This Blog has Moved

hello all,

I know it has been a long time since I have posted.  However, I didn't really like the new setup here on blogspot, so I have moved my blog to wordpress.  If you'd like to still follow along and see how and what we are up too.  Please check it out at
www.ridgetopfarm.wordpress.com


Thanks so much for reading, best of luck and love in 2013
Helois

Romeo

Romeo

 

 

 

 

There is one cat on this farm and his name is Romeo.  I rescued him from a pet store when he was about 4 months old, that was about 6 years ago this December, he is our little Christmas kitten.  I refer to him as my good luck kitty, ever since I got him good things have been happening in my life.  Romeo has been there with me and my son through many changes and challenges.  He helps make our farm a home, even if he feels it is job to put hair on any clean blankets or clothes.

 

 



Romeo enjoying a summer day in the window

The Beehive and the Tree

Out front we have an old tree that is sadly mostly dead, well there is a bit of new growth around the bottom. Anyway this tree has become quite the hive of activity recently, which we discovered one day shortly, after DJ's first day of school. One day when he came home and said "I have to make a big circle when he had to wait for the bus to avoid going by the tree" My response (sounding all puzzeled) "what are you talking about?" he says "because of the bees" me "what bee's?" DJ "in the tree" me "what tree" DJ "that one out front" he points to it.  I look out the front window and sure enough it appears that something is flying around the tree, I head out to investigate and yep sure enough there are bee's lot's of them too.  All flying and buzzing about the tree high enough up off the ground for them not to be a nusiance, and of course for us to get the honey without cutting down the tree, sneaky little bugs.   I called the hubs over and we stood there marveling at nature for a bit. We are thinking that they arrived fairly recently as we haven't noticed them before Dj had to wait for the bus.  However this summer has been very hot and we did not spend a lot of time out front. So they could have been there for a while.  At the moment we are going to leave them be for now and see how they do through the winter.  Then early next summer we shall see if they are a nusiance or not.  it's too bad they are out front very near to the house as I would like to leave them be so they can pollinate the garden and the apple tree's.  I have wanted a couple of bee hives though I had imagined building them and ordering bees and gathering honey and keeping them toward the back of the property where they could pollinate our farm.

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.

Gardens

This past Sunday, Hubs made me 3 more raised garden beds and moved the dirt into them.  So I spent the day cleaning out the 2 I already had and spreading dirt and removing rocks from the new ones.  I did find that the strawberry plants that I transplanted last year that did not do well at all, have made a comeback.  I am hoping they do well and maybe even add a few plants this year since I would really like to make my own strawberry jam, and well I really like strawberries.  Planning on starting some pea's and beans and maybe some lettuce today, so they can go in the ground soon.  I also, have high hopes that I can plant corn, watermelons, cucumbers, pumpkins and potatoes this year as well.  Trying a little bit of everything to see what I like and what grows well.  Who knows maybe in a couple of years I will feel confident enough as a gardener to make a big garden!

New Arrivals

Poults

Chicks

Goslings

The New Chicks Have Arrived!

Yesterday, was a big day, hubs and I loaded ourselves up in the car and started out on our 2 hour drive to pick up the new babies (we did stop for breakfast at Cracker Barrell though) Once We arrived at Townline Hatchery, we discovered that they did not have a good hatch of some of the chicks we ordered and the geese (of course).  So they did replace some of our order, but at least this time it was within the breed we had ordered.  After setteling the bill we headed home with the little gals all tucked into thier box and filling the car with lot's of peep peeps.  When we arrived home we unloaded and got to the business of making them at home with heat lamps, soft bedding, food and water.  Baby poultry can not find the water on thier own so you must dip each of thier beaks in the water so they know what and where it is.  They are all settled in the brooders each with a dog/cat proof lid.  They will stay inside for the first couple of weeks and then we have another bigger brooder area in the small barn for them to stay until they can join the bigger birds in the coop.  Hopefully I can get some pictures and post them the next couple of days.

Here's the new list of new poultry:
30 Silver Laced Wyndotte's (we had ordered 15 of them and 15 of the golden laced)
5 Buff Orpington's
5 Aracuna-Americuna
5 Broad brested Bronze Turkey's
2 White Embden Geese  ( I need names for these 2 any ideas?)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Good day and Happy St. Patrick's day to you.  Sorry about the lack of updates, the last week or so I have been sick with quite the nasty stomach bug.  Anyway I am feeling better now and back to work.

Couple of things going down on the farm, this past week.  The hubs, DJ (my son) and I have been busy fixing the small barn (I feel like it needs a better name, any suggestions?) and cleaning it out, the previous owners (a landscape supply business) left many nasty things in there and under it all proof that at one time there were farm animals that lived in it.  After carting it all to the dumpsters, picking out a few things like crates and leather aprons to keep.  We swept and put new plexiglass windows in, and I tell ya it's a whole new world in there.  Hubs is building some nesting boxes and a divider wall with some pallets he picked up from his job and some plywood.  My hubs is a great man always working so hard to get things done, and I appreciate it.  DJ is still working on picking up sticks from a big wind storm a few weeks back.  Green is starting to poke up all around from all this unseasonaly warm weather we have been having.  Now on to the chicken update, I am sad to say that our little chicken who had been eggbound and was recuperating in the house, had to be put out of her misery I didn't want to do it but she was showing no improvement and seemed only to be getting worse.  I tried to put her back with her fellows and they just ended up pecking her bloody, so a quick end was better than being pecked to death, poor gal.

PS: we pick up the new poultry in 2 days.

Egg Bound Chicken

This past Tuesday, I was outside watching the chickens and collecting eggs when I noticed one of our polish hens was laying kinda of awkward and wouldn't move when proded, so I picked her up and discovered that she had an egg sticking out a little but it was huge!! Plus she had poop and "goo" all matted into her bum feathers.  Not good, I set her back down and quickly ran into the house to get my copy of "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens", re-read the section about egg bound chickens, grabbed an old towel and ran back to the coop, gently wrapped her in the towel and carried her back to the house, where I filled up the laundry sink with warm soapy water set her in it (the water came up just to the top of her back) I swished the water around for a bit.  The book said to leave her in there about 15 minutes but about the 10 minute mark the egg came out but it was all broken, there was no blood so I was pretty confident that I helped her out and all was good I washed up her feathers and put her in a box with the towel and left her in the laundry room for a while to rest and dry.  I put her back in the coop and she seemed to be ok she just didn't want to move, I put that down to just being sore and a little stressed from the ordeal, after all I was a little stressed myself.  But, on Saturday when we were working on the barn I noticed that she was limping, what is going I thought.  I picked her up and she had what I thought looked like a little cut, but she also had poop and goo in her feathers again.  So Hubs and I put her in a transport cage with some straw, food and water and moved her into the house to heal up.  I don't know if she was injured before the egg deal, or if I hurt her in my haste to help her, or if that huge of an egg did some damage.  We are still watching her, but I don't know what will happen.

Countdown to Baby Poultry

Hubs and I will be picking up the new chicks, poults and goslings, a week from today!! It feels like that will be the official start of spring.

Quilts and Crafts

Last night my sister and I took a quiliting 101 class at JoAnn Fabric's.  It was fun and I learned quite a bit.  Believe it or not that was the first time I have ever sewed anything.  We made 1 block, and they gave general instructions about how to quilt.  I feel like I learned enough to continue on my own, plus the projects in the other classes are kind of ugly and I am not sure what I would do with them.  So, now all I need is a sewing machine and some fabric and I am ready to give it a whirl, though it will probably take a lot longer to finish anything than I anticipate, since I am all hyped up from my wonderful creation at the class.  The 2 of us have also signed up for a knitting 101 class on Monday.  Getting all my handmade goodness on.  As a child I was not so much into crafting as I felt that I did not have the patience for it, I enjoy it more now though I still feel that if I slowed down and relaxed about it the project would turn out nicer and more like how I want it to look then how it turns out.  Guess I'll have to work on that. 

Making quilts and scarfs and gardening gee I hardly recognize the old me but then perhaps this is more me than I realized.