Spring time

I love the spring! It's the busiest time of year with so much to do! Just this week we have 3 new ducklings, 7 or 8 new bantam chicks, 2 goats ready to kid any day, a hen that is broody, and one of our Red Bourbon turkeys sitting on eggs! We have 2 blueberry bushes to plant, and several vegetable plants ready to go in the ground too! Its been so hot lately, Polly and Esther are really needing to be sheared, and everyone's hooves need trimming! All that, together with a goat that needs to be milked everyday, so we can make that cheese we have been dying to make! Sometimes I sit down, and think, I have a full time job, kids and grand kids... why the heck am I doing this!   At this time in my life I should be slowing things down a bit, planning for retirement, maybe relaxing a bit more, but instead I farm, and I have to say.. I love it! If I wasn't doing this, what would I be doing? Watching TV, vegging out on the couch, flipping through a magazine? What is more beneficial?  I love the health benefits and the values I hope my grandkids get, of hard work, and the ability to be as self sufficient as possible,  The satisfaction of this life is amazing, and so worth the work. I love getting up in the mornings, getting ready for work, sipping my coffee, doing my devotions, then heading out to all the LOUD greetings of the VERY hungry critters! I love the way they run up to meet you when you walk out, the quack of the ducks as they play in their pool, and the bleat of the sheep as you head out to feed them! I love the sound of the milk of Cardamom as it falls in the pail, and the cluck of the chickens as I gather the eggs.

There is nothing like a delicious fried egg that you just gathered that morning, or a crisp salad made from lettuce you grew yourself, or mixing up a cake from scratch using your eggs and milk! It is so satisfying and so worth the work! Sometimes when I just want to get away a bit it is frustrating; it's very hard to find a reliable farm sitter who doesn't mind milking a goat! Those days when I am exhausted from a night of little sleep and I have to get up an hour earlier so I can feed everyone, or come home from a bad day at work only to have to refill waterers, water plants, milk a goat, gather eggs and all that other farm stuff, I ask myself.. what am I doing?! But, when I hold that sweet little kid in my arms, when I listen to the turkeys answer my call, when I see those cute baby chicks hatch and watch a family member nurse them back to health, after their mother abandons them, (great job Amber!).  That's when I realize, ahhh.. that's why I am doing this!
 As I finish this up, I think of the upcoming chores, the 20 ducklings arriving next Monday, the brooder that has to be prepared, the sheep that have to be sheared, those plants that have to be planted, the building that has to be cleaned out, the new shelter that has to be built,.. and I smile! Thank you Lord for this life!

Catching up..

    Wow! I was looking over some old stuff and came across this blog. I use to enjoy this so much, but like most things, life got busier and busier and time for this slipped away. When I saw it was 2015 since my last post, it saddened me quite a bit! I wondered if I could possibly reopen this old therapy source, so here it goes, if you read this and enjoy it, please let me know! A writer I am not, but I do like getting my thoughts down, and maybe with some feed back I'll get back at it! Just make a comment here or on the Facebook page, or drop me a message!
     A lot has changed in 2 years, in some ways we have progressed quite a bit, in others we have slipped back, but its a work in progress, so I'll update you a bit! We still have our 2 German Shepherds, and our ancient cat, Callie. At the present time we also have 12 goats, 9 females and 3 bucks. We are in the process of selling 2 does and 2 bucks, and we have one expecting any day! We have 8 turkeys, 3 toms and  5 hens. Two of our females are on nests and we are hoping to have little ones soon. We have chickens, bantams and several breeds of full size chickens. We average about 18 eggs a day. We also have sheep! Two females, named, Polly and Esther (aka polyester). We also still have our 2 rabbits, Heidi and Hans. Unfortunately, at this time we do not have our bees or ducks. We lost our hive during this past year, and plan on getting a new one soon, after we can figure out what issues are causing us to lose them. As far as the ducks go, a predator got the ones we had , but we have 20 more ducklings arriving on May 8th, and we are super excited! I miss them and their antics so much! Our pigs have long since gone to market, and we are discussing getting a couple more for the fall.

   So far this year we have not planted a garden , but we do have lettuce planted and in abundance, and a new small greenhouse attached to the back porch , which we will be utilizing soon. We have blueberry bushes, squash and pepper plants ready to go and working on the tomato plants! Several herbs we planted that we are enjoying include, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, parsley, basil, thyme and chocolate mint. Our 2 peach trees are loaded, and will have to be thinned out soon, and our grape vines are doing very well.
  On a family note, I have all my children back in the area! Shannon, Chris, Oli and Emme are back from New York , and live close by. I also have a new grandson since I last blogged, He is a year old named Allister. He is my youngest son's son. We have family nights on Sundays and I am blessed to get all the kids, their significant others and the 3 young grands together! I look forward to it so much, we have a nice supper and hang out. It is such a blessing!
  So, that's the update, so many more topics and thoughts I want to discuss, but I wanted to inform you all where we were at, as a farm first. I would
love to hear from you, so if you have a second, please drop me a word. Until next time!