So Much to Catch Up On!

I really AM still around!  I can't believe it's been ALL SUMMER since I posted last! 

I guess we kept REAL busy, and now this Fall, we are STILL very busy!  I am actually homeschooling my boys again!  So they get the computers during the first half of the day, the second half, I try to play catch up in my house!  (More on that soon!)

Well, I PROMISE I will be back and share how it went with 4H this year, with our food prep, our farm and more!  Talk to you all soon!  :)

Clothesline Challenge!

Alright ~ time to share how much you have SAVED on either your gas or electric bill by using your clothesline instead of your dryer!

This month there was about a week where it RAINED almost everyday.  So I used my dryer at that time, but MOSTLY have line dried everything!  My last bill, I saved $40 off of our usual bill!  We also got a swimming pool during this time and have been running the pump, but we STILL reduced our bill!

Now, how about YOU!?!?!  How did you do?  Did you save?  Tell us about it!!! 

Pictures from the Farm

 I know I have been MIA lately....  So I am giving you a few pictures from the last week.  We have been so busy (despite the chillier temps) with weeding garden, strawberries, we even sheered ONE of our sheep...

We are busy, but I am enjoying it.  It is rewarding!  Having those berries in the freezer, knowing that the garden is producing when the grocery bill is tight.  And the harvest, Mmmm mmmm mmmm!!!  Delicious! 

On to the pictures!

Our beef cattle

Our ducks by the pond

Some of our goat babies

Our Jacob Sheep Mommy, Lindsay

Lindsay's daughter, Charlotte

Puck- Before Haircut

Puck- After Haircut

My Jacob Sheep Girls

 Two of our ducks hatched their own babies...  And they are super cute.  So are the boys in these pictures... :)

Boys and Baby Ducks

Koen & Baby Duck

Caden & Baby Duck

Hope you enjoyed these for now...  I WILL be back soon.  I want to hear how the Clothesline Challenge has gone for each of you!  That will come up in the next few days...  Get your electric (or gas) bills out and be ready to share on Monday!  Also, how is your garden doing???  I can't wait to hear AND to show you ours also...

More later!

Harvesting!

Oh my, I absolutely LOVE this time of year.  The WARMTH has not only appreared (as well as some of the rain DISappearing), but along with all of that rain and now sunshine, we are seeing things spring up like CRAZY in the garden! 

I will share pics soon, I am actually working (volunteering on our church office while many people from our church get to go to Israel!).  So I will add pics when I have time in the next day or 2.  But we are REALLY enjoying the harvest of STRAWBERRIES that we have been getting DAILY!  The last 2 mornings, I have enjoyed a fresh ORGANIC strawberry and raw milk smoothie for breakfast!  Doesn't get any better than that! (Well, maybe with some homegrown raw honey!)

Lettuce is also coming on!  I CANNOT WAIT for that!

Many othering things are Springing up!  Pics coming VERY soon!

What are you enjoying from your garden/farm???

Rain, Rain Go Away...

....come again in July....

OK, so it doesn't rhyme, BUT, the rain SERIOUSLY needs to go.  I hafta go swimmin' if I want to hang anything on my clotheslines!

Boat needed to hang clothes on line!  ;)

We have hardly gotten much of a break around here.  Besides that, people all across the country can do without the devastation that many of these storms and rain are causing...  WE ARE PRAYING FOR THOSE PEOPLE.  And I can complain about some rain (well, a LOT of rain), but our hearts are really sad for those who have lost loved ones or even property due to this mess of stormy weather...

And we are DEFINITELY earning our name "Muddy Boots Farm"...  Why didn't we name it 'Sunny and warm boots farm', or 'sunny with a pleasant breeze on a beach farm'....???  Live and learn, I suppose...

Gardening on Our Farm

Just planted garden

 It's been a while since I have updated much going on here on the farm.  So today  I am going to update you on our garden!

Austin planting potatoes

In Indiana, it has been raining SO much that my garden was just too wet to even till!  My hubby finally got it tilled about 2 1/2 weeks ago (if I can remember right).  And the next day I was planting my potatoes!  I got red and Kennebec potatoes.  About 15 lbs in all...  It cost me less than $2 and will bring us well over 100-150 lbs of potatoes.

Potatoes and strawberries

About 1 1/2 weeks ago, I got a bit more planted.  I got 2 types of lettuce.  I actually planted MORE than I know we will eat, BUT I am hoping to be able to sell some of it.  Hopefully that will go well...  I am going to be planting some Kale also soon (if it stops raining again).  I also planted 2 rows of carrots, two different types.  I had 4 yellow pepper plants, but one died of undetermined causes... Maybe underfoot of a wayward duck...  :(

Lincoln Peas

We also have 2 rows of peas.  3 different types of organic tomato plants, and 4 Roma plants.  I am hoping my tomatoes are better this year.  Last year, my plants weren't very productive and those that WERE, were rotten BEFORE they started to turn red.

I have one cucumber plant.

I thought I had planted my green beans, but looking back through my things I guess I haven't planted them yet.  I will get to those as soon as the rain stops and things dry out a bit.

Large Strawberry blooms

My strawberry plants that I planted last year are doing SO well!!!  The flowers are HUGE!  I can't wait to start getting strawberries.  We JUST ran out of our frozen strawberries, and I am super bummed about it!  We still have lots of jelly left though.

Strawberries with rainy sky background

2 of my blueberry bushes made it through the Winter.  They won't probably produce much for a few years.  I would like to get several more, because blueberries actually absorb pesticides like a sponge and most places feel the need to spray for bugs!  I want to get away from that!

I just got some rhubarb plants from a friend.  So hopefully next year I can get some rhubarb for some nice pies and desserts!  :)  YUM!

I also got some red raspberry plants from her also....  Oh the possibilities!

My apples trees are blossoming right now also.  I have the two older ones and the two newer ones (planted last year), which are looking great and will probably produce fruit!  Not sure how to keep the bugs off this year though.... Last year I lost all of my apples to the bugs.  :(

My good lookin' boys in front of our apple trees

I am also hoping to utilize my herb garden this year.  Last year I let it get too grown and flowered out without a chance to learn how to use them much...  I enjoyed the FEW times I did get to use them, but this year that is more of a priority!  Anyone have some ideas you want to share???  :)

So, how are YOUR garden's coming???  I would love to visit your blogs and see!  Post a link in the comments if you have a post about it!  Thanks and can't wait to see them!!!!!

I'm Still Here!

Alright, so I haven't been writing on here.  If you have a small farm of your own, you know what a busy time of year it is!  I will be posting again in the next 2 days... ASAP anyways...

Until then, hope your Clothesline Challenge is going well!  I think mine seems to be alright, except there has been a lot of rain, and I think tonight I HAVE to use the drier... boo...

Talk to you SOON!

PS-  also, still trying to get pics onto my computer...  Since I have to replace all of that and I have NO time, it's been a job!  :)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

I hope all mother's out there have a BEAUTIFUL Mother's Day....

You have earned a day named just for you!  Thank you for raising your children the best way you know how, and for trying to be the best mother you can be...

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Clothesline Challenge

I'm kind of freaking right now because my pictures didn't exactly get saved when we did the computer cleaning.... I mean we THOUGHT we saved them and it DID save SOME....  So I am using some images from Microsoft!  Thank you for saving me Microsoft Images! 



Anyways, the last several months I have been FLIPPING OUT at the increasing amount of electric in our household!  We just can't afford to spend anymore on electricity!  One thing that has made a NOTICEABLE difference in the past, has been when I use my CLOTHESLINE!  My husband actually figured out that 2 years ago, we saved over $100 that summer (about 4 months)... 

So, in wanting to save EVEN MORE, I am going to challenge MYSELF, as well as YOU!  I want to see how much we can truly save each month on our electric bills!  Of course there are other little shifts in electric, but I want to see if you can notice ANY differences at all!

If you don't have a "proper" clothesline, it doesn't matter.  Use some clothesline in between a few trees, whatever you can do to get those WONDERFUL smelling clothes and save some $$$.

You up for it?  Check out your latest electric (or gas) bill (whatever kind of dryer you have).  Look at the total, and let's see what kind of difference we can see! 

So join me!  Let's DO this!  :)

Computer Fixed!

I JUST got my computer back last night!  And it seems as though it is all fixed!  When I type, the letters come up right away (as opposed to several MINUTES later!).  And the pages come up faster, even bringing on pictures is faster!.  So it shouldn't be such a chunk out of my day to do a post any more!  :)  YAY!

I have a few things coming up that hopefully will work out.  I am hoping to post soon about my "Clothesline Challenge".  And I am hoping to do a "30 Days on Muddy Boots Farm", which you can follow me each day in what I do on our farm, and more importantly, see what the animals are doing and how my garden is growing!  :)

I hope I haven't lost all of you...  Now I am so excited to type on my computer!  :D

I will post again VERY soon!  See you then!

Chickens, Bees, Gardens and Spring

Deklyn and his baby girl Leia

 
Oh!  I can't even believe it has been almost 2 weeks since I posted last....  I usually enjoy more time in front of the computer (down time!).  But my computer needs worked on in a BAD way.... it needs a total cleaning.  Like everything needs to be wiped off of the hard drive then things need to be reinstalled....  When I type, it's extremely difficult because it won't move for several seconds and then everything you typed will just appear on the screen....  So there are so many mistakes and to go back and correct them takes forever too...  But enough of my crazy computer, just a note though....  I will HOPEFULLY have a friend work on that his week...  But that means I will be without a computer for a day or two...

We got rid of a few chickens last week.  I put an ad on Craig's List and we sold some of our Rhode Island Reds and some of the Golden Comets that we bought last year.  We kept about 10 RIR and got rid of all of our Golden Comets.  We also have some of our 2-3 year old Buff's and Americaunas.  We also have a few mutt chickens that we hatched last year, plus our banty chickens.  So, we are down to about 30 or less chickens.  Corn prices have just been getting so high, we can't do as many chickens!  We were getting about 20 eggs a day with the 80+ chickens, and now we got rid of all of the chickens BUT our NEW layers started laying this week too and we are still getting about the same amount with 30!  Good news!  :)

We also got our new bees yesterday!  Last years bees, we had got 2 hives.  One hive swarmed (up and left us!) and the other seemed a little weak.  So we left them with all of their honey.  And we didn't expect them to make it through the winter.  But to our surprise, we found them alive and thriving a few weeks ago!  We had already ordered 2 new batches of bees, so we actually had to buy a new set of brooders and other things.  But hopefully, we will have the one hive making honey like crazy since they are seasoned veterans and then we will have another 2 hives with a little less...  I am hoping to have some honey this year then!  Maybe enough to last me all year long.  I would probably use about 8+ gallons of honey a year, maybe more if I had it around instead of sugar!  I am excited to have those going.

It has literally been raining like CRAZY here.  Our pond is flooded and everything is SO muddy.  We finally have our tiller up and running, and it is SO wet, that hubby couldn't even get the garden all tilled.  So for me to plant anything is not possible!  I have seed potatoes (red and Kennebec) ready to go into the ground any day.  I also have all of the cold weather things to go into the ground yet too...  I HAVE to get this stuff in the ground soon, grocery prices are already going NUTS and I have to be able to feed 4 boys with crazy appetites! 

All of the other animals are doing good.  Baby goats and sheep are getting bigger and enjoying being outside.  I love watching them frolic and play in the pasture.  It's so funny!  :)  But we are finally done with baby season.  Our last Jacob sheep had a baby last week and we weren't around all day... It ended up dying.  He was just so big, my hubby thinks she probably had some difficulty...  I gues life on the farm brings those sad things sometimes though. 

So much going on right now!  How about you?  I need to get around and visit some of your blogs also!  I miss spending my down time on the computer and getting some reading in! 

Population Explosion

 We have had SO many things happening the last few days, it's been hard to keep up!  We have went from 5 goats to 11 goats, and from 3 female sheep, to 6 female sheep!

First, on Friday night we had a new baby goat!  Padme, my son's goat, is the mother.  We weren't even sure she was really pregnant.  But she surprised us all when we saw some little hooves sticking out her back side!  She had a little trouble, but when I helped pull as she was pushing, her new little addition came out and was fine!  She had a little girl!  YAY! 

Here she is.  My son named her Leia.  If you are a Star Wars fan, you will understand...

Padme is a very attentive mother, however she has YET to produce any milk....  Have been trying to figure out what to do, but don't know anything yet.... So she is another bottle fed baby!

 Then on Monday night, we were surprised to find Myst, our Jacob, had a baby also!  She was out in the pasture and my hubby came home from Boyscouts and found Myst and baby running around in the pasture! 

She ALSO had a girl!  And she is a tiny little thing!  SO cute!  She doesn't have a name yet....  I haven't had time to THINK about it yet!  Plus, with all of the babies, I might be out of names!!  Ha!

Here is one of our other babies, Daisy (Iris's baby).  The babies are now 5 weeks old! 

 For the last week or more, Lindsay has been trying to get out of her pen in the barn to get out and be in the pasture again.  Well, today I finally let her.  She ran into the pasture and was very protective for her little ones against all of the other animals.  Including her baby from last year, Charlotte.  Charlotte came up to her mother all happy to see her, but Lindsay pushed her away thinking she was going to hurt the babies.  So right now Charlotte is a little sad at this situation.  BUT, hopefully Charlotte will be our last momma on the farm to have some babies.  And I think she has only a few weeks left!  So hopefully she will soon have a family of her own. 

Charlotte top left, Lindsay and babies

On Saturday, we FINALLY got the horns burnt (disbudded) on our goats.  They might have scurs, but hopefully it's not too bad.  We waited too long... The boys (the only 2 boys we have so far out of all of the babies!) were also banded.  Because they will be taken to 4H.  Along with some shots!

I also started Padme on some shots to hopefully get milk going for her, so we can at least MILK her and bottle feed her baby...  We will see!

I hope this gives you SOME ideas of what has been happening around here!  Hope you are having some fun with all of your new babies also!  :)

**Sorry if these photos aren't the best, they were all taken with my cell phone...

Pictures From Our Goat Pens

 So we've been having a good time with all of our goat babies...  As you remember Sophie had 4 and Iris had 1.  And the babies are now 3 weeks old!  They are getting so big!

So I thought I would share some pics from these precious little guys (and girls!).

Koen and I are getting ready to go down and feed Charlie.  You might remember Charlie was the little fella that we had in our house because he couldn't walk for almost a week after he was born. 

 Little Charlie LOVES his bottle!  Here Koen and I are feeding him...  He's even got milk all over his face! 

Iris's little girl is getting big, and she's super sweet...  Her name is Daisy.  She loves to lay her head up against you when you scratch that special spot under her jaw... 

Here are all of Sophie's babies!  She hasn't bonded with poor Charlie, but we keep him in the pen so he can learn things from the other goats.  Top right side is baby number one, you remember him with the heart???  His name is Buddy.   The little brown and white is Grace, she is a cutie.  Then the black and white is Sunny.  She is calm and loving, probably the most loving of all of this "batch".  Then the one to the left (brown) is Charlie...

 

This is little Grace.  She is sweet and active.  She loves attention....  Just look at that little face!

Our 2 little males will be 4H goats.  Our little females will be for milking.  Their mother's were already good milkers and their fathers are from "Star Milker" lines....  I'm still new to MILKING goats so I know Star Milker is a good thing, but that's it. 

We probably wont keep all of the females, but maybe sell them as milkers this Fall or maybe next year. 

Coming soon, we will be putting the babies out to pasture for the first time!  I always love this time....  The babies are a little timid, BUT LOVE it after they spend a few minutes out. 

Have a beautiful day!!!

Some Motivation for You to Grow Your Own Food

This is the time of year when many of us are thinking about or (for those warmer climates!) actively working on our gardens.

I personally also love being able to raise our own eggs and meat.  I want to know how my animals (meat) are being treated.  I want to know what is going into my food.  And more.  Especially when it comes to feeding my boys. 

I found this article via Dr. Mercola. You MAY want to click on it, and maybe even do a bit of research on your own... 

The article is 16 Foods with Scary Surprises.  It gives 16 foods that we commonly buy from major companies, and the FDA requirements as far as ACCEPTABLE levels of rodent hairs, mammal excrement, larvae, fly eggs and more....  Yes, you heard it right, there are ACCEPTABLE levels....

I don't know about you, but this article motivates me even more to grow/ raise my own food!  What about you?  Check out the article, then come back and let me know what you think!

This Year's FIRST Jacob Babies!

It finally happened!  We have our first Jacob babies of 2011!  Lindsay gave birth to 2 baby girls yesterday afternoon, and we discovered them about 20-30 minutes later! 

This was pretty exciting because this is the first time we actually PAIRED the male, Puck, and Lindsay together last Fall.  This is the first time we have ever been involved in the whole process.

We were "rewarded" with 2 precious little baby girls!  YAY!

Check out some of the photos of our sweet little girls!!!

They are SUPER cute and are already running.  Lindsay is being a good mother as usual, being very attentive to them.  What do you think about the names Faith and Hope?   Now, how to tell them apart.... hmmm...

I also have some pictures of our little goats who are now 3 weeks old!  They will be coming soon!

Have a beautiful day!

MO Milk!

Well, it's milk time again!  We have been collecting milk for our little guy, Charlie, that we had in the house.  But a little over a week after they were born, we had more milk than Charlie needed to drink.  So now we have milk for US!   

There hasn't been a LOT of milk, but it is starting to increase now.  I think it is because right now we are just milking Iris (black) and her little baby is eating more hay and grain.  OR it could be the herbs that I am giving her that I got from Molly's Herbals, one for general health and one to help produce more milk!

We will soon be separating the babies out at night and milking BOTH females in the morning, then rejoining their babies with them during the day.  Hopefully at that point, we will be getting even MORE milk!

Soon (I hope) we will get to the point of NOT having to buy milk from the store.  We currently spend about $24 in milk a week!  And that is with buying Almond Milk (for us lactose intolerant people!) and also regular milk.  When we have lots of goat milk, we will no longer need to spend that on  milk!  :)  I look forward to that! 

Goat's milk is illegal to sell it here in Indiana, BUT we DO drink our own...  We trust our own cleanliness and procedures!  So we drink it raw, only filtering it first. 

Do any of YOU drink goat's milk?  Do you produce your own milk on your farm?