Fireworks on the 4th!

We heard the chickens upset about something in the yard, they were making a racket that usually alerts me to some kind of visiting animal. Went outside and saw something pretty cool among the lemon trees of our neighbor's orchard. A peacock! I assume he must have escaped, in fact I saw someone walking around the orchard earlier in the morning- probably looking for him.
Anyway, this display called for pictures. Very beautiful animal. We lured him in by tossing a few blackberries over the fence.

Happy 4th of July everybody!

Pickled Peaches

I haven't tried these yet, but have wanted to ever since I first read about them. 

There is no recipe exactly, it's just a technique sort of, but it goes like this.

About a pint and a half of cider vinegar, another pint of water on the stovetop- add 4 cups of sugar to this and get it boiling. 

While you're doing that, get another pot of plain water boiling to blanch the peaches in, and an ice bath with a generous amount of lemon juice to soak them in after. 

Drop the peaches into the boiling water when it's ready, let them sit till they are good and hot- about 45 seconds or so- then set them into the ice bath. The skins should slip right off. 

Press two whole cloves into the skinned peaches, but break the round head off each clove or they will make the syrup cloudy. Press one clove into each side of each peach. 

Have some clean hot jars ready for the peaches (wide mouth unless your peaches are smallish like mine were). 

Once the vinegar syrup has been boiling for about ten minutes or so, place the peaches into the pot with the syrup. You only need to keep them in there for a moment to get nice and hot, then remove each peach with a slotted spoon and put them into the jars. 

Once all the jars are full, pour in the boiling syrup and add a stick of cinnamon if you like it. 

Wipe the rims of the jars, and cover and seal them. 

Great project for using up peaches, and easy way to avoid Chemistry homework for an hour or so. 

When they're ready, we'll report back on how they turned out!

Easy Brined Dill Pickles..

The problem: You're growing cucumbers for pickling, and they are getting to proper size one or two at a time, but all the recipes you find are for a big batch. You keep putting them in the fridge and they are wilted by the time you have enough saved up for a recipe's worth.

The solution: Use this recipe for one jar at a time pickle production. 

1. Make a brine- I'm using 2T of kosher salt for every cup water. Try it and if they come out too salty, adjust. Go ahead and make too much (like a 4 or 5X recipe), you'll use the rest on another day.

2. Wash your cucumbers, remove the prickles as you do.. 

3. I like to slice mine into 'spears' first. They will pickle faster, and I seem to have better luck fitting them in the jar. 

4. In a clean jar place the cucumber spears, a smashed garlic clove, a sprig of fresh dill, and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes (or fresh pepper if you like). Pour in the brine. 

5. Cover the jar with something that breathes and a rubber band- keep it at room temp but not direct sun for about 3 days. 

6. Put your lid on and put them in the fridge. If your pickles are too salty, you can dump some water and replace with fresh water. Excess salt will leach out into the water.

Feel free to add onion, green tomato, etc; whatever else the garden is putting out in excess. Here is a fresh prepared batch sitting out. Notice the color difference in the new brine. As it matures it will become 'milky' in appearance.

Peach Cobbler

We planted a tiny little 3 foot peach tree last year, and it is a champ! As spring started it was making so many little peaches that I worried all its limbs would break under the weight. We knocked about 2/3's of the little peaches off the branches, and we've still gotten about 25 beautiful ripe peaches from it.

So what to make with them? I'm a little hesitant to make anything, as I'm just crazy for ripe peaches. It almost seems a waste to eat them any other way. Finally yesterday (after eating them for about a three days) I had my fill and decided to start with a cobbler.

If you saw my olallieberry cobbler post, you are probably getting the theme, but I LOVE cobblers. So much easier than pie, and I prefer that sweet biscuity cake in the mix to pie dough. It's nice when your preference is also easy.

If you are local and want some good peaches, there is a little fruit stand on the 118 that has great peaches coming soon, if they aren't there already. Can't remember the name, but I go there every summer and will be again once these last 9 peaches are gone!

I used this recipe, and totally recommend it. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/southern-peach-cobbler-2/

I recommend staying clear of any cobbler recipe that doesn't have butter (cut in method) in the 'cake' portion of the recipe.

Here are the pictures. As always, nothing cooked with fruit looks as appetizing as the fruit itself, but believe me, this is GOOD!

Wheaten Marans are here!

Though they've been here for a few weeks actually. I'm putting up pictures now, because they've gotten to my favorite age- feathered enough to live outside where they have enough room to frolic and be adorable.

Wheaten Marans lay that dark brown egg I love, and they have such a pretty color pattern in my opinion. Not very flashy, but just sort of 'natural bird' looking to me. I don't know what it is about them but they've been my favorite since I discovered them.

These guys and gals are starting to distinguish themselves now that their feathers are coming in- the girls have the 'wheaten' look, tan and brown- and the boys are much darker at the moment and getting more and more dark feathers every day.

There are three other chicks in the bunch that hatched from some blue/ splash marans eggs I purchased. They are a little younger and smaller and still mostly fluffy as opposed to feathered at the moment.

Here they are!

Cobbler

Olallieberries are coming in. Besides the artichokes, there isn't anything in the garden that fits my "all thumbs" gardening style so well. Plant it, walk away, and return when it's time to harvest. This years bunch is going to be about five times what we picked last year. Our first pick went to a cobbler.

Nothing more to say here. Behold...

Early for Good Behavior

Well, our ducks never hatched. I thought they were going a little bit long, and then found a broken one outside her nest- not a thing had developed but the smell. Yuck. I decided to pitch the whole bunch into the compost. Aside from this, we needed the garden back. I had decided to go ahead and slaughter the ducks for the freezer, but had a last minute change of heart and put them up on Craigslist. They wound up going to a petting zoo, so that's pretty great. Happy for them. Over the time that we had them, they did a great job keeping the snails and grassy weeds from taking over the garden, but it's well past time to plant, and my tobacco starts are ready.

The great part is, no more baby ducks means I could release our nest raiding gopher snake a little earlier! I took some pictures before I said goodbye. He/she is all fattened up, having had no less than 6 mice and 2 chicks (hatched but didn't survive). I think it was more of a vacation than a sentence actually.

Here are the pics!

Definitely one of the prettier gopher snakes I've seen, got a few close ups of his/her scales as well.

Steal my eggs; go to prison.

Well, our little thief has returned. Jen was on the phone with her mom and looking out the window, when she noticed the mama duck bolt frantically from the nest. She shouted at me that the snake was probably back, and sure enough he was at the nest again. All eggs were still there.

       I went out with my trusty snake stick and snatched him up. You're going to prison bud. 

Luckily I already had a spare tank, already wired up for heat, sharing the thermostat with the cage above where Kiwi (my Mexican black king snake) dwells. Kiwi got excited with all the commotion. She is a snake eater (among other things) by nature, wonder if she smelled the new one? He's much bigger than her at any rate, but every snake lives solo around here. I only plan to keep him till the baby ducks are big enough that he won't be a threat anymore. And I have a CA fishing license so I'm legal to grab one from the wild. (I know it sounds funny that it would be a fishing license that you require, but it is! I even have a 'bag limit' that I'll never get near to reaching.) 

In order for this to work out though, I'll need to see if he'll eat in captivity. I thawed some mice (Kiwi's feed, I have about a hundred or so in the deep freeze) and decided to give it a try. 

Boy did he ever! This is one hungry snake. I guess he was likely going after the eggs in desperation. I gave him two more mice and he swallowed them without hesitation. That's a relief. If he wasn't going to be a successful captive, I was going to have to start looking around for another home for him. I'd be bummed not to have him on the property anymore. This snake is one of three regular gophersnakes that we see every spring and summer. I don't want to be short any gopher killers..

Here's a few more feeding pictures: He (or she) is a really pretty example of the species in my opinion. Lots of rosy/coral pink colors mixed with the black and tan pattern you usually see. After he has settled in some and digested this meal, I'll try and get some better pictures.

And not to leave Kiwi out. She is a permanent pet here- captive bred and been with us since she was only weeks old. Sorry the picture is not so great, I don't dare mess with her too much while she's feeding. She gets a little 'snappy' when she can smell mice, and she does NOT let go. 

One more of him curled up and full! Don't worry buddy, your 'sentence' won't be long.

Even when predators interfere, we think it's important to remember that they are worth saving. After all, I've almost lost an embryonic duck or two, but this guy didn't get this big from eating ducks (I would have noticed). Even while he doesn't see eye to eye with us regarding our livestock, he does his share of work around here by keeping the gopher, ground squirrel and black rat populations down. I feel the same way about the coyotes, the hawks, the owls, and all the other potential threats to my flock. I'm not saying I wouldn't ever resort to killing a predator, but honestly, I would do just about all I could to not have to ever do that. After all, wildlife is a big part of the reason we wanted to live out here in the first place, and life without them here would be a sad trade-off for that little bit of comfort. As of now, I've managed to lose not a single animal to predators, and I've never yet had to reach for the gun either to keep it that way. That's just the way we like it. 

Snake versus Duck

Heard a terrible duck-ish racket and Jen and I went out to investigate. When we saw them splashing around, we figured mama duck (buff and white runner pictured) was just enjoying herself splashing in the water. She spends most of her time on the nest, so she likes to go crazy when she takes a break. Running around beating up the other ducks, splashing in the water and quacking up a storm.
Luckily we thought to check the nest too. There was a snake trying to suck down her eggs. I figure that must have been what chased her off initially, I'm kind of surprised she didn't try to fight him off. Anyway we scared him away and all eggs are still there. He was VERY persistant. I pushed him off the nest over and over, but he kept sneaking around the artichoke plant and coming back to it. Finally we took the hose to him, and he raced off for a gopher hole. Now that's where I want the gopher snakes going.

Now that he knows where the nest is, he's very likely going to come back. I think I'll have to set up another snake tank- Just in case he's too persistant, he may end up spending his spring in the library eating frozen thawed mice like my king snake does, and released when the babies are too big for him to mess with.

Photos of the snake in the nest and the ducks splashing in the water to follow..

(And check out part 2 of this exciting tale here- http://allthumbsgreen.blogspot.com/2012/05/steal-my-eggs-go-to-prison.html )

The Rooster

       I can't imagine keeping a flock of chickens without a rooster. I feel for those who live in the city and can't keep one, and I'm sure I'd get used to it if I had to. It seems to me though, that it would be something less than a complete flock, and having had one I'd miss it.

       The rooster is never yours the way the chickens are. When I go outside, my girls run to me. They've been tamed you might say, or perhaps they haven't and they just accept me as another of the flock- the one with food. But the rooster just stays behind and watches me. He seems to be saying, "I don't trust you big mammal. You may have fooled my hens, but I see through you." The girls gather at my feet, Eva is closest, tucks down submissively if I reach for her, she'll let me pick her up and examine her feathers. I check her for lice, for wounds. I check her crop to see that she's eating, look over her feet and the bald patch on her back caused by the rooster mounting her. She's so tame that I tend to use her as a health meter for the rest who won't let me pick them up. The rooster cocks his head at me, he's on alert; I have taken one of his. When I put her back down, he growls quietly. Summer (the welsummer hen) is his favorite, and she comes up and gives Eva a disapproving peck on the head as if to say, "Didn't you hear the rooster? He said 'Keep your distance'!" Or perhaps her message is, "Yes, your friendly with the human, but don't forget, you're still under me in the pecking order."

       I walk to the coop to check for eggs, the girls follow me, even Summer; they're still hoping for treats. The rooster knows this and he's jealous. HE is the one that's meant to give them treats. Treats are how you win a hens' affection, he knows this well. But since he has nothing he fakes it. 

He begins cooing quietly. 'coo cuckoo coo coo' he says, picking up a leaf and then dropping it repeatedly. He's "tid-bitting". It's the same motion that a mother hen does with her chicks and it means, "I've found something good, come and eat this". Only he has nothing but a twig or an old dry leaf. He clearly feels threatened by the attention I'm getting from them and he's lying. It works though, the girls all run to him and find nothing. He'll often mount one of them too, just to make his point. 

When I do bring a treat, he's the first to take it from me. He doesn't want it for himself, sometimes won't eat a bite even if it's something really good, like an apple core. No, he just doesn't want me to give it to them, that's his job. He'll take it from me, run away and then call the girls to him tid-bitting 'look what I found girls, don't forget who gave it to you'! I've never seen him eat anything before them. He looks for nothing for himself, always feeding the hens the best of what he finds. To be honest I've never really seen him eat much at all, probably because he's watching me if I'm around.

       So the relationship between me and the rooster is a bit adversarial from his perspective. I'm a giant mammal that he doesn't trust bordering on a strange looking rooster that he doesn't dare fight, but he doesn't want to lose his flock to either. I don't mind the way the views me, I really wouldn't have it any other way. If he was a pet rooster, and overly trusting, would he still be as good of a protector? It could be that I'm mixing things up here, but my sense is that he wouldn't. I look at the flock from the window in the breakfast nook and find that his eyes are always on me. I'm sure he sees me long before I see him. When I'm out working in the garden and hear him growl a quiet "garoo" and then hear all the girls running under the shelter of the avocado tree, I can look up and sure enough; there is a hawk or a crow wheeling about up there. He has alerted for coyotes at the fence, for ground squirrels (well, you can never be too sure) and sometimes for no reason that I'm aware of. I've heard his warnings several times and never been able to find what it was that made him nervous. Sometimes there is a cat stalking a gopher hole outside the fence, sometimes I see nothing. Nevertheless, I trust him, and I'll bet he just saw something I did not. If my poodle comes running into the dog yard, separated from the birds for their mutual safety, and runs against the fence barking (he loves to watch the girls run) Django the rooster will duck his head low in challenge and come running up to face off against Jax. If he fears him at all, he will never show it. I sometimes think that fence is better for Jax's protection than for the birds. 

       In all, the rooster to me is the spirit of the flock. He reminds me that these were once dwellers of a tropical forest. He reminds me that they aren't commonplace and plain, but they are actually exotic, mysterious, and social animals that have found a niche in our world. He reminds me of what's important to me when raising animals for food- keeping them in such a way that they are not simply fed and housed well, but also given the opportunity to express their nature. He remembers his instincts, even if some of the hens have forgotten some of theirs. He is a tiny dinosaur; a chivalrous thing in hard feathered armor. He's armed with his beak, his instincts, his devotion, and not least two sharp and hard spurs pointing behind him on his hard scaled legs. He can leap into the air higher than my head when startled. It's a good thing for both of us that he doesn't ever attack me (I've had others that do) or I'd have no choice but to prepare him for dinner. Frankly, I wouldn't feel safe around him.

       As I leave the yard, Django beats his wings audibly against his sides three times, and then crows. To the west of my yard in the distance another rooster answers, one of my neighbors must have one as well. They may call and respond a few more times: "This is my yard and my flock! You are not welcome!"

Switching chickens.

Why? Why start over with the birds after so much time?

I have decided to write on this, because I think some of you who read this blog might one day keep a flock (I hope anyway) and I would like to give you the benefit of what I've learned. The answers have come to be important to my goals, and I would have liked to figure this out before I started.

Reason 1: Because I can't get what I want. 
What I want is a flock of birds that lay multi-colored eggs. I want to collect the eggs and get the full rainbow- greens, blues, pinkish brown, white, dark chocolate brown, light brown with dark speckles, and olive green. Why can't I have it? In a sense you could say that I can have it. I've basically got it now, and I got it by buying birds from others who breed for one of these egg colors. The problem is now that they are here in my eclectic little flock, they are breeding. Let them breed right? Why not? Well, the reason is that they will not breed true. I can hatch these multicolored eggs and get offspring, but I can't get offspring that will lay multicolored eggs themselves. Over time, there will be winning genes and losing genes and as it turns out the winner is likely to be greenish "Easter egger" type eggs. They will be pretty on their own, but they will be all the same, and if I had to choose one egg color this is not likely to be the one I would strive for.
Chicken egg shells are really only two colors after all, white or blue. If you don't believe me, take any colored egg you like and crack it open. Look at the shell on the outside, you might see brown, but on the inside under that 'skin' that is under the shell, you'll see it is as white as those in the store. Likewise with the green egg, the inside under the same membrane is as blue as the truest Ameraucana. The brown pigment is simply an 'overspray' of bilirubin, a byproduct of the breakdown of hemoblobin, the pigment in our (and chickens) red blood cells. So a green egg is really a blue egg coated in some amount of bilirubin, and likewise an olive egg is really a blue egg with even more bilirubin. A brown is a white egg with various amounts of the same, the depth of it's shade is just a result of more or less of the pigment.
But the genetics of the bird make the egg blue or white, and different genes determine how much bilirubin is 'oversprayed' in the oviduct. And while all the genes are represented in my flock, some will be dominant over the others. Blue egg shell appears to be dominant (maybe that's why white eggs became the standard, after all it would have been hard to isolate in a mixed flock, and we tend to like best things that are 'rare') over white, and some amount of bilirubin seems to be dominant as well. Every bird I've hatched has grown up to give me a green egg, some getting close to blue but not quite there.
Long story short, if I can't get what I want, should I pick my breed by the color of the shell? I'm deciding not to, for reasons I'll explain later.

Reason 2: Because I don't know what I'll get. 
I'm actually pretty sure of what I'll get in egg color. Varying shades of green right? But egg color is not the end all be all of the breed. If you want them for lots of eggs, there are breeds out there which will do that for you. They tend to be smaller birds, because their bodies don't put a great deal of energy in building lots of muscle, they need those proteins for making eggs. Conversely, if you want a meat breed, you'll probably find that they are not the best layers. I decided long ago that I wanted the 'complete package' from my birds. I want decent layers, who also dress out nicely; so that the concept of too many birds just doesn't mean anything. While I'm after eggs, I will need to cull those who are less productive, and that process will provide me with a secondary product: the occasional dressed oven ready bird. Now you might be wondering, why can't you do that with yours? After all if the egg color becomes secondary, what's wrong with just culling my own flock for these qualities?
The answer is that there's actually nothing wrong with it! If you have quite a few years to spend on this process that is. If that is your aim, there are hundreds of heritage breeds out there that people have been breeding for these qualities again and again, for a long long time. I wouldn't discourage anyone from making a new one if that's their aim, but it isn't mine. I'd just as soon build on the work that's been done for me.
And the simplicity of this route isn't the only reason either.

Reason 3: Because the occasional sale can be so much more effective than they are now.
Lets face it, if I think I'm going to make easy money on chickens or eggs, I'm fooling myself. I've always raised my own chickens and eggs at a loss, even when I sell them occasionally. But that's fine, because it's a hobby! I enjoy having them around, and I'd keep them even if they cost me a bit more. There's just no way I know of to factor in the joy of raising them for me, let alone the flavor difference of having the eggs so fresh. I do know however, every chicken or rooster I've ever had eats about the same amount. Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Easter Eggers, Barred Rocks, Welsummers, etc.. Not a one has been noticeably more expensive to feed than any other. In the past, when I've evaluated my hatches for who I will keep and who I will let go, I've noticed a big difference in what I've been able to sell them for. And the ones I've been able to sell for the most, have been the Marans. Marans are a fad! Everybody wants the big fluffy, friendly bird, with the big dark eggs. Other breeds I've had, may or may not be able to sell at all depending on the season and the age of the birds.

But do they fit my other requirements?

They are a dual purpose breed- as good in the egg boxes as they are in the oven, so yes. The downside I have seen in the past is that you'll wait a bit longer for that first egg, but they are large enough (and pretty enough) eggs that it's worth the wait. I don't intend on selling any more than I do now, but these occasional sales can buy more than just a bag or two of chicken feed.

I'm buying some Wheaten Marans, and hatching some eggs for Blue Splash Marans as well. Just different enough (in color) from those I've been able to find close by to be different, but maybe familiar enough to the beginner to still be desirable. From them I'll pick my keepers, and sell the rest (probably for a quite a bit more than I bought them- though not a profit when you factor in feed). Eventually I'll  choose between the two lines which one I like best, and focus on it. Of course my current flock will stay with me, until the new girls are laying.

Tobacco

     We've always said that if we could sum up our gardening philosophy, it could be done in one word: Pragmatic. We have always tried to grow the things that we like to eat, but more specifically things that we like to eat from one or two categories. The categories are either A) something we like to eat that has WAY better flavor from the garden than bought in the store (tomatoes, melons, brussels, etc), or B) something we like to eat that is ridiculously expensive when bought at the store (artichokes, berries, avocados, someday maybe asparagus). If the product falls into both categories, as many do, even better! I've broken this rule from time to time, just to try a certain bean, or some sweet corn, or potatoes, and have NOT been rewarded for the effort. Ironically I either have the hardest time with these- because of pests or some other factor I don't know about, or I just wind up with such a small harvest of staples that the math just doesn't work. Beans, for instance, are cheap and plentiful in the store if you know how to cook dried beans. Fresh corn, I only want seasonally and the farmer's market hooks it up just fine. One of our funniest gardening mishaps was planting a whole bag of cranberry beans, only to harvest about half of the number that I actually put into the ground- we got a kick out of that.

     Well, lately we've been smoking again. Not a crazy amount, just usually buying a pack or two whenever we knew we'd be out drinking and chatting with friends. Initially because we felt bad for constantly bumming theirs. Friends are generally kind, and that's why we all like them- but I know the price of smokes, so we have decided to start picking up the odd pack on the way to the BBQs.

     Now according to the finest source of quality information that one can turn to these days, (Yahoo answers of course) there are .8 grams of tobacco in a cigarette. Assuming this is true, that means there are 16 grams of tobacco in a pack of cigarettes, which converts to a little more than HALF of one ounce of tobacco, actually that's 0.56438 of an ounce the way I've rounded it. At $7 a pack in CA, that comes to a little less then $14 an ounce- or the number that will really shock you: $224.00 a pound for tobacco.

Can you imagine this exchange at the grocery store?

You: "Hello, these tomatoes look beautiful, how much are you charging for them?"
Grocer: "Oh, those are going for $224 per pound."
You: "I see! Well, that sounds like it should be a pretty good amount of tomatoes then, and I'm sure they must be really good for me."
Grocer: "Sorry, no. That will only get you 3-4, depending on the size you pick. As far as being good for you; if you look here at the sticker on them, you'll see that there is a good chance that if you don't quit buying and consuming them, they will kill you."
You: "Hmm.. That really sounds terrible. I'll bet they're the best tasting tomatoes that I've ever had at least."
Grocer: "Wrong again friend. Even as carcinogenic tomatoes go, these are among the worst in history. See, the carcinogenic tomato industry is organized in such a way that there are really only 6 companies in the country. [Info sourced from answers.com, clearly the only source of info that is arguably more reliable that yahoo answers] They are producing much the same product, like the beer industry used to do. Unfortunately, there is very little hope that we can expect an micro/flavor-centric movement with carcinogenic tomatoes, since the regulation involved pretty much keeps little guys out of the game. Anyway, even at their best this product is likely to make you stink and be shamed and excluded publicly. At the worst (and these certainly fit the bill!) they are filled with a crazy list of dangerous additives on top of their naturally occurring carcinogens."
You: "So then why the heck would anybody buy them?"
Grocer: "That's the catch. They are horribly addictive!"
You: "Ok, well I'm not dissuaded, how much will seven dollars get me?"
<The grocer cuts a teeny tiny sliver.>

NOTE: The preachier elements of the above exchange are truly meant to dissuade you from smoking at all.  That was the token effort on my behalf, but I'm done with that now- moving on.

     You may think that the above imaginary conversation was inspired by Homer Simpson's "Tomacco", but in fact I chose the tomato analogy because by all accounts, growing tobacco is very similar in process to growing tomatoes. They like similar soil, need to be fertilized similarly, and have many of the same pests (ok, their hornworm has a different kind of stripage- big difference). As a gardener who is "All Thumbs" (even if they are green) I can vouch for the ease of tomato growing.

     But what can you expect to yield from growing your own tobacco? According to a very wise-sounding cartoon gentleman in a Mexican wrestling mask (on Yahoo answers- google any question, it's amazing!), you can get about 3-4 cartons of smokes from one plant. At $7 a pack, that's about $180- $240 saved per plant grown.

     Even for as little as we buy tobacco, there is certainly no agricultural product that we buy that is more expensive (and with that, you can extrapolate all sorts of useful information about my personal habits), so it makes sense that we would try and grow it! Heck, I'm even fond of rolling my own cigarettes when I smoke, so no down-side there.
     Seeds are readily available online, and legal to buy. Tobacco is legal to grow for personal consumption in all 50 states- but don't even think of trying to sell it or you could have the ATF knocking on your door. Not even plant starts can be sold, from what I understand.

     The seeds of tobacco are tiny- almost a dust in the little bag that you will buy, but they will sprout way more plants than you will likely need to grow. I probably have about a hundred tiny starts now in my little starting flat. The seeds should be dusting over a wet starting medium, and not buried at all. Mist the medium daily if it looks dry, and you will see little plants in a couple of days to a couple of weeks. Mine took almost three weeks before I saw any tiny plants. They should stay indoors till they are big enough to transplant: 2-3 inches at least.

     Tobacco leaves will ripen from the bottom up (so I've read) and you'll want to cut off whole leaves as they start to wilt and turn yellow. Sew a bit of twine through the stem of all harvested leaves- leave some space between each one and hang them up somewhere in the shade where air circulates. When they have dried they will be ready to smoke. If you want, you can build a makeshift humidor to cure them in for more (or more particular?) flavors. I will likely not do so, just keeping it simple instead.
Save one plant for seed, all flowers will sprout at the top and can be bagged if you want to make sure the strain is pure- flowers are self pollinating.

I'll put some pictures up soon, smoke 'em if you got 'em.