June Farm Update

Have you ever wished that during summer you could transport yourself back to the slower days of winter? My days seem to be longer and the list of things to get done seems to grow bigger. Our kid’s crazy schedule just keeps on getting crazier. Someone once told me years ago to cherish the years my children were young because one day life would be completely chaotic. Wow!  Were they ever right!  Having older children has added a new dimension to our schedule; running from this activity to the next, more so than when they were little, because then we could stay home. So, tired mommas with littles, my advice to you is to enjoy these days before chauffeuring, scheduling and activities consume your day.

Our garden was finally planted after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. It happened so quickly. It began as one day of planting and the next the sprouts were sprouting. It feels incredibly satisfactory to know that we are eating from the garden now, even if it is only strawberries, lettuce, chard, and radishes. I can almost imagine my ancestors biting into that first bite of fresh produce after a long winter of canned goods and dried meat. How good it must have tasted. How thrilled they must have been to have choices in what to eat. How satisfying to know they had grown it themselves? How did we get so far from the natural way of eating? But then I think, would I really want to remove the convenience of the grocery store, Azure drop or late-night Friday pizza night? Probably not, if I was to be truly honest. These things have a place in our life today for better or worse.

I love that the General Manager just posted on his Instagram about how he was enjoying the view of the colorful flowers off our front porch. He may or may not have been enjoying a cigar and a glass of scotch in the Adirondack chairs that my Dad built for us. Those chairs are supposed to go around our fire pit, but I just couldn’t bring myself to see them get weathered in the rain, so they found a new home on our covered porch. They just seem to fit there, like they’ve always been there. I tried sitting in them one day and I fell asleep with the sunshine streaming in on the porch. I was brought back into reality when one of the kids found me. 

In the early spring, I took some time to plant a variety of bulbs in and around a good majority of my perennials and herbs. Last year hubby had gently informed me that he really wanted to see more color in our front flower beds. I am so in awe of all my lavender blooms this year. Trimming lavender each season really is the ticket to better and bigger blooms the following year. My goal this year was to incorporate more edible plants in this landscape; mostly to just grow more food. I’m trying parsley, lovage and strawberries, in addition to our two blueberry bushes.

The children finished this year of schooling. Well it actually went down more like this, “momma just said put the books away.” I told myself and my best friend to remind me in future years to stop homeschooling in June. I’ve always been interested in following a more agrarian schedule because of the planting of our garden, weeding, barn chores, and milking schedule. These tend to be time consuming activities that need to be done during daylight/schooling hours. One of these days I hope to figure out how to get more schooling done during the rainy, dreary, wet winters we have here in Northern California. I like to give myself the month of June off and then begin planning for the next year in July and August. I hope to get schooling started again in September but our county fair is later this year and goes all the way until Labor Day. 

The highlight of June was the girl’s dance recital. The Ferndale Dance Academy put on a slightly twisted version of Cinderella. Abby and Hannah were fabulous and the show was a huge success.

How are the farm animals you ask? The goats are doing well. I have been spending months trying to figure out what deficiencies they are suffering from and I have narrowed it down to copper and selenium. We are on a strict mineral supplementation for each of them. In the last two weeks, I’ve noticed a big difference in both does’ coat colors. Now, I’m just waiting to see when each of them begins to show signs of heat. All last year I dealt with silent heats, which makes it impossible to bred a goat this way. My Nigerian buck is also over one year old now, so I’m really hoping he’s up for the task of breeding this year. 

Our chickens have been laying an enormous amount of eggs. One month they laid over 525 eggs – we do have 28 hens. That’s a lot of clucking! Did you know that chickens love to cluck (more like squawk) and let you know they laid an egg? Kevin, our LGD is working better with the chickens and goats – we’ve only had a few instances of chicken licking – yes, I said that correctly. He likes to lick the chickens until they are squeaky clean. Great if you are Kevin, not so great if you are the chicken being licked by a big white scary dog.

One Blessed Acre soaps and lotions were débuted at a new local craft fair this month – Humboldt Junkies. The kids have been adding their own products to our normal line-up of goat milk soaps and lotions. We now have lip balm by Abby, tub teas by George, bath bombs by Lindsay and sugar scrubs by Hannah. Did I mention that every one of these products has goat milk in them? Because goat milk is good for you and, never Bah-a-ha-a-ha-a-a-d. I added four new scented scrubby soaps and 3 new scented liquid soaps to our etsy shop. Who doesn’t love smelling like chocolate cake batter?  If local, you will still be able to find our products at the Golden Gait Mercantile in Ferndale.

We are off on vacation to Crater Lake, Oregon this week.  I cannot wait to see what adventures we get into while we are there.  How is your summer shaping up?  Leave me a comment.