Looking for Anne M.

Anne, I went to your blog but it said it was closed, please contact me.  I am interested in how you are doing.  Your profile said you followed this blog.  ;-)

Revisited

After many suggestions and requests for information from this blog, I have decided to re-open it for public view.  I've deleted some personal information, and do not have any plans (at this time) to continue posting here, but the remaining homesteading/farming info is intact for readers to search and use.  I understand that with our current economic climate, people are searching for answers.  I pray you find what you need.  Have a Merry Christmas!

Gardening/Farming Statistic Notes 2011

We had two gardens in two different places this year.  One at the in laws tended by my eldest son, and the other here. 

Garden #1 (in laws)
tomatoes did excellent, planted 30 roma plants (2 died).  Received a good amount of tomatoes, but not as much as I expected. 
potatoes did not do good, received a paper box (lid) full of potatoes of golf ball size and smaller. 
green beans didn't do very well either (Kentucky Wonder); plant  bush beans next time

*commercial fertilizer and pesticides used

Garden #2 (home) planted in March

herbs died
cantelopes did excellent (produced approx 20)
watermelon, planted 3 plants (received 4 melons)
Mescullin, small patch, did the best of all veggies
potatoes - plants grew, no potatoes
jalapenos - did ok, would have done better if goats had eaten leaves off - twice
tomatoes - plants grew, no fruit production
cucmbers - planted six foot row, 10 plants (rec'vd 3 cucumbers)
green beans - prolific vines, handful of beans, goats ate twice
peach tree - first year, watered every other day

*used no commercial fertilizer, only manure tea and DE

Canned food:

20 quarts of seasoned tomato sauce
5 quarts of salsa
16 quarts of dill pickles (slices)
1 -  1/2 gallon jar of dill pickles (whole)
24 jelly jars of strawberry jelly
24 jars of bread and butter pickles
1 3/4 bushel of corn (frozen on the ear in gallon bags - 10 bags)
dehydrated small amount of oregano, basil, lavendar, thyme, mint

Plants to harvest on land:

mesquite beans (working on jelly, flour, coffee)
prickly pear cactus (pads and tunas)
mustang grapes

Animals:

Goats:  6 babies (2 bucklings, 4 doelings)
*Dolly died - kicked by horse
*Olympia died - kicked by horse, but died during delivery of kid (buckling died)
*Chamomile died - 6/25/2011 - accidentally shot
*Dakota died - killed by dogs

Chickens
2 chicks hatched by incubator
2 chickens killed (hen by dogs, rooster by storm)
Eggs produced so far:  160 approximately
One buff orpington hen broody, sat on clutch for 21 days, none hatched

Harvested 1 bullfrog for taste testing

Food purchased:

40 lbs of Wagyu beef 1/16th share
Azure order each month ($80)
Pasture raised broilers (20 to date from Green Hills Poultry in Yancey)

Working on second planting here at home garden

green beans (center of garden to prevent goats reaching)
pumpkins
mescullin
cucumbers

*ordering truckload of manure from feed lot

Around the Farm

Lauren asked me the other day if I considered her a "cowgirl".  I told her she could be a cow girl if she wanted, but I considered her a farm girl.  We don't work cattle ;-) but living in Texas and riding horses, she can be a cowgirl.

It has been busy here on the farm, and HOT!.  Tomatoes are in, and I am canning tomato sauce every other day (or thereabouts).  I think 30-40 Roma plants are a great number to plant, as I get enough to can...In the past, I've planted about 6 plants, and while I received more than we could eat, I never received enough to really can.
The potatoes Taylor planted are done, and the yield was lower than I expected.  I received about 1/4 of a brown paper grocery bag full.  Mine still aren't done, and I am not quite sure of the expected yield.  We will have several cantalopes, and a couple of watermelons ready, but Dandy (our Boer wether) got into the garden yesterday and ate all my green bean plants and jalapeno plants. 

One of our Buff Orpington hens decided to go broody and is sitting on 8 eggs.  I am so excited! It would be awesome if they all hatched!  Our previous two chicks are pretty big now, and we let them "roam" during the day.  They don't roam too far, but stay under the tree behind the container, and under the container itself.  When it's cooler they will wander further afield.  At night we lock them up in their cage outside. 

We purchase a 1/16th share of Wagyu beef, approximately 40 lbs of meat.  This meat is organic, hormone free, and pasture raised.  Along with my organic, pasture raised chickens in the freezer, we should have plent of meat for a while.  I am getting my monthly Azure order (about $100 of items). We stop by the dairy about every other week for milk, and then make butter.

I need to get into my routine of baking again.  I am almost out of bread, and we have no snacks in the house.  I made popcorn today because there was NOTHING else. 

We've been irrigating the fields using large sprinklers, and a huge PVC pipe that has been made into a 100 foot long sprinkler with about 4 heads on it.  It isn't making a HUGE difference, but it gives the goats and horses something to eat.  We've also been spending time cleaning up the land, organizing and throwing out trash. 

Lauren has started the second Course in her Cake Decorating Class.  This month they are working on Gum Paste and Fondant Flowers.  She really enjoys these classes. 

Today after church, we went to Michaels to complete one of their Father's Day crafts.  We did one yesterday too. 

It's been so hot lately, that we spend most of the afternoon hunkering down to keep cool, only going out in the early am and late pm.  This severely handicapps the amount of work that we can get done, but it's our only recourse in these high temps.

Off to make butter...

Summer is on it's way!

My feet, skirt and apron

Man!  my feet look really clean!

Lavendar

( the pot says lavendar too, it was a Mother's Day gift)

We hatched out chicks, or at least tried to.  We had a dozen eggs, but only two hatched out.  They are pretty big now, though they are still living inside at night in a rubber maid tote.  During the day they spend their time in the shade of the tree behind the cabin.  (Don't let the euphesim "cabin" fool you, we are still living n the shipping container ;-)  Who would have thought 2 years would pass so fast?

We have been busy taking care of new goats, chickens, collecting eggs, getting our garden planted and fenced.  We put up an electric fence to keep the goats and dogs out.

Recently, we lost one of our roosters and a hen.  This leaves me with 3 hens, a banty rooster, and two chicks (age 3 weeks). 

We've only had 2 inches of rain since last fall.  This drought is hurting everyone.  We've been watering to save on purchasing hay, but that just increases the electric bill from running the pump so much.  We re-filled the pond because it was taking so much time daily to keep all the troughs filled.  It's easier to keep the pond filled for everyone to drink out of. 

We've had about a week of 100-102 temps.  Not fun.  Even with the AC on, I'll start sweating if I move too much, then I get a headache, and have to lie downfor a bit.  I am drinking a lot of water, but it still isn't enough.

Let me see, a run down of our activities, hmmm......we've picked up trash over the entire 10.5 acres, it's hard to really see how much trash actually blows in during the winter months  We had so many plastic bags lining the fences.  Wish people would use cloth grocery bags, just so the kids and I don't have to pick up someone else's trash.  I really hate all the cups and fast food bags thrown on the ide of the road.  We lie way out in the country, but still end up with a lot of garbage bought in by other people.  My biggest pet peeves are deer corn bags, and beer cans usually left by hunters.  Now, don't get me wrong I am okay with hunting, just not the trash people leave for me to pick up. 

We also have painted outbuildngs a beautiful hunter green with white trim.  I'll post a picture in a bit.

I've made more jelly, seasoned tomato sauce only 5 quarts for now, but more as the tomatos ripen.  Dehydrated a small amount of herbs as they have been ready. 

Spent time schooling the kids, trying to clean and declutter, as well as, doing lots of laundry. 

That's about it...I'll post some pictures to catch everyone up.

James making brownies (he has his own little apron with boats LOL)

Selena listening to Lauren's iPod

Spring is Sprung!

I sure do love the Spring in South Texas.  Everything is getting so green, the animals are active, chickens are laying better, I can hang laundry out, and have the windows open.

Spent the past week making and canning up Strawberry Jam.  I have 24 pints of Strawberry and six of Wild Mustang Grape left.  I have been counting and getting my jars in shape for when my vegetables are ready.  I have at least 2 months or so, but I don't want to wait until the last minute.

Happy Valentine's Day

The weather has been extremely cold lately, luckily we are heading into a warm spell this week.  It was over 70 today and sunny.  Very nice!  It was the first day of the Spring Semester of Co-op.  It was refreshing to be away from the bookstore.  We have recently started a three month trial into managing a local bookstore.  We are trying to determine if we want to buy or not.  The kids and I are there from 10-6 Mon-Fri and 10-2 on Saturdays.  I would love to be closed on Mondays, but for now I have someone volunteering to watch the store on Mondays.  We'll see how this all pans out.

We have been purchasing kerosene from a local oil company, and using the kerosene heater on a regular basis.  Along with the woodstove, it stays nice and warm in here, the only drawback being it is cold in the mroning. 

James turned 2 on the 2nd, and Taylor 22 on the 3rd.  My boys are getting so big! 

We have two new bucklings that were born 3 days ago to Mariama, Dolly's daughter.  Dolly had to put down due to an injury and our foster horse, Cocoa, has returned home.  The kids were a little sad, but this is definitely a plus in my mind. 

Oh, it looks like our new neighbors, the ones I told you about, have left.  It's kind of sad, but good in a way too.  I like the isolation.  Now if the other one would leave I'd be really happy.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Welcome to 2011!  We had a wonderful evening of fellowship on New Year's Eve.  Family and church friends came out and spent 6 hours with us!  We sat around the bonfire, talked, made Smores, set off fireworks, and rang in the New Year! 

I love entertaining out here, and it is so nice when people brave the weather and are willing to come out to visit, despite our not having a large enough home for them to sit in.  Keeping the bonfire going last night was a big priority.  We managed to burn up the large pile of pallet wood we had.  I had picked it up free from a friend.  It took two trips in the van to get it all here. 

We had very unhealthy food.  I filled the roaster will cheese sticks, taquitos, chicken fries, hot wings, sausages, pizza rolls.  We had chips and brownies too, along with sodas, tea, water, and cocoa. 

We finally made it to bed around 1 a.m.  Everyone bugged out shortly after midnight.  This morning when taking my eldest son home, I noticed there had been a grass fire at the front of the property.  It burned itself out.  We aren't sure what it was cause by.  It looked like it came from the roadway, so it could have been a cigarette, or it could have been a spark


The weather was cold last night, and will be down to 29 tonight.  The fire is going strong, and keeping the place toasty warm.