Winter is my least favorite time of year. I do not care for snow but the cold weather is the real kicker. This has not been a good winter here either. Carbon monoxide filled the house from the woodburners. That ended up with me taking a trip to the hospital.
We are out of wood already. The wood we received was green and wet so I have a huge mess in the office to clean up where the creosote leaked on the pipes. Needless to say the woodburner is down.
The plants in my greenhouse, many of which I had babied for years, froze without any heat. That makes me real unhappy. All my tropical plants, gone. I doubt I will replace them with shipping costs being so much. I don’t even want to walk back there. I just feel like crying when I do.
We lost a few chickens this year. It seems some did not go into the chicken house and froze. Every year we seem to lose a few that get out and don’t make it back, but for the most part all the poultry are doing well.
The sheep, goats, rabbits and Beauty the horse are doing just fine. It is warm in the barn, but I am sure, like the rest of us, they can’t wait to get out and run. Our pasture is very soft and muddy so keeping them up right now is the only way to make sure they do not get hurt. Beauty likes to run full force and she has fallen several times in the past due to the pasture being like it is.
I have a few seedlings started in the house, but not many. I am just so heartbroken over the greenhouse plants it is hard to think about growing anything right now. I am sure, in time, this will pass.
I did make some artisan yarn last night. I used a maroon chenille that I bought at a second hand store, a pretty brown wool I spun and some cashmere/silk that I spun. The three different yarns were spun together to make one and I am quite pleased with the outcome.
Filed under Homestead Happenings by on Jan 14th, 2010. 2 Comments. 
There is a lot in bloom already. Phlox, tulips – some looking taller than ever before, Magnolia, bleeding heart, jack-in-the-pulpit, azalea and other spring blooming beauties. The forsythia and narcissus have long faded. Some of the lilac are already blooming and some are just forming buds. The night air is fragrant and wildlife is stirring.
The farm animals seem to know spring is here too. The chickens are laying a ton of eggs and of course the roosters are constantly going after the hens. Last night we butchered four chickens with the help of a friend. They took two and we put two in our freezer. This time we chose to butcher four Rhode Island Reds. They seem the most agressive of all the breeds we have and also are harder to keep in the chicken area. They want to roam the entire yard which would be fine if they were not inclined to go across the street and eat or dig any flower that was emerging.
The goats escaped the fence the other day and trashed several of my trees. Darn goats! Jerry has to try again to fix the fence so it will hold them. I am hoping the trees survive. At this rate I am never going to have mature plants!
Beauty the horse is much calmer this year. I still cannot get to her tail to brush it but when the vet comes out I am going to ask her to sedate Beauty so I can get those cockerburls out. She is letting me brush her butt some – but only briefly.
Having a cashmere goat is a bit different. Tulip is still quite shy and has to be lifted onto the milking stand. She does not like being brushed but tolerates it. I trimmed all of their hooves this week. Darla was the real pain. First she jumped on the milk stand, then jumped off behind it, tipped a shelf over and finally ended back up in her stall. I did get her hooves trimmed but made her wait until last. She didn’t like watching the other goats get ginger snap cookies when they were done so after I finished all of them I called Darla and she jumped right up on the milk stand!
The vegetable garden is growing too. I have tiny plants of carrots, kale, sugar snap peas, spinach, turnips, brussels sprouts, sugar beets, cabbage and we are already harvesting radish and lettuce. Some of the lettuce we planted the year before has sprouted on its own. I will be digging and moving those plants once we get ready to till that area. Adding the compost has done wonders for the ground! There are still many plants to get into the ground that are in the greenhouse as well as more corn and green beans to plant.
I am debating growing flax this year for fiber. I already have small cotton plants growing.
The bunnies have not had babies and I am wondering if maybe one of them cannot breed. They have been together for several months now but my female has not shown a single sign of being pregnant.
If you are in the area I invite you to come spend some time at our farm and wildlife habitat. Please email or phone ahead for reservations.
Sheri
Filed under Homestead Happenings by on Dec 20th, 2009. Comment.
Spring is a time of renewal and change. Most of the people I know have already had goat kids. Here at Exotic Gardening Farms however we are still waiting – and waiting – and darn it goats, I want some milk, so have some babies!
I cannot believe not one of my does have udders. Not one. I have been running Leonardo the angora buck with them since August. I thought I would have had goat kids (and milk) by now. Alice says the goats are too fat to get pregnant. Who ever heard of a goat being too fat?
I am not expecting lambs until June, if at all this year. Johnny the ram was just born last June so he may have been too young to breed Pearl. Since I don’t intend to do anything other than make a bit of sheep milk soap and some sheep cheese it doesn’t really matter if she kids or not this year.
In the garden, change is abound. I moved lilacs today. I never realized how much they multiply. Wow. Once you have one, you will have some starts to sell before too long. My dad helped me dig them up and replant them. Then he suggested I take some of the privet hedge starts and put them in front of my picket fence for privacy. What a great idea! I am sure thinking about it.
Two days ago strong winds came through the area and trashed one of my coldframes so my dad helped put it back together and put self tapping screws into the metal frame so at least I won’t be searching the farm for pieces of the frame anymore. We did not get the plastic on but hopefully soon.
I bought some conduit at Lowe’s which I intend to use this weekend to make hoops for coldframes. Most of the garden is tilled and I am getting anxious to plant. The greenhosue is filled to overflowing and seedlings are taking over my office, laundry room and kitchen. You would think since this happens every year either I would quit growing so much or end up with a greenhouse large enough to hold all the seedlings I grow.
Filed under Homestead Happenings by on Dec 20th, 2009. Comment.
It has been a busy spring here at Exotic Gardening Farms and Wildlife Habitat. New gardens were tilled to make more room for planting vegetables. The need for Plant-A-Row for the Hungry gardens is great this year and we want to contribute as much food as possible to our local food bank. The goal is still 1,600 pounds from our farm. So far we have been able to donate close to 800 pounds. Hopefully this year we will come closer to the goal.
Cutting gardens were installed this year to help boost the farm income. The Zinnia are just beginning to flower. The Sunflowers are not far behind. In addition to these two mainstays we will offer roses, delphinium, aster, old fashion sweet william and an array of other specialty cut flowers.
The tomatoes I planted in hoop houses the beginning of April are blooming and beginning to set fruit. It will be nice to have early tomatoes this year. Now that we know this method will work we will get busy sooner next year and plan to plant more under hoops.
The roses are doing great this year. I cannot believe how beautiful and fragrant they are. In fact the entire garden looks really great compared to previous years. Currently in bloom is the zinnias, oak leaf hydrangea, pussy toes, buddelia (butterfly bush), poppies, catnip, flax, allium, dame’s rocket, marigold, gaillardia, hosta, roses, geraniums, sweet william, dianthus, lilies, daylilies, clematis, red hot poker, delphinium, daisies, cornflower, salvia, veronica, honeysuckle, coreopsis, verbena, yarrow, petunia, malva, meconopsis, larkspur, hydrangea, milkweed, astrantia, penstemon, heuchera, begonia, St. John’s Wort, alyssum, lobelia, campanula, lamb’s ear, hedyotis, astilbe, foxglove, liatris, Russian sage, grasses, snapdragon, silene, bee balm, cupflower, twinspur, evening primrose (pink and yellow), thailicum, bleeding heart, codonopsis, comfrey, laminum and amorphophallus.
The animals are being born now. Ginger and Gizmo had two baby bunnies in April. I have a black male and a white albino female. The female looks just like Gizmo and they both look like they took the fiber gene. Time will tell.
This morning Jerry went to the chicken coop and found five baby chicks sitting with a momma hen. I had to go out and check. They are doing fine. I moved them to a better nest box and added fresh water and chicken starter. The momma hen had the babies sitting in the feed dish and they were eating. The other eleven baby chicks that I hatched are doing fine. I have one Polish crested, an auraucana, and some unknowns. The two white breasted turkeys are also doing fine so far.
The goats teats are rapidly growing. We should have goat kids any day now. I can’t wait. We have the video up and running so we can see and hear everything that happens.
We put the hummingbird houses up this past weekend and are waiting on new arrivals. I have only seen two Monarch butterflies so far this year. I hope to see more. I did see a Baltimore Oriole at a hummingbird feeder earlier in the year. There seems to be a flurry of bee activity here which is great. I have also seen some grey squirrels with white tails and a few toads.
Life on the farm is one adventure after another – from unexpected wildlife to new arrivals. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, even though it is a lot of hard work! Knowing the produce you grow keeps you supplied in food most of the year is very satisfying. Knowing you can grow enough to share with others who may be less fortunate makes it all worthwhile.
Filed under Homestead Happenings, Miscellanous by on Dec 12th, 2009. Comment.
The decision to go back to the land, to do it all yourself is one that you should give careful consideration to. It is the ideal way to live for many people and full of satisfaction. However, there are always two sides to every story.
On one of the groups I belong to someone wrote that they were giving up their dream of homesteading because – gasp! – they found out it was hard work! WOW! Imagine that!
What did they think it was going to be? A romantic, back to land vacation. Hmm, where did that idea come from? Oh yea, Hollywood.
We’ve been working on the dream for five years and let me emphasize the word WORK. There has been fencing to run – and of course, some animals just seem to know where to find the weak spots, stalls to build, land to till, weeds to pull, stalls to clean – shall I go on?
There is nothing quite like chasing an escaped animal through traffic or going into a neighbor’s yard to retrieve your chicken, especially when that neighbor hates animals. We have been lucky that we have only had a couple incidents, early on, of escaping animals. We found that by tying metal conduit to the top and bottom of the chain link fencing the animals would not challenge the fence. This may not work in every case, but in our case, it did.
Is homesteading worth it? Every minute is an adventure. Do I get sick of this life? Yeah, sometimes, a vacation would be really nice, but who would take care of the plants and animals? Finding someone you can trust your livelihood too is not an easy task.
It is time to get Beauty the horses’ hooves trimmed again. That is a task I just do not look forward to. We have a great Ferrier and Beauty, once caught, does well when he trims her, but scheduling can be an issue with so much going on here.
Angora goats are cute but the hair can get tangled or caught easily. I look forward to getting two batches of mohair from Leonardo per year. I am planning to spin it so it will be ready to use when I find a suitable project I wish to use it on.
Come spring I will need to get the Leicester Longwool Sheep, Pearl and Johnny sheared. Their wool is so curly and thick. Underneath it is shiny and oh so soft. This year I am thinking I may hire someone with electric shears. Last year I used scissors and did it by hand. It took several weeks to get everyone sheared, not to mention the fact that I had sores on my fingers from the scissors.
Spring will bring many changes here at the farm as well. Two of the goats, Sugar and Spice, will – hopefully – give birth to babies. I will be so happy to have fresh milk again and be able to make cheese and butter! I did not breed Darla or Tulip this year. I may have baby lambs if Johnny and Pearl breed. We have not had lambs yet, so that will be a new experience.
There are plans underway to put in more raised beds. Some of the herbs and strawberries have already been moved into raised beds. I like growing plants in raised beds because it makes it easier to cultivate the soil. The fruit trees will be another year older and that should mean more fruit.
The goal is to grow all of our own herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables as well as raise some of our own meat. The less money I have to spend at the grocery store, the happier I am.
Soon February will be rolling around again and it will be time to tap the maple trees. We tapped the trees last year but did not get the maple sap boiled down. I really hope this year we accomplish this goal. I would love to have my own maple syrup.
Spring will also bring the birth of new chickens. The hens we have now have figured out how to hide the eggs. They hatched a couple bunches of baby chicks this past year. They were so cute. Not all of them survived, but sometimes that happens.
Would I do this again? YOU BET! Is this the right decision for you? That depends on your outlook on life and how hard you want to work to acheive your dreams.
Filed under About Us by on Dec 8th, 2009. 10 Comments.
Our granddaughter Trinity came for her first visit yesterday. Of course, no visit to a farm is complete without seeing the animals.
Sarah, my daughter and her mother, had not been home in some time, so her first question was, where’s Beauty? I told her we would go out to the barn in a moment. It was raining so hard today that all of the animals were in the barn. The ground in the pasture gets so soft that Beauty often falls if we let her out after a hard rain, so it is best to keep her in. Goats get pneumonia pretty easily so we keep them in when it is raining as well so they stay dry.
Trinity got lots of hugs and kisses from grandma first, while mom took lots of photos of the first visit. Then we began the journey to the barn. Getting to the barn meant going through the greenhouse. The Thanksgiving cactus was in full bloom and those fuschia colored blooms attracted Trinity’s attention immediately. Being curious, as all babies are, I held her up so she could touch the flowers. Hmmm, I do wonder if we have a budding botantist on our hands?
Then we proceeded on to the barn. Sarah, of course, went to visit Beauty first. She was amazed at how much weight Beauty has gained since the last time she saw her. I took this photo with my smart phone three days ago when Beauty was in the pasture. She has a fairly thick winter coat on as you can see.
I took Trinity in to see the goats first. The baby goats were curious about Trinity. They cautiously came forward, sniffing her. Faith, the baby goat above, looked at her mama Darla as if to say “I have never seen a tiny person like this before. Is it ok mama?” LOL!
Darla, being a cautious mama goat, stretched out her long neck to check Trinity out before gently naying to her babies that they could go up to her and get pets.
The other mama goats, Sugar, Spice and Tulip were not so interested in Trinity. They preferred to stand back and take the situation in as if they did not know what to make of it. Nutmeg, the ever curious baby goat, who loves to nibble on everyone was quite interested in Trinity. While he was checking her out, he reached up to her face and gave her a quick kiss. It was so cute.
The next stop was the sheep stall. Johnny and Pearl did not know what to think. Their fleece this time of year is full of lanolin and Trinity did not seem as interested in them as she did the goats. As you can see, Johnny above, wanted to stand back and look at her while Trinity wanted to look for her mommy.
The last stop in the barn was a visit to Leonardo, our angora buck. He had been jumping up on the side of his stall the entire time looking to see what was going on. We did not go inside the stall this time because he is in rut this time of year. Trinity was interested in him and he allowed her to give him a pet. He is such a gentle boy most of the time, but can get pushy this time of year so being on the outside of the stall was in everyone’s best interest.
From there we came back inside so momma could clean Trinity up. She spent some time playing with Blueberry Muffin, a doll my Grandma King crocheted many years ago when I was a child. It is nice to know that hand made toys, made with love and care, can last three generations of children and still be in great shape.
Trinity seemed to love being here today. Could this be the start of another generation of women homesteaders in our family?
Filed under Homestead Happenings by on Nov 18th, 2009. 2 Comments.
Welcome to the Experimental Homesteader site! I am so excited about this site finally going live! For the past five years, my husband Jerry and I have lived on a small farm which we named Exotic Gardening Farm & Wildlife Habitat. We have an acre and a half of land. The photo above was of the house when we bought it five years ago.
When we first moved here I was excited that the house was equipped with wood heat. Sometimes that is wonderful and sometimes it can be a real pain! Getting up several times at night to put logs on the fire is not fun, nor is waking up to a cool house in the morning. We are getting used to it however.
Cooking with cast iron on the wood stove is a real blast! Since the wood stove is in my office it makes cooking and working at the same time much easier. We love roasts in the cast iron Dutch oven. I have cooked breads, bacon, chicken, vegetables and potatoes on the wood stove. Learning how to regulate the heat and keep it steady by adding small pieces of wood is the trick.
We moved here in August and the following spring decided to get chickens and ducks. I had raised them before but Jerry was new to having animals. He was taken by how cute the ducks were. Cute and messy, let me assure you.
That summer the chickens and ducks settled in, began laying eggs and of course, produced an abundance. I was selling eggs as fast as I could fill egg cartons at $1.50 a dozen.
When winter came, the chickens and ducks quit laying. It was work going out in the snow to give them food and water. The coop became quit messy. I guess that is what happens when they stay in a confined area.
The next year we decided to get a goat. It was a mistake to get just one goat. Darla did not like being the only goat. We had to get a companion.
That was where Mr. Buck came in. When we brought Mr. Buck home, life was great, that is until he decided to use his horns in an attempt to tear the stall down!
We got a second goat, Sugar. Mr. Buck and Darla decided to gang up on her. After a while she began to fit in, but really, why was I keeping Mr. Buck when he continued to destroy things? So, we put him up for sale.
Before we could sell him, we got a third doe, Spice. She was Sugar’s sister and a great milker. When we introduced her, the other goats ganged up on her. The three does all came from the same breeder and knew each other, but that Mr. Buck was a gang leader if ever there was one! He had to go! So, I gave him away.
Things were going pretty good with the goats. I was getting lots of milk, learning to make cheese, butter, ice cream and a slew of other dairy products.
Then along came Beauty. She was an abused horse that was starving. She was given to us. The story went that a lady had strapped her head to a saddle and was beating her into submission. She was also not feeding her. Beauty broke the straps and stomped the woman. The woman ended up almost dying. The hay man took Beauty and passed her on to another person. She would not eat with his horses, so he asked me if I wanted her. I said yes. She was unnamed, but her beauty showed, even in the condition she was in, so her name became Beauty.
Since I was getting into spinning, I decided I wanted some angora rabbits. That was the next quest. Rabbits are fun indeed, but hand picking the angora can be time consuming. We now have four rabbits.
We also acquired a cashmere doe we named Tulip because of the white Tulip on her forehead.
In between time we have had turkeys, peacocks, pheasants and guinea. We still have the pheasant. Having guineas as close to town as we are was not working well.
Finding someone to breed our goats was a problem. After a year of them not being bred, we decided to do something about it and get a buck. Now, I did not want just any old buck, I wanted an angora. We searched high and low for one when a friend called with a phone number of a lady a county away that raised them. I called her and went to pick up our buck. We named him Leonardo, or Leo for short.
Last August, for my birthday, we added a pair of Leicester Longwool sheep – Johnny and Pearl. I wanted them for the fiber but more importantly I wanted to help preserve an endangered breed. They are the sweetest of all the animals, very obedient, very loving and very shy.
In early summer we were blessed with seven baby goats – two does, Faith and Victoria.
Five boys whom we wethered – Rembrant – a cashgora, Cyrus, Raphael, Nutmeg and Cinnamon.
We raise most of our own food – fruits, vegetables and herbs. We butcher the extra roosters when necessary. We are working to learn to live off of our own land. I have a greenhouse that allows me to grow tropical plants year round and start seedlings in the spring. We garden outdoors year round with the help of cold frames. We can, dehydrate, ferment and the list goes on.
I hope you will come with us on our journey to self-sufficiency. Hopefully you will pick up some survival skills along the way!
Filed under About Us by on Oct 27th, 2009. Comment.
