We have had some busy days this spring on the farm already. There has been a lot of work already started and more MUCH MORE to come! The flooding in the yard has gone down substantially and we are looking forward to getting some of the areas fixed that got a little washed out. The whole community has had some major flooding this spring in fact.

I am really excited to have ordered some trees, seeds, plants, and chickens all set to arrive this month. Planting up our gardens this year is going to be a lot of work with the planned food and plants we have going in, but at the end of the season when we get to harvest all the food to feed our family for they year it will be all worth it.

I have big plans for the birds this summer too. I have ordered 100 broilers we will grow up and butcher in the early fall. I don’t think the 65 that we managed to raise (first time growing them and we lost quite a few) last year will quite last us until butcher time this year so I am excited to try out some new methods and hopefully we don’t lose as many going forward this year! I also have plans to get 20 new laying hens in July, ones that are already established layers, I would like to increase our laying potential here too, our birds we have right now have been around for a few years, one still from the first birds we got when we moved in so the laying potential is low and often we have a low supply in the house.

We have baby pigs running around in the barn right now with momma and they are too cute. The sow is a really great mom and she is raising 11 of them, even one that I didn’t think would make it thru the first couple days! The other two sows are due to farrow in the summer time, accident we had with them and the boar getting out, bad timing but all is good because they will be nice and warm and shouldn’t have cold risk to get in the way of babies surviving.

We have one baby cow now and one more to come soon. Mom and baby are doing well right now and I am getting a little too excited for someone who didn’t want cows in the first place for the other to have hers!

Processed with MOLDIV

I’d like to go into the winter with a hearty supply of eggs, chicken pork, and if Steve gets out this year hunting (don’t tell him I said so) some red meat in the freezer too… not to mention the plans with harvesting and storing or preserving the vegetables, and berries from around here too! It will be busy but we will just keep plugging along and knowing that we are raising farm fresh healthy food for our family!

I have ambitions to do more, not today but one day… maybe bees? Sheep? If anyone has tips let me know! Anything I can do produce our own food I am game for trying!

We have some big tree plans coming too, I have ordered from the shelterbelt program some trees to help out with some wind and dust block as well as some pretty flowers, tasty berries, and eye catching giants. I have been wanting to find just the right trees and shrubs that would work here and do us well since we moved in and now that we are many years into our journey I know we have to get something in the ground so we can still be alive to see some of the results! I have ordered Elm trees so those have a 200-year life span! We have done some major pruning down in the front yard bush area, we have cut back all the lilacs and it is looking clean and nice out there! There is still quite a bit of clean up to do out there but its on its way to looking good, and I can finally see the other trees, shrubs, and bushes in there and what they need from me to keep growing and look beautiful!

So I am excited for the projects we have coming up, I am excited for the growing season and all the homegrown food we have coming this harvest season! I am looking forward to the summer, bbqs, campouts, and lots of time with friends and family! I hope your summer is great too!

-A