2018 Blogs

So it's been entertaining this Winter. I say that sarcastically in some instances. Someone managed to syphon fuel out of two of the vehicles here leaving us practically stranded until the hubbie could get the gas can filled. Some of our gas cans have disappeared. My uncle that lives next door has a missing, brand new chainsaw missing. I'm seeing a pattern. This pattern usually happens in the Summer when a certain person is 'visiting' his mother. Tho usually its the gas in the tractor. The magnetic block heater for the tractor got taken this Summer. Yay.... stuff to replace.

At least the greenhouse is done. I've been planning on dividing it into fourths ground wise so I can do rotation planting between the four sections. My big tomatoes will move to one quarter of the greenhouse to give them a longer warm season. Our sweet corn seed from Baker Creek will go in another quarter since we need to plant and harvest a year before we have enough of the good seed to plant larger spans. I have peanuts to try for planting in my mixed quarter. Peas and beans will go in the last quarter. Anything else mixes in with wherever I can fit them. I don't have a lot of peanuts to plant so brassicas will probably go with them. I'm looking forward to multiple plantings of peas and beans without the deer and rabbits eating them all. I only got to freeze 4 sandwich bags of beans last year.

Going to build an actual rabbit house for the meat rabbits. They are sheltered for the Winter, but once we expand on our mama rabbits we'll need a lot more room. One of our future mamas hops out of the cage and cuddles the hubbie's boots before jumping back into the cage after he fills her water. She is adorable. Her name is Molly. We have one other female right now named Chippy (My youngest named it and it looks like a chipmunk/squirrel with rabbit ears). Our only male right now is fluffy and gray....so Thumper. He likes cuddling me. We can't seem to find the cord for our camera so no pics, but when we locate it I have chicken and rabbit pics for the Fall 2017 as well.

Right now we're just trying to outlast this cold. Sometimes the tahoe wouldn't start, but hubbie fixed that problem (battery). I'm hoping to pick up some extra days at work since the end of semester is winding down and the kiddos don't have as much lessons for me to supervise. Well, I think thats it for now. So toodles my lovelies!

So starting February 20, 2018 Youtube will be making changes to it's monetization of it's videos. Unfortunately I no longer qualify and the little money I have made is now stuck in limbo until I achieve 1,000 subscribers. Thankfully I already have people watching 4,000 hours of my videos within a year, but I only have 22 subscribers. 22..... out of 1,000. If anyone is feeling generous please click on the youtube link at the top of my blog page to go to Tilly's Tiny Family Farm and subscribe. It takes a lot of views to make any money at all and I was hoping to at least make enough to fund this website. Unfortunately I have yet to hit the $100 minimum cashout at all and I finally got my account 'verified' only to run into this hurdle. I kindly thank any of my lovelies who add me. I hope to be able to post more this Summer video wise as the greenhouse is done and I have a few peeps who like my monthly updates....if I can remember to post them with everything else we're getting done. I apologize for those update videos sound....wind is loud in one. I have no video editing software that actually works so I'm open to suggestions if anyone wants to leave some on my facebook page. On another note I can't seem to respond to comments on my videos... so the hubbie goes on his account to answer any questions on the video links themselves. Thanks my lovelies!

So Topleft is Sully to complete our Sully and Mulder set. Topright is Inara and Left is Mal, as in Inara and Mal from Firefly. We love our sci-fi!

So bunnies bunnies everywhere! Well soon anyhow......

Got a few big snowstorms so all of our wood is covered at the moment. It started melting as well so hopefully soon we can build more cages. Think I want bigger cages for the bucks as well. They seem happier in bigger cages.

Transplanting starts soon at my mom's garden center next door. Falls the same week as my kids have state testing for school so we'll see how this goes.

On top of all of this, my father in law passed away this weekend. My hubbie and his brother have been ironing out all the details and all that entails. The kids are pretty sad about it too. Thankfully kids bounce back quick.

That's all I have for you all my lovelies. Springtime is here tho so we'll be sure to add more as we go. Bye peeps!

Sooooo busy few days ahead. Doing a lot of baking and dessert making for the after service lunch?....dinner? of my father in law's funeral. I'm making the gluten free goodies. So far I have Dreamsicle Fudge (AWESOME Stuff!), Chocolate cakes, and banana breads. Tomorrow is cookies. My feet definitely hurt after running around all day.

Then there was taking care of the chickens, who got an oatmeal raisin treat. They LOVE their chicken treats.

I just can't get enough of these baby goats. My mom has two more ladies that could give birth anytime. Sally and Ivy. Sally looks like she might have three or four babies. She is awful big!

My throat has been bothering me the last couple days. Hope I'm not getting sick. It's Springtime so there is so much to get started on and I have a bit of cabin fever. I need to make cookies today and another loaf of banana bread. Kids begged to get into one of the other ones and the puppy dog eyes won out. Just feels like I can't get enough water and my allergies are flaring. Maybe I just need to start on my teas and allergy meds again. I don't want this to flare up my asthma more than it has to.

I took a ton of video and pictures yesterday so I saved some for today. I hope I remember to bring a carrot out to the rabbits. That makes for an adorable show. Plus Mulder was giving dad the cold shoulder when he didn't bring a treat. I actually got video of that. We're trying to find Thumper a home. He's the fluffy gray one. I keep wanting to hold him and say 'He's so fluffy I'm gonna die!' just like in Despicable Me. He's not really the type of rabbit you want when you're trying to breed meat rabbits. He was free so it was okay at the time, but I think he'd be happier in a 4H home or as a pet. No bites on his craig's list post yet tho. Not sure what the husband posted for him.

Slept horribly last night and it's still early morning....I got up to get the hubbie up. State Testing for two of the kiddos today. I might very well go back to try and get some sleep tho. I feel achy and I don't want to get sick. It's a bad time. Then again it's always a bad time to get sick. I will definitely try to stay hydrated tho.

Anyhoo... off I go my lovelies, bye peeps!

My father in law said he always wanted a simple funeral. No viewing, no casket. Just cremate him, say a few words, and spread his ashes over the old family farm near Malmo, Minnesota. I think I did more baking for the after service meal than John would've expected me to. I find that some funerals can be a lovely time to catch up with family and remember good times long gone.

I have been at the kinds of funerals that last three hours and spout smoke everywhere, which is terrible for my asthma, and find that most of the details had been prepaid by someone with deeper pockets. I have nothing against fancy funerals or long services.

People believe different things. What I don't appreciate is when everyone tries to force their beliefs and practices on others. When I'm gone, I want to be cremated and buried under a fruit tree. I won't take up space in a cemetery that eventually no one will visit and I'll be useful for a tree. Win win. My husband is of the same mentality. I just hope when we go that our children or other half are not pushed into something they do not want. Why should my child pay an extra $2,000 for something that I didn't want? I understand the funerals are more for the family in some cases, but why should someone go into debt just because a couple people in the family are uncomfortable with you excluding something. They want to pay? Maybe I'll consider it, but I am by no means a rich person. I don't have much debt, I don't need to make a lot of money. Why work forty hours a week and spend my free time tired when I can spend it teaching my kids life lessons and growing my own food? My kids learn to budget, to save, to not buy everything you want. Do I really need a second television if we barely use the one we have? Nope. So the simple life is where we find our niche, our happiness. What's better than eating fresh sweet corn or petting little bunnies? Witnessing the miracle of life as eggs hatch into chicks and watching small goats grow big? My children know where their food comes from and that naming a chicken doesn't mean it saves them from the food table.

I have to say I've never been to a funeral where there is ongoing commentary from the audience. The jovial, loving, and humorous atmosphere was something I hadn't experienced in such a large way... at a funeral. My husband gave a small speech sharing fond memories and quoting a couple scriptures his father loved. He talked a bit and then his aunt read a letter she'd written to her departed brother. Then his uncle told some hilarious stories from their youth, swearing it'd be a short story. Don't ever trust a Rowland to give you a short story. He had a few hilarious memories and experiences. Another aunt got up and tried to speak, but the poor dear was too teared up to get far. His brother got up to say a few words. The main message that was shared was this: This family is precious and loved.

We're thankful to reconnect with our loved ones. Most of all today was about remembering my father in law. Journeyman steamfitter, certified electrician, master marine tech, engineer extraordinaire, family man, loyal friend, and just all around great guy. A jack of all trades and master of few.

We'll miss you John.

Last Fall we got the high tunnel greenhouse up just in time for the snow to fall that night. It is a 72 foot by 30 foot gothic style equaling 2160 square feet of growing space. We signed up as part of the USDA NRCS grant program. They grant us so much money per square foot to a max of 2180 square feet or $6000. We then report what we grow and harvest along with what we use as fertilizers or chemicals over 5 years. We do not use chemicals and we only use manure as fertilizer so that's always easy. We're excited since this is the first time we get to plant IN the greenhouse. We had to plant in the area we used for two years prior so the soil is already nice and rich in nutrients. Plus there is a healthy helping of rabbit poop everywhere.

It's that time of year! The yellow swallowtail butterflies are hatching left and right. They love to go in my mom's greenhouse and make their pupa under her tables. Unfortunately once it hatches, it's stuck in the greenhouse. Not all of them find their way out on their own. So some days while I'm stocking flowers... I'm also gently catching butterflies, dragonflies, and redirecting hummingbirds out into the cooler air.

This one didn't want to leave my mom's hand.

Out of the 28 peanuts I planted, I had 1 plant that made it. Guaranteed... I didn't get to weed that section as often as I'd have liked. I had 4 plants growing, but this one is the only harvestable one. Not much on there.

So I'm calling this one a fail, but what is a failure but a learning experience. Next year I'll plant them again, but with having a headway on bales I should see an improvement with the crops. I use sheaves of them for the pathways. Makes for a lot let weeds and maintenance. As a bonus, I get newts and more worms. Less aphids.

I find that balancing everything in our lives, especially during Fall, can be a hectic thing to try much less succeed at. We have three children who do online public school (I'm their 'Learning Coach'), a hobby farm (with meat rabbits and lots of chickens), and my hubbie and I work. He bids on IT jobs like credit card machine installations, register installs, security camera installs, and... well.. you get the idea. He may not have regular work, but he also does snowplowing and lawn care for their respective season. I work my two weekend days to keep a regular income while helping the children learn during the week.

People say I need more 'ME' time. What's 'ME' time? It's like they're speaking a foreign language I am not familiar with. I spend quality time with my children during the week. I know what they're learning. What they're struggling with. What I need to help them learn. We paint together for art class, look up famous people from history (since two pages of info is never enough for my history interested children), and play outside looking for sticks, rocks, and soil in the name of science. They love to rake the leaves simply to jump in them before I take them off to the compost pile. I love to chase after them just to listen to that high pitched squeal/giggle that is addicting to listen to. Who needs this 'ME' time they speak of.

Instead of buying a new part, my hubbie goes to the salvage yard when he can. He can fix everything from the tractor and it's equipment to the computer I have somehow got infected again. It's become a line around here... 'Honey I broke it...can you fix it?' and he'll look at me with that knowing smirk while he shakes his head. He may not say it...but he can and he will no matter how frustrated I make him by asking the same questions over and over again WHILE he's fixing it. I am a bit forgetful at times...but who these days aren't when they have three small demons...er....children of joy running around? Who needs this 'ME' time when I can spend it with my hubbie talking about tractor parts I'll never remember and what the cats...er...I mean bunnies did that day when he went to feed them?

Our Spring, Summer, and Fall may be filled with garden work, structure building, fence mending, and harvesting... but my children know they are loved and their work appreciated. Winter is filled with learning and more time together baking. My youngest loves to help me in the garden to get his mommy time, my oldest loves to count the pumpkins when we harvest them, and my middle child loves helping when it comes time for flowers and other 'pretties'. I may not have much 'ME' time... but I wouldn't trade the time I've been having with my family for anything.