Farm Auction and Gardens

This past Saturday, hubs and I went to a farm auction, the entire contents of a farm that had been lived on by the same family for over a 127 years was being auctioned off.  We got there early for the preview, and there was some wonderful farming equipment spanning the last hundred years horse drawn on up.  They also had some household goods available.  Since this was the first auction that the either of us had ever been to, we were as excited as 6 years olds on Christmas morning.  We had decided on a budget before arriving (highly recommended as you can get caught up in the moment of bidding) and during the preview made a plan of action on what we really wanted or needed and things that we might like to have but were so so, set us a limit on each item, and thought that we were ready.... well, once the bidding starts it's fast paced and they move through items very quickly and so you may get caught up in the moment and there were several times I just wanted to stick my card up and bid on something cause I was so excited.  I managed to control myself though there were several things that I was like oh I'll bid it's not going for very much and then thought where will i put it or what will I do with it pop into my head, so I wouldn't bid.  But, really by the time all that went through my head they were done with the item and on to the next.  Guess, I didn't really want it anyway.  Out of our $200 budget we only spent $80, we did however have to leave early for a wedding and didn't get to bid on some stuff that we had really wanted.  The items, that we did get: 4 old leather horse collars and the harness sets to go with (really I only wanted 1 but they sold them together, so... good news though we already sold two of them for $10 more than we had paid for all 4 so it all works out) hubs got a hand crank meat grinder and my favorite item we got is a WWII ration books that still has some stamps in it.  I love all things historic or old items, especially if they have a story behind them.  "One man's junk is, another man's treasure".

My gardening plans did not really go as I planned, I have pea's galore though.  Which the turkey's love to eat, and so do I.  The strawberry plants that I got from my aunt did not transplant well, they are all limp and laying on the ground.... gonna leave them though in the hopes that next year they will come back.  Hubs built me another raised garden bed so I am going to attempt corn again (the cat ate the stuff I had started earlier) and put in the tomato plants that I started but, seem to to growth stunted.  Hopefully when I plant them in the ground they will spring up.  I think I am going to attempt to plant some pumpkins too.  Wish me luck on that.  One of these day's, maybe we won't have so much going on and I can actually make it to one of the two local farmer's markets.

Farming, even the small scale we do here at Ridge Top, really agrees with me. I love looking out over the farm... seeing all our hard work in action, the pens for the turkey's and chickens.  The orchard full of little apple tree's with the start of little apple's on them.  Butterfly's, grasshoppers, and bee's buzzing around all the wildflowers and tree's.  The evening lightning bug show is truly fab! Makes all the fields look like they are on fire.  It makes this gal smile.





Chickens and Apples

Saturday night, we moved the chickens from their brooder pens to their new coop and yard outside.  A little timid at first, they mostly stayed huddled together near the door to the coop, but after a few hours they seemed to be enjoying all that space to run around and flap their wings.  The first night in the coop went well and they all came running down the ramp Sunday morning, all was good with the chickens..... Sunday evening rolls around and we discover poor little chicken had been eaten (not sure by what), we found her in the silo.  We filled in some holes around our barn with concrete and set a trap for whatever animal it was.  We have not lost another chicken, so I am hoping that it has moved on.

I have some exciting news for you all.... our baby apple tree's have baby apples on them!!!!!! Here at the farm we are so excited.  We were told that most likely we wouldn't get any apples till next year at the earliest.  Not sure if they will get big enough to eat or anything.  Guess we'll find out in the fall.

I got some more pea's off my vines, but the strawberries are not bouncing back from their transplant and two extremely hot day's out of the ground.... I'll have to find a u-pick place around here so I can try my hand at canning jam.  Hubbs is going to make another raised bed for me on Sunday, so I will tray again with the corn, beans and watermelon, hopefully Romeo won't eat them this time.

Ridge Top Farm in Pictures

New Puppy

Meet our New Addition Rasputin the English Springer Spaniel.

Thursday night, was a perfect ending to an early summer evening.  The air was starting to turn chilly after a warm day, and the hubbs, DJ and I had a bonfire and a S'more.  After DJ had gone into bed, The hubbs and I were sitting in the twilight watching the fire when we saw 2 deer in the field behind us we watched them for a bit and those little buggers crept right up to our apple tree's.... I scared them off when I got up and walked toward the orchard for a closer look at the deer.  Oh well it's better for the tree's that way.  That was the first time we had actually seen deer on or around our property, though we see their tracks all the time, along with raccoon's, cats and other assorted critters.

Our new arrival that I mentioned in an earlier post, is a 6 week old, English Springer Spaniel puppy who the hubbs has named Rasputin.  We picked him up last Saturday from a breeder on the west side of the state, we drove 2 hours each way to pick up the little guy.  Napoleon is being a good "big brother" to Rasputin, playing with him and allowing him to cuddle up with him.  Romeo, in true cat fashion is spitting mad that we have brought home another wee beastie, and I admit that I was not the happiest person when he dug up my mini rose bush, and tried to bite one of my chicken's heads off. (the chicken is fine however).  I'm sad to report that George and Martha Washington do not like him, no they do not like him at all, however I believe that has everything to do with Rasputin chasing them around and grabbing ahold of their tail feathers.

Let's see, what else has been going on, OH!! I finally have pea's on my snap pea vines, and they are super super tasty. but, I have a question (please, leave a comment if you know the answer) will the pea's continue to produce all summer or will they die off?? do they come back in the spring or will I need to replant???  Now, strawberries I know come back every year, and I was lucky enough to acquire some from my aunt's front yard (with her permisson of course).  They even have some green berries starting and 1 that is turning red.  I am super excited that my garden has produced actual food, when prior years, I have managed to kill everything I tried to grow.  Unfortunaltey the cat is eating the corn and green beans I had started and keeps tearing up my sunflower sprout.  I am hoping to save the corn and green beans I think the sunflower is a wash.

The weather this week is awesome in the mid 70's and cool at night.  hopefully more bonfire nights soon.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial day is tomorrow, so I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to my dad, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, friends, and all the men and women who have or are currently serving in the U.S Military.

Lot's of stuff has been happening the last week or so.  Last weekend I went away for a friend's bachlorette party weekend.  Ton's of fun was had by all.  We even took a duck boat tour, my first.  For those of you who don't know what a duck boat tour is, I will tell you, the duck boat is a land/water vehicle that was used during WWII they have been re purposed into "tour" boats, our driver drove us through town giving us the history of the area as well as some local points of interest then we boated across the harbor to the next town and we got another drive through town.

At the farm, it has been raining pretty much all week long!!!! The grass is super long and the new tree's and gardens are waterlogged.  On the other hand the grass is also super green!  The chicken pen and coop are almost down (me and the hubbs are gonna make a big push to finish it up tomorrow since we both have off work)  The turkey's are doing well, Martha the brown one has discovered that she can fly out of the pen to eat all the green green grass on the other side, George the white one is either to heavy or has not figured out how to get out.  The other day they were snatching mosquito's right out of the air.  Yesterday, when I got home from work Martha had made her escape and was sitting on the picnic table, just waiting for us to get home and let her buddy out.

In wildlife news, we have a sandpiper lady, who has made a nest in the field.  The hubbs, me and Napoleon were out walking the other day and stumbled upon her she was quite vocal  almost getting right up in Napoleon's face and then she flew off low to the ground and acted like she had a broken wing to try to lure Napoleon away from her babies, he just stood there cocking his head back and forth like "what the heck are ya yelling at me for"  he did try to go for her once but we held him back.  Since then we have given her a wide berth.  Hopefully soon the little eggs will hatch and the babies will take off. 

More soon from Ridge Top Farms, there hopefully will be a new addition to the farm next weekend. 

Finally, it seems that it is shaping up to be a beautiful spring day out.  The sun is out the sky is blue with some big white puffy clouds floating around and the high is 70 degrees.  Too bad that I will be at work all day, oh well this weekend's forecast is also predicting good weather.   I will be heading out to a girl's weekend/bachlorette weekend, and Hubbs is working some this weekend too.  A little break from the farm for me.
The farm is doing good, it has rained almost every day this week, so things are green is some places and muddy puddles in other's.  The turkey's were enjoying the sunshine this morning strutting about their pen.  We started turning off the heat lamp on the chicks, getting them used to the temps, it's starting to get a little crowded in the brooder as they get bigger, pretty soon they will have to be moved outside and then just a little longer and they will start laying eggs!!!! How exciting!!!  The hubbs and his son will work on the truck some on Saturday and hopefully that will be up and running soon.  That's all that's gone on this week at Ridgetop Farm.  I hope you all have a wonderfull weekend.

Spring has sprung

It's mid may, and I just ate soup and grilled cheese sandwich to warm me up!!! It's all of 48 degrees outside now and inside as well since we have turned the boiler off for the year.  Hard to believe that just a few days ago it was pushing 90 degrees.    Thankfully it is suppose to warm up again by the end of the week.  Funny how once your a farmer the weather becomes all important, you need to know weather or not to add straw to the animals beds and if you need to water the veggies and tree's or if Mother Nature will do it for you.  This past 9 months of living the farm life has taught us this lesson as well as many others and I am sure we will continue to learn as we go.

Lot's have been going on the last week or so.  Mother's day weekend the hubbs and I rented a power post hole digger and dug a hundred holes, 5 rows of 20, it was tough going there were Lot's of rocks and we had to drag it from hole to hole which took both of us because it was rather heavy, Hubbs had to do the lifting though cause the auger was almost as tall as me.  The sun was shinning bright and it was very warm we drank Lot's of water and even with the sunscreen I ended up with sunburn on my arms and face and of course my neck LOL.  (that's where the term redneck comes from in case you didn't know, because farmers are our in the sun in early spring everything is covered but their neck and it always gets sunburned).   While the hubbs and I were digging holes, my son was busy mowing the grass and picking up sticks.  The weekend wasn't all work though we did get some fun in we had breakfast at Ihop on Saturday and spent the evening with family and friends at my cousin's house.  On Thursday hubbs and I drove out to the other side of the state to pick up the 100 apple tree's, the drive took us about 2 and 1/2 hours each direction.  That same evening the tree's were in the ground, we had my cousin and her family over for dinner and the guys planted the tree's and us gals cooked the dinner while watching the kiddo's and dog's play.  After dinner the kids rode a small dirt bike around and the big boy's played on the 4-wheeler and shot targets. 

The turkeys are growing and appear to be healthy and are getting a little bold.  The brown one has discovered that she can fly just high enough to perch on the top of the fence of their pen or fly up to sit on the top of their hutch.  We have been trying to let them out everyday or at least every couple days to free range in the yard... they do so love their play time.  The walk around pecking at everything they think might be tasty my shoe laces, pants, the bricks and the dog.  The dog is very good with them surprisingly enough he just sniffs them and then will sit beside me and watch them. 

the chicks are also doing well, hanging out in their brooder they are getting their feathers and are attempting to fly.  We did have to pull two out and put them in their own box because they were getting pecked pretty good with bloody spots they are doing well now and since the bloody spots seem to have healed up some we might try putting them back in with the rest.  We ordered 1 rooster and then had ordered some straight run chickens so far we can see that we have the one rooster we ordered and at least one other I think that the free chick they sent is a male mainly cause it's bigger then the others it is still a waiting game right now to see who is male and female from the strait run.  Hubbs and his friend have been working on the coop and it's looking good.  This weekend we will be trying to finish it all up, since the chicks will be ready to move outside pretty soon.

The funniest story of the week though is:
I was heading back home after taking the post hole digger back to the rental site, I stopped for gas before I hit home and discovered fluid and smoke coming from the front end <sigh>  had to leave the truck there at the gas station and walk back home it was a beautiful day though so that wasn't so bad... no what was bad that has I walked past the little creek I stepped in a dead squirrel.<EWWWWWWW>  and I am sure the people who drove by will forever tell the story of the women who was dancing and shaking her foot around by the creek in a strange crazy dance.  LOL.

well folk's that's all for now, keep checking back for more pictures and updates and perhaps even an addition to the farm.

Chick Days

The Chicks have arrived!!!!!!

Fresh out of the shower this morning, I get a call from the post office in Lansing... me: "hello" Postal worker: "hello, your chickens are in", Me: "what?", Postal Worker: "your chicks are here and need to be picked up".   Obviously there was a bit more to the phone call than that but that really was the best part.  The Chicks were suppose to be here tomorrow Monday... (since when are post office's open on Sunday's??)  I have the day off tomorrow and had big plans for those little babies.  But instead hubby, who was off for a big motorcycle ride with his buddy's got a panicked phone call from me... Me: "the chicks are here" Hubbs: "what??" Me: "the chicks are here and need to be picked up at the Post Office in Lansing" again there was more there but really that's the funny part.  So hubbs turns around and heads back towards home to get a car to drive to Lansing to pick up our new babies, I on the other hand completely bummed headed to work.  The hubbs has sent me a few picture mails and dipped thier little beaks in the water and they are all doing well.  I am chomping at the bit to get home and see them for myself.  I am super excited to see them, and I will get pictures posted ASAP, so check back soon for those.

I really feel like our farm is here, before it was a dream but, now that there are turkey's and chicken's and some pea's in the ground and apple and pear tree's in the ground too..... Sometime I just can't belive it! and I am so loving it even if it's raining again today.