2009 Farm Review

Ah, how I love Spring and Summer. I love being outside though the moments have been few and far between this Spring. Even though the gardens are weedy, I still love them. I'm stick'n with them until the end!

Columbine is one of my favorites, you never know what you are going to get.

They are perfect for tucking in you hair for church…

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2009 Farm Review

Here is my husbands first garden.

He has never been a gardener, could care less. I've tried and tried to excited him no avail...then out of the blue he reads this book by Joel Salatin and wallah, we have this super garden. It is beautiful, I have to admit, and quite intimidating to me. I, myself, would NEVER start with a garden that has over 30 - 40 ft rows. Yikes. Talk about jumping in with both feet! Every evening he goes for a walk to see what is popping through, with me. I love the garden already for the quiet walk we have just about every evening. ;) He planted corn, green beans, yellow beans, snap peas, radishes, sunflowers, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, watermelon(I have a bet against this one!), cucumbers. Jessie found a seed head of wheat in our straw bale, separated the wheat from the chaff(a fun visual bible lesson in itself for the children) and planted it. It is one of the tallest plants!

This sudden garden has been quite the educational tool. So much of what we are told to teach our children isn't exactly practical in their upcoming roles as husbands, wives, providers and home managers. We have had such wonderful conversations over this garden as to what veggies keep through the winter, how mamma does it and using what little(or great) land God gives us to provide for our family and how best to do that. What a wonderful, practical education. A plethora of questions, activities and learning opportunities arose from this simple garden.

I have officially been put to shame by my husbands gardening. The above picture is my once gorgeous flower bed, mingled with all types of perennials, now all green with tall weeds, sigh.

Here is Paul's berry garden, complete with salvaged raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, you go hubby.

And this, my dear readers, is my Mamma’s Garden. There are dahlia’s, squash & tow-mators, they are just playing hide and seek. Yes, I did this purposefully to create an eye-spy garden for my children. Do you buy it?

This is Paul's other blueberry garden.

We were given 20 young plants from a neighbor blueberry farmer who was throwing them out.

I put two new kiwi vines on either end.

Thank you Lord.

Here are our oldest meat birds, ready for butcher in about a week and a half. Notice they are all so meaty now, they do not walk much!

Here is our 2010 laying flock. We have had barred rocks and rhode island reds for yeeeears. They are a dual purpose bird which eats way too much food for the amount of eggs they put out. We never butcher our layers(no reason really, other than once you are used to cornish cross, a barred rock is scrap) so instead of a heavy duel-purpose bird we went with the feed stream-lined leghorn. Skinny little birds that can outlay most any breed. I had to have a few Americauncas(green and blue eggs) sprinkled in there for fun.



Our other meat bird hoop house two weeks behind the birds previously mentioned. We raise two flocks two weeks apart. That way we butcher the larger roosters from the first flock one week, then the hens the next, then the roosters from the second flock the next week and the hens the last - giving us an easy 4 week butcher schedule.





I have never cared for rabbits because of the waste under the cages, the smell, the yuck. After reading Mr. Salatins book Paul decided to get more rabbits and put all the cages in the chicken pen. They scratch and peck through the droppings which is great for them and makes conditions now sanitary with no smell! Can't beat that. BTW, we do not free-range our chickens because I love my flower beds and chickens have built in homing devices for neatly tended flower beds.

Daddy was quite the hacky-sack player in his day. He tried to teach Jacob how to play the game, move the moves, but more practice will be needed...Daddy ain’t moving like he used to.

Daniel is content as a anything to tinker in Daddy's shop.

I tell ya, this guy is going to be one handy man.