Late spring excitement

Its late spring and the weather is cool. The moon is just rising over the farm.

The hunter is on the prowl for any lurking predator.

When out of nowhere the mommy hen let out a call. The babies ran for cover.

A local chicken hawk comes swooping in for a baby snack. Trying hard to catch one of the babies, they scurry around trying to escape when...
Sugar comes to the rescue, mouth open and hunger in her eyes. She trys to catch up to the chicken hawk, but alas the hawk escapes barely, fleeing from the certain jaws of death of a vigilant Sugar the guard dog.

Sorry no pictures of the hawk as it happened very fast and i didn't have the camera ready. But Sugar instantly identified the the target when i hollered to get it. She went straight for the hawk and not the chickens.
Today she gets a big atagirl.  :)

This dramatisation brought to you by life on the farm, happens regular. Ain't life grand

Just Things

Well the new year is here and some things are happening on the farm.

First theres a new hot spot so I can get faster internet access. Woohoo! I have a virgin mobile hot spot and it seems to be working good. It's not blazing but it's better then dialup by 25 times or so. I can do upgrades and all.

The bees have had a hard winter. 1 hive is gone, I was worried about it all thru the fall, as it was struggling and then last week I checked it and no bees. This happens but it's annoying. The other hives are doing well so maybe there will be a nice bucket of honey this spring.

I've also decided to reconfigure the farm. The dirt farming with organic principles is not working. So, i will convert the fields to grapes vines and some fruit trees, and add a green house when I can. I will put in some raised beds to contain the soil and so bypass the loss of nutrients the I struggle with now in the sand.

All big stuff but I need to adapt to the realities of farming in the sand.

Buuzzzz about the farm

The bee hive arrived today, how very exciting. They were a little irritated when they arrived and were untaped, yes, the openings were duck taped shut for transit, and upon release they were buzzing about.As you can see they have settled down some and were out looking for food already. I added some clay under the hive because this area is a little wet when we get a lot of rain.
And not to be upstaged, big mommie had the babies out most of the day. Here if you look in the brush on the right you can see some of the chicklets napping while mommie looks for food.

All in all a very exciting day. Woo Hoo

everything new

OK big update today and some of the pics may be hard to see but I will explain whats in them. This one is the melon patch, you can see the melons on the left, there's also some potato's and okra in there. The okra is just now coming up.

This is the corn patch, I will soon plant some beans in with the corn to help provide nitrogen.

This is the potato and cabbage patch. The potato's are just breaking the ground on the right so you cant see em. The stuff in the middle is cabbage and broccoli and on the left is onions and carrots.

And last but not least is the amazing mommie. When everyone else wanted nothing to do with the Babbie's, she stepped in and said. I can watch em all! So, she's not the mommie of 23 Babbie's and very proud of it also. Amazing!

Fresh dirt

I broke down and ordered some composted manure and hay. After adding it I also tryed adding some clay to the one small field to see if it helps hold the nutrients in place. These are small fields, 20 by 45 each, 6 all total so I can rotate crops easier.

I also finished the nursery enough to place 2 hens in it. they are happily sitting and waiting for the great hatch day. Woohoo more chickens!

New Garden area

Well, this doesn't look like much, it used to be trees and palmettos, but thanks to my brotherinlaw's help it is now dirt. It will take a few weeks to get the rest of the junk cleaned up but this project will increase the garden by 200% making it possible to rotate crops and put more in at a time. something that will help with the selling.

My sister also helped by providing second lunch. It was fresh made shortcake still warm from the oven and some strawberries from the farmers market. yum yum

Now all I have to do is fertilize, plant, water,fertilize again, water water,fertilize again, water, water, harvest, harvest, harvest. O this is fun!