Updates from around the farm

Well, things are going well this spring around the farm. I might finally be getting the hang of this farming thing after 10 years. The garden is going great, just loads of work. I still can't say enough how I love my bio-dynamic garden. My garden is lush and green and full of yummy food. The weeding is relatively easy. Right now some of the pathways are getting out of hand and the rabbit patches are growing faster than the bunnies can eat. However, that is a good problem to have since I don't have to worry if the rabbits are going to have enough food. I am still having trouble with one chicken getting in the garden. I hate to get rid of her since she is one of my best egg layers and I have lost two hens this year already. One was simply very old I suspect. We don't really know how old she was when we got her as she was given to us by someone who could no longer keep chickens in their town backyard. The chickens are getting to where they range farther and farther away on the property and the other hen looked as if she was attacked by something. We really need another LGD, Dakota can only work so many hours and she does an awesome job at night. During the daytime though she gets rather exhausted and it is hard work keeping up with chickens scattered hither thither and yon. Right now with the farm situation up in the air we really can't justify another dog. On a good note we have had two hens sitting on eggs. They decided to nest right next to each other and apparently are sharing duty. They mixed up their eggs and so both had eggs hatch from the early batch and then there are still eggs from a later batch. One hen is taking on the newly hatched chicks from both nests and the other hen sits on the unhatched eggs. The rest of the eggs should be hatching within the next week or so. The chicks are mutts, but they are ever so cute. It is so much fun watching mama hen teach the little ones how to find food and she is a vicious protector of those babies. Poor Cujo thought he would check out the little fluffballs and say hi. Big mistake as he found himself with a face full of angry mama hen! The rabbit grow out cages are almost full and since it isn't all that hot yet I am hoping to get a few more litters from the colony. I don't really know whether they will take a summer siesta (papa bunny going heat sterile) or not since being in the indoor colony. We will have to wait and see. We can't complain with the numbers though and will truly have a great supply of rabbit meat this year. The bunnies are still very happy with their colony and so far it hasn't been all that difficult to catch weanling bunnies to transfer to the grow out cages. The goats so far are behaving themselves when I let them out to browse and are staying close to home. We still have the perimeter fencing to re-fence, but that is on hold until we know what is going to happen to the farm. I just wish they would hurry up and have those babies. I have a couple that look like they are going to explode they are so big. However, they could wait a few more days until I get the goat barn stripped and the new kidding stalls built. So much to do and not enough time or energy to get it all done.

Since it is spring and the weather outside is glorious we have been doing some hot and heavy cleaning up and cleaning out and repairs of course. We have cleaned out a lot of garbage that the previous owner left and kept saying she was coming to get. Since she held our mortgage we didn't throw it out because she kept saying she wanted it. Now that she has passed away we know that her heir doesn't want rusted old metal and 30 year old batteries. It is nice to be able to finally rid ourselves of all of that garbage. Maybe now we can get in the shed and rebuild the roof since we finally have room to work. I couldn't believe when I gathered up all the old batteries to take to town.....I gathered 20 old batteries from various places around the farm. Yesterday, doing some more cleaning up I found 3 more, so those will be going to town. It sure does make things look better around here to have all this garbage gone. The thing that astounds me is the amount of said garbage that we have gotten rid of over the years. The previous owner never threw anything away and if it was broken it just got pushed into a shed or piled in a pasture. Those mountains of old fence and rusted metal were the first thing to be gotten rid of. They were such a hazard to anything in the pasture and there was nothing of value in them anyway since everything was rusted to bits. Anyway, it is nice to finally be able to get things cleaned up. Now, if the heir will just come and get the rest of her stuff we really will be able to do some things that we haven't been able to because of the mountains of stuff. The ducks are doing a great job of keeping bugs out of the garden. I have seen very little and even though I have some flea beetle damage to my crops it is nothing like in past years.

Things are going well this year with the exception of not knowing what is going to happen with the farm. I just try to stay busy and not think of losing 10 years worth of work. I know if it is God's plan that we start over somewhere else then that is what we will do. Sometimes it is just hard thinking of doing just that when I think of the work, time, blood, sweat and tears of the past 10 years getting to this point. So, I just keep plugging along knowing that what God wants will be and we will adjust and adapt however we need to. He will never give us more than we can handle....at least that is my mantra. Blessings from the farm, Kat