I'm Back!

Not that I have been gone per se. Over the last six months, I have been posting on Facebook. Social Media is great, but I miss the simplicity of the blog. It is not intertwined with all these other things that can make you lose focus, which I have a tendency to do. Okay, the past six months. Spring was an absolute disaster! We lost so many animals. I was almost afraid to try anything. Our chickens were massacred. They were destroyed by dogs that had been running rabbits across the pond. The man got ill and left, leaving behind one dog who found his way to the chicken pen. Our dogs had been trained and did not bother the chickens, thus we free-ranged. I have one hen left. That very same day Snow White, our NZ rabbit had 10 dead bunnies that I had to dispose of. And I had left the cage door open and she got out and our chow did get her. At that point, I came in, sat down, cried like a baby, called my mommy and then put my big girl panties back on and grabbed a shovel. Not one of my best days, ever!

Currently, I have Cherry, she is a registered Nubian (disbudded) goat, whom we will have bred next month. Suzy was given to a wonderful family who love her and treat her as a pet. I have Bucky, the white New Zeland buck. My one hen, whom I have named Henny Penny.

So, we are at the building stage again, starting over. Maybe I am trying to do too much. Maybe I should slow down, but in my gut I have this urgency to get the farm up and running quickly.

What am I up to now. As I mentioned, Cherry will be bred next month and we will be getting the milk house ready, which means rebuilding it. We have 25 more chicks on the way-brown layer straight run. Some to eat, some to keep. With that, we are also going to be building a chicken tractor so that they can free-range...safely. (Lesson learned). I am not actively looking for rabbits at this point, but I do scan the Market Bulletin if something is close and reasonably priced. I expect it will be March or so before we get any more.

The garden is so dry that I have let it go. I will be removing the fencing and trellises and posts next month as well. I have put a small raised bed (yes, it is a redneck bed, but it was free) in the greenhouse to try and grow throughout the winter. I am not sure how this will work out, but as everything else, it will be lessons learned until I perfect it. We have several trays of fall/winter crops started.

The yard has not been mown for quite a while now. First, our lawn mower is down and I am waiting to get that fixed. Luckily it is so hot and dry that the grass is not really growing anyway.

We have two beehives. I am feeding them now with sugar water and a supplement of essential oils to keep them healthy while there is nothing blooming on our land anyway.

That catches us up, yet, it seems I am further behind than I was.