More Walking

Walk Around The Field 7-15-2011

June 23, 2011

This is the first of our "daily pics". Rather than have a webcam or have another page on the website, we are going to put a new pic of the field up here every day starting today.
The 2011 bloom should be interesting - its late, and the weather is cool, and the flowers should last longer than usual - so come back often and see what the field looks like. Our most asked question is "When does it bloom"?

The answer for the next few weeks is "NOW!"

This post will be mostly just about pictures - maybe we'll add some words later - but this is a special time visually.The light at the end of the day is something else - try searching "Clairmont Farms Images" in Google - lots of people are posting ....Its great for us to be able to share this!
Here are some of the buds for tomorrows bags drying!
Bunches hanging in the barn.
Sifting and cleanliness are next to Godliness.Tweety is keeping an eye on things.

Now here is a happy harvester!


NOW this guy is cute - Smokey - although we seem to be calling him "buddy" a lot!
Just like the postcard - and that image was taken in 2003 - These plants are really something!!!!!

BLOOM TIME 2010

It's the time of year that we wait for all year. the field is in GREAT shape this year and the plants look as good as they did 6 years ago! We are going to post a picture every day to this blog of some view of the field. MAybe we can even get a webcam out there, but these images will have better resolution. We have several things that are new to look at below :
A few pictures, a few videos and more coming. More on that below - here is a shot from yesterday of part of the field in the middle. We'd guess that there are about 5% or less of the flowers out yet. But the buds are SO BLUE it looks like its blooming already.


VIDEOS

It seems to be the new medium these days so we are going to do a few and expand. We have a page on the website that links to You Tube with a video of the distilling process and the harvesting process up already. Another one of wind blowing in the lavender and another of the chickens coming out in the morning are right behind.

By teh way if you watch the chicken one its interesting to watch the first rooster that comes out - Talkie -
He exits in the morning and waits for LT, the younger one. then he chases him around the hen house just to let him know who is boss. Watch him at the end standing in front of the door - definitely King of the roost.
Here are links
DISTILLING
WIND IN THE LAVENDER
LETTING THE CHICKENS OUT
OLD ONE ABOUT HARVESTING

OJAI LAVENDER FESTIVAL

This is the big road event of the year. 10AM-5PM in the park in Ojai - come see us and all the other farms in the local area.
Check it out HERE

THANKS FOR READING OUR BLOG AND DON'T FORGET TO HIT THIS LOCATION EVERY DAY FOR A NEW PICTURE OF THE FIELD FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS

Spring Time

Spring has definitely Sprung! While its not too hot, we have had a few warm days and the weather is great. Wildflowers are really growing - so this post is mostly going to be about pictures to enjoy.

These are a poppy and Lupin from on top of Grass mountain (up past Michael Jackson's old place).

Here are a couple of hillsides off 154 last Sunday
And here is our familiar statue with a couple of different varieties blooming today - 3/25.
Our main field is a couple of months away, but there is always some color around here!

And here is Buttercup looking at me with a very sharp eye. These chickens not only know their names, but they can be very expressive and a LOT smarter than normally given credit for.. Buttercup never used to let anyone pick her up - and to be honest she still isn't too eager to be picked up. But the other day she walked into the store and let customers pick her up. She is now two years old and is one of the plumpest ones here.
But she doesn't have to worry about that, because none of these chickens are eaten. They are pets. Time for some tofu.
More Wildflowers to come in a few days - we are heading up Grass Mountain again in the morning.

Thanks for reading our blog!

Barnyard Romance

This is the valentine's day story for chicken lovers. This is Brenda who hatched the babies in the previous posts. The rooster with her is one that hatched from one of Tweety's eggs in June.
We had been hoping for a hen, but ....... "LT" or Little Tweety is very personable and likes attention. he rides in the car like Tweety and has made friends at the same feed store that she has. Glenn took him to a local event last week, and he sat on Glenn's arm through Glenn's whole talk. He will let strangers pet him, but he's not too comfortable sitting on their ARMS.

LT seeks Brenda out during the day and she him as well. There are 3 hens from the brood of 8, and they hang with him too during the day. He makes passes at some of the hens but Talkie doesn't put up with much of that. In fact LT had quite a bite on his comb and was bleeding a little. Talkie got him.

Below is a shot taken of LT when he was just a little guy. He is the one up on the hen's back. There were only 3 in that brood, and he was marked a lot differently than the other two. They were a lot more shy, too. The other two looked like identical twins, and we called them "The Rooster Brothers". They went to live with one of the ladies from the local feed store.

Here is a shot of the two nest mates just before they got their new diggs.

They grow very fast, don't they? The baby shot was taken Aug 11, and this one was taken in December only a little more than 4 months later.

We have worked pretty hard to make sure that none of these guys wing up in the stew pot or fighting. Glenn makes a point of handling all of them some every day and it makes a difference. It makes them a lot better as potential adoptees.

Unfortunately there isn't room for more than 2 roosters here, and LT will be the #2 guy. The others all have homes as well, but they are staying here for another week or two.