Woo Hoo! It's Harvest Time in Georgia!

     Have you SEEN all of the crops that are now appearing in stores and farm markets all around Georgia these days?(See the widget at the top of my blog) Wow! It's been a pretty good spring, after we got over the late frosts...

     We've been extra busy with caring for the chicks and doeling these past few weeks. The chicks have been divided out into chicken tractors into our front yard (broilers in one, and layers in another). This has freed up my screenporch where they were initially in the brooder. Whew! My hope is to super clean in there and get it painted and decorated for human use, lol!

     As with just about everything we do, there has been a learning curve for us with getting this nubian doeling. Since she has no mother to protect her from the other older does, she can't be left in the pasture alone. So we have been grazing her after her bottle feeding. She follows us around while we do our morning chores. I have to watch that she doesn't nibble my eggplant or pepper plants though. I do let her nibble the blueberries, raspberry, and blackberry plants a little ; )  We do graze her inside the pasture with the others once a day also, and let her out into the barn when replacing her stall water and feed. They are getting used to eachother gradually, and "Bella" is growing. Soon she will not be able to get out of the fence! Unfortunately, it was fenced on two sides with 6" square which she can still shimmy out of : (

     There are a few pineapple pears on the tree, but we lost ALL of our regular pears this year. There's not ONE on the tree. I'm not sure exactly what happened, though I think it was that last frost. There were tons of blossoms like usual, even baby pears...

     Our watering got a bit easier since my Sweetie made 4 new stand sprinklers.Thankfully, it has rained some this week and we've enjoyed a reprieve from the watering chore!

     Next up on my "want to/must do" list, is to bathe both horses. This is a job that I actually enjoy and am trying to make time for. 

   

  Life is full and rich. 

Our New Doeling from South Carolina!

Introducing,....Bella  " )     Born April 13th, she's a registered Nubian. She is really sweet-natured. She has had loose stool, but things are firming up with  time and getting used to the routine and new home. Here she is enjoying being around us while we work in the garden planting more tomatoes. I believe one of the greatest stresses to her is being isolated, so we try to spend time with her walking around the property and inside the pasture with the other goats. She is too small to leave alone with them yet, so we are her "herd" for now...We are using a dogpen and moving it around to let her graze and be outside of her stall.

We are even busier around here with her and the chicks too!  (Tomorrow we plan to divide out the broiler chicks-they are twice as big as the layers!-into a chicken "tractor" to give everyone more room to grow.)

Here come the rest of the home crew to investigate...

Getting acquainted with her new home pasture...

Venturing Out into the Market...

Top  o' the morinin' to you from Uphill Farm!

It's a beauty out there today!  After what seems like endless rainy, grey days, sunshine and warmth return " )

I'm excited to report that we at Uphill Farm will be venturing out once again into the farm market arena.  A new, small medical center in our area has begun a "community engagement" program to call attention to their new facility and services (and to offer positive, productive opportunities for education, recreation, and interaction!)

They will be allowing local vendors with homemade/Georgia-made items to set up in an area of their parking lot each Tuesday afternoon from 4:30-

6:30. The space is first-come, first-served. There are no commitments and no fees to participate! When I contacted the Director, she was very excited and encouraging. The season goes from May-September, but we will have to begin late due to my daughter's involvement in dance classes on Tuesday nights which do not end until recital at the end of May...

Hopefully, our oldest daughter and daughter in law will also participate with us offering crafted and homemade items as well...I will keep you up to date on the happenings " )

This morning I am going to skim over the chores and run over to my folks house to visit with my only sibling, my older sister, for one last day before she returns to the North. Hopefully, she will be back to participate in our parents' 60th anniversary celebration in June.

Tomorrow hubby and I plan to jaunt over to South Carolina to purchase a registered Nubian doeling. There just AREN'T any around here, and we are hoping she will get along nicely with our new buck, "Jett", and kids will be forthcoming at some point. We may very well be the ONLY farm offering registered dairy goats for sale in a large area...

Well, I'm off to hug and kiss horses ; )

Have a great day!

  

Warmer Days on Uphill Farm

Busy since warmer weather! Even got to accompany hubby for his work to the beach!

Unwelcome Creatures on the beach! 

Man O' War

1-5" urchins

New Friends Made...

Cool Adirondack!

2 Kinds of chicks arrive. Red Rangers for meat, and Rhode Island Reds for eggs...

My mother's new herb garden " )

My sweet mare, Lady, jealous of my gelding eating grass outside paddock!...

We got my parents' house sold and have enjoyed birthday visits by extended family and our sweet grands. Life is rich  " )

When Frost Comes Late in Spring...  

Remember those beautiful little wisteria buds? 

 ...Or how about those first blueberry  blossoms?

Peaches?

     Yep. What happens often happened again here on Uphill Farm---Frost later in the Spring, after many plants have begun to bud out or tiny leaves have formed, or blossoms bloomed!  I was just saying to my husband the other day that we should probably concentrate on things that usually thrive here despite the frosts;  like the honey, goats, blueberries, and hopefully in future, fish. 

     Baby chicks are due to arrive around April 20th " )  Looking forward to that. It's time for me to do some fertilizing of the spring garden, and try to fit in grooming/bathing of the shedding horses soon too.  The past few days the girls and I have been helping my parents ready their home for sale, so it's been running back and forth. I'd like to do something out in the front of the house as far as flowers go...We'll see about doing something soon as I think we will be hosting Resurrection Sunday dinner here in a few days. Also, my oldest daughter's sweetie from Kentucky, my Aunt and Uncle from Illinois, and my sister from Ohio will be coming soon to visit. 

      

This has been the cats' favorite napping spot lately " )  Won't they get a surprise when the chicks arrive!

     

 

Take care until next time!

Spring Cleaning at Uphill Farm

Raking in raspberry bed

Raking up mulch from under pine tree to dump over an eroding area on edge if property

Fennel seems to really like their spot in front of house

Horses out in front yard enjoying green grazing

Friends and family stopped in for a visit. I finally made the pineapple/peppers & onion pizza that I've been craving!

Overall a good day :-)

First Trip Around the Pond for Grandaughter : )

Chillin' by the fire pit...Gotta use that one night soon!

Butchered the wether today...A sober job, but he had come to the end of his usefulness now that we have the new billy. He just wanted to bully him, and we kept the wether to keep the two does company until we added to our flock. Because he was castrated, he didn't have the strong smell of a billy. The process went smoothly. I helped my husband after he dispatched him. He HATES that part of raising animals : (

Did a lot more pruning of bushes etc. today. Now we have piles of  branches dotting the property! (Needing to get the 4-wheeler fixed to pull the lawn cart as this makes the pick up job a lot easier.)  

Now it's time for...

"Spring Tonic" salad and blueberry/cucumber-infused chia water...Won't you join me?

Scenes from Uphill Farm...

Peaches and apples budding and blooming---

Little violets peeping out here and there---

Spring kitchen garden planted? Check.

And now, I'm pooped!

(Poor Freckle, He works SO hard " )

Good frosty March morning!

Hope our little apple buds don't freeze! This is typical for our property, as we live on the west side of a hill which doesn't get the heat or the sun like flat land does. I would have taken some pictures of the frosted blueberry bushes this morning but I was in a hurry getting some of the horses' hay to put in the trailer for the billy goat we are headed up to purchase today.

We headed out early as we  had about a 3 hour drive 1 way to fetch the little fella.

...A sweet "moonspotted" Nubian " )

Our little goat family isn't sure about him yet, but they will get it sorted out before too long. We plan to offer him for stud service to folks desiring to breed their does to a registered dairy goat, and hopefully save up for some registered dairy does ourselves. He will breed with the 2 (unregistered) Nubian-mix does that we already have this year and see what quality kids they have and be able to milk the older doe at least. 

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Have a great, restful night and don't forget to "spring forward"!

Greeetings from Uphill Farm!

Here are some progress pics of the chick brooder that my hubby designed. We are going to keep it in the screen porch this time as we have the space there atm, and I have not managed to get it "spruced up" for people use yet---We have had a goat, a ferret, and a dog living in there consecutively over the last several years!

Dancing IS doing school, right? " )  Our youngest. She LOVES dance!

You can also barely make out the outline of my contribution to my "dream kitchen makeover"---I took a large black permanent marker and measured/drew the dimensions for the peninsula which would contain my relocated sink, and a dishwasher (That would be amazing as we don't have one installed right now. We have 2 used ones in the carport! Also, my claw foot tub is nowhere near my bathroom, as it is waiting patiently up the hill by the goat pen...)
     Our daily stretching and exercising is going well so far---NO days missed! I found a stepwise conditioning program on Pinterest (which begins at nearly ground zero, and progresses over 60 days. Looking ahead at what we will be expected to do by then, I think I will need to stretch the timetable a bit " ) By the way, if you like fitness, healthy meal prep/eating, home and garden, horses, etc., follow me on Pinterest!
     Well, better sign off for today. The unpruned berries, apples, and peaches are calling my name...

                                   Hi everyone!

     It's another beautiful spring afternoon in the south. My dear husband has roto-tilled two of my gardens so far. The one in this picture will be planted in salad greens and herbs. The soil looks and smells rich after months of kitchen compost being tossed there.

     (I tend to gravitate towards the easy way of doing things, and had read about doing that in one of my vintage gardening books. Now I am depositing it around the bases of our older blueberry bushes. I reuse the plastic containers that organic spinach comes in to collect our kitchen scraps, rotating several containers at a time :-)

The bulbs that I transferred from a too shady spot bloomed much better this third year---

I think they are triple blossoms!

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Getting ready for new chicks :-)  

We converted an industrial bin...(My Sweetheart is so clever). This time we'll try using the screenporch. I'll post progressive pics soon. Delivery is around 3rd week of March.

Bye for now

Good evening from Uphill Farm!

We've had a pretty good day although it was grey and cool and damp. I won't be complaining about the wetness however, because we have had several years of drought here and can use the rain :-)

You can see some of our young blueberry bushes there in the forefront of this picture. I spy little tufts of greenness beginning to peek through the brown grass now as I walk the property-A sign that soon the days will become sunny and warm. I had better make good use of these last few days to finish pruning stuff. We've got blue, black, and raspberries, peaches, apples, plum, and pears. I've already pruned the persimmons. 

The palm that I brought in for the winter has begun to bloom! I was so surprised! Unfortunately the first head of blossoms snapped at the stem because the pod would not open all the way. Then I discovered that there were several more blossoms forming.

I placed the blossom into sugar water hoping it would continue to bloom and develop--and it did seem to mature some, even putting off a unique fragrance :-)
Also, I'm happy to report that I started my day off healthier by drinking a large glass of warm lemon/cayenne water, and beginning a new stretch/exercise program with my daughter. We are also reading one of the Screwtape Letters together every morning. I have missed doing something with her for awhile, as our lives have been sort of discombobulated for a sec : 0
I'd better sign off for now. More to share about our meal planning and Spring cleaning coming soon!
*Peace Out *

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

Things have been crazy around here at Uphill Farm lately. But today we are going to pause and have heart shaped pancakes and turkey bacon with strawberries and whipped cream. (We have a daughter who is allergic to mammal meat thanks to a tick bite that she had gotten last year!)

My husband is busy working on some electric wiring for a camper - home site that we are building on our property. The girls are cleaning up from lunch and doing miscellaneous free time things. I am hoping to ride one of the horses in just a little bit.

I hope you each have someone special to spend this day with. Next week will be busy also as we will be babysitting my granddaughter for the week while my daughter in law attends to some medical issues in her family.

Happy Trails!