Sept 13, 2023

We hope everyone has started back to school successfully! Jamey, and our granddaughter had a great first week! I’m trying to find my rhythm again with him being gone all day again. When summer break comes it’s quite the adjustment from him being gone all day to having him home full time. Then I have to completely readjust when he goes back to school in the fall. That, along with days becoming shorter and feeling the push of winter coming on, is always tough.

There feels like so much to do. My lists always grow long. Are you a list maker too?? I feel like I always have 3 or 4 lists going at the same time. I have my must do list, want to do list, our goal list for the year (a lot of that we’ve been able to check off so far!) and then the other nagging weekly things that need to get done like groceries, going to the feed mill or just getting some papers organized. There’s also that “want to do if I ever find the time” list, like get a massage or get a haircut haha! That list usually gets shoved to the back of the pile somehow. I did get that haircut last week though, my first since December somehow!

This past week has seen the chicken coop get a full clean out and pressure wash and I started working on tilling up next years garden area. We’ll be closing up the farm stand mid-October but we have had a decent first year. Maybe not as great as I had dreamed about but it was our first year, my garden didn’t produce as much as I’d hoped and we probably weren’t as visible as we could have been. It does though, give me good hope for next year. We will be doing it again! I’m also still making goat milk soap and lotion, which makes great holiday gifts by the way!!! 😉

Sept 3, 2023

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!!

If you are like us you are rushing to finish up all your summertime projects and cram a whole lot of everything into the last official weekend of “summer”. Hubby heads back to work at his real job as a school resource officer on Tuesday and students will be in his building on Wednesday. Our granddaughter starts 1st grade on Wednesday as well. Its been a flurry of activity around here trying to get a bunch of things done that I NEED his help with before he’s back at the weekday grind and not home all day to help with the homestead anymore. Plus winter prep is well underway as well. Winter is Upstate New York can be unpredictable. The last few years we’ve had well below average snow fall but you never know when Mother Nature might decide to give us a wallop of a winter. Its always better to be over prepared than under.

I’ve been canning. I put away 20 quarts and 7 pints of tomato sauce. I’m anxiously awaiting apple season, which is just starting and I’ll be busy doing applesauce and apple pies and all kinds of other apple goodies. Be sure to check out some great apple recipes over on my “Yum” tab. Fritters are the most favorite around here with pie coming in second for sure. Both recipes are there. I also think I’m going to try my hand at grape jam this year since my grandkids prefer that to strawberry.

We’ve been planning to relocate the garden for next near. This year I made a VERY amateur mistake and when deciding where this years garden would go, I watched the sun in the fall and thru the winter. That was a huge mistake because although the garden produced a decent amount, it could have been way more. The spot I chose, one the leaves on the trees filled in, didn’t get nearly as much sun as I thought it would. My mistake for sure. So next years garden will go where the previous years garden was and just be expanded by quite a bit. We have already been working to kill off some of the grass by putting down clean, unwaxed cardboard and watering it. This will let the grass naturally die off, without any chemicals. We can the till it, put down compost and goat/chicken manure and let it rest thru the winter. It should be ready to amend one more time in the spring and be good to plant in with maybe a top dressing of some fresh topsoil.

Our farmstand has done well for its first year. We cannot keep enough eggs on the stand as they are bought up as soon as they are put there. We are planning to get more laying hens before winter. We have a huge demand for eggs and cannot keep up with our current small flock of just 10.

Enjoy your back to school time.

Aug 15, 2023

We had a FANTASTIC day butchering our chickens! We had former neighbors of ours come help and we were able to process all of our chickens plus a few of theirs in a single day! We planned 2 days for it and it only took one. We did spend a half day the 2nd day packaging the chickens but that was by choice, not because we ran out of time. The weather wasn’t the most cooperative so we decided rather than move our operation indoors to package, we’d just wait til the 2nd day. All birds were shrink wrapped except for 12 that we quartered up and broken down for ourselves. We also kept the feet because our dogs love them as frozen treats. We rented a plucker this year and we decided we will definately be buying one before processing next year. It may the day go much faster and lessened our work 10fold. It was a lifesaver.

2 of our helpers were young teenage girls who had never processed chickens before, had never even seen it done and I was so impressed with them. They jumped right in without hesitation and by the end of the day one of the girls had dispatched 3 chickens completely by herself and had completed the entire process start to finish from dispatch to finishing the bird ready for packaging. Our former neighbors who helped, also raises goats and chickens and they wanted to learn how the process worked so we were more than happy to teach them. It was great help for us and a life-long skill for them to have going forward. They also were able to have a few wild and cranky roosters of theirs taken care of at the same time. Its one of my favorite things about homesteading, and good friends, you trade work, share the load, and everyone benefits. If you’d like to see a video about our butchering day (it is a bit graphic) head on over to our youtube channel. The link is on our home page.

In the garden, our tomatoes have exploded with red all at once. I feel like I can’t keep up with picking them. Hopefully next week I’ll be making and canning some pasta sauce. We also had our first sunflower bloom. I planted 30-40 seeds and so far only one has bloomed but there are dozens of flowers coming on. Sunflowers were my grandmothers favorite.

I wanted to update sooner but both my mother and my father had medical issues last week. 2 parents in 2 different parts of the state having medical emergencies the same day we were butchering chickens made things very hectic. We didn’t get the news of either one until the end of butcher day 1. Thank the Lord both are much better now. Both have wonderful spouses who take great care of them and my wonderful younger sister lives very near to my mom and she is a nurse. I know I can always count on her to be there when I cannot.

August 6, 2023

I’ve been bad about updating the blog but we have been so busy and life has been so hectic time has just gotten away from me and I apologize! Our daughter and 2 grandkids have recently come back home to live with us temporarily so as Will Smith, the Fresh Prince, would say “our life got flipped, turned upside down”!!

Having 2 littles around the place has really turned us on our ear. Its so fun having the kids here and watching them play with the animals and explore farm life on a regular basis. My granddaughter is 6 and has been very eager to help me with farm chores every day. I think she could almost do them by herself at this point. She cracks me up because she runs around in cute little dresses and barn boots, hauling around one of our kittens with her hair full of hay and dirty knees, the quintessential little lady but such an adventurer at the same time. She reminds me so much of me at that age, and of here momma too. She hates spiders and flies but has a snail collection she gives fresh dewy grass to every day.

Tomorrow is butcher day for our meat chickens. We have been busy prepping for that. We have a friend coming to learn how to butcher, and he is bringing some roosters of his own to butcher as well. He needed them done and we offered to teach him in exchange for some free labor. He gladly accepted. Many hands make light work!

My youngest son just started a new job with a moving company so he has been away from home quite a bit. He has been all over the state, moved someone to Mass. and this week has a 3 day trip moving someone to Maryland. Its weird having him gone so much but he’s enjoying the job and he does love the work.

We opened our farmstand a few weeks ago and its doing well. Hopefully as more veggies come in, we do even better. Our tomatoes have been VERY slow to turn red this year but from most people I speak to, its a common problem almost everywhere. Squash and zucchini have NOT been a problem though, they are huge. Enormous.

I’ll be back to update again soon. Sooner than a month 🙂

July 9, 2023

What a week we had last week! We have rented an excavator and are clearing space for the barn we hope to put up next year. It will be a big barn, about 36×40, to house all our animals in one place rather than spread out all over the place. Right now we have 2 goats in 1 small barn and 4 in another, all sharing the same pasture. The other side of the house has the chickens, in 2 separate spaces- 1 coop for our layer hens then a totally differnt space about 100 foot away for our meat chickens. While it works, chore time can be time consuming because we are criss-crossing the property with food and water.

We also decided to expand the pond we dug last year. It was decent sized already but bigger is always better right? It also needed an overflow pipe put in for when it fills too much so it doesn’t spill over the banks and can instead run out the overflow pipe and into the woods.

My dad was a huge help with the land clearing and pond digging. He has just as many years experience running heavy equiptment as I’ve been alive and that kind of thing is invaluable here. Hubby and I can both run the excavator proficiently but with my dads experience, he’s much more precise and fast! We appreciate his help tremendously!! We have 2 more days with the machine so we’re just finishing moving some dirt around and hubby is working on completing a trail, thru the woods, from our house to the back of our property. That’s a big task because its almost 3/4 of a mile.

I can’t wait to post all the pictures of the cleared out area next week!

June 28, 2023

Hi everyone!!

As always, we are busy.

The garden is growing well. Hubby completed the area for our farmstand yesterday. We have a portable garage tent to put up there for this year, with tables. Next year we hope to have a more permanent structure but for this first year, this will do us nicely.

We added 2 new goats to our little homestead last week- Josh and Cooper. They are Nigerians. A student of J’s is heading off to college and needed a home for them and we offered one. They are settling in nicely.

We added 2 new kittens yesterday, Snickers and KitKat.

My granddaughter and I snuck in an hour to go strawberry picking and made a bunch of jam! I think it’s my best batch yet!!! My daughter and grandson were supposed to go too but my grandson had a cold so she decided to keep him home

Next week we’ll have an excavator here to start clearing out for where a new big barn will go and to enlarge the pond we put in last summer.

Our meat chickens are finnaly outside in the run we built them. We’ll butcher then Aug 7&8. All 48 of them. We sadly lost a few but thats typical.

Hope everyone is doing well!!!

June 13, 2023

Rain, glorious rain!! We finally had rain last night and it was so wonderful. The last few days we’ve had some teasers. It would sprinkle for 5-10 minutes then stop. Not even enough to wet the surface of the ground. Last night we got a good soaking rain and there are good puddles this morning. The news is saying we got almost 1.5 inches. We needed it so badly!! The garden, the yard all were so thirsty. Even our pond has dropped about 2 feet.

Our baby meat chicks arrived last Wednesday!! They are cute little fluffy butts. We ordered 50, received 52 and lost 2 within 24 so we are at our originally ordered 50. No complaints there. All are thriving and as always, growing fast. In less than a week they’ve already eaten over 25 pounds of grower feed. Hungry little buggers but that’s what they are supposed to do and they will be wonderful for us and good butchering come August. I love raising our own meat, knowing where it comes from, what it eats and how its processed. No unhealthy antibiotics or chemicals.

The garden has struggled a bit with lack of rain but I’ve been watering it every day. I’m sure the rain we got last night will help. Its growing, just slower than I would like!

My daughter and I are going strawberry picking today and taking the grandkids. It will be their first time picking. Then it’ll be jam making time for me. We love strawberry jam and I try to put up as much as I can every year plus make some strawberry ice cream topping as well, which is basically just my jam but a bit thinner of a consistancy. Yummy!!!

We have a dear friend coming in from out of town to spend a few days with us this weekend. We are excited about that!

The goats new barn and pasture was finished yesterday and our 2 new goats get picked up Monday the 19th.

We’re busy, as always!! It never seems to slow down around here. Luckily the school year ends in 2 weeks for hubby so he’ll be home much more to help get more done. I feel like I have a list a mile long for him.

Til next time, happy growing! And here’s some baby chick pictures for you!!

June 4, 2023

So much to do and so little time! That’s how it feels. Its crunch time around here!!! The garden is all in and growing which makes me VERY happy. Seeds that I planted are poking through the ground and seedlings are doing well. We haven’t had rain in several weeks now so I’ve been having to go out and water everything every single morning which is ok but we need rain! Hopefully this week, or so the weatherman says anyways. I’m also looking forward to the cool-down. Its been very hot here.

I planted red and white onions, green and red peppers, carrots, beets, radish, pickle and regular cucumbers, roma and beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and a bunch of squashes- acorn, butternut, buttercup, and yellow. I also planted rainbow corn and a larger patch of sunflowers. I still need to plant a variety of pumpkins and gourds but that will wait until mid-June because they are a 90day grow. We don’t want them ready too soon before Halloween.

This past week our Amish neighbors came and built us a new small barn for our bigger goats Duke and Dutchess. They will be moving into there in the next 2 weeks or so. The current barn will be for our smaller goats, Grumbles and Maxie and the 2 wethers (fixed boys) we are adding soon, Josh and Cooper. All the goats will share the same pasture, just have separate eating and sleeping barns. The new pasture just needs to be fenced then we’ll be bringing the new boys home.

Jamey has also cleared the area up by the road for our farmstand. He had to remove a bunch of trees and put in a bunch of fill to level off the area. We are getting gravel this coming week to put down then it should be close to ready for when the veggies are ready.

Our meat chicks will be here this week too so we built a chicken tractor, a movable chicken coop, to keep them in for when they are ready to move out of the brooder. This means we can move them around and they can eat fresh grass, bugs etc to ensure they are healthy and growing the best that they can. They may only be with us for 8 short weeks but we like them to be as happy, loved and comfortable as possible for their short lives. Happy chickens are healthy chickens. Healthy chickens make good dinner.

Life is a juggling act lately. The school year is winding down for Jamey and then he’s off for the summer months. He’s also working his 2nd job at the baseball stadium, plus trying to get things done at home. I’m doing as much as I can here at home, holding down most of the fort here so he doesn’t have much to do.

Hope everyone is enjoying the end of the school year, the beginning of summer and the beautiful weather.

May 24, 2023

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a chance to jump on here. My apologies! It has been crazy around this place, absolute insanity to say the least. I’m not even sure where to start!

Happy late Mother’s Day! Hope all you momma’s had a good day. I spent Mothers Day with my momma for the first time in several years. Schedules just haven’t allowed me to be with her before this year but this year, I found a way. Hubby stayed in town and went to go see his mom.

On the home front, we’ve been BUSY! I’ve got a good jump on getting the garden in. I was able to salvage one of the greenhouses and just keep the other area open and we fenced it in to keep it safe from critters. We have bunnies abound here at Dream Acres so a fence will have to suffice this year. We also brought home our new baby goat Maxie. I brought her home on Mother’s Day from my moms farm. She has settled in nicely with our other goats and is acclimating well. Our other goats, after a day or 2, have accepted her well.

We have Amish neighbors coming next week to build us another small barn to put our 2 biggest goats, Duke and Dutchess, into. We have 2 new goats coming in June. They come to us from a student at the school Jamey works at. She had to find a home for them before she goes off to college and we offered to take them. Josh and Cooper are their names and they are both wethered (castrated) males. They will share a barn with Grumbles and Maxi because all of them are smaller. All the goats will share the same pasture, just different sleeping quarters at night.

Other happenings: My youngest son Jake just celebrated his 23rd birthday. I broke my toe-not a good thing to happen when its almost the busiest season of the year. Its left me unable to drive for the last week. It was a bad break. My soap and lotion business is BOOMING!

Here’s a cute picture of our new sweet baby Maxie! Until next time…

April 23, 2033

Its been a week and a half like no other and if I’d ever thought of chucking in the towel and running away from home, these past 10 days or so would have done it.

We had a run of gorgeous weather. 70’s and 80’s. Bright beautiful days. Sounds great right? Well I decided we were in the clear for snow at this point and my greenhouse areas were freshly tilled and the soil amended. I thought it would be a great time to put the covers on the greenhouses and let the soil warm up. We did. That was last Sunday. I vaguely said to my husband that we should stake down the greenhouses, he replied yes but we just didn’t get it done Sunday. Well Sunday night it rained, and the winds came…you know where this is going right? Woke up Monday to one of the greenhouses upside down in the woods and the other upright but just turned sideways. They were fine, just needed to be put back into place. Hubby went off to work and my son and I put everything to rights, staking everything down this time, putting heavy rocks on the perimeters. They were secure, not going anywhere!

Now in the meantime over the weekend our only tractor had started throwing us a warning code. The DPF sensor was going off, the tractor wouldn’t work at full power. We did all we needed to do at home. Google, youtube, tried it all. Called Monday to the dealer and he told us what to do – it didn’t work, so Tuesday it had to go in for service (going to add it hasn’t been an easy fix, we’re STILL waiting for it). Well Wednesday morning I woke up after another rainstorm and the greenhouses were fine. Huge relief. But that day the wind blew some more. My greenhouses decided they were possessed or something and did a Dorothy and Toto and went flying. Again! This time they both went and they didn’t make it. One is absolutely destroyed, the other can be used if we pull some frame parts from the other. The covers, by some miracle, are fine! When I saw them flipped and twisted, I just sat in the middle of my tilled area, in the dirt, and cried! They are new, bought last fall. We haven’t even grown anything in them yet! Such a loss to us.

I picked myself up though. Its not easy to do sometimes when you see you’re goals and hopes literally blown away. I can still have 1 functioning greenhouse and the other can be parted and pieced out to build us a chicken tractor for our meat chickens. Seems silly to some that I got as upset as I did but when you work so hard and strive to provide home grown food for your family, these setbacks can be so upsetting. Onward and upward for us. I try to count the blessings and we have many. To all of you, I hope your days of full of sunshine like our days have been, life is fruitful and until next time, keep a smile on your face, even if it gets rough!

April 14, 2023

Busy! That is the best word to describe life right now. Spring has finally sprung. Maybe I should say summer because the last few days we’ve had temps in the high 70’s and mid 80’s. Yesterday was a record breaking 86 degree’s outside and wow did it feel like it.

My greenhouse areas are tilled and fresh topsoil has been added. This weekend we are putting the covers on the greenhouses and we’ll let that soil get nice and warm in there. I’m almost ready for planting and I cannot wait. Our goat barn and chicken coops have been cleaned of all the winter yuck! That was a HUGE job and I’m glad it is over!! We don’t clean them over the winter and just add fresh bedding on top of the old for them. Their manure makes heat which keeps them warm during the coldest months and honestly, its hard to clean them out in the winter because we have to take the loader bucket off our tractor to mount our snowblower.

My soap and lotion making is going well. I’ve sold almost out of my first batches of lotion I made and the soaps are selling well too. My sister is coming to visit me today and we are going to have a lotion making day. She wants to learn how and I’m glad to have the help. I’m doing all my own making, packaging and label making so its a bit of work, plus the daily life around here. Hubby and I are going this afternoon to get our DBA so that we are “officially” a business and can use our farm name to do business under. That’s a big step for us.

Besides getting the greenhouse tops on and the gardens planted soon we also need to prep for our 50 meat chicks that are coming the first week of June and before that our new baby goat that is coming the beginning of May. Then mid-summer we’re adding to more goats to our little herd. Next year, we’ll be breeding our females so that we’ll have little ones of our own.

Like I said, BUSY! Hope everyone is enjoying weather as nice as we are. Mother Nature can be crazy, with our luck, it’ll snow for Mothers Day, it has before!! Stay tuned to see what we’re up to…

March 26, 2023

Learning new skills is something I find incredibly exciting, especially when it can save me money at the end of the day. If it can make me money, that an even BIGGER bonus. I mean, don’t we all like a few extra dollars in our pocket sometimes. I have said to my husband many times over the past year that I’d love to learn how to make our own soap. Well, the time has come and this morning I poured my first soap. Not only that but yesterday I also made lotion for the first time. To make it even better, its made with goat milk! Now our goat isn’t giving milk yet because, like all females, they must give birth to do so, and Dutchess hasn’t had any babies…yet…but I was lucky enough to find someone local who does have a goat in milk and she graciously gave me milk to make my soaps and lotion. Next year we’ll be breeding our Dutchess and our new girl Maxie so we’ll have milk of our own to use. Until then, I just have to outsource my milk. Goat milk products are amazing for the skin. They are known to help wonderfully with things like eczema and acne. They are also very gentle, gentle enough for little ones to use. I’m purchasing all my soap and lotion making supplies from https://www.bulkapothecary.com/ They have wonderfully discounted prices and all natural ingredients. I love knowing exactly what is in everything I use, don’t you?

In addition to my soap making I’ve been continuing to bake with my sourdough. I’ve about perfected my bagel recipe which makes me very happy. I’ve also made and frozen a bunch of sourdough waffles for quick and easy breakfasts. The perfect loaf of bread still eludes me but I’ll get there. Time and patience are something I have.

My fingers are itching to get into the garden. I think winter has loosened its grip on us but now we are definately into the rains of spring. I don’t mind so much because after all, April showers bring May flowers.

March 16, 2023

Let’s talk chickens today. We all know Easter is coming, spring too, and the price of eggs is soaring. You might be out strolling through your local farm store like Tractor Supply and hear the sweet sounds of peeping. You know, that irresistable sound of baby chicks. Even I am not immune to it after a few years of having chickens under my belt. I ALWAYS go right to the center of Tractor Supply to see if they have chicks. Hubby will tell you its the first place I go, even if I’m in a rush to get in and out of the store, I mean who can resist those sweet sounds and fluffy little butts right?

But, and there is a big but here, raising chickens isn’t just about taking a few fluffy little chicks home in a box and putting them in a chicken coop. Those chicks are sometimes only a day or 2 old. Chicks need special care. They need to be kept warm with a heat lamp, fed, watered and wow do they drink a LOT of water those first few weeks. Not to mention they are constantly kicking up their bedding into the water and it needs changing constantly. Baby chicks need to be kept in a warm, draft free space, under heat for 4 weeks, until they are fully feathered, then they can start to go outside, as long as they have a space that is protected from the elements and of course predators.

Predators aren’t just things like coyotes either. There’s fox and owls and even rats will kill a baby chick. Depending on the breed, you likely won’t see your first egg until about 6 months or so in either. We got our first chicks in the month of March 2 years ago and didn’t get an egg until September! Chickens, after their first year also typically slow down egg production in the winter when the days are shorter, sometimes they even stop. This winter we didn’t get a single egg from any of our 10 layers for 2 1/2 months!!

Chickens are a big commitment. And we haven’t even talked about meat chickens, That’s a whole different ballgame. They need the same care as laying babying but they grow quickly and need much more attention to their diet and watering needs. So quickly in fact that the breed we raise, cornish crosses, are ready for butchering at just 9 weeks. Last year we butchered out meat chickens at 9 weeks of age and all of them were between 6-9lbs each. That’s a lot of chicken!!

If you’re in the market for chickens, whether for eggs or for meat, do your research first. Be prepared and have your setup ready BEFORE you buy them and bring them home. If your not looking to buy, definately still swing into TSC or your local farm store and look at the chicks, they ARE adorable. And remember, having livestock is the one time that its ok to play with your food, just don’t get too attached!

March 11, 2023

Spring. Is it ever coming? After a really mild winter Mother Nature decided it was time for winter to finally show up here in our little corner of Upstate NY. We’ve gotten a bunch of snow, nothing like winters past but snow nonetheless. Enough that it has me feeling the darkness of winter just when I was starting to feel the sun on my face and dreaming of the dirt in my hands.

We’ve still been busy though. I had a nerve block done in my shoulder for an injury I received quite a long time ago that still plagues me. The nerve blocks help tremendously, not for any extended length of time, but enough to make life a bit more manageable for awhile. Repetitive movements cause numbness in my fingertips so this helps me quite a bit.

We had our taxes done- our first time filing as a farm- that was interesting. Had the hoof trimmer come out to trim hooves on our goats. Something we can do ourselves but having her come makes our life easier and less stressful and sometimes one less thing on your plate just makes it worth paying for.

I’m continuing to experiment with my sourdough baking. I finally baked my first loaf of actual bread! It was good, not perfect but that’s ok. It was flavorful but the texture was a bit dense. I think it needed a bit more time on the proofing. I’m not afraid to say it wasn’t perfect. Learning is all part of the process and its a part that I’m enjoying. I also tried a batch of flavored farmers cheese. That epically failed. I’ve made it before and it came out great but this time I tried to flavor it and it just didn’t work. It didn’t curdle at all so I’m back to the drawing board on that one, again part of the learning process!! I am continuing to make delicious bagels on a regular basis and pancakes and waffles too. If you want to start baking with sourdough, I’ll be adding a page soon with how to make your own starter and some recipes. In the meantime, you can check out some of the tools I use in the kitchen section of our Amazon page at https://www.amazon.com/shop/dreamacresfarm We are paid affiliates so we do make a commission from any purchases you make from shopping on our site.

Easter is right around the corner, and also our grandson’s 3rd birthday. Can’t forget taking my granddaughter to see the monster trucks at Monster Jam too. She talks about it every time I speak to her, She is beyond excited!

The best news of all this time around is that our newest family member has been born. My mom’s goat Hazel finally gave birth to a set of twins. We are buying the female (doeling) from her. We are actually going to meet her tomorrow. We are beyond excited!! We have named her Maxie (pictured below). She should be coming home to be with us right around Memorial Day. That will definately be a busy, hectic week because our meat chicks come just after that too!! Bring on the busy season. I love spring.

Feb 24, 2023

Ever feel like life throws you lemons and you are stuck trying to make lemonade without sugar sometimes. Thats kinda how this week has gone, some days sweeter than others. Its been a week full of ups and downs.

A flat tractor tire with no reason why. Just flat. A first for us. Luckily the local LS tractor dealer (local be 40 minutes each way) was able to fix it for us same day, but we had to dis-mount the tire and get it to him. This normally wouldn’t be a big deal but we had ice and snow forecasted and we need the tractor to snow blow our 500 foot long driveway. We got it fixed just in the nick of time before the snow and ice came, and it did come! We got about 4 inches of snow and a bunch of ice on top of it, so much ice that when you walk on it, you don’t even break through to the snow underneath. The gates were frozen shut to the goat pen and the chicken coop. Had to break the ice off with a hammer just to get inside. That wasn’t fun!

We did finally hear back from our vet about our little goat Grumbles. He tested negative for CL, thank goodness! That means his abscess on his cheek was just a bacterial infection. I have to go this morning to pick up an injectable antibiotic for him, just 1 dose, and hopefully that will take care of whatever he has going on. Doc says he probably just had a good poke with a pine needle inside his mouth that gave him a good scratch. His body responded with the abscess. So glad its nothing more serious.

Yesterday we went to the NYS Farm Show. Our granddaughter tagged along with us and wow, she had so much fun. She was a little disappointed we didn’t buy an excavator haha!! For some reason she seems to love them. That was all she wanted to bring home. She did say it was a bit like trick or treating though because most booths have candy and she had a bag with her and loved filling it up. She walked out with quite the stash.

We are anxiously awaiting my mom’s goats to give birth. She has a few more than we do and we are going to be getting a baby from her. She has a sweet girl named Hazel who is due in just a few days. We can’t wait. We also ordered our meat chicks this week. They will be delivered June 6th. 50 meat chickens this year. Last year we did 12 so we are going to be a bit busier on butcher day. We will probably butcher over 2 days rather than just 1. At least we know what to expect from it this year since last year was our trial run. We’ll be keeping about 15 for ourselves and already have a list going of people who want chicken. If your local and want to get on the list, let me know!!

If you’re in the market to get chicks yourself, we ordered from Myers in PA. We’ve never done them through mail before but I’ve heard great things about this place. Check them out here https://www.myerspoultry.com/

Have a great weekend everyone!! Enjoy this cute picture of our granddaughter with her “goodie bag” from the Farm Show

Feb 20, 2023

What a great week last week was! I was super nervous about starting a journey with sourdough. It seemed so intimidating to me. Starting the starter, feeding it every day for several days then twice a day. Would if work? Could I do it and even remember? Well I did! I’m so excited to go on this journey. I’ve never really fancied myself a baker, or even really a cook. I enjoy it but I’m not the most patient of people so the watching and waiting gets to me. I like instant results. You NEVER get that with sourdough.

I’m happy to say I’ve had great success! I haven’t baked bread yet, I still need to order the proper equipment, a baking pan for round loaves, a proper banneton for the dough to rise in, but I’m doing that this week. What I have done is bake with the sourdough discard. I made pretzels, bagels and pancakes. All were a HUGE success. I never thought I could make these things at home. I’m beyond thrilled that I can now make and freeze these things and have them ready to grab and eat whenever we want them. It will be a wonderful budget saver. Bread and cinnamon rolls are next on my “to make” list for sure. My sweet son Jake bought me a food-saver vacuum sealer this week so we can store things easier in the freezer. Isn’t he the sweetest?!

Hubby is on vacation this week for winter recess. I love that he works the school calendar and has school breaks and summers off. We have a lot of plans for this week. We are getting our taxes done, going on a date night Friday, getting things done around the house, hopefully tilling up the garden area and so much more. The NYS Farm Show is also happening this week so we’ll be attending that. Lots of agriculture vendors to visit and see the latest new things on the market. My youngest son Jake (age 22) and our granddaughter are attending with us.

Here’s a look at my delicious bagels. Have a great week everyone!

Feb 10, 2023

Yay for Fridays! It has been a week for sure! The highlight of my week was definitely on a personal level. My 6 year old granddaughter is a huge Monster Truck fan, with a solid adoration of Magaladon-the Shark truck. For Christmas the only thing she wanted was the big remote controlled truck which she lovingly calls Sharknado. Well of course Grammie and Papa just HAD to get it for her. Anyhoo her momma saw that Monster Jam is coming to our local City and my granddaughter really wanted to go so being the awesome Grammie I am, I not only got us tickets for a girls night out for myself, my daughter and granddaughter but I was also able to score us some pit passes. The look on her face when I told her she gets to touch her most favorite truck in the world, and MEET the driver was worth all the gold in the world to me. I’m not really sure if it’s MY ideal night out but if she’s happy, I’m happy!!

Around the homestead my chickens have finally started laying again. We’re getting 4-6 eggs a day from our 10 laying hens. After 4 months with no eggs this is a huge blessing. People we typically sell eggs to have been begging for them. Its nice to start to be able to offer them again and its nice for us to have them too. If our girls aren’t laying, we aren’t eating eggs.

I took a big plunge and decided to dive into the world of sourdough this week. Today was day 3 with my starter. Not sure how it will turn out but I’m excited to try it. If this one doesn’t take, I’ll toss it and try again. I always pray for success and take any failures as lessons, setbacks. I’ve come to learn that failure isn’t a bad thing. It can hurt and it can be frustrating and disappointing but it gives us time to reflect on what we did wrong, ways to improve and always a chance to try again. Failure is not bad, its a time for growth.

Our other big adventure this week was our little goat Grumbles. This poor little guy has struggled and struggled. He was a little guy when he was born, rejected by his momma and a bottle baby. When he came to us he was so much smaller than others his age but the sweetest goat ever. Then he got sick with a horrible parasite coccidia, twice. It took him months to rebound. The last few months he’s been better than he’s ever been then last week he started getting a lump on his face. It could be anything, a sore in his mouth that abscessed, a minor infection or CL a disease that can be horrible for a goat. The vet came today and took a sample. We’ll have results in a week but she seemed optimistic that he just scratched inside his mouth and its nothing horrible. Fingers crossed for sure! I’ll be sure to update about him when we know.

This weekend we’re laying pretty low. We need to order our meat chickens very soon. This will be our first time ordering from a hatchery. Hopefully doing a little mid-winter yard cleanup, branches and such. Its supposed to be really nice out considering its the middle of February. Here’s to hoping the rest of the winter stays mild!!

Jan 30, 2023

I cannot believe I actually have a live site! Yes, it’s still bare bones but it’s something. Me learning how to do all this is like teaching a 6 year old calculus. Thats what I told my husband the other day right before I hit the “launch site” button haha!

I feel like its been hectic here for me. Winter should be slow. It IS slow, but I’ve been very immersed in planning my gardens. We are expanding this year- really expanding. This year will be my 2nd year getting really serious about canning and we are opening a farm stand this year. That means not just thinking about what foods we will consume but what we’ll sell as well. We bought 2 greenhouses in the fall and they are assembled and awaiting their little seedlings to grow and mature. We also have last years garden area where well be planting pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn this year. I’m anxious. I don’t want to fail at this. I’m not scared to fail, I’m just worried I’ve bit off a little more than I can chew for my first time doing this. I believe I can, have faith that I can. I just want to succeed at this so much. I’m trying to set my expectations low.

Besides the garden we’re also planning to expand our meat chickens this year. Last summer we raised enough for us. This year we plan to raise more. The quality of the chicken is so much better than anything you can purchase in the grocery store. I like knowing what I’m eating. I love knowing everything that the animal has been fed. We have friends who appreciate that too and if we can raise chickens and sell then that chicken at a fair price, that makes me feel good.

But back to the garden…I have really ummm, my husband would say “anal retentive” tendencies and I have all 3 gardens planned out, on graph paper. Plants are spaced, I consulted every source I could to take advantage of the best companion planting plans out there and I know exactly what I need to start and when. Yeah…I guess I am a bit uptight sometimes 🙂 The good news is if I’m ever away, anyone who goes in the greenhouses will know exactly what is where even if they don’t know a tomato from a squash!! I’m ready to dig into the dirt, counting down the days til I get start seedlings.

Jan 26, 2023

Phew! A website. I feel like I just took a deep breath and jumped off the high dive into a baby pool but here we go!

Welcome! For those of you who don’t know me (many of you will this first go around) I’m Kim! Lately I’ve been feeling the urge to write. Maybe its because I feel like there’s alot of people out there who side-eye me when I tell them we have a homestead. Maybe its because I feel like people don’t “get it” or I feel mis-understood. I’ve always had this thing in my blood for open spaces, a longing if you will. I don’t like being confined. I hate crowds and neighborhood and really just society in general. Not people, just life in society. I’ve never really found my niche in life. I’m not girly enough to have girlfriends really. I don’t care if I have my nails done or my eyebrows are waxed or if my roots or showing but I’m not one of the guys either. I don’t like beer and I’m not into dirt bikes or cars or big trucks or that thing either.

I want to feel the wind on my face, dirt under my fingernails. I want to smell the earth after it rains and have a kitten curl up in my lap. I love the smell of a barn on a warm day and the smell of sunshine on hot grass. Thats what I’ve always aspired to have in my life. Now I do.

I want to share all those things with you as I rediscover life in the country. As we learn, grow, rediscover nature as its intended. To nurture us through our days, lulls us to sleep at night. As we toil in the gardens, welcome and raise new animals on our homestead. We laugh, we cry, we struggle and we rejoice. I want to share. Please join me on our journey! Bear with me while I work on the site though 🙂 Its definately “under construction!!!