Getting Green

Things are moving along, getting leaves, and some things are flowering. I love this time of year when it's not too hot and everything is so fresh and new. I thought I would update with some pictures of things growing.

My husband gave the pear tree a buzz cut, so I wasn't sure if we'd get anything growing on it this year. To my surprise, there were still lots of flowers. Hopefully at the end of summer we will have a decent amount of pears to can.

Most of our little trees grew leaves too. One plum and one cherry tree appear to be dead, so we will have to buy replacements. The blueberry plants are growing leaves as well. It's exciting to see them thriving. Don't mind all the dang grass growing behind the blueberry plant. One of these days, I will get to mulching.

The two grape vines are finally starting to get tiny leaves. There's one right in the center of this one. I was beginning to think they were duds too. I need to put up some lattice for these soon as they grow a bit more.

My husband bought me two nice sized peach trees. They had blossoms and are already starting to grow something, so maybe we'll get a few peaches off of them. I'm most excited about these. I love peaches. We have to find a nice spot to plant them now. They are still in the pots.

The fig trees have started growing too. Figs are interesting because they never grow flowers. They just grow really big leaves and then one day figs start growing. You have to pick them as soon as they are ripe too, because they either go bad fast or the birds get to them. My chickens love getting figs for a treat. I love mixing them with other berries and making jam.

I'll end the pictures with this pretty bush. It's just a flowering bush, not a fruit one, but it looks so pretty and smells so nice, I thought I'd share.

We have been slowly transplanting seedlings and planting seeds in the big garden. I'll take some pictures soon. The weeds are kicking my butt. Next year, I'm putting the pigs on it and letting them do the work during the winter.

Planting Fruit

We worked on fruit today. We dug up 48 strawberry plants from the raised bed we had them in and put them in the new fruit garden. There's one more raised bed I have to dig up. It is being taken over by a rosemary bush that I also have to transplant. In the fruit garden, we also planted 10 little blueberry bushes and 2 grape vines. I'm going to outline it with rocks and put down mulch. Eventually I'll put a bench in the middle. It doesn't look like much now.

We put 2 cherry trees, 2 plum trees, 2 apple trees, and a birch tree into pots so they could grow a little more before going in the ground.

My husband started putting in the sprinklers in the big garden. My seedlings are growing fast so I need to get them in the ground soon.

Introduction to the Animals

I have been doing a lot of work on the garden, so I will update with pictures on that soon. I thought I'd make a post to introduce all the animals first. We'll be growing some food for them and some of them give us food, so they are important to this whole process. Plus, I just like sharing pictures of them.

First up are the goats. Goober is my only boy. He's a wethered mini Lamancha, which means he is neutered. He matches his name perfectly, as he is a big goob. He is the friendliest and I'm pretty sure he thinks he's a dog. Naomi is a mix of some sort. Her parents both had Boer in them. Neither look like her though. She looks like an Oberhasli. She's had one buckling with us, who went on to be a herd sire on another farm.

 Korra (the white goat) was my second goat. I got her as a little baby. There was a dog attack a while back and she now sports three legs. She is still herd queen and gets around just like any other goat. Like Goober, she is a pet and won't be bred.

The two little black and white goats are my newest additions. They will be one year old in April. They are mini Lamanchas, just like Goober. The mostly black one is called Remy and the spotted one is Diva. They are skittish little things, but will come running when you have food. They will be milk goats when they are big enough to be bred.

I have a handful of American Guinea Hogs. Don Cerdo and Dulcinea are my breeding pair. They are almost a year and a half. They are sweet as can be. They have had one litter of six for me. Of the six, one was not thriving, so I hand raised him and he is now a neutered pet. We are growing out the other two boys and the three girls were sold to another farm.

This is my Bubba when he was just a couple of weeks old. He was very tiny. It was a lot of fun raising him, though I think it's something I wish to only experience once. Especially since I grew so attached to him. He is super tame and loves scratches. The second picture is him now. He's around 4 months old.

These are the other piggies. We only have two of these left. They are more wild than Bubba, but still fun to be around.

We also have chickens. There were some troubles when we moved the chickens from the front yard to the backyard, so we lost quite a few. We have 8 laying hens of various breeds, 2 guinea hens that are loud as all heck, and one handsome bantam rooster. We call him Little Roo because we used to have a big roo (otherwise known as RuPaul) until he started going after the back of my legs. Then he went to another home. Little Roo has great manners, though he is no protector. He will warn the girls, but then he runs off into the woods and hides.

We recently purchased some chicks to add to the flock. I got 5 red pullets, 3 Barred Rock that I hope are pullets, and 6 Americaunas that I hope are pullets. The Barred Rock and Americaunas were straight run, so there will probably be roosters in the bunch. I'm hoping for some girls though, since I love the Barred Rock feather colors and the Americaunas' blue eggs.

 We have a few inside animals too that are just pets. Panda and Zee (Zecora) are our two baby guinea pigs. They are only a few months old, but we love them a lot.

We have four cats in total, but I can only find pictures of two cats right now. Leo is a beautiful dilute calico. She is the calmest cat and lets the kids carry her around everywhere. 

Mel is my old lady cat. She is going on 14 years this summer. We got her shortly after we were married and she is the animal I've had the longest. She can be moody and grumpy, but she's my baby. She was also not amused by this picture.

The two others are a tabby named Max, who is also super calm, and a calico named Callie. She is sister to Leo. She is the exact opposite of Leo and is very feisty.

So that is all of them! We have had a variety of other animals in the past, but I like this mix right now. They keep me on my toes and keep me happy.

Starting a Garden

I got it in my head to start a large garden with the help of some family friends. I have only done small gardens and not always successfully, so I decided to post about it all and hopefully keep on track. We picked an area in the back to start with.

My friend then came out and tilled a good bit of it. 280' by 40', which makes a 11,200 square foot garden. That is much bigger than we've ever done before.

Next step is putting in an irrigation system. I think we're going to go with moveable sprinklers this year and get a more permanent system next year. 

I started a whole bunch of seeds too. I'm going to get these growing some and in a few weeks, start some more. So far I have several tomatoes: roma, beefsteak, 4th of July, cherry, and chocolate cherry. I have started red peppers, green peppers, purple peppers, lettuce, spinach, green beans, peas, and cabbage. I still need to start onions and black eyed peas. I need to figure out what field peas are too, because my friend wants me to plant them.

The last project I'll talk about today is a cold frame we put together for when the seedlings are ready for outside. I had some bricks and old windows laying around, because who doesn't. So we just put together a quick and easy cold frame. I need to get some more bricks so I can make a couple more.