Bee~ Journal of then...

[justusnak]

Oh Bee....I do know what you are saying..."lot's has happened, nothing has happened." Seems like the same thing here...I am always super busy, nothing getting "done" We make plans....and HIS plans are different...not that it is a bad thing...just different.I just smile, and keep on, keeping on. Glad to hear everyone there is "good" So, you are working on the book....that is great news! I am so excited for you, and the world that will get to read it! I know I will want a copy for SURE!
The sheeples are still kicking...well...2 of them are. My Nelly passed away last summer. ( super sad) She was my favorite....of course. I now just have the 2 ewes, April and Angel.....but we have added an Alpine doe to the farm. Her name is Suzie, and she is just sweet as summer strawberries! She is super pregnant, and ready to drop any day I believe. She was bred to a pygmy buck, also a new addition to the farm. His name is Fred. CUTE little guy...earns his keep by breeding and eating weeds. We have big plans for the homestead this year...I just hope we can get them all finished. Time and money, 2 things we never seem to have enough of. For now, we just plug along....waiting every day for a new adventure.

 

[MorelCabin]

You all are making me jealous with all that gardening talk...but I'm learning at the same time, so I forgive you! Going to try the epsom salts here, along with rabbit doo-doo...hey I might have some luck. But our gardens here can't really go in until the last week of May. For the next three weeks I think I will plan some boxes, I love raised beds...and we just moved here last year so I didn't get anything done except the inside of the house last summer.
Bee I am glad you didn't go over the pond too...selfish, but true

 

[Beekissed]

I'm glad I didn't either. After researching the orphanage based ministries I came to the conclusion that they were primarily for making money and the children who benefited were being helped, but also being used. I'm glad I didn't go there and then find it out as I would never have stood for it and would have turned right around and headed for home.

Just, it sounds like you have it really goin' on at your place! I'm so glad! Sorry about your old ewe....it's hard to lose a sheep, isn't it? The farm that has my girls told me that Little Mo died this spring due to bloat, which should have never happened. The farmer let them out on new spring grass and didn't provide any roughage to counteract it...he lost her and 4 lambs to the same thing. I don't worry...I think I'll see her one day on my Heavenly farm.

Morel, I'm just glad to see you ladies are still here also. I count you both as friends and those are a rare commodity in the world nowadays.

 

[justusnak]

Wow, I am glad you didn't go over there too. I was thinking that some of those places "use" the kids to make money...just never really wanted to think people would be that way. I should have known better. :/ " the almighty dollar does the devils deed"
We really are trying to get it all going here.....meat birds, egg layers, turkeys, ducks for eggs( hopefully on the pond soon have to fence it in) Had to start over with new layers this year, a dog came through and took out most of my flock. I couldn't get a good shot in, but I think it got the message....maybe I did get it, haven't seen it in a while. We have the milk goat....she gives us more milk than we can use when freshened. I sure love the cheese I make tho. Hopefully soon I will be able to get a pair of breeding pigs... New Guinea Hogs. They stay relatively smaller, weighing in a full grown only 200 pounds and are great foragers. Hoping to be able to breed our own here on the farm and have plenty pork for us and family....and some to sell. After the pigs...we want to get mini cows...a dairy heifer and a meat bull. Should make some great calves for butchering. When its time, it will happen. He will provide!

 

[Beekissed]

Planted rhubarb sets today and hilled some of the potatoes. The soil under the hay was rich and full of earthworms, easy to hoe and hill. Checked under the soil where I did my biochar and it was also easy to fork into and showed evidence that my biochar burn worked and all the carbonaceous material that I had placed there was burned. YAY!

That end of the garden is usually very dry, very red clay and doesn't grow much but I intend to change that. This garden has laid fallow for 3 years with a cover crop of white dutch clover on top, so I'm hoping for the best, even though these are clay soils with poor drainage.

In the past my dad would till the whole garden and then till it several times between the rows throughout the growing season to get rid of the weeds. I eventually convinced Mom to plant clover in the rows after tilling the garden the first time and she really like it. No weeds, clean shoes, pretty garden....no cracked, dry, red clay in between the rows.

Now we just till lightly on a narrow spot on top of the slightly raised rows and leave the established grass and clover in between. Any exposed soil is quickly reseeded to clover and given a light covering of straw. Any hilled, exposed soil is mulched heavily with straw or chicken bedding.

I can't wait to see what her garden yields this year. She usually does okay with growing but I think she has had large crops because she planted so many plants. This year we hope to plant less plants and grow more food. "Farm smarter" is my new mantra. Everything can be easier, better, and prettier if we can just do things differently than they did them in the past.

This fall we will burn and till in the mulch we are using and plant winter wheat and oats on the row tops.

 

[Beekissed]

All plants are in the garden!!!! Now all that remains is the seeds that need planting such as corn(had already planted some awhile back but it didn't germinate due to being last year's seed), peas, squash, cukes, pumpkins, flowers.

I'm so excited to have a garden again...life is just so very dull and uneventful if one is not growing something!

Took down the poultry fencing from up at the coop and placed it around the garden instead until the meaties are good and dead....I could kill them with my bare hands when they scratch up my garden!!!! Oops...I guess I WILL be killing them with my bare hands, won't I?

I've marked at least one of them so far that I plan to keep awhile and watch her progress. She is one of the best foragers, not as big as some of the others and a very good looking hen. I'm thinking I might just make a place for her in my laying flock and see what happens.

 

[BarredBuff]

I'm glad you found your way back to one

 

[Beekissed]

Me too...and I didn't have to even put a gun rack in the back of my garden cart or wear camo while I was planting anything to feel like I'm living more SS, ya know?

 

[Beekissed]

Replanted corn yesterday. The corn I had planted 2 wks previously didn't germinate well....but I was taking a chance on corn from last year that was sold at a discount. This time it's untreated Ambrosia corn and I am praying that it does well....I haven't had good sweet corn for a few years now and it is the one thing that speaks to me of summer...even more so than watermelons or fresh tomatoes.

Also planted a whole row of mixed sunflowers, poppies, zinnias and eastern butterfly mix of wildflowers....can't wait to see if they all make it!

Also planted some coriander/cilantro, yellow squash, spaghetti squash and cukes. Today I will plant some pumpkins and blue winter squash.

The Red Pontiac potatoes are up and doing well but not as well as I had hoped. Some of them in the wetter part of the garden didn't make it. These clay soils of my mother's are quite a gardening challenge for me...haven't had to deal with them since leaving home.

Give me a year of adding some carbonaceous materials to these permanent rows and also some biochar....I'll see if I can turn this clay pot into the start of a rich and loamy garden.

We have planted 2-4 doz. tomatoes of several varieties, green peppers, broccoli, sweet Kandy onions and today I will plant some sugar snap peas and regular peas....just need to construct a trellis.

 

[Farmfresh]

I've marked at least one of them so far that I plan to keep awhile and watch her progress. She is one of the best foragers, not as big as some of the others and a very good looking hen. I'm thinking I might just make a place for her in my laying flock and see what happens.

I kept one of the Cornish x hens like that. She was a really good layer too. I really had to watch her in the heat however, she had a hard time with it. When the experiment was over she was a FINE roasting hen as well.