Winter Layers For My Garden

Compost right over the soil.

I discovered a natural way to nourish our garden soil and keeps the weeds down. In this post, I will share how I did it.

 Our soil is hard clay and for 5 years we have mixed in llama manure and rototilled it in. I came across this method of putting layers of materials over the top of the soil like you would a compost pile. This process will invite beneficial microbes, bacteria and earthworms. It will also keep most of the weeds from growing. 

Autumn is now in full force. The nights are in the 20's. The orb weaver cat spiders, which came to visit us this year, transitioned in the cold leaving their beautiful webs behind. The grasses in the pasture have begun to brown, and the leaves that fell from Grandmother Apple Tree were mulched and placed in a pile by the corn field to use later in the garden. 

The garden was dismantled, cleared, and ready for a nourishing mask of green manure, kitchen scraps, hay, and fallen leaves. Husband went out and collected cardboard boxes for the project. You can also use newspaper ( no colored ink or shiny surfaces) discarded toilet paper rolls, shredded junk mail ( no colored inks or shiny surfaces) We had everything else we needed like kitchen scraps, tea bags, hay, llama manure, dead leaves, and hay or straw.

Here is how we laid the layers in the garden.

      1. Removed any tape from the boxes and cut them to lie flat. 

       2. Water the soil first then lay down the cardboard. I let them overlap about 6" so the weeds cannot come through.

      3. Water over the cardboard.

      4. Put down green manure on the cardboard. We used fresh llama manure and kitchen scraps. 

       5. Water over the manure.

      6. Scatter dead leaves and hay or straw over the manure. 

      7.Water over the leaves

You can repeat these layers if you want to. Water each layer.  

The snows will come and in the spring the ice will melt into this nourishing mask and it will be ready for planting and seeding. 
The cardboard will be easy to penetrate for planting or roots to grow through. If the cardboard is still firm, then I cut a hole or x’s in the cardboard to plant.

I thoroughly enjoyed this project. I felt close to Mother Nature. I am also doing the layer technique in our garden boxes. I will lay down what is left from the plants in the boxes and begin to layer over that. 

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Until next time, 

Garden as though you will live forever.

                                                         ~ William Kent

DeborahMoonMoen
Little Utah Farm

Duck Teeth

Do ducks have teeth? Lolli at Little Utah Farm

Do ducks have teeth? I set out to find the answer. I Googled duck teeth. In this post I will tell you my findings and show you a good illustration of the duck bill. 

I went out back with my camera to get a good photo for this post.

trying different places and techniques to capture an image of these "duck teeth".

Winona is the most energetic of the flock.
Little Utah Farm.

I bent down on one knee on the lawn. This made the ducks very curious so that they hung around wondering what I was doing. Winona, our hen ( we call her Red for short) kept looking into my camera lens.

Ducky hears something. Little Utah Farm

At one point the ducks heard a peculiar noise out by the barn.  Ducky stepped forward and stretched way up high to see what she could see. I was surprised to see how tall she was. Daisey, Ducky, and Lolli usually swing their necks low to the ground to gain momentum as they waddle from one place to the other.

I realized my camera was too high to get under their bills for a good look. I bent down lower and tilted my camera up.  

Just then a plane went overhead. The ducks tilted their heads with one eye looking up to the sky. Voila! Click* I got the perfect photograph of the "duck teeth". 

They are not exactly teeth but serrated fringe on the edge of the beak. This makes it easy to sieve the water on out and keep the tasty stuff inside. The only things that compares, they say, is how a Blue Whale feeds in the ocean. It is quite an advanced filtering system. 

Check out these chompers. 

 Look at those serrated sieving edges on these Buff Orpington females on Little Utah Farm.

This morning it was 22 degrees. I put warm water over their feed and had a big bucket of fresh water nearby. They love water.  The sieving process is very splashy and noisy. Listen to these 3 girls sieve. Watch the video below and turn up the volume. It is 52 seconds.

Deborah Moon Moen of Litte Utah Farm

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Until next time, please check out our Facebook Page and our store on Zazzle. 

And remember..

Shower the people you love with love, show them the way that you feel. Things are gonna be just fine if you only will.
~James Taylor. 

The Spaghetti Squash Gift and Recipe

The spaghetti squash gift. 

I love spaghetti squash. Below this recipe is my true story of how I got this homegrown squash. 

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Lightly oil a baking sheet
3. Cut squash in half from stem to blossom end (lengthwise) and soup out seeds and pulp
4.  Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper 
5. Place cut side down on the prepared baking dish
6. Bake for 35-50 minutes ovens temps vary. I do 50 minutes because I am high in altitude. Honey is good drizzled over the top if desired. 

MY SPAGHETTI SQUASH STORY

Spaghetti squash grows really well in our clay soil. Each plant grew  6-7 nice yellow/lime green spaghetti squashes. Last year the squash bug got my crop of pumpkins so I opted not to grow any kind of squash this year. While shopping at a local nursery in late spring, I was attracted to a beautiful banana squash plant  in a small pot. I bought it and planted it out back away from the garden hoping the squash bug would not see it. The squash bugs came anyway and I had to pick them off one by one and also scrape off the eggs deposited on the backs of the leaves and stems. To my surprise after 3 weeks of picking off the bugs, they stopped visiting. With the daily care I gave them and the nourishing monsoon rains, the plant flourished and began to form deep yellow buds. 

A week later I noticed a squash forming!  I had visions of baking the squash in warm oven on a chilly fall day. 

A few days later I happened to notice the baby squash was 

eaten by a lucky critter, probably a squirrel or a skunk. But I still had faith it would grow nicely in spite of the eaten squashes. 

Early October, before any more fruits developed, Jack Frost came and waved his frozen wand over all the plants here in Utah. The Squash plants withered and sunk into the earth. It would seem that all my inspired action had turned into failure. But,  I had crops frozen before so I took it in stride.

 I let it go. I still loved the idea of eating squash and still had the vision of baking it in the warm oven on a chilly fall day.

A few days after the frost my husband went to get hay for our llamas and brought me a spaghetti squash! Well, what do you know ! I was so delighted. I got my spaghetti squash in spite of my troubles. The man who sells us hay had shared his crop with us. 

A week later, we went to buy 4 more bales of hay for winter. The man said, " Go to the back of my truck and get yourself a few squashes" I went back to his truck bed and it was filled with beautifully formed spaghetti squashes. I chose two. So now I have 3 homegrown delicious spaghetti squashes! I was so grateful and delighted that in spite of my dilemma with the squash bugs, the hungry critters, and Jack Frost, I had gotten the squashes I desired. They seemed to come on the Great Conveyer Belt of Life !  

Woo hoo ! Thank you, universe !

As I sit in my kitchen writing this post, I am preheating my oven on a chilly fall day for delicious oven baked spaghetti squash. I have chills writing this because I can feel the magic in this process.

Never give up on your dream or desires. The gifts are revealed to you in ways our human minds cannot yet imagine. 

Try this recipe. You can scrape the flesh with a fork and it separates like spaghetti. Top it with spaghetti sauce and meatballs or your favorite  veggies or eat it with coconut oil or butter. 

Now I am going out to check on my bundled corn stalks and my scarecrow construction.

Deborah Moen
of Little Utah Farm

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Until net time, Enjoy your time on earth and remember,

"There's a farm girl in all of us" ~ Mary Jane Butters

The Pasture Gate

Here is the pasture gate that opens to an acre long pasture road on Little Utah Farm. ~ Deborah Moon Moen

When we first stepped foot onto what was to be Little Utah Farm, I noticed it had a long gate across what I imagined to be a pasture road. I was smitten with the romantic notion of a pasture road with a long gate that swung across so you could tie it to the garden fence to bring in the big bales of hay. Just the thought of actually driving along a road into the back of the property was wonderful to me.  When we moved in, the road was hard clay. When it rained, the clay got really soft and muddy. We sunk up to our ankles and hub caps. One of my first chores was pulling out a good 1,000 tumble weeds that grew all the way from the front to the back. 

Our corn field and tractor sign along our pasture road. ~ Deborah Moon Moen

Now as I walk down the pasture road I enjoy the golden light of morning shining on the corn field and this tractor sign. Paul and I first saw such a sign along a very rural Route 1002 on our way to Milford, UT. It was so simple yet the silhouetted picture on the sign told you everything you needed to know. Paul's tractor drives down this pasture road often. 


Improvements have been made. The road is now covered in gravel. Tall cottonwood trees line the road and in summer the garden is full of sunflowers and corn. There are hens in the coop, ducks in the pond, fresh eggs to gather, and llamas in the corral. I love how Little Utah Farm has grown into our dream farm. 

~ Deborah Moon Moen of Little Utah Farm

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Until next time: From Fresh Eggs Daily

Tractor~ Greeting Card
by LittleUtahFarm

   This book is about:
Raising your own backyard chickens for eggs and companionship.

Simple DIY Safe Water For Bees

A simple drinking station for our bees. 

We are learning how to be good stewards to the earth.

We can provide bees with a safe place to drink. They risk their lives for a sip of life giving water. Many bees drown in water bowls, pools, rivers and streams.

Take a shallow bowl and fill it with rocks or marbles. Pour in enough water so the tops of the rocks are exposed and dry. Bees can easily get a good footing on the rocks as they take a drink. Little pools will form inbetween the rocks or marbles and that makes for happy safe watering holes for our beloved bees.

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Until next time,

Believe in your dreams.

One day Venus and Jupiter just
began jumping into my arms.


Deborah Moon Moen of Little Utah Farm





  

More than 100 classroom activities to help children learn about and care for the earth
Educate young children about the environment through experience and play. These activities encourage children to develop a sense of wonder, curiosity, and joy for nature.

Easy Peel Eggs

Easy Peel Steamed Fresh Eggs

Did you know freshly laid farm eggs can be almost impossible to peel if you hard boil them?

Here is the solution.

Steam them instead.

note: ( your time may vary so test an egg by plunging it in cold water peel and open to see the yolk is done)

1. Place one layer of eggs in an empty 4 quart saucepan till they are cozy. I was able to put in a dozen eggs.
2. Fill the pan of eggs with 1" of water
3. Bring to a soft boil then cover with a lid. Steam chicken eggs for 15 minutes and duck eggs for 17 minutes.
4. Plunge into a bowl of cold water and ice cubes then peel.

I have found peeling immediately after steaming and plunging in ice water gives me the easiest peel.

Here is a delicious recipe for Avocado Deviled Eggs. Yum *

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Deborah Moon Moen
 of Little Utah Farm

Until next time,

"Believe in your dreams. No matter where you live, cultivate your farm dream. Plant a seed, nurture your pets or enjoy nature in some way. Cook a fantastic stew or make your own bread. Be the dream you want to create. Do what you love. Not only will these things make you happy but you will notice other things like it coming into your life."
~Deborah Moon Moen of Little Utah Farm

This book focuses on what you can do right now in your own city to become more self-sufficient and sustainable. That makes it unique. Lots of ideas. 
Written by city dwellers for city dwellers, this copiously illustrated, two-color instruction book proposes a paradigm shift that will improve our lives, our community, and our planet. By growing our own food and harnessing natural energy, we are planting seeds for the future of our cities.