Sunday, June 13, 2010

Old McDonald Had a Farm....



I think Spring is finally here! The flowers are in bloom...

I am anxiously awaiting some raspberries this year. I transplanted these from a neighbor 3 seasons ago and had to move them after the first year. So...this should be the year for some ripe juicy berries!



My garden is planted and the seedlings are sprouting. I planted radishes, spinach, peas, onions, romaine, mesclun mix, rhubarb, pumpkins and cucumbers.

The animals are all enjoying the warmer weather...

My chicks are now outdoors in a permanent coop with the older chickens I have had since last Fall. They are all getting along and hopefully we will see some colorful eggs in the next few months.


My newest additions are two male Nigerian Dwarf Goats. My son came up with the great names of Yin and Yang. I borrowed them from a neighbor to eat down some of the grass and weeds on my property and we liked them so much I decided to keep them (with the neighbor's permission of course)





It confuses my close family and friends that this raised in the suburbs girl has become a farmer. I am enjoying exploring this side of myself. A perfect day would be getting to spend the entire day outside with the animals and plants....this is a bit disturbing...I am thinking of the old "cat lady" I knew when I was younger, she was very odd. Is that where I am headed? Next year I want to have my own bees, I think raising my own bees for honey would be really fun. Really that is the motivation for all this work, I get something out of it. Fresh eggs, vegetables, and I don't have to mow the grass. I wonder how the cat lady justified herself?

5 comments:

  1. Karen...I do so have chicken envy...your chicken coop is gorgeous, did you build it yourselves? My husband would sure like the idea of goats, so no grass cutting! And your horse is lovely too! Ina

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Ina,
    Thanks for the compliments on the coop. I purchased the house part, and built the outdoor part. It was a ton of work but the chickens love the outdoors, they spend most of the day out there rain or shine. The goats are great too, they are keeping things trimmed up. I will have to buy hay in the winter for them, I figure it will cost me about $80 a year for hay. Thanks for the comments! Karen

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love your chicken coop. I grew up in the suburbs (after spending grade school in trailer parks), and we had an acre behind our house and a pet goat named Ethyl, she was one of the best pets. I have great memories of Ethyl. How wonderful for your kids to have the "cat lady" for a mom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the goats! My grandfather used to have goats, they'd get on top of his car and play king of the mountain. I think being a goat lady is better than being a cat lady any day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very cool that you have a little farm! They're using goats around here (in the burbs) to trim overgrown weeds and grass on hills. Goat milk would be really great!

    ReplyDelete