Our gardens from the past

Barn Guests and Compost

A Little Work, A Little Fun

VR/Why Are We on You Tube?

Pot maker and raising Meat Birds

Meet Sundae/Fence Cutting Tip/ Expanding the Garden

Grow table

The new grow table. Check out the video on You Tube!
 https://youtu.be/7Wfh_k_hBHY

We woke up to hail this morning. Of course the first thing to enter my mind was " that figures....there goes all the plants that we just put in."  Thankfully, the hail was only pea sized and it didn't last long. All of the plants are fine. Everything looks good.

We got the onions in yesterday and worked the ground for the spaghetti squash, melons and pumpkins to go in. Should be able to get them in tomorrow.

The Garden So Far

We got the tomatoes, cucumbers, cauliflower and zucchini all planted yesterday. We have 30 tomato plants started so we have plenty for canning, salsa, etc.

We also have all of the herbs planted and we made a small greenhouse type cover for them. For herbs, we have lavender, spearmint, rosemary, parsley, oregano, marjoram, sage, basil, lemon balm, chives, garlic chives, and lemon verbena.

Strawberries are in their awesome raised bed. We got some started from Dewayne' mom. I think she is the strawberry guru. She can grow strawberries like no other! We also bought some Honeoye starts from a local Amish greenhouse just to have another variety.

 I am really excited for the garden this year. I think this design this year is going to be amazingly easy to take care of. There will be walkways that we will mow with the push mower that has a bag to catch the clippings so we can use that as mulch or to dry as hay for the critters. Here's looking forward to a wonderful gardening year!

The gardening has started! The salad garden is planted up front by the house. It has radishes, lettuce and spinach in already and kale will be planted along with a few Romaine lettuce plants that we just got form an Amish greenhouse.

Snow.....again

So we woke up this morning to more snow. I am really tired of winter. Spring is just around the corner...so we are told. I really don't like it when the weather plays its little tricks on me. Be winter, or be done with winter. It is supposed to be around 0 tomorrow and this weekend be near 60. What??

What do you do when you really want to be outside? The best thing for today is to be in the warm comfortable house and read. Get out those gardening books. It will be gardening time soon....I promise. Do your reading and studying so when you get the chance to be outside playing in the dirt, you're ready! We have a lot of gardening and herbal books. Time to catch up on some reading and learning. It's got to be better for your mind to absorb knowledge instead of sitting around depressed and complaining about the weather.

There's nothing better than curling up on the couch with a good book, hot cup of tea and wrapped in my favorite quilt.

We have our plants started. We've added more herbs for this year. Sweet Marjoram,  Lemon Balm and Parsley will join the Sage, Lemon Verbena, Oregano, Basil and Rosemary.
We are also changing the variety of cucumbers. We are trying a Chicago Pickling this time. The last few years, the Boston Pickling Cucumbers would turn yellow so fast the animals ate more of them then we did. We would get a few to eat fresh, but not enough to do any pickles or relish. This year, we need them to produce right to stock the pantry. Also new this year will be a new variety of zucchinis. We've had the bush type for the last several years but they would not produce near enough either. I think we have some bush , but we are adding a vine type too.
I can not wait for this weather to turn. Getting my hands in the soil and watching my hard work produce so much food is my tranquil delight!

June update

It has been really hard to keep up with things around here. I need to paint the barn and rabbitry this summer but things keep coming up.

We need rain! It's been a month since we have had any significant rain. I feel like I spend most of my time trying to keep our garden from dying. The zucchini are about done in. We've gotten maybe a dozen zucchini but the plants are done. The cucumbers are coming on but not enough all at once yet to make any pickles. The green beans are coming on nicely. I may be picking them in the next few days and the tomatoes, I have to say, look awesome! We should get plenty of produce from them (knock on wood!)

Dewayne has had a few health issues the last few weeks and he's been home a lot. I'm not complaining, just wish it wasn't due to his health.

We have been spending more time with our kids and grandkids.  We went on a fishing/camping weekend a few weeks ago and all had a lot of fun. Hoping to do it again real soon.

We have 31 fryer rabbits we need to get processed. We need this meat for the freezers. As soon as Dewayne is feeling better, that is the top priority. It gets expensive feeding all of these rabbits longer than we need too. We should also get some nice hides to do up.

It's almost July and I am praying for a better month....at least a healthier one!

I see it's been a while since I posted on here so thought I would give an update.

Our first Farm Stand in May went really well. I sold a lot of plants and goat milk soap. It actually surprised me to see how many people came to it with hardly any advertising done. The second sale in June didn't go as well since I only had the soap to sell, but It was pretty much what I expected.

All is going very well in the rabbitry. Litters from the first breedings have all been weaned and all does are bred for the second litters that will be coming soon. We have some nice bunnies out there! I am especially happy with the litter of Chocolate Havanas. Show potential in that bunch:) We will be looking and sorting through all bunnies for show potentials that will be shown this Fall, then added to the herd. We have several Cal does that need replacing.

The garden is in and growing nicely. We have a smaller garden this year so hopefully will be able to keep up with it better. Hoping for a productive year.

I've been selling eggs like crazy. The flock is doing wonderful. I sold the Buff Orpington rooster cause I got tired of him coming after me. He didn't do it all the time so I always had my guard up with him. I don't like that so he found a new home. I don't plan to raise Buffs anyway. The Columbian Wyandotte rooster has taken his place as the top guy of the flock. He is a really nice guy and handsome! I need to name him. The Cuckoo Marans are getting big. Turns out we had 3 pullets and 3 cockerals. They are NOT a smart bird. Hopefully it's just because they are still young. We have 5 new chicks that we hatched. First time hatching our own and it sort of flopped. Five is better than none. We will try again later on but I have enough to do around here and really don't want to mess with anything else.

On the personal side of our family, our youngest son just moved to the same county as us. I am very excited to have him closer to home. Half an hour drive is better than that 1-1/2 like before. We are all hoping we can do more camping and fishing soon as schedules allow.

Well, I guess that about sums things up for the last few months. The same ol thing around here....work, work, work.

The Little Green Wagon

Our little green wagon is hands down the most used piece of equipment on this farm. We use the wagon for EVERYTHING!!!
I would highly recommend getting at least one of these and if you can afford it, get three, lol.

Here is just a sample of its uses:
**Taking nest boxes from the rabbitry to the barn to get them ready for the does.
**Hauling feed, potting soil, etc
**Bringing firewood from the wood pile to the cabin
**Moving landscaping rocks
**Gathering rabbit bowls and feeders to be washed
**Hauling trash
**We put a carry cage on it to take animals to the butchering area

You get the idea. Don't waste time...go buy one right now. You'll be glad you did.

The garden is cleaned up and ready

Dewayne starting working in the garden the other day. There is a small spot for the first potatoes to go in.

Burning off the old stuff from last year. 

No tillers are used. Good old fashioned tools are all that's used here. When we get the taters, we'll work up this area with the rotary wheel before planting the spuds.

THINK "OUTSIDE THE BOX" FOR YOUR PLANTERS

This is an old enamel pan that we used to use for feeding critters. They have all but destroyed the poor thing. The bottom is just barely hanging on. I lined the pan with burlap then added the compost. It is setting on a piece of rubber roofing to help protect the table. I don't know yet what I will plant in it....thinking flowers like Brocade Marigolds. May even plant Basil in it.....we will see!

Camden and I went on a scout out back over the weekend and found this. It's a hog feeder. Strawberry planter now!

We've been talking about this for a long time. Just finally got around to doing it. Dewayne cut this barrel open and bolted the ends together. He drilled a few holes in the bottom and then we put some burlap in the bottom. This will be our "Salad Garden". Spinach, leaf lettuce and kale will be started shortly. Radishes will be grown in the fronts as well as a cucumber that I plan to drape around the outside of the planter as it grows. The short barrel on the left will be for a cherry tomato plant. We thought the tomato would take over everything so decided to put it by itself. 

I CAN NOT wait for salad time!!

DON'T THROW OUT THOSE EGG SHELLS!

I save all of our egg shells. I let them dry for a few days, then crush them to make a powder. My weapon of choice for crushing is the mortar and pestle. 

Finely ground, you can add the egg shells to your chicken feed or to your plants for a boost of calcium. 

TODAY IS MARCH 7, 2016

Today is March 7, 2016.

Today I moved the started plants to the small greenhouse outside. It’s supposed to be in the 60’s all week so we’ll see how that goes. This is Illinois after all. If it cools down too much next week I can always bring them back in.

Today I also got the “chickery” set-up. That’s our inside-on-the-back-porch-set up for our new chicks that I will be picking up tomorrow or Wednesday. We just use one of our rubber stock tanks set on saw horses. The back porch temperature is cooler than anywhere else in the house, but easier to maintain then being out in the barn. They will stay in that for the week, then be moved to the big brooder in the barn. I like to keep them close for awhile.

Today I moved the quail. We had them in three different pens and I put them all into one. We just got them on Saturday and I still am not really sure what I want to do with them. They are outside in the rabbit hutches and are fine, but I might decide to move them to the barn. They are very messy critters I have discovered. That’s one reason I don’t want them in the barn. As messy and wasteful as they are with their food, I don’t want them to draw in rodents. The other birds are out there, but they clean up all of their food pretty good.

Today I moved the recent batch of meat birds from the brooder to the goat stall and kicked the goats outside. Don’t worry, the goats are fine. They usually love being outside anyway. They have their pasture shelter that they seem to prefer to being in the barn. I just choose to feed them in the barn during the winter so it’s easier for me. That way I don’t have to pack hay and water out through the pasture.

The Pasture House for the goats

I don’t know what else I will do. Times a wasting. Need to go.

We got the garden in the other day, just to have 3-1/2 inches of rain in two hours, and about 15-20 minutes of hail. Now, the garden that looked awesome, now, not so much! We will need to replace a few plants if we want to grow anything at all. It's very irritating after all the work of growing the plants ourselves, only to have to turn around and buy some anyway.