Garden Plan 2013

Well last years plan was a big Bust! I had high hopes to run 2 gardens the first year at Lee's Reach and it just didn't happen. I did have good success with the "Food Plot" garden but not one thing cam up in my raised be garden. So this year I am abandoning the Food Plot Garden and focusing on the Raised Bed Garden. Sounds backwards I know. The reasoning is I can water the raised bed garden and I cant the other. Also it's mush closer to the house and therefor I can give it more attention. It took a four wheeler ride to get to the other garden. I purchased some composted soil the other day and loaded up the beds this weekend . I have also been composting all winter so I should be able to add more as the season progresses. Last year the only thing I did was till the soil and I never added and fill dirt or compost to the beds. Also I never planted anything until late June and it was super dry and hot. Here is the plan for this year.

(Click on the picture for a larger view)

I am hoping that less is more. Fewer plants but more produce. When the garden was so far away last year the critters were able to get to everything before I was. With this new set up I should be able to "Defend" it from the house and keep a closer eye on it. 

Now it's time to start some seeds.

New Chicks are Here

We got our order of spring chicks in yesterday. We ordered from McMurray Hatchery again. This time we got 10 Speckled Sussex Females and 2 Males, 10 Barred Rock Females and 2 Males and 5 Red Stars. Of course they included the free exotic chick which ended up being this feather footed Buff Cochin.

Here are the Speckled Sussex

The Barred Rocks

 And the Red Stars.

Unfortunately we did have one that was DOA and we lost one last night but I'm confident that the rest will be fine. We will be selling a few of these just to cover the cost of shipping. The minimum order is 30 and we just don't need that many right now. I guess I better get working on a larger coop.

Homemade Coffee Creamer

My husband and I have always been coffee drinkers, but now having a baby in the home it has definitely become a necessity. My husband enjoys his coffee black, but as for me I have to have something to put in mine so while I was on Pinterest recently I came across this simple recipe for French Vanilla Creamer and had to try it out. This is all you will need......

• 14 oz Sweetened Condensed Milk

• 14 oz Milk (any kind whole, low fat, or skim)

• 2 tsp Imitation Vanilla or Vanilla Extract

• A container to put it in

Now put all your ingredients in your container and 

shake....and shake some more.......

Viola!! Now not only do you have a delicious creamer, but you also know what's in it! I hope you enjoy!

Where did we go?

Have we been slacking on posting or what? Here is a quick recap on what's been going on.

We took a trip to West Virginia to visit our friends that used to live in Richmond. They went from living in the West End to what they now refer to as Possum Living. It's an interesting and admirable adventure they are on you can see at http://againstthegrainhomestead.blogspot.com/  . Hopefully they will be coming to visit us soon.

Our Babies are getting bigger. We have named the 2 new goats Betty(White) and Wilma(Brown). They are very sweet but Betty is more like her mom in that she is a little shy and Wilma although she looks exactly like Pebbles is completely different in her personality. She is very sweet.

We have placed an order for our spring chickens. They should be here mid February. We got more layers and a few Roosters to try and maintain our own stock and maybe even have a few chick to sell.

Our Bourbon Red Turkeys we got in the fall have gotten very big. We ended up losing 1 but the 4 that are remaining are doing great! We have 1 Gobbler and 3 hens so I am hoping for a productive spring!

Here is Bobby and his three ladies!

And our baby girl has her first Tooth! She is getting so big now. She is 7 months old and weighs in at 20 pounds.