what spring brings

 Yay!!! Spring is finally showing up, and with that it brings so much to our farm.  Fixing fence is one of the things on the list that needs to get done before the large animals can be let out on pasture.  The storms we had caused some branches to come down and unfortunately a branch landed on our fence in the back pasture that needed to be repaired.  I actually like helping putting up fence and fixing fence, it gets me outside.

We make paddocks for the cows as we do rotational grazing for our cows, and when we do that, those cows seem to know that they are going to be let out of the corral.  We don't keep them there all winter only when spring gets closer as they will tear up the pasture so bad that the pastures will be pretty much ruined.

They kept their eyes on us the whole time we were putting up the electric fence that we use to make the paddocks.

Calves are new to the electric fence, and this calf whose name is Violet has to learn that the fence is not her friend.  Violet got out and it took her a bit to figure out that all the big cows did not follow her. (LOL)  We only name the cows we plan to keep.

Trees are finally leafing out, and our grapevines are looking good this year.

We purchased a greenhouse and I was so excited to get started with the plants we like to grow.  The black barrel is filled with water to keep the greenhouse warm at night when the temps dip low.  I also use the water to water the plants.

Life is going good; Jim has been slowly feeling better finally getting his strength back not 100% but almost there.  Treatments seem to be working and we feel so blessed.

some flooding

I could have posted about a dozen photos of the flooding we had about 10 days ago but decided on only two ;)

We are still having rain here; our grass is turning so green and I should get out to mow but the ground is so wet and saturated.   

Hubby did get out one day to plow the garden and plant a row of leeks, but the ground was just way too wet to plant anything other than the leeks.

Since my husband's diagnosis we have really changed our diet, cutting out sugar and processed white flour.  We have ground our own flour for years, but fresh ground flour is hard to use.  We found a company Sunrise Four Mill that is housed in Minnesota, and we bought a few bags of flour to try and I absolutely love it.  This is my plug for this wonderful flour, and I was not asked to do this LOL. :)  It is a bit spendy but so worth it, and my sourdough starter worked wonderfully with the wheat flour.

How is it in your area? Are you having a lot of rain?

dried grapes

Walking through the yard the other day and passing the grape vines, I stopped to look at the grapes that were still on the vines all dried up and half eaten by the birds  I was thinking about how nice it will be to see grapes growing on these vines again.

This time of year I get antsy for the grass to turn green again and the trees to get new buds growing. Sugaring for us is coming to a close, we probably will boil one more time and call it good, another syrup season done and in the books.  We have kept a record of every syrup season and this season by far has yielded the least amount of syrup bottled, but we are happy with what we did get and should have enough for us until next sugaring season comes. 

life on the homestead

Everything is green here and we still need to get a few more seeds in the ground, but it has been raining here and the ground is pretty wet to till it up.

Our barn cat had a litter of kittens, they are just adorable.

Another storm came the other day and rained for two days; we got a total of 4.5 inches.

We planted spinach last fall and had been able to pick it most of the winter and early spring.  It's starting to bolt now but we are still managing to get a good amount from our picking.  My husband and I love a good spinach salad and with a homemade dressing it's delicious.

 

Jim plowed and area to plant corn.  The corn we have grown is for feed to feed our animals in the winter when we have to supplement their food.  Here the chickens decided to follow Jim when he was plowing the field.

Life here on the homestead has been busy and will continue to be busy all the way till the fall after all the harvesting and canning is done.

life and death

We've had a sad week, we have lost 2 friends, one an 85 year old lady who was a person so full of life.  The small church was filled from corner to corner with people who wanted to say their last goodbyes to such a wonderful woman who was loved by all.  We've only known her since moving here but she took us under her wing and added us to her long list of folks who considered her not only a friend but family.

After getting back from the funeral I got a text that a very dear friend lost her oldest sister.  Two blows in one day.  Also gone is a beautiful lady who was taken way too young and whom everyone loved, and she loved them, family was everything to her and we were honored to be included among them.

They both are no longer in pain and have gone on to their heavenly home.

Looking out my window I see new life after death.  The peach, cherry and apple trees are in full bloom and the cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen to be enjoyed soon.

Peach Blossom

Cherry Blossom

Apple Blossom

Cherry Tomato

Most people don't like to talk about death, and I didn't always either, but it is life and I have tried to look for life after death and when I do that my heart heals from the sadness that comes when a dear loved one passes.

checking out the plants

I repotted all the plants I got from the local nursery, and they are looking really good.  I didn't go overboard with plants as I do have quite a few canned tomatoes and peppers from last year.  I wish you could buy plants individually instead of in a 4-cell pack, oh well sometimes one or two will die for whatever reason.  I put the seedlings in a cold frame since I don't have a greenhouse...yet.

When we moved here back in 2010 these rhubarb plants were here but have never been great producers.  I could occasionally make a pie but that would be about it.  Since adding animals to our homestead here we have an abundance of manure to finally put in our gardens. 

These rhubarb plants I started from seed a couple of springs ago and they are finally taking off, but upon inspecting them we noticed something has been eating the leaves.

The garlic is growing wonderfully, and I can't wait to be able to harvest it this summer.  I have soft neck and hard neck garlic and I prefer the hard neck, so I think I'll not plant any soft neck this fall.

My cousin moved to Arizona from Illinois and before she moved, she came out and gave me some plants from her home.  This forsythia bush was one of the many plants she brought out and for the first time in 6 years the forsythia bushes are blooming, a bit sparse but they are blooming.  We put them on the edge of our woods which she thought was a good spot.  My cousin has a green thumb and I mean green.  Our grandmother had one and I believe she got it from her.  I on the other hand have half a green thumb, and that's okay.

It's a bit cooler as I write this post, but we are supposed to be getting temps into the 60° range and I can't wait.

spring has started to appear

A plant we bought from the nursery was a cherry tomato hanging plant.  We are so excited to try these little bitty tomatoes that grow in a hanging pot.  I'm sure others have seen these before, but we haven't and look forward to having tomatoes earlier than normal.  My chives and thyme are looking really good, and I need to clean out the containers they are in.

I forgot to post this photo in the last post.  We have a lot of rock formations like this here in Southwest Wisconsin and I never tire of seeing them all.

It rained again yesterday but not too long; though we did get about 1/4 inch, we definitely need the moisture in our ground here and will take whatever rain that comes our way.