A Texan Asian in Belgium - The Story of the Hippie Stink Homestead

[hippiestink]

Well, harvested our second chicken (our roo) and the first crop of the season (garlic). I think it's a little early to be harvesting garlic but they were wilting and yellow so I made the decision to harvest.We got three good-sized single bulbs for next year and replanted two others, as well as five multiple-clove bulbs that were puny but edible. It's about what I expected, I only planted five stage 1 bulbils and five stage 2 bulbils, as an experiment. Now that I know what to expect I'll be planting a MUCH larger crop next year and I'll have much more for actual eating.

As it stands, three of the five large bulbs are suitable for eating (the other two being the larger ones for seed). I've got them all drying in the utility room so hopefully the fruits of my labors will be worth it! Now I've got some household things to take care of and weeding to do, then I'll be planting this year's radish crop.

 

[hippiestink]

Well horrid weather barred me from wedding the whole field, which means no radishes just yet. Last year I planted radishes in September and ended up with a harvestable crop in about two or three weeks, so I'm not scared. I've got my eye on some seed for next year, when I can afford to be a bit more ambitious. As is, we haven't grown nearly what we planned.

In terms of the chooks, we still haven't replaced the roo. Couldn't make the usual market because of the Tour de France blocking off the main roads and shutting us in Monday. On the plus side, my hens are growing their feathers back out and seem pretty happy, so I may forgo the rooster since I'm not breeding or setting eggs. I keep my hens purely for eggs, not to make babies! As exciting as that would be.

I really need to catch up on my posting for my various blogs and pages that I have. I'm running late on a few and I need to get it all straightened out and on schedule again. It may require an all-nighter though, so maybe when I screw up my sleep schedule completely I'll finally get that done. Ah well. Household and farm come first!

 

[hippiestink]

Rained most of today too, but the skies should be clear tomorrow and Saturday. Tomatoes are starting to fruit! I need to thin them out, I totally ignored them for a while and now they don't have enough light.

Cooked our roo today. He smells delicious!

 

[hippiestink]

Pruned four of the six large tomato plants, they're getting MUCH more light and air now.

Slept for four hours so I'll probably be up most of the night.

Made a batch of sunscreen today, quinoa and tofu stuffed bell peppers were on the menu for dinner, and got lovely fruits coming in on the plants!



Black Sea Man tomatoes



Indigo Rose tomatoes

Very excited, there's plenty of blooms and therefore I expect a really good harvest.

 

[Chivoville]

Hi from SA

. Enjoyed reading your thread....I am very impressed that a young lady from Helotes know so much about gardening...especially since the climate there sounds like it is very different from here.

 

[hippiestink]

Hi from SA

. Enjoyed reading your thread....I am very impressed that a young lady from Helotes know so much about gardening...especially since the climate there sounds like it is very different from here.

Well Helotes is right next door to San Antonio, but I'm living in Belgium right now where it's wet and cold most of the time. My maternal grandparents are South Vietnamese and my paternal grandparents live out in Cibolo TX so I grew up between two farms. My homestead here in Belgium is for subsistence, so my gardening knowledge gleaned from years of watching my grandparents gets put to the test every day.

I'm glad you're enjoying things, it's a lot of work day in and day out.

 

[hippiestink]

We finally replaced the rooster! Picked up a cockerel that I'm 95% sure is a Barnyard mix of some kind. We've named him Freddy.





Husband discovered the coolness of chicken genetics as well. I'm mostly just now waiting for the strawberries and the tomatoes to ripen and be ready for harvest, and we're getting a lot of rain so there's no shortage of water for them at this delicate stage.

 

[hippiestink]

Doing an experiment with the tomatoes regarding pruning and fruit quality. My crazy homesteading ways just won't quit! I still need to weed, but the weather has been TERRIBLE and we haven't been able to spray or pull. Radishes haven't been planted either.

HOWEVER, I did manage to order seed for the next year and plan out the garden for next year. I'm trying to start planning the gardens out about a year in advance to prevent the troubles I've gotten into this year. A lot of the rooftop crops will be put downstairs and the flowers will be upstairs instead. Got ambition and goals!

 

[hippiestink]

Freddy is still in Baby Jail until he can learn to play well with others. We chase him down to pick him up and pet him so he can get used to human contact, so eventually we hope to get him tame instead of jerky like Curry was.

We're also thinking about getting him some more girlfriends. We only have five hens and I think bumping the number up to seven will be a better ratio and prevent some of the aggressive mating behavior we had with the last one. Most recommend ten or twelve hens to every roo so if that's the case we're really needing to expand.

I have The Great Tomato Experiment going on in the Gardening forum, which I'm pretty excited about. So far everything is going well, with mixed results. Depending on the harvest this year I may have to change my hypothesis.

We also have strawberries coming in which I am REALLY hyped about. I have a torrid love affair going on with strawberries. I'll eat a whole kilo of strawberries by myself and want more. I feel for strawberries what some people feel for bacon.

Anyway, it's cloudy and damp-feeling out, with a 95% chance of rain according to the weather report. We may not be able to weed today after all, but we still need to clean the store despite the vacation month. I skipped last week because of family issues and my immigration paperwork. so this week we REALLY need to clean. I'm going to try convincing the husband to do it once every two weeks though, since it's empty during the vacation and no one will be around. He's sleeping though so that will have to wait until he wakes up.

I've been up all night cleaning the house and taking care of some household chores like bread-baking. Having the house clean will mean actually being able to do things (like make scones!) and not worry about the cluttered countertop. Things are much cleaner now, and I'm able to actually bake and cook now instead of having no space to do so. Now if only I could get the husband to keep the desk area clean....

 

[hippiestink]

More chicken! Finally got a video done showing how everything is set up!