New Adventure: Vegetable Gardening!

I'm going on a big new adventure this year...I'm trying my hand at growing a vegetable garden!

I've always liked to grow flowers, but have never really been interested in vegetables.  My dad has grown a vegetable garden for as long as I can remember, and when I was younger I would help out with it a lot.

One of the flower gardens that I improved last year.  I think it turned out great!

Now that I'm in New York, I'm taking over my in-laws' vegetable garden.  I was originally planning on starting small, just growing a few tomatoes, potatoes, and cucumbers.  Then I made the "mistake" of asking my in-laws what vegetables they would like in the garden, and they added on about 10 new items!

So, I'm jumping in with both feet!  The vegetables I'm growing this year are:

• tomatoes
• cucumbers
• radishes
• beets
• carrots
• potatoes
• lettuce
• broccoli
• summer squash
• peppers
• pumpkin
• onion

They also requested a few herbs:

• dill
• cilantro
• parsley

My in-laws have had a lot of problems with pests and various diseases plaguing their garden in the past, so I'm trying several varieties (4 for most of the vegetables) of each type of vegetable, so I can determine what works best here.

I've also done a lot of research on companion planting and using plants to keep insects and small animals out of the garden.  Thus, I added in several companion plants for the garden:

• basil
• chives
• sage
• thyme
• cosmos
• calendula
• nasturtium
• marigold
• lavender
• echinacea/cone flower
• lamb's ear
• yarrow

Some of these will be grown interspersed with the vegetables, and others will be placed around the edge of the garden as a barrier of sorts.

Luckily, a lot of the prep work for the garden has been done.  My in-laws fenced off the garden area several years ago, and added lots of good top-soil from a flood plain to amend the clay soil.

The space that I'm working with this year for the garden is about 24' x 33'.  There is probably another 10' x 24' that I can add in next year.  It has grown tomatoes for the past 2-3 years (and endured bad blight infections each year), so I'm going to cover it with compost this year and let it go fallow.

My proposed vegetable garden layout.

The main prep work that I will have to do this spring (or rather, my husband will do for me!) includes moving some compost into the garden, and tilling the garden several times.  I will then make wide-row raised beds within the garden and do all the planting.  I'm planning on having 5 rows, each about 3' wide (and 24' long).  There will be 1.5' walkways between the rows.

COMPOST!!  The secret to a good garden!  This pile is about 20x bigger now!

Since my in-laws are all about eating organic, I'm pretty much forced to grow my own plants from seed.  About a month ago, I ordered a bunch of seeds from High Mowing Seeds.  Over the next 2 months, I will start the seeds in Jiffy peat pellets and stick them under grow lights in the house.  I'll harden them off a few weeks before planting, and then plant them in the garden.

I really hope all my work isn't in vain!  There will definitely be a learning curve, but I'm going to document as much as I can and learn from my mistakes.  Check back every Saturday for more blog posts about the garden!

It is kinda hard to think about gardening when there is still snow on the ground!

Locked Up Lamas

I really felt like a broken record this winter...it seemed like every other Facebook post was something along the lines of "locking the lamas in again tonight".

Locking the lamas inside the barn at night was not something I had really ever considered doing on a regular basis.  The one exception was when we had a baby born...we would routinely shut the new mom and baby in our catch pen/creep feeder (basically just an extra 8'x12' pen in our barn) for a night or two to bond and stay out of the cold.

May and her cria Camissia, locked in the catch pen for the night.

And then we moved to NY and had the winter from he**!  It dropped below 0 degrees more times this winter than I could count, and we often had wind chills in the double negative digits!  My Midwest lamas were definitely not use to this, and they were suffering.

April laying in one of her favorite spots, out by the hay feeder.

My preferred first treatment for the cold is insulated coats.  The only lamas that I saw shivering this winter were April, Duque, and Ralph.  They all wore coats through at least half of the winter; Duque and Ralph wore theirs a bit less than April.

Duque and Ralph in their coats.  Duque has since inherited April's coat, since April got a new thicker one!

It got so cold at times though that I would see April and Duque shivering, even with their coats on!  That's when I knew I had to do more to keep them warm.

Luckily the lamas' pen is on the south side of the barn, so the wind is normally not bad.  But in the cold winter, even a heavy breeze can drop the wind chill severely.  Since April apparently doesn't like being in the barn, the only way to keep her out of the wind was to lock her (and everyone else) inside the barn.

As I've mentioned before, I put down a lot of waste hay in the barn this winter for added insulation agains the cold.  So in addition to being out of the wind, they have the benefit of laying in a nice warm bed and not the cold concrete or frozen ground outside!

Nice bed of waste hay in the barn.

My threshold for locking the entire herd inside was whenever the temperatures were below 0 (Fahrenheit), or if the windchill was in the double negative digits.  There were a couple exceptions, mostly when it was warm and rainy and then supposed to get really cold quickly.  A few times I just locked April inside (in the catch pen) with a friend (usually Kara or Ralph).

April in the catch pen (eating her dinner).

Of course April hates being locked in the barn, but it has definitely helped keep her warm this winter.

During one extreme cold spell, the lamas stayed in the barn for 2 days and 3 nights (in a row)!

I even locked them in last night, even though the temperature was just under freezing.  They had been standing out in the rain all day, and the temperature was supposed to drop to almost 0 degrees during the night.  I went back outside this morning to feed, and found 5 happy, warm, and dry lamas, even though it was still in the single digits outside!  I put coats on the 3 regulars, and gave them their freedom.  Now that they're dry they'll be fine outside tonight.

And now for a little cheering up...SPRING!

Yarn, Yarn, and more Yarn!

Well its day 1 of my new organizational scheme for this blog, hopefully I can keep it going!

I had intended to post a new knitting pattern today, but I still haven't gotten around to writing it up so I will try again next week.

A sneak-peek at my next knitting pattern.  This is using some of my handspun yarn, a sport-weight mohair/merino blend that I had processed at the mill I work at.

Until then, how about some yarn?!

I've actually been pretty good for the past month or so when it comes to spinning.  I'm hoping to get a booth at the CNY Fiber Fest in Bouckville, NY in June, and want to debut my handspun yarn and patterns there.  So...I need to get spinning!

My yarn display at a previous craft fair.  I'll have to come up with something a bit bigger for the CNY FF!

Technically I have quite a bit of inventory (at least it seems like a lot to me), but most of it is at 2 yarn shops in NY and PA.  If I do get my booth I plan on getting all that yarn back (probably adds up to 40 skeins or so), but I felt like I should still spin as much as possible before June to build up some inventory.

One of my favorite skeins that is at the yarn shop in PA, a luscious blend of superfine merino, cashmere, and silk.

Most of what I spun the past few weeks is fiber that I got in various trades.  I found a great fiber trade group on Facebook last summer, and did quite a few trades since then.  It has really turned out to be a great deal for me (and hopefully my trading partners)!

So...onto the yarn pictures!  All of these skeins will end up in my Etsy store in the next week or so.

Merino.

Wool blend spiral plied with rayon embroidery thread.

Merino/silk/bamboo.  One of my new favorites, I'll definitely try to trade for more!

A Christmas present, BFL/tussah silk.

American-grown (and spun) wool.

My other big project before the CNY FF is to write up several more knitting patterns to use with my handspun yarn- my plan is to sell yarn (and fiber) with the patterns as kits.  So far I have 3 patterns done, 2 for worsted weight and 1 for sport weight.  I still need a DK, bulky, and art yarn pattern (2 of each would be even better!).  So, if you have any suggestions for patterns that you'd like to see designed, please leave a comment!  I'm thinking about a hat, ear band, and maybe a buttoned cowl.

One of my other knitting patterns, thrummed convertible mittens!

Don't forget, check back on Thursday for a llama update, and Saturday for my first gardening post!

Spring Cleaning!

Yes, I'm doing spring cleaning around the house, but I won't bore you with those details...  I'm talking about spring cleaning of my blog!  Or more like a little re-organization...

This blog has slowly been evolving since I started it a few years ago.  Originally I wanted a place to talk about my fiber and llamas, especially since my website program was a pain and hard to update.  Unfortunately at the time, I wasn't living at home on the farm so 90% of what I talked about was fiber.  And I was terrible about updating!

Kara's baby fleece that I was processing for an Etsy customer.

For the past year, I've had the luxury of living on a farm again!  Granted, the llamas didn't get here until about 6 months ago, but I still had more fun outdoorsy stuff to talk about.  I've even gotten a little better about updating on a regular basis!

Putting in fence!  More of that to come later on this spring!

Now I'm entering the 3rd phase of my blog.  I'm planning on starting a big new project this year (my very first vegetable garden!), and I really wanted to blog about it but wasn't sure if it would fit with my more "fibery" theme.  After bouncing ideas around with some people, I decided on a compromise.  I *am* going to add the garden stuff to the blog, but I'm going to split up my main 3 topics.  My plan is: on Tuesdays I will talk about fiber (knitting/spinning), on Thursdays I will talk about llamas, and on Saturdays I will talk about the garden!  I'm hoping to figure out how to put the posts on separate pages, but we'll see if that actually happens!  At the very least the topics will have unique labels, so you can filter through the posts that way.

One of my flower gardens.  I am re-doing a few of those this summer too, so they may get a blog post or two!

I hope this is a welcomed change to the blog.  I really hope that it will also help force me to update more frequently!  If you have any other suggestions on changes I should make to the blog, please leave me a comment...I would really appreciate feedback!

Kara says "hi"!

Skin Issues Revisited

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a blog post about some skin issues that 2 of my llamas were having.  I'm having issues again (1 of the same llamas, 1 different one), so I thought I would share what I learned from the first time and what I'm trying now.

In 2012, I was having trouble with Bluff and April.  Bluff had a bit of "elephant skin" (basically thick skin) under her front armpits.  I decided to treat her with a cream made from diaper cream (zinc oxide), vitamin E, and tea tree oil.  Unfortunately it didn't seem to make any difference, so I discontinued the treatment.

April had developed some bald spots on her legs.  The skin wasn't thick and crusty like Bluff's, just had no hair!  Since there was no chance of rubbing a cream on April's back legs every few days, I decided to make up a sprayable mixture of MTG (a horse skin product), vegetable oil (to soften the skin), vitamin E, and tea tree oil.  It turned out that the vegetable oil was a bad idea for summer, since it attracted flies.  The MTG is also too thick for a spray bottle, so I wasn't able to continue the treatment for very long.  Needless to say it didn't work.

Since I wasn't living on the farm for most of the past several years, I didn't have another opportunity to address April's skin issues until they moved to my new NY farm in August.  After talking to some breeders on Facebook, I decided to try spraying her legs (and Duque's) with apple cider vinegar.  I was actually good about applying this treatment (it was easy!), but after about 6 weeks I still saw no improvement so I quit.  I'm giving up on April's feet until it warms up in the spring, but am thinking about trying a new horse product (one that is designed to be sprayed) or diluted betadine.

Duque's back feet started off like April's, just looking like simple hair loss.  However, over the past month or two I noticed more dry scaly skin so I decided to start treating him again.  Luckily Duque is easier to handle than April, so I tried the skin cream I made for Bluff a second time.  I applied it every other day for 2 weeks, and saw no improvement.  The cream was applied to one back leg, and on the other I applied MTG.  The MTG didn't work either.  After more consulting, someone suggested that he may have mites and should be treated with Frontline spray.  Frontline is almost $50 at TSC, so when someone else suggested Vaseline instead I decided to try that.  I started the second treatment today, and will be applying it twice a week for 3 weeks.

Kara also has something similar to Bluff, rough spots on her front armpits and her chest.  I'm also trying Vaseline for her.

If the Vaseline doesn't do the trick in a month or so, I suppose I'll try another of the many products that are available.  NuStock is widely recommended, as is a product called Well Horse.  I'll try to report back in a month with progress!

Llama Biography #14: Autumn Hill's Faith

Faith is another one of those llamas that I've always regretted selling.  She was born in September 2003, out of Casa Loma's Little Sheba and sired by PPF King's Ransom.  Sheba was of course my very first llama, and this was her second cria.  I had loved Ransom since I first saw him, so in the fall of 2002 I decided to have 2 of my females (Sheba and Cattera) bred to him.  Faith was the first of those 2 crias to be born.  I came home one afternoon from school to find Faith up and nursing.  I was so happy to have a gorgeous paint female!

Faith at a week or two old.  (Her half sister Charity is in the background.)

Casa Loma's Little Sheba, Faith's dam.

PPF King's Ransom, Faith's sire.

Faith really was the best of both of her parents.  She had gorgeous coloring, fabulous fiber, and the sweetest personality.  I was really looking forward to showing her, but only got to take her to one show before she was sold.  She was sold along with Blaze (Autumn Hill's Blazing Starr) to a huge suri alpaca farm in Ohio, and they left shortly after being weaned.

Faith's fiber as a baby.

Faith at about a month of age.

Faith at Christmas, in the house!

I was lucky enough to be able to see Faith a few years later, when I delivered 2 more llamas that I sold to the same farm (both were Faith's half sisters, Autumn Hill's Charity and Autumn Hill's Catalina).  Faith had quickly become the farm favorite, often coming into the barn office for a carrot treat.  She ended up being quite a bit bigger than her mom, and really matured into a gorgeous girl.  Last I heard her owners were trying to get her bred, I'm sure she would have some beautiful babies!

Faith in January 2004, 4 months old.

Snow, Snow, and More Snow...

Like a good portion of the country, we got hammered with a bunch of new snow last week.  Luckily the temperatures have stayed reasonable, but none of us (the llamas nor myself) are real happy with the snow!

This is the view of the llama pasture after the snow.  There is a tiny green blob in the center...that would be Ralphie in his coat.  It is hard to tell from this picture, but the llamas aren't getting out of the barn much with all the snow.  They will walk out to the hay feeder (and sometimes to the poop pile) but that's about it!

Speaking of poop, here is my poor compost pile!  Unfortunately it didn't get started early enough in the fall to start "cooking" before it got cold, so it is pretty much frozen.  Next year should be better though!

And let me just mention, it is NOT easy getting a full wheel-barrow from the barn all the way to the compost pile!  To give you an idea of scale, this picture was taken right outside the barn door, and the compost pile is behind the two small sheds in the center of the picture.

With all the snow, the llamas are spending a lot of time in the barn.  They will go out occasionally to eat from the outside feeder, and April will sit out there for hours in the snow!  You can see that Ralph went out for a bit, but decided that it was better in the barn!

April and T were being a bit more adventurous that day, and ventured out to eat some of the new hay.

I waited too long to take this picture, but half-way through the snowfall there was an oblong cushing-llama-shaped snowless spot on the concrete here outside the barn...April must've slept outside in the snow all night!  She had about 2" of snow on her back!

This is what the pasture looks like from the inside of the barn.  I did shovel a bit of the concrete pad, to encourage the llamas to get outside.

Sometimes when it is snowy you have to get creative!  My husband didn't want to wait to take feed down to his chickens (we were heading out to ski), so he skied down the hill with the feed bag!  I'm really surprised he didn't wipe out!

Abby is the only one who enjoys the snow no matter what!  She might be starting to get annoyed though, as the snow sticks to her feet and she repeatedly stops to chew on the "snow balls" while we're out on a walk/ski.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like we're going to have any reprieve from the snow/cold in the coming week!  It is even going to get colder on Wednesday, I just really hope it doesn't last long!