April 7, 2014 by Mae Lynn

MJ is 6 months!

MJ turned 6 months last Wednesday. Her room is almost finished so we have been trying to transition her to the crib. She is cutting 2 teeth and going through separation anxiety but she is still so pleasant and happy! She loves to sit and play with the kids and she loves to eat; bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, pear/apple sauce, carrots, ground oats and today I introduced zucchini/squash/rosemary. Here are few photos.

April 7, 2014 by Mae Lynn

The animals

Our pig has been busy clearing the briers on the 1/2 acre. We were able to plant clover where she cleared and we will feed the clover to the chickens and rabbits. Clover is a great cover crop, the animals will love it and it will help cut down the cost of feed.

Our Buff orpingtons are such beautiful and sweet chickens!

This is Easter (I am sure you can surmise from her name her purpose for us). She is a wild boar a friend gave us a few weeks after Thanksgiving. We give her ALL of our scraps (except pork) which includes cooked rabbit and chicken carcasses. She also receives a lot of good nutrients from the rabbit and chicken livers.

The buff orpingtons and the white leghorns.

A black sexlink. She looks pretty, but she is not nice!!

April 7, 2014 by Mae Lynn

The garden

Here are some pictures of the garden as we transition from winter to spring. We started most of our seeds inside and we are slowly moving them into the beds. I will continue to post pictures as the garden progresses.

One of our grapevines

Potatoes

Garlic chives and onion chives

Red basil

Strawberries

April 7, 2014 by Mae Lynn

A new, hairy addition

Well, after much debate and searching, we got another dog. We really grieved after losing both of our great danes, Miles and Jazzmine, in 2012 and we have gone back and forth about getting another one. I really wanted a dog for protection since I am at the house most days by myself with the kids and of course the kids wanted a dog! He reminds of so much of Miles; he looks a lot like him and they have similar personalities.His name is Duke and he is 8 months old. We adopted him from a single mom who works long hours and couldn’t care for him anymore both physically and financially. He is super sweet and great with the kids. He is still very much a puppy, so we are working on behavior training (he loves to steal the kids toys). He LOVES G and follows him everywhere which turns into G getting knocked over because Duke tries to sit on G to get attention. He hasn’t eaten a chicken yet and he is scared of the pig so he is fitting in well on the farm! I will post a better picture soon but this was our attempt of taking a picture of him and the kids. He has beautiful coloring. He is a reverse brindle and he looks like a tiger, especially from afar so I doubt anyone will be messing with me when I am home alone with the kiddos!

April 7, 2014 by Mae Lynn

Eating from the garden, in the garden

Here are few photos (not very good photos because I took them) of the kids eating in the garden. I made a fritatta with fresh eggs from our chickens and kohlrabi (I used the greens and the root) from the garden. I thought it would be fitting to enjoy this dinner among the remaining winter harvest with a beautiful spring breeze in the air.