Natural Grass Mower

There are a hundred and one things to do today and the only thing I did was sit in the middle of my yard, surround by the goats, enjoying the warm breeze. I held the new baby kitten as Meow ( our daughter's cat) sat by my feet. All I could hear in my head was," with two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard, Now everything is easy cause of you and our..." Oh how I love Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. I have never been more at ease.

We invested in a portable electric fence for the front yard. We staked off an area with some shade and left the three older goats go to town on the high grass. The goats seemed to enjoy the change of scenery and liked grazing on the tall grass. If we move the fence around we might never have to use the mower again.

Also, the weather finally worked with us and we were able to do our May Pole dance and spring celebration.

Plus - Our local FFA (Future Farmers of America) and the 4-H had an auction to benefit the two programs last night. We enjoy going to help out the organizations and to score a couple of good deals. We ended up getting a rain water barrel. We have an open top barrel, but this one has a spigot and a leaf screen on top. Just the right thing to collect rain water to water the giant pumpkins. We also picked up a bag of feed for the animals, a garden hoe, and a great cow hide looking lamp shade.

Pumpkin Patch tilled under

Finally we had nice enough weather to disk the field under. The field had not been plowed in over a decade so the turf was hard to turn over. Mike ended up driving the tractor for the first time.
They ended up finding an attachment to dig rows so that the black plastic mulch can be laid down and then the dirt be pushed back onto it. Once that is done we intend on punching holes in the plastic to plant the seedlings.

The Savvy Photographer is having a give-a-way

Again not farm related but the weather has been so frightful that I have been working on my images lately and wanted to share this with everyone too.

Hey photographers and digital scrappers, Savvy is giving away the Beach House Collection Templates to a lucky winner! To enter just spread the word about Savvy and then post your comments to their blog. http://thesavvyphotographer.blogspot.com/

Textures by nicholeV photography plus patch progress

I took this picture during the day of rock removal from the pumpkin patch. We placed the baby on the the trash can for safe keeping as the skid loader moved rocks from the soon to be planted area.

I thought it was an interesting scene as the storm rolled in on us. The sky was dark and in the place she was sitting there was no background except for sky.

I used a texture from nicholeV photography on this image. I added a border that I did over top. I really love this image, with my baby and her pink cowboy boots.

Interested in textures check out nicholeV photography - www.nicholeV.com

I love nicholeV photography

I know this is not a farm topic, but still a big part of my life is my photography and I just wanted to profess my love of nicholeV photography and the super awesome textures and actions offered on the website. I fell in love with textures last fall and I can't get enough of them. I think that textures makes the pictures have an old time feel.

This is site is an inspiration to me and the images are fantastic. Check it out!! www.nicholeV.com

Homemade Lemonade & Chive Oil

Yesterday I spent the evening making fresh lemonade. I used 4 lemons, 5 cups of water, 1/2 cup of sugar, fresh lemon balm leaves and mint leaves. First I washed the lemons and peeled the zest off of one lemon. I placed 3 cups of water in a pot to boil and added the zest. Once the water was boiling I added the sugar and stirred. While the sugar water was boiling I cut and squeezed the lemons by hand, which is great for nails and cuticles. I ended up with a cup of lemon juice.
Once the sugar had dissolved, I removed the water from the heat and lightly bruised the lemon balm and mint leaves and placed them in the hot sugar water. I left that to cool while I worked on other projects. Once the mixture had cooled I added the lemon juice and the additional 2 cups of water.We like ours a little less tart than others, so add the lemon juice first, stir and taste, add then additional water if desired.
Pour the lemonade into a pitcher and place in the refrigerator until chilled. Strain to serve and enjoy.

That was one project using the fresh herbs that are growing in the garden. The other project was a chive oil.

This recipe was passed along from another herb freak!! To make the chive oil, I cut a large bunch of chives, about 2 oz. I placed them in a pot of water and brought it to a boil. I removed the pot when the chives were bright green. Then in the blender I added the chives and a cup of olive oil, blend and let sit. I let the mixture sit for about an hour, then I strained it. Done.

I used the chive oil to top a tomato dish.
Cut tomatoes into slices, lay out on a plate, sprinkle with fresh oregano and chopped garlic. Then add a thin slice of mozzarella to each tomato slice. Then drizzle with the chive oil. This dish can be served cold or it can be broiled until the mozzarella melts to make a tasty hot appetizer.

We are enjoying the fresh herbs and increased the herb garden by adding horehound, peppermint, pineapple sage, catnip, arnica, angelica, lavendar and tansy.

Here's Johnny! New Goat on the farm!!

Well, the weekend began with a Friday night of fleece sorting in preparation of our trip to MD Sheep and Wool Festival in West Friendship, MD. We ended up with a total of 35 pounds of fleece to take to have processed. There will be a nice 50/50 Mohair/Wool blend, a nice black and a soft fluffy white wool. I use a guy out of New York to get the fleeces done and he sets up at the show, it's a great way to save on shipping.

Early on Saturday morning we woke up to the roosters alarming like crazy. There was a fox in the hen house. Since we just hatched 8 chicks last week the chickens were going insane over this. Mike chased off the fox, and we all were up and ready to go early Saturday.

At the MD Sheep and Wool Festival we purchased a beautiful little cashmere goat. He is chocolate brown and such a sweetie. We are super excited and he has been welcomed into the barn.