Rain, Rain Go Away!

The garden has been plowed and disced now we need to get the clods out so we can start planting. I was going to do that today but it rained last night and some this morning.

I am eager to get some things in the ground. I am completely out of a lot of my home grown things. :(     I am also missing having fresh food to just pick and eat. We did not do a garden last year there just wasn't time.

So far I have put cucumbers, straight neck squash and zucchini out to start. They have not starting poking through yet. My lemon balm, parsley and comfrey are growing good. Oh! I almost forgot my chives they are blooming right now. Fresh chives on a baked potatoe just can't be beat.

I will have to get some pictures up soon of the gardens. The apple tree bloomed this year but they have to have a companion tree and it died so I will not have apples. :(    Time to look for another apple tree.  I would love to have a plum tree too. The kids love plum jelly.

I have not gotten into making bread again yet. I need to badly.

The last year I have not gotten near done here at the house that should have been done. The store consumed so much of my time that I let my family down. (that is a whole nother post) So I am trying to start back slow into all that I was doing before the store.
We still have the store but we are closer and I am home much more.

So stick around and I will be putting up post about my journey since I stopped writing the blog. God has taught me a lot and I want to share it.

What We Have Going On Now

We are working to get certified for our eggs and to sell plants. Our goal is to have a working farm even if it is only on 1 acre. It can be done just takes planning and work. We are hoping to one day expand our borders. We are planning on making the front yard raised beds with paths. We can grow flowers, herbs and maybe some veggies out front. Our garden spots will also be changed over to raised beds and tire beds. Tires are great to use to grow plants in and make great compost bins.

We have added rabbits to our animals. Right now we have mixed breeds that make good pets. We have gotten 1 New Zealand doe that is the start of our meat rabbits. We are looking for California and New Zealand bucks and does to use for meat breeds.

We are looking at getting rid of some of the breeds of chickens we have and just go to mostly sex links for egg production. The Silkies will be our birds that will be only used for selling. They are a great bantam breed that are good mothers and go broody a lot. They are also show birds.

Our garden is doing ok this year. My Egyptian Walking onions are walking out of the garden. I am going to have to thin them. Our peanut beans didn't come up but the blue lake and turkey beans are doing good. I will be putting rattlesnake beans out in the week to grow along with the corn. My broccoli did well this year so we have fresh broccoli. I didn't put out much because last year it didn't do well. This year I got it out earlier. We have already had lettuce, spinach and peas that have already run their course. We don't eat peas but mom liked them. I will be putting more of those out for the fall. I have to get watermelon and cantaloupe out still.

We are going to start trying to grow our animal feed also. This probably take some time to get going but one day it will happen. We can't free range our chickens so the goal is to get them off commercial feed by raising what they need to eat. Which means worms are in our future too.

I have got to start getting some canning done. I canned pintos last year and loved having those instead of store bought. I also canned tomatoes with peppers which we use a lot of. My goal this year is to can more beans and a variety black, kidney, white and pinto. I will do the tomatoes again too. I am not making much jelly this year. The last 2 years I have done a bunch of jelly so we are going to eat that up this year.

We may try to raise pigs again this fall. We learned from the first try all the things not to do so we think we can do better this time around. I would love to have some fresh beef but we don't have space to raise one.

I will try to get some pics up soon. The bunnies are just too cute. We have 2 litters we are trying to sell so if you want a pet bun just let me know.

Indoor Garden

This is my indoor garden.

Sweet Basil

Spinach

Lettuce

Radish

I am really excited to see how this works. I will transplant some of this when it gets a little bigger. I want to see how much I can grow indoors. I like the idea of having fresh lettuce and spinach all winter. I might have to try some other things just for the heck of it. If I can grow most all of what we will eat then that is going to be a huge money saver. I just need to get some spots to work with in the winter. I have been reading about row covers. You can also set things up to fit over one pot.

I am trying to figure out how to set my gardens up this year. I am going to be doing a lot of container gardening. I am looking at selling some produce at the farmers market this year. I will also be doing a lot more canning. It will be a lot of hard work but I am excited and can't wait to get started. I am ready for warmer weather so I can get stuff in the ground. I am going to try to grow cauliflower and broccili this year. I have tried cauliflower in the past and not had much luck. I have been reading up on what to do with it.

I am trying more herbs this year also. I have been reading natural bug control. Growing different plants together can keep bugs away. You also need to encourage good bugs. So, with all that rambling I am trying to figure out what to plant with what. Putting potted mints, basil and marigolds through out your garden is good. I didn't have much luck growing marigold from seed last year. I will probably just buy some plants. We need sunflowers again too. We have to be careful wtih them because parts of the sunflower are poisonous to chickens.

The chickens are fertilizing my garden spots for me.

My compost is another story. The pile is slow to work but the tires make great compost fast. Soooo I will have piles of tires composting for me this year. I know what a site. Oh well I am not trying to win yard of the year just feed my family.

I am also going to try to grow potatos in tires too. I have read they are great for potato growing. I have some potato seed to get out. I think now or soon is when I need to get started on that.

I think I have babbled enough. Those of you that know me know that when I get excited about something I do tend to babble.

I will try post soon on what God is doing in us also. More to come on gardening and chickens. I know you can't wait. lol

Another Day in the Life

Things have definitely been busy around here. Having the grand kids really keeps us hopping. Dealing with Ross on school work and karate has been a nightmare. So, we have made some changes.
Ross now has to earn computer and game time. We are using a ticket system. He earns tickets from chores, doing school work in a timely manner and doing his karate workout/fitness. We started this last week and so far this is working better than anything else we have ever tried. With that said, he tested for his 5th stripe yesterday and we were all surprised how well he did. Mr.Reynolds said he didn't expect him to do as well as he did. Obviously working out at home every day is working. He didn't pass but was told that if he continued he would probably get his stripe in March and should get his black belt in June. He has to work hard though. He has been lazy for about 2 years now. We all have actually. Things are a changin'.

The grand kids are active little bundles who need something to do at all times. Working with them is taking some getting use to and I haven't gotten it all figured out yet but I will.

Our grocery bill is going through the roof. We are buying milk every other day and 4 to 5 loaves of bread a week. So, I have started baking bread every day. Isaiah is ok with it but Katie is not liking it very well. They will get use to it. They are just now getting to the point that they aren't hollering for Micky D's every time we leave the house. They are starting to eat foods they did not eat in the past. I will get them healthy yet.

As a whole we are working on getting healthier and changing our eating habits. Johnny got 3 months free at St. Mary's Fitness, next month we will be adding the fitness room at karate to our yearly karate. That gives Johnny and I a place to work out for cheap. It also includes a kick boxing class. NO I AM NOT DOING THAT. I would fall over dead the first class. I have to lose some weight first. This is not a new year resolution. Those just don't work. Three of us need to lose weight and the little ones need to eat healthier they are junk food junkies. I won't make them eat what they do not like but am making them try new things. Adding vegs to recipes that they will eat is a great way to get them to eat more. We are also trying to eat foods that aren't loaded with preservatives and additives. My aunt sent me an email about MSG being in almost all the foods that we buy. It is also addictive and causes obesity. That is very scary to me. We are doing a lot of cooking from scratch here. I am using up some boxed things that I had bought with coupons and I will still keep a few things like that here just for convenience.
I am working on the gardening. I have radish, lettuce, spinach and sweet basil already coming up. The eggplant and parsley are planted but not sprouting yet. The lettuce, spinach and radish are tests to see if I can grow them indoors. I will let you kno wthe results. Today is going to be a good day to get out and get some beds ready to plant in. I am heading out after lunch to get going on that. I have much more I want to share on this topic so I will try to get some pics and write another post today or tomorrow.

Hope everyone is having a glorious and blessed day.

Life on the Farm

We are loving the life on the farm. Hearing the roosters crowing sometimes as early as 4:00 am is kind of cool. They do not wake me up I just woke up and heard them. If I slept on the end that they are located they might wake me up. If walk outside here about 6:00 am you can hear roosters everywhere crowing it is so peaceful.

We are up to 42 chickens:

Barred rock hens 10

Rhode Island Red hens 7 Roo 1

Mutts hens 2 Roos 2

Buff Orpingtons hens 7 Roo 1

Black Jersey Giant hens 5

Ameracauna/mutt? 7 we think 2 maybe 3 might be roos too young to tell

I am getting some seedlings started in the house. I have started sweet basil, parsley, eggplant and a lettuce experiment. I will take some pictures and show. I will be trying some spinach and radish indoors tomorrow. I will do that then take a pic for here.

I just wanted to check in since I had not written in a while. I have some other things I want to write about I just need to find the time.

The pictures are of my two grandchildren. The Bishop and the Princess. You got to love them.

What is this flower?

I got these as seeds. I got a bunch of different seeds and have no clue what these are. Could someone please help. I really like these and would like to get them again.

Anderson County Fair

This is how Ross did with his 4-H entries at the Anderson County fair. We have never done the fair before so this has all been a learning experience.

We also put our chickens in. I will put up a post on that next.