To market. to market...

Tomorrow will be my first day at the Main St. Farmer's Market in Chattanooga! I have been working fast and furious the past few days, finishing up things here. I made 19 (would have been 20, but one spilled) jars of dandelion jelly. Just picked dandelion greens this afternoon, washed them and bagged them and they're all in the fridge in the garage, ready to go. If there are dandelion flowers in the morning, I will pick those and take them for tea. I love dandelion tea, warm with honey. It's a great spring tonic.

I will also have my home made soaps, which would make great gifts for all those special mothers out there. I'd like to do gift baskets. I'll take all my things just in case. While at the feed store today, I saw an old painted side table that would look great as a display for my soaps. So I bought it. It's so pretty. I'll take pictures tomorrow.

I think I am ready. I have all my things from last season. I had to buy weights for my canopy, since they are required now. $30 at Academy.

I also bought 10 3 week old Cornish Cross chicks at the feed store today. They are already outside in a little round fence. I put a sheep over them. I hope they'll be ok. They're pretty big already. My 50 CC chicks will be here either Thur. or Fri. Then the 25 Freedom Rangers will be here May 15th. SO I'll soon have 85 meat birds soon.

I'll be going to the Brainerd Market Sat. from 10-12. I watered all the greens and cabbages tonight with fish emulsion. I have got to get these plants growing. They seem to be just sitting there. My potatoes are all popping up all over. So I hope to have veggies soon to sell.

My first time all suited up and out with the bees.

I stopped by a friend's place who has lots of hives. His mentor was there too. I lucked out on that trip. They showed me all the hives near his garden. It looked like 2 of the hives were getting ready to swarm. They weren't too thrilled about that. But I learned a lot just in the few minutes I was there. We have a bee association that meets every 2nd Tuesday at the AG center. I will be going.

I also learned that pollen can be different colors. Had no idea. It can be red, green, blue, orange. Just like us, they like a variety of foods, so everything has different pollen colors. I always just thought it was yellow.

I told him I had just gotten a hive of probably 6.000 bees. He said that's about as much as a package of bees would be. I said I was going to put that extra frame box on the top in a few days. He said with that few bees, that I needed to check the frames already there first and see what's going on. And that I should not add the 3rd box yet.

So, when I got home, I suited up and got ready to check my hive. I felt like an astronaut in this thing. And it's HOT in there! I got Heather, my daughter, to take pictures. And Kansas to hand me things over the fence.
I am taking the staples off here.

It was SO smokey, I could hardly see! And the bees were so good. They got a little upset when I'd smoke the hive. But nothing major happened at all. I'm taking the top off here, then the piece under the top.

Taking out a frame to check it. It was just black. There were bees up there. But the frame was black. What does that mean, all you beekeepers?

So I got Kansas to hand me the queen excluder and put that on in between the 2 frame boxes.

Then put the other box back on. And that was it. All done. Now I sure hope the queen wasn't in that top box.

This was really fun. And my very first time doing that. I have seen people do all this. But to do it myself was so cool. And I was calm and the bees were so good. I don't know if I'll get any honey at all this year. The way it looked, probably not. I need to know what the black frames mean now. And I did just look at one of them. I didn't take the 2nd box off to look at it. I should have. Maybe in a few days, I'll go back out and check that one. But for now, I am done.

Beautiful day. And dandelion jelly.

It's sunny and blue skies today!!! And SO green out there. But can't get in the garden to work. Too muddy. Can't plant the bushes I bought the other day. Too muddy. Can't mow the front yard. Too wet.

SO, I am on my way to get liquid pectin, which I should have bought the other day when I saw it, to make some dandelion jelly to sell at market. I picked all the flowers in the front yard Saturday and my middle grand, Coryn, helped cut off the flowers. I have the juice in the fridge waiting. I have enough for 2 batches. And enough jars right now. I'll have to buy more little half pints before I can make more. And there are more dandelion flowers popping up now.

My problem now is my stove. It's really old. And I am down to just 2 eyes on the left side. How is a person to do any canning with just 2 eyes? I need to get this stove fixed soon. But the guy that came to look at it said he wouldn't put $300 into fixing it. He'd just buy a new one for not much more. But I hate the new stoves. I love my old stove. My husband said if I love that stove so much, just get it fixed. So I think I will. And soon.

Enjoying the day

I had a nice day Saturday. I had to go do some running around and look for a birthday present for one of my grand daughters. I had all day.

I went to the farmer's market first to pick up some bushes a friend was holding for me. An oak leaf hydrangea, 2 old fashioned lilacs and a flowering quince. He also had a pot of peppermint. I am trying to get bushes and flowers and herbs all over the yard and gardens for the honey bees. I also bought a pot of thyme and some home made apple cider vinegar from another vendor. And 2 red hollyhocks from another. Then I spotted a booth with egg cartons. The sign said $3.50 a dozen. I ran over there and got one. Can't beat that price. While I was there, I got to meet and talk to several of the farmers. This is the market I'll be going back to in a few weeks. There are also some of them that will be joining me at the Main St. market as new vendors.

Then went to a thrift store right up from the market and found a bunch of baskets for my soaps. I thought I'd try to make gift baskets for Mother's day gifts at the MSM when I start going. And they were all 20% off!

I decided to go to Toys-R-Us and look around to see if I could find something there for Kansas. I used to work there when my first grand daughter was a baby. I worked there for her basically. I really hated working there though. I was always SO noisy and crowded. Screaming kids all day. So I was not really looking forward to going. But I went. And I walked the whole store. Slowly. And found a few things for her. It was really not so bad.

I then went to Whole Foods for some things there. And walked all over the whole store and really looked at everything. Every time I go there, I am always in a hurry so I rush through and just get what I went for. This time, I walked slowly and sampled every single cheese that was out. They were all so good. I got some too. And even sampled some gelato. I got the cucumber melon. It was wonderful.

Went back to Ace Hardware to take a can of spray paint back to exchange. And wandered around the flower garden section. Got some good ideas for my deck. Look at this display. I love it. It's pallets.  I have got to get some and use them as rails all around and at the back like this.  It is just too cool. This is my friend Beth who works there part time. I always get my flowers there because there are people who just work in the flowers. Helping people, watering all the time. The plants looks so good because of these ladies.

I really had a good time out and about. It seems like I am always in a hurry any more. I can't do this or that because I have to be here or there. Like right now. I am always driving way too fast. So it was nice to just slow down and enjoy my day.

Around the farm. Sunday morning.

 This is the garden this morning, after a monsoon. And it's still raining. This is the 3 beds I planted Wed. Now under water. I hope all the seeds didn't get washed down to the end.

                                                        This is the front sheep pasture.

Here is my pond, Sandra. It's not near as big as yours, and it drains in a few days. I need to get a few dump truck loads of top soil some day. Look at that fog at the foot of Pigeon Mt.

               And here is the pond in the other pasture. And a creek. And the horses across the road.

Standing in a bog puddle of water in the garden. I so need to trench so all this water will go down the rows and not over them.

 We're having a birthday party for my grand daughter, Kansas. She'll be 10 Tuesday. We got her and the other 2 grands, Chloe and Coryn, a Wii for all their birthdays. And Christmas. For a few years. They are having so much fun with it already.

Ihope y'all have a great Sunday!

Full moon and sunrise

Last night, the moon was HUGE! And it was still up this morning. So pretty. And Sandy still has not had her kids yet. I'm glad though, because it's been cold at night lately. But she usually has hers during the day anyway. We are supposed to be rainy all weekend, with possible storms. She'll have them then.




                                                    Can you see the scary sheep eyes?

I am loving this wisteria vine on the little piece of old fence with this pole for it to climb up. And with the sunrise behind it, even prettier.

The 3 bluebird houses in the sheep yard. Although there has never been any bluebirds nesting in them because they always get run off by sparrows. I have a lot of bluebirds around here, so they are nesting somewhere. One of the old maple trees I call the birds condo. There are holes in the big limbs where lots of different birds make nests.

I sure need a good camera to capture the beauty of these sunrises here. It really was amazing this morning.

Yesterday, while out running errands, I stopped at my Ace Hardware store. They always have the most beautiful plants and flowers and veggies. They have several people who only work in that area  so they are watering and tending  and helping people all day. I always get my flowers there. And last time, I saw this  and thought about getting it but didn't. So this time I did. There was also a butterfly one but I like the dragonflies. And it really spins too.  I love it. I also got a flat of the most beautiful flowers for the bees. Also went and got some old tires from a friend. I saw the coolest picture of a flower garden made with old tires they had painted all different colors and stacked up real cute and put dirt in them and planted flowers. SO COOL! So I have 5 tires now and I'd like to get some more to make it really stacked up. I'll get spray paint today for them. Then I'll post pictures of it. I can hardly wait to get started now.

I hope you all have a great weekend! And thank you all so much for coming to my blog. It makes me happy to know that someone is interested in my farm and what I do here.

Family Jewels

 I castrated these guys last night. They are a little over 2 months old. A few people had told me to give them a shot of Banamine before. So I did that. It took awhile to get those jewels to come down into the sack, but they all finally did. I felt horrible for having to do that. I sprayed them real good all around and made sure I didn't have their little nippley things under the band so I knew it wasn't up too high. They all did really good. After I did each one, they would just go lay down for a few minutes. But didn't act like they were going to die, like they do sometimes. So I hope the shot helped. This morning, they all look fine. A bit slower, but ok. Thank God, they are ok. I was so worried they'd all be dead this morning.

Here's Buck and Bo with their momma Darla.  And below is Tater Tot. They are all so sweet. Now they can all stay with their mothers and the rest of the flock without being pests. And, I will be in need of a hair ram soon. I'd like to have a red one like Tater Tot. I love red sheep.