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!

 



Some good reads!

Last night as we said goodnight

 

After dinner it was so hard to stay inside. The sun was still out and the wind had actually stopped, so Ayla and I went to walk around and check on the critters.

Ms. Silver was out in the garden late, busy as ever turning the ground looking for bugs!

They love to root around in the old bedding I have been putting out on the garden all Winter, makes a good place to hunt for bugs. With all the clucking she was doing, it drew the attention of the rest, so they came to join in the hunt!

The goats were in bedtime mode and were following us around like ducks, they just wanted to go to bed, but we were out so, something was up, they just couldn't figure it out. Before we had gone in Ayla was lucky to get a goat hug from Ms. Jojo.

The only animal not so happy with our walk was Mr. Bayne, we apparently interrupted a rat hunt. Ears back he left his spot, tail a twitching with his disapproval of it all.

I hadn't checked on my Japanese Magnolia in awhile and kept thinking I had seen buds on it when I was getting into the car, so we rounded out the evening by going up front to see that yes, she is ready to bloom!

It was such a pretty evening, I had to share Cranberry Acre when it gets ready to go to bed. Even the sun that was getting ready to slip behind the mountain was beautiful. I wouldn't change a thing about this place, not one.

 

 

Update on the Blog

I have tried to keep the Blog going on an everyday schedule and find it pretty hard to do. I have a lot to say but finding the time to write it down is crazy! I think I am going to go to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday Post schedule, so it is easier to do and gives me a few days to be off the computer and get some other things done! Being new at this, I thought I could do this every day and 2 weeks in I'm not to sure an everyday Post is what I should do. Hope you all can bear with me as I try to find a schedule that works for the farm, oh yes and me :)

 

Some books that I have and Love!

 

You will find all this information on the "Barn and it's critters" page also.

 

Wanted to share some books that I think are a must have for a small farm. Now I’ve been around animals all my life and have been in Veterinary medicine for 13 years, but I couldn’t have done it without the help of these books and probably would have made bigger mistakes.

One of these books is “ The Backyard Homestead: Guide to raising Farm Animals”.

This book is a great guide for what you need, and treas of animals on your farm.

Another book that helps with your layout on an acre or less is , " The Backyard Homestead".

Great Book and my first when I thought about the layout to our one acre farm. A must have I believe before you start!

Now if you are going to try to have a farm with critters, you need to know about what types of miniature livestock is out there. This book helped us decide on what would be more beneficial to our one acre farm and would fit in size, at Cranberry Acre.

Also Stoey's guide to chickens is a great starter book for the feathered critters!

A book which was such a great find at a yardsale, you may be able to find it on ebay or Amazon, I have seen them there. Is "Farmer's Shop Book". It was written in th elate 20's early 30's and is wonderful. The knowledge in this book is amazing and has things you never would have thought of. Everything you thought you needed to buy, well this book tell's you how to make it. I will time to time post some things from this book to help share in it's rich knowledge.

For my garden I have used this one many times for ideas and help, " The New Organic Grower".

I believe this is a staple in many planters personal Libraries.



 

What a beautiful Morning!

 

Correction on the Garden Page!

First I need to give you an update on the Garden Page, I didn't put a date down for when you should start your seeds inside, sorry. I have put the dates that I start my seeds inside, on that page now. The dates that were there, are when I put them outside. Whoops, still pretty new on this Blog writing, but I'm getting it I believe.

 

 So Pretty this morning, but so cold!

Letting the dog out there was the most beautiful sunrise.

Then I looked to my left and saw the moon.

It was just so peaceful to see. It will be a great day, the sunrise and a chance to glimpse at the moon before it goes to sleep, it was just great!

Now don't get me wrong it's cold this morning, 29 degrees to be exact, but the sunrise says it will be nice, which means I may get to go out and play in the compost!

Cranberry Acre was quite this morning, no one wanted to get up at all.

Jojo and the babies wouldn't even move when I came out to feed. Staying as close as they could to the chickens heat lamp! Ms. Sparkles tried to get up with me to do a walk of the farm but only really made it to the stairs and turned around.

Don't blame her one bit!

I walked out as I do most mornings to check on my fruit trees and vines, the sparrows were busy fighting over something on the ground and I was able to snap a picture before lift off.

These mornings I love, this is why I farm. Ms. Silver took her morning walk with me. She is sometimes hard to photograph due to her being on my heels as I walk the grounds. She is such a sweet bird.

On our walk I lifted the cold frame glass a bit to let the strawberries breath, the frost had covered the glass, making such a pretty design. The drawings of Jack Frost I guess, well he's pretty amazing and I would love to meet him some day to thank him!

 

Now the others on the farm, let's just say they aren't as excited about cold and frosty morning walks! I found the 3 Stooges and Red still on the roost, Ms. Bella curled under the hay loft stairs trying to go back to sleep.

Now of course my two little escape artist, were out in the pasture picking away! On their new morning adventure. Wish sometimes I could be them, they seem to be having so much fun out there scratching and talking. If it were that easy.

After some errands this morning, I'm off to start seeds! I have a couple of ways of doing them and will show you the three ways. I will post most of the pictures and instructions on the "Garden" page, but will tell you when I have posted it on there. Before I go as promised, I have posted the instructions to my homemade laundry detergent. We have been using this for a few months now and haven't noticed a difference in our clothes. Kinda nice to 100% know what is in your cleaners that you are using. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. 

 

Homemade Laundry Detergent!

 

I am going to put this on my page for "Items I love", but first I thought I would post it for you all here.

During the time when I was trying to figure out what I was allergic to, I decided to finally make our own Laundry detergent. This recipe is pretty easy and very cheap! So all of that is good for me. I have since this time added a new ingredient, which is color safe bleach powder, but I'll get to this in a min.

You will first need to get your ingredients which are:

Borax powder

 

Arm and Hammer Washing soda( not baking soda)

 

Oxi clean or something like it

A bar of soap ( something you use or Felts Napa, Ivory)

 

Color safe bleach powder

A bowl that is large enough to stir everything in

 

Easy part is this 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Washing soda.

I put in 1/4 cup of Oxi (or an equivalent) and a 1/4 cup of color safe bleach powder.

EASY!

 

Hard part, grate your soap! Yep grate your soap.

You will want to use this side of your grater:

The shavings will be smaller and easier to stir in with the rest of the ingredients. Now you can save the chips of soap that you have left from your showers to use in this, instead of buying soap to use. It is truly up to you. I have started to do this at our home.

Now I would suggest not using this side of your grater. The chunks are to big for me and I use this in my high efficiency washer, I really didn't want to chance any type of build up.

 



In this picture you can kinda see the strips of soap and their size.

I only use about 2 tablespoons in my washer for a load of clothes. That is it! Now if I have a load of nasty yucky, God knows what the kids have gotten into load of laundry, I use 4 tablespoons.

Now for the price of it all.

Box of Borax $3.94

Washing soda $3.99

I get my oxi equivalent at the Dollar Tree $1.00

Also my powder color safe bleach there for $1.00

Ivory soap 3 for $1.79

Total

$11.72

This fills my laundry container about half way and lasts, well so far, I've made this one in January and will probably be using this for the next 2 to 3 months. When I bought Laundry detergent it would cost me around $14.00 and only last me for about a month.This is lasting us anywhere from 5 months to 6 months! With living on a budget, this recipe for me is a no brainier in saving money.

Bag on Etsy

Handbag on Etsy

 

I had time today to put this handbag on Etsy. I wanted everyone to know that I'm finally, but slowly getting items on there. Hard to find a model for my aprons and clothes, but this handbag is now on there for purchase!

Project day!!!!!

Before I get to the project....

What a surprise yesterday to get a call from the school of a 2 hour delay, I can't tell you how it felt to know I would also be delayed on my seed starts! By 8:30 am our little farm looked like this and the school called to say they were canceled!

The monument was beautiful....

Other than that, I really couldn't find the beauty in it all this time. Just disappointment of knowing that another day of frozen earth, no seed starts. I'm almost at the point today of going to the store and buying a bag, but feel if Mother Nature is doing this maybe there is a reason for it all.

We ventured out into the snow around 9:30 am there was already about an inch of snow, maybe more, never really good with the measurement thing. The animals had finally decided to come out of the barn to eat. JoJo and her kids that is. Bella and Sparkles wanted nothing to do with that snow.

Our whole farm was covered in a thick blanket of white and we had no idea how long it would stick around. Yesterday it snowed all day until about 3pm, the sun came out, but it was bone cold with the wind. Cranberry Acre started to move around a little. Even the big babies finally came out!

 

Mr Bayne removed himself from my bed finally to see the world around that time also.

 

Seemed like we were finally done with the snow, except for that darn wind, just soooo cold. Well this morning we were awakened by the phone at 5:30 am to say they were delayed again. Yep snow during the night, but at least it was a dusting and not several inches, so they will be going to school!

 

Had to share some darling pictures of my daughter Aylas and Mr. Luther. I have a tub of Greek yogurt to use up so Ayla gave him a treat last night. Luther has gotten to the point when he sees a syringe he comes running to be fed. We have created a monster!

It was just a cute moment to see them like that. Might be the mom in me, but I was so proud to see her wanting to learn these things. All of my knowledge is moving on to my children. In this day and age it is so hard to show your children the importance of these things and have it stick. There is so much distraction out there, with the newest gadgets, that children get wrapped up in it. It brings a smile to my face to see we have done our job here, they know there is more to life and accomplishment can be, saving the life of an animal here on the farm. That is a job well done on a farm! Everything is worth it to me in times like this, that is why I wanted to share it with you all. Ayla enjoys the farm life and loves everything about it, she is the next generation, there is hope!

 

A fun thing to do.

 

I thought I would share a fun thing to do with your whole family. Tile decorating! I had seen on Pinterest, where people were doing plates and coffee mugs this way, I had tiles from a different art project and thought to myself, why not draw on tiles? I sat down with some Sharpie markers,

and started to draw. I doodle all the time so this was a great project while I sat down with the kids at night.

This is what you need:

Some nice white tiles ( I use 4x4 tiles because this is what I have) or use some old tiles that someone wants to throw away!

Rubbing alcohol

Sharpie Markers

Baking sheet

Oh yes an Oven!

 

Directions:

First you will need to wipe down the tiles with Rubbing Alcohol and let them air dry. This is when I doodle on some paper to see what I may want to do on the tiles in front of me. Now you draw on your tile. Don't worry about making a mistake, I found that the Sharpie marker will wipe off pretty well if you do, but this also means you need to make sure you do not drag your hand across the tile as you draw, it will smear! While you are doing this pre heat your oven to 350 degrees. I cover my baking sheet with aluminum foil, because I also bake with these and sometimes when they are washed by the kids, and things are left behind, which makes it sticky! You can do whatever you feel like doing, I just know my baking wear sometimes isn't washed they way I want them :), so we cover for this project!

( I know in this picture it wasn't covered, I just placed the already finished on a cookie sheet to show you what to do)

 Place the tile on the baking sheet and bake for 30 min. This is very IMPORTANT, after 30 mins, turn off the oven and leave the tiles in there to cool. I say important, because the first batch I did, they set the marker, but when I washed it, the marker came off. The ones I left in there to cool overnight I have washed with a cloth, NOT a scrubby pad, several times and the maker has stayed on.

 

I am going to use mine as artwork in the house, by framing the tiles with old barn wood. I have a glass cutter for my drill press and I am going to let the kids do some as Christmas ornaments for family, as presents. We will just glue down some felt to the back of them and also glue some decorative ribbon alone the edge to make it look pretty. I could also see these being used as a back splash or coasters, I believe you could do whatever with these and turn them into great keep sakes for someone. Have fun we have had a blast!