Rainy Days

Where's the boat?

It has just been raining buckets here in Virginia. My girls had gotten to the point of looking for the high ground to stay dry. Every time you walk in the yard or pasture, water runs up to the top of the ground.

We will need the rain, but right now the animals have had enough and I think we have too. My Orchard has not been mowed so it looks like we could cut for hay!  

Jojo got so sick of the water she jumps up here to get out of the wet. We have had breaks in the rain but not many. Today we have been lucky and we see sunshine, but they are talking about rain again for the rest of the week. I will never get my garden tilled at this rate.

Mr. Luther hiding from the girls. Everyone is in heat so poor Luther has been loved on by all the girls. He has truly just had enough of them and spent the day hiding.

Well we had a stranger in the barn. I sent the kids out one night to get the eggs and I knew where they were so I could make sure they were checking for them. Kids came back with 3 less eggs then they should have had in the basket. I sent the kids back out and they came back with no eggs. Ayla proceeded to tell me that she saw the eggs but when she had gone to the hayloft and came back down, they were gone. I thought we have a snake and I was okay with that, but we did not. We had a young raccoon, who thought he was getting a free meal, he was not. We caught him and he was released in a wooded area away from chickens! This was our excitement last week.

With all this rain it has given me time to push out more aprons and also

Some new bird feeders, so when you get a chance check out my Etsy store and see what is new, on my page "Things for sale". 

I am hoping that the rain will stop and I will have more on the garden and the re model of the barn.

Spring is finally here at Cranberry Acre!!

SPRING!!

Like everyone, Cranberry Acre has been waiting for Spring to come. We finally can say that Spring is here. We are so happy, to see green and the signs of warmer weather. This year we actually got to see our daffodils bloom. Last year with all the cold weather surprises, we never got to see them, but were overjoyed to see them this year. These Daffodils came from a garden that is over 70 years old and I was so excited to see them.

I wanted to show everyone that yes, these bird feeders can make it through the snow and ice. This bird feeder spent the whole season outside. People have a hard time believing that they do not break in the cold, granted they could like any other bird feeder in the weather. Yes it is glass, but yes it did survive!

Last years babies are all grown up. It is so sad to see them as adults, I miss the little ones, but we are not getting any new babies, due to the fact that we are going to get some work done on the home that is going to involve us not being here, I have decided that re homing would not be far to new chickens. I have decided to allow Nature to take it's course and when the house work starts, maybe we will not have so many animals to place during the fixes.

Oh yes, Larry and Curly are doing fine without their Moe. they have taken up with a chicken in our flock, Red, so they do not seem so lonely anymore. They have been rascals and have caused some pain in the flock.

Ms. Fudge has a ligament tear from or dear Larry, who decided after 3 days in the hay loft that she would take a chicken out of the hay loft with her.

Pretty much Ms. Fudge was thrown out of the hay loft and she did not land right at all. She is still laying eggs but is limping around and is now living in the Laundry room. She hates the whole thing but, she needs to heal. We have started to let her out in a small run so she is not so lonely, but she is not happy at all. I do hope soon she will be able to be released back to the flock, but for now she is in the house with us at night.

Lovey Duck, has found her place at our farm. She is a little bossy but the chickens do not seem to care. She slept in teh barn with the goats all Winter and was not bothered by them. Many mornings she can be found at the front door of the barn, almost guarding it.

With Spring comes a deep cleaning of the barn. With all the snow this year it was hard to clean the barn as much as we normally do, so a deep clean was in order. With some of the cleaning we could do during the Winter, we just add all that compostable material to our garden spot. 

With doing this we end up with these huge mounds of barn waste in the garden spot. In the Winter I just do not have the gumption to spread it out, it's too cold and just miserable in the Winter to do such a thing.

I just spread it out in the Spring on a warm day, which I did this past weekend. I usually spread this out and then we will do our first till in a week or so.

Our garden space is smaller this year. With me getting sick last year with Lyme disease, I decided to try a smaller garden just so it would be easier for everyone to handle.

The old space is going to be used, but for a different use. We hopefully will get the barn addition on it this year. Which will be 5 stalls for the goats. Right now we just have an open plan with the barn, so the goats all sleep in the same area. It works but, I really wanted stalls, so when we do breed everyone has their own birthing rooms. The barn floor is coming out and we are placing gravel and paving stones on the ground. Our chicken area will be moved in the barn and the stairs are going and being replaced with a ladder and a pulley system. A milking area is going to be put in the main barn area and a grain room. Right behind the new addition is going to be an equipment shed so we can reclaim our woodshed during the warmer seasons and we can fill it all season. A lot of work to be done this year!

Everyone is so happy with the warm weather, because with the warm weather comes green grass and lazy days.

Luther is loving it!

Ms. Pico is soooo loving the warm weather and has made a sleeping nest in the leaves. She will be highly upset with me when I rake thee away from the house.

Our new chicken from last year is fitting in quit well. Ms. Kiwi is loving her new job of sitting on everyone's eggs. She looks around the barn and then finds eggs unattended so she sits on them. She is a great bird and we absolutely love having her here.

My Mother's Day magnolia is blooming, just so pretty! Another sign that Spring is finally here on teh farm.

Pears are in bloom and

our grapes are putting out their leaves. Keeping fingers crossed that a freeze stays away. 

Taking pictures on this sunny day, I was being followed by a very suspicious chicken. Big Momma , kept a very close look st every move I made in the yard. She disapproved of the intrusion. 

Ms. Silver is still with us. She is now somewhere around 6 years of age. Love my old girl, she still rules the roost!

I will leave you with our silly girl Ms. Griffin and her silly smile.

She is still a camera hog and I love her for it. 

Cranberry Acre will be updating the For Sale page soon. We have so many new things that have come out of the sewing room and the garage to share with you all. If you want to see them before I update the page, please feel free to go to the Etsy store.

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/CranberryAcre?ref=hdr_shop_menu