Summer and Farming...you never know what your gonna' get!

I think any farmer always starts out with visions of bountiful harvests and nice green pastures every time spring rolls around. But in the back of his/her mind they realize that there are never any guarantees. I guess that is probably true about life in general. But as I get older and a little wiser I realize that you really do need to appreciate the things that do work out right, and learn life lessons from those things that don't. And as the saying goes: learn to accept the things you can not change. So with that in mind I will share some of both, but mostly the positive...

The honey bees did very well for this being their first year on the farm. Despite one hive having a set back with no queen  for a short while, they raised a new one and regained their overall colony strength to probably make it through the coming winter. The other hive managed to gather enough nectar to produce enough honey to share with us. It is amazing to think that it takes an estimated million trips to flowering plants to gather enough honey to make a pound of honey! In addition to the 50 or so pounds we left on the hive for their winter stores, we stole 22 pounds (I would like to think of it as "room and board" though). 

I wish I could say this was the happy ending of this story. Unfortunately, a week after these pictures I was stung and had a rather severe anaphylactic allergic reaction and ended up going to Urgent Care for steroid injections, and epinephrine. Seems beekeepers can develop an allergy to bee stings upon repeated exposure. I need to do some more research and see if this means the end of my beekeeping days. For now I keep Epi Pens stocked at home. 

Seems like many things grow big down here in N.C, Springtime usually brings out the black snakes that are actually good at controlling rodents. Unfortunately they also like to raid bluebird houses and eat chicken eggs. They also are good tree climbers! Our neighbor happens to be a snake enthusiast. 

The barn continues to be an ongoing project. This summer I removed the dry rotted, termite eaten siding from this north facing side and replaced the rotten framing pieces. A very tedious project involving hundreds of saw cuts. Fortunately Ethan took to the chop saw and was dependable with a tape measure, that helped a lot ! 

Next I need to replace some floor boards in the loft, install some drop down stairs. We plan on making a little "reading/ wine drinking" lounge in the loft that will over look the field and sunsets. Oh, yeah...Karen also plans on it being a dance floor. Below is a view of the left and right sides of the garden from the loft. 

I am hoping to get the pasture prepared for some hair sheep to raise for lamb meat in Spring of 2014. That is going to involve soil testing, fertilizing, perimeter fencing, and over seeding with more pasture grass and clover. The last installment of my farm vision.


Remember a couple BLOG entries ago when I showed these sprigs of sweet potato starters. With a little initial TLC (daily watering) they sprang forth to a lush viney overgrowth...I am sure there are hundreds of  big sweet potatoes under there!!

spring 2013-sweet potatoes

summer 2013- sweet potatoes

After two attempts at planting the blackberries they came in quite strong. I have visions of a bountiful harvest next year, though I should know better. The raspberries I had to re-plant three times, last fall and twice this spring...they are doing OK, but I wonder if they just were not meant to be here (not shown)

spring 2013 black berries

summer 2013 black berries

My pioneer woman and her best friend...next to me of course!  And yes that is an apron with her cowboy boots...

Our first fresh figs this year !! There are lots!

Overall the garden did well. The tomatoes were a little disappointing, we had a lot of rain this summer, a whole lot! Which meant a whole lot of rotten tomato plants. But, the sunflowers did well...

 And so did our first garlic harvest, as seen nicely modeled here by "my pioneer woman"

And "Ted" the dove is still keeping an eye on the place!

So all in all a good summer on the farm, perhaps next year we will have lambs romping in the field, the pastures will be green and bountiful, and we will have just the right amount of rain and sun to produce a plentiful tomato harvest.

Spring time and Company!

Yes we are actually alive down here!  Fact is,  we have been so busy that I have not had time to be posting anything to our BLOG. But I am determined to do better for the months to come. It is absolutely beautiful down here right now. Spring is certainly here. We had a very nice visit from my sister Trisha and Mom a few weeks ago. We pretty much hung out at our place, I actually put them to work some, but tried not to abuse them . We were blessed with very nice weather. Below are some pictures from their recent visit. 

                                                  Trisha and Mom getting some vitamin D.

                               Trisha, Shalo, Mom and Aki starting to clean out the garden beds...

Trisha was kind enough to volunteer her flower gardening skills and work with Mom and Shalo to start a new flower garden where we had a big tree removed last fall.

 I know Mom will want to kill me, but remember those yard butt signs?!....

This is not our horse, but the neighbors just down the road, this little girl was born with no human assistance this past weekend. The mare is an Irish draft horse, the stud stallion is back in Ireland. We are told there are only  about 500 of this breed in the USA, The foal will turn grey as she ages.

This IS our pig, thanks to Mom and Trisha

These are our first beehives on the homestead, they seem to be thriving with all of the spring trees and plants blossoming, I am hoping they will help with pollination of our mini orchard and garden as well as supply us with honey, though I an not counting on the honey until next year, we'll see...

I put this picture in here for Trisha to see, it is currently covered with light lavender colored blossoms. It is right outside the garden and is a great shade tree in the summer.  I am told it is a cotton wood tree.

 This splash of color is from our crimson clover cover crop in the garden

This is our new row of blackberry plants, raspberries below... I am hoping I can do a comparison picture in a few months and show them several feet high!? Though that might be wishful thinking. 

And these sickly looking sprigs are sweet potato slips, the planting directions said not to worry if they look pitiful, that they will "spring to life and provide a bountiful harvest"...I am trying to keep the faith! 

And that is all I got for now. There really has been a lot of activity down here, but need to do better keeping the camera on hand. I am just trying to get back in the groove after a long hiatus. Hope you all are doing well , more to come