goat pens gardens and other happenings

I took the quilt to the winner yesterday. She has a very nice garden. She gave me some plants for my garden which I doubt I remember all of them. Oregano, parsley, fennel, chives, sage, mint, two tomato plants, broccoli, mustard greens, and a bleeding heart and lamb's ears.

She also gave me advice on asparagus. Everything I have read said to pull out the little volunteers. She just lets hers go wild and always has lots of asparagus. This is my first year with it and I was going to let it go wild anyway but if that is all there is to it than I will just let it grow and eat it when I can.

Another lady was giving away some sweet potatoes, seed potatoes and cabbage plants. I went there to get some and she lives in a bottom close to a year round creek. She has a big really nice house that they are remodeling and a huge garden. She saves her own seed so she has to buy very little. The cabbage was two year old seed and she didn't think it would all come up but did. So she had plenty to give away. I planted all of them besides what i gave to my boys. They have decided to make there own garden this year. Good luck to them.

This lady also use to have goats and gave me the name of someone who might have a billy I could borrow. I redid the goat pen the day before. Chicken wire will not hold a goat for long. I was repairing holes almost daily. So I tore down that section and because of the amount of rigging and repairs that was hard work. The kids enjoyed raking up and helping fertilize the garden. While my husband and i rebuilt the fence using red top field wire.

Today I need to build something to grow sweet potato slips in and plant more regular potatoes. There is always weeding, mowing, housework, and other things to do. But at the end of the day i sure sleep well.

The Auction

This is a picture of a very beautiful quilt donated by http://letslearnthat.blogspot.com/ for a raffle to raise money for James Rains Jr.

We also held a pie auction. Many local businesses donated items and we baked pies for two days. i wrote on here earlier about everything that happened and it said it couldn't connect, gave me some error code and i lost everything

I finally made a really good pecan pie and my husband bid on it and won. I really liked it maybe to much.

We had the drawing today for the BB gun and the Quilt. Congratulations to George Gilliam for winning the BB gun and Tracy Smith for the quilt.

Boys

Yesterday I was talking to a teacher while she was digging a flowerbed in the head start playground. She hit a rabbit nest and bunnies went everywhere. My four year old son in spite of warnings that they bite and scratch caught one. Other kids tried to catch the others but with no luck. He named him Cocoa. I told him again that they bite and he said "yeah but not hard". I didn't have the heart to make him put it down because they were just going to let the other kids have it. We have a rabbit hutch so i thought we could take care of the thing. People began telling me how hard it was to take care of a baby rabbit so when I got home i looked it up. I do believe it will be to hard. I got the thing some rabbit pellets and a water bottle. I have it in a box, in the house, in a quiet place so as not to give the thing a heart attack. Well this morning it was out of the box. We found it but I haven't gotten it to eat anything so I think Iwill turn it loose at the school this afternoon and just get the kids a domestic rabbit.

My oldest caught a turtle yesterday. He has to keep it for 30 days for Boy Scouts. I need to look up and see how to take care of a turtle. I don't think it will be as hard as the rabbit. We need to get an aquarium or something for him to stay in. I don't think a bucket gives him enough room.

Lettuce

I have never had very much luck with lettuce before. something always eats it. This is our first garden at our new place and it seems that lettuce likes it here. Late last season we discs the garden spot. Early this season a neighbor let us get two truck loads of turkey litter. we tilled the garden twice and i started planting with my root vegetables and lettuce.


Of course something started eating it. No telling what so i put up netting around it. Two plants died anyway. I thought it was getting to dry so i added leaves as mulch and them some fish emulsions as fertilizer. it took off. I fixed a nice salad for when my brother came down to visit form the garden. If you have never had garden lettuce and onions you don't know what you are missing. I just pick more yesterday and we had a big salad for supper and enough for another salad in a day or two. lettuce only keeps a little while in my refrigerator before it gets slimy. i am going to invest in a scale so that i can keep track of how much produce i get out of my garden this year.
I think i will make BLT's for supper. My husband will even eat lettuce that way.

Garden

my onions and garlic are up and running. Yesterday Sugar(the big goat) stuck her head through the fence and ate 3 of my red onions. I didn't realize that a goat would eat onions. I didn't think that any animal except humans would eat onions. Boy was i wrong. I replanted the bottoms so that they will come back with little damage.

My potatoes are doing well. I need to weed and mulch them. i was using the old hay around the pole shed to mulch them but my husband got a bee in his bonnet and racked it all up and burnt it. I told him what i was using it for but he said all i was doing was planting bermuda.

My first attempt at chinese cabage. They are doing great. I have green leafy lettuce right behind it. Although it is doing well things keep eating it and i am only one of those things. Right now i have it double fenced. I have the garden fence and then netting around it. Salads taste better out of the garden.

Animals

Here are a few of the chickens and a rooster that help keep the insects under control on the farm. They aren't caged at all, they are allowed to range free all over the farm except in the garden.

The smaller ones are kept pinned for their own protection. In these cages are three chickens and one rooster. The roosters name is Sunday. when they get larger the chickens will be turned out with the other chickens but the Rooster will be kept caged to fatten him out for the dinner that bears his name. Sunday Dinner.

This pony is one of the three organic lawn mowers. Her name is Ginger and she does a nice Job of keeping the lawn mowed.

This little lawn mower has horns and keeps getting her head caught in the fence. Sometimes she needs assistance in getting out.

The first Bon-fire

Abigail
My niece Casey Keen and Robbie(roasting hot dogs). Emily and my other niece.
Jackie fixing plates
The fire after it had burnt down a little Josh not enjoying himself

We had planned this for days. my husbans had pushed up a huge pile of brush and trees while clearing for a fence. It was all dried out and ready. We invited family and freinds. Bought all the food and drinks. drug out chairs and camping stuff. The whole nine yards.

The night turned out cool but we thought we would have a fire and it would be no big deal. My husband lit the fire and while it was still light we cleaned up around the pile. Some people started to get cold and ready to go and we haven't even pulled out the hot dogs yet so we hurried to get the food ready and you guessed it, the fire was to hot to roast anything. We started cutting down small saplings just to get something long enough. The smoke was everywhere. If you got far enough away to get out of the smoke well then you were cold.

well it got dark and the kids had a ball. They played hide and seek in the dark. The adults sat around the fire and talked. It really was a nice night. Everyone who stayed had a great time. We were already planning the next one while packing up from this one. The one thing we learned was to start the fire earlier in the day so that you can get close enough to roast the hot dogs and marshmallows, then throw some more wood on and sit back and enjoy the fire.