Little Plucky Hens

Posted on by AutumnDawn
Buff Orpingtons and Silver-laced Wyandottes

Chickens were our first foray into farm animals. They are funny little creatures; our breeds are inquisitive, gentle, and they have sweet dispositions. Perhaps we raised more chickens than we need but the work they do is invaluable. They have reduced the amount of ticks, grasshoppers, and other insects on the property all while feeding themselves extra protein. Their eggs have fed our family and sometimes we are at a loss to find another recipe to cook to use all the eggs. This spring, they helped us knock down all the old straw bales and spread them out as mulch for the walkways.

I can’t say enough about our humble little chickens and our little homestead would be much poorer without them.

The never-ending vegetable

Posted on by AutumnDawn
Squash curing in the sun

We harvested a little over 7 dozen Waltham Butternut squash last fall. We processed a bunch and froze them. They filled about half of our chest freezer. The rest, we kept in a box in a corner of the kitchen.

Squash leftover in March

We have 2 dozen squash left over as of today, all still in good condition. Not to mention the squash waiting in the freezer. We lost a few to rot… maybe five? Not bad for 3 squash plants in straw bales.

Special Delivery!

Posted on by AutumnDawn

The whole family of five pitched in and helped load and unload 70 bales of straw and place them into the backyard for our new garden. I’m so proud of our awesome kids and thankful for their cheerful attitudes while we labored.

Spring Fever!

Posted on by AutumnDawn

Spring planning begins in January for me. I’ve been mapping out what we want to grow, how we want to lay out the garden this year, planning the irrigation lines, ordering seeds, and enjoying a tiny experiment of a single onion in a kratky hydroponics jar (it’s getting tall!) In February, we started 3 kratky jars of sweet potatoes for slips, strawberry seeds, cabbage, and peppers.

March is now here and spring fever has arrived with it. I’ve begun knocking down the old straw bales from the garden to make way for the new bales. We learned a lot from last year and we’re changing up the layout to make watering and access easier. We’re also expanding the garden by almost double the square footage we did last year.

I just sourced the straw bales I need and I’ll be getting them Saturday. I’ll start conditioning them on St. Patrick’s Day and they’ll be ready for my peas and beets to be planted by the 27th. It’s all coming together!

Taking off the training wheels…

Posted on by AutumnDawn

We’ve been dabbling in gardens and chickens and sheep for several years and we’ve come to the point that if we want to make something of our little hobby farm, we need to stop just talking the talk and start walking the walk as well.

Over the past couple of months, we been working on planning, training, and a fair amount of fencing. We’ve acquired some more land and are able to expand our hobby into something more. It’s time to take a deep breath… and jump…