Hi, I'm Honey! Welcome to our farm. Well, today is January 1, 2011! I know this is going to be a GREAT year! My husband and I have talked about starting a farm blog for a while. Finally we decided that we would start on January 1, 2011. Guess what today is! Oh my gosh. I don't know if I'm ready. But anyway here we go.
A few years ago, my husband decided we should move. We needed a bigger house, but I thought we would add on to the country home on two and a half acres we already owned. But my husband, Pappy, had a different plan in mind. We started looking for homes with acreage. We finally found the home of our dreams, on 15 acres with an acre pond and several out buildings and a barn. The farm even came with its own goat! How perfect was that! So we bought the farm, and that is how this story begins!
After we moved to the farm, every day when I came home from work, there was a new animal in residence. It started with ducks, and went from there. Now we have a little of everything: ducks, chickens, guinnies, peacocks, doves, turkeys, rabbits, cattle, horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, and your usual dogs and cats. We garden, grow, and put up our own organic food; process our meat, milk our goats, and make our own cheese. We get eggs from our chickens. We are at a point in our journey where we purchase very little of our food. That is what this blog will be about. The day-to-day operation of a small family farm. What we do each day to keep things going. We didn't grow up doing this, but we're doing it now. You can too. Check back with us each day to see how we're doing. We'll be here!
Today is Saturday, and to most people it is a holiday. But life doesn't stop for holidays on a farm. Pappy started out the day cutting a metal plate to repair our feed wagon. Then he had to fix the broken water line in the rabbit house. The break was due t0 the freezing weather and snow we had the last week. We never, hardly ever, get snow in Alabama; but we had a white Christmas this year! Pappy also tried to plug the tractor tire, but he doesn't think that worked too well. We'll check on that again tomorrow. He fed hay to the sheep and goats. We keep a round bale of hay in both pastures along with feed, and give fresh square bales a couple of times a week. Usually fresh hay every other day, and feed (a five gallon bucket) twice a week.
My morning was pretty busy as well. I met one of our tenants to collect rent, and talked to two more looking to rent something. I went to the local thrift store, where today was half-price day in honor of the holiday. I had my list in hand, and got a cart full of stuff for $20. Didn't really find any the things on my list today, but got gift items for the rest of the year, Easter baskets, valentine goodies, etc. Also got a few items for our food storage. Those light sticks that kids like, and Coleman ponchos in the package. Then I picked up our Grand-boy to spend the night and came home to watch the ballgame with Pappy. Alabama played at 1:00 so we planned an early break. Roll Tide!
As usual, on New Year's Day, our menu is the same year after year. We have black eyed peas, turnip greens, and ham. We do this as a tradition, for luck and money in the new year. I guess I've eaten black eyed peas on every New Year of my life. That would be 47 of them!
Well it is getting late. Still need to get the grand-boy in bed, and wash the dishes. Hope y'all have a good night. Talk tomorrow, where we will report more exciting things, share a recipe maybe and no telling what all. It is flooding here, so we may have to work on the driveway. Thanks for stopping by! Honey
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