Birthdays, Rain and a mouse in my pocket

I know it's been a while since I posted last, a lot's been going on here at the Farm and with my "regular" job, I work at a Hospital and have my own photography company Reflections and Dreams Photography.  It was also my birthday and my granddaughter's birthday and Easter.  Grab a cup of tea or whatever you like to drink and I'll fill ya in.

Rain Rain Rain.... that's all it's been doing for the last couple of weeks with one day of sunshine thrown in here and there. Don't get me wrong I know that April showers bring May flowers, but, really I am kind of done with the rainy and super windy days I wanna be outside on my farm.

Currently all the apple trees, 18 of them are planted in the ground and even have buds on them.  The 2 pear trees are also in the ground and budding.  This makes me very very happy and the hubbs too,  especially since it was his idea to do the orchard.  We do plan on getting more tree's for the orchard and hopefully that will happen this summer.  DJ (my son) and the hubbs made me my first ever raised garden bed, and it's pretty awesome.  I planted my pea's that I had started inside out in the garden I am surprised to see them still doing so well since when I planted them it was raining and 37 degree's out.   However, it's been too windy to start them up the trellis they keep breaking so for now I am just leaving them lay on the ground, and keeping my fingers crossed.   I can't believe how fast George and Martha Washington are growing (that's the turkeys)  every time I look at them they look bigger and more like an adult turkey.   We bought them a hutch and pen and have moved them outside, Easter was the first day they spent outside we brought them in at night for the first two days but now they stay outside all the time and seem to be enjoying the green grass, worms and bugs they are finding.   In a few more weeks we are gonna add some panels to the pen so they have a bit more room to run around in.  Still working on the chicken coop and their yard too.  This morning I cleaned out the brooder with a bit of bleach water, cleaned the thermometers and the chicken wire top, and it sits waiting for it's new occupants who will be here in about 5 days!!!! So excited can't wait to get that box from Murray McMurray and here those little peep peep sounds.   We ordered 9 female and 1 male Silver Laced Wyndotte's, 6 female Creveours, 4 White Crested Polish and 5 Silver Laced Cochin's at a st run.  Plus they send you a free exotic chick so I can't wait to find out what that one is.

Easter, was also my birthday this year, and it just happened to turn out that I had a 3 day weekend, which I made the most of!!!!!  Friday I planted my pea's, and then had an appointment for my Photography company they came out here to my house (too bad it was too cold and rainy to take the photo's of the baby outside) then it was off to a birthday party with some family who also have birthday's in April, good company, good food and lot's of laughs.  My Aunt Pam bought me bunches of stuff for canning, and I am so so super excited to try some of that out this fall!!!! I also got a Mini Rose bush from my Aunt Karen and a garden Gnome from my Aunt Julie... he is not yet out in the garden I used him on my Easter table as a centerpiece.  I am pretty sure that little gnome is glad he is out of the cold.  Saturday is the day we went out and bought the turkey hutch and pen as well as some other stuff from our trusty Tractor Supply company, and the day we finished planting the tree's.  My hubbs that wonderfully sweet man I am married too took me out to a fab place called "Oasis spa and garden" it is a place that has small themed rooms where you soak for an hour in a hot tub!!!!!  We had an outside room so we sat and relaxed under the stars plus we had cupcakes in the shape of a chicken!  Easter Sunday we each got a basket from the bunny.  Since we were having people over we didn't dawdle to long with the baskets though, we finished some errands and got ready cooking and cleaning.  The Egg hunt was lot's of fun we hid candy and some really good gift cards in Camouflaged eggs even the "big" kids got in on the action once they learned there was a $25 American express gift card somewhere out there.  The camo eggs where really hard to see, even when you knew where they were.  More good company and good food.

Saved the funny story for last
 Thursday morning, the hubbs and I were woken by a the thump and bang of Romeo (the cat) trying to dismantle the radiator cover in our bedroom, upon inspection we discovered there was a little mouse hidding along the pipe.. so we put out some glue traps... later in the morning I found the cat on one end and the dog on the other end of the radiator the little mouse would run towards Romeo and he would bat in back down the pipe then Napoleon would try to lick it and it would run back towards Romeo... this went on for sometime, I left for work thinking that one of them would get the mouse or the one of the traps would.  When I got home from work I didn't see the mouse any where in the radiator, so thought that one of them had gotten it..... oh how wrong I was!!!! the next morning I picked up my folded up jeans of the floor of my bedroom and that little mouse came flying out of them all disoriented both the cat and the dog came up to it and sniffed it but did nothing! that's right not a thing there I am yelling and screaming and dancing around in my undies and a t-shirt and the two of them just sat there sniffing the mouse, my 10 year old son had to get a glove and some paper towel and take it outside...

Birthday Celebration on the Farm

I am sorry that I haven't updated in a while, what with mt regular job, Easter and Birthday Celebrations and a job for my side business Reflections and Dreams Photography.  I promise more later on all the exciting stuff that has happened in the last week.

Peas!!!!

I can't belive that I forgot to mention that all of my peas sprouted!!! They seem to be growing like crazy, let's hope it stay's that way when I move them to the garden beds.

oh P.S
the chicks arrive in 18 days whooo to the hooo

Queen of the Sun

I first saw this on a blog called Cold Antler Farm and since it is an issue that is near and dear to my heart I wish to share it with all of you as well.

Busy Weekend.

       This morning I took a moment to just look around, and I have to say that we kicked some serious bum this weekend.  Every day our farm is looking more and more like my dream farm and it's amazing!  Hopefully in the next few years we will be able to expand and add more animals and gardens, put in a wrap around porch and maybe a pool.  Sometimes big plans have a way of getting bigger, I know my dreams for this farm seem to get a little bigger everyday, though I do work to keep myself in check and remind my self that it will all happen in time, just have to keep plugging away at it.  In the meantime kick back and I'll tell ya what we did this weekend.

Saturday
 According to early weather reports it was suppose to be in the high 60's and sunny all day... pshhhhh what do weatherman know, it was cold and cloudy all morning long it finally hit the mid 50's in late afternoon.  That didn't stop us though we got up had some breakfast and got to work.  My son did a great job driving the lawn tractor around and picking up a bunch of trash, sticks and stones.  The hubbs and I headed into the feed and seed in town and picked up a mix of rye grass and clover seed.  Once we got back the three of us walked over the property again making sure all big rocks and sticks and trash was picked up, we mixed up the seed and hubbs hooked up the spreader to the lawn tractor and off he went throwing seed everywhere!  My son and I headed in to cook up some lunch.  After lunch my son took a break and the hubbs and I went into Home Depot to get some tree platning supplies.  By the time we got home the sun had come out and it warmed up a bit, we did take a detour and stopped to look at some cool looking utility vehicles. Since the sun was out we loaded up the cart with some apple tree's, stakes and rope and headed out to the back preoperty line to plant us some tree's, and plant we did!!!! With all 3 of us working on it we got all 10 of the Honeycrisp planted.  All work and no play make us grumpy, we don't want to be grumpy so we took ourselves off to the Bloated Goat Pub in town for some dinner and a little fun!!! Good food there!!!!!! 

Sunday
Again, according to the weatherman it was suppose to rain on Sunday.  Partialy the reason we seeded and planted the day before.  The brightly shinning sun woke us up on Sunday morning ok weatherman????   I spent the morning running some errands for my reunion meeting later in the day.  The hubbs got some stuff together and went up on the roof on the garage/game room to make some repairs.  Cyndi my aunt came over for lunch and to work on plans with me for our upcoming family reunion.  My son took most of the day to do his chore which, was picking up all the sticks in the "yard" portion of the property basicly the area that surrounds the house.  He kept wanting to take breaks, though it was 80 degree's but, in the end he got the job done and just in time since his friend walked up just as he put the last pile in the fire.  It was a beautiful day out so we fired up the grill and had some burgers for dinner.  The Turkey's has some fun too, the hubbs and I took them out for a few minutes to play in the sun and green grass, they each got a bug and boy were they ever proud of themselves for that feat.  It was neat to see the way they would hunker down when they heard the dog bark.  Once, the turkey's were safely back in the brooder, the hubbs and I did some basic repairs to the livestock barn (we are hoping to one day have livestock in it).  Ended the day by sitting on a log by the fire watching the sunset.  It really was a beautiful day.

as, perhaps  you know from my previous post I planted some sugar snap peas yesterday.  it was surprisingly easy I purchased a jiffy starter kit which consisted of some peat pellets that expand once you add water to them.  they expanded to really tall tubes hmmm I didn't think that i had needed that much dirt, so I re-read the carton and discovered that it was actually a starter kit for tomato plants oopppss oh well live and learn and remember to read the package.  I am sure they will work out just fine, though I am withholding judgement on my growing abilities until they sprout and i transplant them to the garden and harvest them, only then will I say I successfully gardened mainly because all previous attempts at growing things have ended in total failure.

Mother Nature has decided that perhaps spring can finally make an appearance here in Michigan, it is suppose to be in the low 60's on Saturday. whooo hooo!!!!! which means it's a work day at the farm, our plans include debris pickup: trash, rocks, branches and other yard waste, start planting the apple and pear trees, pound the fence posts for the chicken and turkey pens, work on the chicken coop, buy seed and seed the 3-4 acres we plowed in the fall, we are thinking about a clover and rye grass mix the clover to attract the bee's and the rye cause it grows quickly.  we need bee's for the fruit trees I very much would like to get our hive of bees or maybe even two, however I don't feel quite ready to jump into that just yet so in the mean time we are going to try and attract some local bee's to our trees I feel a lot of research and maybe even some classes are in order before I try to become a beekeeper as well,  I know a lot of people say it's easy and there is not much work involved but I am still a little leery of the bees if we decide to go that route it won't be until the next year or two. in the mean time I am researching bee's and watching video tutorials about beekeeping  it's very interesting and I am learning a lot of new information about bee's.

Even with all the work we have planned for this weekend, we are planning on some fun too. on Saturday the hubbs and I will hopefully be able to squeeze in a motorcycle ride with some friends and on Sunday I have a meeting with some other family members about planning our upcoming family reunion and I am sure my son would love to get out in the warm weather and play with his friends.

My Burpee seed catalog came in the mail today!!!! super excited it's filled with lot's of seeds and starter plants. =)

Sugar Snap Peas

I just planted my first ever vegtable! Sugar snap peas.  Hopefully they will do well, I started them in a starter kit by jiffy that I bought at Home Depot.   Will update more later, I was just so excited about planting my pea's I coundn't wait to share the news.

Mini Update

Howdy, folks!!!
   Not too much to update ya with this week.  The turkey's are doing well and their feathers are starting to come in.  One is all white and he is the bigger of the two, this is the one I call George Washington.  The other one's feather's are diffrent shades of brown, the prettier of the two I have to say.  The little brown turkey, who I call Martha Washington is developing quite the personality.  When I  clean out the brooder she pecks the bag and runs at it and head butts it.  Also, she  will grab my hair if a piece falls into the brooder and will try to run off with it like she has a prize worrm, she is quite disappointeted and confused when it suddenly disappears.   They also do a little jump and flap thier wings trying to fly. It's lot's of fun at our house, I could watch those little turkeys for hours at a time, they change every day.

On a side note, I have been having trouble with the paint color for the kitchen.  During the winter I had painted the kitchen with what was suppose to a golden yellow color but when painted  the walls turned out to be more of like a baby poop color. and all blotchy not exacttly what I was going for. To date I have bought 5 samples of color, and I think I have found "the one".  Wish me luck with that.

 In other farm news, we also bought 2 more apple tree's and 2 pear tree's so that is 20 tree's in all, and the chicks will be here in 4 weeks!!!! fun fun fun!!!!!!!!!!!

Turkey's and Trees

Turkey's
  I am so excited, after we went to the farmer's market on Saturday, we stopped at big acre feed store and they had turkey's.  Of course we bought some silly!!!!! Two of them to be exact.  We named them George and Martha Washington.  We're big on history over here.  We brought them home in a carboard box and they hung out there under the heat lamp while I got the brooder all ready and set up for them.  That's them in the picture, Napoleon doesn't understand, why they can't come out and play.  So, far they have weathered the first 24 hours just fine.  I love to watch them run across the brooder with their little wings extened.   (FYI- baby turkey's are called poults)

Farmer's Market
  Saturday morning, we headed out to the farmer's market in Flint, MI.  It has both an outside and an inside section.   Sadly, the indoor section was not really that impressive, they had some bakery's, a few stands that sold produce and flowers but it was basicly the same stuff you get in the store.  The few art booths that were there, were pretty cool and had some really cute stuff.  We did score a few local items, Cherry Wine made and bottled here in Michigan, My son got a cookie and we got some meatloaf mix and brat's made with Angus beef raised here in michigan with no hormones and no horrid living conditions.  We had the brat's tonight with some salad and the cherry wine for dinner.  It was very good.  After the market we went to tractor supply and of course big acre, where we got our wonderful turkey's.

Apple Tree's
  Well, Sunday we were just gonna hang out and relax and maybe hit the grocery store.  But, after breakfast we decided to go to our new all time favorite store, Tractor Supply (LOL) and get some fence posts, so we could start working on a fence for the turkey's and chickens.  Ended up going for a mini country Sunday drive (we missed our turn and decided to just keep going, you end up seeing the coolest things that way).  After lunch and the grocery store, the hubbs went back to the big acre feed store in Brighton and picked up 16 apple tree's (they were having a big sale).   We bought 8 Joanthan Apple trees and 8 Honeycrisp apple trees.

Ridgetop Farm
 Exciting things, are happening here at Ridgetop we are really on our way to having a farm.  Still to come is the chickens they will arrive in 5 weeks.  Also, still working on our garden plans and perhaps some bee's to help pollenate the orchard and the gardens.   We'll be planting the tree's and gardens once the ground warms up some more.  The hubbs and I are very excited about our farm, things are going well and my son is enjoying everything too.

Gophers and Weekend Plans

It's Friday!!!!!

Both the hubbs and I have the weekend off.   What to do, what to do?  Well, we had plans to work in the yard, removing trash and big sticks, cleaning out the horse trough (that's the chick brooder) and maybe starting on the raised garden beds.  Mother nature on the other hand, had other idea's and the temps will be in the low 30's not exactly conducive to digging up dirt, since our yard is now frozen mud as opposed to just mud.  Never fear, we always find something to do, and we did,  the hubbs, my son and me are gonna head to an indoor farmer's market in Flint, Michigan, I will post a review and maybe some pictures later this weekend.  here's the link for the Flint Farmer's Market if your local.  http://www.flintfarmersmarket.com/



Gophers have big teeth!!!
 this past Monday, my son discovered a dead gopher out by Napoleon's tie-out.  Since, we couldn't put the dog out, until the gopher had been moved, I had to move it, (insert suspense music).  So, your gal Helois, bundled herself up in some muck boots, coat and gloves and trucked out to the barn to get a shovel, back to the gopher and tried several times to get that little guy onto the shovel, it just kept rolling over (ugh!!!).  There I am in the yard rolling a gopher around, thinking to myself I hope this guy is really dead and does not jump up and try to attack me, cause I really didn't want to have to bash it with the shovel, long claws and big teeth, could have done some damage.  Finally found a stick that I used to roll the gopher onto the shovel with.  Poor thing it's side was all crushed in, I think it must have got hit by a car and attempted to make it's way back to it's home. ( which I discovered under the back porch).  Anyway, once the gopher was on the shovel I carried it to the back of the property and lightly buried it in the compost.  Whew, all this before 8am.