Spring is Here

Hello everyone!! It has been a long time, as usual, to sit here and write on my blog. We have been pretty busy here on Cranberry Acre. Unfortunately there have been a lot of people who have been sick in our little town and we have been helping with raising money for some of them, so we have been busy. 

Everything is trying to go into bloom and I am crossing my fingers we do not get a strong frost. My peach tree is almost at full bloom, so after last year of no peaches, I'm truly hoping they make it.

I had thought that my Quince bush was not going to bloom this year, but it has proven me wrong. This Winter we had some very warm temperatures which led to this bush trying to bloom, then there would be temps way below freezing. I figured we would not get to see it's pretty flowers, but it does look like we will.

Here on Cranberry Acre, our daffodils seem to be the last on the street to bloom. Mine are at the point of blooming but everyone else has had them in their yards for weeks. I guess we just get to look at them longer than anyone else. 

The barn renovation has been slow going with the weather and work. We now have a 2nd sliding door up and yes the chickens are loving it. I will really hate to tell these poor birds that this really is not their's to begin with.

The garden spot is changing yet again.

With us building the barn we have thought a lot about making the property ready for people to come and enjoy. I meet so many people who would like to come out and see how we run a One Acre Farm. Our farm is like any other farm, but to be a show farm it is not. People want things to be easy and yes clean. Well for a farm you can only keep it as clean as a farm can be, there is poop and there will always be poop! 

The garden spot we have squared off and have big plans for it to be easy to get in and easy to maintain.

We spent a whole day taking fence down and putting fence back up, but it is done. We now do not have a compost bin anymore.

I have taken that corner back and have added it to our new garden. We stopped using the compost bin when the chickens had made their way into the garden. We had some unexplained deaths with them and I believe they had gotten into the Compost bin and eaten potato peels, which can kill chickens, because they can not digest them. We now are just throwing what we have for compost, into the garden over the Winter and then just turning it into the ground in the Spring. 

In the Orchard, along the side of the garden fence, we are going to plant some berry bushes. Blackberries, raspberry plants and maybe some blueberry plants.

The garden will now look like this.

We will be building boxes and placing them on the garden soil. There will be enough room around the perimeter and down the center of the garden, to mow or weed eat in the Summer. I also wanted to make sure we could still get a wheel-barrel down the center so we could add barn waste to the garden during the growing season. This has always been a battle, and we needed a better plan of attack. 

I am happy to say, that this Winter we did not loose any birds. Everyone is healthy and happy.

Larry and Curly are still hanging out with our oldest chicken Ms. Silver and sometimes with our ducks.

I have come to the conclusion that chickens are kinda like cats. How is it all day they don't go to the water trough, but when you go outside to clean it, they decided to all line up to drink before you clean it? Why?

Midgey was not happy waiting in line for the new spot for laying eggs, but.....

Curly Butt, was not ready to move out. They said many awful words to each other and came to an understanding.

One would have to go behind the trash to lay their egg. Never a dull moment when you have chickens or goats.

This has been my girls for the past few days. Laying in the sun and sleeping it away.

Ms. Sparkles

Ms. Jojo

Ms. Bella

Mr. Luther

and of course the camera hog......

Ms. Griffon, who decided she need to be scratched during her photo session. 

Love her.

I will leave you with a picture of Mr. Dingo. He is still full of surprises and makes my life a challenge at times, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

He is so happy to have this weather. There is no snow, no mud, no rain, no wind and it is not freezing out. I think we all agree with him, that these have been some really pretty days to be outside. 

 The business part of Cranberry Acre, well we are trucking along. with all the fundraisers we have been doing, I didn't have time to make any new designs so I will be trying to create some new things during the season. 

We may start making stuffed animals, also some toys for dogs and cats. My mind is always running on new things we can create. Happy Spring!!!