Happenings......

Well, we finally found a home for the goats to make room for the new turkeys coming next month.  Yay!!  The doe wasn't producing enough and with the baby coming, I want animals that are easier to wrastle and care for.  We do have baby chickies coming soon.  We have 3 girls on 3 nests hunkering down on about 4-5 eggs each.  We had to divide them so each hen was happy.  LOL!!!  So funny.  We will make a makeshift nursery once they start hatching so mamas and babies can have a safe haven, but still be near the flock and we won't have to worry about baby chicks getting stuck outside because they are too little to get themselves back in the coop on their own. 
The garden is coming along, all the cold weather crops are look great and I'm going to try to plant the warm season crops tomorrow.  Late start I know, but being pregnant has been a little tougher with the extra weight I'm carrying.  Doing what I can this year, although small and behind what I want it to be, we should have a very productive garden.  I'm excited!!  I am also going to leave an area for James to plant.  I think he'll be so excited to have an area just for him to plant and water and do whatever he wants. 
It's been raining so much here and I hope it keeps up throughout the season unlike last year where there was a drought at the end of the season and so dry.  The humidity has started and I LOVE it.  So much better than dry heat, which is just icky.   Bring on the sticky weather, it feels so good. 

We Have Sprouts!!

The seeds I planted on Friday are starting to sprout.  So far I see kale, collards, and radishes starting to sprout.  too small to take pics, but soon I hope.
I just started planting my transplant seeds in winter sowing containers.  Hopefully we'll see some action on them soon too.

Planting Greens, Peas, and Some Perennial Herbs

 My cold crops.  I know its late, but after being so nauseous and exhausted for so many weeks, I'm finally able to get something done AND the weather was so nice.  It did take me years of not knowing that you need to water your seeds in daily if not twice a days so they sprout.  I always wondered why my lettuce wouldn't sprout.   LOL!!  It happens and it takes years of practice.  So, lots of water until they sprout and then taper off once they do sprout.  I'm hoping they sprout before the next rainstorms so my seeds don't get washed away in case its a downpour.

 My lettuce I didn't think was still alive from my experiment from last fall trying out some compost.  Some look sad, but I think they will perk up and we'll have some nice salad greens soon.

Turkeys!!!

I just put my order in for Narrangasett turkey poults.  Yay!!  We ordered them from Sand Hill Preservation Center.  We will keep a breeding flock and then butcher some and sell the rest, either for breeding stock or for butchering.  We won't get them until July 12th, but we will put Abbey chicken in that pen where the goats were and let her hatch some eggs once she starts setting until the turkeys arrive.  She will be a good little Cochin mommy to Ameraucana chicks.  She is so fluffy and blue right now with her new plumage.  Pretty girl. 

We are so excited!!!

2011 Garden

 So, here it is, our 2011 garden space.  Yes, you will notice it was the foundation of a house and we are using cement blocks from said house.  : )  The picture above is where we will put our strawberries (back plot) and perrenial herbs (front plot). 

 This is an overview of the garden.  4 main garden plots, a small square plot in the back right corner and the strawberry and herb plot directly in front of me.

 The garlic up close.  I can't wait.  Yum!  They are definitely looking better after a little rain.

 Close-up of garlic.

 Close-up of main beds and garlic.

 Love that new dirt color.  The house in the background is where we live and then if you look at the step up from the garden, that slab of cement will be where the greenhouse will go.  Our landlord is building it. : )

Another view of the strawberry and herb plot.  We are so excited, as is Wayne, our landlord, he built most of the garden and is putting in the fence around it, I think the fencing will be complete once we get all the dirt in.  We need to keep the neighborhood kitties from going potty in what they think are litter boxes. : )

Meal Planning

I thought, well we grow food, now its time to plan out a meal plan each month.  This might make life really easy and I was reading the Keeper of the Home Blog and came upon the Plan To Eat meal planner.  I was thinking wow, this might make life a little more easy.  It saves your recipes and tells you what you need to buy to make these recipes and seems like a cool life saver.  Then I saw that there was a giveaway.  Shoot, I would love to win a year subscription. 

The giveaway is here.

Seed Ordering Time!!!

Ok, it might be getting a tad bit late, but that is how life is going lately.  I'm ordering from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, since now I live in the South and of course, there are collard greens on my list.  LOL!

Here it is:
Catskill Brussel Sprouts
Early Flat Dutch Cabbage
Erlene's Green and Mississippi Brown Cotton - I gotta try it, lol.
Rosita Eggplant
Arugula
Green Glaze Collards
Vates Kale
Tatsoi
Texas Early Grano Onions
Cascadia Snap Peas
Dark Green Zucchini
Baby Butternut and Waltham Butternut Squash
Small Sugar Pumpkins
Tomatoes:
Homestead
Arkansas Traveler
Big Rainbow
Sugar Cherry
Amish Paste
Roma VF, Virginia Select
Long Keeper

Wild Bergamot
Borage
Echinacea
Lemon Balm
Globe Amaranth (Mixed Colors)
Love in a Mist
Statice
Strawflower
Celosia
Nasturtium

Scarlet Flax
Red Clover
Buckwheat
Winter Rye
Millet (the bird's gotta eat)

I think that's it.  I'm really excited and I was just outside and my landlord is getting the spot ready for putting up the greenhouse.  It's going to be great, besides all of the winter sowing I will be doing.  : )

What  is y'all's favorite seed company?

Still No Name. LOL!

He ran and ran and ran around the goat shelter for like an hour.  At one point he stopped and was huffing and puffing.  He is such a cutie and loves to be pet.  We really need to get some more pallets and make a play gym for him.  Mama is quite protective too.  He runs off and she starts freaking out and then starts nickering at him if he gets too close to me or Marley goat.  Such a good mama.

Our New Little One

Here he is.  So cute and Yogurt is such a good mama.  He was born this past Monday at 1:50pm.  He is doing well with the cold weather here.  He does not have a name yet though.  I think it will wait until Saturday when Dave can see him in the daylight.  This is a B year so it will need to start with that.

Too Long Again and Some Great News!!!

Sorry its been so long since I posted last.  Lots has been going on.  My son was here for about 7 weeks and I just didn't get on the computer long enough to post.

So the big news.  Yogurt started bagging up this morning!!!!!!!   Yay!!!!!  Can't wait to meet her babies.  If y'all (I can say that now, I am in the South : ))  have some good "B" names for boys and girls share them, please.  We started last year with "A"'s and today starts the "B" names.  So exciting!!!!

I will post more in the next couple days!  Happy New Year to All!!!!!