First till of the garden

We have just gotten done ...or I should say Mr.Smith has, tilling the garden and the new sections. It is bigger then last year and I am excited! Makes me think Spring is really on its way! This season will hold a lot of new firsts for us again....as will many seasons coming up till we get this down. :)

Got more seeds into the seed room! 36 Roma tomatoes, 36 Beefsteak tomatoes, 36 cherry tomatoes, 135 more onions, and 27 broccoli! The first wave of onions we were doing really well on and had 85 that had sprouted from 135 seeds...then the stomach flu swept through our house and I was able to get the lights on every day for them....but that was it and I was not able to water them for 3-4 days and a bunch died....so from the first wave we are now at 51 onion seedlings and it seems the others were not able to be revived.....going to leave them a few more days just in case....but I have a pretty good feeling they are done
:( So hopefully these seeds will go better. We also started to clean out the few 5 gallon buckets we have since we are going to try the upside down tomato plants again this year.What we failed to do last year was let the roots set themselves up so they wouldn't be ripped out with a bad wind storm....this year since I am starting the tomatoes earlier I am going to flip the 5 gallon bucket upside down with the plant towards the sky for a week to let the roots set up, then put them outside hanging with the plant towards the ground from my clothes line again. If it all goes well I am going to try to add Basil in the top of the soil as well.

Next weekend I am hoping to get to do the layout of the cow fence and the cow barn! Maybe go visit the cows we are going to be getting calves from?? That would be amazing! :D

On another note its Sunday and I look through the ads to see what we need to feed my large family because we are always out of something and need another thing and so on and it made me sad to see how prices went up yet again at the grocery store. :( Over the first month that we were getting used to having another member of our family added into the mix we ate a lot more processed food then I would of liked and it reminded me of how good fresh and wonderful homegrown fruits and veggies are. The homemade meals from them are fantastic and I have missed them. So the food at the store is becoming more and more expensive and less and less tasty. :( Hence one of the big reasons we started this homestead. We knew having a large family is difficult in this day and age and I want my kids to be healthy and to know where food comes from....well and provide for them as well. :)

God bless and praying this season goes well for the gardeners!! :D

Getting started in a new area

We have talked for a year now about breeding our animals. Well we have been looking for a New Hampshire Rooster to mate with our New Hampshire Hens....we have looked everywhere and just decided to buy one as a chick from the local farm store and  was getting the early order in and as I was talking about the rooster situation and the one lady that works there was looking to get rid of one! Praise God! He has answered a prayer of mine! He definitely works in mysterious and wonderful ways. :) What comes along with breeding is more of the unknown and it can get daunting at times ....since there are so many things I don't know about farming and animals and I learn a new thing every day! Chickens seem to the easiest to breed first. We plan to separate 2 hens and the rooster into the old broiler pen and just let them take care of business on their own and let nature take its course. After the hen has the eggs with babies we will need to make sure she is incubating them the way she is supposed to and then after they hatch, brood them. We do have all the equipment in case the hens decide they don't want to be mamas.

On another note the onion seeds I planted have sprouted. Its been a little over a week and we already have 32 seeds sprouted! I will be starting more onions, some tomatoes, and broccoli next week! Need to get more of the seed room completed to handle those extra seeds!

My computer is not allowing me to upload pictures right now....so bear with me and I will try to get the progress photos up ASAP! :)