Linda's Lunacy

Faith, Home, & Family

Saturday On The Farm

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Saturday on the Farm

It’s another rainy morning on the farm. It has rained quite a bit this summer. I don’t know the official rain total amounts, I just know it’s rained a lot. In spite of the fact that we’ve had a lot of rain, our creek has dried up.

In this picture, the creek is coming from ups stream on one side of the house. There is a pool of water that probably has 27,999,997 mosquitoes in it! lol

And here’s the creek in the goat pen. See the lighter grass? That’s the creek! The tall weeds on the other side of the fence in the back, is where the creek comes into the goat pen. The branches on the fence in the front of the picture, is where the creek leaves the goat pen. When there is actually water in the creek!

The goats didn’t care that I wanted to take pictures, they wanted to see what I had for them. lol

I thought I’d share a picture of the hills. Inside the fence is part of the goats pasture. I’m standing across the field. See the kids standing at the first fence? The other fence is on top of the hill, with the neighbors cows being on the other side. It’s funny to see the cows standing at the fence staring at the goats. lol

I’m standing at the bottom of the hill looking up at the kids. It’s really steep! If you look close, you can see the fence posts from the upper fence. I don’t know how the goats can run down this hill without tumbling down! But they do, at full speed!

Here’s one of the pepper plants in the garden. It has lots of peppers of all sizes on it.

I’ve posted pictures of our squash plants before. But look at them now! The pesky groundhog has destroyed them! He has flattened them out, as well as chewed on the stalks. He’s just too quick to catch! My husband knows where his hole is, I guess he’s going to have to lie in wait for the groundhog to come out. I have no problem sharing a little of the produce with the animals, but do they have to destroy the plants? grrrrrrr

I’ve never shared a picture of our whole raspberry patch.

And a picture from the front. Eventually, there will be raspberries the entire length of the fence, on both sides. Maybe then some of the raspberries will actually make it in the house! We tend to stand outside and eat them as they’re ripe. lol So delicious!

There are a lot of new blossoms and new raspberries coming now.

Now for the grape vine. This is looking from the house to the driveway. The walkway from the driveway to the house goes through the grapevines. It makes me smile every time I walk through. 🙂 At this time of year, though, we have a hard time keeping the vines in place. As soon as we put them back out of the walkway, new ones pop out.

There will be no grapes for us from the vines this year. Oh, we had grapes. But the birds ate them all! See? Here’s evidence that we had grapes.

I hope you enjoyed the little tour of the farm.  Now it’s your turn!
It’s time for the Saturday on the Farm Carnival!
To participate, just write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat.
In your post, include a link back to me. Then enter your link below.
It’s that easy! Hope to see your link below!

For more gardens, visit Weekend Warriors at It’s a Blog Party. and Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage and Oh, How My Garden Grows at Just Trying to Save Money.

Also visit Saturday Share at Kerri’s Klutter

Also visit Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Day Dreamer.

Saturday On The Farm

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Saturday on the Farm

This week I worked on preserving some of our harvest.  This is part of what my husband carried in the other night night.

This is one huge tomato! That’s my hand holding it, granted, I have small hands, but it’s a huge tomato!

Oh boy, was it ever delicious!

I blanched and froze the green beans I told you about last week.

I got 5 quart bags of the greasey beans.

I also worked on the yellow squash. I filled 3 dehydrator trays with the seedy parts of the squash. I do use these in soups in the winter, but I also re-hydrate and feed to the goats and chickens during the winter.

I blanched and froze the yellow squash, also.

I got 5 quart bags, and I still have a pile of yellow squash waiting to be processed.

Here’s the dehydrated squash still on the tray.

Three full trays dehydrated down to less than half a quart jar.

The other night, a neighbor brought us some “goose beans”. I had never heard of them before. He said you cook and eat them like green beans as long as the pods are green. When the start turning pink, you can’t eat the pod. Then you dry them, and  you cook and eat the dried bean, not the pod. We’re going to save some for seed, also, as our neighbor said you can’t buy goose beans anymore.
I cooked some of the green ones, and they taste like a green bean. They are much larger than a green bean, though.
I threaded the ones that were pink, or turning pink so they would dry.

I’ve always wanted to try this. I think the beans look so cool hanging there. Apparently, I am greatly amused by hanging beans. lol

I have a big bowl of green ones still, that I’m going to blanch & freeze. If I feel better, I might break out the pressure canner and can the beans, and the rest of the yellow squash.

I’m going to freeze the little onions whole. If I do break out the pressure canner, I might can them. Can you say creamed onions for Thanksgiving and Christmas? yum

I put the flower pictures in another post. It works better to split the pictures up, instead of one super long post.

Ok, it’s time for the Saturday on the Farm Carnival!

To participate, just write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat.

In your post, include a link back to me. Then enter your link below.

It’s that easy! Hope to see your link below!

For more gardens, visit Weekend Warriors at It’s a Blog Party. and Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage and Oh, How My Garden Grows at Just Trying to Save Money.

Also visit Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Day Dreamer.

Saturday On The Farm

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Saturday on the Farm

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a picture of the whole vegetable garden. I was standing in the road when I took this picture.You can see the two large yellow squash plants that are giving us lots of squash.

To the right of the squash plants there is a cantaloupe with 4 or 5 little melons on it. My son loves melon of any kind, and he’s already planning on eating these all himself. lol
To the left of the squash, you can see the two rows of green beans. We’ve gotten a big basketful so far. When these plants have finished, we’ll plant a fall crop of green beans.
It’s also almost time to plant lettuce, spinach and peas again, too.
We’ve also harvested several heads of cabbage, a few green bell peppers, a quite a few yellow squashes this week.
We didn’t get any tomatoes this week, but there are a lot of tomatoes on the vines.
My husband and son dug a hole to put in a water pump. Of course, we had heavy rains, and the whole promptly filled with water. So, if the water ever dries up, we’ll be getting a new pump near the garden and goat barn. It will be so much easier than dragging hoses over from the house.

In animal news, we’re not getting very many eggs at all. But with temps in the 90’s every day, it’s to be expected. We had some sad news this week, one of our goats died. It was one of the babies born earlier this year. It’s always sad when one of the animals dies. 

I put the flower pictures in another post. It works better to split the pictures up, instead of one super long post.

Ok, it’s time for the Saturday on the Farm Carnival!

To participate, just write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat.

In your post, include a link back to me. Then enter your link below.

It’s that easy! Hope to see your link below!

For more gardens, visit Weekend Warriors at It’s a Blog Party. and Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage and Oh, How My Garden Grows at Just Trying to Save Money.

Also visit Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Day Dreamer.

Saturday on the Farm

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Saturday on the Farm

Another hot week in Kentucky. Temps in the upper 90’s and a heat index above 100 a couple of days. We had heat advisories this week. I had 2 kids at horse camp this week.Thankfully their instructor watched them carefully and kept them hydrated.

I remembered to take pictures of the tomatoes before we ate them.

We harvested the first yellow squash of the year. We even got twins! We cooked the first ones over the fire, so good!

We also had ALL the goats escape this week. Here they are in the field where they are not supposed to be.

My son on a crutch trying to herd them back to their field. Yeah, they pretty much didn’t care. They were to busy eating. You know, the exact same grass that is in THEIR field! They also found the comfrey in the garden and had a nice snack.

My husband got a bucket of feed and they came running for that.

Finally, back inside! On the right hand side of this picture, you can see the metal post for the gate. It’s a chain link fence gate. See the latch?

This is the second time we have found the gate open, and the goats out. Now I’m wondering, are the goats opening the gate? I know it wasn’t the children. And I know it wasn’t someone wondering in off the street. See this dog?

He’s chained up outside the fence and barn. Someone would have to get through him to open the gate. AND the goats have to get by him to get out of the gate. He didn’t bark and let anyone know the goats were getting out. My son was in the driveway so he would have heard it. I had a nice little chat with the dog, Shadow, about letting the goats out and not telling anyone they were out.  Do you see his tongue sticking out? I think he was giving me a raspberry!

Interesting week with the animals, to say the least! lol

I put the flower pictures in another post. It works better to split the pictures up, instead of one super long post.

Ok, it’s time for the Saturday on the Farm Carnival!

To participate, just write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat.

In your post, include a link back to me. Then enter your link below.

It’s that easy! Hope to see your link below!

For more gardens, visit Weekend Warriors at It’s a Blog Party. and Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage and Oh, How My Garden Grows at Just Trying to Save Money.

Also visit Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Day Dreamer.

Saturday on the Farm

by

Saturday on the Farm

We had much better weather this week. Not as hot and no where near as humid. So we were able to get out and work in the garden some. And boy does it need it!

We’ve been enjoying eating sugar snap peas. The plants are about gone now. It will be time soon to plant another crop of them. I need to plant more this time, so some will actually make it into the freezer. We all love them, and can often be found standing in the garden eating them right off the vine.

We also enjoyed our first red, ripe tomato this week. I see a few others out there that are almost ready. I’ll try and remember to take a picture before we eat them this time. lol

The blackberries are getting ripe. If the kids pick enough, I’ll make cobbler and jelly. As well as freeze some for cobbler and pie in the winter.

The green beans are getting big. Soon we’ll be eating our full of them, as well as canning them.

And look at the pretty little summer squash that’s about ready to eat. If we get enough, I will also can the squash. I tried it for the first time last year. Their ok, but by the time I bring them to a boil for serving, they are too soggy. So I would like to try again, and see if I can improve. In the past, I’ve always frozen them, but since getting my pressure canner last year, I would like to can more stuff and leave the freezer space for other things. Like meat, and brownies. lol

I watching the goats on the hill. This is the hill right behind our house. The goats climb up and down like it’s nothing, but the top part, above the dirt there, is pretty steep. Us humans have a hard time. Well, the adults. lol The children can also climb up and down pretty easily.

Here’s the sign hanging on our barn.

lol I love that sign! The goats won’t attack, but they have been known to scare people by checking their (the peoples) pockets to see if they have anything to eat. lol

I put the flower pictures in another post. It works better to split the pictures up, instead of one super long post.

Ok, it’s time for the Saturday on the Farm Carnival!

To participate, just write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat.

In your post, include a link back to me. Then enter your link below.
It’s that easy! Hope to see your link below!


For more gardens, visit Weekend Warriors at It’s a Blog Party. and Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage and Oh, How My Garden Grows at Just Trying to Save Money.

Also visit Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Day Dreamer.

Saturday On The Farm

by

Saturday on the Farm

It has been so hot this week! In the 90’s everyday. And that’s not even counting the humidity! So, needless to say, we have not worked in the gardens this week like we should have. Everything is still progressing nicely, though.

Here are apples on the trees in our yard. My husband moved 5 trees from up on the hill down to our yard. Last year was the first time we have apples off them. Which we didn’t even get to eat! I don’t know what ate them, but they were gone! lol I’m thinking these will be good pie apples.

While out walking around taking pictures, I found these berries growing on a bush. Well, the berry vines had grown up the bush. I’m not sure if they are blackberries, or black raspberries. We have both in our yard, and I have a hard time telling them apart, until the berries are full grown. I’ll have to have my husband look at them and see what they are.

This is the comfrey we have growing for the animals. This is Comfrey Bocking 4, which is good for both the goats and chickens to eat, but not for people, according to the information I have. The animals eat it fresh, and we also dry it, and give it to them dry. My goal is to dry enough to make a dent in the amount of  hay we buy for winter feeding.

Ah, the front vegetable garden is full of weeds! But the green beans are growing very big, with lots of blossoms. There are two fences there, it’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but green beans are planted on both sides of the two fences

Green bean blossoms and buds. Can’t wait for fresh green beans!

This is the owl protecting our garden. He was an inflatable, but he has holes in him, so he is standing on a stake. Too bad he doesn’t guard our garden against weeds!

This is one of this years goat kids that we will be selling this summer.

This is Samson, our buck, standing on the hay trough in front of the barn, peeking around the corner to see what I’m doing. He doesn’t like to miss anything. lol

There is a yellow summer squash here, as well as a zucchini. The cardboard works great for controlling the weeds.

Here are the blossoms inside one of the squash plants.

I put the flower pictures in another post.


Ok, it’s time for the Saturday on the Farm Carnival!

To participate, just write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat.

In your post, include a link back to me. Then enter your link below.
It’s that easy! Hope to see your link below!

For more gardens, visit Weekend Warriors at It’s a Blog Party. and Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage

Saturday On The Farm

by

Saturday on the Farm

After last weeks Get Real Edition, I still haven’t finished the weeding. I really must rally the troops and get the weeding done.

Despite our not weeding, the plants are looking good.

The peas have a ton of blossoms on them.
These are the sugar snap peas, the kind where you eat the whole pod. So yummy and just about ready!
I’ve already eaten the first raspberry of our plants. There are a lot more coming. I would love to be able to freeze some raspberries, but we eat them as soon as they are ready. We are getting more plants every year that are coming up, so eventually, I hope to have enough to freeze for the winter and to sell.
I haven’t posted about the goats in a few weeks. The kids are getting big, and are just about ready to sell. My husband finally got the fence fixed so they don’t get out anymore to eat all my plants.
The first litter of kittens are also ready to leave their mothers and go to new homes. I can’t wait for that! lol

I put the flower pictures in another post.


Ok, it’s time for the Saturday on the Farm Carnival!

To participate, just write a post about your homestead, farm, farmette, or the tomato plant on your deck. Your cows, goats, chicken, or your favorite kitty cat.

In your post, include a link back to me. Then enter your link below.
It’s that easy! Hope to see your link below!

For more gardens, visit Weekend Warriors at It’s a Blog Party.

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