I’ll post pics after she gets here, but I just got off the phone with the goat lady and she’ll be delivering our new family member today. We are really excited! 🙂

So we are now getting 2 eggs a day..:) Our other older gal should start laying anytime, and the rest have a couple more weeks to go. Jason wants more pullets as we are having to pass on our last rooster. He’s just too protective and I’m afraid he will hurt one of the kids to be honest. Such a beauty, but not for our little parcel of land. So Jason wants 4 more pullets to finish out the flock. We’ll see how that goes..;)

We are almost done with the goat yard and have found out we are getting a pregnant doe named June. 🙂 She is due next month and we’ll be bringing her home this weekend we are hoping! It’s really very exciting! Jason finished the gate yesterday, I think he’ll be hanging it tonight. Then all we have left to do is run smaller hog-wire along the existing fence and get an XL dog house for June to shelter in while we build her permanent shed. I can’t wait! I’m so excited about it all! 🙂

I’ll get some more pictures up in awhile, just wanted to check in and say hey to everyone! Oh, we pulled all the cukes and cantaloupes – bugs! But I did get a dozen jars of pickles out of it so all was not lost. 🙂 Jason should have plenty of Bread and Butter pickles to last the winter…hahah

Peace!

Yep, the girls are starting to lay…finally! The first egg is always exciting. 🙂 Now that they are beginning to lay, we can start letting them completely free range again. we’d kept them in their coop and run for the last couple weeks so when they’d start laying they’d learn to keep them in the nesting boxes…;) Once we get our goat in a week or so, the rest can free range in the goat pen, but for now only the older girls will be allowed out because they can’t get through the fence…hehehe

Some facts on truly free range eggs from Mother Earth News:

Tests of eggs from four free-range flocks found that, compared to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for eggs from confinement production systems, the eggs from chickens raised on free range were much more nutritious — up to twice as rich in vitamin E, up to six times richer in beta carotene (a form of vitamin A) and four times richer in essential omega-3 fatty acids. And, the free-range eggs averaged only half as much cholesterol as the USDA data indicates for confinement-system eggs.

yum!!

Where did the time go?!

but can’t help showing off our little princesses at the wedding..:) Enjoy! (The little boy sitting next to Lola is her cousin, and the top picture is Xiola of course, and my legs…HAHA).

Just have been swamped. Family wedding, kids, colds and all that good stuff. HAHA But we are still here, still farming and still working towards our goal. Cucumbers are doing fabulous, will have enough to can again in a few days. And we are getting ready to fully commit to the Fall garden, so will be planting in the next week. We also decided to try hydroponics with our tomatoes! Any suggestions? 😉

On a sad note, we are going to have to give up our kingpin roo, Brownie. He’s turned mean and has attacked me a number of times while trying to feed and water, clean coop, etc.. 🙁 I’m sad about it because he’s so beautiful. But at the same time, with the little kids running around, I don’t want to risk him getting out and attacking one of them. He is a very big bird, and could actually do alot of damage – espeically to our littlest who is tiny for her age anyway. We are giving him to the gal who owns the feed store. She always finds good homes for roos, so that’s a comfort. And our gals haven’t started laying yet, but the weather is finally cooling off so I think it’s any day now.

Anyway, just wanted to pop up and let everyone know all is well and I’ll be back to regular posting soon! Have to catch up on all your blogs as well! 🙂 Peace!

Jason worked very hard this weekend and built this super cool retaining wall above one of our garden sections. It also holds another gardening section on top! I’m going plant some of our Fall stuff in there as well as other places in the yard. Eventually that will be filled in with Black Bamboo and other plants that will trail over the wall. It is so exciting seeing another project nearing completion. Also, that dirt on top is from our compost…;)

Some more garden pics:

Guatamalan Black Pepper

I see you!

We were the feature for the day on the blog, One A Day from chickenflicker.com! Check out their site! 🙂

Things are good here, terribly busy! I’ve added one more child to my childcare days. 🙂 So we are always busy with the 6 kids – 2 are mine. 😉

I’ll have more “farm” related things to add in a bit! Thanks for hanging out and keeping up with our little world. Peace!

We are starting to see hope for our cucumbers! We replanted awhile ago and they are looking great now! Our original crop got fried in the heat when the weather changed abruptly, and we are a family who loves our cucumber slices. 🙂 So the above pic is one of the patches.

Cantaloupe is also going crazy!

Some lovely cucumber blossoms.

Sadly, our pumpkins were infected, once again with SVB’s. Gotta come up with a new plan for them next year. Someone on another blog commented that they planted some in raised beds along with their fall/winter squash and seem to be successful. Karl, was that you? 🙂 Hope it’s still going well!

We are trying to get ready for our fall garden. We have all the seeds we need, now just have to get them in the ground! I think we are going to attempt to grow our tomatoes hydroponically too. I ordered a ton of heirloom seeds, so would hate to see those lost to the dreaded blight! We are learning fast, but sure are enjoying it!

Our chickens are doing great! No eggs yet, but I think it’s just been too hot for them. The new ones are adapting. We had to separate a couple of them, the Leghorn and the Faverolle, because they were getting too beat up but they seem to be fine. The Leghorn got out for several days and explored the neighbor’s yard, but I was able to finally catch her and get her back with the flock. Once she is less skittish, we’ll allow her to free range once again..;) We found a home for the last rooster too, so are down to 2 roos and 8 gals. 🙂 Can’t wait for the eggs!!!!

This is Brownie, our kingpin roo.

A group shot.

Oh! And we are getting our goat next month! We decided on a Nigerian Dwarf, and will be purchasing a pregnant doe and keeping the babies. 🙂 We are so excited! Need to get to work on the goat pen now! 🙂 Hope you all are having a wonderful summer so far!

Just to let everyone know, the pics on the blog are recent…my camera keeps showing an old date though…hahah so from now on I’ll be editting the date and time out of the pics. Sorry for any confusion!!!! 🙂 Hope everyone is having a great day!