You know you've gotten a lot of snow when...

Your porch looks like this....

Your front yard looks like this...

And....after getting the driveway to look like this...

The snowblower engine looks like this.

Yup. I broke the snowblower. REALLY broke it. Good thing this was one our our finds off Craigslist's free page, huh?

Kinda sad, though....we just got it running yesterday...just enough to decide we'll give it a go tomorrow. And then. Boom. Dead. Gone. No Workie.

At least it held out until we were ALMOST done with the driveway. So hopefully we can find a rebuild kit, and see just how good JB Weld is.

On other fronts...everyone's doing well here. We've 20 baby bunnies in the barn...

...that are thankfully being kept warm by the diligent attention of their moms. The 20 babies are from three of our does, two of whom are first time mamas, and for Amber, the third, it's her first live litter(she lost her first litter due to a bad batch of feed). They're doing great, despite temps in the teens and windchills well below zero, and we're quite happy with our girls!

The chickens are doing GREAT! Our three newest hens(the ones hatched by our mama hen this summer courtesy of eggs from my friend Vanessa) have started laying! We've been getting between 3 and 4 eggs a day from the six hens now, which is just phenomenal considering it's winter. We're not sure when to expect the new batch to start laying, but once they do we'll be flush with eggs once more!

Giving Thanks

Mike and I spent Thanksgiving out at my mom's this year, and we had a great time. The weather threatened to keep us homebound, but cleared up enough that Thursday morning we got up and headed out, getting to mom's around 10:30 - leaving plenty of time for me to help mom wrangle all the sidedishes.

We got to hang out with my great grandmother and Mom's boyfriend Ed, and had fun talking and teasing and laughing. It's nice to get to spend holidays with family.

Mom loaded up the truck yet again - I swear, by the time she's done her house'll be empty and ours will be full! We planned to go hunting why we were there and ended up having to pass on that, as I started fighting a bug(still working on that). So, it was a nice few days of relaxation.

On the way back home we picked up a rabbit from the breeder we got our stock from - Mike's calling him Splotches, and he looks very similar to Josie. He'll stay with us over the winter to help get some outside bloodlines into the mix, then he'll go back home.

Here's some shots of the gang...rabbits, cats, dogs, and chickens :D

Blue loves playing in her hay!

"Hellllooo?"

Our new chickens :D

"There's supposed to be heat coming from that register..."

" I love my toy."

Look what I found under the bench!

Meet Sam...she's my mom's cat(formerly my gramma's) and boy does she know how to relax!

Look! Sam and her little sister Gracie!! We were flattered Gracie came out to see us :)

Yeah, I know...I know...

Ok...apparently I forgot to post this one...wrote it back on November 3rd...stay tuned for more recent happenings...working on those now!

I'm slacking. Really, I don't mean to!! It's just been busy, and when it hasn't been busy, we've been taking the chance for a little R&R. But...I know ya'll are just on the edge of your seats wondering what's doing up here...sooo.



My mom came to visit!! :) We had a great time, though I just realized that we didn't manage to take and pictures! Shame on me!!!!! Mom came out the weekend of the 24th for a bit of an escape, and celebrated my birthday with Mike and I. We went out to dinner Saturday and had carrot cake for lunch Sunday. Mom got to see all the stuff we've been up to since she first saw the house(which was gradually filling from the Uhaul as she left). I got to show off the chickens, and the rabbits, too. It was perfect timing, as we had three litters in the rabbitry that weekend - Cocoa's barely hours old litter, Lily's 6 week olds, and Cocoa's last litter at 11 weeks old, so she got to see the full range. And no, I didn't feed Ma rabbit - the freezer was empty!!



But, we did butcher the eldest of those litters last night - tonight I'll get it all wrapped up and into the freezer, and we'll be set for meat for a while! Lily's litter, the Lilliputians, were moved into the growout cage, and we should see some really nice growth on them now that they have to room to grow. Lily's happy to have her cage to herself again, though she'll be moving tonight - we're going to switch Josie and Lily, to have an experienced doe next to each of the new does. Hopefully our next breeding cycle will pan out much better. Amber did kindle the 24th - unfortunately, she had the babes on the wire, and it was much too cold for them to survive long - they were gone when I found them. She had 8, though, so we're really hopeful for the next go 'round. We'll be breeding Amber and Lily next week, I think.



Other than that...well, we've only one of the kittens left. Ghostie's still with us, and getting cuter every day! I swear though, she's like Fizzgig from the Dark Crystal...cute as can be but skittish and loaded with teeth! The rest of the critters are doing well...Idgy and Willow adore the new bench we built under the living room windows(pics later!). Mom helped me make cushions for it while she was out, and now, well, Willow is QUITE appreciative!



The chickens are doing well...we do have a rooster among the three that our broody Buckeye hen hatched, so he'll be freezer bound when we butcher the broilers, as will our last EE hen, Jackie, as it's been close to three months now since we've gotten eggs. Our new group of pullets are eight weeks old now, and I think here in the next couple of weeks we may ponder letting them out to meet the rest of the hens and start ranging the yard.



Let's see...not sure that there's anything else of note...just same stuff, different day!!

Assessing new furniture

Willow has a a set way of examining new arrivals to her domain. First, are pieces that allow her to be as close as felinely possible to her chosen human, Mike. Well, that would be the new recliner, so she tried out both arms, the back, and the footrest within moments of the new chair's arrival in the spot previously occupied by the old one.

Arms are wider - point in its favor, as this allows her to lay next to Mike more easily, as well as providing a nice platform to land on. When vacant, it's more than adequate for full body lounging. The recliner was quickly given Willow's stamp of approval.

Now...on to the second piece of new furniture. Mind you, both chairs were brought home Monday - but, as the other chair took up a previously unused spot roughly ten feet from where Mike usually sits, it took a bit for her to get around to her examination, though we did sniff it occasionally while walking through the living room.

But, last night, she finally did her evaluation. So, please, allow me to present, Willow's assessment, in four movements.

I believe the final decision is that, while it's satisfactory for waiting for her favorite seat to become available, it's far from her choice. The arms are too narrow for anything, and the back, while delightfully tall, offering a wonderful panoramic view of her domain, is impossible to lay comfortably upon.

Falling behind

Sorry I haven't posted in a while...everytime I sit down to work on an update, something comes up, or I think..."Well, I should wait until after...[insert reason here]. But, ah well, life happens, right?

So, here's the rundown on life here in Western NY. :)

Rabbits - Cocoa, Amber, and Josie are pregnant, due in three weeks, Lily's three week olds just decided to pop out of the nesting box, and the eight teenagers are freezer camp bound this weekend. We did get the last of the cages done, and now have three double cages and two singles hung in the barn now, with a spare single as well.

Chickens - Our broilers and pullets are roughly 5 weeks old now - the pullets are fully feathered and looking cute, the broilers are getting HUGE, and due for butchering in about three weeks. The hens are laying eggs sorta kinda steadily, though Jackie, our one remaining easter egger hen, has decided she's done for the season, so I think she'll be stewpot bound when we deal with the broilers.

Kittens - Well, it took some doing, but two of the kittens were adopted by a family Sunday evening, and I think I may have a home lined up for Ghost as well. Sparky may become part of the family, but that's still up in the air, at this moment.

Garden - well, it's done. We had a pretty good frost last week that did in the rest of the garden, though we've been gleaning a few tomatoes and peppers from the plants. We'll be working on prepping the garden plots for spring, so hopefully we'll have an easier time of it getting stuff going come spring.

And, to help with that venture, we added another member to our team. Mike hasn't decided on a name yet, but I think he looks like Gossamer...what do you think?

In addition to getting a riding lawn mower for $150 cheaper than what we paid for our push mower, the guy threw a little trailer in as well, so between the two, firewood, the garden, and other miscellaneous chores should be much easier!

We had a pretty nice weekend though - beautiful weather, crisp and clean, with the leaves turning into the full Autumn show. Oh, and yesterday, on the way home from work, I spotted a couple of chairs sitting out by the road for free. So, we scored a new(to us) forest green leather recliner and a wingback style chair(though that definitely needs reupholstering - I don't care for the color, but the construction is nice and solid).

So, that's the doings here. This weekend in the opening of the Fall turkey season, and we're hoping to get to go out and take a shot at that :) Other than that, and sending rabbits to freezer camp, I'm not sure what else will be on the agenda. Might work on taking the pool down :)

Rabbits and chickens all around...

It was a pretty quiet weekend here, but we got quite a bit of work done on cleaning and rearranging the barn, making room and arrangements to move the three week old pullets and broilers from the office outside. The pullets now occupy a small enclosure under the unoccupied side of the new growout rabbit cages, and the broilers are in a setup just inside the main barn door.

We had the luck to pick up ten bales of really nice timothy/grass hay for a great deal, and took the time to do some cleaning and rearranging in the main barn section, clearing enough space to stack all the bales right inside of the door, and finding enough space to lay everything out in a much more organized fashion.

The picture below is what you see when you first open the barn door now. In the foreground on the left is the space the broilers now occupy - they'll stay here for a bit over a month before being butchered. To the right, just out of sight, is where the hay is stacked. Also on the right is where the feed is stored. Directly back are three of the current seven cages - Buck, our new blue otter doe, and, in the corner, is Amber. We'll be constructing another six foot long double doe cage here shortly, and it will replace Amber's current cage, and add another cage to the mix.


The cage just visible in the lower right corner of the picture below is the edge of Buck's cage. The main space of the barn makes an "L" shape around the chicken's area, and this is the short leg. Cocoa and Lily reside in the double cages along the right, and the cages along the left, where a couple of little curious buns are peaking out, is the new growout setup we installed last week. Cocoa's litter of eight is in there now(7 weeks old), and it's under the back section that our pullets are brooding.

And, here are our newest additions to the herd. This is the blue otter - she has a temporary reprieve - as we've decided to hold off making the final decision to send her to freezer camp until after we get a litter from her. We haven't named her yet, but she's an absolute cutey! She's fourteen weeks old, so we'll probably see about breeding her when we breed Lily back next time.

This is our newest addition - she's what's called a broken blue, and her coat almost looks like she has wings on her back.

And, last, but far from least, here's a shot of Lily's litter. Believe it or not, there's ten little kits in there. There's three black ones and the rest look to be castors.

I think that'll be all for this post. We've been up to alllll sorts of stuff, including canning more than 18 quarts of applesauce...and that's with a full bushel left to process! I'll try to post more later in the week :)

It's a grind...

Thanks to our wonderful local Pennysaver(that Mike reads cover to cover nearly every week), we are now stocked with grain for at least the next year. We met a local farmer who sells grain to the public, and we now have 100 pounds of wheat, 150 pounds of corn, and 50 pounds of oats. Cool, huh? Since all of it is in its natural form, we'll mix in some food grade diatomaceous earth to take care of bugs, and store it all in food grade buckets, courtesy of the local bakerys. at $7/50#, you can't beat the price, and in the inflationary market current gripping the country, it doesn't hurt to be prepared!

So. What are we going to do with all this stuff, you ask? Well, I've been wanting a grain mill for years, but never could find a source for the whole grain that was reasonable. So...now that we can get the grain, we got a grain mill. Here are some shots of Mike and I giving it a test run Tuesday evening....

First pass of corn through the grinder. You have to crack it, before you can grind it.....

After the second pass...a somewhat coarse cornmeal. I might have to pass it through again for some recipes, but that'll be a matter of trial and error.

And here's a couple of cups of fresh ground wheat flour. That wasn't bad at all. The grain mill we chose is a "Family Grain Mill", and is german made. It's incredibly easy to turn(we're manual for the time being, but will probably mechanize the process at a later date). The mill is incredibly versatile, and we ordered a flaker attachment to work with it as well, so we can make our own oatmeal. Of course, before we can do that, we have to figure out how to hull the oats!!!

Arrivals and Departures...

Well, we've had some arrivals and departures since the last post. We butchered our second litter of rabbits(Lily's first litter) this past monday, and her second litter arrived Friday evening. Her first litter was 6 - this one is 10!! She's very proud, and happy to be unpregnant, and we're very happy with her! We won't know colors or anything until later this week, but once their fur starts to come in I'll take some shots of them. Cocoa's second litter of eight is growing well, and they'll be graduating to the growout cage later, and we'll be breeding her back this coming Wednesday.

Other arrivals are these little fuzzballs! They're nearly two weeks old now(the pic is from the day they arrived), and are peeping, pooping and eating!

Yesterday was a day for running errands, today, for chores and tasks. We got the new chimney cap on - a LockTop Damper, that will hopefully help us battle the amazing winds we face living so close to Lake Erie. While up on the roof I took care of a piece of the trim that was a vicitim to one of our early spring storms as well.

We also took care of getting two grow out cages built for the rabbits, and hanging them in the barn. Cocoa's litter of eight will be moved into it when I go out to feed them this evening. All told, I think it took us more than two hours to build the cage, and probably an hour and a half to get it hung in the barn. We had to do a bit of rearranging/renovating to put them were we planning, but a pleasant side effect is that the chicken area is not much more secure, and looks much neater.

Now I'm off to work on apples - we were lucky enough to find a guy looking for people to take care of all the apples on his five trees, and came home with two 50# feed bags full, as well as a box full. So...applesauce, applebutter, and all sorts of other things apple are on the way!

A full week ahead...

Or rather, a full week in process.

We started remodeling the upstairs bathroom over the weekend, spending a good chunk of Sunday pulling up the peel and stick tiles that were put down by the previous owner. A piece of advice - peel and stick tiles are nice, easy to use, no mastick to worry about and so on - but not at all the appropriate choice for a bathroom. So, Mike and I took turns wielding the heat gun and prying up the tiles, one by one.
By the time we were done, we found the original green mosaic sheet linoleum beneath - and, actually, if it weren't for the tears and such in front of the tub, it wouldn't be all that bad. So, Mike spent the greater portion of yesterday struggling to get the adhesive left behind by the tiles up off the floor - inch, by torturous inch. He's about halfway through the bathroom, and we're hoping that we can work on laying the new flooring down tonight. If not, we'll be making the trip downstairs to use the bathroom until probably this weekend.
So...we have that going on, we're expecting chicks tomorrow - after hemming and hawing most the summer away, we finally decided that we really need to increase our flock. So, we've got 11 golden buffs(one of the most common brown eggs layers - the hatchery was sold out of Buckeyes), and 14 meat birds coming out way. We'll have to get them settled, then we'll be off to the first of two days of hunter education class.
We also need to butcher rabbits this week, Saturday is going to be spent finishing the hunter ed class, and we're expecting a visit from the breeder we got our rabbits from. She's interested in Otter - we'll probably trade for one of her rabbits, which'll help us keep some diversity in our gene pool.
And, at some point, we really have to start working on roofing the garage, and doing some changes in the barn that will allow the new chicks to move out there in a couple of weeks, and let us increase our growout cage space for the rabbits. Oh...and firewood...and tear down the pool...and start prep work for next Spring's garden...and...boy...I'm tired already!

So...any family wanna come join us for a working vacation? We have plenty to do!!

Late update...again...

Well, so much for keeping on top of my updates. I'll try to do better, I promise. But, as a card carrying member of Procrastinators Anonymous(okay...I'm not...but I would be one, if I stopped putting off filling out the membership form), well, I'm just really good at thinking I'm going to work on something later.



But! I do have good news! Over the labor day weekend...or, maybe what should be called the Labor Weekend, Mike and I finished the barn roof, and sealed the driveway. Two huge tasks crossed off our list of to-dos. No...no pictures yet, for a good reason. We have to scrape and paint the barn yet, so, I'll post before and after shots once that's done. The barn's seen quite the makeover, and I plan to devote a blog entry to it when we get through with all the projects.



This weekend...well, we've a number of things planned, not the least of which is tackling the upstairs bathroom and making more rabbit cages. We still haven't gotten the additional cages done, and we're getting to the point where our rabbits are forcing the issue. There really is a reason they say "breed like rabbits", honest!



As for the bathroom, we picked up all the supplies to work on it earlier this summer; new flooring, primer, paint, etc, and it's time to tackle that room. We'll be popping off trim this weekend and pulling up the floor - how much more than that we manage, I'm not sure.



Today, though, has been dedicated to dentists. Well...our dentist, at any rate. I took the day off(why go to work for four hours just to drive around the corner from the house for your appointment, right?), and went in to get my teeth cleaned, and Mike to get his crown done and his cleaned as well. there's a reason I hate going to the dentist - they always seem to deliver bad news! I've been scolded by the hygentist for not flossing enough, and may have to undergo scaling come January if I don't manage to get some icky stuff in my gums under control. .



Some good news, though - we're going to be welcoming into the world another nephew or niece come spring! My little sister is about three months pregnant, and is doing a much better job of giving my Mom grandbabies than me so far(don't worry Mom - we're working on it!).



Oh, and we finally got to pick some tomatoes out of the garden! Only took until Labor Day weekend . Just was not a good year for gardens here in Western NY - hope they're better next year!

A Much Needed Update

Yeah, I know...I've been slackin'.

So this is going to be a long one...just to warn you ahead of time! I thought I might just do a chronological update of the past month's going's on, but I think it might be easier to follow if I just go by topic. So...here goes.

Rednecks and Rememberance

Last weekend Mike and I made a trip out to my mom's last weekend to attend a BBQ held to honor my grandmother's last wishes. It was nice to get to see some of my family members, and to hear other's memories of gramma, and we all shared quite a few laughs and tears.

I think Gramma enjoyed watching over us all, and my mom made sure to give her the seat of honor, right up close to the bonfire :)

I hope Gram heard us ribbing my aunt, though...I really think she would have appreciated it! She always had a great sense of humor, and loved to tease.

So...take a look at this...Aunt Coleen and Jess are quite proud of their outhouse, since they have so many bonfires and bbqs and such.

But...check out the decorating on this puppy....talk about your nice digs! Jess said she wanted to make sure you knew you were using the restroom "under the stars" :)

Now...the funny part is....and I wish I'd gotten a picture of it...that the outhouse is finished, but their kitchen is still under construction!!!

Things around our 3 acres...

Well, we've been trucking along rather well, livestock wise, but the garden is struggling. The weather has been unseasonably cool this year, with an amazing amount of rain, and that has proved a bit much for our garden to overcome. Our cukes have given up the fight, and the rest of our squashes have just been shivering in the chill. Our green peppers have been handling it rather well, but we've pounds of tomatoes just hanging out on the vines, waiting to make the transition from green to red. We've been harvesting green beans rather steadily, and our canillini and hutterite beans are drying - we'll be pulling them probably in a couple of weeks. The corn's doing so-so...we've got ears developing on the Painted Mountain and Golden Bantam, and the Kandy Corn that we planted late in the season is puttering along fairly well.

All in all, it's definitely been a season of learning about our climate and soil, and I'm definitely hoping we fare better next year.

The rabbits and chickens, on the other hand, are doing phenomenally well. Our mama hen is doing a fine job of teaching her three chicks how to scratch for bugs and free range, and it looks like only one of those is going to turn out to be a cockerel, which is pretty awesome. We've got an order of chicks coming the second week of September - half will be meat birds, the other half will be a pullet run of Golden Buffs, which are a standard egg laying breed. We wanted to get more of our favorite Buckeyes, but they were sold out.

As for the rabbits, Lily was bred Wednesday, so about four weeks from now we'll see her second litter born. Her first litter is seven weeks old today. We'll weigh them in two weeks and see how they're doing...and will probably head to freezer camp that weekend.

Cocoa's second litter is three weeks old today, and there are some beautiful coats coming in on those babies! She had eight healthy kits, and we lost two - though we do think we know what happened there, and will endeavor to prevent that happening again! They're growing well, eyes fully open and I expect to see them start to venture from the nesting box sometime this week.

Last but not least, here are shots of Otter and Amber. They're the two does we decided to keep from Cocoa's first litter, and will be added to our foundation herd to bring us up to four breeding does and a buck. They're growing well, and we'll probably start breeding them come the end of October or beginning of November. The same weekend Cocoa had her litter we butchered the other three from her first litter, and found that to be MUCH different than processing chickens, and while it's not something I enjoy, I definitely won't approach it with anywhere near the dread I view butchering chickens with!

So....that's what's going on here. We've been working steadily on projects around the place, some small, some larger, and are looking forward to building the future of our 3 Lil' Acres. Our fruit trees are coming along nicely, and I can't wait to get the rest of what we have planned to round out the place.

I'll try to be a little more diligent in posting updates...depends on what's on our plate from week to week though!

Seeing results...

Well, we're really starting to see results now, around 3 Lil' Acres, from the garden to the barn and beyond.

We harvested some more honey today - a full bar - though it's still draining, and so on, so I don't know how much we have yet. As with the first bit we harvested, we'll store this back until spring, in case we find the bees need it. Our visit to the hive went smoothly, and for that I'm grateful. They've another bar in progress, and three empty ones besides, so I think this'll be all we're taking from the hive until spring when the nectar flow begins again. We're already looking forward to getting another hive built to add to this one, as we both anticipate needing to split the hive.

We weighed both Cocoa and Lily's litters this morning, and are very happy with the numbers. Cocoa's five are at 10 weeks as of today, and weighed as follows: Amber- 4#5.5oz, Hossenpfeffer - 4#5oz, Fricasse - 3# 13.5oz, Hershey - 4#8.25oz, and Otter - 4#8 oz. Not to shabby, considering they're a smaller breed than traditional meat rabbits who are expected to reach four pounds at eight weeks.
We weighed Lily's litter of six as a whole, just to get an idea of where they're at. At four weeks, the whole litter weighed 6#.5oz. Meat breeders aim for a litter weight of 10 pounds at four weeks of age for a littler of 8-10, so I think that means we're not doing too badly. We'll keep track of the numbers and see how we do. We didn't think to weigh Cocoa's litter, so we don't have a comparison there.

Mama hen is doing a fine job of taking care of her three chicks, and is teaching them to scratch and scrounge for bugs and other edibles. They're venturing farther and farther with her every day, and the rest of the flock seems to have accepted them without issue. It's really neat to sit and watch them though, and it's hysterical to go to check for eggs and find she has them up in the nesting box with her. Nothing like reaching under a hen for eggs and finding chicks!!

The garden is coming along, though struggling. Our poor cukes and zukes are fighting a wilt(not sure which one though), but the tomatoes and peppers are growing well, and we should be able to harvest our first tomatoes in a week or so, hopefully. Our Painted Mountain corn is in various stages tasseling/silking, and we've little ears starting to form. The spaghetti squash has set four so far, and hopefully alot more to come, and we've been steadily picking peas for about two weeks. Didn't plant enough to freeze or anything like that, but they've been delicious to snack on!!

Let's see...other news. We're working on reshingling the barn roof, and hope to have the whole of the front side done today. Here's a shot of our progress as of yesterday when it started raining - I must say, we've gotten a LOT of rain this year!!

We just finished the front of the barn, but my foot slipped, and I ended up spooked, so we stopped there for the evening.

Meet the Chiclets...

Our Mama hen finally brought the wee ones outside today, and Mike was able to get some pictures of them. They're quite energetic, and follow their mom diligently as she scratches up goodies for them.
The black one is a Dominique chick, and the other two are from what our friend calls her "mystery red hen" with a Dominique rooster. So, we'll have to see what they grow up to look like!








The rest of the critters are doing well, Lily's litter is growing and has taken over her age, and Cocoa's litter is putting on weight quite nicely. Next weekend we'll weigh the three that we aren't keeping for breeding stock, and see how they look.

We got to harvest some turnips from the garden today, as well as peas, and a cucumber. We've radishes and lettuce ready as well, and will go pick some of those when we get a little closer to dinner time.

Other than that, our week has been occupied with worrying about my grandmother, who passed peacefully last night. She will be greatly missed.

An update from the barnyard...

Well, this past weekend was a busy one. Our broody hen suceeded in hatching her eggs, though only three of them were viable eggs. So, we've two little fluffy yellow ones, and one black one. She's pretty protective of the little peepers, so no pictures of them as of yet.

The garden is truly beginning to come on strong now. Mike picked some peas today, and there are blossoms on nearly all of the plants - tomatoes, peppers, squashes, beans, peas. The first spaghetti squash has set on the vines, as well as the first cucumber. We pulled a handful of turnips and radishes out, and picked two heads of lettuce.

We got the growout cages completed yesterday and hung up in the barn. Poor Cocoa was cramped beyond belief, and everyone seems to be quiet happy with the new living arrangements. Fricasse, Hershey and Otter are in one of the new cages now, while Amber and Hassenpfeffer are staying with Cocoa for the time being, while they wait for me to pick up another feeder to outfit the other cage. Cocoa's due to kindle in a little under three weeks, so we'll make sure they're out in the next week or so, leaving her some time to chill.

Lily's doing really well, and her temperment seems to be improving a bit with motherhood. The babies have all abandoned the nesting box, and it's rather amusing to see Lily hanging out IN the box trying to avoid her kits.

A Box O' Bunnies

So, that's the goings on here-abouts. Working on the garden, taking care of the critters, and trying not to overheat as summer continues. Hope all's going well everywhere else, and I'll try to post more pics of everything sometime in the next couple of days.

The garden's growing...

Well, finally remembered to take the camera out to snap some shots of the garden. Now that we're finally warming up here and getting some sun it's starting to come on strong.
We're definitely experiencing a learning curve, though, and hopefully will find it much more successful next year.

We're growing: broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, beets, turnips, mangels(which is a livestock beet), radishes, cucumbers, a few different lettuces, summer squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, delicata, pumpkin, cannelini beans, hutterite beans(a soup bean), peas, pole beans, tomatoes(4 different varieties), and peppers(a bell pepper, a frying pepper, and jalepeno).

Here are some shots of the garden...