Here it is September already. Time to think about the Fall garden.

Things have changed a bit lately. For one thing you have to be careful about
the source of your seedlings and your seeds.

I pretty much start all my garden plants from seed.
And sometimes, I admit, I just grab a package from the grocery store.

But then I started to hear more and more about the dangers of GM seeds. The more I learned the scarier it all sounded. I began to wonder if I should actually use seeds that I hadn't ordered from an heirloom seed
company.

I did a little reading and was relieved to learn that
even if the package does not label the seeds as NON GM they may still be OK.

Burpee is one brand you may see in the stores, and I did a little research and found they do not sell GMO seeds.

Which is really nice to know if you just need to pick a package up. No, they are not heirloom, but really I am not adamant against hybrids.

I have had people ask what the difference is between
heirloom and hybrid.

Heirloom seeds are gathered from plants that have been proven to be good performers for generations. They are probably some of the same selections our grandparents used. The seeds can be harvested and they will be like any off spring, similar to the parent plant.


Hybrid seeds have been bred to be resistant to certain diseases or to be well suited for a certain location.
People have chosen plants with good qualities and bred them together to get very well suited plants. There is nothing artificial about it, it is a little like dog breeding. It is selective plant breeding. The only thing is, the seeds produced from hybrid plants will not be true, they will be different from the parent plant, perhaps even sterile.

Genetically modified seeds on the other hand are in no way natural.

These plants have been tampered with on a cellular level. Often the plants have been injected with genes from an unrelated species. The flowers from these plants produce modified pollen that have the potential to breed with non GMO crops and effectively contaminate our whole food supply.
Also, the use of antibiotics as gene markers could render certain bacterias into super bugs.


I hope this information will help you to make your garden a really healthy place. Try to learn about the source of the seeds and seedlings you plant in your garden this year.

 This summer I went to  Fiesta TX twice!

If you had told me years ago that one day I would be going to theme parks, I would have laughed in your face.
Never!!!

Ethically I don't agree with them. They are, in a word, wasteful. A waste of time, electricity, and money.

Well, there is nothing like a child  begging to go  ride extremely dangerous rides to make this parent say Yes!

After I have said "Yes" I immediatly start to look for an excuse to not go... but of course I have to. It is
a sort of pattern with me to say the easiest thing at the time and then to work on getting out of it.
Not so easy with Juliette. Of course we went.

 The first time we went this summer, one of the employees congratulated us for coming on the hottest day of the year! Gee thanks! good for me. 

One friend told me she gives her kids the money for the admission price and they just stay home. If those kids were smart and actually realized that the admission price is hardly the only expense, they could extort much more money from their Mom.

For instance, the parking will cost you 17.00 for the day. If you decide to treat your child to say a cold drink it will start at 3.00 from the machine. These are the same machines that cost 1.00 on the outside world. Theme parks operate in the world of hyper inflation. Why a beer will run you close to 8.00!(which actually begins to sound like a bargain).
Although I must say they will fill your water bottle with ice water if you ask, (I have wondered what sort of horrible scene led up to that decision).

Speaking of horrible scenes, at this theme park there
are cartoon characters walking around waving and taking photos with people. Now of course these are people inside very hot costumes, people who must need
the job very bad, because it has to be at least 10 degrees hotter inside those costumes.... seeing those
poor people just makes me worry.. I mean they are some ones kid in there. Oh well I have noticed they are usually attended by someone to lead them to safety and cool water (what a relief).

Any way, I did it!! The girls had such a good time.
All they saw was the fun!! It's nice, I am glad we went, and now that it is over I can almost think about doing it again... almost.

Scout

  Every time we have a bull calf born here at Novellas Farm, I fret about what to do. Keep him intact and try to   sell him or have him steered and eventually processed.

Last week I had to make a decision concerning  Scout. I had him listed to sell as a polled Mini Jersey bull, I even had a home secured for him in Colorado.
 
  Then one morning we saw horn buds! Instantly his chances of being sold intact fell.... the buyer withdrew their offer.

 Scout had been acting like a little cuss, and
 I knew what was coming (lots of very aggressive behavior). So I made the appointment and had him steered and dehorned.
  

 I thought he would be polled (hornless). Which is a good thing for a bull to be, since most people wanting a bull would prefer to not be gouged. Obviously if the bull is horned he may sire horned offspring, which most people do not want.

 I thought Novella was homozygous for polled but
evidently she is not. She carries the gene for horns, and when she is bred there is a 50% chance of her passing on the horned gene. If the bull also carries the horned gene and they both happen to pass the horned gene on, the offspring will have horns

So... it is very hard to sell a bull with horns because you know for certain that 100% of the time he
will be contributing the gene for horns, and although it is recessive, if your cow carries the same
recessive gene you can get a horned animal. Which is OK if it is a heifer but not OK if it is a bull.
And for the record you can not have a bull around if you want to be able walk freely around your property and not be hurt or killed.

In fact Jersey bulls are very dangerous, and Scout was getting to be a bit  rambunctious lately.
When you have to break a large dowel on an animals head to get him to budge something must be done.

Still, the whole thing is strangely reminiscent of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. He is not the same little wild man, running around bucking and knocking things over, making me run into the barn. He is actually very calm. I expect he will get fat.

For a bull, getting castrated (there I said it) is the equivalent of a lobotomy. I can't say I feel happy about it.

 Novella was happy to have him home,(she had been mooing for him for a while) she trotted (yes, she trots) up the hill and gave him a full body lick down. He just stood there in a stupor.

That is the one bright spot, Scout

gets to stay with his family and not move away.

August Events at Novellas Farm

Scout and Coco

Novellas Farm is a small Farm in Dripping Springs

We have dairy cows, bees, chickens, turkeys, giant rabbits, worms,
and lots of gardening and other projects going on.
We offer the opportunity for people in the city to come
out for the day and experience hands on what it is like to be on a farm!

  In August we are offering the following dates and events.

Saturday Farm Days: August 4 and 18 from 9 to 1
The Saturday Farm Days are nice for working parents or families
that would like to bring Dad along for the fun.
We will milk the cows and make ice cream.
Learn about the bees, look at the hive and open the hive to see
what the bees are doing.
Talk about chickens, learn about their digestive system and their role
here on the farm. We will learn the parts of the egg ( more to it than you
think)
Finally we will learn about the earth worms and their importance to us
all.
Each child can take home a worm farm if they like.

Adults are free! Kids are 30 for one, 45 for 2 and a family price of 55 for
3 or more, (3 and under are free)


Farm Day: August 2, 7,27
Pretty much just like the Saturday one!


End of Summer Days: August 10, 21
9 to 10:30
Very short days where we will have a fast run through, I will demonstrate
milking , look at the bees, and briefly talk about the worms and poultry.
These days are for the folks who are about to melt. We are done before
it gets too hot.
Adults are free, kids are 10 per. under 3 free.
Please contact me to save a space or if you have any questions.
Amy

Datura

Datura opening up in the evening

      When I first moved to Dripping Springs from Austin, a neighbor welcomed me and invited me to her house to see her place. It was very pretty, but she had fences around all her plants. Even the "deer resistant" plants I had seen at the garden center.

Can you see the bees?

I asked her why she had the plants fenced in, "it would be so much prettier open", I said.

She gave me a "you stupid city slicker" smile and said  "they just say they are deer resistant, the deer eat everything" 

Oh you poor ignorant bumpkin, I thought... I'll show you how it's done.You just have to put out soap, or blood meal or urine or something........ 

Guess what? I found out she was right! I would plant something and sure enough the next day it would be fine, but second or third night it would have just disappeared.

Those beautiful, angelic looking creatures were monsters who would eat anything that didn't  kill them.

There! you can see them now.

Then one day I saw these Datura growing wild along the side of the road, hmm.

I took some seed pods home and scattered them around.

Guess what! The deer don't eat them! No!

 True they are very, very poisonous, so don't feed them to your kids... but they are so pretty

and the fragrance, is wonderful.  They open in the evening and bloom through the night. And the bees love them, so do the giant moths.

One of the best things about this plant is that it is very, drought resistant and it reseeds every year. 

It is also known as Jameson Weed. Either the colonist in James Town enjoyed the high from smoking the leaves or it killed them.

Any way, it just goes to show what I will put up with for a few flowers in my life. 

                                                                     

Novellas Farm School for Girls

helping in the garden

So today I was talking with a friend about next year.

My daughter's next year to be precise. She has always been
schooled at home, but I feel like she needs more.

More friends, academics, routine.... you understand. She is becoming a young woman and she needs to be around other girls her own age.

I did what most of us would do, I began looking at alternative
options, because public school is my very last option for middle
school.

The first place I looked  is a small ,private Christian School here in my town, and while it looks sweet, for some reason. I have reservations about sending her to a place that may instill guilt, I am not really looking for  strangers to determine who she is... just a school..... and friends.

A while back we put on a play with some kids around here, and she was asked point blank- " are you a Christian?". She asked me in the car what that mattered? ( She knows about other religions and we think of
it as a sort of food choice. No one wrong or right). So while I think it seems like a very wonderful place it
is probably not a place she would be fully comfortable with,.... so.

 I looked at a private school in Austin, just for girls.
It looked great, until I saw the tuition Yikes.... 1500.00 just to register! 10,000 a year!
I am sure it is wonderful but unless I want to live in my car it is not going to happen.

Novella and friend

 So.... I started thinking.. why not start a girls school
here! Just one or two days a week?
I mean heck! I already was instrumental in starting
two other schools in town, and I really, really need this for my daughter. Is there any greater motivation?

I look at these photos and I remember how much these older girls enjoyed the farm. Really they are just the right age. They can actually do things on their own. They can actually grasp the science of what is happening here.

So how does this sound? 'Novellas School for Girls' a place to learn gardening, farming, cheesemaking
art and academics too ( and it won't break the bank)

I am going to add it to the Calendar and if any one is interested or if you know of any one interested
please, please ask them to contact me.

A Girls Farm School.