the new "flop house"

Joseph and Brian took the new goat shed up the hill yesterday evening! It' very exciting as the temporary goat shelter for rain and shade was made of an embarrassing combo of bungies and tarps it wasn't pretty... so now we have yet another mobile unit for our farm on wheels... this shelter will move around with the goats where ever they go they seem to have takin to it right away and it's big enough that it will accommodate our new boys coming at the end of June...


Flops and scooter checkin' out there new home.... hence the new name for this mobile unit.. the "flop house" named thanks to Joseph...







The "CARVERLAITERMEISTERMAN" ridin' on the tractor


This is the new log splitter... and no I don't mean Joseph.. it's the first tractor implement we bought brand spankin' new!!! from OVS ... Mr. Gauna and Dara you won't have to worrie about those "unsplittables" anymore and although I'm sure this December I will miss swinging the maul in the freezing cold at 6 am to get a fire going I'll remember it fondly : )


I'm also trying a new photo size I felt like those little photos just didn't do it... but if these are too slow let me know and I'll go back to the smaller ones..

Because we need more animals : )

So in about 3 weeks we will have 4 new additions to our farm... yesterday Brian and I went up to Hawks Mountain Ranch and picked out four of the cutest little weathers ever : ) they are just weaned - little bouncing babies... and I can't wait to bring them home...

These little guys are "Pygora" goats - these are smaller goats about the size of romeo and Juliette... I've learned they are great with kids, produce wonderful hand spinning fiber, and are good brush eaters !! which all sounds good to me ...

They are a cross of a Pygmy goat and an Angora Goat. The Angora goat brings in the white mohair fiber and the Pygmy brings in the color and Cashmere type fiber.

Here they are .. more photos when we bring them home : )

Cherry Crisp


Acorn


Cayenne Pepper


Mud Puddle

counting blessings...

This morning as I did my morning "chores" which I have to say really need a new name as I look forward so much to the morning mmmmahhhh from the "goaties", Mr. Chief with his deep low happy to see me" mmmmm ... and the pigs ohhh the pigs.... they are so funny they sleep in till I get there unlike the other animals who start munching when the sun comes up... the pigs lay around till I show up and then they jump up and spin around and grunt...I open their pen and turn on the fence and they go bounding out in to the pasture I think the pigs are BY FAR the cutest animals on the farm... so I'm thankfull for all these animals .. I really look forward to collecting the eggs which should be in another few weeks!!

This morning I was also thankful for new friends we are making up here in OR ... we had two of them for a wonderful dinner last night ... (thanks Maggie and Michael for coming all the way out the the farm... oh and sorry again about that flat tire!) ...


Brian walking up the hill to throw the ball for miss Clementine...you can also see the scotch broom in full bloom!!

which brings me to Brian ... well I'm so totally in love with this guy and he's just freggin' amazing... after chainsawing wood all morning patching up something with the welder he comes inside and cooks the dinner for our friends we started with his home cured duck ham and home smoked wild salmon... followed by oysters , then rack of lamb, risotto with morels, and spinach with home made panchetta... and finished off with a light salad and a strawberry rhubarb tart (that was my little part : ) ... I'm blown away again just writing it... so I'm incredibly grateful for the amazing creative talented man in my life!! I am truly blessed...

My Brother Joseph is visiting for two weeks and that is just wonderful he's helping Brian with all kinds of farm work! and he's been just a dream to have around...

I'm incredibly thankful for this amazing spring we are having and that my gardens are finally "in"

(which is just the beginning of course but things are growing all that work back in February doing hundreds of starts has paid off : )

we had our salad out of the garden last night .. so we are getting there slowly but surely
(thanks Joseph for the all the help digging in the garden : )



my amazing husband once again built me this awesome garden fence !

So happy spring !!! may blessings come to you too!!!


Chief AKA Toro he does all our "mowing and fertilizing" around the house : )

Now a member of the human RACE....

Today is a great day!!! .... Joseph called me a few days ago and said I scheduled for satellite to be hooked up at your house!!!

I'm so grateful that he got me off my "you know what" to get this done... it was one of those things that I've been saying "I'm gonna do" for way too long... and now thanks to the carverlaitermeisterman ... I'm now I member of the hi-speed world!! yippee!!! and although the dish is not exactly the prettiest thing on my 100+ year old farm house.. I'm considering it a very necessary evil for now... and we did try to put it up in the most subtle place possible... and boy I'm loving 1000kbs instead of 28.8!!! hello world... now I'll have lots more time to put into my garden instead of sitting here waiting for stuff to load!!...

in other news around the farm... When I left napa I left behind some of the most beautiful red poppies they where real show stoppers and just went all spring and summer long... .. it is a flower I missed the most from our old house... until yesterday when the bunch of rough looking greens that I'd hoped where poppies finally bloomed. I had never grown any of this sort so I just held my breath.... and then one bloomed and I'm totally blown away!! these poppies are the biggest (like the size on my hand no kidding!) most beautiful poppies I've ever seen ... a total gift ... so today I'm grateful for my gardens as they grow...

this made me smile

Thanks Kevin sunbrothers for this amazing piece of art that keeps things in "perspective"

I love it so much everyone who visits the farm loves the carrot..

The Big Carrot of Big Table Farm... : ) I think I like giant carrot better ...

kind of an inside joke

You may have seen the t-shirts that all the urban hipsters are wearing...

this is my version... : )

a farm by this name...

it's settled...

Big Table Farm

Our wish is to have ample space at our table for others and ample food to fill it

Pretty as Pigs on Pasture...

There are lots of sites around here that are let's just say "unconventionally-pretty" to look at.. I guess it is true beauty is in the eye of the beholden : )

One is the sight is of my husband actually diggin on my horse and vic-a-versa... : ) ...



another view that makes me VERY happy is our garden as it goes in ...
As I write this Brian is putting finishing touches on the new garden fence (photos of that coming soon : ) ... we used the new tiller and tilled our compost pile into the new site (although not fully mature it's a start) I got the potatoes in yesterday and hoping to get the rest of my little plant'lings in by the end of this week we'll see it's ambitious...


I did move the plants outside a week or so ago for "hardening off" mostly because I was anxious to get my studio back so we cobbled together a little make shift green house.. (ok not so pretty but oh so functional: ) we did have some loss as I did rush the the starts out a bit ... but we still have the makings of a substantial garden...


The other pretty picture is the two girls out on grass... our pigs are now on pasture full time which is really fun to see and they are as happy as... "pigs on pasture" : )

,
We also hooked up the chicken bus as it's now been dubbed by carla chambers : ) for it's first rotation around the farm it follows chief's last pasture rotation in order to scratch up and spread out his "left overs" it's been fun to start things moving into a cycle...


In other news we did a bit of tractor implement shopping ... our new acquisitions include

1. a new water tank which Brian retro-welded a trailer for so I don't have to schlep water a couple hundred yards every day.. yeahhh

2. a tiller 64" : ) because size matters
3. a honkin big mower that's 6 foot : ) should "throw down and take names" of scotch broom or so I hope...

4. fork lift attachments for the front loader for Brian's new firewood system...

So now that I've successfully emptied my bank account ...I'm going to go back to work now... to the sound of two dogs snoring in my office.. : )

lulu aka legs she's a tall one : )