I have no goats on my stairs!!!!

The day is finally here!

 



 

We have had a pretty productive week, yet again at Cranberry Acre. I didn't think, do to time, that we would get this fence moved until Fall, but here it is in the back of my Suburban!

If you remember I have battling the goats on my back stairs.

 

( Winter )

 

Bringing in wood, putting clothes on the line or just trying to simply get out the door!

 

The idea for the fence was to split the back yard into two fields. A Spring and Summer one, then a Fall to Winter field, but we wanted to be able to have the goats go in the barn if they needed to. The solution was to try and make a swing gate to separate the fields at the door of our barn.

 

My husband, Wayne marked all the areas that the poles were going with spray paint X's and measured out our new perimeter. I was so excited!

 

 

He then started digging out each hole and setting them with concrete.

 

This is the swing gate that will separate each field and still allow the animals back in the barn when they need to be. We had to purchase a gate, but we reused most everything else from the old fence line.

My fence is away from my stairs and we have reclaimed some yard back on the side of the house. My husband decided to go ahead and buy an extra gate, so we would have doors for each field. I'm so happy, no more goat Poo on the stairs! The goats.....Well not so happy, it was their sun bathing stairs, so they were not so happy the first morning and we did hear about it.

 

After my first day at the Market I needed new supplies, so I went and had a me day on Monday. I went junking! It was so much fun and I found so much.

I love Junking!

Now I'm having to find time to turn all of this into Bird feeders, but I have gotten almost all of it drilled and ready to go.

 

The babies. these are Wyatt's little babies, Spot and Tiger. They were so cute, but just couldn't stay still. They were jumping and fluttering around in his lap. He told me, "It's Frustrating they just don't listen!" I could only laugh, he knows how I feel as a Mom!

 

Now Ayls's babies, Fudge and Chocolate, they are a different story. They sit in her lap and just fall asleep. Chocolate has started to sleep on her side. I have never seen a chick do that every single time she goes to sleep. We will have to get her a blanket and a bed if she keeps this up.

 

On Sunday Coal and Copper, got to play in the pasture with the big girls. They were good, but the Stooges were not impressed with the strangers and would run up to them with the feathers fluffed out. Coal would just sit there while Copper would look for the cage. I eventually let the girls into the chicken yard so they could play, but keep a safe distance from the Stooges.

 

My husband and I moved the old Guinea house out into the pasture. For awhile the goats could not get up on top until my husband put a stump behind it so they could jump on it. They fight all day to see who will get the honor of standing up there.This time it was their victory!

 

The other stumps, Wayne decided to make a new picnic table with chairs. He used the top off of an old picnic table and attached it to the the larger stump. I am now on the hunt for foam so I can make comfy stools out of the other four. Can't wait to get this done.

 

My Gala trees survived and we have fruit, lots of fruit. It was so nice to see after all those low temps we were getting.

Our Peach tree also looks like it will be giving us fruit this year also. Hopefully this year that crazy rot will not happen, that seemed to hit everyone in this area, because I want Peach Butter this year. I'm down to my last jar. The rest of the garden is doing okay. We had some surprising low temps these past few days and I think we may have gotten some frost. My tomatoes look yucky, but I will see if the bounce back, but everything else looks good.

 

 

Of course I was in the sewing room. Have gotten a lot done and will be posting some new stuff on my Etsy store.

If you live around the area swing by the Farmer's Market in Independence, would love to sit and chit, chat with you, plus all the local goods are amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Babies in the house!!!!

A House Full of Chirps!

 

It has been a fun full week. I was pretty busy getting ready for the opening dat at the Farmer's Market in Independence. One day sewing and the next re purposing objects!

Our new bird feeders!!! These have been so much fun to make and they were a hit at the Market! I will have some of these up for sale on my Etsy store very soon.

 



Also last week we were waiting for our new babies to arrive. Seemed like Thursday would never come, but it did and now we have 10 new babies. In this group we have 4 new pets, the kids and I have agreed on naming the other chicks, Dinner 1 thru 6!

Ms. Ayla watching TV with here new chick "Chocolate", yes I said Chocolate and her other chick is Fudge!

When getting ready for Market, I started the Dryer so clothes would be ready to fold when I got home. Ms. Griffin LOVES the dryer, because she gets her morning facial that way. She will stand under the vent until it stops making sure she gets every side of her face. One very silly goat!

At the Market on Friday I came home with the much anticipated Silky chicks from a friend at the market. Wyatt has been missing his Silky chick since she passed last Fall and just could not wait to receive one again. It was an emotional thing for him. He now is the proud owner of Copper the Silky chick!

Ayla kept changing Charcoal's name every chance she could get, but it has stayed Charcoal( Coal for short ), for at least a day, so we are good!

My laundry room has become a nursery again, filled with little chirps and squeaks, I love it!

I do not know who it is, but one of the Stooges ( Curly or Larry ), is laying eggs. Only problem is she is laying it where ever she wants, so I do not think they are fertile, so I am air drying them due to their neat shape, I kinda like them.

 

Couldn't help myself and on Saturday I ran out to the Goodwill and found some new glass to play with!!!! These are going to be so pretty!

 

On Mother's Day my children presented me with this pretty sculpture from Willow Tree. I love these sculptures a lot. Wayne said the kids picked it and paid for it themselves, it is called "Grateful". I will say, yes I did tear up!

The new babies yesterday got to meet some of the flock. Ms. Red was very interested in them and would cluck at them and lay near them. I think she wants to be a mother. Later on this day lets just say the goats wanted a better look and let them out of the cage! I had to clothes pins on the door. JoJo and Griffin pinched them open and let the babies out. Copper and Coal were fine and the flock loved them. We were able by the end of the night to get them back in he cage, to go back to the nursery.

Ms. Ayla on Mother's Day, decided to get up with me in the morning to help me plant tomatoes and pull weeds from the garden. It was a long morning but we have the plants in and the garden weeded before we get this rain this week. I am so trying to be ahead of the weeds this year. We will see!

Our radishes are up, okra is also coming up and the kale has started to poke it's head out of the ground. I even saw some corn trying to get out, everything seems to be quit happy in the garden. We will be planting cucumbers and squash in the next week or two. Everything seems to be good.

 

Life as a chicken!

Ms. Silver laid out all day, like a lady at the Beach. she had a buddy,

 

Red would join if the Stooges wouldn't come over to step on her. These two just laid around all day, to be a pet chicken on Cranberry Acre is a wonderful life!

As I said it was a busy week here on Cranberry Acre and will be again this week.

 

 

 

 

A Sneak Peak!

We have been crazy busy here on the farm!

 

I know it's not my normal Blog day, but I wanted to share some pictures of what we have been up too the past few days.

Remember those cups I picked up at a Yard sale. Well here they are with a new and I believe improved life!

We made hanging bird feeders out of them.

I am so much in love with these things.

 

The little ceramic cup and cernaic bowl, are now a birdhouse, with a bird feeder!

 

When looking for some new cups, my husband and I came across a lot of cut glass, crystal, some pretty odds and ends, so we created these yesterday.

 

I just love Up cycling things!

 

We even gave an ashtray a better life.

 

Just too much funny really. I will probably have some of these on the Etsy store, but I'm waiting until the weekend just in case we do well at the Market( must think positive thoughts). I have the Farmer's Market in Independence VA, Friday from 9am to 2 pm. I would love to see some of you there, so please come on by and buy some local stuff!

 

Tomorrow we get new babies on Cranberry Acre! I really can't wait to have them here and share their pictures with you all. It has been so quite and lonely here since Corona passed, so the excitement of having babies in the house has filled my heart with joy!

I truly can't wait, I know my husband could, but I can't.

 

 



Everything is Almost in!

Was a busy and great weekend!

 

I don't know about anywhere else this week, but Virginia was just so pretty! We had so much to do on Cranberry Acre, that I was crossing my fingers it would be pretty.

 

I was happy to see that my Lilac bush did survive the freeze about two weeks ago.

We didn't get as many blooms as we should have, but I will take what we did get. The smell is so amazing!

We have a new set of Sparrows in the Orchard. The male sits on top of the birdhouse on constant guard of his home. He is high enough up he is never bothered by me running around out there. He just sits and chirps at me, waits for the female to stick her head out,  then he flies away and comes back to her. Pretty darn cute really.

This same morning the goats were all sorts of weird. They acted as if a stranger had entered the pasture. It's amazing when fear sets in how they act like one big loving family.

I couldn't tell you what they heard or saw, but they had walked around the pasture like this for about a half an hour, then everything went back to normal. Queen Bee Bella, back to bullying everyone in the pasture.

 

Friday I had gotten a load of hay from a good friend and one of the bales had fallen apart, so we dumped it right over the fence. Talk about a love fest, the goats, chickens and even the Stooges, stayed in one place just playing in the hay.

 

Mr. Luther just couldn't handle it and was rolling all over the hay. Made me wonder if there is Goat Nip in the world, because it looked like it on Cranberry Acre that day!

Oh and Ms. Bella picked the biggest and tallest pile of hay, of course she is Queen Bee!

Found some treasures this weekend at a yard sale for less than $1.00. These guys will get turned into something pretty soon. I'm thinking birdhouse, we will see.

 

I have started to have some aches and pains in my hands this past year, so I started keeping my hands busy by knitting. I really hate getting old! I started making these wash clothes( dishcloths), when I sit down at night. It helps my hands to not be so stiff in the morning and I get these neat dishcloths to either sell or use, haven't figured out what I'm going to do yet. I love these for my cast iron pans. They are able to scrub them nicely.

Saturday morning, Ms. Ayla and I got up pretty early to conquer the garden! My potatoes were screaming to be put in the ground and had started to lift the cover of the box I was keeping them in, so we put them in the ground. I had decided to wait longer than usual, due to the weather being so cold, usually I would have gotten things in a lot earlier, but we should be fine.

My little "Minnie Me"!

 

I decided since we are using up old seed that I would let the kids do a lot of the planting this year. It was so much fun. Bless Ayla's little heart I told her about a hands width away and she sat there measuring each potato with her hand, it was so cute.

 

Ayla took the reins on covering up the potatoes.

 

Wyatt finally made it out Saturday and helped us plant the corn. Gardening is not his cup of tea, but he was a trooper!

 

The fun part for Wyatt was getting to us my cultivator. He sat there and  would act like it was a motorcycle and then would proceed in tilling when I gave him the dreaded Mother Look.

 

Even Ms. Ayla got into doing the tilling. She was so tired at the end of it, but had a blast!

 

I tried to take a picture of the lay out of our garden this year. This is the key I made for the layout.

 

Kinda gives you an idea of what is out there in our garden. Now we have not put in our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, or squash. My tomatoes and peppers are still small starts in the cold frame, so I will probably in the next 2 weeks be putting them out.

Now my squash and cucumbers.....I am trying something new. I will be planting my starts inside and then putting them out in the beginning of June. I have been told by an "Old Timer", that if I do this that squash beetles will already be out looking in May, and will move on by June. We will see and I will share in my findings!

My first female hummingbird! I have had a couple of males flying around, then she showed up, so excited and so weren't the male humming birds. They danced around her forever, it was funny she looked like she was avoiding eye contact, like a girl in a bar.

Of course I sewed and did crafts this week. With the Independence Farmer's Market starting this Friday, I have been in there everyday. This is just one thing I did, please check the "Things for Sale" page to see everything else we made here on Cranberry Acre!

My grapes are looking so pretty this year! From the way the vines look I'm thinking we will have enough for Jam and Juice!

 

It was a very busy week and even Mr. Ginny, tried to find a place to take a rest from it all, but didn't work.