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