The Farm layout

This weekend, was full of the unexpected!
Saturday was just a really busy day and with all the rain I knew I would have to stay in and sew. I was able to get the barn cleaned early in the morning before the rain came, so I felt a little accomplishment, but still no seeds in the cold frame. I have now bought some soil, and gave up on the compost and will use the compost later in the season. What a great day, you could see the grass turning greener by every rain drop, the peeper frogs were out that night singing and the night crawlers were all over the yard, yes Spring!
Noooooo, on Sunday I woke to this,

I could have screamed. but later on during the day, the sun came out and it looked pretty, but the wind was horrible. The goats were fine with it, but Ms. Puffy Cheeks, well....

I thought at times she would be blown away. Every time she turned just right her feathers would fluff up and she looked like she was going for a ride. With winds close to 60 mph I'm surprised she didn't!

Ms. Silver found a way to hide from it all by getting under my sliding glass door  for the cold frame and dusting herself, her own little tanning bed. She stayed there most of the afternoon, sunning and dusting.

Mr. Luther this morning was very pushy! He insisted that he needed to be in the house and I wasn't going to have it, so he chewed my shirt and left a hole. He still didn't make it in the house, so there Luther!

Maple tree out front greeted me with it's flowers of Spring, pollen will soon be everywhere. Covering cars, plants and whatever else it can settle on, but it does mean Spring is here.

I have lost 2 peach trees last Spring, it was confirmed this Spring when no buds were found on them. Hurts to loose trees like that, and to rain, to much of it, Oh Well, but in my cold frame I have found 2 baby peach trees. Don't know how they got there, but I am planning to dig them out and get them in pots until they are large enough to not get trampled by the Stooges!

 This morning I got very lucky and was able to score some pallets and hopefully an endless supply of them from a neighbor. I paid nothing and this solves the money issue for a decorative fence for my garden! Plans are to use these pallets for a fence for the garden space! So happy!

I had all the help that you wouldn't ask for, but made for great pictures! Ms. Griffin thought it necessary to inspect the situation.

Ms. Sparkles thought she would help by chewing on my truck!

Ms. Griffin had it covered, from front to back, she walked around in the truck, until she got board and helped me try to put them in the Orchard space. Life with goats is never boring!

Now for the Farm Layout, thought it would be nice for everyone to get an idea of the layout here on Cranberry Acre. Also some new items were put on Etsy, if interested just go to the "Things for sale" page and take a look!

Cranberry Acre

 

People always have the same question when I tell them that I Homestead an Acre with animals, How is that possible? I think we ran full charge when we first attempted the idea, but then realized that with a little better planning it could work! We were very lucky on the layout of our house. The old farm house sat near the front of our one acre, allowing the back to be used as we needed. I have done my best to draw out the layout of our one acre as she will sit by the end of the year.

 

I know pretty rough, but I think you can see what we have done. Now this is the drawing of the dreaded fence being moved back from my side entrance. and also the milking shed will be a new addition this year ( I hope).  Everything else is what sits here now. We have made use of every square inch of our one acre. I'm sure along the way we find a better way to do things, but I think this is the layout that is going to stay for awhile.

We decided to split the back yard into two pastures, to allow rotation of the fields. We will now have a Spring, Winter field and a Summer, Fall field. This will help us on seeding for grass and also help in parasite management.

Behind the barn there is an enclosure, this is our chicken pen for the Summer and Fall. I lock up the girls during this time to allow my garden to grow. At the end of the growing season, we allow the girls to roam freely throughout the orchard and garden areas. Now in time I may go ahead and put a decorative fence up around the garden, to allow the girls out, but that will probably go on my husband's dreaded list, as he calls it.

Our garden and orchard area is also where we can go to relax. I knew it was going to be hard to try and balance out our family space with the animal space, but we are managing. This is one of the reasons why we went to Dairy Goats and not cows!

 

Dairy goats have small fecal matter!

We still do some entertaining in the Summer and Fall and use our backyard for this, so let's just say cow patties are kinda hard to miss in a yard, so we have goats. This was one of the main reason for these animals, we want to use our yard without being so overwhelmed with animal matter, plus have milk.

We live pretty close to other houses, actually a housing development now, so we wanted our farm to not be such an eye sore. It's hard at times. You need to be aware of just the smells and how loud your critters are. This is why it took so many years for me to get Guinea fowl, I was scared that this would be the straw that broke the camels back, but to my surprise, my Guineas don't seem to be the problem. It's a neighbors dog that barks, that is the talk of the neighborhood; they say they didn't even know we had them. I most have rare Guineas.

I hope this helps in seeing how it is. Pictures are great, but seeing a blueprint gives you a better idea of how the one acre is laid out. Yes it is possible and yes it's a lot of work, but any farm is work!