2022 Has Rolled Around

 And here it is. Almost another year between posts. Almost. As stated last time things have changed here on the farm for us and a lot has happened between then and now A quick run down:

I started working full time on our 'side business' 
We have picked up a new WOF and another companion for the WOF
Garden was decent last year but I plan on a good one this year
Cat still being another WOF around here. 
Amy still works full time and has been doing well in that regard
We have expanded our original Etsy business to include a website and currently two antique booths.
I have been redoing furniture for some time now. 
We look like we live in an episode of hoarders at times. 

I have been pondering on what to do for the garden this year and I think we'll be trying some new varieties and more items that we can keep for the remainder of the year. A true year- round (almost) garden. I have also considered getting chickens this year too. 

I have a ton of photos and detailed information to come but as of now I have to get some packages ready to ship and fix the garage door (more on that later too) so I can get furniture out to the booths. Until this weekend stay safe kids. 

And....

 You thought one post a year was long. Here is another one. Life has been busy for us but that is changing today. I left the corporate construction world to work on our business full time. 

A quick note but I will have more this weekend. 

2020?

Hello. Very long time between posts for sure. Seems like life, work, changes in general seem to catch up to us. But as a resolution for myself, I decided to revive this blog.

Ides of.............Well March

Happy March to everyone. I know the Ides are on the 15th but I thought about getting a head start.
Here on the homefront a few things have taken place. I finally reached to big 50 yesterday. No big deal for me, just another day. But I guess a milestone nonetheless. Well Bailey and the cat have had their rounds and rounds. She hates the cat. Period. After some time of trying to get it worked out it never did. So sadly we called and gave her back up to the spca where I got her. Maybe again some day.
On the garden front I finally got some seeds started. One platt. Beyond planting cucumbers, green beans, everything else is in one platt. We decided to go small this year to give ourselves more time to do other things.
I spent last weekend mowing (yes, mowing in February) and tore apart some of the beds because they were rotting out a lot. I'll have to replace them with something but not sure what yet. Also found plenty of my buddies, the fire ants.

Overall shot. Bad garden.

Ants galore.

Apple trees really blooming out.

Bed remains waiting to be burned.

Garden sign needs some attention.

A nice video to close everything out. 

Busy weekend coming up. A lot of work to do. On a side note we are in the process of setting up an Etsy shop so stay tuned for more information on that as well.

New Year of 2018

Hello and welcome to my 2018 blog posts!
We've had an interesting few months so let me catch you up.
1. First and foremost we had to say goodbye to The WOF. She developed a rare type of skin cancer. We tried several treatments but weren't going to do anything too extreme due to her age. It eventually caught up with us so we made the call and stayed with her for the last moments. She was with us a long, long time and I have to admit it was one of the hardest things to do. But she's better off now.
2. Christmas: My sister, niece and her husband spent the holidays with us. We had a good time although interesting for the cat as two new dogs were traveling with them. They left on Christmas Day back for WV. December 26th I got the same virus I had the previous year. On the couch for three days before I was able to move again. I didn't wait this time and sought our treatment from the emergency room. A long wait later and I had a few meds but not anything over the top. I made it to work that Friday, the same day my boss made it back in from his illness. As of today I'm still on the mend with a bit of a cough and congestion. Trying a few new OTC meds now and they seem to be helping. Hopefully get through this soon.
3. First snow of 2018. I drove into it in South Carolina. I was coming up from Alabama at the time. Took me 12 hours total for a 9 hour drive. People in the south can't drive in snow.
4. New WOF. Much to Amy's hesitation I had to have another WOF in the house. Her name is Bailey. She's a 6 year old lab mix we rescued from the SPCA. She and the cat are having their rounds but I think they'll slowly work it out. I saw her on our local county animal control website early Thursday morning, called 3 times before I got through to someone. We went over her history and I told them my son would be around after lunch to check her out. He calls me and says that the dog was moved. We found her at the neighboring county SPCA so I spent Friday afternoon tracking her down and finally got her. She looks like she has part greyhound or whippet in her. She has seemed to taken over the WOF torch for the farm.

Well that's the Cliff notes version. As far as the garden this year I still have to repair/replace the garden beds and plan everything out for this year. Tomorrow I plan on testing some seeds I saved from last year. More on that Monday. Also have a list of things we need to get updated around the house. We've lived here since 2012 and haven't done any updating so now it's time.

Quick post so I'll see you soon.

Miss Bailey.

Im memory of The WOF.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! More to come in the future.

Harvest Monday; September 11, 2017

Happy Harvest Monday. Harvest Monday is hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

We made the decision a few weeks ago that the garden in it's current size was too much to take care of with the two of us. Our commutes to work are long (ie. mines at least one hour each way), leaving us not very much time during the weekdays to do too much, which leaves our weekends filled with chores. After a while we got burnt out and said "enough is enough." We are downsizing other aspects of our lives since our youngest will hopefully heading out on his own adventure towards the end of this year, and the garden is downsizing with us. We've finally decided on 8-10 raised beds, which will be built in the same locations as the current ones, but out of block instead of wood. I'll be tearing out the current beds and have a bonfire this fall. I also plan on replacing the soil with new and tripling the landscape fabric and adding plastic, and maybe cardboard. The wiregrass we have here is crazy strong. Crap will grow on a rock. With our new size we'll be growing only the basics that we want and I'll have to keep a good eye on placement of crops to make sure I get the rotation correct.

Well with the downsizing in mind I mowed down everything in the field. No worries as the beetles had done some damage to most of the plants. I didn't lose any sleep over it. The remaining plants in the beds were under attack too so they weren't doing too well themselves. And the cucumbers had their run and were drying up. So I pulled all of the onions and left them out to dry and called it a year. Sad to say but we have other things that need our attention and gardening isn't one of them.

My harvest Sunday. Some small and medium Copra onions and two green bell peppers.

What we have now. I'll clean everything up this fall. 

Since my last post my wife traded off her jeep on a Honda Civic which she likes alot, I was hit in the rear end of my truck turning into our office parking lot so I've been waiting to get it back, my annual golf trip is coming up this week and we lost a few guys (they didn't evacuate deciding to ride out the storm; they're alive just stupid) since they live in Clearwater and didn't leave, I managed to strain my back (again) at the gym last Monday so I've been taking it easy to make sure I can go on this trip, our son was medically denied for the Coast Guard so now he's focused on the Air Force, my in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and we got Roku Saturday since we don't have network TV. That and with the west under fire and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma hitting the south, things are definitely interesting. 

Happy Monday.

September 11th. Never Forget.