Mowing Hay

The last few days we have been busy mowing and baling hay. Almost 800 bales this cut. The fields were lush and beautiful this year.
Monday we mowed.

Tuesday we teddered. This process spreads out the hay and helps it dry a little faster.

Today we baled.

It was picked up and in the barn it went!

Let's Catch Up Part 4 - April

This was an interesting month for sure. To be quite honest not much changed in my world except for the fact I wasn't leaving to work my dogs each week. I stayed busy learning new skills in the kitchen. I helped my sister in the greenhouse. We plotted and planned our garden this year. We have plans to add a new one. I placed a couple of online orders for fresh produce a time or two. I made two trips out to the feed store.

Meanwhile, back on the homestead...
The first weekend of the month my new bees were set to arrive. I got the hives ready and waiting.

We got the new asparagus bed done and planted 70 crowns. To the right of the beds in the first pic will be the high tunnel hoop houses. THIS is FINALLY the year! Yay! there will be 2 each will be 14 feet wide and 36 feet long.

 Our last goat kidded and blessed us with 2 beautiful does!

The boys got the chicken tractor fixed. The meat birds were moved out of the brooder.

The strawberries, blackberries and blueberries are loaded with blooms. I think it is going to be a bountiful year.

I have been harvesting greens from the pots planted last month and the garden is coming along nicely.

We dropped the bull at the end of the month and should have him back in about 2 weeks.
Life is good... on the homestead.

Let's Catch Up Part 3 - March

March is the month that the homestead start picking up pace. Garden prep gets started. Early plants and potatoes go in the ground. Very busy times for sure.
The new layer chicks arrived the first part of the month. 8 speckled sussex are set to join the flock later this spring.

Our first set of lambs were born. They are a suffolk/icelandic cross. A ram and a ewe. They are pretty stinking cute and were born with short tails. No docking needed!

I attempted to make Brie cheese.

Sadly, it was an epic failure. ;-( But I will try again!

Towards the middle of the month things in the world were getting a little strange.  (aka "the virus")
I started to feel the need to stock up on livestock and dog food. I added several hundred pounds to our normal amount. I ordered some extra seafood from our local guy to freeze. I usually buy fresh each week but he said he wasn't sure what was coming or even if he could get any later on.

Towards the end of the month there was talk of a "stay at home order" being issued.  Every time I went out I felt a sense of panic in people. It was very unsettling. The shelves at the grocery stores were beginning to look bare. On the 25th of the month I had to pick up a prescription for one of my dogs at the grocery store pharmacy. When I walked in I was shocked. The shelves were empty, things were piled high in carts and panic mode was in full force. I felt sorry for so many. I could not leave that place fast enough.
On the 26th the meat birds came in. I picked them up with a little more extra feed, got them home and settled. That evening the order was handed down to start on the 27th at 5 p.m.

That weekend instead of planting flowers in my pots I planted food. Lettuce, green onions, kale and arugula.

 I also made homemade hamburger buns.

These small things brought peace to my heart in what I felt was a brewing storm.

Let's Catch Up Part 2 - February

The winter has continued to be very mild. We have been getting lots of outside chores done. The chickens are convinced it is Spring and having been laying around 30 eggs a day!

Baby goats started arriving this month. The month total was 6, 2 does and 4 bucks.

We had a terrible rain storm that moved through about mid month. We were flooded pretty badly but luckily not a huge amount of damage had been done when the water receded.

I started a sourdough starter from scratch and spent lots of time in the kitchen baking. Yum!

Autumn, the jersey cross calf born in September, decided chasing the turkey was great fun and in the process landed on the chicken tractor. She is a very naughty calf!

I scheduled our last 3 Kune Kune pigs to be processed for next month and the bull is set to go in April. I ordered some new layer chicks along with the meat birds that will be arriving next month as well.

Let's Catch Up Part 1 - January

It's been since October since I have blogged. One of the reasons I have slacked is because a knarly shepherd puppy has messed my camera up and I am struggling loading pictures from my phone. It's frustrating and way more time consuming for me.

Let's catch up. So we made it through the holidays which are always beyond crazy with family gatherings and our employee party and turkey cooking.

I look forward to January since it is usually cold and I have time to gather my thoughts and plan my new year, not so much this year! This January was extremely mild. If you have followed a while you may remember we planted 40 blueberry bushes on the back side of the property a few years ago. Out of sight, out of mind and we have not taken very good care of them. We decided to move them closer to the house. We spent 3 weekends digging them up and moving them to a new spot. And if you have followed us a while you can probably guess this snowballed into a new project... A new orchard! Our old orchard has become shaded our and is not producing well.

The new orchard now is home to 36 blueberry bushes, 10 apple trees, 2 cherry trees and 1 pear so far. I had ordered 60 asparagus crowns to go up there but we changed our minds. More on that later ;-)

This Week's Canning

Had to have my canning fix for the week! Today I canned boneless chicken breast. So easy to do. I cubed the chicken, raw packed into jars, added a smidge of salt and processed 75 minutes, Done!

Ready for the pantry and perfect for a casserole or quick chicken salad.

Pouring A Little Bit of Soap

I was recently asked to make some special order soaps. One of the stores that carries my soap has been mixing their own special essential oil blends. One is called Hippie Farmer and the other is called The Farmer's Wife. They both smell divine. While I was soaping I went ahead made a round of Russian Tea the always popular scent, especially around the holidays.