Just for fun...

 Just for fun I thought I'd post something on the blog. It's been three years, exactly. Honestly I'm quite surprised anyone still comes here. So, for those special people who do still check up on this blog, here is a little update.

The gardening season is in full swing. I've moved our garden from the last time you've seen it, and I really like the new area. It's quite large, but I've integrated flowers into it as well as the usual vegetables. My hope is to sell some cut flower bouquets this year at the farmers market, as well as the vegetable starts that I currently sell. 

The hoophouse, below, has become one of my favorite places to be. After being almost destroyed in a storm early this year, we've repaired it and strengthened it, and it's currently filled with probably close to 2,000 plants. It's been quite a fun and educational experience growing all of these different plants. 

The little boys have grown immensely and it's a bittersweet thing. My big boys are almost grown up now and turning into such fine young men. It really is a joy to be able to watch them all grow into their own persons. They're all such unique and wonderful children. 

Our house is nearly finished from the housefire repairs, though we still have some minor cosmetic things to complete. 

Since we last spoke, we've had some major changes in our animal and pet world. We've lost our beloved Tank, as well as his little friend Bailey. 

We've also added sheep and a young cow to our livestock. Of course we are always having more goat babies, hatching chicks and ducks, and we raised a couple more pigs for meat. There's always something new!

But the most significant thing to have happened in the last 3 years was the death of my daughter. She was just 20 years old and her death was very sudden and unexpected. 

So that's it for a quick little update. If you get a chance, please check out our YouTube channel for a LOT more updates, like the most recent one, linked below:

https://youtu.be/-B8P9OZrT5k

Thank you all SO much for your continued support and friendship! I hope to "see" you all again soon!

Is This My Once a Year Update?

Howdy!

I actually found myself googling, "Do people still read blogs?" before I sat down to write this. And whether they do still read blogs or not, I found myself compelled to add another post... even if only for my own "story keeping." 

Yes, we are still YouTubing as well, but here's a quick update as to all things TwelveAcres.

With the CRAZY stuff going on in the world today, I'm withdrawing deeper and deeper into our little farm. We are making growing our own food a bigger priority this year than ever before. The fragile food system that is crumbling before our very eyes, has jolted a lot of people out of their slumber. 

The fresh meat sections at our local supermarket. 

Because of that, we've upped our game. 

The garden is a little bigger this year, our incubators are constantly running, the rabbits are perpetually kindling... you get the idea. 

 Our "pig venture" is still proceeding. Darla, our York/Blue Butt cross is pregnant and should be due in July. Frank, the Hereford boar, is still as sweet as ever, and even teaching Darla how to love being scratched. They are growing ever bigger and we hope to be able to expand their pens yet again this year. And I'm learning all I can about hog pregnancies and birth!

Handy Husband has seen some employment difficulties this year, so another new venture of ours is making home décor and furnishings from reclaimed wood and pallets. We've opened up an Etsy shop for the smaller items; if you get a minute, we'd love to have you take a look at what we offer. 

One of our handcrafted "noodle boards," aka stovetop covers.  

Some new critters on the farm this year, are (FINALLY) turkeys! We've been talking about getting turkeys for years now, and we finally bit the bullet! We have 12, 4 day old poults: six Narragansett, and six Bourbon Red. We plan on raising a few of these for the freezer, and the rest will be kept as breeders to hopefully keep us in turkey for years to come. 

 I can't think of anything else new. We are still recovering from the housefire, believe it or not. The siding is about 90% done, and we have still have to paint. We also have two massive piles of debris to remove from the property, but without a truck it's not that easy. One day at a time! We'll get there eventually.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. I may update more frequently as the mood hits. Take care everyone and I'll see you back here next time! 

Spring Gardening Time!

We're so excited for spring to be in full spring. We had a nice thunderstorm last night with lots of rain, and with the temperatures being in the 60s, and even forecast to get into the 70s in the coming days, no doubt everything will start exploding with growth!

I didn't get my seeds started as early as I would have liked (no surprise there!), but I'm hoping I'll have enough time to get at least some of the spring crops before it gets too hot for them. 

I did some cleaning and rearranging in the greenhouse, which will also double as some a storage space for my housefire-salvaged "stuff". 

These lettuce and brassicas over-wintered in the hoophouse and will be 

transplanted into the main garden. 

First time growing onions! Hope they do well!

We'll have about 75 tomato plants this year! I plan on doing a LOT of canning!

Blackberries are coming in nicely!

Lots of seeds started for the summer garden!

The boys helped me with some new mulch for the rose garden. I want to keep it well managed this year- last year it pretty much grew wild and the weeds and grass were out of control!

Garden Update

I decided to downsize our garden this year, as it was just far too much for me to handle last year. So far everything is doing pretty well, although I'm having a hard time with my successive plantings of green beans... the rabbits are eating them all up as soon as they sprout!

We've got the following planted:

potatoes, green beans, snap peas, radish, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers. 

Farm Update

Day to day life has definitely got me busy and just a bit too occupied for blogging. So here's a quick rundown of all the things we've got going on right now....

Above and below: Built new rabbit hutches. Love them!

Below: Ducklings are getting big! 

First cucumber!

Baby I loves the sweet and gentle Barred Rocks.

Refrigerator pickles! Yummm.

First time processing and eating our quail. It was very easy and pretty tasty too!

Love our homegrown v-6.

Lots of predator problems lately! We have to reset our traps constantly!

Cleared out the "spa room" all the way down to the bones.

Getting back into my old hobby of making miniature leather saddles.

More baby quail!

First haircut for this little one.

Mealworms are doing fantastic!

First eggs from the black copper marans are so dark and pretty!

Baby bunnies!

Pallet furniture. Love this table for the family room.

Spring is Busting at the Seams

Hindsight being what it is, I now see that I could have easily put my garden in over a month ago. We've had such an amazing spring so far, and had a very mild winter. Yes, I definitely should have planted things weeks ago. But alas, caution kept me sticking to the "last freeze date", which we passed a few days ago.

Thankfully, I did start some things in the greenhouse, so at least I have a few

things to transplant into the garden.

I have 56 tomato plants ready to transplant into the garden!

A view of the outside of the greenhouse. Our chicken pen is in the foreground of the picture. The blue tarp you see is part of the rabbit operation, housing three bucks.  

Some delicious Black Seeded Simpson leaf lettuce.

I started a few cucumbers in the greenhouse, but will direct sow a lot more in the garden.

A Killdeer nest in the middle of our garden. I guess we won't be using that section for awhile! :)

We fenced off the garden area so that the horses can go back into the rest of the pasture.

This is the 8 year old's section of the garden. He's a good little gardener!

Here he is with the oldest boy, planting his seedlings.