The Little Farm Grows

It has been an amazingly beautiful weekend here on the farm. It was a bit windy yesterday, but warm enough to be outside and enjoy the day.

There's quite a bit gone on in the last two days...our animal number count is now up to 51! On Thursday my son and I drove to a little neighboring town to pick up our Amercauna chickies. We were supposed to pick up 8, but an unfortunate incident with a neighborhood cat, left us with only 3. (RIP fuzzy bottomed little babies.) Only one of those is a true Ameracauna, meaning she will lay all blue eggs. The other two are easter eggers, and they will lay eggs that are pink, purple, green and blue. So if you're on the market next Easter for real Easter eggs, well...you know where to go!

Friday brought us five baby Turkeys. I'm amazed at how cute they are as babies, knowing how ugly those poor sweet creatures are going to grow up to be. My heart bleeds for them, really. Three of them are a heritage breed, and if you can imagine what the offspring of a chicken and a zebra would look like, you get a picture of these babies. The other two are white turkeys. They've got attitude. They know they get to be cute  as babies AND grow up pretty. Shameful...

My sister came for a visit Friday, along with my two favorite little girls in the whole wide world.
The biggest downside to this farm, is that I'm further away from my family. I miss those little monkey faces (wipes tear). An upside to this farm, is seeing the sheer joy on their sweet little faces as they run around our farm. Little faces all covered in dirt...hair all in knots. Squeeling like it's the best day EVER. We even got a special tractor "quilt" ride from our precious neighbor.

After the girls left today, the neighbor called and asked if I'd like to go with her to pick strawberries. This was the first time I've ever gone strawberry picking. Perfect day for it. The sweet smell of that strawberry field...wow. I picked about a gallon of beautiful, fat, juicy strawberries. As soon as I got home, I baked three loaves of honey wheat bread, and made six pints of jam. Guess what was for dinner?
The house smells amazing. I wish I could pour that in a bottle and sell it. I could probably pay off this farm.

After all that was said and done, I headed out to the back five, to do a little foraging for blackberry leaves. I popped those in a cool oven to dry, and ran a loaf of bread over to the neighbors for being so sweet to my family this weekend. I told her I was drying tea, and she gave me a bunch of lemon balm to toss in with it. We'll be drinking blackberry lemon balm iced tea all week!

Tomorrow, we will wrap up our weekend with a trip to Goat Lady Farm. It's a big organic goat dairy farm, and from the looks of the photos, is just as beautiful as it is productive. We are all excited!

The Good Life

A brief overview:
In August of 2010, my most excellent husband made my sometimes secret life long dream of being a hobby farmer come true. I've always had a passion for critters of all kinds. Since the time I learned that fries must be cooked with oil, I've loved cooking from scratch. And for as long as I can remember, I've been at my happiest when my hands were the dirtiest. So I guess the whole hobby farming thing makes sense.

I'll fill you in on the happenings of our young lives as hobby farmers. After some much needed repairs to the house before our move in date, we finally settled in to this little slice of heaven we now call home. My son's 13th birthday, his ascent into manhood, was spent with loved ones camping out...right here on our little farm.

Winter was a nightmare. We, being quite naive, or in denial...not really sure which...as to the warmth insulating abilities of an 86 year old house, froze our poor arses off all winter. We hardly spoke to each other because we were all so agitated from being cold, and when we did, it was sometimes..well...a little unfriendly. We were rewarded however, for all of our suffering, with snow at our family Christmas party, AND on Christmas day. It was the first Christmas snow in my life. I wrapped myself in a blanket, sat down on the porch swing, and watched it snow on our farm on Christmas Day. Magic.

For Valentines Day this year, my true love gave to me, chickens! Sweet fuzzy bottomed little blondies. Buckeyes they are called by the professional chicken growers. It has been the most fun and happy thing watching them develop from little balls of puff into full grown chickens with attitude!

This week we added 10 baby ducks. Cute they are, but neat creatures they are not. I've never, at any time that comes to mind, ever seen a living being poop so much...all the time. Them giving me the pleasure of watching their shinanigans in a little paint tray full of water, makes up for the mess I guess.
And in the words of the most awesome Forest Gump..."That's all I got to say about that."

Well folks, thank you much for taking the time out of your busy lives to read the ramblings of a girl living the good life. Night all. :)