Friday, April 20, 2012

Farm Happenings


My plans for the week went slightly awry. Some of us have come down with a bad case of a little illness I like to call "The Crud." I'm sure it's just a common cold, but giving it a new name is more accurate to how we're feeling right now.

And it's sounds less lethal than calling it "The Plague," which is how I'm really feeling.

Before "The Crud" hit, we managed to accomplish a few things...


My Mister was kind enough to teach me how to scrape the sod off of our new garden area. This is where we'll plant sweet corn, potatoes, and sunflowers. The boys cleaned out the chicken coop and put all the brown gold on top of the new garden area, where we planned to till it into the earth in another month or so.

Here's what went wrong with our planning. The new garden area is located on the south-facing side of our house. It is right next to the house...directly under the living room that has the largest opening windows...and the sun was shining...so we opened the windows...

Now the new garden is getting tilled this weekend, before the sunshine comes back.☺


Our wine-making skills were taken to a whole new level this week. Before the strawberry wine could be bottled, we had to sweeten it first. If we were going for a taste much like lighter fluid, it was a success. But in order for it to taste like the sweet wine it was meant to be, we had to play mad scientist first.


My Mister numbered glasses 1-5, with each glass having 1/2 teaspoon more sugar than the last. I like #3. He liked #5. So we went with #4.

I like this part of wine-making.☺


I know Blynken looks innocent standing here in her pen, but she has become the goat equivalent of Houdini. See the wood chunks next to the fence? We had them everywhere thinking she was somehow getting underneath the fencing.

Here's the thing about goats....they're smarter than their human counterparts.


Our goats just use the gate. Because they think they're human.

But mostly, because they can.

We're adding fence repair to our list of weekend activities too.


Ostracized by the Bourbon Red's, our Chocolate Turkey decided to start her own family. She managed to hatch out 2 poults on her own. (The other eggs were duds.) This little discovery excited our middle son, so he stalked the other turkeys for a week, carefully gathered their ambitious dreams,


and is now starting his own turkey family. This alone doesn't concern me though. It's this.


Tanner's organizational skills. They surpassed mine.

I may be out of a job soon.

And finally, we celebrated a birthday this week. Our "baby" turned 12.

Since we could only put one candle on the cupcake, Matty decided to use his fingers to make the number 2....so the picture would show that he was 12.

Numbers may not be his thing after all.

While he may not be 21, he was pretty excited to open his gift.


Now if we can just pry it out of Grandma's hands....☺


This post is linked to The Homestead Barn Hop.


7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hope you get to feeling better very soon.....having 'the crud' is never an enjoyable time, especially this time of year! Take Care.

Mary Ann said...

That was a great post! I had a turkey hatch out 8 chicks once, but she lost 6 to a snake that evening...

Candy C. said...

Hey, it looked like 12 from HIS side of the camera! LOL!! Love, love, love the picture of grandma with the gun! I hope ya'll are getting over the crud and can get that chicken poo tilled in! ;-)

Unknown said...

Praying your family gets over the "crud" soon! Seems to be going around...I cannot wait for summer! LOL

All of the goings on at your place sound wonderful. The strawberry wine looks wonderful! We started a batch of dandelion wine this week, it goes into the carboy today. :) We'll be bottling in July or August. :) Can't wait!

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend!

Mountain Home Quilts said...

Forget the hatchery! The next time I need baby turkeys, I'm calling YOU! WA to N. CA isn't too far of a trip anyway so I'm sure the poults would survive. :)
Are the poults that your chocolate turkey hatched her's or did you slip some BR eggs under her? Do you have a Chocolate Tom?
And seriously, Tanner, how in the world does a young man become that organized? You can come over and stay with us for a week to give some helpful tips to my 14 year old.

Kim said...

Thank you ladies! I thought we'd slipped under the "crud" radar this year, but it seems to have found us. Maybe the weekend's expected sunshine will burn it off. One (or 12) can hope! :)

Valerie~We started a partial batch of dandelion wine this week, but had to throw it out...I messed up the recipe and the crud is taking the blame! Hopefully we'll be able to get some more started this weekend! The dandelion wine is AMAZING!!!! Who knew? :)

Heather~Anytime!!!

We do have a chocolate tom, so I'm pretty sure the poults that were hatched were all chocolate's. Our 2 younger br's just started laying a couple of weeks ago, so the eggs in the incubator are all Bourbon Red's. Except for the chicken eggs that somehow ended up in there too~which I realized when reading Tanner's chart! :)

Tina - Our Rustic Roots said...

Congrats on the poults and congrats to the birthday boy! That picture of grandma is great!