Garden

I'm trying again.

I didn't do anything serious last year and didn't put any real effort into it.

I want to try again.

I started a bunch of things under the light and just moved them outside this week.

Green Beans

Sweet Peppers

Poblano Peppers

Jalepeno Peppers

Cucumber

Zucchini 

Pumpkin

Corn

Watermelon

Acorn Squash

Tomato (just one from Ava's class project)

Lettuce

and I have Raspberries (the bush is much bigger this year!) and Strawberries (just one, sad plant, that survived from last year's garden. 

So we'll see how it goes. 

Oh! We also scored a new water tank! It's the exact same one as we have for the pool, but brand spanking new. Found it on Marketplace and it was a STEAL. We plan to keep this one by the garden and attach a hose so I can easily water my garden without fear of draining the tank in the basement. 

My Flock

Not only has my real life been in shambles, but my farm life has struggled too.

About a month or so ago, a fox got a taste and came back and basically destroyed half my flock. It was so sad. We ended up with only 7 hens left. Our rooster put up quite the fight and it was devastating to lose him.

The other day I went out to feed my ladies and saw that there were only two left.

3 months ago we had over 20 chickens and now I'm left with two.

It's heartbreaking.

We've set traps.

We've secured our fencing the best we could (without going electric). And yet it keeps finding a way.

I mean, we've gone months without issue. But once this fox got a taste...he came back and pretty much finished them off.

Our ladies were on the older side, not having added t our flock in several years. 

We did put in an order just last week for 9 more chickens and 4 turkeys.

But now I'm thinking we'll need more. 

Or I don't know. Until I can secure our pasture or something...I feel bad adding more. I don't want to keep losing them like this.

The Ween - Settling In Nicely

Welp. 

It's official.

We adopted "Cupcake".

I'm not sure if we're keeping her name, but I've been calling her "Ween"

Short for Weenie or Wiener.

I just cannot with this little dog.

She got spayed last Thursday, and is on a limited-activity restriction for 10-14 days.

No running, jumping, etc.

If we're actively watching her, she does not bother her stitches.

I did find, however, on her first day home (Friday) that she has this "hole" on the side of her leg, where a dew claw would be. 

Since she's on antibiotics and pain meds, I figured I'd let those play out before bringing her back to the vet.

It may not be necessary.

She's fitting in nicely with our pack and we love her so much! 

COME ON. 

The sweetest wiener dog

Window open, breeze coming through and snoozing

Steve wants to call her "Stretch"

Those ears.

THAT FACE!

Welcome home, Ween. 

Garden 2022

You guys.

So I started my seedlings, remember?

But I hadn't done anything with my incredibly overgrown garden.

I also hadn't anticipated how much work it was going to be to get it into working order. 

The weeds and vegetation that had taken over...dude. It was a lot.

2 years of neglect. I blocked the chicken's entryway so they haven't been in there either for about 2 weeks. 

Sloooow progress. This was after 2 hours. 

End of day 1. I finished this up the next day.

Tilled and ready for more dirt! Then I can plant my seedlings, which are in my basement. Still doing ok, but they need to be transferred ASAP. 

I have the entire other half to fill.

I have a few ideas, Steve wants to do corn, but we're way too late in the season.

There are a few more things I want to add, but I'll need to find semi-mature plants at this point. 

I'm so excited!!

Garden 2022

I'm SO excited you guys.

I took last year off from gardening.

I don't have a good reason, other than I was being lazy.

But not this year!

My mom and I are getting very excited talking about what we're planting this year. For as long as I could remember, my mom had a vegetable garden.

Yesterday seemed like a great day to get started.

The weather is finally breaking - although I'm starting my seeds in my basement again.

There are 100 pods right there. Several seeds per pod, in hopes that I get at least ONE seedling going per pod. 

We have cucumbers, zucchini, butternut squash, green beans, tomatoes, lettuce, green peppers. 

Fingers crossed! 

Country Kids

These kids, man. 

It's always something.

Now that the weather is breaking, we are pretty much forcing the girls to go outside.

They've been cooped up in our house for way too long and now it's time to just get the fuck outside and play. Go away. Go find something to do.

I had to run a quick errand after work yesterday and when I came back, Steve was on the quad coming up back around the house.

He meets me at the truck and just shakes his head. 

"Your kids dude...." is all he could say.

Both girls come around the corner, muddy as hell, proud as FUCK saying they caught a mouse.

AGAIN.

A live one, you guys.

Explain to me how two small girls can grab a live mouse fast enough? With their BARE HANDS? 

And this isn't the first time! The last time she caught a live mouse, she hid it upstairs under a light in a small cage with grass and guinea pig food and some water. Like WUT.

We explained that she cannot keep these little guys, that they have families they need to go home to. So we let them keep him/her for a few minutes and then they had to let him/her go.

Just look at their faces, lol. So proud of themselves! And yes, that's mud on Mila's face.

I'm not sure if I should be proud or horrified. 

His Dream Come True

We've lived out here in the country for 7 years this month!

October 1, 2014 is the day we moved in. 

I was 7 months pregnant with a 2.5-year-old. 

We moved here with very little in terms of equipment.

We had a 48" zero-turn lawn mower that quickly proved to be too small. 

So we had to upgrade it.

We had a get a plow for our ATV so we could clear the driveway. 

The one thing Steve needs is a tractor. 

With a shovel, a loader, a plow. You know, all the attachments.

But that shit is so expensive. 

There's no way we'd ever be able to afford anything new. 

They cost legit like $100,000. 

So nope. 

Every single time we'd see one on the side of the road, we'd stop to take a look.

We'd see newish Kubota ones for $15K frequently.

Just not something we could justify.

He was sure we'd eventually come across something that would work out for us.

We just didn't think it'd happen so....soon. 

Let me back up a bit.

Steve's old neighbor (that he grew up living next door to), now lives across the street from a little old lady. 

She's almost 80 and her husband passed away 10 years ago after a short battle with dementia. 

They lived on this farm with so many pieces of farm equipment.

Steve went over there one day to help her with her car; a favor for his old neighbor.

Well, Steve is pretty charming and little old ladies just eat him up. And he's pretty handsome if I do say so myself ;)

Anyway, as he's fixing her car up, she's talking about how he needs to teach me how to operate all the stuff on our property because she doesn't know how to use any of it. And when her husband passed....she didn't know how to operate any of it. 

And it's just sitting there rotting.

Steve tells her about us, the girls, our land, etc. 

She says "I'd just give the tractor to someone if I knew they'd appreciate it"

Long story short - we made sure to check with her family, the neighbor who's been caring for her since her husband died, and they decided on a fair price. (We were NOT going to let her just give it to us.) 

For a 1987 John Deere Tractor.

With a loader.

With a post-hole digger.

With a shovel/bucket. 

It comes with the original owner's manual. AND shop manuals (which Steve tells me you usually have to pay for).  

We are beyond excited. Grateful.

This all happened in about 2 days. From the time Steve met the little old lady, to when they offered and she accepted a sale price. 

It has a new starter and ignition. New tires. 

It's legit the tractor he's been waiting for.

It's incredible that it comes with all the attachments.

We just have to get it out of her barn and to our house. 

Next Summer's project will be a barn so we can put our tractor and boat in it. 

This boy. I haven't seen him this happy in a long time! LOL. 

Baby Chick Season!

It's that time again!

Ava and I stopped at the feed store last weekend and there were so many baby chicks available!

We opted NOT to bring any home that day (go me!) because Steve was suffering from a back "episode" (that's what the doctor is calling it) and we didn't know if it was going to be bad or what. I didn't want to add another thing to my plate in terms of animal care.

I already pretty much do 75% of the outside chickens, the dogs, and the piggies.

But, Steve started to feel better and is now going to PT twice a week.

He was feeling pretty good and decided we'd go run some errands. The sun was shining and it was a decent day.

Last weekend after our visit, I decided to at least bring the big tub over to the basement doors so I could prep for the baby chicks if we decided to go back.

It really wasn't that much work since we have everything. 

We got 12 new babies and they are SO freaking cute. I love having baby chicks around they are so fun to watch. 

We have about 30 chickens now, including 2 roosters. Hopefully these 12 are all female (they are sexed with a 90% guarantee) but that means 1-2 may be roosters. Hopefully not. We'll see!

Our other girls are doing so great after culling 3 roosters. 

The first day we got 24 eggs, then 11, then 13. 

Crazy I tell ya! 

Outdoor Chores In Winter

It's been a MINUTE since I've posted anything "farm" related.

My blog is slowly turning into a "lifestyle/fitness" blog? 

I dunno.

Winter months can be brutal when you're taking care of animals who live outside.

Each year we have to prep for the winter months.

It's not something I was accustomed to doing prior to living out here.

Our chicken coop is not heated - there's a risk of fire with keeping a lamp out there - basically, the inside of their actual chicken coop is dry and warm. That's how they can make it through winter. If we put a heat lamp in there, if it fell or whatever, it could easily start a fire and the coop is far away enough from the house we likely wouldn't notice it right away.

Plus, the chickens have down feathers and are able to stay warm 

We DID put in a heat lamp for a few days either last year or the year before due to FRIGID temps. Wind chills at NEGATIVE 25. 

So yeah, we opted to put a lamp in there during those few days - but kept a really good eye on it.

But, our regular chores still need to get done, even if it's freezing outside.

Food scraps need to be taken out to them, the few eggs they are laying need to be gathered. 

We have a heated water system out there for them, it's a metal waterer that sits on a metal pan that is warmed (we run a cord from the coop to our basement). So it keeps the water just warm enough not to freeze.

They are going through more food because of the cold. They spend energy trying to stay warm. 

So I have to make sure their food is full and water is good about every 3 days. Again, not the worst in the world, but when it's freezing or raining, lugging water back and forth isn't the most fun.

I also have to carry 50lb bags of feed from the house to the coop. It's probably a couple hundred feet. 

When there's two feet of snow on the ground? Not that easy! 

Have to bundle up this time of year

I'm glad I have my tall Muck Boots

Steve made a path with the plow from our garage to the coop.

It's kind of a far walk.

Getting closer...

Here's the short cut from our fenced-in area and sliding doors. I asked Steve to plow this path for me so I can make the shorter trek. 

Heavy ass water needs to be carried all the way to the coop.

Through 2 feet of snow.

That wasn't all that fun. It wasn't bad by any means.

But it was cold. And I was a sweaty mess.

I didn't get pics of the successful journey - I had splashed water on my pants and my gloves were wet. I wanted to get inside, washed up and in new clothes ASAP. Ugh.

Another thing I didn't capture is that after I carried the water bucket over, I then had to come back and grab the 50lb bag of chicken feed, threw that son-of-a-bitch over my shoulder, and hoofed it back to the coop, in two feet of snow. 

At least it's done. I'll need to check on them again in about 2-3 days. 

And I only got two eggs. 

WTF. 

Crazy Weather

Listen. 

I get it.

I've lived in the Rochester, NY area my ENTIRE LIFE. Well, except when I lived in the next city over when I went to university. 

And that city was also known for its horrendous snow storms because of Lake Erie. 

It snowed here the other day.

And now?

We're looking at a full week of amazing weather. 

Like, WUT?

Gotta love Western New York. 

A Nice Fall Weekend

We are enjoying all the family time we are getting because of COVID.

Steve and I have always been friends and we enjoy each other's company still. He's still the person I want to spend all my time with.

And, with his schedule, we get to be together quite a bit.

Bonus is that the girls are also home a majority of the time and even though sometimes they drive me completely and absolutely out of my mind, I know this is time that I'll never get again with them. So I'm trying to really make the most of it.

We've been spending a lot of time outside - it's changing seasons and it's just beautiful. The air is crisp, the leaves are starting to change color. The smell outside just smells like Fall.

I was at the office one of the days and I came home to Ava having found the smallest freaking snail I've ever seen. Like, microscopic almost. 

She named him Scooter. 

She's so proud of him/her. 

Full transparency - during quarantine, the girls have spent way more time on screens than I ever would have allowed in real life. Especially when I was working full time and Steve was working and I had no help. Now that we're trying to get back to some what of a normal (whatever the hell that is) life, we are slowing weaning them away from their screens. You'd think we told them their best friend was moving away the way they sulk if I take screens away. I know, I know, my fault. ANYWAY. In an effort to combat this, Steve went out and bought new Lego sets! There were super cute and fun to put together. We spent the afternoon together as a family just like what this pic shows. <Look at Mr's face....lol>

We took advantage of a nice evening and went on a golf cart ride. Excuse my face, I was worried the owners were coming to yell at me. They were not - it was a random car that pulled over to look at them too! So cute and so friendly this guy. 

Ava loved him.

He ate right out of her hand! 

THEN THERE'S THE BABY. OMG. I almost leapt off the golf cart while it was in motion to see the baby. So cute. 

It's definitely getting chilly at night. It's dropping into the 50's so it's super comfortable for sleeping, but super chilly for a golf cart ride.

Bring on Fall!