Sunday Morning Surprise

Hello hello!
On this unusually hot (at least as of late) Wednesday I figured I would share a little love with everyone...
This past Sunday we woke to wonderful surprise when we wandered out to feed the animals. To start, I must mention we have two very very bad hens who just refuse to stay in their pen. The one, a plymouth rock seems to have been laying eggs in our horse pen. Well the few times our easter egger rooster got out seems to have been sufficient. That's right! We have brand new chicks!

There are only three little ones, but aren't they too cute?

All three are black and two have little white dots on their heads. Fingers crossed they turn out to be all hens that we can keep for laying!

Another fun thing this weekend was the watermelon Mom finally decided to crack open.. Check out how big and beautiful this was! Everyone enjoyed it, and conveniently we still have at least 6-8 more out in the garden : )

New Additions

The past two months have been busy around here! While our produce hasn't been as abundant as usual, due to this crazy weather, we've brought in some nice additions to our little farm.

First came Miss Mona.. She was more of a rescue then a breeding purchase. We got her to help clear some of the weeds out in the pens, goats eat just about everything. Her wonderful personality was another reason we couldn't leave that farm without her.

 So far we've learned that NOTHING keeps her contained and she absolutely loves to be around us. She's even figured out how to get back into her pen so that she's there when we go out to feed. she's a ba-a-a-d little goat. And hard to take pictures of, sometimes she's even crashing into the camera! Nosy little girl.. I promise to have some new ones added, but this one of her trying to follow us in the house was too cute.

Next came Remy, a much bigger addition. He is a towering 18 hh, and such a looker. Our latest farm hand, my boyfriend Donnie, made the purchase in the beginning of August. We are happy to have this new boarder on our farm! It's nice to have someone else to ride with : )

And of course, there is nothing sweeter then a boy and his horse. Made us all think of when Dad first brought home Phantom. There were nights he slept in the barn so he wouldn't be all alone. Donnie sure does love his new pony, he's such a sweety!

Oh, and while on this update I figured I could throw in this lovely picture from my cousins wedding last week..It isn't often you get us all dressed up, so i figured we should share it : )

From left to right, Donnie, me, Mom, Jen,and her boyfriend Matt

Gardening on this lovely Tuesday off

What a beautiful, HOT day today! Just came in for a quick lunch and wanted to post a nice update of our wildly growing garden. We picked some of our greens and some of our delicious (out of control) snap peas. Yum!

  We spent a few hours out there this morning cleaning up a bit. Boy were there some weeds! If we're being honest though, there still are quite a few out there. I was trying to do things one space at a time while Mom ran around pulling weeds where ever she walked. I'm not sure who was more efficient.. But here's my wheelbarrow full of weeds for our very spoiled hens. 

Took a few pictures of our lush garden while I was out there to share. It's hard not to be excited about all of the veggies just starting to show up on each plant.

a little bitty eggplant coming in

A few of our quickly growing squash

 And last but not least, my favorite, the clematis with one of the violets we transplanted in the fall.

Hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying these nice summer days. Stay hydrated!

New Toy

Went away for a nice vacation at the beach, came home and mom had a nice little surprise waiting. She had bought a nice shiny new John Deere tractor! She is ohso excited about her new toy, hard not to be excited too. And, it's a pretty simple model that has just what we need: a nice size bucket& an auger for all the posts we've been putting in by hand (it's terrible, trust me). Only one picture for now, but I'll take some more as we get it dirty. 

Big Fish

I don't think I need to say it, but I will - mom was over the moon excited when she caught this fish yesterday!

Mom went down to visit her sister and fish on the bay at a undisclosed sweet spot yesterday (Sunday). Along with a little help from her sister's good bait and dad's favorite pole, the one he lovingly referred to as "Ugly", mom caught this fish and five others! A good start to the season, I would say ;)

Have a wonderful week, friends!

Around the garden

First off, it is one of my favorite times of the year - the roses and honey suckle are blooming out front.

As soon as you turn into the drive way, past the first field and right in front of the lake, these bushes have been there since we purchased the farm. This time of year and with very little care (they're grown wild all this time), they are just as beautiful as they smell delicious! It is just a absolutely great "welcome" to the farm and spring/summer I think.

As I wandered back to the main garden area, what do I hear? Clucking! These bad little hens are always out! A dynamic (though naughty) duo...

And here are some other great photos as well:

- Some gorgeous perennial flowers Ali bought for dad's memorial garden. We planted them, and all the plants we were given, around the farm to keep them safe and thriving until we have the garden all set up and ready for planting.
- A small patch of some of the mani mint plants we have growing. The mint was from our garden in Wenonah and was originally from Aunt Jean.
- Last photo is how the potato plants are doing so far. These are the potatoes we plants with Annah and Bennett when they were visiting in April.

Happy growing!

And the sheep in the family have grown with our cousins in Maine now being sheep parents as well :) ~ http://polkadiles.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/

We are so excited for them!

End of May update

The front yard, blooming beautifully

It's about time we update about the produce we have going on here.. This week is one of the last for fresh Jersey asparagus. Hurry down to get some! Next week, or maybe even this weekend, we plan on getting some Jersey strawberries in!

We cleaned up and banded some of the asparagus to sell today if you need some. But, don't worry, whatever we don't sell we'll eat, and anything we don't eat we freeze for winter. We aren't ones for wasting produce this good& it sure is great to have some asparagus in the fall or winter.

Here's Luna helping out with the packaging.

Also, on this very warm day on the farm I figured I'd snap some shots of the garden for everyone to see.. Can't wait for tomatoes right from the vine.

Our delicious greens

A couple of the potatoes plants

Strawberries looking very nice

Tomato plant coming up nicely

 One of the most beautiful flowers blooming beautifully, the clematis. Hard not to enjoy such a lovely time of year:

And then there was one

Here's our lone lamb left of this season:

Our oldest and our fist babe from Nina is the only lamb we have left after a wonderful family came along and bought the others (as pets). It's wonderful that a group of them left together and also that the twins got to stay together since the family planned to make the boy a wether.

Anyone interested in this handsome ram? There's still time to make him a wether too if you're only interested in a companion. He's silly and full of personality!

Lambs

What a busy morning it's been on the farm. Last night Mom got an email from someone interested in coming down to look at a few of the sheep. We're both awfully happy she answered so quickly. A couple came down and left with four lambs! And, what a great home they are going to with kids, goats, and lots of space. Good luck little ones, enjoy your new home!

We only have one lamb from this year left if anyone is interested. It's Nina's little ram that is growing up to be very  handsome! The picture to the right is from the day he was born, and the one below is him at 6 weeks. He is still an intact male.

We have a few girls from previous years that are for sale as well. Check them out on the "for sale" tab!

It sure is turning out to be a surprisingly good morning here on the farm. Someone must be looking out for us up there. Enjoy your Monday!

International Respect for Chickens Day

Tomorrow, May 4th, is International Respect for Chickens Day.

Just like dogs & cats, chickens have distinct personalities and are sweet & enjoyable companion animals. Also, the more chickens are studied, the more it has been seen that they also have amazing cognitive abilities and emotional capacities. They display empathy and are very intelligent birds. Plus, there's the belief that chickens evolved from dinosaurs, so we really should be nice to them ... just in case.

This May, celebrate chickens through out the world and protest the misery & bleakness of their lives on factory farms. If you still eat eggs and/or chicken meat, please consider not eating these animal products at least on May 4th. Maybe try an egg substitute or do some research on kindly, happily keeping your own chickens to spoil and get healthier eggs from.

Come on, for just one day you can eat plant-based foods - fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, seeds, nuts, etc.

You can find more information here.

More Babies, More Sweetness

Sweet little Rain had her baby the yesterday afternoon. She and her new baby will be available in eight weeks, once he is old enough to be separated. Unless you are interested in Mom and baby of course! He is an unfixed male at the moment.

That's right, more babies on the farm! Thursday evening, while working out on the horse barn, we heard a fresh new lamb cry, and went to find a very new baby with her mom, Rain. A first at this farm, a white baby born from a brown babydoll. Quite the little stunner too, he is as white as can be! Neen's baby boy is just starting to get bouncy, and he is looking very handsome in his rocket sweater. He is still not named, any suggestions would be appreciated! You can see his smug little face in the last post. He just KNEW he was the cutest thing in the barn in that picture with me.




Also, Mom's one little green house got broken into by one of the dogs the other night and let in the cold air.. Bad news, almost all of the plants that were out there are looking awfully rough. This afternoon, I planted about 200 new tomato seeds, 50 of our green peppers, 50 of our red pepper seeds from last season, and a few miscellaneous squash& watermelon just to add something interesting. Here's hoping these all do well and start popping up soon with all this great weather!


Next up, we have our two other expecting ewe's, Olivia and Mellie. Liv is ENORMOUS and looks ready to pop any day now. Mellie is the brown girl who is usually pretty chubby anyway (she's Mom's favorite, so very very spoiled). Hopefully our girls give us a few baby girls now that we have the two males! We promise to keep you updated with more baby cuteness : )

I figured I would snap a shot of our proud papa, Arthur, while we were taking pictures of everyone else. He's snacking on some of the fodder that we've been growing. This handsome big guy loves it.

First Time Mom

Our most recent addition, Nina, had her first baby on our farm! Yesterday morning as Mom headed out to feed she heard the wonderful noise of a little lamb. We were very happy to welcome this little man. And, Nina has made an excellent mother! She was sweet enough to let me pick him up and snap a shot before putting on his sweater.

Now we just have to figure out a good name for this little thing! He is for sale, and will be available once he is old enough to be separated from his mom. Babydoll sheep make wonderful pets and have excellent wool. Contact us if you are interested in adding a few to your flock : )

Repotting and preparing for our lambs

With only a few more days until the sheep due dates, we are just finishing up our preparations. The bonding areas are full of fresh straw and clean buckets. The girls, much to their dismay. all got their shots this weekend, and of course lots of animal cookies. So now we wait, hopefully we will have some exciting news and pictures by the weekend!

The rest of our time has been spent mostly preparing plants for outside. We have hundreds of tomatoes, some peppers, strawberries and flowers started now. We have all different stages at the moment, and have been repotting until we run out of room!

Here are some of the stages of growth. 

We had quite a few of the more stable plants out in the green house today. While out in Mom's little greenhouse I got some other shots of what's growing..

Nice and green, looking great : )                        Some gardenias Mom planted

Some of our strawberry plants from last year that we brought in.  The outside ones were coming up nicely until our little herd of teenage chickens found them. Hopefully they didn't pull up the whole plant, little brats. 

And of course, the beets that we're very excited about! I think they are looking great! And they taste great too, can't wait to get what is growing in the dirt.