking about the different herb combinations I will try with this recipe. I think it would make a good hot pepper cheese, too, which I like. Basil, parsley and oregano would also be a good combination. I think I will be experimenting with this type of cheese all summer. It will probably freeze well, too. Right now we have four kinds of cheese in the frig to eat up. We made mozzarella last week. I thawed out some Chevre, a soft cheese, and mixed in some salt, dehydrated onion, dill and parsley. We have been eating it with celery, carrots and crackers with our lunches. There is also some 10 month old cheddar that we made last July. It's getting pretty sharp, but it's very tasty. We are cheese happy and the frig is running over with milk. So what will we make next? I might just try some Colby, who knows? Learn something everyday. Learn from your successes. Learn from your failures. But don't just sit around. Try something and enjoy what you learn from it, one way or the other.

Until next time - Fern

Dark Clouds on the Horizon

You know we post and talk all the time about some kind of collapse in our society. When you're sitting in church, some people talk about the good Lord coming back and how things are going to change. If you're reading

financial pages, there is always some doom and gloom fellow saying that you need to buy precious metals, because the markets are going to collapse. Well, you flip to another channel in your brain, and there are the folks proclaiming that the grid is going to go down. If you flip around in your head to another channel, you hear people talking about revolution, it's time for a revolution. Any one of these above scenarios, and many others, could happen at any time. There is a collapse often in this country on a local basis. It could be caused by a tornado, hurricane, grass fires, your local plant shutting down and you lose your job, and the list goes on. 

So, why is it that so few people actually prepare for some type of down time? FEMA, The Red Cross, many church organizations and civic groups all recommend that people be prepared for some type of collapse. Remember, most of these are local. And if your house just blew away,

for whatever reason, then you are in a local collapse situation. But, I ask again. Why is it so difficult, when there are so many possibilities of some type of local or national collapse, why is it that so many people refuse to prepare? Well, there is always the classic reason, "It's not going to happen to me!" Or, let me see, "I'll go stay with my mommy." And I love this one, "I will befriend a farmer." Or the guy that tells you, "I'll just go take what I need from people." But, I guess my favorite one of all is, "I'll just go walk into the woods and survive." There are many other excuses why people don't prepare, "I don't have the money." "It takes too much time." "What will my friends think?"

I live in southeastern Oklahoma. We have the national weather service, just like almost every place in the United States of America. We have local

radio and TV stations that are always telling us what they think the weather is going to do. But people will still go fishing on a lake when there is a chance of thunder and lightening. And there will always be fans sitting in the stands at a little league baseball game watching their kids play ball in a thunder storm. Every year, in this part of the country, at least one kids gets killed by lightening on a baseball field. Can you see the clouds coming? Are you one of those that's standing out on the baseball field looking off to the west watching the sky get dark? Anybody with any sense knows to get off of that baseball field. 

Anybody with any sense can look at the economic condition our country is in. If you can read at all, then you know how vulnerable our aging electrical grid system is. I'm not going to touch on the religious aspects, but I will touch on morality. Look at all the filth and trash that is on television everyday. The vast majority of people do not believe that it influences their

children. Look at the way parents dress their kids. Look at the way the parents dress. If you don't think television influences adults and children, then please go back, turn on the TV, and watch a football game, where cheerleaders are jumping up and down and everybody has been conditioned to pretend that they are admiring their athletic talent. That's where we are folks. Our moral decay is eroding the foundation of our society. No, it's not eroding it, it HAS eroded it. And if you don't think that killing an unborn baby is wrong, then you are a product of that erosion. Government sanctioned murder. If you don't think that's not decay and erosion, then I don't know how to convince you.

Our financial system is holding on by a thread. I don't know where to start. Banks are openly stealing people's money. The Federal Reserve Bank is printing money in a figurative sense by the billions daily. That's right, daily. And our government tells us that we only have minimum inflation. Have you paid attention to the cost of food and gasoline lately? Or the reason you don't pay attention to it, is that you're in too big a hurry to get home and watch pornography on your computer with your ten year old child sitting beside you? Maybe that's why you didn't notice the cost of food and gasoline escalating. 

And our aging electrical grids. It has been written about time and time again how the aging electrical system cannot continue. And it can't. It was built primarily to serve half the number of people it is serving. It is unsustainable, it can't continue, the electrical grid will go down. I read

articles in respected newspapers on a regular basis that imply that foreign governments could hack into our electrical grids and shut them down at any time. Do you know what that means? That means you will not be able to buy gasoline, your computer won't work and your TV will be off. And if you have the fantasy belief that all cell phone towers have back up systems, then you have been watching way too much television. Without power in this country everything will come to a stop immediately. No banks, big box stores shut down, everything shuts down. I know, I know, I'll just pick up my leatherman tool, grab my tent, and go live in the forest. Good luck.

There is a distinct feeling among many people that our government is in the process of gathering data and information so that they can control the people. Is that the possible reason that the department of agriculture is now buying 40 caliber submachine guns? That's right, the department

of agriculture. Do you know why local police departments are now using military style vehicles? Why is NSA gathering and recording data on every person in this country? Why back a short while ago, on New Year's Eve night was the NDAA signed into law? If you know what that means, congratulations, because most people don't have a clue. For you clueless ones, it's the National Defense Authorization Act, which means that you have no Constitutional rights. You don't read this type of stuff on the sports pages. You can be arrested at any time, with no jury, no trial, no charges, no search warrant, and you don't have a clue. 

So, the question still stands. Why is the department of agriculture buying 40 caliber submachine guns? Along with the IRS, NOAA you know, the

weather people, the postal service, and the list goes on. Okay. Let's see. Our moral systems have collapsed. The economy is a huge, huge bubble. Our electricity could go down at any time. Our beloved government is stocking up on guns and ammunition. Now they have NDAA. So, can you see those clouds coming? Are you going to stick your head in the sand and continue to pretend that it is not going to rain on you? I hate to tell you this, buddy, cause when it rains on you, it rains on everyone. Did you ever figure out why your remote control doesn't work?

This weekend Patrice Lewis at Rural Revolution wrote a very interesting piece for World Net Daily, which she does weekly. It was very thought provoking and provocative. I'd recommend that you read it. A while back I wrote a little piece, and I would appreciate it if you would take a gander at it also. Folks, we have dark clouds on the horizon.

We'll talk more later. Frank

What Nutrition Is In Your Garden?

July 2013

We have learned a lot about gardening in the last five years. Now this year, we have focused our planting on vegetables that have grown well here before, that we like and that the animals like. As I was out working in the garden today a question came to mind. If we had to survive on what we are growing and preserving this summer until the harvest begins from the garden next summer, what kind of nutrition and caloric value do the vegetables we are growing have? Would it be the right combination and quantity to keep us healthy? Would it provide us with the energy and stamina we would need to not just survive but live fairly well through the winter? Hmm...the answer is, I don't know.

June 2013

The garden this summer has been simplified. I am frequently guilty of having too many things growing to do any of them very well. This year I forced myself to simplify. Some of the things we are growing are for people and animals, so I planted more than we would need. Last year we grew too many of some things, like cucumbers, and some things we didn't grow enough of, like carrots. So this year, I am trying to adjust the amount we get to better suit our needs.

July 2013

Now, out of the main crops we are growing and canning, freezing or drying for ourselves, I need to figure out how they will nourish us through the winter and spring until the next harvest is available to eat in enough quantity to sustain life. Where do I start? With a list of what is growing. Then I need to research nutrients and calories for each item. The unknown in this equation is how well these plants are going to produce and how much we will be able to preserve and store. Another unknown is the actual nutritional value of vegetables grown in our soil, so I will have to go with basic average nutritional content.

May 2014

So, going east to west across the garden, here are our current vegetables: Peppers, Carrots, Green Peas (which I picked for the first time today), Tomatoes, Okra, Yellow Crookneck Squash (which are blooming and have tiny squash on them), Purple Hull Peas, sweet Corn, Sunflower Seeds, Cucumbers, Beets, Onions, Potatoes, Green beans, Cabbage, Broccoli and Sweet potatoes. Then, for the fall garden we hope to grow: Cushaw Squash, Turnips, potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage, spinach and brussel sprouts.

May 2014

Now, I have some work cut out for me. I will post the results of this research and let you know if I think our garden choices will be adequate. In my quest to simplify and produce more consistently, I hope the choices I made were good ones when it comes to nutrition. There are subtle layers involved in every type of learning situation. First I had to learn to garden. Then I had to learn to compete with bugs, birds and bunnies. Next, I had to learn how to preserve our harvest. Now, I want to be able to sustain life, not just supplement it, so I need to delve into another layer of knowledge about vegetables.

This type of learning can be applied to just about everything from radio communications to cooking to raising goats and making cheese. Everything has a basic level of knowledge and many layers beyond. Your level of expertise will depend upon how much you want to learn. Interesting, huh? Where are you on your learning scale? Where do you want to be and what are you doing to get there?

Until next time - Fern

It's Weaning Time

Weaning baby goats is not difficult if you have good fencing. You just separate them from their mothers and wear ear plugs for a few days. Sometimes babies are sold, making the weaning easy. So far, we haven't sold any babies this year, and actually, we didn't have any for sale. Two different families have stopped by recently looking for a new billy goat, which is an oddity. When you raise goats you need to plan on keeping your bucks as wethers for meat, or taking them to the sale barn. Bucks, just like bulls, are a dime a dozen and each herd only needs one. So, if you are planning to start raising livestock, have a plan for the excess male animals you will be raising, whether it is chickens or goats.

We put some extra 2 x 4 stock panel sections along the bottom part of the corral specifically with weaning in mind. Before we had this up, we found that some very determined babies could still squeeze through the pole gate and find their way back to mom and a meal. Now the babies can only stand there and cry. Loudly. Well, only for a day or two until they lose their voices altogether. But it will come back, and by then they aren't crying near as much.

Copper and Ivory aren't real happy that their babies can't come to them when they call. So they fuss at me. That's okay, because I think that is a sign of a good mother. Their babies are now ten weeks old and more than ready to wean. Some people wean at six weeks, but eight weeks is probably the norm. We choose ten weeks because it just makes for a stronger, healthier baby. It won't take long, before the does are fine with only being milked and not having big babies nursing. To accomplish the task of weaning we had to do a little bit of goat musical chairs, or ring around the pastures. First I put the does and babies in their pasture and closed the gate.

Then I got all of the wethers and boys to go in the pig pen. (We used this pen to feed out a couple of pigs once and the name stuck.) After they were all in, I sorted them until only the two young bucks that were born here were left. We had put them in with the new buck, Bill, while he was still in the trailer after his arrival. The big boys and Bill, I moved into a different pasture next to the does.

Now I let the does and babies out of their pasture. Next, I put the does in the barn with grain to eat. I was hoping the babies would follow me with a feed bucket into their respective pasture. That didn't work too well. Copper's babies cooperated, but Ivory's didn't. I ended up luring Ivory into the big baby pen in the barn, then catching her girls and carrying them to the pig pen. They're getting heavy!

Whew! That was done. We decided to leave the babies locked in the pen for the night. The two oldest bucks are used to this pasture and can show the new arrivals around. That is a plus. The next morning after I fed the babies, I left the pig pen gate open. We thought we would let them out to graze during the day, but pen them up each night for a while. I left them eating and wished them a good day.

When I came back in the evening to feed, all four of the babies were back in the pasture with their mothers! Hmmmmm......they came through the gate into the corral even though we had put 2 x 4 stock panel over the bottom two openings. We were surprised. So now I was facing the same sorting procedure with the babies again, which I was not looking forward to. As I stood there shaking my head at them it occurred to me that there is a much easier way to accomplish this task. Remember how I used the does to lure the babies into the pen when I wanted to pen them off at night to get more milk? This is one of those moments when you think, "Good grief! Why didn't I think of that yesterday?? It would have saved me a lot of work!" So, this time I just opened up the gate to the pasture, called the does with a bucket of feed, walked around into the pig pen and everyone followed me. Wa-la! The babies were penned up. It was easy to walk each doe out since they are used to that behavior when I milk them. That was so much easier, too bad I didn't think of it the first time. 

So now, once again, the babies are penned up. I got five quarts of milk this morning. It won't take long to get enough milk to start making cheese again. I hope to make some fresh mozzarella sometime this week. You know, all of this is a lot of work, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I am so grateful to live in a place that I still can live this way and do things the way I choose. I only pray that it continues to be so. In some places, for some people, the tide has already turned and the heavy hand of government restrictions are at their door. Be vigilant, be resourceful, and above all, be ready.

Until next time - Fern

Quality Homegrown Milk

Several months back I was reading something over at Oak Hill Homestead, but I don't remember what the title of the article was, maybe Kathi will let us know. Just in passing she mentioned A2 or A1 milk, which made me think, "What in the world is A2 milk?" I really didn't think there was an animal called A2, maybe a robot or something, like C3PO or R2D2......that really was a good movie. I have always felt like the force was with me.....

Never mind, back to milk. Since we milk goats and consume the milk, I wanted to know what Kathi was talking about, so I looked it up. Don't you just love the internet? You can look up just about anything, even things you didn't even know existed. It would be easy to get into the raw vs. pasteurized milk debate here, but that is not what this article is about. To explain the difference between A1 and A2 milk, I will use excerpts from other articles. I don't want to inadvertently word this wrong.

According to Handpicked Nation, "A1 is a mutated beta-casein protein found in milk."......."Milk that does not contain this mutated protein is called A2 milk."........

At Mercola.com we find this information. "All proteins are long chains of amino acids. Beta casein is a chain 229 amino acids in length. Cows who produce this protein in their milk with a proline at number 67 are called A2 cows, and are the older breeds of cows (e.g. Jerseys, Asian and African cows). But some 5,000 years ago, a mutation occurred in this proline amino acid, converting it to histidine. Cows that have this mutated beta casein are called A1 cows, and include breeds like Holstein.

Proline has a strong bond to a small protein called BCM 7, which helps keep it from getting into the milk, so that essentially no BCM 7 is found in the urine, blood or GI tract of old-fashioned A2 cows. On the other hand, histidine, the mutated protein, only weakly holds on to BCM 7, so it is liberated in the GI tract of animals and humans who drink A1 cow milk. 

BCM 7 has been shown to cause neurological impairment in animals and people exposed to it, especially autistic and schizophrenic changes. BCM 7 interferes with the immune response, and injecting BCM 7 in animal models has been shown to provoke type 1 diabetes. Dr. Woodford’s book presents research showing a direct correlation between a population’s exposure to A1 cow’s milk and incidence of autoimmune disease, heart disease, type 1 diabetes, autism, and schizophrenia. (Dr. Mercola is referencing the book The Devil in the Milk, written by Dr. Keith Woodford.)

Simply switching breeds of cows could result in amazing health benefits.......Raw goat and sheep’s milk is another option, as these types of milk do not contain BCM-7."

I had to read over this several times to understand the specifics of what it is saying. A mutated piece of protein found in much of our nation's milk supply, has been linked to some serious health issues for some people. This is known as A1 milk.

According to Lara Briden, a Naturopathic Doctor, "We cannot get around the fact that one of the proteins in milk – A1 casein – is highly inflammatory for some people.  In susceptible individuals, A1 casein is cleaved to form a powerful immune-modulating opiate called casomorphin." She goes on to discuss several different health issues some people face when consuming A1 milk.

In all of my reading, I found that goats, sheep, and what they are calling the 'old fashioned' breeds of cows like Jersey, Dexter, Asian and African, are A2 milk producing animals. There are some others but the recommendation is to have them tested before you buy them to use for home milk consumption if you want to avoid A1 milk. We have read a lot about raw vs. pasteurized milk for years, but I did not know that the breed of cow you choose to milk could have an impact on the human body in an adverse way.

My knowledge on this subject is not very deep. I just felt like it was something I wanted to share in case there are other folks out there that didn't know about A2 vs. A1 milk. There are many things around us that impact our health in so many different ways. Knowledge is the key. Knowledge gives us the power to make informed decisions. You can never have too many books and you can never learn enough. Go find out something new today that will impact your life and the lives of your family members in a good way. You never know when it may be of vital importance. It may be sooner than you think.

Until next time - Fern
 

Mid-May Garden Tour

Whew! School is out as of yesterday and the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. In the meantime, the weeds and grass have been growing happily along with the vegetables we planted. Now it's time to get ahead of them again.

The potatoes had suffered from weed encroachment more than anything else, so they were first on the list this morning. The ground is still pretty moist from the last rain, but the Mantis tiller was able to work the ground pretty well. So now the potatoes are at least partially weeded and have been hilled up again.

 






The beets are doing very well this year. This is only our second year to grow beets, so I'm not real sure why they are doing great. There are several that look like they will be ready to eat before long. About every other evening I pick some beet greens and take them to the chickens and goats. We have also added some small, tender greens to a salad recently.
 

 

The onions are doing their thing, I think. I have yet to grow a good crop of onions, and the verdict is still out on this batch.

 







The sunflowers are coming up thick and look great. I planted seeds we harvested last summer and didn't know how viable they would be, so I planted them pretty thick. Guess what? They are doing great. Now to plant some more of them here and there to increase the harvest. We are intending this entire harvest, minus some seed saving for next year, to be animal feed. It will be quite amazing to see these rows full of big, beautiful sunflowers.

 
The corn looks great and is coming right along. It's also lucky, because a few weeks ago, I worked over the grass and weeds in between the rows.

 









The purple hull peas, or cow peas, are also growing well. They have more competition from the grass and weeds, so they will need attention in the next few days.
 

 





The squash looks great. I am hoping that the late tilling and frosts have impacted the squash bug and squash vine borer population. So far I haven't seen any at all, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure they will make an appearance before long.

The okra doesn't like the cool weather we've been having lately, so it's growing, just not very fast. This is also the worst patch of weeds, now that the potatoes have been taken care of. That makes them next on the list for some serious weeding and mulching.

The tomatoes are growing and look very healthy despite the cool weather we've been having. We did have a few very warm, humid days before the last rain and the cool north winds today. I found a volunteer tomato coming up in the okra patch as well. There were Roma tomatoes growing close to this area last year. There are also a few volunteer potatoes.

The snap peas are looking great. They have finally started really growing, blooming and producing. I will need to pick our first batch of peas in a few days.

 













The carrots are growing. It seems they should be farther along, but they look healthy and happy. Another volunteer potato has come up over here as well.

The peppers are still pretty small. I think they have joined the okra in protesting the cool weather. Most of them look healthy, they're just not growing a whole lot.

We had a big handful of potatoes left from last fall that had sprouted and grown these long, spindly sprouts in the house. I was just going to toss them out when I decided to pile them up in the corner of the garden and scoop some dirt on top. Well, now we have this huge potato bush growing there. We've learned another lesson. Don't give up when things don't appear to be doing very well. This is a great lesson that can be applied to many things besides potatoes. Don't ever give up. 

Clematis

 Until next time - Fern