Saturday, July 31, 2010

A Bigger Backyard

We've had a few people ask why we aren't adding new items to the blog. We are so excited to have expanded our "backyard", so we're trying to get that in order. We bought 16 acres of land, and a house, in the country. There are many differences to having a hobby farm in the city versus the country. Some we were aware of; some are a surprise. Kevin is working tons of forced overtime, so our process is very slow right now.

Let me share with you the blessings of God for our family - this land has some cleared areas and some raw beautiful Big Thicket woods - all fenced, established (though horribly grown-up with weeds) garden plots, old fruit & nut trees (again, out of control and not managed), a small pond, and a timber exemption (meaning super cheap taxes). We are so excited, yet overwhelemed due to the fact that the land was not managed properly. We have cleaned up the garden area enough to plant the end of season okra and fall tomatoes and are now working on an area for the chickens to provide them with a safe area for open foraging all day. I will post a photo when we're done.

We harvested some pears yesterday so I will post a couple of pear recipes that are good.

We also added guineas and Muscovy ducks to our homestead. Both of these do great with bug management and the guineas are an alert system. I'll post of photos of them soon.

The bees are doing good and if I could read their minds (if they had one), I would say they are enjoying the natural water source and nectar sources. One hive got ants in it, which is a new problem for us. If you have any solutions for that, let us know.

As soon as we get settled in, I'll add new posts and pics. We are so grateful to God for being able to buy this property.

1 comment:

  1. Okay, now... I'm looking for a new post. I mean, it's not like you're busy or anything. What could you possibly have to do out in the country?? lol.

    Love you guys.

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