Onions - A Garden Post

So it's that time of year again, time to get out and start planting the garden. Every fall I get so excited about planting my garden in the spring. I love growing things. I grew up always helping my mother in the garden and and though there were times I'm sure I complained about picking beans or digging potatoes....

Actually I doubt I ever complained about digging potatoes cause I still love doing that...its like a treasure hunt. ;)

Anyway I'm sure I didn't love it all the time, but I really do enjoy being out in my garden!

I was asked earlier this winter about doing some post's on my blog about gardening. So I am going to try and do some to help anyone out there who is thinking about starting their own garden.

Two years ago, I did a post about planting potatoes. If you missed it here is a link to it as well as the post I did about Harvesting Potatoes.

Well today I am gonna talk about something else that I always plant that are super easy to grow....      

Onions.

Now there are two ways of buying and planting onions.

1. You can buy bundles of small onion plants like these in the picture. These usually come in bundles of 25....which means 30-60 plants ;) This is the way I usually get my onions and then I end up planting all the plants even though I will never use all of them. Just more to give to my friends.

2. You can buy what are call "onion sets". They usually come in a bag and are just little bulbs with no green tops. I have done these one time and they worked fine, but I like doing the others because after they are in the ground it already looks like something is growing.

Ok lets talk planting.  

First you need a nicely tilled / worked up soil. 

Once that is ready I like to steak a line from one end of the garden to the other.

This Helps to plant everything in a strait line.

Fact: Eventhough I put this line in, I still usually manage to plant crooked and Caleb makes fun of me for it.  

Now what I like to do to make planting go fast is lay all the onions out first. I plant them in two rows that are about 2 inches apart and I stagger the rows.

So in one row I will plant 2 onions that are 2 inches apart and in the other row I will plant an onion that is at about the 1inch mark between. I should have taken a picture of this, but I didn't think about that till now. Also I don't measure every single onion, I just eyeball it. So some might be 3 inches apart and some might be 1 1/2 inches apart. 

Once I have them all laid out I will got to where each one is and stick my finger in the ground and dig a little hole with my finger. 

 

Then I will stick the plant down in the hole...

and pinch up the soil around it.

 And there you have it, you planted an onion. Pretty easy, right ?!?!

Now move on to the rest of the onions and plant as many as you want. 

As far as what to do now, well you just let them grow.  

If you want green onions you can plant them close together and you can cut the tops off the onions and use them, cause they will grow back.  

If you get the onion sets instead of the plants I would probably dig a little trench like I do for potatoes and then just lay them in the bottom and then cover them once I get them all laid out.

I usually wait till the tops completely die till I harvest them all, but if I need an onion while they are growing I will go and grab one.

So there ya have it. That's how you plant onions, they are really easy and kinda fun to grow. I hope some of you give them a try.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

JP      
 

Hank's Night Life

 So I have told you many stories about me dogs, and most of them have revolved arround my little Jack Russell, Jasper, and his killing sprees he goes on. I really don't give much credit to the other dogs, that was until last night.

I have always thought of hank here as lazy, lover boy of a dog...

Who likes to give lots of kisses...even if they are not wanted! 

 On a side note this was when Chester was 10 months old and  my goodness my little man has grown!!

Back to Hank. He is seriously the sweetest dog. He loves everyone. I never worry about him biting anyone. Jasper on the other hand I tell everyone to stay away from him, he is my dog and nobody else. I tell people as long as you don't bother him he won't bit you. Hank on the other hand, I just worry about him licking someone to death.

I have never thought of Hank as much of a killer. besides maybe a fish when he can get his mouth on one. But otherwise he always seems like a scaredy cat. He seem to run from everything. But last night around 11 p.m. that all changed.  Caleb and I were laying in bed...reading and he was trying to go to sleep, but the dogs were barking up a storm and wouldn't shut up. Then all of a sudden the had cornered whatever they were after in the front of the house. The was the ruckus sounded I thought it was something big and mean...so I am think a raccoon. So I pull on a hoodie and check it out. I turn the light on and open the door and this is what I see...

Yeah that's a coyote that my dogs are fighting there in the corner. Needless to say my heart starts racing and I yell to Caleb telling him they have a coyote out here. He grabs his shotgun and comes racing up to the front of the house. 

I really don't know why we thought a gun was a good idea...

First - there wasn't a chance in the world of me getting all three of my dogs called the beast so we were never gonna have a clean shot at the beast. 

Second - Even if I some how got them all called off , shooting a big hole in the side of the house wasn't a good idea. :/

So after watching this mess occur for awhile, the beast finally escapes from the corner and they all run to the back side of the house.  I grab the spotlight and Caleb still has his gun and I proceed to spotlight the beast for the dogs while they keep attacking the wretched animal. Then Hank finally gets ahold of the neck and does the kill shake. He gets two of them in and that's all she wrote for the coyote....thank goodness!! I wouldn't have been able to sleep a wink if that beast wasn't dead.

After it was over Hank was pretty wore out and he was really starting to scare me. I found our big rubber tub and filled it with water and hank just jumped in and layed there for a while trying to cool down.  Jasper however was still attacking the dead coyte. I worried about ol' Hank for a while, but before I could get to sleep I heard him and the other dogs barking at the night again.      

This morning I went out to get a picture of the beast and...

Got a reenactment of what took place last night, from Hank and Jasper. 

They thought they were pretty big stuff....

and today I would have to agree. 

Now I know I didn't really mention Kit, my broader collie, she was part of the action too. She keeps the beast corralled and wont let it get away, while staying away form the mouth so she doesn't get bit. She's my smart dog! 

After seeing Hank last night it kinda makes me rethink some of those critter kills that I have been giving Jasper credit for, as well as the time I told you about them getting into a muddy fight with what I had thought was a big ol' raccoon when it very well could have been a coyote.

I never thought my dogs would take down a coyote, but they did, and now I hope they NEVER do it again, but I doubt that will happen.  

Oh something I forgot to say earlier, the corner where I took the picture of the coyote last night.....well it looks like a massacre  happened. My job for this afternoon is to clean it up so people don't start wondering about is....lol

JP  

Right Now

Right now, I am sitting in my house with all the windows opened and the attic fan on....

Not because it is such a beautiful and warm day (but it is really nice outside), but because of this little guy...

My beloved Jasper....well he's not so beloved right now, actually he is on my bad list.  

Why?

Well, last night about the time we were laying down to go to be he decided he needs to start barking...at coyotes and the moon. Annoying, but really not that big of a deal. But then we wake up some where around 1-2 A.M. to a smell...No it wasn't Caleb passing gas, sadly I would have preferred that to this smell it was...

SKUNK!

YUCK!!! Apparently Jasper, who was assisted by Hank and Kit, Scared the "stink" out of a skunk and it sprayed right on our heater/AC that is sitting out behind the house. 

We have had this happen twice before...yeah I said twice, it's very sad....but both those times it was in warmer weather, and we could open the windows without a problem. But it is still winter here, and it's cold and it was way too cold to open any windows last night, so we had to try and sleep through the night with that nasty smell lingering in the air all night. I woke up sleepy, with a headache and my eyes burning from the smell. 

I had a meeting this morning, so I opened all the windows before I left, and then I spent the afternoon hanging out at a friend's house to keep away from the smell. But now that I am home I have all the windows opened and candles burning, trying to get this nasty smell out of my house, so we can get some sleep tonight.  

But most likely when I am done with writing this I am gonna go put some gloves on and a pair of long underwear on, cause it's cold in here!!

On a positive note, the Skunk was dead!

JP             

Feedin' Cattle in the Snow

So like I said the other day we finally got some snow that stuck around for longer than 10 minutes...but not quit 24 hours.

Since there was snow Chester and I thought we would go with Caleb and help with a little feeding.

While Chester and I are getting ready, Caleb decides to go and feed the neighbors cattle (because he is gone. We don't make it a habit to go randomly feeding other peoples cattle). He wasn't gone but just a moment when I see the chore truck come flying back by in the wrong direction.  So I give him a call to see whats up and....
 

 

These rotten beast had broken into the hay pen...again...we found them in there on Sunday afternoon too.  

If you would ask them, they would probably say they are starving, but if you look at them you will see they are as fat as ticks. When they busted in on Sunday they got a taste of the "good" hay. The good hay is hay we baled last spring and we had been feeding them hay from the previous year.

So once we get them out of the hay pen, we grab a bale and head out to feed the poor rotten babies.

Most of them followed the truck...

But some looked back longing for that "good" yummy hay.

While this little one looked back wondering what those crazy things were running around with me were.

 I wonder about them too.

The bale un-rolls nicely and the Dodge looks pretty and everyone is happy...

But just for good measure we give them a cornstalk bale too.

The cattle flock to it start eating so all is good...

Chester counts the cows as we go by and we are done till the next day when we will be back to feed them more.

If only that was all...

Caleb had to chase those rotten critters out of that hay pen two more time that day. He had even "beefed" up the fence and they still busted it down. Needless to say he wasn't a very happy farmer. After the last time he chased them out he gave them what was left of a good bale that they had destroyed....and they were happy.

Now lets just hope they stay out from here on.

JP

Happy Valentine's Day - Farmer Top 10

First I will say I got this from Caleb's Farm Talk Paper...It's their Top10, by Mark Parker.

Top 10 ways a Farmer - Not you of course - expresses himself on Valentine's Day:

10. He tell her to sit tight - he'll get the gates today.
      ~What a thoughtful guy!

9. He asks his seed dealer for a hoodie in her size.
      ~Can I get a hat too!

8. He moves the equipment off the lawn and promises not to apply chicken litter while her mother is visiting.
    ~About that equipment, I'm still waiting!

7. No chocolates at the farm store, but there was a sale on jumper cables.
    ~No chocolate, what kind of store is this ;)

6. He points out that he told her he loved her when they got married and that, if anything had changed, he would have let her know.
     ~Well at least he would let me know if it changed

5. He suggests that, seeing how it's Valentines Day, after she picks up parts she ought to stop at Sonic so she won't have to cook tonight.
     ~Nothing says romance like a candle lite dinner...Sonic bags and a Cherry Limeaid in wine glasses....classy! 

4. He promises that, this year when the go to the county fair, they are going to borrow a nicer camper.
    ~No pop-up camper....we'll be stylin' this year.

3. He hands her the TV remote control but cautions her it's only for tonight.
    ~That must be Love

2. He knows how fiscally conservative his wife is so, respecting her wishes, he gets her nothing.
    ~Thanks for nothing???

1. He remembers she said she loved stuffed animals and can't wait for her to see what he picked up at the taxidermist's shop.
    ~I just love cuddling with a 12 point buck it's so soft.

This seriously sums up how all most farmers think...Mine included, but luckily for my Farmer, I have never been a big fan of Valentine's Day, however I do love getting flowers, so if I don't get anything, it's not that big of a deal.

This might be the only flower I get today....but that's ok.


HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

JP