Still Here! Farming is a Busy Job!
Although I haven’t posted much in the blog this year I have had an incredible time! We are really farming for real now so I haven’t had much time to write many new posts. So here is an update on how things are going!
Our weeds are taking over but we are trying to hold them back!
The Garden
We started out the year getting ready for a great year of growing! We had a lot of strawberries come in this spring and once we got the chickens away from there we were able to eat a bunch! We started an obscene amount of seed from my heirloom tomato collection. We planted almost five hundred plants and got a very late start getting them in the ground. We didn’t get around to staking them or weeding so we have a jungle out there now. It’s not pretty but the tomatoes are finally coming in and we are enjoying them now. We started this tomato garden where the previous tenants dumped horse manure for years so it is really growing crazy despite my neglect! Our old garden area is where I planted potatoes, squash, zucchini, eggplant, beans, kohlrabi, greens and okra. The deer ate 90% of this so we will be getting electric fence to put around it before our spring planting. We are learning this property and its obstacles. some improvements and we should be growing better next season. I have realized how difficult it is to stay on top of a garden when you have a 1 and 4-year-old to care for. When I worked full-time and had 8 hours a day with no kids my work gardens were pristine, I miss that but love being with the kids while they are little. I also have learned that 95 degrees is too hot to garden so adjusting my schedule to early and late hours should be better.
Our bees are thriving!
The Bees
We finally added beehives to our farm in early spring. We got two and they are different. One is slow-growing and docile and the other is growing fast and a bit aggressive. I have enjoyed practicing what I have learned in my Natural Bee Keeping class. We hope to expand in the future and get more hives going! We harvested just a taste of honey and left most for the bees. It is the best honey I ever tasted!
Baby duck rescues!
The Animals
Our chickens are doing great, our juveniles are now good layers and we are increasing our flock. We tried to hatch out turkeys, chickens, and ducks but we had a failed hatch, not sure what went wrong but I suspect the incubators lost power for a little while. So earlier this week we rescued 13 chickens of various young ages. We also received 25 chicks in the mail. Hopefully next year we will sell more eggs! Rescue ducklings were added in the spring that I cant wait to get eggs from too. Our foster pig never did end up getting bred in the spring so we didn’t get piglets this year as planned. Her family is looking for a home where she can live with them again some day. Last but not least our biggest dream came true! We got GOATS! We now have two does in milk and their two kids are reaching maturity at 6 months. It has been everything I dreamed it would be! The milk is amazing and we have been making kefir, cheese, yogurt and butter!
Our awesome new herd!
So as you can tell we are behind in blog posts for a good reason! I hope to do some soon and maybe even some videos! So stay tuned and Subscribe for new updates!
