Saturday, July 23, 2011

WE ARE HERE!


Well, it has been a long haul, but we have made it to our dream farm.  We are moved in, but I think it will be quite a while before we are unpacked.  We have been very busy, but not too busy to check the classifieds and find ourselves some chickens!  Our new flock consists of 11 one month old production red layers, two Barnevelders, an Austrolorp and an Rhode Island Red rooster.  He is only 5 months old, so he is pretty tame so far.  The older four are now called Archie, Veronica, Betty and Midge.  Midge seems a bit crotchety.

The chickens have been a big hit with the kids, everyone loves going into the stalls and picking them up or feeding them.  The young pullets are still a little bit cute!
We are so lucky to have our great big barn, the stalls have been very handy for our bunny and the chickens.  We just had to reinforce with a bit of chicken wire and we were good to go.  Jamie is working on the fencing outside in anticipation of the horses coming here next week, I can't wait to have my girls home with us!  I haven't had my horses at my own place for 10 years now and I am really looking forward to it.
Yesterday I took the kids up the road to a farm that has U-pick strawberries and even though it was super hot, we got about 5 gallons of berries.  I will be making lots of jam, as soon as I figure out how to cook without a stove!  We ponied up the cash for a new fridge, but so far haven't found a stove.  And it is still so hot out that its hard to think about cooking.  Maybe I should just freeze them all and can some jam another day.
I will have plenty of fruit to store though, we have four apple trees, one cherry tree, two quince bushes, many raspberry canes , two highbush blueberry bushes and a monstrous rhubarb plant.  And I still have to get some veggies in!
Everyday I continue to be amazed that we live here.  I look around our property and the views of the ocean and our countryside and I know that we live in paradise!