2017 Blogs |
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| March 9, 2017 | |
| With this new year we are planning to refocus our efforts over the Summer. We didn't manage to finish getting the greenhouse up before Winter however it will be our first priority once the weather is decent enough to work on it and the snow has melted enough for us to find a few missing pieces that we hadn't finished attaching to the frame before the snow piled up high. We will not be incubating or purchasing chickens this year. We can't really afford it and we need to refocus the time on infrastructure. The chicken coop needs a serious upgrade and nest box remodel. We also have to clean out and redo the brood house for Spring 2018. We need to build a small coop in the meat chicken pen so the great horned owl that plagued us the last two years will not be able to run off with our meat chickens in future years. We also have some fencing that needs to be fixed as a slim tree fell on part of it over the Winter. We also want to punch in more gardens. We want to grow about 80 to 90 percent of our own fruits and vegetables plus have enough to sell corn and such at the end of the season. We need to re prioritize to focus more on developing our garden areas and finding our strengths in crops. I would love to be able to open a small stand by our drive way and put up some simple signs to sell our chemical free produce. If we can make just a few thousand dollars off the farm it would help a lot. We will still be selling eggs from our laying hens but there is only so many eggs people will buy at a time. We want a more diverse offering of goods. Maple syrup season is upon us and we're hoping to refine our process a little more. Our syrup tasted incredible last year but it was a little runnier than I would have liked. We have a maple tree that has tons of seeds that drop off of it every year. We're hoping to take those free seeds and start some maples in part of the greenhouse to protect them for about 5 years before replanting along the South edge of the field. Any apple, apricot, cherry, pear, or crabapple trees that have survived the Winter will need to be replanted as well along that South edge. I want to go the extra mile and fence them to prevent deer, rabbits, and mice from eating my trees before they have a chance to truly take root and develop properly. A small layer of wood chips around their base will help with moisture and if I run an extra hose from my garden nearby I can spend more time watering them than I have been. Without having to feed and water almost 130 extra chickens this year it should free up some time to get these new gardens done and the trees replanted. I also have blueberry and cherry bushes to get planted if they all survived the Winter in their buckets. They were covered with leaves and it looks promising. I hope to get them planted and eventually fenced as well. I am so looking forward to trying the recipes for blueberry butter and blueberry jelly I have. We also have to save up for a new tiller. Not sure what we're planning for this Spring... we might have to borrow one or rent one in order to get our old gardens tilled. I do need to transplant all of my rhubarb as well. An old tree stump nearby decided to take over last year and no matter how much we cut it down it keeps coming back and invading my rhubarb. We plan to eventually inoculate it with some kind of mushroom for a later harvest...that will stop that tree! Anyhoo here's my update my lovelies and I apologize for the serious lack of updates. I plan on updating my recipe section as well since I have started using a new gluten free flour. I also have had people ask for videos of my recipes....we're hoping to do more videos this Spring, Summer, and Fall. With the kids running amok when I film I can't seem to keep them quiet long enough for me to film a decent one. I do want to get some video of the farm covered in snow and I have the battery currently charging for that. Well...I suppose...back to schoolwork with the kids. Bye my lovelies! |
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| April 26, 2017 Updates and Website Drama | |
So just a quick update if anyone can actually see this. My regular website is in need of renewal but weebly here still hasn't fixed glitches I have noticed so I will be working on moving my website to a new host....with that in mind I have to wait 30 days before my TillysTinyFamilyFarm.com link is available again for me to purchase through another hosting/domain server. So bare with me please. |
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| November 17, 2017 Greenhouse Update | |
| So the greenhouse is now done, it's certified, and we've received the grant money to pay off part of the loan and credit cards used to build it in the first place. I have to say it's been a long haul and I'm thankful for the friends and family who helped us get it together and fully assembled. Looking at it now I kind of wish I hadn't ordered roll up sides, but we will deal with that later. Hopefully there is a way to get them to not flap in the wind so much come Summer, but maybe we'll just roll em up eventually and keep them up. Only time will tell. Anyhoo here are the pictures showing the progression through this Summer and Fall. Yes that last picture has snow in it. Looks like we got it together just in time. | |
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My daughter decided to pose the day I took three of them. She's such a ham. I took more pictures of our chickens since we got Welsummers and more Easter Eggs, but alas my cord for the camera has decided to hide on me. I'll post with pictures and an update once I find it. For now tho my lovelies I bid you goodnight! |
December 27, 2017 IT'S ALIVE!!! |
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Website has gone live now that I have pried it from the hands of my former hoster. Updates are a little harder on here without a handy dandy autocoder from a freebie site, but at least I went to school for coding...even if it is a little out of date... yay internet! And books! LOVE BOOKS! And bacon....I love bacon...okay now I'm off topic. Anyhoo enjoy the new site tho it's mostly content I had on the other site. I'm adding blogs obviously and I want to update my recipes section now that I have this wonderful 1 to 1 Gluten Free baking flour. So feel free to check up with us and like us on Facebook. Goodnight my lovelies! |
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