The Dogs of Ridgetop Farm

 

 

We have 2 wonderful, loving and cute dogs that live here at the farm, not just as farm dogs but as beloved members of our family. 

 

 

 

 Napoleon (as in Bonaparte), he is a 3 1/2 year old Lab and Burmese Mountain dog mix. He loves to go for car rides but doesn't like treats or to get his feet wet.

 

 

 

 

Rasputin, is an English Springer Spaniel.  He also, likes to go for car rides, he likes treats and loves to go swimming in the pool or just puddles.

 

 

 

 

rough housing

 

cuddle buddies

 

 



 



Summer Update

Well, as I am sure most of you know that it has been a hot and dry summer, nothing much got done around here.  Oh a few things here and there but nothing exciting or major.  My garden did not produce much, a few potatoes, tomatoes and 3 cucumbers, everything else died off from the heat.  That was disappointing as I had such high hopes for it this year.  We also decided to start fencing off the property, bought alll the fence posts, and then attempted to put them in the ground, which turned out to be too hard and we ended up breaking a punch of pins on the tractor.. a few weeks later we had 4 straight days of rain in which we got a few more fence posts in the ground after that we decided we would need to wait till spring when the ground was nice and soft.  We took a few weekends to go camping. That pretty much sums up the summer, it was hot and dry.  In the mean time I have decided to write a series of posts about the animals that live on the farm. 

Photo Update

Clover planted under our apple tree's to help attract pollinator's

3 out of our 5 turkey's (all have been bought up for thanksgiving)

Silverlaced Coochin trying to be a mamma

one of our 5 Amerecuna's (they lay green,teal and blue eggs)

a group of our new hens

Bonnie my awesome goose Clyde her mate doesn't like the camera (white Embden's)

awe little tomato's

finally after this last bit of rain I have some corn

little tiny cucumbers

my morning harvest (7/6/12)

potato plants going to town (most of our thanksgiving meal will come from our backyard)

beautiful sky look close and you'll see our little bitty apple tree's

A Little Update

I know that I promised I was going to update more, unfortunately that has not happened like I wanted it too.  I am trying to be better at this blogging stuff, not only to share with my family and friends, but so I can have a record of the first years of us farming/self-sufficient lifestyle.  With it being so hot (above average) not much has been going on but there are a few things going on.

Finally a bit of rain hit us the other morning, my garden kind of sprang into action that afternoon, plants got a little taller, though I am not sure if that's cause they were wilting and they just stood up or if they actually grew.  With all the heat and no rain my plants are not doing well at all, they are short or just didn't grow at all.  On the good front I managed to get 1 radish and about 1/2 pound of strawberries, there are green tomato's and little tiny cucumbers and my potato's are growing like crazy.  I'm keeping a hopeful eye on my watermelon and corn they have sprouted and are growing like crazy.  My pumpkins so far have give me one tiny little plant that I plan on giving special attention too, I am determined to get at least one pumpkin that I grew myself.  Beans are little plants that I have pretty much given up on, carrot's and snow pea's never grew from seed at all.  In other words my garden did better than last year but my second year is not doing that much better.  I hope next year is good, especially since I plan to expand a little each year.

On to the next update: Poultry, ahh Poultry.  All are doing well in our second year.  Out of the 40 new chickens that we bought in the spring we still have all of them.  Whoop!!!!!  We did end up with a few males, so those will become our dinner this fall, and I have a silverlaced coochin who is determinly sitting on an egg just one and it wasn't even her egg, she did have 4 but she keeps breaking them, but with this last one she seems to be trying to be very careful maybe in a couple of weeks we will have a little chick made right here on the farm.  The turkeys are also doing well they are bigger than the 2 we had last year, though they are the same breed.

That my friends is what has been going on besides the usual work and other life events.

ps as soon as I post this I will be working on a photo update as well. (it will be up soon)

Bunny Rabbit

Well, it seems that our little puppy Rasputin, is all grown up. He caught a rabbitt the other day with a quick little run and hop.  During his attempt to bring us his bounty, the rabbitt would kick get away but then with a quick hop and a flip into the air Rasputin had him again.  When he drops it and I see it (que some oh poor thing from me) I yell to hubs that it's still alive and so he rides in to end the suffering with a quickly placed shot.  Both of the dogs were quite upset that we took the rabbitt away and did not let them have it.  But, them's the breaks.  Ever since then he has been hunting rabbitts in the clover. 

My Geese (white Embdens)

Baby Bonnie and Clyde

10 weeks old

Bonnie

Clyde

How Does My Garden Grow!

Not well, not well, at all.  Seriously, I don't understand what the problem is.  I follow the directions on the seed packet and reserched information, and still nothing grows.  This is starting to make me very upset.  I planted rows and rows of peas, green beans, carrots, radishes and cucumber seeds and nothing has even started to grow. The tomato plants that I bought as already started plants are stunted and lackluster and the potatoes I planted have little buds but seem to have stopped there. Was really looking forward to this garden with lot's of tasty veggies and so far it looks like I will be at the Farmer's Market buying veggies again. The only positive note is that the strawberry plants I transplanted last year ( that basicly died off) came back and are giving us a few berries a day not enough yet to make jam (my ultimate goal) but they are so very yummy fresh off the plant and warmed by the sun.  I am hoping to plant watermelons, pumpkins and sweet corn though I am a little scared.. maybe I should buy already started plants. Maybe I should just stick to farmers markets.  I water I weed they get sun... any suggestions are greatly appreciated it.

The pool opening

Friday evening the hubs started cleaning and running the pool to get it ready for the summer.  I went out to help by skimming the leaves,bugs and grass off the top, our little springer spaniel Rasputin took a running leap into our above ground pool... splash he goes under the water ( I am pretty sure he touched the bottom) and starts swimming around.  Hubs grabs him hauls him out (the ladder was not in place yet) and that silly dog ran around the other side and jumped in again, mind you the pool is only about 4-5 feet deep, but it was still a pretty good high jump.  All evening he kept trying to jump back in.  That little pup is ready for summer.

April is shaping up to be a busy month for me.  So far I started a new position at a new time at work.  I started some veggies, the 3 of us moved all the chicks to a brooding area in the livestock barn (they are growing so fast we didn't have room for them in the laundry room, cramped quarters can cause them to start pecking each other and can lead to canibalism) I took a video of them enjoying thier new bit of freedom and I will try to figure out how to post it here.  Today I am trying out a new bread recipe and if it's good I will post it so that you all can try it too.  I also have to finish my taxes which I'm not really looking forward too but oh well that's a part of this life.  Hubs and I still have to build the new turkey pen and move the geese and turkeys outside once they are a bit more feathered.  There are not enough of them to help keep each other warm even with a warming light when the temps still dipping into the 30's and 20's at night.  Check back I'm sure I will have more to tell.

April Fool's

Today is the first day of April, and soon the gradens will be full of little sprouts and all the little chicks and turkeys will be getting feathers and moving outdoors.  I love Spring and the promise of birth/renewal for Mother Earth and all her creatures.  With the bout of unseasonalbly warm weather we had for a few weeks in March, the grass is already a nice green there are buds/leaves on the tree's and lot's of flowers have peeked thier heads up. 

We have some things planned here for the begining of April, I will be starting seeds.  The 3 of us plan on moving the baby poultry from the laundry room to the livestock barn, they are growing so fast that they are starting to get crowded and need more room to grow.  In addition to the farm stuff going on we are hosting a big Easter celebration here with an egg hunt and dinner.  Exciting stuff happening.