updates!

Haven't had a chance to post lately, so here are some updates . . . Beans are growing! I planted at least 4 different varieties this year, including the Kentucky Wonder pole beans from last year, and adding purple Sequoias and Scarlet Runners this year, along with another pole bean, and also some sugar snap peas, all around the teepee poles. The Sequoias surprised me with beautiful purple flowers and already have lots of little baby beans on the plants! The Scarlet Runner vines are bursting with lots of little red flower buds! The other varieties and the peas have not flowered yet.

Other plants with flowers include the tomatoes, peppers and zucchini, and the first 2 Nasturtium blossoms appeared today!
Tori has been harvesting her radishes already, for a couple of weeks now, eating the radish and sharing the tops with our bunnies!

Our Goats Are Here!

Our little boys, Angus & Malcolm, Nigerian Dwarf goat kids, arrived on Saturday! Aren't they so cute?!

more bunnies!

Tonight we noticed even *more* bunnies in the garden!!

The Baby Chicks are Here!!!

We picked up our 6 new baby chicks yesterday: step 1 of the 2009 Worcester County 4-H Poultry Challenge!

Here they are: Prudence, Percy, Penelope . . .

Laverne & Shirley!

This is a pic that Tori took of the Ameraucana chick, Priscilla.
They were just hatched on Wednesday at the Cackle Hatchery.

Look at those cute, fluffy little chickie butts!!

These are the breeds we got: 1 White Leghorn ('Percy'), 1 Ameraucana ('Priscilla'), 1 Black Sex Link ('Prudence'), 1 New Hampshire Red ('Penelope'), and 2 Gold Laced Wyandottes ('Laverne' & 'Shirley').

[The pics came out all reddish because of the heat lamp!]

Click here to see a video of our chicks at 5-days-old!

Tomatoes & Peppers ....

I planted some sweet peppers and 3 varieties of tomatoes (Valley Girl, Striped German, Sungold Cherry) yesterday. I bought some locally-grown organic plants from Sweetwilliam Farm in Upton, and put them into a raised bed with some marigolds I picked up on Friday at Lowe's, on yet another trip back for more organic garden soil!

I can't wait until next year when we will have lots of our own compost, made mostly with composted rabbit, goat and poultry poop!! Speaking of poultry poop, our BABY CHICKS arrived yesterday, too!

Officially Certified Wildlife Habitat!

We rec'd our certificate last week, but the yard sign has yet to arrive.
Our yard is now officially certified as a NWF Wildlife Habitat! And yesterday I discovered some *NEW* wildlife in my new shady perennial garden:

BABY BUNNIES!

We've seen wild rabbits in the backyard and on the hill often, but since planting in the rockwall garden last month, I've been observing one rabbit almost daily, hopping in and out of the garden; last evening I discovered why!
Since the rock wall is filled w/compost along with the hay and droppings from under our rabbit hutches, it must have "smelled like home" to her and she decided to make a burrow and have her babies in it!

How cool! We really do have a Backyard Wildlife Habitat now!

A few weeks ago I took this photo of a nest with just one egg in it and now it appears to have been abandoned. Last year there was a nest in a neighboring bush which had better results!

Quick update...

We took today off from work and got started building our new shed (aka goat & chicken barn!!)
2 walls up ... lots more to do tomorrow! The floor, and making the whole thing level on our rocky hill, took most of the day!



I also worked on my new shady perennial garden.
The weather was beautiful: sunny and 70 degrees ... it's about time! Here's a pic from today of the seedlings, planted last month:

My sister is taking my daughter to a plant swap tomorrow. Here are some plants we dug up for her to bring: chives, lemon balm, strawberries, rose campion, batchelor button, daylily:

Happy Spring!

(flower photos by Tori)
It's time to start blogging about gardening again!
I can't wait to get my garden planted this year! I did start some seeds indoors last month, cucumbers, summer squash and mini-pumpkins, along with a few bean seeds, back when we were trying our hand at making Maple Syrup!

We have been busy working on building and preparing a new shade perennial garden and also on preparing to welcome new animals to our home/garden! Since the last time I posted we welcomed 2 rabbits to our familiy, Merlin (an American Chinchilla buck) and Ace (a black Velveteen Lop buck).

This spring we are looking forward to the arrival of our 6 baby chicks and 2 Nigerian Dwarf goat kids! Lots of updates and pictures coming soon!!
Here's a picture of Tori holding "Angus" and here is "Malcolm" where they currently reside at The Sisters Three Farm. We hope to be bringing them home at the end of May or early June!

Back from vacation ...

We were in Maine last week, and before we left there was no sign of squash ... when we returned on Saturday, the summer squash were finally growing!! Here's a little one, right next to the first cucumber we picked!

And tons of beans!!


The 'bean tree' is growing wild!!


More pics soon ...