Welcome to March!

When I think of March, I get a tingling hope of Spring. This past week has given us a glimpse of Spring with new life. Two of our does freshened, each with a healthy set of twins.

Mary cleaning one of her kids

Ruby cleaning one of her kids

 The first doe, Mary, one of my first two originals, freshened with a buck and doe. Ruby followed the next day with a beautiful set of twin does. Thankfully, I was able to be present for their births. Ruby did wonderful delivering her first doe, but the second one took her sweet time and then ended up being stuck in the wrong position. I had to reach in and rearrange her a bit so that she could make her grand entrance into the world. As nervous and impatient as I get around kidding season it also gives me feelings of joy, hope, wonder, amazement, and awe. I can't put into words how blessed I feel to witness these births and each time it is so special to me.

Mary and her kids

Ruby and her kids

I am eager to for Spring to get here, as we have decided to once again raise a small flock of chickens for eggs and this year will dabble in raising meat rabbits as well. Our garden last year produced so much that I had wished I knew how to can. This year my goal is to do some research and learn to can so I can save our harvest and lower our grocery bill. I am also very excited for the apple trees to fill once again. I found an awesome recipe for apple pie last year and it tasted especially divine using our very own apples. We also have a cherry tree, which I didn't take advantage of last year but I hope to figure out something to do with the cherries as well.


What are your plans for Spring? Leave me a comment and tell me all about it, plus I'd love some tips about raising rabbits!

Have a wonderful day dear followers!

 Well, I've got it. I've come down with the bug. The Gardening Bug has started to infect my home again this year. Without even realizing it, I've been online researching flowers, shrubs, and trees to plant up at the new house! New house? Yes, we are in the process of remodeling a Repossessed Modular. The idea of a new house was hatched while I was pregnant with Little Sister and we wanted to have something to move into by the time she was rolling over. Well, plans don't exactly go as planned and here we are in January 2013 and still not moved in. The modular was so low priced that we couldn't resist and building a new house from scratch was way too expensive. The "New house" has been a work in progress since September 2011. We had to wipe out a bunch of nice trees to get the thing up on the hill and now it is disgustingly bare around the house. It needs some color, it needs some landscaping, it needs SOMETHING! So, while infected with the bug, I will be searching for plants to beautify my new space!

If you have any suggestions for plants that will weather well on a sandy hill, please feel free to comment! I need all the help I can get!


Have a wonderful day dear followers!

So, I've decided to take on yet another responsibility. This summer I've decided to start a Vegetable Garden. Yes, I just said it. Luckily, I have a couple friends that are going to help me work the garden. In exchange for helping, they will get to take home veggies. Since more are picking from the garden, we have decided to expand the garden making it about 2 1/2 times the size I had initially planned, so we'll see how it goes!

I ordered some vegetable plants and seeds about a month ago while. Several seeds came in and on March 7th, my friend and I started carrots, cherry tomatoes, head lettuce, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas using a couple Jiffy Seed Starter Kits! It was super easy, which is good because I'm still learning about planting and gardening and such.

Jiffy Seed Starter Kit with my seeds planted!

March 9, 2012 Sugar Snap Peas peeking out of the soil!

I'm excited to try a vegetable garden but a little nervous that I might accidentally kill all the plants. So, send all your helpful garden tips my way because I will need them!

Have a great day dear followers!

What a beautiful day! It was in the 50s here, so the girls and I spent most of the day outdoors. I inspected our landscape to see what survived winter and what needed fixed. I am amazed that in FEBRUARY I have green shoots popping up everywhere! Has spring decided to come early this year?

Hopefully, we will be moving into our new home soon. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done in the new house, but its coming along slowly but surely. A friend of ours will be living in our current home after we move, but I want to make sure that she has little to no work that needs to be done to the yard or landscape after we are gone. 

So, since the weather was nice today I busted out my gloves and got to work cleaning up leaves and weeds around the house and the backyard. Once I got the leaves cleared decently, I was bummed to see absolutely no hostas under the tree in our front yard. Our neighbor had problems with the deer eating her hostas in her woods, but I had thought that ours survived. I'm hoping they are just hiding under the soil, waiting to pop up soon, but we'll see.  We've had several wind storms this winter so, I began working on picking up the branches and sticks that are scattered through the back yard. Big Sister was a little help, picking up sticks and placing them where I instructed. However, she is 2 and easily distracted, so most of her time she was spent poking the ground with sticks or drawing lines in the sand.

As I worked I became increasingly excited about working on the garden at our new house. I have already ordered vegetables for my raised planters, but am still trying to decide on what flowers to use in on the porch and around the house. I guess I probably shouldn't call it a porch, its just a large concrete pad that isn't attached to the house. We will be adding a deck around the house and connect it to the concrete pad, where the garden will be. This will be the first time I've attempted to keep an active garden going, our "porch" is mostly full sun, so if you have any tips or tricks PLEASE leave me a comment!

I hope you had as wonderful a day as I did dear followers,