June 10, 2010

Day in Pictures

I'm not sure if I can add one more thing to my plate right now. Farm, family, church, etc is all keeping me MORE than busy.

I told you all about having some baby kittens a week or 2 ago. Well, mama cat came up missing. She wouldn't just leave her babies, she was an excellent mother. But now we are left with 4 baby kittens with their eyes barely open, to feed with a baby kitten bottle. Then, there is the part where you have to help them "use the restroom". I am trying to pawn this off on my oldest son, who's cat it was that had the kittens. He has every excuse why he just can't get them to eat. I don't have the extra time to feed them, but like yesterday morning, after milking our goat, feeding and "caring" for baby kittens, laundry on the line, and regular barn chores, I was able to eat my breakfast at almost 10 am.

Our garden is coming along well. Don't judge me if you see weeds! :) Weeds here and there aren't going to kill my plants, it just ain't pretty. Now that the boys are out of school, I am trying to recruit them. I learned from last year, when I made them work for 30 minutes in the garden. Someone ended up sitting in one spot, and the others complained that they never did anything the whole time. Well, this year, I fixed that! I have been telling them to pick a row, and pull weeds. Then I go out and inspect! I know, slave driver right? Hardly. It takes them all of 30 minutes, and they get a lot more done this year than they did last!!! Ha!

Now for the pics!

To the left, we have 2 different kind of potatoes. Then some tomatoes and then strawberries. Bottom right is our corn. Bottom left is Pole beans.


Different view. Potatoes are the thick greenery.


Here is one of the things I got for Mother's day, blueberry bushes! I got 3 of them, hubby mowed over one (which IS still alive but a LOT smaller) and so we have 2 bushes ACTUALLY growing blueberries! YAY!


Another thing we have lots of this year is tomato plants. I can't wait to make tomato juice, soups, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, ETC, etc, etc... Here are some tomato flowers, ALMOST a tomato! :)

This year, we actually are having some issues with potato bugs. They have just started chowin' down recently. And I don't want to use anything chemical unless all else fails. SO yesterday was a fun day of picking the nasty potato bugs off the plants... YUCK. But can't wait for those yummy potatoes. We got through LOTS of potatoes, and having to buy organic can get a little pricey. Can't wait for these!!! :) Look at the pretty purple flower on the plants!


We have sprayed our apple trees with an organic spray, we just got done spraying for the second time. There are some apples that are a little damaged, but I think they should do good for apple sauce and juice.


Here are our little meat chicks that our son is taking to 4H, well 2 of them. The rest are dinner. Here is our one lone turkey with them. I really need to let him out with the rest of the bigger chickens BUT I'm just scared he will get hurt by they chicks. Last year our turkey got killed by the chickens. I don't want to loose another one!


Here are our goats. On the right, are our 2 males. The little black one is our wether male that our son is taking to 4H. The white one is our "billy", still nameless...


Spotted on the farm, was the "Naked Farmer". When I asked him why he was naked, he said "boots!". I guess it doesn't matter if you are naked, as long as you have your boots on.


And here is my sweet Sophie. She has been doing a good job on her milking, and I am enjoying it. She is getting to be less afraid of EVERYTHING, and I LOVE having her milk. Now, I just wish I had more!


Well, that is all for now from our Homestead! How are things goin' around your place? Anything new???

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ARe you feeding your potato bug to the chickens?I throw my weeds to the chickens and goats, too. They love it! I think I would name your billy Rico....He looks like a Rico. I would venture to say that he is Nubian and part alpine with the slight airplane ears. Your garden looks fantastic...trying not to covet....=-) Andrea

Megan said...

Garden looks great!!

Love the naked farmer picture, made me laugh!!

Animals look wonderful too!

Joanna said...

I'm following from MBC.

Joanna
http://joannaslife.com/

Mountain Home Quilts said...

I'd wait on your turkey- as you well know, hens can be ruthless on a lone little turkey. We found that out too. This is our first year raising turkeys. We have 2 now.
Your garden looks great!