Hello!

My goodness, I've been away from this space for longer than expected. I'm sure you all understand sometimes work and life just gets busy and there's not much time for anything else. My new job is going really well, but I am still working at my old job to help wind things up, so that is where much of my time and energy is focused right now. There is lots going on here on the homestead as well, so I thought I'd give you guys a quick update to show that we aren't just being lazy over here! ;)

We finished planting the vineyard! I say "we" but actually it was 99% David and 1% me. He worked really hard on this space, from cutting down trees and cleaning up the mess, to installing the support for the vines and finally getting them all planted. It took us several months from start to finish (check out more on that here) and we are both thrilled that the vines are in! PS - The blue tubes you see are grow tubes which act as a mini-greenhouse to get the vines growing.

The garden is coming along very well! We have so much planted, I can't even remember it all. Again, by "we" I mean mostly David haha. This year we went a bit crazy with starting tomato seeds that we saved from our tomatoes last year and had over 100 seedlings going under grow lights in the garage at one point. I ended up selling some plants to a coworker and we planted the majority of them in our garden. We didn't have enough space for them all in the garden beds, so many of them are in pots and other repurposed containers (like buckets).

Our main bee hive is doing incredibly well, but our split not so much. It's having a hard time getting up and going, and we are trying to figure out what's wrong and help it along as much as we can. But we are hopeful that we will be able to harvest a good amount of honey this year!

The animals are doing well and we actually gained a new guinea friend recently. One of our neighbor's guineas starting hanging around a couple weeks ago and now he won't leave. He's pretty entertaining, so we don't mind the extra company.

All the plants around the house are springing back to life and it is amazing to see the transformation. After the horrible winter, I just can't get enough of all the green out here!

I hope I can post again soon, but in the meantime, I just want to thank each of you who has checked in and sent sweet messages and emails to me letting me know I'm missed. It means so much that you would think of me and take time out of your day to say hello!

We have a busy weekend planned, but hopefully we can get some relaxation in to recharge before the new week starts. I hope we can get in at least a little hammock time :)

~Tammy

Balance

Oh, how I've missed you guys! I didn't get a chance to post last week because I started a new job on Monday that kept me very busy. But it's good busy, because I'm loving it so far (I'm a paralegal in the real estate/finance division of a company). It's much more demanding than my previous job, and I've found it has been a struggle to balance work, homestead demands, and the blog.

We're seeing more and more signs of spring around here lately, and our garden work is in full swing. Lots of seeds planted in the garden already with tons of seedlings growing indoors. Our vineyard is set up and ready to go when our vines arrive, which can't be soon enough! We also recently planted 30 trees (10 pecan, 10 persimmon, and 10 evergreens) as part of our digging in goal for the year since these trees will take many years to grow and produce for us.

Of course there are cats, chickens, guineas, a dog (and a husband) to feed every day, so that keeps me busy as well.

Baby waiting not so patiently for her food.

So with all of that, the blog had to take a back seat this week while I figure things out. My good blogging buddy, Jackie, reminded me that blogging should be fun, not another thing on your to do list. And this week, it was more of a thing on my to do list. She knows a thing or two about balance, so I will listen to her advice.

 This one's for you, Reifyn.

I'm not sure going forward how regular my blogging schedule will be, so if I'm away for longer than normal, things probably just got a little bit hectic around here. With spring and summer coming up and the gardening work getting even more time consuming, I do see that happening.

I had a few people check in on me last week to make sure everything was ok (thank you guys!) so I thought I'd just let you all know what is happening right now. I won't be around to visit you all as often as I did before, but please know that I still care and I do think about you all the time!

~Tammy

Clearing The Camera

Here are some recent photos I've taken that I wanted to share. Go here if you'd like to see more photo posts.

The fluffy butt brigade on patrol!

 

Baby taking shelter from the rain.

Cute shy cow from across the street.

Sylvester always wants to cuddle with Duchess.

Gorgeous emerald moss.

Store bought flowers to brighten up the house and get me through the winter.

Playing in the woods :)

David had a rough day on the farm. It's not all fun and games out here; we actually do work!

Hope you've enjoyed a slice of our homestead.

~Tammy

Shared with Down Home Blog Hop, The HomeAcre Hop, Farm Girl Blog Fest, Weekly Top Shot, Sunny Simple Sunday, Eco Kids Tuesday, Rurality Blog Hop, Home Sweet Home, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Creative Things Thursday, Farm Photo Friday   

Merry Christmas

From Baby and everyone else on the homestead, Merry Christmas from our neck of the woods to yours. We are so thankful that you take the time to read this blog of ours and we appreciate each and every one of you.

Happy holidays!

~Tammy and David

Clearing The Camera

Here are some recent photos I've taken that I wanted to share. Go here if you'd like to see more photo posts.

Finally got an egg basket!

Fitz loves lazy days.

Foggy sunrise in the woods.

Sunny day with Baby.

I think Fitz looks like a kitten in this photo. I love it because I didn't get to see him as a kitten.

Jasper is conked out!

I can't say no to Duchess when she looks at me with her puppy dog eyes.

We had a torrential downpour last night and the creeks were overflowing.

Wanted to get a cool bokeh shot with the lights. Finally figured it out!

Hope you've enjoyed a slice of our homestead.

~Tammy

Shared with Weekly Top Shot 

Clearing the Camera

I haven't done one of these posts in a couple months (go here, here, or here for a trip down memory lane) and had some photos stored in my camera that I wanted to share.

Broody guinea hen warning me that I'm getting too close to her babies!

 

   

 

 
Hope you enjoyed a slice of our homestead!

~Tammy

This post shared with Clever Chicks, Sunny Simple Sunday, Backyard Farming Connection, Weekly Top Shot, Outdoor Wednesday, All Things Fall, This Or That Thursday, Rural Thursday, Creative Things Thursday, Simple and Joyful, Farmgirl Friday, Mop It Up Mondays and Homestead Barn Hop

Peaceful Animal Cohabitation

Three years ago when we first got our chickens, I would sit out with them and think, "How cool would it be if we had a bunch of animals that all got along and I could hang out with all of them at the same time?" I had visions of chickens on my lap and a dog at my side. I love that my vision of peaceful animal cohabitation is now my reality.

When we bring Duchess out to play and let the chickens free range, Sylvester comes over to hang out. He can usually be found sprawled out in the middle of them all, usually close to Duchie. He really seems to be in love with her. He follows me down to the coop in the mornings when I let the chickens out and gives Duchess a good full-body pet. Duchie seems pretty indifferent to his attention, but I think she'll start to like her buddy any day now.

Sylvester couldn't win Baby over, so I guess he's trying to work his magic on Duchie now.

~Tammy

Reunited...And It Feels So Good!

Our outdoor cat, Baby, is a free spirit. She has always lived strictly outdoors on this property and clearly enjoys her independence. When we bought the house, the seller asked us if we wanted to keep her since this is the only home she's ever known. Of course we said yes!

I've never had an outdoor cat before, so I didn't know what to expect. She basically came and went as she pleased, and sometimes was gone for 3-4 days at a time. This made me nervous, but I tried to forget about it because she only ever disappeared for a few days before making her return.

Over the past 6 weeks or so, one of the neighbor's cats has been coming over here. At first I thought he was a stray so I began feeding him. Of course once he knew there was food over here, he basically made this his home. Baby didn't like him at all. This is her territory and she didn't want him here. They would hiss and yell at each other a lot, but I never saw them get too physical.

I guess Baby had enough, so she went away. I started to get nervous after the 5th day or so because that was a little longer than she'd ever been gone. Then a week passed, and today was the 10th day she had been missing. I was getting pretty scared and thinking of the worst case scenarios. I had a dream two nights ago that I went outside and there she was and I started crying. I have this weird thing where a lot of my dreams actually come true, so I was hoping that would be the case with this dream as well.

Today when I was at work, David called and said, "Baby greeted me when I got home." I was caught totally off guard and I started crying hysterically! My reaction really surprised me. I guess I'm a lot more attached to her than I'd like to admit.

We actually kept her in the garage for a little while to make sure she ate because she seemed like she had lost weight. She didn't like it much, and being the free spirit that she is I knew I had to let her go. We went outside and she hung out on the picnic table with me for a while, then got up and walked off into the woods.

I hope she doesn't go away for that long again. I don't know if I could take it!

~Tammy

Catching Up

We've been scarce around these parts lately! With the weather so warm (88 degrees last Sunday!) we spend all our time outside and I don't feel like sitting in front of a computer waiting for my painfully slow satellite internet to upload photos when there's so much change and growth going on outside our back door.

The woods are going crazy right now! The landscape has changed completely in the past couple weeks.

The mayapples are blooming already!

Last week we decided to try letting the chickens free range - supervised - for about an hour before the sun goes down each night. They have a large fenced in area for when we aren't home, but we thought they'd enjoy pecking around the woods and eating some grass and bugs. It's fun for us to watch, too!

Baby hung out in the background.

Cam struttin' his stuff.

As soon as I get home it's into my work boots and out to see what David's up to and enjoy what daylight we have left. I'm usually so excited to get outside and play with the chickens that I don't even change out of my work clothes!

We made preparations for our garden over the past few weeks as well. Borrowed a tiller and made a couple of beds for lettuce and herbs. They're just now starting to sprout so it'll be a few more weeks until we see anything edible. Tomatoes need to be started inside, so we planted our seeds in a makeshift greenhouse in the garage and when they germinate, we will put them under a bright light to help them grow.

The baby chicks are growing like crazy! Haven't been able to get any recent pictures of them, but will try to soon. Spring is so magical out here, we're just trying to soak up every moment.

~Tammy

Let It Strengthen You

After our horrible experience last weekend, we decided to remind ourselves why we chose to move out to the country and chase our dream of becoming self-sufficient. We walked around the property, breathed in the unusually warm March air, and let nature do the talking.

We know without a doubt that this is where we are meant to be. The sad times seem to reinforce our decision to move out here and pursue our goals, rather than have us question it. For that I am thankful! This quote (author unknown) pretty much sums it up - "When something bad happens, you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you." It is a choice to be happy and strong. A choice we all have to make every day.

In moving forward, we decided to keep with our original plan of adding to our egg-laying flock and get some more baby chicks. Several stores around here sell chicks this time of year, so we got the new babies locally.

 

We have eight baby chicks total, so this is just a taste of the cuteness. Lots more to come on these sweeties!

~Tammy