Spring time bursting forth at the seams

Hills with watermelons and summer squash

 We're trying hills for our squash this year.  Our sons have planted a large watermelon/melon garden this year, it involved a lot of hilling, but they cheerfully got the work done.

Various crops coming along nicely

Sharing a cool drink of water

Sheer beauty

Very protective!  We found they had nested inside a hole in the fence pole.  So sweet.

Memorial Day Fishing

What I love most about fishing:  watching my hubby help the kids with their fishing poles :)

Terrific Tuesday

Photos around the farm taken by my DD16 :)

Fruit trees galore.. and more!

This weekend we worked on getting our newest order of fruit trees planted. They all got planted in the "horseshoe field" that our driveway encircles. We ordered 2 peach trees, 2 pear trees, 1 cherry tree, 1 plum tree and a brown turkey fig tree from Stark Brothers. We also got a gooseberry bush from Henry Fields as part of their free $25 order promotion. The fig and gooseberry bush got planted in our soft fruit area. Now I'd love to be able to impress you with photos of these trees.. but really they just look like sticks. But in case you don't believe me.. here's a pic for you of three of the trees. We have surrounded them with cages to protect them from the marauding chickens and dogs.

And while I'm here, I may as well share some photos of things that are starting to bloom, it's an exciting time of year on the farm!

Strawberries starting to do their thing!

The grapevines are starting to waken and push out shoots.

I planted some mint in the small little garden area at the bottom of our deck steps. The chickens are leaving it alone and I'll be able to contain it easily enough. Plus it's really handy for picking for the kitchen.

I love Spring!

Farm Life

I love how everybody helps out around our little farm. The children love driving the tractor and riding in the cart. This was the day we were digging out Pokeweed. Nasty, stinky weed.

Poor Dan had all the hard work to do since they had to be dug out roots and all. There are many things I can do... swinging a pick axe is not one of them. The root systems on Pokeweed are HUGE. I know some people eat the tender leaves, but with all the boiling you have to do it just doesn't seem worth it to me.



The rest of us were responsible for picking up the weeds and carting them away to the burn pile.



Speaking of burn piles, we had our first fire the other day. We had hotdogs roasted over the fire and s'mores when the fire was done.. along with swimming inbetween. It was such a fun day.



The previous day we'd had rain and this beautiful double rainbow appeared. God is awesome.



Beautiful rainbow, followed by a beautiful sunset.


I love living in Missouri.

Last weekend we cleaned up along the side of the house getting rid of all the old brush/dead pine tree branches.


We carted it up and hauled it to our burn area which is where the old barn used to stand. Someday we hope to build a barn here again and we hope to be able to use at least part of the old foundations.





I would love to know what the barn looked like before it fell/was burned down. We will be building a smaller milking shed that Butterbelle will also be able to use to get out of the elements. It will be temporary cow quarters, and will then probably be turned into a goat/other animal shed at a later date. So many plans!

We also have a few restoration plans in the works. Our basement had some furniture, including a really old over 100 year old cabinet. It's too big to get out of the basement in one piece though. The previous owners must have had it put in there while the house was still being built. Since the cabinet is older than the house I'm guessing it was passed down to our previous owners. It is beautiful with 1 1/2 inch shelves, square nails and dovetail joints on the back paneling. I'm guessing it was used to store canned food. Sadly it has been slowly rotting because of the damp down there. We may cut off the bottom section which is just one big open shelf and save the cabinet itself. No pictures yet, sorry.

In the meantime I also brought this little table upstairs and I'm slowly removing the old paint and cleaning it up. There are also some square nails in this piece, as well as a lot of more modern screws. It should be a nice little piece once it's cleaned up, I don't know what I'll do with it yet.. the kids all keep asking what my plans are for it.. I think they all secretly would like to have it in their bedrooms.



It has been HOT, HOT, HOT here. Everybody seems to love this big waterer we keep filled with cool water. The hens all gather round it and have a drink and a chat and the dog "swims" in it. The kittens and other little feathered friends also use it.

Fruit trees and soft fruits

Our apple trees are growing wonderfully and look nice and healthy. Unfortunately our peach tree didn't fare quite as well. The area we planted it (30 feet from the apple trees) turned out to be quite waterlogged and the peach tree died. I guess that's why they say you should first spend a year on your property before planting/planning. Live and learn. The two varieties of apple we have planted is Honeycrisp and Stark Golden Delicious.


Apple tree one


Apple tree two

The grapes, blackberries and raspberries are also looking nice. We had to put fences around the grapes to keep the chickens from pecking at them and messing with the mulch. No grapes this year, but we're hoping for a good bounty next year!


Raspberries


One of the six blackberries


Dan spraying down one of the three grape vines

Our blueberries are very sad looking. I think the stress of moving them was just too much, plus they're really a "patio" variety and not suited for this area. Our feed store had a huge sale and I bought 3 blueberry plants for $1.50 each. One got uprooted by good old Ribsy and will probably die. I am waiting until the beginning of fall to plant them out. I also bought a clematis and two daylilies. All waiting for fall planting.