The last time I checked in with an "Around the Farm" was late May. Since time is flying past, I took the time last week to walk around the farm and take some pictures so I could share what's up.
Gardening. Wow, what a difference a year can make. We definitely are not having the thriving garden that we had last year. Actually the past couple years we have had such amazing gardens, I guess it's our turn to have an off season. We started off with sooooo much rain. Not floods like last year, thankfully. Just constant, and heavy rains. That lead us to having to replant some things. Several times. Ohh... and lets not forget that the house cats ate off some of our plants we had started by seed. That set us behind right from the beginning! But, on the up side, our lettuce is thriving! Radishes have been doing well also. Everything else we will have to wait and see.
Chickens. Ugh. They've been a challenge too! We have the two new chickens you met last time. We were letting everyone free range together and all was going well, so we finally combined everyone into the same coop. We don't know if it was coincidence in timing, stress from the change, or what, but the entire old flock of 15 chickens got sick. It was horribly nerve racking as we have never had an illness in the flock before that didn't result in the unthinkable. As soon as this started we learned that you can no longer buy medicine in the store, you need to buy it through a vet. One hurdle after another. So, while trying to find a vet, I had started a natural treatment I read about. Mixing vinegar and fresh garlic in with their water. I rotated that every other day, and on the alternate day they got a vitamin mix water. We did finally find a vet and get medicine. But, treating with medicine means throwing all eggs away for several weeks, and we were starting to see improvement, so we held off. Well, everyone is finally better, and they are back to almost normal egg production. The two new chickens, are doing well. They are much more home bodies and don't leave the coop much. Other than that, all I can say is we are waiting for one of the two to give us a cockle doodle doo song soon.
Berries. Strawberries were a challenge. Most of our heaviest rains came right when they were at their peak. Being we both have our day jobs, we just weren't able to stay on top of getting them picked quickly enough and the rain took most of them. Black raspberries however seem to be thriving!! We've devoured tons while just being outside, picked more than ever, and even were able to invite family and friends to come pick to their hearts content! Red Raspberries were on the downside of things though. We seem to have a virus out there, so mowed off one patch in hopes of keeping it from spreading to the second patch. Fingers crossed we have that under control.
Flower beds. Thanks to my parents, who get all the credit in reviving one of our most prominent flower beds, that we just lost control over. It looks amazing now! They got rid of all those crazy weeds that were also thriving this season, did some pruning, removal, and added some new beauties including a dahlia and climbing rose!
In the kitchen. I have several recipes lined up to share with you. Two should hopefully be this week, and a third just as soon as a I give it another test. I am really excited about that one. It's a Strawberry Drizzle Cake that I learned about thanks to the tv show, "The Great British Bakeoff". A couple weeks ago, when I thought I was catching up on things, I started following along with the show through Wisconsin Public Television. Basically, they challenge you to make one recipe out of each episode. I pulled it off for the first episode! That's as far as I made it, but I learned a new cake that I fell in love with.
Husband. Husband has a new hobby. Off roading. It fits doesn't it? It involves wheels, motors and getting dirty. I give it the thumbs up because it's cheaper than some of the other hobbies he's tried in the past. AND... the bonus is the off roading leads to trails through our woods which is giving me access to area's I've not been able to get to before!
Wow, this turned into a long post! Guess I had a lot to catch you up on.
Tell me, how is your summer? How is your garden??
