lots of "goings" on the farm

Where to begin... I'd say with a note of gratitude...
This time last year Brian and I were living in different states and trying to buy this place which seemed to be slipping away at that time... and here we are a year later wow.. I feel blessed!...

So here's "mighty might" our new-old john Deere crawler that only turned left when we bought it... an month or so ago... Brian being so amazing managed to get him running great ... and so with a (new to us) mower brian and mighty might have teamed up.. and we'll let's just say they are putting the goats to shame... but the goats will still have a job on the really steep terrain... but Brian has been getting after the scotch broom and it's exciting to see our hillside starting to be revealed...





Our Fire wood stacks for this winter are really shaping up ... Josephs help this summer got us going and now Brian and I have added more.. Brian has as improved on the palette system by using some steal shelves that we salvaged from a trash heap out side a staples that was getting re-modeled.. what a score : ) ... the palette system Brian has devised is quite clever of course - with the fork attachment for "Maggie" we can drive brian's wood palettes to the burn piles.. where we pull out the logs chainsaw and split them and stack them on the palettes .. then the palettes get driven to the winter storage and then again driven to the house for use.... the beauty here is the wood only gets stacked once!! and if you've ever heated with wood you will appreciate the time saved with that : ) ... I also got lots of tractor driving experience the last week or so I think I like driving mighty might better than Maggie... I think it's a combination of being closer to the ground and lower chance of tipping over... : )








I addition to being warm we will eat well this winter as well ... I've been filling our new chest freezer with anything that will keep from the garden. I was also inspired by our friend Maggie - (no relation to the tractor : ) and have done some canning as well... and everything else we've been enjoying while it lasts... It's been really amazing to eat meals right out of the garden along with our own pork and even home made pasta with our eggs... some day a glass of wine from the hillside... again truly blessed!



These next shots are Brian carving up our ham that he made from one of our pigs... it was pretty darn tasty!






Many thanks again for all those who weeded and planted in our garden during the broken arms... I think of each of you as I dig potatoes pick tomatoes and gather bunches of basil!! thank you....

cantaloupe : )

pumkin

garden bounty and some canned apple sauce from our trees... : )





veronica - cauliflower family pretty fun vegetable





the Broccoli I've learned keeps on even after the firs harvest... gotta love an overachieving vegetable like that

and my cutting flowers.. can't eat 'em but sure are nice to look at : )

The fruit trees are going like gang busters with more fruit than I know what to do with so far I've noted about 4 kinds of pears and a few different apple varieties... the pears are small but super sweet... chief knows which trees to go hunting around under for his breakfast... I'm not sure if I be able to can too many this year but we'll see... we certainly have been enjoying eating them ...so much to do so little time...




So now on to the livestock news... I've put the new hens in with the layers and everyone is getting on just fine! Doug the rooster showed a surprising acceptance routine as I put each new hen in .. he sort of shooed each one individually into the flock it was really very sweet... of course he pecked each one first just to say "hey pay attention I'm in charge here... now go over there with the other girls..." now we have 50 hens! it's quite the flock...



Then there was an unexpected surprise two days ago I had one black hen that didn't want to stay with the flock she kept going off on her own and disappearing for days at a time... and then I saw why .. she was sitting eggs and produced 12 of the cutest little chicks i ever saw!!! there living in chiefs stall for now after the chicks get a few days older I think I'll move the new family out to the garden...









I hope it was Doug who fertilized blacky's eggs our other roster Percy is not quite the stock doug is... : )



after several hours and way too many wheelbarrow loads I got he pig pen totally stripped down ... then I put in about 6 loads of wood chips and a bale of fresh straw ... it looked nice enough for me to curl up in quite frankly... then I went and picked up our next two girls from a local pig breeder a small family operation about 4 miles away ... these girls looked good.. I'm thinking we may have to re-visit perry and platus for thier names.. john you may have to weigh in again...



Last but not least Mr Chief and I have been working towards a new job for chief... he's taking to the harness well and so far so good I've done the first part of his "breaking" to harness and ground work. I have spoken to a local horse farmer and trainer and hoping to meet him this coming week to talk about next steps and get a little guidance for chief and I as we go forward...