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I apologize I haven't been blogging as much as usual. There are a few reasons for that. First would be the fact I am simply trying to figure out my "health" issues. As of now, it doesn't appear to be health related as my tests have all come back normal. My doctors have me on the lowest doses possible of two different medications for anxiety.
The other reason for the quiet is simply there isn't much to share. Sure, the gardens are being planted and animals are being shifted around and sold to lighten the load. This is also allowing us the ability to clean things up and decide where we want habitats to be on a more permanent basis.
So, where to start?
April started with Passover and the Feast of Unleavened bread. The night before Passover, we kept the Lord's Supper and then Passover night we read scriptures, ate bitter herbs, and unleavened bread as we headed into the week long Feast of Unleavened bread. It proved to be a difficult feast week with the anxiety I was dealing with as well as all the doctor appointments we had to make. Yet, Yah was good as always, and He gave me the strength to press on despite mentally wanting to quit.
The gardens have been planted for the most part, yet I am nearly out of room and trying to figure out where to plant a few more things. I still have to plant tomatoes and winter squash in the least. My earlier plantings of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage, all failed and I have been left with only a handful of seedlings that are growing. My onions didn't grow except for a handful which I transplanted to another smaller bed to allow for me to plant other things.
Al and I were able to get an archway up in the garden. It is five panels long. This allowed me to plant several purple pole beans as well as a few other types. We still need to put up another archway, and then I will plant some vining winter squash and cucumbers. The rest of that particular bed has a large patch of mammoth sunflowers and a patch of sorghum. There is only a small corner left for planting something, but I am not sure what I will plant as of now.
This small plot was used for a few summer squash plants. I planted two green zucchini, two grey zucchini, two scallop zucchini, and two lemon squash. We aren't huge fans of zucchini, but do like to eat it on occasion, lightly sauteed or scalloped.
I planted several variety of sweet peppers in this raised bed. The Bermuda grass is pretty bad in this bed, but all I can do is pull it up when I see it.
In this garden bed, I planted some spaghetti squash. My favorite use for spaghetti squash, is actually in its name - spaghetti. I like it with my pasta. So I layer it and top with sauce. Sometimes I add dehydrated spaghetti squash (or zucchini) to my sauce instead.
The other day I planted my seed potato in the same bed as the garlic. This was where my broccoli and cauliflower was, but it didn't make it. The wise choice was to simply use the space for something that can't grow in cooler climates. This garden has a small space connected to it which has my bee balm and some lemon balm. There are also some volunteer sunflowers growing all over the place.
I added flowers and hot peppers to the garden bed where peas are currently growing. A small portion has the few cabbage plants that survived. Next to this bed is a very small area I planted chamomile in. I hope to get some to continuously reseed year after year.
The plan for my "fire-ring" garden beds is to have sweet potatoes planted in them. I have starts in the kitchen which I grew from a few purple sweet potatoes. There is one extra ring I planted some Gold Coin sunflowers and Zinnias.
Meanwhile, most of the blackberries survived the transplant. Last year's blackberries are looking pretty good and are covered with blossoms and young berries. The elderberry bushes are all alive. I thought the one that was transplanted this year was dead, but I was so glad to see it came back up from the roots.
So far, the honeyberries are still alive, but could probably use a dose of fertilizer to give it a boost, but sadly, I haven't been able to get the raspberries and grapes into the ground as of yet.
The fig tree was planted in the center of the front yard. It was growing in a pot for several months.
My replacement apple trees all seem to be thriving and resisting any fire blight. And remarkably, the large apple tree in our garden appears to be holding off any additional fireblight.
The kitchen garden, the one directly in front of the house, was cleaned up and looks much better. Things are slowly growing and filling in the beds at varying rates. My perennial herbs all took a hit and had to be replaced. So, I just bought them from the store.
In the animal sector, the sheep have been put into the wooded area to forage. Three of the lambs were sold to a friend. Of the two lambs born in the beginning of April, one will also be sold to the same friend.
Our bucks were also put into the woods near the buck pen. The young bucklings were moved in with them and seemed to immediately settle in and run with all the big boys.
I have two does in the breeding pen with Prince, and hopefully we will have some successful breedings which will bring us new babies in five months or so. I am considering bringing over two more does. We are only milking three does at this time, which provides us with just under half a gallon of milk per day.
Yesterday, we were able to sell the majority of the goats we wanted to sell. This is truly a blessing! A family drove up in response to the sign I had on the front of the property. They looked at all the goats and then decided to purchase Nash (buck), Wendy (doe), and the three bucklings. They put down a deposit and will be back in a few days to pick them up.
There are nine turkey poults in the garage. Five will be our breeding set for this year and four are marked sold to a lady I found on Facebook.
The two ducklings that hatched last month are nearly full grown and ready to move in with the other ducks. They are fully feathered, but at this time, I am not sure what gender they are. Unfortunately, the duck eggs that were in the incubator were spoiled when I forgot to plug the heater back in after candling the eggs.
Some of you may recall we hatched out several Black Australorp chicks at the same time the ducks hatched, but within a day of putting them outside, the buffalo gnats killed them all. The gnats almost killed our ducklings, but I sprayed their cage with a gnat spray and I covered the ducklings with diatomaceous earth which helped them. (These gnats have been known to kill full grown cows and horses. They are horrible!) Fortunately, a friend of ours was able to get us another batch of Australorp chicks which have been doing great in the same chicken tractor out front.
I mentioned the family that purchased the goats, but I didn't mention that they are also taking my extra roosters and five hens. This leaves about 6 hens for a neighbor's friend who said he would take the remaining birds. Of course, the kids didn't want to get rid of all the chickens, so they chose a few to keep with the Black Australorps. This morning, some of the hens decided they wanted to go back to the old pen, to which I said, they could leave with the rest of the hens.
Another friend who purchased some goats from me last year, has plans to buy a few more from me this year. She is still deciding which adult doe she wants, but there is no rush at this point. She and her husband are working on putting up more fencing to help separate those goats who shouldn't be together. Oh, and the doe she bought from me last year, successfully kidded a beautiful little doeling this past week.
Finally, we are still growing in the pastures before beginning rotation for both the sheep and the goats. It's getting there, but it is slow to grow. Al has said he will make sure he spreads lime this fall to help the pastures.
In other news...
We are currently getting estimates from companies that do forestry mulching and buy trees. The goal is to open up the property a bit as well as expanding the "hay" fields at the side and back of our property. If you don't know, we have a little over 40 acres. Most of the property is wooded and has a lot of brush.
Al has also been working on plumbing repairs for the water storage tank in the shop. This tank holds water we pump from the well, and it is used for animals and gardening. Last month, we discovered the solar well pump had been destroyed by ants. That has since been replaced. The tank was removed, drained, cleaned, and placed back in the shop. Now he is working on making a more "winterized" system to prevent pipes from bursting. He has taken advantage of his backhoe attachment in order to start trenching for the project.
