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???

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!!!!!

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! 

Spring Fever- Garden Giveaway

I was just putting together my seed order from Pinetree Seeds.  I ordered with them last year, and was very happy with my order and with the seeds I purchased.  They had MANY types of heirloom seeds and MUCH cheaper prices than you find many other places. 

I am having a bit of Spring Fever after just coming home from Florida where things are starting to green up, and now there is a little bit of a thaw going on in Indiana.  So I am placing my order, and I wanted to get a little something extra for some of my friends! 

So, I am giving away a $5 gift certificate for Pinetree Seeds to TWO lucky winners!  Most of the seeds from Pinetree run from $.95 to $1.50, so with $5 you could get over a thousand seeds for any of your favorite garden veggies!

I just wanted to show my appreciation for all of my "friends" here!

Here's all you have to do:

• 1st Entry- Share what kind of garden seeds you would buy!  You can check out Pinetree Seeds to see what a wide selection they have.

More Entries:

• Follow this blog, and then leave a comment that you follow!
• Follow us on Facebook, and then let us know that you follow us there too!
• Share this giveaway on YOUR blog.  Leave a link here so I can check it out!

That's it!  This giveaway will close on Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011!  So enter today!!!

PS- Pinetree is not sponsoring this giveaway.  I am personally giving these certificates away. 

New Year's Resolutions?

I know, people usually don't want to admit that they do this, but it IS kind of good to sometimes have a "check" of ourselves, and re-evaluate how things are going in our lives and even in our homes and farms.

So I thought I would share a few (until now) unwritten and unspoken things I would like to change on my farm and home this year! 

As being relatively new to the "farm" thing, I think it is good to always question how I can do things more efficiently and even more naturally. I plan on being more "deliberate" with my garden this year.  As in, I am planting things according to their "freezability or can-ability".  So less of the cuccumber/ mellon thing...  More of the rotational garden that can be "kept" thing...  I am keeping with NO chemicals on my garden.  I am soon going to be ordering my seeds, and I am BEYOND excited about the thought of Spring again!  This year our strawberries will be ready, and I am so excited about those also.  Especially with NO chemicals.  I pick from a local farm that is surrounded by farm ground that sprays their fields.  So you HAVE to know there are chemicals there.

In the barn, I hope to keep things pastured.  And feeds being natural feeds, when necessary.  We really don't have the option of organic around where I live, with out a HUGE price tag and shipping...  I am excited to be having our first baby goats!  I will be letting them nurse from their mother for a week or a little more, THEN I will be milking the mother and bottle feeding the babies their mother's milk.  Bottle feeding will help with the friendliness of the goat.  Which will be GREAT for 4H.  I hope to shear my sheep again this Spring, and take in all of the wool this time to have it processed,  I am excited for the potential of my own yarn!  What to make, what to make....

In my home, I hope to keep with making cleaners, and to learn how to make more.  I am planning on more organic in my cupboards too.  I have been gradually trying to do that, so as to not break the bank.  I want to continue to  make things more in the kitchen.  My family loves it, and I feel SO much better about knowing the ingredients.

Overall, SIMPLE.  SIMPLE!  I am a simple, mother and wife.  I live on a farm.  I get my feet and hands dirty.  I want my boys to be healthy and HAPPY.  I ADORE my husband.  I am a child of God.  Beyond that, there isn't much else.  Keep it simple.  Keep LIFE simple.

What are YOUR resolutions for the new year for your home and farm?  Please share!!!  Let's encourage each other in this process this year!

Guess What is Growing?

Remember, I planted lettuce seeds on Friday morning? 

Well, check out what is ALREADY growing in my kitchen window!  After only 4 days!

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!?

Australian Yellow Leaf Lettuce

Growing Lettuce INSIDE!

 I live in Indiana, and in the Winter, if you want lettuce, you have to buy the nasty lookin' stuff in the store.  Well, this last summer, I finally figured out (it wasn't hard!) how to grow lettuce in my garden successfully, and it was AWESOME!  My boys loved it too.  And it was GREAT to be able to get large amounts of lettuce when I needed it without having to pay the organic lettuce prices! 

So, I am going to try to grow lettuce INSIDE this Winter!

A few months ago, I bought a container with lettuce in mind.  I asked my son to fill it up with dirt for me:

Since we ARE in the house, gardening in a small container, I am using non-conventional gardening tools:

Here are the seeds that I saved from my Austrailian Yellow Leaf Lettuce:

I spread some around in the dirt, then with my  "gardening tool", I "raked" them into the soil:

I then watered, and stuck my pot in a south-facing window.  I can almost taste the lettuce now!

The container needs cleaned up a bit, but I think it will do quite nicely!  Have you ever tried gardening inside?  How did it go?

Garden Fever....

And so it starts....  I am itching to get those new seed catalogs in the mail so I can start planning my garden for next year.

Is this an illness?  It might be.

I may have to go online and get all of those free seed catalogs and start making my lists, I will be ordering in 3 months so I NEED TO!  OK, I talked me into it....

Maybe I will plant a container of salad for in the house....  I DO have one I want to bring in...  And salad sounds REAL GOOD right now. 

Are you itching to start YOUR gardens yet?  Mine has been done for about a month now, so I am ready to go again!  :)  What new things are you going to do next year?

Pumpkin Collecting... And Other Fall Goodies

I don't know about you, but right now in Northeastern Indiana, IT IS NICE!  Not that the temps are my FAVORITE, but they  are definitely pleasant.  Today was showing sign of rain, but my youngest son and I went and did barn chores, rode on a combine of a nice neighbor who farms the field behind our property, and I gathered the last of the pie pumpkins from the garden.  All in cooler, but very nice weather.

Speaking of pie pumpkins, Mmmmmm!  I can't wait to start cooking up these babies!  Those are just a few of them, the rest are providing nice decoration in my house!  :)  There are a few favorite pumpkin recipes that I want to bring out, and a new recipe from my sister, that I want to try.  My sister started blogging, after I told her that she HAS to start blogging, because she has so many great, healthy recipes, that I can't be posting all of HER recipes.  Go HERE and you can find where she has posted some great information on the health benefits of pumpkin.  If you browse her site, she has a pumpkin muffin recipe that I am going to be trying today...  Can't wait!

Over the weekend, we collected more walnuts from our tree, and I have honestly never kept the walnuts for our family.  SO I don't know how much I will get yet, I'm not looking forward to cracking through that STAINING outer layer of the walnut.  But I am looking forward to saving some major cash on not having to buy organic walnuts!  :)  I will post when I do those!

I also am about ready to harvest some lettuce that grew on it's own in my garden, from the lettuce I planted this summer.  I am going to start a long pot so I can bring it in the house, and have lettuce during the winter!  Projects, projects!

So, what are you all doing right now?  Still pulling things from a fall garden?

Down on the Farm

Sorry about the small break folks! My little guy is better, and is back to his rowdy, crazy little self!Oh yeah, and he is ALMOST potty trained!!! YAY! YAAAAAAYYYY!!! Can you tell I am SO PUMPED about that?! :)

There is so much to catch up on!

First, my oldest son, I told you that he wanted to get baptized and he did it on Sunday. We were so very proud of him! And so glad that he was ready to take the step of "stepping it up" and showing people how much he loves Jesus!

Here is BEFORE:
And AFTER:
YAY!

My 3rd son, Caden lost his first tooth! He pulled his own first tooth AT SCHOOL! Here he is, milk mustache and all... He was MOSTLY excited about the money! :)

Here he is all dressed up... Park ranger? Policeman? Not quite sure...


We have been working on different things around the homestead, because it FEELS so much like Fall... Hubby was tired of looking at the dead and dying garden... SO we yanked much of what we had. Tomato plants were still producing, BUT the tomatoes were horrible! So I know not to plant those next year! Lesson learned!


We still have our sunflowers, but those will be coming out soon, before the birds get them. I'm not sure if we will dry them to eat or if those will be dried for the chickens, for a mid-Winter snack! We also have sweet peppers. Some carrots, that are JUST about done. We also have pumpkins (the pie kind!), YUM! And we have our strawberry plants that have spread like wild fire! Can't wait for THOSE next year!!!


We harvested a bunch of Winter Squash, hopefully those will be good! I have never grown them before! I should be able to just stick those in my basement (similar to a root cellar- temps are never higher than 70 or lower than 55...). I look forward to those and the potatoes! :)

With Fall on it's way, and the temps being cooler... I am already thinking about my garden next year! I KNOW I am going to do more cool weather veggies, like peas, onions, and carrots. We don't really eat peas or onions, but I think if we had them we would! We all like them, but just don't ever BUY them... hmmm... Maybe I should start on my seed order now...

Another change that is coming, is that we are going to be getting another milking goat! Her name is Black Iris. This time, I did my homework on the seller! We will hopefully get her in the next week or so! Pictures to come! :)


Also, with Fall coming up in less than 2 weeks (yikes! already?!!), I am REALLY in the mood for baking and trying new recipes! Of course, most of them (knowing me!) are for different types of bread product! :) But next Thursday, we will be starting back up with "From Scratch", where we share links or just recipes that we love! AND share what you have been making that week! I'm ready! How about you?

Still lots of great things to come! You'll want to stick around for the fun! See ya later, alligator! :D

Clinging to the Past

Sometimes clinging to the past isn't always a bad thing.

Sometimes all of this awesome technology can get to be too much, and get to change things that SHOULDN'T be changed. Including seeds. When you engineer a seed, when you take this-n-that, and you throw out this other thing... it may LOOK like an ear of corn, but now it's inner genetics are unrecognizable as being such. (More good info HERE).

Man of us are drawing to a close our summer growing season, and look forward to what we are going to do next year. Many of you are also considering a garden for the first time next year! Whatever we are looking forward to, it is always a good thing to make sure we keep it SIMPLE.

Heirloom seeds. They are the good stuff! They are what has been around for a long time. The weak ones die off, the strong and healthy ones survive, and continue to grow. I had some pie pumpkins that I bought at a local farm. I kept the seeds last year, and planted them this year. These were obviously a GMO seed, because I got a mutant gourd out of the bunch of pumpkins. I DIDN'T PLANT GOURDS! It is on the SAME plant as the pumpkins! Genetically modified plants can mutate a do different things from year to year. SO if you want to save seeds from year to year, it is a good idea to get a trustworthy seed to start with, such as heirloom!

Inexpensive equipment. The most expensive peice of equipment I own is a rototiller. This tiller can break sod, which has been a HUGE blessing this year. We got some quotes on people coming out and tractor tilling our garden and sod for us, and it would have cost us a couple hundred dollars! The rest of our equipment is all hand tools! Spade, rake, hoe, shovel... Garden hose, cheap sprinkler. We bought an expensive one a few years back and it lasted about a year and a half with our hard water, so now we bye cheap, and it lasts the same amount of time, if not longer!

Prep your ground NOW. If you are planning on breaking new ground next Spring for a garden, start NOW! Hubby and I will be breaking new garden ground in the next few weeeks, and I am going to dump manure all over it! It is natural. It is a great way to naturally give what your soil needs. It also encourages eart worms and other beneficial insects. You can till it in now, or wait until Spring. Either way, it's good stuff! If you don't have manure on your property, check with neighbors who have animals. If they have animals, they most likely have manure that they would LOVE to get rid of!

Start looking at seeds companies, and getting their catalogs. This is probably the most fun! Get a variety of companies. Check out the prices and quantities. Make the right decision for you. Be ready and make your seed orders this Winter! I made mine in January, and I had no problems getting the seeds that I wanted AND I had the seeds in plenty of time!

Growing is IMPORTANT! Whatever you do, growing SOMEthing is IMPORTANT! If you just grow a tomato plant in your apartment window, or a few plants on a patio, THAT is something! Whatever amount is WORKABLE for you, is good. Don't try to push yourself because someone else has more of a garden. It's not a show.

Whatever you do, again, keep it SIMPLE. Gardening can be a JOY, but it can also be a burden.

I like to think back to what MY grandmother would have done on her farm as a child... She grew up during the Depression, and I always like to try to think about what they did. They didn't have big expensive equipment, they didn't have mutating plants. I also don't want you to think we have to again, seem "poor". BUT, simple can be a good thing. Getting to many things going can be pouring money into too many different things, things that don't necessarily need to BE!

Most of all, HAVE FUN! Gardening is FUN! Pulling those sun-ripened tomatoes out and serving them, still warmed by the sun, on your table is a blessing.

It may seem a ways off, but start planning now! You will be glad you did!

A Day...

I love harvest season, I love seeing the fallen leaves on the ground, I love hearing them crunch under my feet, I love seeing shelves full of canned (or frozen) harvest, awaiting the long COLD Winter...

This time of year (in Indiana) when it can be anywhere from a cooler 72 to a hot 90 during the day, and a VERY cool 49 to 60... It feels like FALL. Even though MOST of the leaves haven't changed yet. Our walnut trees are the only ones who leaves are starting to jump ship.

What have I been doing? Well, you saw my pictures from last weekend, and the harvest. I have been trying to get the tomatoes off the vines before they are annihilated by bugs. Not really sure about the tomatoes that I grew this year, they had vine rot, bugs and I know they are heirloom, and I can DEAL with those things, BUT the taste of them were a little different as well... SO not really sure I will try to grow them again...

So despite the little different taste, I am still processing some tomatoes. Hopefully IN things the tomato sauce and juice won't be so different. I made homemade pizza sauce last weekend and I could taste the sauce but it tasted good! So- fingers crossed! :)


As Fall draws closer, I also know the fate of "Turkey"... She has been a sweet gal, but I have known since I bought her and 7 others (who didn't make it due to meeting a stray cat...) that they were going to be food. It's just difficult, because with ONE turkey, she has become almost a pet. She follows me around, she talks to me, she sees me (or hears me) from afar and she runs to me...


She KNOWS I like her better than the hoard of chickens we have... Darn it. But this is the life we have chosen, and this is and always was her destiny...

I like to walk around the garden and check out what is growing, and just soak in all of the beautiful things God has done there. Check out this little guy I found in there:



Just look at those EYES:


It's amazing to sit and be able to look at a creature like this. God made all of those little parts, and when I brought the camera closer to it, it actually turned it's head to look at me. It studied ME... Simply amazing.

So, peanut butter cookies are made for 3 little boys as they come home from school... and I need to finish with some tomatoes and then make dinner.... I hope you all have had a WONDERFUL day!

Chaos and Reward

Oh! How much chaos there is during harvest season! But in the chaos of reaping the harvest and KEEPING the harvest, comes great rewards! FIGURATIVELY AND LITERALLY!

Messy Kitchen/ AKA Canning Time!

This last weekend, we (yes! Hubby is a HUGE help!) put up 5 pints of tomatoes sauce (so far) and 33 pints of grape jelly. We need more jelly.... Who am I kidding. I think we now have enough jelly to feed a medium sized army... And we will PROBABLY put up MORE jelly. WHY? Well, our grapes have seeds... bummer. I MAY try to make straight up grape JUICE, but I need to get a strainer first. The grapes DO smell lovely as they are cooking on the stove...

This guy was bored with all of the canning going on...

Here is our little grape sneak!

Speaking of lovely smells, I also enjoy the smell of tomato sauce cooking! We didn't get much put up this weekend, BUT there is more to come! More tomatoes on the vine, just waitin'... It rained Saturday, so we will have more poppin' out.

There is such a rewarding feeling that goes along with all of the mess in my kitchen and the jars, upon jars of various fruits and veggies... And even a rewarding feeling trying to figure out WHERE I will be putting all of those jars... WHAT A PROBLEM!

Speaking of problems... I have NEARLY run OUT of jars! I am TOTALLY out of the pint jars, and ALMOST out of the quart ones. I have more tomatoes to put up, more grapes (in one form or another), that MAY be all for the jars though.

We harvested a BUNCH of potatoes this weekend also. Those are going in the basement, to keep cool for the Winter. We also are ABOUT ready to harvest our Winter Squash, and Spaghetti Squash. More to keep for the Winter!

These are red and yellow potatoes. We harvested about 125-150 lbs! What a blessing!


Check out these HUGE red potatoes!



I also harvested, believe it or not, for the first time, seeds from my lettuce! I let my first row of lettuce go to seed, and now I have twice the seeds than I bought this Spring. With MANY more to come! I can't wait to try to plant these in the Winter. I bought a rectangle shaped pot to stick in my South facing window, to see if I can plant some lettuce in the Winter!

Also my Sunflowers came out finally! They are ABSOLUTELY HUGE. Here is a pic of them, to the left of them is corn that is about 6 foot tall:


We also have small pumpkins that are also ALMOST ready to rock-n-roll... :)



Our apples aren't perfect, but they ARE organic! Looking forward to some apple sauce and maybe some apple butter...


That was OUR busy harvest weekend SO FAR! We praise God for the blessings that we have harvested so far, and are so happy to be able to save money in the future on groceries for our growing family.

What are YOU harvesting right now?

Keeping the Harvest

There's nothing like the feeling you get when you open a cupboard full of your hard work/ harvested fruits and veggies, or when you grab something out of the freezer, and there is all of the wonderfully healthy harvest that you worked so hard to put in there for your family.

I have canned and frozen things in the past, but this is the first year I have worked THIS HARD at it.

This summer, as the produce is rolling in, we have been able to enjoy much of it, therefore saving our family money on our grocery bill! (But this is a topic for another day!) It's so awesome to need something to eat for supper, and to be able to go out to the garden, pick it, then cook it up (or eat it raw!) and serve it to your family. I really am SO thankful that I am healthy enough to be able to do these things. I am thankful that even those things that DON'T turn out like I expected (corn!), that I am still able to learn from it. I am PRAISING God for these things!

About a week ago, we (hubby) butchered 10 chickens. I was one bag short of being able to throw all of them into the freezer, so I threw that one in the pot instead. It was AWESOME. I threw in some carrots and potatoes, and we had a TRULY home cooked meal. And NEVER did you eat anything so delicious!

I have been trying to keep track of everything we pull from the garden (which with 5 other sets of hands around here, I can't always keep track!). And everything that we harvest from our farm. I have been keeping track of these things in my notebook. (Check that out HERE.) Not just because I am bored and have nothing better to do with my time, but so I can see from year to year what we did, and to challenge myself to improve!

I am keeping track also on this blog! If you would like to see what we are doing here, I am an open book! Look to the left of the screen.

I have one that is for food harvested from the garden, and one for canning and freezing. You can see how we are doing to date this year.

Like I have said before, I NEED a bigger garden, but I hope (know!) this will help! I am proud of any amount that we are able to produce as a family. I am proud to be a part of the health and learning of my boys!

How has your harvesting/ keeping been coming along? What have you been canning/ freezing? If you have blogged about it, leave a link in the comments! I would LOVE to hear about it!

Putting Up Corn!

OK- so our garden has recently been ravaged by raccoons, and the brunt of the damage has fallen on my corn. We even have a live trap set, but so far no coons. We even had our dog tied up within feet of the garden, they still had their way!

But! My mother-in-law called yesterday to ask if we needed any corn. There is an auction place not too far away that sells produce of all sorts. Mostly from the Amish in the area. And they were selling corn! YAY!

So I got 3 bushels (15 doz), and put up all of the corn (and left out about a 1 1/2 doz to eat!) last night!

Deklyn decided to line up all of the corn. This is most of it. When he filled the table, he had to start on the counter....


Here is my homestead helper! He had the muscle job!


Here was a little sneak taking off all of the kernels that were left, off the cobs...



Caught ya!


We ended up putting up 29 quarts (baggies) in the freezer. We hope to get at least that amount again, and put up even more! Hope we have the freezer space!

What have you been freezing or canning?

Winds of Change...

Right now, we are in the beginning stages of harvesting from our garden, and already I am thinking about all of the things that I am going to change for the next year! Improvements and such...

And I am not just having those thoughts about the garden. I am having those thoughts about goats, chickens, sheep- OH! The many possibilities!

First of all, I am a stay-at-home wife and mother. I LOVE it. Though I don't get to sit in front of the television all day (no channels!) and eat bon-bons (can't afford it!), I do keep busy and I love everything that I do. Seriously. (Summer break IS a test for me, BUT most days are just peachy)

Second, being a stay-at-home, I have given myself the responsibility to help save more of my hubby's hard earned paycheck. Being a one income family isn't easy, and it CERTAINLY isn't the norm. But we manage, heck, we do pretty good. My grocery bills stay below $70 each week (this week it was below $50!), for a family of 6. I do a lot to make sure we eat healthy, AND that it doesn't break the bank. BUT we also have a farm, and our animals cost about the same as WE do each week.

So, in staying home, I have been trying to figure out how I can help by using my "skills" as a farmer...

After reading the book "You Can Farm" by Joel Salatin, I am pumped up... :) It is putting wings to the ideas that float around in my brain. And with many discussions between the hubby and I, we think the way for me to be able to help...

So here are the changes I am making next year!

• Bigger Garden- This year our rows are all crowded together and hard to get down with everything being all big and green. I am going to AT LEAST double my garden size, so I can have wider rows, AND plant more produce.
• BIGGER Garden- (did I already say that?) Besides wanting to plant more for ourselves, part of making a LITTLE more money is to sell our organic and heirloom produce. This isn't going to be a HUGE income, but it will still help!
• More Layer Chickens- Another way to make income is to sell natural, free-ranged eggs. We are able to sell them to people we know, and can't keep them around for long at all, so now we need more chickens! The plan is to keep at least 40 layers going all the time...
• Raise Meat Chickens- We just started to do this, this year, and the meat is wonderful. These are also natural, free-range chickens. Right now, our chickens are going on 2 weeks PAST their "Expiration date" and they are walking around with no problems at all. PLUS, I had never read the these meat chickens would like to scratch around, and pick at bugs, but ours are! It's amazing how when given what nature calls for, these animals have instincts we never thought they would have! These meat chicken, down the road, may also be something that we offer along with eggs and produce.
• Dairy Goats- GET MORE GOATS! Right now, I am addicted. I am addicted to the fact the I can go to the barn and get milk! FRESH, SUPER HEALTHY milk!!! Our plan is probably get at least 2 more goats for next year. I don't want to buy milk from the store. I want to make soap (which COULD be another income). I want to make cheese. And ice cream. And all of it could come from our pasture raised goats. LOVE. IT.
• Turkeys- This is one thing I have wanted to raise for the past 2 years. This year, I do have ONE turkey, but I would LOVE to raise some heritage breeds that can reproduce so I can have a bunch of them! I love turkeys!
• Cattle- We have 2 right now, one for us and one for our sis-in-law and her family. This was a "test year" to see if we would kill them or if they would actually grow and thrive. So far, so good! We've learned lots, and will be butchering either this Fall or next, but that means next year we will be getting MORE! We are grass-feeding them, and they have been so awesome to have around. I really am going to enjoy not having to buy the crappy meat at the grocery store! This could also be somewhat of an income for us also, MAYBE, eventually...
• Jacob Sheep- We hope to continue to build our flock of heritage breed sheep. Next year, maybe I will take the wool in to have yarn made! It is so beautiful! I can't wait! This will hopefully be another income for us, selling sheep and MAYBE the wool...
• Bees- Geez... At least help them to live so I can get some honey! Maybe one day sell it. AFTER I get MY share! :)
  

Oh gosh... that probably isn't it. In fact, I'm sure that isn't it. I have WAY more ideas than that! But for now, that is our thoughts for our farm! I think I am going to become a "full-time farmer"! :) That makes me laugh. NEVER would I have saw myself doing the thing I am doing today....

But I LOVE it...

How about you? What changes are YOU looking to make for next year??? I want to hear!