Time In The Garden

We've been so busy with baseball and soccer games that we haven't had any time in the garden, until yesterday. It was amazing that we actually had a Friday evening available. Thankfully, we took advantage of the overcast weather and got a lot accomplished.

We are still in the process of putting our garden back together. At this point we are weeding and filling the border beds. Those beds are two feet deep and run around the outside of our garden area. We don't have all the border beds installed. Hopefully that will be finished this year as well.

We started off with a short border bed, weeding it and filling it with a mixture of top soil and mushroom soil. We were able to plant two rows of Giant Stringless bush beans. In total we used 53 seeds, planted 3" apart (the seed package said to plant them 1" apart) and the rows are 6" apart. We've never had any luck with beans so we are hoping for the best.

Continuing around to the second bed in the border, we transplanted all the broccoli plants that were growing in the house. We have a nice tradition of putting milk jugs over them for protection. The bottoms of the jugs are cut off. This acts as a make shift green house as well as keeping the wild life from eating our sprouts.

The next bed that was weeded and filled was planted with Spinach and carrots. We used to grow Bloomsfield Long Standing every year but had gotten away from it. I'm excited to see how well it grows for us again. We really like spinach and I'm hoping that the weather stays cool so we can get a good crop out of it.

This is our first year trying Short 'n Sweet carrots. They look similar to the half longs that we usually grow so they should be fine. When we grow in mushroom soil, our carrots generally tend toward peppery, so we'll have to wait and see how sweet they get.

The last bed that we got to was planted with Harris Model Parsnips and Purple Top White Globe Turnips. This will be the first year that we have even tried to grow these. I have no idea what we will do with them if they do grow. I figured that since we have had these seeds since 2011, it was about time to plant them.

Of course, I can't leave out that we lined all of our border beds with walking onions. You will find that we are in the habit of always lining all of our produce beds with walking onions. The truth of the matter is that we have such an over abundance of them that they get planted everywhere. We are thankful for the blessing. They are also a great deer deterrent....... so far.

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

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

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"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

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Rabbit Breeding For Fair

The children really had a lot of fun last year at fair with their rabbits. If they want to have more for this year's fair, we need to try and breed them again.

~ 8 Week Old Mini Rex Rabbits ~
(from Oct 2015)

If all went well we will have full nest boxes in about 30 days.
Here's who we bred:

4-17-18

~ Thrianta Rabbit                     Luke x Snips

4-18-18

~ Dwarf Hotot                          Caleb x Royal

~ Mini Rex (red)                       Rex x Tops

~ Mini Rex (red)                       Ralph x Emily

4-20-18

~ Mini Rex (red)                       Ralph x Squeeky

5-2-18

~ Giant Chinchilla Rabbit         OB1 x Rosebud

~ Sissy's Fawn Flemish Giant Rabbits ~
~ About 8 Weeks Old ~
(from Jan 2016)

Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

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

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!

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

Garden Mulch Update

Can you believe that we are almost finished moving all of that mulch that we ordered for the garden. (See the original post here) I thought that we'd never be finished with it. What's more surprising is that it's snowed several times, as well as rained a lot, since we first had the mulch delivered.

I can tell you that I am thrilled that it's almost all in the garden.... Then we can get the 14 cubic yards of topsoil x mushroom soil mix delivered, to fill the raised beds...... once we put all of those back in the garden as well.

I'm beginning to wonder why we signed up for such a huge overhaul of our garden. However, I'm staying optimistic that all of this work at the beginning will lead to less work over the course of the season and into next year.


Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

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"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

Nest Box Update

Spring means breeding bunnies here at the cottage and this was nest box week. We've had some great news and some tragedies. We're keeping our fingers crossed that everything will come up roses from here on out. Here is the post detailing who was bred last month.

Our first baby came on Monday and we almost lost it. Momma didn't have it in the nest area (and hadn't even really made a decent nest), instead it was found half hanging out the door, cold and limp. The children brought it in, thinking it was dead. However, once we got it warmed up, it immediately started moving around. The second baby was found around 4am Tuesday morning, strong and healthy, but again not in the nest area (again, there wasn't a nice nest made). By Tuesday night this same Momma bunny had made a beautiful nest, lined with fur and delivered 10 more rolly polly babies. We are hopeful that she is able to keep all 12, as we've never had a doe keep more than 9 before.

~ 6 Day Old Giant Chinchilla Kits ~
(from a previous litter)

Our second litter was the tragic one. The entire litter was delivered before dawn and crawled out of the nest... and chilled to death. Three were big and healthy but warming them up didn't help to revive them. The fourth was a peanut and wouldn't have survived anyway. The poor Mamma bunny was stomping and sniffing in her nest looking for her babies. Such a sad sight. She got extra attention and treats but spent the day searching for what was lost.

Next I'll share with you the biggest surprise of the week. On Friday, one of our oldest does decided to kindle a single kit. I was so shocked. I allowed the children to breed her but never expected her to take. With the cold evenings, we were afraid that we would loose her baby so we gave her two more. We took the smallest two from the overly large litter, for her to foster. All are doing well so far.

Sadly, we did have another doe that lost her litter. She passed one very large kit that looked as though it hadn't fully formed. I doubt that it was alive when she kindled.

So, of the seven does that were bred only four kindled. Not good odds but better than nothing. We generally don't breed so early in the year, while it's still cold. 

Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

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

Starting Seeds ~ 2018 Kitchen Garden

~ Starting Seeds In Yogurt Cups ~

I've never had much luck with the seed starting kits that you can buy at the garden supply store. Instead I opt to re-use single serve yogurt cups and potting soil. I'm really liking these clear Stonyfield yogurt cups because the paper label isn't glued down.

~ Big Boy Starting Seeds ~

I had planned on starting seeds at the beginning to middle of March but we have gotten a little behind. Here's what we were supposed to have finished already:

Seeds To Start Indoors 5-6 Weeks Before Last Frost (March 6-13)

Broccoli

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Eggplant

Peppers

Sweet Potatos

Tomatoes

So far we've started Yellow Brandywine tomatoes, Red Brandywine tomatoes, Mr. Stripey tomatoes, Sugar Lump tomatoes, Pepperocini peppers, Red Cherry peppers, and Black Beauty eggplant. With 9 varieties of peppers, 2 varieties of eggplant and 7 varieties of tomatoes in our seed inventory, we have some decisions to make. Should we plant a few of each variety or a lot of a few varieties? We are currently leaning hard on planting only a few varieties. 

Seeds To Plant In The Garden 2-4 Weeks Before Last Frost (March 20 - April 3)

Beets

Carrots

Celery

Peas

Potatoe

Radish

We are squarely in the middle of this time frame. However, I'm not sure when we will get to planting seeds outside as we took down the garden a few weeks ago and haven't set it back up yet. What I mean by that is that we took all the raised beds out of the garden area and spread out the small amount of soil that was left in them.

We had a load, 11 cubic yards, of mulch delivered and then it snowed. We are currently waiting for the 13" of snow to melt so we can get to the mulch. It will be moved to the garden area and spread out as a base, so we don't have to worry about mowing between the beds. Once the mulch is spread out, we can put the beds where we want them and have a load of topsoil and mushroom soil delivered...... and moved to fill up the beds.

Our new time frame is to have the garden put back together and everything planted, as listed on this page, by the end of April. Wish us luck!!

Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

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"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

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Spring Snow Days

Just because Spring is here doesn't mean that we are guaranteed immediate flowers and butterflies. It's not unusual for us to have frost and even snow in March and April. This year is no exception. We got hit with about 13" of snow between Tuesday and Wednesday. It was very pretty coming down..... but eventually, someone gets to go shovel it off the driveway (and sidewalk).

13" of Snow ~ March 21, 2018

13" of Snow ~ March 21, 2018

We had fun shoveling and were very thankful for the snow blower. I didn't take the time to get any pictures of the kids playing in it, and I'm sure that I will regret it later. Curly managed to take lots of pictures around the property and even one of her brother. Here's our Big Boy being silly, leaning in a snow pile. Don't ask why he took off his gloves, I have no idea. Hahaha! Goofy boy.

~ Big Boy Playing In The Snow ~ March 21, 2018

Thankfully, I have pictures from past years. Here's a couple of fun pictures that we took in March 2014.

~ The boys making snow angles ~ March 2014 ~

~ Big Boy is having fun in the snow ~ March 2014 ~

Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

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"She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet."
 Proverbs 31:21