The mild temps this year allowed us to get an early start on our gardens. On the south side of the property, the fence for the first goat pasture has been taken down, and Paul has expanded his garden beds in to the space cleared by the goats (left photo). I have dug a long new garden bed next to my beds on the west side of the property. This bed is between the older beds and the electric fence, which we finally installed and got operating about a month ago, creating another pasture for the goats. Eventually, this pasture area will provide more garden space for Jeff and I. Currently, we are growing a variety of cold weather crops, including lots of greens. However, some type of small black bug is eating up our spicy greens such as mustard greens and arugula. Additionally, we are beginning to put out the warmer weather plants, which were started in the hoop house and/or mudroom windows. Last week, these plants needed to be covered and protected one night, when we had a frost. Some plants still experienced frost damage, though, particularly my black-eyed peas, which don't tolerate cold temps well at all. I have also put in a couple of flower beds in front of the little blueberry patch by the driveway. I'm growing calendula and chamomile there.
We have used electric fencing to create two more pastures for the goats, giving them access to more greens to eat, since they have cleared their first two pastures. Additionally a fence line has been cleared across the street on the property owned by Jeff and I. We're working on putting in an electric fence and a structure to shelter the goats and provide a rain catchment system for watering the goats. This will begin the process of developing our 10 acres across the street from The Haven, which is very exciting for Jeff and I. We are also preparing for adventures in raising pigs, which is also rather exciting. The goats have already chowed on all of the currently available greens in the pasture by my garden beds (as can be seen in above photo), so we are going to put pigs in that area next to continue clearing it.
A separate paddock for our buck, Romulus, has been built, so that we can control our goat breeding. Romulus now resides there with one of his male kids. Romulus went into rut again in January, and we worried that all of the does were impregnated again already, but, luckily, that does not appear to be the case.
The newest arrivals at The Haven are a trio of Black Silkies. Silkies are a breed of chicken that are small, fluffy, and very friendly. They are really neat chickens that love to sit on eggs and raise chicks. Hopefully, Prissy and Buffy will hatch out new Australorps and New Hampshire Reds (our egg layers/meat birds) for us, in addition to more Silkies. Winchester is the young Silky rooster in the first photo below, and the young hen behind him is Buffy (both 4 months old). The close-up is of Prissy, who is an experienced mama hen.
Last weekend, we participated in the Cotton Mill Farmers' Market farm tours. It was a lovely day for the tours, and we enjoyed showing people what has been accomplished so far at both The Haven and Full Life Farm and discussing how we grow and produce what we sell at market. The farmers' market opens this weekend, so we have been very busy lately preparing for the tours and this year's market.
Lastly, we put a new roof on the house a couple of weeks ago. The last one got leaky, and the new one has some modifications for (hopefully!) helping to keep the house cooler in the summer. We also finally hung up our hammock. When there is time to relax for a moment from all of our hard labor in the evening, the porch is a nice place to sit or lay in the hammock. :-)
-Annie
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