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!!!

  

  

2016 a New Year full of things

Fighting against Time

First Happy New Year from all of us at Cranberry Acre!

Last year was a great learning experience, with any business and farm, there is a lot to learn. One of my hardest things to learn has been how to truly weigh out the time for family, business, farm and me. I think this is probably the struggle of most people. 

 At the end of 2015 we had decided that we needed to redesign the barn we have,( actually a 120 year old shed), into something that works better for all the animals and us. We have been using lumber from an old barn to build it, which has proven at times problematic, but has saved us money on lumber. It just takes a lot of time to clean up to use.

My husband on his days off, has been working on it. We had hoped it would go faster, but with any type of build, you run into things.

( 1st stall in our new edition)

( front of barn)

We all have gone out to try and help but we can really only do so much to help.

My son Wyatt has been learning about tools and how to square things up on a build. 

Slows down the build, but this is a great learning experience for him.

This is where the barn sits at the moment. We have one side done and a door put up.

The goats are not yet being able to use this but the birds love it!

They have a place to play when it rains.

We still have so much to do on this but with the time that we have had I think we have come a long way on this.

We are actually using the Utility shed part for the mowers. We had to get them out of the wood shed so we could start filling it, but they have a roof over their heads so we are good.

I think Winter has finally caught up with us here in Virginia. Dingo is not to happy with the idea of it being cold so spends his days in my sewing room warming his feet. 

Over Christmas and New Year's one of my little girls had become very ill. 

Short Stuff was lethargic and was just very depressed. I decided that she needed to come into the Laundry room, took her 3 weeks but she has finally pulled out of whatever she had. We ended up treating her with some Vit B in her water and gave here some de-wormer, along with some Vet Rex. Not sure which one helped but they all seemed to make her feel like her bossy self.

Lovey duck has a new friend her name is Hershey. She is a Muscovy Duck and of course is chocolate brown. I haven't been able to get a picture of her, but will soon. She doesn't quite trust us, but is learning we are the bringers of food, so we can't be to bad.

(Sunning on the barn)

Mr. Luther has been a pain in the butt the past few days. Been pushing the girls around just because, so I've been going out and correcting him on who is boss. Needless to say he hasn't been happy with me in the past few weeks but since I bring food, he forgives me.

Mrs. JoJo......I have had goats most of my life, but this one tries me every chance she gets and just plan eats everything in sight! You throw chickens some pork chops and who is eating it? Well of course JOJO! Nothing like pulling a pork chop out of a goats mouth.

Cranberry Acre's Chickens

These guys are the funniest group of birds I've had yet. Snowball, ( Picture up top), is very Bipolar, but we love her.

Her half sister Coal even gives her a dirty look time to time, but also goes off the deep end once or twice a month.

Our oldest hen, Mrs. Silver is still kicking and acts like a young bird. She tends to put all the birds in check and will break up a fight if there happens to be one started. She will be 7 this year.

Lady Hawk, looking her best as always.

Chocolate and Beauty helping Wayne with the building of the barn.

Now that the Holidays are over I have been busy in the sewing room with getting Inventory up for the upcoming shows this year. I also have been working on some custom orders for 2016. Time has already gotten away from me.

I seem to have a plan and it all blows up in my face after a cup of coffee. This year the only resolution I have made, is to try to keep to my lists and make time for loved ones. 2015 flew by so fast and I do not want to look on my year of 2016,wishing I had done it differently. 2016 for Cranberry Acre has a set of new lists and I hope to share them with you all better this year. The garden is taking on a new look this year and of course the barn build. 

Mr. Bayne says have a Happy 2016! We all here at Cranberry Acre hope that everyone's 2016 has started on a good note. Check back with us to see how everything is going here on our one acre farm. Thank you everyone for the love and support last year. Here is to an amazing start to 2016.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving is Here.

It's so hard to believe that we are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving in one more week! It seems just like yesterday we were worrying about costumes for Halloween. The older I get the faster it seems, the year goes. 

Inside and out of our home is decorated for the upcoming Holiday. Our tradition is, letting each Holiday have it's day in the sun. They are here for a reason, so let's enjoy them. The world seems to focus on a few and not the many and gets caught up in the rush of it all; forgetting the enjoyment they each bring. We here at Cranberry Acre, try not to rush a thing if we don't have to.

We are finally getting the edition to the barn done. That old barn we took down to reuse, is finally being put to use.

Since the wood set for a year unprotected we needed to separate it for what we could use for the barn and what might be useful in making things to sell. Took a couple of days but we got it done.

The roofing we also separated so we could figure out what we had and what needed to be repaired before we used it as a roof.

It is now coming along very nicely. I will say we are going to use almost all the wood from the old barn. Been nice to know that we could reuse that lumber for this new barn edition. Recycling the old to make it new!

There are going to be 6 stalls for the goats now. No more worrying about everyone getting the right amount of hay or grain. No more bullies pushing someone out of the barn during the rain and snow!

We now have an equipment shed, that will be attached to the barn. For years we have been moving stuff from the garage, to the wood shed, and back to the garage. Been a pain, it will be so nice to have a permanent place for everything. 

Each stall will have a nice metal gate! Can't wait to use these stalls.

For the time being, we had to take our barn quilt down while we remodeled the barn. Gives me time to clean it up and retouch the paint a little before it goes back up on the barn.

This will probably be the last flower to bloom here on the farm. They are calling for temps in the 20's at night for the next few days. I will miss my roses.

My two crazy girls. Larry and Curly are still hanging out with the blind duck, Ms. Lovey, and still are the comedians on Cranberry Acre. You want to laugh just try to watch these two navigate the farm. 

Hopefully next Spring we will be breeding Ms. Griffon. We are planning on breeding her and her mother. 

It is always a game of hide and seek with chickens, on where the nest will be. I found it today while Ms. Sunshine was laying her egg. Gotcha you silly bird!

My Rat killer, Mr. Bayne took a break today to just sit and sleep inside. He had no real urgency about going outside today. I think it was the gloomy morning we had with the rain.

A Big Kiss From Ms. Sparkles.

We hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. 

Best wishes from 

Cranberry Acre.