wildlife encounters

Last night I was up at the garden around 7pm, which was just that right time of the day. The daytime heat had resolved, the light was soft and filtered, and the forest was quiet and calm. It was a perfect time for wildlife encounters.

While I used the hose to water the beans the arc of water caught the sun, which caught the attention of a passing hummingbird. Hovering to investigate, she edged closer, than flitted back and forth through the stream. Next, she parked on the chickenwire fence, preened her feathers, than flew back through for another shower. It was pretty cool to see her hovering there just a few feet away.

After the hummingbird moved on, I next saw a squirrel in the neighbor's garden plot. This was a nearly magical experience as well, since he was two busy rooting through their vegetables to notice me. I stealthfully adjusted the nozel to "maximum varmit blasting power" and knocked him right out of the raised bed! He retreated hastily to the forest, and no doubt will be warning his rodent friends to avoid the Miller City Farm!

garden status

This picture was taken back on June 1st to show an overview of the garden's condition. To the casual observer it still looks a bit barren, and the plants rather small; however, don't forget that this farm is an entire 0.01 acre, so the plants only look small in comparison to all the land we have.

In terms of our vegetable selections there have been some winners, some losers, and some in between. Winners: the potatoes plants (no guarantee they're actually making potatoes though) and the weeds. Moderate sucess: anything that stinks, such as garlic, onions and shallots. Losers: anything succelent and tasty such as lettuce, artichokes, beets, peas, beans, yes just about everything else that an animal would like to eat has been eaten. My solution? I planted more potatoes!

Chicken Update

Here are updated chicken pictures. They're at 3 weeks now and have been switched from chick starter to broiler feed. They are all healthy, growing well, and remain happily oblivious to their fate.

Pests

Our gardening book recommends the philosophy of planting an extra 10% "for the animals." Well we did that, but the critters are taking about 80%. We're under attack from underground, on the ground, above the ground, even from the air! The birds dig up the seeds. The slugs mow down the seedlings. When a plant is lucky enough to actually get growing, the rabbits get it. Then on special occasions the gophers suck the plants down from right underground! In today's pictures is a new lettuce plant that was half a foot tall, until the rabbits got it. And the other picture is the beer used to bait and kill slugs, applied a little too late for the freshly chewed bok choi. We're not the only one with problems, the NY Times recently ran this article about varmits.

Mount Hood Scramble

This weekend was the infamous Mt. Hood Scramble. It was 6.78 miles of snow, rock, and glacier fed river crossings. Tim, Amy, and I escaped with minimal trauma, but others left plenty of blood on the snow. I ran hard and finished 58 out of 300+, and haven't walked right since. Gretel sat out this year's event, realizing that she had too much to live for, declaring that if she was going to break any bones, she would rather wait until after soccer season.

Check out the pictures at:
picasaweb.google.com/amiller1000/MountHoodScramble

More pictures at (search for bib #229):
http://conaghan.smugmug.com/gallery/5178661_W4mX3#313946522_kZEfW

Baby Chickens!

The baby chicks have arrived!

The Chickens are Coming!

As we hinted previously, there is big news on the chicken front. People have spoken, we have listened, and the Miller City Farm is taking the next big step!

Ask a vegetarian friend why they don't eat meat, and most often the answer involved (the lack of) humane and fair treatment of animals. And most consumers, even the most avid carnivores, understand that the chicken in their chicken sandwich had a sad, short life.

At the same time, demand for "humanely raised" or "organic" or "sustainably raised" chicken is at an all time high. Consumers are paying 2-3x as much per pound for "Label Rouge" chickens, and even more at the farmer's market--demand and pricing is such that now it is actually financially feasible for the small scale farmer to profitably bring "real" chicken to market.

We have tasted these chickens, and they really are a superior bird. So being good farmers we're taking the food supply into our own hands, and we have 25 chickens on order. Its a small start, there are a lot of details to be worked out, and we still need to arrange some help with the processing....

Meat Party '08!!!

Last Friday was Meat Party '08: Year of the Pig. We had braised pork shoulder. We had ribs from the grill. We had prosciutto wrapped asparagus. And we had good company-thanks for coming guys and girls!

MP '08 was such a big deal that even Amy the Vegetarian ate one of Gretel's "old family recipe" ribs!

Its true that our garden blog has had a strong emphasis on meat lately. (But who doesn't love meat? Even most vegetarians love meat, but don't eat it for moral or ethical reasons-look at the picture!) So while we haven't forgotten about the vegetables, prepare for more exciting updates about meat.... Coming soon in a new post, the long awaited chicken farm!

Fresh Fish

This weekend was Gretel's fly fishing lesson. The weather started out a bit rainy while she learned fly fishing theory, and then cleared up nicely for the outdoor "practical" parts of the class. Look at the pictures... what nice technique! Check out the first catch! Look how happy I am to be eating!

Trout are delicious, and the fresher the better. Less than an hour from the water to the grill can't be beat. It's good to be married to a fishing pro!