Wow what a year. I don't even know where to start. I should be able to blog a bit more often now that I have a good computer. It is December now and the garden is starting to look awesome. We have been picking greens and baby beets for a while now but I am starting to see small heads of broccoli, some carrots and beets and the cabbage I starting o form heads. We should be harvesting these in a month or more.

The garden is having a bit of trouble with a fungus bit it isn't too bad. The weather has been uncommonly warm this winter so the crops have had a bit of trouble with insects too. The chickens have not been helping, they have been escaping and getting into my kale patch and making it look like Swiss cheese. Hopefully the new chicken wire on the fence will remedy that. Little feathered brats!

We have lost four chickens so far in this feathered adventure. The first was when they were very small, we suspected a disease so we separated her and kept her isolated until it was obvious she needed to be put down. That was tough for me but I got it done. The second was very weird, we went to check on everybody in the afternoon one day as it was very hot and we wanted to make sure they all had water and we found one of our morans dead in the coop covered in ants. It was awful and I could not tell what had happened as they had pretty much eaten her. It was ugly, sad and hard to watch Billy bury her without knowing what happened. The third was even harder as I found one of my Buff Orpingtons slumped over in one of their cool spots and picked her up, rushed her to the house and she died in my arms while I was trying to research what to do. We did a mini necropsy and found she had a blockage in her intestine and it had backed up all the way to her beak. Poor girl. That was our first processing job, we plucked and processed her and made chicken stew. Hard but nothing goes to waste here so she fed us all for several meals. It was a delicious stew. The last was one of our new banty hens, we were on a trip to se Bill's folks for the holidays and had some woofers taking care of the place and they said the three banty hens disappeared for the day and only two came back. No sign of the third anywhere so we have no idea what happened.

Other than all of those the rest of the birds are just fine. We have thirteen again and they are all in great shape, gorgeous plumage, healthy birds. We dropped in egg production when it got cooler but we still get from two to four eggs a day from them.

We do have a broody hen with five eggs under her. We are letting her sit on them to see if she can hatch them. She is one of our Rhode Island Reds and she is bound and determined to hatch these eggs of hers. She lets me pet her but she is very clear on what my boundaries are! Good luck to her. Mrs. Williamina B. will soon be a Mom is everything goes as she has planned. It will be fun to se if we have babies in a few weeks.

I have to sign off but I will try and write again very soon!
TL

Oh my great garden goodness, the spinach and lettuce are taking over the world.

I swear I was out there yesterday and it was just starting to look ready to pick. It is now officially taking over the garden. It is HUGE. I picked some spinach and loose-leaf lettuce for a salad this afternoon and prepared it with a bit of purslane, mustard, arugula and strawberries. I made my own dressing with fresh yogurt, strawberries, a bit of apple cider vinegar and my special super secret blend of fresh herbs and "My Oh My" I was in heaven. It was outta this world. "Ya gotta" try some.

Give us a call at (727) 868-5038 to place your order. Leave us a message with what you are interested in and the quantity and we will call you back within 24 hours.

Schedule an appointment for a garden tour and see for yourself the amazing greens and veggies we are growing in our 100% organic garden. We will be glad to discuss with you our operation and procedures just to show you how YOUR food is being grown. We pride ourselves on 100% customer satisfaction and as far as our claim of being 100% organic, we "live in a glass house" and will be glad to answer all your questions. We believe you should know where your food comes from and trust that it is being grown with the utmost care and the highest of organic standards and practices.

We are exempt from certification at this time but are working on expanding so that we may one day be able to afford to certify our operation.

We have several classes coming up so come on out and play in the dirt with us. We would love to share our knowledge and garden with our neighbors!

Check out our facebook page for photos and updates.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dragonfly-Ranch-Organics/485904238089524


TL and Bill

I am so lost in this sea of technology and social networking. I need a teenager!! NOW!!!!!

I could use some advice on how to navigate all this "schtuff". A blog, a website, several e-mails, a google plus account, facebook., linkedin aaaakkkkkkkk. Any advice?

I am building a community that I think will be a great asset but I just hope and pray I can find it again. I just seem to do whats ever on the screen in front of me. I cannot wait to get the hang of this. I promise I will write something of value soon.

Welcome to our new Dragonfly blog

Hello Dragonfly fans. Welcome to our new blog.
This is new for all of us here at Dragonfly Ranch so please be patient as we learn the ropes in this new technological age.

We are preparing to plant the fall garden; we got the irrigation all in for the season and will begin planting on Wednesday. We are excited to get the gardening season underway. We have lots of new produce going in and we will tell you about it in upcoming "bloggy thingys". For now please excuse us while we go and explore the new blogging world and try to build a great website and network for you to link into and keep current with us on our produce, classes, what we are up to and also to watch and participate in the gardening craze. We will also keep you informed on our activities in the "green" community around Hudson Florida and throughout the state and nation. Please get involved if you can and lets change this country and how we live, together! Welcome to our Blog!