The first step I took in the reset was to plan out a new garden. I knew I wasn’t ready to give up gardening, but it also knew I needed to make some major changes so that it was easier for me to maintain and enjoy for years to come. Every year I was replacing a worn out or decayed wooden bed, clearing overgrown pathways and fighting vigorous vining fruits. It had really started to feel like a battle. Ha ha. I decided to do a layout of metal raised beds with nice wide paths between them and thick mulch in the pathways to keep the weeds down. I planned it out to be done in stages with the end completion targeted for late this summer. It’s been a lot of hard work,but I was able to complete the majority of it prior to planting time this spring.

Behind this garden area is the green house. I’ve kept that and put in a growing plot next to it for things like corn and squashes. There are plans to repair and upgrade the greenhouse a bit this year as well. That will be after another load of hog fuel is brough it and laid in the pathways.

With the various projects going on I am really using a fairly rigid schedule and fitting in work on the projects in any spare time I have. This is the second year doing it this way and we are making lots of progress. So much so that I can see a time where there’s more free time to enjoy the place, rather than constantly having to work on it.

On the fiber front, I have a new fiber braid colorway to list. This one is named Springing Forward. This one consists of 5 semi sold colors this time along with 5 multi color options featuring Dark Blue, Hyacinth, Violet, Mint and Light Mint. There is a total of 20 braids in this set so there is a lot of options for creativity in this one.

I’m very pleased with this one and am excited to get these listed on the site.

Stay tuned for more changes and more new colorways that are in the works.

Roughly a year ago, I was working in the garden and was so frustrated, disappointed and discouraged with the general state of my life. We had stopped raising cows, so the pastures were overgrown and wildlife was encroaching into the “farm” areas and worst of all my lovely flock were being picked off by predators. Everything was unkempt looking and overgrown, and I just couldn’t keep up with it all. I didn’t have the energy anymore. I was so sad because I hadn’t reached my goals yet and there was still so much that I wanted to do. This wasn’t the result I had worked so hard for. Then I realized that was the case in every area of my life; personal goals not met, that fiber flock I always wanted, getting my Etsy shop really humming, building memories with friends and family, having beautiful landscaping and finishing the house. All unfinished. I decided it was time to “re-set” my life. It was time to begin again.

As time goes by, I’ll be posting about this re-set. Mostly it will be about the changes we are making and the projects we are working on. There is some fun stuff in the works and I, as always, have lots of plans. lol There’s a lot going on so I’m sure it will feel a bit disjointed for a bit, but we will fall into a pattern soon.

The first update is regarding my Etsy shop. I have been working on backfilling and expanding my felting fiber lines and there will be releases on that soon. I have a lot of ideas in development with the fiber sales lines but right now I am focusing on new colorways for the spinning or felting braids. I finally sat down and penciled out an outline of what colorways I wanted to put in the shop and made a plan of how I could get it done. I’m currently working on the color swatches for the second release but let me show you the first set that has been completed. These will be available for sale in my Etsy site very soon.

I have decided to call this first colorway Begin Again. It is a new way of dying for me. It’s a more planned out and tested method and leaves a lot less to chance. It is what I hope will be a launching pad for more creativity, beauty and to be completely honest ….volume ….in my shop. Begin Again is comprised of 4 solid color braids and 4 multi color braids, all coordinated to allow my customers the opportunity to choose a solid with a multi, just solids or just multi to work with. These can be used for felting projects but really shine in spinning projects. There are two braids of each, making a full but limited set of 16. Begin Again is comprised of Dark Navy, Turquoise, Alpine Blue and Peach. I can’t tell you how excited I am to launch this!

There are several more pictures that will go up on the Etsy site and I better get on to that now while I’m on a roll. It’s going to take some time to get everything linked and updated but eventually you’ll be able to see this on the FB and Instagram pages as well as updating the Etsy page.

Every day I wake up on the farm is a good day. Especially with views like this. 😉 This morning the mountains looked like they were drawn by Disney. Every day is good. Not every day is easy.

Today was one of the “difficult” days that we have on the farm. Today was Freezer Camp for our Ranger chickens. Every harvest is handled in the most quick respectful manner. It’s not easy. I do not ever take this process for granted. I always have help with this prices given by a truely valued friend. Today was the day that I took the final step to being able to do this on my own. Taking the first steps across that bridge wasn’t easy and those steps were not taken lightly. I am thankful for a good friend that helped me through the process. 

Today’s yield was 3 whole roasting chickens and 10 parted out chickens. Tomorrow I will vacuum pack the breast racks and wings. I will then debone the hind quarters and process them into ground chicken. 

We currently have 12 more Ranger chicks* in the brooder. The next Freezer Camp is scheduled for after Labor Day. 

Raising our own food ( for the most part ) is not easy. 90% of it is cute babies, tiny plants, time watching them grow, care given to growing things that we always know will eventually come to an end and give us sustainence. That last 10% is the time spent in harvest or culling. Not all plants thrive and the day always comes when it’s time to harvest. We never take it for granted that the animals in our care either provide us future harvests or they themselves are part of our harvest. It’s never done light heartedly but I am always proud to provide for us. Every animal here is given the best care possible.

Freezer Camp is never an easy weekend but I wouldn’t have it any other way. If it gets easy….I will stop.

I was working away in the garden and had to remind myself it’s Tuesday and a holiday and not a weekend.:) 

It always feels so good to be home working on the farm. 🙂

I got the corn and the walkways weeded around them. Just have a small section there to finish. I mulched the corn with the comfrey I had to cut out of another area.

I prepped this bed and walkways and planted favas and that should be ready this fall.

I finally got the plastic covering the areas I need the weeds cleared from. 🙂 

Hello upcoming greenhouse patio and pathway. 🙂 

I just love my garden. It’s still a work in progress but I feel it’s coming along nicely. Please ignore the weeds in the corn beds. I’ll be taking care of them this weekend. The weather has been good this week so I’ve been working in the garden after dinner and taking care of smaller projects. 

The raspberries are starting to ripen and the blueberries are not far behind that. I’m hoping the Marion berries start ripening soon.:) I haven’t been out to check out the cherry tree in awhile and am hoping the birds didn’t get them all. I need to walk out there tonight.

Just a few weeks ago I was thinking we might not have a Summer this year and here we are with temps in the high 90’s. 😉 Our house doesn’t have air conditioning except for the window unit in our bedroom. It’s days like today that I relish working in our basement so I was happy to clean out the freezer today.

I have three chest freezers in the basement. One is about 16 cubic feet and the other two are 7.5. Last weekend I consolidated everything into the two smaller ones because big one really needed to be defrosted and washed out. Today I completed that task and it is ready to be plugged back in when the time comes. 

It feels a bit creepy to have it empty. Going into winter we have all three packed to the top with food so the fact that this one is empty means my reserves are low. I have to remind myself that it is ok and normal for them to get low because as the harvests happen the freezers will swiftly fill back up. 

These guys go to freezer camp in two weeks and I am getting some freezer rabbits that weekend too. I’m already putting fruits in the freezer as the strawberries have been puttining on fruit well. The raspberries are just starting to ripen and those bushes are loaded!! 

Our second batch of Rangers arrived a couple of days ago. By mid September our chicken program for this year will be done. 

I’m still working on the garden but with the day time temps being so high I have to fit it in I the afternoon and evenings. 

Time to go make lunch. Ta ta for now. 🙂

We finally made it to Summer but it doesn’t really feel like it. It’s warming up during the days but the nights are quite cool. It’s been an interesting year weather wise. 

I walked out and checked on the new orchard last night. I’m eagerly waiting for the cherries to ripen so I can get them before the birds. It’s the first year of fruiting on these trees so I’m pretty excited about it. I’m trying not to get too excited about the peaches. If I get a home grown peach this year I’ll be over the moon! 

Peach , cherry and two types of apple.

The garden is coming along albeit slowly and later than normal. It’s been such a cool wet spring that the plants are a bit behind the calendar. It’s a good reminder that we garden for the weather we have. 😉 I am still working on the “structure” of the garden and have 6 beds left to develop. My goal is to get them set up even if the only thing I plant is cover crop in them this year. I’d like to have all of the structure of the garden completed this year before it’s time to bed the garden down for winter. This way next year will be easier and I can start focusing on getting things organized. 🙂

The view of the garden from the loafing shed.

When we moved to the farm one of the bonuses was that I gained a whole room to use as my craft room. None of the rooms in the house are large but to have a whole room to devote to craft space is pretty special. 

This winter was cold and seemed to last forever. 😉 I decided it was time to “organize” my craft room and make it as functional as possible. The caveat was that I couldn’t spend and money from the budget. If I needed to buy something it had to come from the egg $ jar. Since I am not painting or doing floors until after we install new windows it was fairly simple to stay within those guidelines. I’ll do a post with pictures later that show how it turned out. The good news is that I was able to make the space usable and now can start working on projects again. 

One of the things I located in the great craft room clean up was a bag of merino/tussah silk laps that I bought years ago. 

I could run them through the drum carder and re blend everything or….I can spin them up as I find them setting aside the strictly silk pieces as they surface in the bag. I’ll save the silk for a later project. It feels good to be spinning merino….so smooth! I’m trying to keep the single a little thicker and not spin so fine this time. It takes a bit more concentration but it’s worth it. 

This should keep me busy for a bit. 🙂 

I’m trying to get back to spinning at least on Sunday evenings but the true goal is to do some sort of crafting a few times a week. 

It’s been a long time. It turns out that having a hobby farm keeps me pretty busy. 🙂 

There have been a lot of changes over the last few years but we have settled down to pretty good routine.

I am working on getting the structure of the garden set up by the end of this year so that next year will be easier. It’s a true work in progress and I am finally at a point where the progress is visible. It’s finally starting to look like I see it in my mind. 🙂 

We are about three weeks from Freezer Camp for this years first round of Ranger chickens. There are 14 in this first group.  I became concerned that we would run out of chicken before next years freezer camp so I orders another round of birds. They should arrive this week. 

Momma cow Mattie is due at the end of the summer and is starting to fill out. Fergus is 18 months old now and much smaller than Sven was. I really don’t think he is going to get much taller. I’m just hoping he fills out more before it’s his time to go to freezer camp.

We decided not to raise pigs this year and are getting out pork from a friend locally. I am thinking we may grow another pair next year though.

Our first meat producing project for the year was chickens. I had raised chickens for meat in the past and basically knew what to expect. This was the first time for Don to experience it and he really rose to the occasion. The coop he built for our layers has a separate section that can be walled off and used for the broilers and he installed a completely separate yard for them. We planned to raise 12 for a friend and 13 for ourselves as the hatchery sends them out in groups of 25. They always send a couple extra in case some do not make it in shipping so we ended up with 27. I am happy to say ALL of ours made it through shipping and through the whole raising process. That gave me 15 in the freezer and I am thrilled with that!

Red Ranger chicks in the brooder at work.

They start off as cute little fluff balls and are so hard to resist. They outgrow that phase within a couple of weeks. These chicks are Red Ranger chicks and are suited to being pasture raised. They take about 12 weeks to bring to maturity for butchering.

Starting to hit that gawky stage. 😉

I’ve got my eye on you, Lady!”

As soon as they were fully feathered we let them have daily access to their yard. They are naturally curious and climb anything. Next year we will do 3 groups and keep the groups to about 12-15 each. You’ll see why in a few pics. LOL

About half grown.

These pictures show the grass growing nicely and the chicks happily moving around. It doesn’t take long for 27 chickens to decimate a grassy area even in the growth season. They naturally scratch and peck at the ground and eat EVERYTHING in sight. They had a great time mowing this down and the area has since recovered.

You can really tell the difference in this pic. I think I took these about a week from our first butcher date. We did half at the beginning of September and the other half at the end, keeping the smaller ones to round out some more. It was worth it.

I honestly think that if the group had been smaller they would have come to weight at the closer to the same time. Over half of our group were roosters which was fine by me. They grow larger in the same amount of time and about the time they figure out how to crow they go to Freezer Camp and the crowing is not an issue. I do believe that the smaller females would have done better in a smaller group though so next year we plan on doing 2-3 groups of 12-15 and see what our yield are. I already have a dozen spoken for and can probably sell off more if needed. It sure is nice to have a fresh supply of chicken around.

Over crowded much?

This would be the other reason I want to do smaller groups. It never occured to me that they ALL would want to stay in at night and not use the outdoor roost. 27 full sized chickens in that small an area made for a stinky mess. Not to mention the stress it put on my Resident Rooster Festus. You’ll meet him in a later post. 😉