Garden Update

I'm just hopping on here today to give a quick photo update of the kitchen garden. It's not doing too bad.

~ Blueberries ~

~ Yellow Brandywine Tomatoes ~

~ Broccoli ~

~ Carrots ~

~ Corn ~

~ Green Beans ~

~ Mr. Stripey Tomatoes ~

~ Pole Lima Beans ~

~ Spinach ~

I hope all of your gardening plans are going well.
Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  Genesis 8:22

** This Is Not A Sponsored Post **

Bunnies & Poults, Oh My!!

I am very happy to report that all of our bunnies are doing great! Here is the post from earlier about our "Nest Box Week".

~ Thrianta Doe fostering Giant Chinchilla Rabbit kits ~
~ 7 day old Thrianta ~ 9 day old GCs ~
(from 4-20-18)

Under any other circumstances, it never would have occurred to me to foster Giant Chinchilla kits to a Thrianta doe. The Thrianta are a substantially smaller breed than the GCs. However, in this case,we were so afraid of loosing the Thrianta's single kit that it was more important to have nest mates for it. So far, so good. They are all gaining weight well and don't seem to be too much for Clover, our amazing doe. She took them with no problems.

~ 9 day old white Giant Chinchilla kits ~
(from 4-20-18)

Now, this is something else that you don't usually see in our rabbitry, white Giant Chinchilla rabbits. Although we have had a total of three white GCs born in our barn, they appeared individually, over the years to different does and never more than one at a time. We couldn't have been more shocked to find four whites all in the same litter. They are adorable......

~ Week old Turkey Poult ~
(from 4-23-18)

4H is a wonderful experience for kids and I think all young people should participate in at least one club in the course of growing up. For our family, 4H clubs seem to be more like potato chips, we can't have just one. Oh no, we don't stop with just one. This year, Curly has signed up for the turkey project. Here's one of the poults that she was given. She is responsible for raising them and delivering at least one to fair in August. Wish us luck because we know nothing about turkeys. Thanks in advance!!

~ 15 day old Giant Chinchilla rabbit kit ~
(from 4-26-18)

Lastly, here's what a GC kit is supposed to look like. These gorgeous kits are getting so big!! Aren't they adorable.
Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

"Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, [and] look well to thy herds."
  Proverbs 27:23

We Have Mulch!!!

We have 11 cubic yards of mulch, to be exact. This is part of our new garden plan. And these are my three crazy helpers...... doing what they do best, being silly.

~ 11 cubic yard of mulch & 3 crazy kids ~

The method of gardening that has worked best for us goes by several names but we simply call it intensive, raised bed gardening. We decided that we wanted to make life easier on ourselves and mulch the walkways between the beds so that we don't have to mow. Sounded great..... until the mulch arrived. Now comes all the work in moving the mulch into the garden. Somehow this didn't seem nearly that big of a job when we were talking about it. Is it just me or do others make more work for themselves by trying to make life easier?


I hope all of your gardening plans are going well.
Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  Genesis 8:22

PA Farm Show ~ Livestock

I thought that I would be able to get all my pictures from the PA Farm Show posted last week. That just didn't happen so I will be posting the rest this week. Today I'm sharing the pictures of general livestock that I took. Our family isn't involved in livestock yet so I really don't have anything to write about most of these images. Feel free to share your information with me in the the comment section below. I'd love to learn more about the breeds that we saw.

Jersey Dairy Cows at the PA Farm Show 2018

Holstein Dairy Cow at the PA Farm Show 2018

Holstein Dairy Cow at the PA Farm Show 2018

Pigs at the PA Farm Show 2018

Lambs and Sheep at the PA Farm Show 2018

Boar Goats at the PA Farm Show 2018

Nigerian Dwarf Goats at the PA Farm Show 2018

Sign for Lamp Oil Farm at the PA Farm Show 2018

I do want to stop and share with you this image of the sign above one of the goat pens. We stayed and chatted with the owners of Lamp Oil Farm for quite a long time. They were very pleasant and shared a lot of wonderful information with us about their Nigerian Dwarf goats. In addition to breeding and selling livestock they also sell goat's milk soap.

Goat Display at the PA Farm Show 2018

Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

 "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." Genesis 1:24

PA Farm Show ~ Horses

We spent a good deal of time in the horse building peeking into every stall and petting as many horses at the owners would allow. The children had a great time. Next year I need to make a point to go and see the horses when they are in the large arena. I really enjoy seeing them pulling carriages and the children would really enjoy the barrel racing too.

Horses at the PA Farm Show 2018

Miniature Horse at the PA Farm Show 2018

Horse at the PA Farm Show 2018

Horse at the PA Farm Show 2018

Large Fancy Wagon in the Horse Building at the PA Farm Show 2018

Horse Equipment at the PA Farm Show 2018

Petting Horses at the PA Farm Show 2018

Advertisement for CATRA Miniature Horse Extravaganza at the PA Farm Show 2018

Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

Connect

Facebook * Instagram

"Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body." James 3:3 

First Litter Of The Year

We are proud to introduce our newest additions to the rabbitry.

Litter of 6 Red Mini Rex kindled 3/30/17. Tops X Rex

Tops kindled on 3/30/17 and gave us 6 perfectly formed, beautiful red Mini Rex kits. No dead and no birth injuries. She was so small that we really didn't think she took at all. The only signal that we got from her was the beautiful nest she made.... well in advance. 

Litter of 2 Red Mini Rex kindled 3/31/17. Emily X Rex.

Emily, on the other hand, was huge. She made no nest and had just two little rolly pollies. She did finally dig a hole and line it with a bit of fur, so we're thankful.

We are also very thankful that Emily is such a great milk producer. At two days old, Tops's litter of 6 weren't looking too hot. Their ribs were showing and we knew we would start loosing them if we didn't step in. Emily was a great, very patient, nurse. She fattened all 6 in just a few minutes. 

That must have been all the help Tops needed because her entire litter has been doing well ever since. She has been able to maintain their growth with no more assistance. We are keeping a close eye on them, just in case. 

I'll keep you posted on updates. Both of these does, and the sire, produce beautiful kits. We can't wait until they start jumping around and can come out of their nests to play. 

Connect On Facebook and Instagram

Fall Planting ~ Walking Onions

Hello and welcome back to my little spot on the web. I spent some time this morning working in the kitchen garden and wanted to share the fun with you. Last year I tore apart my garden and remade my raised beds. The bed that I was working in this morning was filled with used pine bedding from the rabbits. When I turned it over, it was teaming with worms and bugs. It is composting very well and since I always have a lot of extra Walking Onion sets, I figured that this would be a great place to plant them.

Egyptian Walking Onion bulbs newly harvested

Egyptian Walking Onions newly planted

As for the onions bulbs that I dug and didn't replant, those came into the house, got cleaned up, and went into my breakfast. I make it a habit to eat two fresh eggs each morning. This morning I opted for poached eggs over fried onions and zucchini, garnished with cherry tomatoes, and topped with a dash of salt and pepper. Yum!!! What a great breakfast.

I hope you are having a lovely time in your garden as we head into cooler temperatures. Don't forget about extending your harvest with fall planting and season extenders, such as cold frames and row covers.



Here's a photo glimpse of the wonders that met me this morning:

Volunteer gourds growing on the fence

Monarch Caterpillar

For more great images from our Quaint Cottage, check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/myquaintcottage/

I hope you have a marvelous harvest!!

Peaceful Mornings At The Cottage - June 2016

Spring is in full flow and we are off to a great start. Here are a few pictures that I captured over the course of the month and a video compilation. We've been so busy, I really don't have time for anything more. We've found that Instagram has been a lot of fun. Feel free to visit our page at https://www.instagram.com/myquaintcottage.

Two Week Old Giant Chinchilla Rabbit

Pretty Purple Wildflowers

Pretty White Wildflowers

Pretty Yellow Wildflowers

Fun At The Festival

We had so much fun at our local harvest festival this past weekend. Here's some pictures from my favorite vendors.