When You Have Apples....

At our new homestead, we have an old standard size apple tree. What a blessing! That tree was one of the many reasons I really liked this place when we started looking for a new homestead. Apple harvest time has come. We have harvested 150 pounds of apples. I got 18 quarts of apple pie filling, 8 1/2 pints of apple jelly, 14 pints of apple butter, 24 pints of apple sauce, and a couple of gallons of dried apples.

Baby chicks

Our first hatch from the incubator! We didn't get as many as I'd hoped. Decided that the temperature wasn't high enough causing the chicks to delay piping from the shell. It was a test hatch anyways. Getting ready to put another small batch in the incubator either today or tomorrow.
 

Tour de Fleece 2013 update

This years Tour de Fleece is coming to an end. I was able to spin almost every day:) I got quite a bit spun. I learned that it is very possible to spindle spin enough for a sweater in a months time and that the mohair I have in my stash is not something I want to spin. I had great fun and really enjoyed seeing other spinners works. I spun a total of 860 yards of two ply yarn.

Rain! and Garden Update

After two months of no significant rain, we got nearly an inch of rain last night in about an hours worth of time. The garden is happy!
















Took some pics of the garden today. Picked a couple of zucchini squash for tomorrows lunch.

Brakes!

Sam the pony helped us gather more hay for mulching the garden. Used the utility trailer behind the forecart so that we could gather more hay with less trips. Sam had no trouble pulling the load. However, he did have to use some effort to hold it back when we were parked on not so level ground. I really wish that Pioneer had put brakes on the pony sized forecart for this very reason. Sam could pull that weight just fine, but it was a bit of a strain for him to keep it either from running him over or pulling him downhill. Brakes would have helped him in those situations.

Tators

Dug Yukon Gold potatoes from the garden. Yum!

Chicks Gona Be

I sold some laying hens to cut down on the flock and used that money to buy an incubator. I have 14 eggs in the incubator now as a test hatch. Started with 15, but one wasn't fertile. Fourteen is a nice even number anyways. Hopefully, all went well, and by next week I'll have 14 little chicks that have hatched. Can we say chicken pot pie...

Tour de Fleece 2013

Getting ready for the Tour de Fleece coming up. Clearing my spindle so that I have a fresh start. Took off 300 yard of fine spun yarn.

A Meow of a Day

Our kitten Kaylee was spayed recently and I caught her napping...

Make Hay When the Sun Shines

We've been mowing the pasture with the DR Trimmer, raking it with a leaf rake, and using the pony to haul it to the garden for mulch. Killing two birds with one stone, by cutting what the horses/goats didn't like, reducing the weeds out in the pasture, and improving the garden by mulching the beds.

The Heat Is On

Well, this week summer heat has arrived. Temps in the high 90's, and it's not officially summer yet. I've got to hurry and finish getting the garden mulched before drought weather settles in.


The green beans have started producing, yeah. The sugar snap peas are done for. Time for them to be turned under and something to take their place.








Saw these wildflowers in the pasture and decided to pick them. Not sure what they are, but they sure are pretty!
 

Pony Power

We've been cutting brush off the fence line and feeding it to the goats in the evening while the goats are penned for the night. Free food for the goats, and eventually the fence line will be clear enough that we will be able to put up permanent fencing. I got tired of carrying the brush and decided to use the pony Sam instead. He's such a good pony! What a wonderful helper he is!

Say CHEESE!

My dear hubby built me a new cheese press today! He is so handy! So in the press is hopefully going to be Cheddar. The one thing, I'm going to have him change, is to add feet to the bottom so that it will be easier to put a tray under it for draining the whey off.

Baby Bird Rescue

While doing chores last week, husband discovered a baby bird that had fallen out of it's nest. We couldn't find the nest, nor was I willing to ignore the poor thing. So, I've been taking care of it in hopes that it would survive and be able to take care of itself in the end. So far so good. It can now fly short distances and is starting to learn to eat on its own.

The first photo is of just after rescuing the bird and the second photo is a week or so later.

 

 

Happy Memorial Day

So far, I've picked 8 1/2 lbs of Sugar Snap Peas out of the garden. I'm so impressed with this variety of peas. Also, this year a nice little oops happened when I planted some annual ryegrass as cover crop. It didn't germinate until after I had planted the peas. So, the peas grew up with the ryegrass and that kept them cool and gave them some support. Next time I plant peas, I will do this again only I will wait to plant the ryegrass after the peas have sprouted so as to give the peas a head start.

The lettuce and other salad greens are there, but for some reason, they are very slow to grow. Not sure if it's the clay in the soil or that we've had a lot of rainy weather this spring. Potatoes were just hilled, and are looking good. A couple more weeks and they will be flowering and getting ready to makes tators.

The green beans were spotty, and so I've replanted most of one row. And the cowpeas (purple hull, and silver hull) were also spotty. I'll have to look and see if I have more seed to replant part of those rows as well. I think I planted the beans a little too early. 

The rest of the garden has been tilled a couple of times in preparation for the hot weather crops. Squash, pumpkin, peppers, tomatoes. I'm not sure what else I'll plant.

  The girls out on pasture.

 

Redirection, Reflection, Rededication

A lot has happened this past year. I won't get into all of it, but the first week in Jan. this year husband was in a major wreck in his big truck (18 wheeler). This has led to the both of us reflecting on what we want and setting goals in that redirection. So, the both of us are rededicating ourselves to making a real living on homesteading/farming. With the long term goal of getting him out of the big truck and being able to stay home.

Having said all that, I was thinking about the garden when I started writing this blog post. We moved to a new and better place to do our homesteading/farming. And now I have a new garden spot to work with. Every year on Memorial Day, I'm going to take a photo of it and keep track of it's progress. How well it's doing and what I've planted.

This year so far has been a great year for peas. Usually by this time peas are burned up due to the heat. But, we've had lots of rain and some cool weather. The beans are not so great. I'm going to have to replant part of one row.