Riding
Robin nests
We have two grapevines in our yard. One in the front, and one in the back shading the kids sandbox. Both have robin nests in them. ❤️
This one is a bit ahead of the other and hatched out it’s babies yesterday.
Cattle panel arbor
This spring, we made a cattle panel arbor for our vining vegetables, and I LOVE IT. We used 3 cattle panels that we bought from the local farm supply store. They’re 16 feet long by 50 inches wide and somewhat bendable. Getting them home could become a feat in itself, but we bent them around the inside of our stock trailer.
Once home, we bent the panels into a U-shape and anchored the sides to the ground with sturdy stakes. I planted pole beans and cucumbers along the inside of the arbor and wound them through and around the metal squares to encourage their vines to grow up, instead of along the ground. I also found some hay that must’ve fell out of someone’s truck along the road and spread it on the dirt to discourage weeds.
Now, we are just enjoying the fruits of our labor. The kids and I enjoy walking through the arbor shade to pick the veggies that are hanging all along the sides. It’s co convenient!
Gardening with a 4 month old
Yep. This is how we do it. Johnny-Jump-Up hanging from a tree. He’s in the shade, getting his feet in the dirt for the first time ever, and enjoying the fresh air.
And, yes, I have a tree in the middle of my vegetable garden. It actually works quite well. It’s a Bradford Pear tree and grows more upright than wide. Plus Bradford Pear trees are invasive and will sent up shoots EVERYWHERE if you try to cut them down. Wish I knew that years ago. So, to work with the tree, I just plant around it and it works! My vegetable plants on the west get shade in the morning and the east side gets shade from the hot afternoon sun.
Right under the tree, because of the constant shade, I don’t have much, but it’s where I keep a small tree nursery. When I find a tiny oak tree that sprouted from an acorn, or a maple sapling, or any other little bush or tree that I’d like to grow up a bit before planting in the yard (and without the threat of getting mowed over), I plant it in a large pot with drainage holes and bury it partway in the ground.
Babies are Here!
This past week, two of our mama goats gave birth! Cookie, our full Alpine doe, gave birth to twins! Our Lamancha doe, Gingerbread, also gave us twins, but by the time we got out there, one of them had already died. So far we have two bucks and a doe. We are still expecting babies from Holly, our Nubian, and one of our Nigerian dwarfs, Nala!
Babies are arriving
The biggest news to our household is that we had a beautiful baby boy last month. He had a water birth at home and is such a sweet little guy. Everyone adores him and he has plenty of siblings that love to snuggle with him. There’s nothing like holding a sleeping newborn ❤️
Our newest litter of Holland Lop babies were born last Monday! We have one tri and two harlequin cuties! They’re fur and colors are just starting to come in, and pretty soon they will be at the fluffy cute stage. 🥰
Our goats, on the other hand, are all bred and due in the middle of May. We added Nigerian Dwarf goats to our herd last year. They are supposedly good milkers, even with their small size, and we are excited to be having kids from them! Many times they have triplets and quadruplets, so that’ll be a fun surprise!
We also added a couple of exotic animals to our farm around Christmas. Two guinea pigs, Peanuts and Pepper, and Sonic the hedgehog have taken up residence in the kids’ rooms. 😊
Overwintering Pepper Plants
Last summer, a friend shared a video about overwintering pepper plants. Every year, it seems like I wait FOREVER to start getting decent size peppers, especially bell peppers. By the time they start really producing in August, I know our time is limited.
So, last winter, I tried something different. Peppers are supposedly perennial plants where it’s warm, so the theory is that is they can brought in and kept somewhat dormant over the winter. I did just that. I brought them inside in buckets after a very dramatic pruning (like down to two or three short branches and removing all leaves). I divided some 3 gallon buckets into thirds with cardboard, filled them with dirt and transplanted my outdoor pepper plants into each of the sections.
After placing them on a low bench behind our couch which backs up to a sunny west window, I watered them lightly about once a week all winter. Guess what… they started growing their leaves back and by early spring they were flowering and starting to produce a pepper or two. By the end of May when I went to plant them outside again, they had quite a few small peppers on them. It’s still early, but I’m anxious to see how they take to being back in their native habitat.
Adding more than just horses
This soon-to-be-here newest addition is the reason I haven’t updated our farm page. When I’m pregnant, I become a recluse and don’t like to put effort into anything that I don’t have to. So, the past 7 months have been spent doing what needs to be done and avoiding a bunch of everything else. The creative side of me steps aside temporarily for the reality based side. Either that or I have a serious case of pregnancy brain fog… I’m not sure. But my love of writing has become a chore.
Anyhow, we are looking forward to meeting our new baby boy or girl, and will update as the fog clears 😉.
Adding horses
We added a few horses and a horse trailer to our farm this year.
Journey was our first addition. She’s a Missouri Foxtrotter with brown and white paint coloring.
Lady is our oldie that we got for a companion for Journey. She’s a 20 year old quarter horse and also has brown and white coloring. She has some arthritis in her knee, so only the younger, lighter kids ride her.
Blue was added a month later. He’s a large, brown, gentle gelding with a small white star on his forehead.
Our latest addition was a mini horse on Christmas Day. Miss Mini is a spunky little horse that was quickly nicknamed Missy by our five-year-old. She’s also trained to drive a cart, which we don’t have at the moment, but will be fun if we end up finding one.
Our girls have been wanting horses for years, so they were a long time coming, but now that they’re here, they are enjoying them immensely. We have learned a lot already and are still learning as we go. The plan is to find one more horse come spring for either Paul or I to be able to take the girls on trail rides, but for now, they are riding the trail around our pasture, alongside the road, or in the fields around our house.
Horse shelter
We are getting our place ready for the horses to come home ❤️. Paul has been working hard with the kids putting up a horse shelter with a small hay storage area.
A couple weeks later, it’s all put together! We had gallons of various colored paint in our basement, so we used it up to paint the first coat on the siding before the final color. Yellow, green, cream, brown… right now it looks kinda crazy.
It has literally been raining for 10 days in a row, so the fence is on a bit of a delay until it dries out for a few days, but as soon as that’s done, we’re bringing the horses home 😁
Sable Creek Farm 