Well, it's been almost a year since I posted here. Geeze, what have I been doing?

The past few months I have been starting 2 huge market gardens. Have already been to the farmer's market twice so far with kale, lettuce, Swiss chard and onions. Been planting like crazy here. Just brought home another flat of tomatoe plants. WE NEED RAIN!!

Also in March my 5 ewes all had single lambs. We have 3 ram lambs and 2 ewe lambs. I will keep the 2 ewe lambs of course, to make my flock bigger. I went with all A names for this year. So the 1st born is a Finn ram named Abraham. He is all black. He is Darla's. She was pregnant with a Finn ram when I got her. I hope he stays all black. Lucinda, the Finn ewe, is blackish-reddish-brown and I want to use him to breed her. And the 2 ewe lambs. Then next is Adele. She is so cute. She is Leelah's. I went ahead and docked their tails since they are more wool sheep. Then next came Axle. He looks just like his momma, Gracie, who is a Katahdin hair sheep. I had to call my friend up the road to hold Gracie so I could pull his big self out. Then came Alfie. He is Fiona's. Then about 3 weeks ago Lucinda had Annabelle. She is SO pretty. Kind of gray with black circles around both eyes. I docked her tail too. It finally came off today. She is adorable.

Also had goat kids. Just 2 does were pregnant. Abby had a single little doeling on March 10th. I named her Iris Josie after my mom and neice who,s birthdays were the 8th and 9th of March. She is a little stinker, like her big sister, Zarah. Then Sandy had twins, a doe finally, after 4 years of all bucks, and a buck, who is amazingly gorgeous. I will keep the doeling. I named her Brie. The buck already is spoken for. He will go to a friend's farm in a few weeks. I named him Brick. He's all spotted. Just so cute. So now I am milking again!!

So I have been really busy lately. And need to get out there and get some chicken manure and til it in for the tomatoes. I am waiting for the sun to go behind the trees first though. It's so hot. And this is only the 4th of May. My sheep are miserable already. I told them this is nothing yet. I'll have to put a fan out there for them, poor things.

I hope everyone is doing well. I want to put some pictures up of all my babies. I will soon. Happy Spring and happy planting.

The Kitchen Smells So Good!

Right now in the kitchen I have fresh green beans with little baby potatoes and ham hocks from my pig, collard greens with ham hocks, a chicken in the oven that I butchered the other day with shallots from the garden and onions from the farmer's market. I have fresh rosemary, thyme and lemon thyme on the chicken. So everything except the little onions came right from this farm. It smells amazingly good all over the house. Such a good feeling.

There are some almost ripe tomatoes out there too. I thought I'd give them a few more days to ripen. But this morning on the way to the garden, I saw Benjamin Bunny. Bubba saw him too and took off after it. I was going to tell him not to chase the cute little bunny, but thought about all the food that cute little bunny might help himself to. SO I let Bubba chase it out of the garden.

Me and the grand, Kansas, went out to the garden this morning and she helped me pick the beans. She broke that all but a few. Then I went out and dug the little bitty tiny cutle little potatoes. I wanted to raost them with the chicken but decided to put them in with the beans.

I also made bread and rolls. That smells so good too. I love fresh bread right out of the oven. With butter and some good homemade jelly. Yum! That's like dessert.

What are some good things you're eating from your farm right now? I would love to hear.

Things Around The Farm

It has been awhile since I have posted here. The garden is slowly coming around and growing. It's been way too dry. We had a bunch of tornadoes April 27th and it has not rained since then. I am watering every day. I did get a ripe tomato the other day!!

And the goat kids are growing like weeds. I am ready to sell them. Don't they look like they need to get out of there? This is what their mommas see on their way to the milk room each morning. The kids are hollering "Ma!!" and they just wlak on by. They only have one thing on their minds. Well, 2 if you count getting milked.

I got 3 ewes yesterday. They are 6 month old Katahdin-Dorper sheep. They are a meat breed. They could possibly be bred. But it just happened the other day so who knows. I also have a little 1 month old ram lamb that I got at just a few days old. I am bottle feeding him. He's a Hampshire-Suffolk cross. I figured that at 6 months, if these girls are not pregnant, that he could do the job for some spring lambs. We shall see. I will try to post pictures of the lambs soon.

I have a few turkeys setting on at least a thousand eggs somewhere in the hay jungle in the pasture. I have not seen them in a few weeks now. I hope they are ok. I just can't see them. So in a few weeks I hope to see some little turkey babes.

I also have 6 meat birds that will be going into the freezer tomorrow. They can hardly walk. They won't even come out of the coop now. I am going to put them all in a cage tonight for their meeting with the hatchet tomorrow morning.

I have 7 little Buff pullets that I will move to the back into a coop in a few weeks. I have a game hen setting on a bunch of eggs in a bushel basket in the garage. When they hatch I will move them to that coop. Lots of moving going on here.

I am also going to be moving Mazie and Chuck over to the other pasture after Chuck is steered hopefully on Sat. Then they can eat down that grassy hay. While they are over there I will have the other pasture mowed. Then later put them back and then move the sheep up there. Musical animals. Anyone else do this?

I think I need a sheep dog now to help with all this moving. I have a friend who breeds and raises Aus. Shepherds. I have been thinking about getting one.