Fall Activities part 3

Thank goodness we keep Donnie around, we spent hours chopping wood. It really wasn't too bad, we just had quite a bit to be cut for winter. Good looking pile of wood, huh? 

I had a few of pictures of Luna on my phone I had to share. It's so cold out, I don't have anything green to share! So, here she is with our nice little Christmas tree. This small couch has become hers.. It's hard to say no to a dog so stinkin' cute.

For a while we had three chicks on the side porch. These were the ones born in October. Sweetest little things, three was the perfect number to socialize and spoil. Here they are staying warm in Donnie's enormous shoe. As you can see you can fit at least three in one shoe. 

We also had a family friends wedding in the fall. Here is the whole family all dressed up. It's nice to do every once in a while : )

Fall Activities part 2

We try to make sure we keep a good balance of fun and work around here. Not all of us are able to do it.. but, we've had a lot of down time down on the Delaware Bay. My aunt has a nice boat in during the summer, so we try to get there whenever we can. It's beautiful and calm down there. Days it's not too windy we get out to crab or fish. We've mastered our maryland style crab recipe.

Right around Halloween we had a gathering at the farm with friends and family. We made a nice dinner and all sat around chatting until pumpkin carving began. Then things got pretty serious, which is obvious from these masterpiece jack-o-lanterns. 

I've also had a little bit of time to ride this beautiful boy. He's such a sweet horse and with time has come to trust me enough to jump on him bareback! We were all the way out in the back of the property here. He has become a very nice addition to our ponies.

Last but not least of our summer fun, was Thanksgiving. We have a few regular pictures of family and the big meal, but I figured this one was the best. Mom made the pumpkin pie the night before so there was less work the next morning. Unfortunately for her, she finished late at night and we forgot to put it up high enough. Our big white fluffy, Christian, figured this out and took full advantage. He ate every drop of that filling! I'm sure it was just too delicious



We are REALLY looking forward to getting back outside once it's warmer. It's just no fun to try to play outside during this cold we've had. 

Fall Activities part 1

Well we had TONS of great veggies and fruits this summer. What we don't grow ourselves, we buy as local as possible. I'm talking road stands around the corner. There are some great secret spots down by us with inexpensive, organics that you can buy in bulk. We go a little crazy with freezing and canning these delicious treats.. Tomatoes, salsa, peaches, apples, tomato sauce, apple sauce, and grape jam are all canned throughout the year. We have eggplant, asparagus, broccoli, eggplant, peaches, beans, peas, and leafy greens frozen. Good thing we got a bigger chest freezer!

 One of our batches of peaches

 Top left shows most of our canned goods. The other two pictures were random baskets we picked this summer for meals. It's hard to not miss these days. Fresh berries, still warm from the hot sun.. Crisp peas, a pepper you can bite into like an apple, cucumbers you don't even have to wash to enjoy! Who can beat that!? My mouth is watering just thinking about all the great tastes of summer!

Mum saved lots of seeds from our garden for next year. All of our melons did wonderful this past season.

 Jen invited mom to sell a few things at a nice event at her work. She set up a table, took local apples, honey, and apple sauce. We brought one of our dogs, met interesting people, and really enjoyed ourselves. There was also a great group called Howling woods farm. They rescue and care for wolves and wolf hybrids. It was very informative and we got contact with these amazing creatures!

 This wasn't our best summer for being on top of our garden.. I know this, but it was still a beautiful garden. Here's two shots of different angles. The first shows a line of our enormous sunflowers all lined up against the chicken pen. When these started to die the chickens would fly up and pull the flowers down. They absolutely LOVE the seeds. 

Sheep and Chickens

We figured it was about time to give you an update about our lambs. Our handsome ram went in with his girls in November, which means we are expecting some new lambs around March 28th!

Yes that's right, in just a few more weeks we will have more of this :

This year Olivia, Mellie, Nina, and Rain have been with Arthur. So we are expecting at least four little ones. If you are interested in buying a sheep or two to start your own flock, feel free to contact us here or email with any questions. 

Another fun update is our lovely chickens have just started to lay again! After a few weeks of slowing down the laying, then absolutely NO eggs from molting, we have seen the light! They started laying one or two a day last week. Here is hoping it starts to increase. Honestly, thirty some chickens and we get one or two a day? I've informed them they will be stew soon if they don't step up their game... This weekend I brought one in to check his leg, he had a bit of a limp, but is overall perfectly healthy. We took a second to snap a picture before I let him back outside with some snacks. He is one of our newest chicks this fall. Out of our five new chicks, FOUR of them were roosters. How about those odds? It works out well though because T-rex loves the two older ones, he even taught them to crow. So hopefully we will be one happy flock with a few more roosters. 

And, last but not least, we've restarted the fodder for a healthy winter snack. The chickens and sheep absolutely love it! And, it's really nice to have something green and growing on these cold, short days.

Our New Year

With this new year, we figured we should update you on what's been going on around here.. 

We've had no new additions to our little farm, but all of our babies are grown up and lovely. It's hard to believe the chickens from our last post are now two adult roosters, and a BEAUTIFUL black and green hen. They are Donnie's favorite hens, and they still come running when they hear someone outside. These three are always out, which means they are always getting into trouble. Here they are trying to get onto the front porch.. and then they chose the front gardens threadleaf maple to roost in for a early afternoon nap.

Clearly we'll have to get a few close ups to show off their beautiful coloring. The roosters are just starting to crow and have a few short, green plumes coming in. 

We also have had a few nice snows. Nothing too serious, no electric lost (thank goodnes). Our property is wonderful in the snow, so I ran around to snap a few pictures of the snow covered land. This first one was as the sun was setting so everything was a really pretty blue color. I wish cameras could paint the beauty that's there, but not being all that creative, these few pictures will have to do : )

 And of course, with snow comes the extra care of animasl. As you can see, some of our babes are not fit for snow. Here's T-rex, my favorite Ameraucana rooster, trying as hard as he can to stay out of the snow! Above is one of our sheepy girls, Olivia checking out what we were up to out there, without having to go out in the cold wet snow. Can you tell we have some spoiled brats for animals?

Below, my big handsome (DIRTY!) American cream draft, Remy, was enjoying frolicking around and kicking up his feet out in the back field with me. This was another early evening photo when the sky was getting darker.  

 Our great pyrenees mix, Christian, got some time to show of what a little snow dog he is. He has fur perfect for this cold wet weather!We celebrated our one year of having him right before christmas with this snow. He is almost two, but a puppy at heart. Which really helps make my little black mix, Luna, be extra playful. So here are two pictures of all the pups enjoying the snow.

 Christian rolling around.

We'll have more updates as we get closer to spring! Hope everyone is enduring the cold winter. Keep thinking warm, happy thoughts and before you know it we will be starting to plant our peas!

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!