Garden-fresh homemade pumpkin bread

How exciting!  My first 2 loaves of homemade pumpkin bread with our very own garden grown pumpkin!!  Tastes good too :)  We roasted the seeds as well, but the pumpkins were just a tad under-ripe so the seeds weren't the best.  I'm waiting to process the rest of the pumpkins to make sure they are fully ripened.  It was really easy though!  I'm going to have lots of pumpkin stored away for future goodies!  I also put in a picture of my pressure canner.  I've canned several jars of green beans so far, and the second batch of green beans I blanched and froze.  Our cucumbers are growing like crazy and some are just huge!!!  Tonight I will be doing my 5th batch of pickles.

Birthday pic and pickings

Here is our boys' 10th birthday pic.  (Well, one of the many!)  And another pic of today's harvest.  I've done 3 batches now of pickles but today we got out there and picked the green beans for the first time, more cucumber and our first pumpkin!  My pressure canner arrived in the mail today so tomorrow will be another first for me as I attempt to learn how to can!

Sad day and celebrations

This morning was a sad day on the farm.  We woke up to a sea of dead chickens across our yard.  All our top hats and Maran chickens are dead.  It was really quite sickening to see.  From the looks of the fur we see caught on the fence, it was our dog that did it through the night.
There is so much to be thankful for though.  We recently moved our Guinea and Easter Egg chickens out of that pen into a different area, so the devastation could have been much, much worse.  We also, thankfully, were hatching some of the Maran eggs in our garage and currently have 9 chicks that have hatched.  What a blessing that we will be able to replace our Maran population!
Needless to say, we don't have our dog anymore.
I guess it's part of life on a farm.  An unfortunately part....

In other news, we have a potty trained girl!!  She has gone (I guess a week now) with no accidents or even having to be told to go potty.  She always goes on her own!!  She hasn't been able to get through the night dry yet, but we will be working on that.  She loves her new underwear from Nana.  Thank  you Nana!

We also celebrated our boys' 10th birthday.  WOW!  Double digits!!  He's our farmer-in-the-making and loves the outdoors.  He does such a great job taking care of the animals.  He's also such a good big brother.  Happy birthday to our boy!  We love you!

My first canning experience

Here is our first pick of the harvest!  We have quite a few pickling cucumbers ready so I tried my hand at the hot water bath method and made some dill pickles today.  It was quite exciting!!

Chick hatching

This happened yesterday.  So cool to watch it from start to finish.  (I could only post a small portion of the video)  We now have 4 chicks in the house.  Hoping for a few more this week.

Here's the ending....

Survival

   Trying to survive infancy as a chick is tough!  The odds are not in your favor.  We have now lost 6 chicks with only 3 surviving so far.  Last night, one of the 4 babies died (I'm assuming it was merely squished through the night under her mama).  One of the chicks that was hatching died as well.  So we have had 3 newborns die, and 3 die while hatching.  Mama hen is still sitting on a good 10-15 eggs or so, but we may have to move those indoors soon.  Those eggs are a week behind the already-hatched chicks, so Mama hen may stop setting soon to nurture her 3 babies that are already starting to get curious about their surroundings.  

   Hubby is working on the new chicken coop for all our egg laying chickens (as opposed to our fertilized mixed group of hens/rooster)   Hubby is currently working on the nesting boxes right now. We need to get the chicken run all fenced in.  Our Top Hats/Guinea/Easter Egg chickens are now moved into a bigger area.  They are enjoying that much better!!  Yesterday, we saw that one of the comets was running around with a baby snake in its mouth!!  Yikes.  Ohhhh how I hate snakes!  But I am glad they like to eat them :)

  All the other animals are doing well.  The ducks, geese and goats coming running up to the fence whenever anyone is outside.  They love interaction with people (especially if you bring food).  

   We've had a lot of rain lately, so our garden is really growing!  Our pumpkins are starting to form and we see some tomatoes.  The green beans are cucumbers are coming along well.  

  That's it for now.....

Sad chicken lesson

We learned the hard way NOT to let the comet chickens hatch eggs!!  We had 2 suddenly want to start setting several weeks ago which we thought was odd.  They are a hybrid chicken for fast egg production and we didn't think they had that 'nesting' instinct in them.  They are not around a rooster so none of their eggs are fertilized.  Well, 2 of them decided to start setting, so we took some of our fertilized eggs from the Maran group of chickens and put them under our expectant mothers.  Yesterday we discovered that one of the hens had a baby but it was dead in the yard.  We figured all the other comets got jealous or something and trampled it.  So later yesterday evening, another egg hatched but oddly the mother pecked at it when it would peek out from under her.  I thought that was rather odd for a mother to do that so we kept an eye on her.  The kids came in before bed from their finally round of checking on the animals, and one of them said "That mom is mean.  I saw her peck at her baby".  So today I decided to go out and get some food and water ready for the baby and see how it was doing.  I took her out from under the mama hen and what an awful site.  She had pecked at the head and the eyes were bulging out and I think part of the brain.....it was so gross but the poor thing was still alive.  We immediately removed all the eggs from under both comets (7 of which are in the process of hatching) and put them all under our Maran chicken that is setting.  Hopefully she will take to them without any issues (or else I'm bringing them all in the house to hatch myself!!!)

Farm update

I can't get out to take pictures as there is a monsoon outside right now!!!  But I sure do love the rain we are getting, especially for our garden!  Our pumpkins and cucumbers are starting to flower now.....yay!!!  We have weeded several more rows.  The rows always look so nice after all the grass and vines have been picked out.  There are quite a few rows that we really can't weed because we can't find any produce growing....ugh.  We don't see any peppers or strawberries, can't find any garlic or carrots (bummer!!!)  and our cantaloup look pitiful.  Still need to weed the corn and green beans.  Next year we will definitely need to take a different route to help with the weeding issue.  Sitting in 90 degree heat picking weeds has not been fun.  It will be worth it and I think we will definitely appreciate the food a whole lot more as we eat it, knowing the work that went into growing and maintaining it!  I have found the canner/pressure cooker I want.  It  has excellent reviews so I'm excited about getting it.  Now to find some good recipes.

We have 3 hens that are setting right now.  I think we should be getting close to hatching pretty soon.  Our baby comets are getting within several weeks of starting to lay eggs.  We are going to have an explosion of eggs pretty soon.  Hubby has been starting to build the new chicken coop/area for all our eggs layers.  The guinea are getting close to being let loose (they are caged right now).  I have a feeling we are going to lose quite a few once this happens.  They do fly and wander far away so we will see how many stick close by.  The ducks, geese and goats and so much fun to play with.  They love attention!  We did notice a big problem with our pond the other day.  We found about 50 dead fish floating all around the perimeter of the pond.  We did some reading and found that during a heat way the balance of the oxygen in the water changes and then when a thunderstorm comes along and mixes up the water it can cause oxygen depletion.  That is exactly what happened last week.  Right after a big thunderstorm is when we found all the dead fish.  I didn't realize how many bass we had in the pond!!!  Sad to see, but hopefully there are some left in there to replenish the stock.  So many new things you learn living on a farm!!!

The kids are still doing their end-of-year testing trying to finish up their grades.  It will be such a great feeling to be done and ready to start the new year!  We are heading into grades 7, 5 and 3 with a kindergarten/grade 1 ready to start full time.  I'll have to do a post about our curriculum for the new year.  Always exciting starting new books!

That's about it.

A Biblical Alternative To The Sinner's Prayer by Paul Washer

We need to hear this over and over!!!  Such truth!

Garden pics

Here are some pics of the garden.  You can see that some of the rows still need weeding!!!  We've done several already, but there are more that need to be done.  Vines and grass are really growing around the plants.

first row pumpkin, second row green beans

3 rows of green beans

corn, potatoes and tomatoes

cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, and hopefully peppers

our rows that need weeding!!!!

Updates

We have been quite busy around here trying to finish up our end of year school testing and getting our report cards all completed.  We have finished up every subject but English, so hopefully over the next 2 weeks we will get everything done!
Farm life is going well.  Our garden is blooming which is nice to see.  We have had to weed quite a bit lately as the grass have overtaken most of the garden.  Hubby tilled all the 'walking' areas between the rows which really helped, and now we are weeding each individual row.  With it being so hot outside, we don't stay out for long periods of time.  Needless to say, the pool has been getting alot of use of the past couple weeks!!
The animals are doing well.  We lost one of our laying chickens last week (to the dog) and this morning we lost a guinea (to the dog!!!)  If she wasn't such a good watch dog, I think we'd get rid of her!  This hunting-for-sport is costing us money!!!  We have 2 more hens that are setting....one of our comets and one of our marans.  Baby chicks are so much fun to see!!
We had a nice time with company a week or so ago.  The kids had a blast with the other kids.
Every one is doing well!  That's about it......

Farm livin'

Life on the farm....lovin' it!
So far, the goats have been named Molly and Dolly and the rabbits are Thumper and Bugs......

New kids

3 year pictures

A little late, but we got her 3 year pictures done finally.

Updates

Mama Hen ended up with 4 chicks.  They are so cute with one being entirely black and the other 3 with grays and blacks mixed together.  The past couple of days she has ventured down on the ground with them.
Our ducks have taken nicely to the water.  They are so much fun to watch!  They have completely cleaned up the pond of all the algae that had grown over the past year.  The geese now stay down by the pond as well, but do not venture into the water too much.  We unfortunately lost one goose.  It had been bleeding from the mouth on and off for awhile and eventually got very weak to where it couldn't walk anymore (and died that night).  Not sure what was wrong with it but it had always been the weaker and slower one of the bunch.
The top hat chickens are getting bigger (as well as the easter egg chickens and guinea)  They are still kept in the garage.
Our garden is starting to bloom!  The beans, pumpkins and cucumber are starting to grow.  This year we planted 2 types of tomatoes, cucumber and pickling cucumber, bush beans, pumpkin, cantaloupe, 2 types of onion, chives, garlic, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, okra, broccoli, strawberry, 3 types of peppers....I think that's it.  Looking forward to seeing what it will produce!!!

Riding on 2 wheels

Look what big brother taught her to do!

First baby

We found our first 'homegrown' baby of the season today!  Mama hen is sitting on nearly 30 eggs, poor gal.  Hubby heard some faint peeps tonight so we took a peek and found one!  So exciting.  Over the next few days, I'm pretty sure we will get quite a few more.  Fun on the farm!!

Walking!

She's FINALLY walking!!!

Mother's Day on the farm

Today is Mother's Day and I am such a blessed mama!!  God has given me 6 wonderful blessings.  What a joy each of them are to me!   Hubby and I wish both of our Mom's a very Happy Mother's Day as well.  We thank the Lord for both of you!!

We have had quit the busy month (thus not blogging very often).  We had hubby's Mom (and another lady) come visit for a couple days.  Then we had all of my side of the family here for a weekend.  We enjoyed such a nice visit with my parents for 3 weeks and also enjoyed a quick overnight visit with some dear friends from our old church.  It's always fun showing people around the 'farm' here with all our little feather babies (that are growing into BIG feather babies!!)  Our ducks and geese are almost at full maturity.  We have our Comet chickens moved outside now with only the Guinea/Top Hat chickens/ and Easter Egg chickens left in the garage.  It will be several weeks before they can be moved outside.  We look forward to our goats and rabbits next month!

Our garden is finally in the works!  What a time we had trying to get it plowed and ready for planting.  After several failed attempts at it, we called in reinforcement (our well trained neighbor)  to come and till up the ground.  What a lifesaver he was!  In 30 mins, he had that ground looking like a garden!!  As of today we have 6 rows planted and will hopefully get the rest done tomorrow.  Now to learn about canning/preserving.  Anyone with helpful info is welcome to drop me a note :)

Here are a few pics from the 'farm'....

Family Photos

I can't believe a month has gone by without posting something here.  Well, actually I can....we have been so busy around here!  Lots of feather babies being added to the farm.  We have 2 more batches due this week.  We have also been having lots of company.  We have enjoyed having all of my side of the family here and took the opportunity to update our family photo.  Here are some pics from the weekend.

Updates

Busy morning already.  More babies arrived today!!  First, a picture of the chicks....they are already getting wing feathers and tail feathers.  But man are they still tiny compared to the geese that arrived today!!  The small ones are Sweet Emily ducks (white layers - haven't had a duck egg before!!!)  and the larger ones are White Embdem geese (from Germany).  They are so soft and I love their bills....big nostrils!!
And finally....a pic of my little troublemaker :)  She thought she needed a little lotion!

Look mom - 2 hands

She didn't quite know if she liked it or not.....they were cute when they were sitting still, but once they moved,  their sharp little nails didn't feel so good on the hands :)
Cute little sleeping babies.....Do you see their feathers growing on their wings already!