Farm Happenings

Well, now that everyone is updated on my journey to wellness I should update on what is going on here at the farm. I overseeded yesterday with Bahia. The clover we started year before last has noticeably taken hold in the pastures this year and is coming in strong. This is a good thing and we are happy to see it. The fire ants are coming on strong this year also and we are struggling to keep their numbers down. There simply is no getting rid of them it is a matter of keeping their numbers manageable. Fire ant killer is the only pesticide that I use on the farm and I hate to use it. I have tried all the natural alternatives and none of them work, they just feed the ants. The spring garden is coming up even though it has suffered some damage from my rogue chickens. However, I don't have any black seeded simpson coming up and I am wondering if I got some bad seed. I bought some more from a different place yesterday and hope to get some going. We still have so much pasture cleanup from this winter to do and it is almost overwhelming, especially since we don't have the tractor at the moment. The hydraulic lines burst the last time we used it and dear hubby hasn't had a chance to get them fixed yet. So many of our old (very old) pines have died and finally dropped all their limbs this winter. It almost looks like a lumber yard in the front pasture. We also have a large one that came down by the chicken coop that still needs to be cut up. It seems like there is always cleaning up to do around here. No matter how much we clean up, it seems like there is always much much more to clean up. Of course, there are still piles of junk left from the previous owner that we have to deal with. Since she carries our mortgage we spent several years waiting for her to come and get her "stuff" (read garbage). She never did and so a few years ago we starting getting rid of rotted stuff. We rented a dumpster for a year and literally filled it each and every week with trash. At least we did get the mountains of scrap metal and old fencing out of the pastures. Those were nightmares waiting to happen. I will be glad when the rest of it is gone though. I am really OCD about clutter and clutter seems to always abound around here. We are planning to have a yard sale soon to try and get rid of the "clutter" that we inherited from my mother in law. The bunnies are happy in their colony setting and there have been no tifs. It looks like all the girls are getting big bellies so I am hoping that we have loads of babies in a week and a half. They don't get as spooked anymore when I go in the colony and are coming up to me and a few have even allowed brief pats. I do need to get some more light in there. Sunny days aren't so bad, but these cloudy days make it so dark in there. I am working out a plan for that. I am getting ready to host some spring workshops here at the farm, which should be fun. I am hoping that there is a good amount of interest. Most of the workshops revolve around gardening, but I do have one rabbit workshop. I was at the feed store yesterday and the children picked out some annuals to pot up and put on the front porch. It always is so nice in the spring to drive up and see fresh plants on the porch. It really lends of sense of home. So we will do that today. I have been gathering some pallets to use for re-building the old shed to use for firewood storage and maybe a processing area. I love using pallets. They are free, easy and last for a long time. We have a slope next to the driveway that nothing grows on except wild roses, so I have been thinking about building a hugulkultur bed there in a terrace fashion for something. I don't know what, but I will worry about what to plant there once I get the bed done. I guess we can use some of those downed limbs in the pasture for that. Some berry bushes might be nice. I am thinking that we might replace the interior fence lines with jackleg fences since our pine thicket needs to be thinned badly, but that might be a project for next year. Can you tell I am an impatient person?! There is always so much that can be done to improve this place and we spent so many years just building soil and working on worn out pastures (still and ongoing process) that I guess I feel like I haven't done anything sometimes. One of the front gates has kicked the bucket too so those need to be rebuilt. Sometimes, I feel like all I do is put out "fires" instead of making improvements. Having a small (read very small) budget doesn't always help but it does get your creative juices going! Anyway, just a lot of cleaning up and rearranging going on along with the garden. I am getting anxious for the goats to start kidding so that I can have milk again. The milk in the freezer has separated and is great for cheese, but not much good for drinking. I am so ready to have milk again. I don't think I will be taking another winter off of milking for awhile. I really really miss my fresh milk. I was forced to buy milk the other day and even though I bought milk from a local dairy, it is pasteurized and just isn't the same. It's also cow milk and the children think something is wrong with it since it isn't white. For those who don't know goat milk is naturally white, cow milk is not. What is in the grocery store has been treated to be white instead of the cream/off white color that is really is. Since this milk has not been treated it is still the off white color that it naturally is. Anyway, that is about it around here...just our normal busy days. Blessings, Kat