Wow it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? I didn’t mean to let time get away from me like that. To say we’ve been busy is such an understatement. I’ll guess I’ll just get right to it!

Ok so, our good buddy from Missouri came up a couple of weeks back and stayed the weekend with us. Luckily for us, he brought his tractor that has a loader on it! With that in mind, the guys quickly came up with a game plan of things to get completed while he was here. One of those projects was digging out the stump to an old diseased Elm tree. The other was to dig out the rest of the crawlspace area where the addition on our house is going to be. As with a lot of things in life, it didn’t take long for us to remember that things don’t always go according to plan…

Initially everything started out according to the plan. It shouldn’t take long to get the stump out, right?… Yeah…apparently this one had other ideas in mind. They dug, and dug, and dug some more. Before long, it had been several hours, and the stump was hanging on tight. No matter what they did, it just wasn’t enough. They finally had to call it and move on to the next task.

Digging out the crawlspace ended up being more successful, thankfully. They were able to get quite a bit done there so that was nice.

Now on to other parts of the homestead. The garden is doing incredible! Everything that has been planted has sprouted! He’s trying a new to us method with potatoes this year where he covered the plants with straw to start out and once again when the plants are getting established. If you want more info look into the “Ruth Stout methid”.So far it’s working out perfectly! Theres still a few things that need to be planted such as cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, and a few other things. These last few things will most likely go in the ground sometime over the next few days.

The geese are getting bigger by the day! We added an area off of the chicken coop for them and the boys built them a doghouse to live in. They did a great job, and the geese seem to love it! I put straw in it for comfort purposes and to hopefully make it easier to clean out. We upgraded their pool as well. Every morning they run straight to it! It is hilarious watching their “synchronized swimming” as they dive and zoom around under water.

The little chicks have been incorporated into the flock way smoother than I anticipated. They still freak out and run around like everything is going to kill them though. I know they’ll calm down with time. I can’t wait for them to start laying eggs! Some are supposed to be blue and some green and I’m excited to see the variations. I think blue and green eggs are just so pretty!

We have some new additions coming soon! I wasn’t going to share until they were here, but those that know me, know that I’m terrible at keeping secrets 🤣. This next weekend, we have 2 Nigerian dwarf goats coming to join our farm. They are a year old and will eventually be used for milking. Nigerian dwarf goats have the highest butterfat content in their milk which is great for making cheese and supposedly has the sweetest milk. My plan is to obviously have the milk to drink, but to also have butter, make lotion, soaps, etc. It’ll be next year sometime before that takes place though. I have wanted dairy goats for years, and I’m so stoked for this opportunity with them!

Coming up in the early part of June we have a couple of more additions coming! Since before moving here, we have wanted to raise and butcher our own pork. With all of the craziness going on in the world right now and excessive shopping of meat at stores, now more than ever this has become a priority. About a month ago I found some Tamworth/ Hereford/ Mangalitsa cross pigs. In case you didn’t know, there are different types of pigs based on what you want from them. Some breeds are better for bacon, and some are for lard. With our pigs, they are notoriously known as bacon pigs. We’ll raise them up to about 250 pounds and butcher them. In the meantime, we plan to train them to an electric fence and use them to help clear out the woods.

Egg sales have been great here lately. It seems most of our neighbors down the way are coming to us for eggs now. I may or may not have slipped a turkey egg or two in when they get them. Guinea eggs have been stacking up though, well they were. Once I advertised them on face space, I had a bunch of people wanting to buy them for hatching. I guess guineas are a hot commodity these days. I’ve even had people asking about Guinea keets (babies) and if I had any available. That of course got me thinking that maybe we should throw some Guinea eggs in the incubator and see what happens!

One of the unexpected results of selling eggs to neighbors is that while conversating about things we make and do, requests for other stuff have come up. For instance, we now have folks buying fresh baked bread, eggs and homemade bacon as a “breakfast special” of sorts. It’s been a huge hit! I didn’t anticipate that we would be doing more than providing eggs for those in our community but I have to say, it’s a great feeling when they come back saying “man that was good!” and buy more.

All in all, things are going well around here. There’s so much I want to share, but this is long enough. If you’ve made it this far, thanks a million, we appreciate you!

Stay safe and healthy!