Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Country Diary Excerpt

For Christmas, I got a "Country Diary" in the hopes that I could carry it around with me and write more. Then, I could take my notes from that and add it to my blog here later to keep everyone more posted.

For today's entry, I'm writing that the chickens haven't been laying eggs in 2 weeks now! 2 weeks!! Right now we have 5 Buff Orpington chickens, 4 Rhode Island Reds and 2 black Barred Rock hens ... ALL NOT LAYING!

Friday, December 10, 2010

It's snowing!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Giving Thanks For You

Happy Thanksgiving, friends and avid readers!!


There's lots of cooking and good cheer here in the house on the farm today. Loved one are arriving and Michelle is home from school for the holiday. There's turkey (not for me) and lots of vegetarian options too ... with pumpkin pie and chocolate/oreo cheese cake cooling for later :)

Whether you are on your way here or another destination, know that we really appreciate your continued support of our farm and family. Here's hoping this fall day finds you well!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Company for the sheep?

Like my mom said earlier, we were getting ready this afternoon for visitors for the sheep. A woman called this morning and said she wanted to visit to take pictures of her children with our sheep. Well, technically, she wanted photos of her children with white lambs, but after a couple email exchanges to explain we had lambs (but they were several months old, though definitely little because of their breed) and, yes, they're friendly (but that doesn't mean they're going to pose), she was on her way down (a 2 hr drive!) with her children in their Christmas clothes.

Mom and I quickly cleaned out the sheep pen. Visitors for the sheep definitely calls for some cleaning since it's been awhile. Sure, I take photos of our sheep, but I know how to, well, to be frank crop the crap out. Here's a before photo...


(see all the old, wet hay around near the barn door?) Well, we got a wheel barrel, a rake, our electric leaf blower and got to work!! After cleaning it out, we got a little festive in celebration of this family coming for Christmas photos. We put out two bails of hay and put the bench back into the sheep pasture so that the kids coming down could maybe sit there if they wanted to give the sheep cookies. Look how nice it is now:


Hey! What the...


Quit eating the decorations you bad sheep!!!
Getting ready for some company - a family wants to come take pictures with the sheep for their holiday card!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Unearthed Gems

Digging around and weeding during this gorgeous weekend, my mom unearthed more crops she hadn't known that had grown in her garden. The summer was so hot that often times, the idea of weeding did not just seem unfun, it was dangerous! However, with fall here and cooler weather on the way, today was a great day.

In her side garden, today my mom found:
red onions
parsley
oregano
asparagus
beets
spinach
bib lettuce
hot peppers
tomatos
Rhubarb

Withe the help of these new found treasures and my mom's excitement over them, I have a feeling the farmer's market will be back next summer!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Friday, October 22, 2010

My cell phone's now connected to my blog!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Water Awareness

2010 Blog Action Day is for water and so I thought to add something here. I wanted to keep this a simple post though. Please read and keep these facts in mind every day.

Simple tips you can keep in mind and (hopefully) change in your every day life to make a difference:

- For hanging baskets, planters and pots, place those ice cubes that dropped on the floor or were left over in your glass under the moss or dirt to give your plants a cool drink of water and help eliminate water overflow.
- Avoid watering your landscape during the hottest hours of the day (10 am until 6 pm) to minimize evaporation.
- Plant during the spring or fall when the watering requirements are lower.
- Use the garbage disposal sparingly. Compost vegetable food waste instead to save gallons and use this organic material as a layer on the surface of your planting beds to minimize weed growth that competes for water.
- (For my pet lovers:) Wash your pets outdoors in an area of your lawn that needs water.
-Peat moss, composted leaves (leaf mold), composted manure, composted kitchen vegetable scraps and grass clippings will all improve soil structure and enhance moisture-retaining capabilities (add organic matter into your flower and vegetable beds, preferably 12"-18" deep)
- Divide your watering cycle into shorter periods to reduce runoff and allow for better absorption every time you water.
- Turn your sprinkler system off during or after a rainstorm and leave it off until the plants need to be watered again OR consider installing an automatic rain shutoff device on your sprinkler system.
- Adjust your lawn mower to a higher setting. Longer grass shades root systems and holds soil moisture better than a closely clipped lawn.

Shocking facts that will maybe encourage you to keep the above simple facts in mind:

- In the developing world, 24,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unclean water. (from here)
- 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people. (more here)
- Humans largely influence the factors that determine water quality, as they depose off their waste in water and add all kinds of substances and contaminants that are not naturally present. We now know more than 70.000 water pollutants. (from here)
- 17% of the world's population lack access to clean drinking water. (from here)
- The UN estimates that by 2025, forty-eight nations, with combined population of 2.8 billion, will face freshwater “stress” or “scarcity” (from here)

Some sites for you to check out
- Backyard Conservation
- charity water (one of my favorites)
- Global Water Awareness & Action Campaign
- Environmentally conscious agricultural practices by U.S. farmers would ease drain on world water supply, Cornell ecologists report

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Make way for ... Ducks?!

I wanted to update on the adorable ducklings we had this summer and went to toss them some food the other day to get them all together for some great photo shots to share here. They came charging over, right with their mom like they have been all summer and I was surprised.


Just when I go to post on and on about how cute these babies are and prove it with updated photos, I find that they're not ducklings anymore ... they're ducks!

I'm absolutely astounded!

And, please, don't even try to make explain how...

this boy







and this girl







made this crazy combination!

Whatever they're adorable ... now anyone know how to socialize them more or, perhaps, even better, want to offer one or two a good (spoiled) life with you??

Friday, October 8, 2010

Closed for the season(?)

And so the time has come that we are now closing up our farm stand for the season... Sales started to slow, items to sell started to dwindle, the produce is mostly gone and, as you can see, we even dragged the sign up away from the road and back to the garage. Empty boxes and adorable Norman (one of our farm feral cats) definitely add to the sadness of this photo shot, I think.

Hope to see some new faces next season : )

Friday, July 23, 2010

This week

These week at the farm stand, we have...

- our own fresh chicken eggs for $2/dozen
- white sweet corn for $4/dozen OR $0.35/ear
- tomatoes for $3/6 OR $0.50 each
- cantaloupes for $1.75
- a qt of peaches or nectarines for $2.75
- seedless watermelon for $4
- blueberries for $1.75 each
- large sweet onions for $0.50 each
- fresh basil right from our garden for $2 a bunch
- fresh mint from our garden for $2 a bunch
- yellow squash or green zucchini for $0.50 - $0.25 each (lg or sm)
- qt of red potatoes for $2.25
- cucumber for $0.50 - $0.25 each (lg or sm)
- eggplant for $0.75
- local honey of various flavors for $2 - $5 per jar

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Surprise, surprise!


Look what I found!

Yes, another baby! Olivia had twins. Mellie had her little black baby girl. So who does this little munchkin belong to? Patty! Yes, Mellie and Arthur's baby from last year had a baby this spring! Apparently at some point, Arthur got Patty pregnant and she had an adorable baby girl on the 4th.

I went out back and found a shakey, wet, little baby sheep with Patty running around it a little franticly. Poor Patty, I don't think she knew what she was doing. Not expecting any more babies, I was lucky the "bonding pen" was even still together. Sadly, it was moved at some point and right next to the horse pen. I picked up the little baby, placed her in the pen and then tempted Patty in there with animal crackers. Needless to say, the horses were really interested in the screaming little black ball right by their pen...

Big, black horse inspecting a teeny tiny baby black sheep - a favorite photo of mine! The baby (still unnamed) seems to be doing well, though Patty seems to still be a little lost as to what to do. She seems to be a little lost without being with her mom, Mellie. Patty is all worked up being separated from the others, but never have I known how important that little "bonding pen" is. I'm sure she'd be running off and away from her little baby if she were loose with everyone else right now.

Yay for another beautiful baby though! That makes for so far this year (twice the number from last year!) since Olivia had twins. What a fertile farm! :)

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Our Farm Is Stand Open!

With everything in bloom now, "Wesh Farm's Farm Stand" is officially open for business!!

Right now we have our own fresh, brown eggs from our chickens, some flowers, herbs, asparagus and local honey in various forms, flavors & sizes. Since we're either working on stuff around the farm or at our actual jobs, we're going with the honor system for now ... though expect some actual "open days" soon where someone's down to greet you. We'll also be getting more fruits and veggies out there as they come into season as well.

Hope you can stop by soon to support local farmers & local food! :)





Saturday, March 27, 2010

New Baby!

Born while I was at work, here's the brand new, sweet, unique, teeny tiny adorable new baby - Mellie had an all black baby girl. She was born just yesterday (Friday the 26th) and, in my biased opinion, is just too cute for words!

With Mellie and her new baby needing the "maternity suite", we let Olivia, Amelia and Franklin (have I mentioned we named the twins? My sister chose the names) out to romp around in the one section of our barn so that we could still easily catch them to kiss them, squeeze them, hug them, scratch their fuzzy chins, etc. They're so darn cute ... ugh, and that little Franklin is just so darn adorable. He's so hard to resist! I hold him until he really starts to scream and squirm :)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Spring has sprung


Spring has sprung for sure!

The sun is out, things are looking green, all of the garage cats (including lazy Champ) are off the side porch and lying in the gardens (note photo of Norman and Champ) and...

We've got babies!!


That's right - babies!! TWO! Our Babydoll Sheep, Olivia, gave birth to twins today! So crazy! So wonderful. (weird side note: last night, between fits of coughing, I dreamed of two baby sheep being born today!) Let me give you all the details.

After dad told me there were two new babies outside I jumped into action. Grabbing towels and calling my mom, I rushed outside.

After getting into their pen, I picked both the babies up in towels and their good mom Olivia followed me into their "maternity suite" which is a little bonding pen we have set up so mom and baby(/ies) can have some privacy and, well, bond. After some issues with what my dad had to do to help (lay out wood chips, open the one fencing, open the pen, etc), everything was pretty much settled and I took some photos.


That's not one long lamb, that's one baby's back end and the front end of another ... their other halves just happen to be hidden by their mom. Like the sweaters? Yea, I also forgot to charge my cell phone this morning like I planned too (another task on the list neglected), so halfway through taking photos to send to people, my cell died. That's when I took the chance to put sweaters on the little munchkins. I put the most appropriate sweaters on them: the little boy has the blue with spaceships sweater and the little girl has the dark red-ish plaid one on.




Now, we're just waiting to see when Mellie will give Patty her first little sibling!


Also (though less exciting and you probably don't need me to tell you), the blog site has been remodeled. We've got a new background for the new season and fresh start! :)

Monday, March 15, 2010

Jersey Under Water

Today's attire for walking around the property today? Well, it's this...


Why you ask?? Well, we're under water:


The fire pit is under water. Trees are under water. The island is under water. Everywhere around us seems to be under water! The lake is higher than it has ever been and the large area between the lake and the drainage pit out front (which is full instead of the usual half-filled) are so full that they're spilling over, covering up the ground in our front field and almost touching! Here are some photos from around the property today...





Thank goodness for boots! The usual paths we walk near the lake are also apparently covered. It was walk through a tree (an ability I lack lol) or walk through some water.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Coming Soon!

I'm very excited to say that the farm stand my mom has been considering doing for some time now is going to officially be opening this spring!

We'll be selling eggs from our chickens, possibly some of my photos, the produce we grow in our own yard, local veggies and local honey too, which I'm quite excited about. The honey is made locally and with anything from pollen from wildflowers to the pine barrens to clover. Sounds yummy!

Just today we received these in the mail:



I'm stopping there though. I don't want to give away all our secrets! Just know that I'm excited and you should be spreading the word! Look, even this Blue Heron checked out our shed and flew off to spread the news :)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Spring Sprung?

Has Spring sprung? I'm left wondering just that as things begin to warm up here even though some snow still remains. Maybe I've still got some vitamin D from my visit in the FL sun following through my blood, but still, I sure hope so...



Monday, March 8, 2010

House Work

You may recall this post ... well, I returned to the farm from Florida to find a finished project - well, almost! Check out what all the noise was about:






We are very lucky to have some incredible friends willing to come to our house and close in our front porch. My dad stands a lot at our big front windows, so we thought closing in the front porch would be nice for him to be able to see more. Old high school friends (including the Nesbits from Florida who flew up), family and new friends all came to help out. It was very kind of them since this is a project my dad, if he were still himself, could probably have done himself. The help of friends was so wonderful!

And what, you might ask, were the ladies up to while the guys were busy measuring, cutting, nailing, etc?? Supervising!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Bang, bang, bang.

Bang, bang, bang.

That's what is going on right outside on our front porch. Guys are here and they're putting up the framework to then install big windows to enclose our front porch for my dad. I think he'll love it! He stares out the front windows all the time now and now he'll be able to do that in a room with views in three different directions.

Oh and by "guys", I don't mean construction guys ... no just a bunch of family/friends.

And on another note, we only have 12 hens and yet we're getting like 20 some eggs every 24 hrs. Are these ladies unaware that it's barely been above freezing lately and that in the last month we've had like 3 feet of snow fall??? I'm thinking we might have to turn their heat lamp off for periods during the day. These egg numbers are ridiculous!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sheepies


With the temperatures rising and the snow & ice melting, huge blocks of icy snow chunks have been sliding off the roofs of the barns and were creating actual walls of ice all around the buildings. For the poor little sheep, this is not good. So, shovels in hand, we went out determined to move this heavy combination of snow chunks (solid from turning into ice). It was quite a task! However, we were concerned that baby sheep might be on the way because about this time last year, we were waiting for Penny and Patty to be born.

Here's a photo of Olivia with Penny, her baby from last year, and Patty, Mellie's baby from last year. After tackling the task of removing the walls of snow (they were literally so big there was no way for the baby sheep to get out of their inside enclosures), we tackled something else - Penny! Do you see her eyes in that photo?! No!! That was exactly the problem. She couldn't see - not even to look for cookies when I tossed them at her because she was too nervous to approach me (since she couldn't see me either). So mom wrangled up Penny (not the easiest task) and then I cleaned the wool out and away from her eyes. Poor girl is seeing much better now.

Remember how I said Mellie was really unique? Well, it's true! Here she is again proving it...

Can you say extreme close up??? I snapped this photo of her while I guess she was trying to decide what's more important: cookies or the limelight. Silly girl!

I think the cookies won. :) After the things poor Penny had to endure to clean up her eyes, I thought lots of cookies (animal crackers) were in necessary. Not to mention, Penny and Patty we are trying to socialize a bit more - cookies definitely help with that. Though I just mentioned it was Penny (and Patty) that the cookies were really for, this photo is of Olivia and Mellie - the cookie monsters! Mellie absolutely embodies that nickname. At one point, she even tried to stick her nose into the big plastic container of animal crackers. Brat! Between tossing cookies to Penny and Patty (when Olivia and Mellie wouldn't get out of their way), Mellie seeming to have a bottomless pit and tossing handfuls of cookies every so often to Arthur (big daddy), I think we went through half a container of cookies/animal crackers that afternoon.

Ugh, the work that just went into the sheep that day! We dug away the slabs of icy snow that had fallen from the barn roofs, we cleared a path to the barn with the little "post delivery" box, we cleaned up Penny's eyes and then we spoiled them with lots of cookies. Wow! Ok, the last part was pretty fun, but still! I was pretty beat after all that.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch on the porch, the boys are sleeping soundly. No worries from them apparently...

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Photos

I've been taking photos recently and plan on selling some when my mom opens her farm stand.


My aunt said this one takes the cake so far. Hooray!

Like it??? I'll be selling framed prints :)

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Snow, snow, snow!

When they said we were getting hit with a lot of snow, I honestly didn't know just how serious they were. Sadly (or maybe thankfully?) I wasn't home for it - I was house sitting ... however, I was able to steal some photos from my mom, aunts who live near by and there's a few shots from where I'm house sitting too...

Farm







Aunts'


Housesitting



Rumor has it, more snow is on the way too in less than a week! February: the month of snow?