I participated in the Sweet Goodness Swap called a Midsummers Night Dream. It was a little while ago but I finally am finding a place to stop and breathe the post again. (Farmers never get a day off...hhhmmm..should of thought about that a few years ago...)
Here are some of the goodies I made for my swap partner at Mamasaidsew.blogspot.com
And this....
And.....
This is my first attempt at a crown.
I really liked the way that it turned out.
Here are a few more images...
Not a very good picture but I hope it makes sense. I took it while I was looking in the bathroom mirror! LOL
I also sent her a birdhouse I decorated, a pair of silver candlesticks that I thrifted and spray painted in a pretty pink and some chewy treats.
Here at the farm we've been busy starting a new orchard since we lost the last one in the flood. We've planted 2 Asian pears, 1 bartlet pear, 1 Elberta Peach and another peach, a nectarine, 2 plums, apricot, 1 yellow delicious apple, 1 Jonagold apple, 1 Wolf River apple(heritage) and 1 Arkansas Black apple. These are all trees that are taller then me and according to the nursery we got them from should all have fruit next year! YEAH! Next we need to replant the strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and grapes. We lost all those also. We've moved the orchard to the front yard this time around as that didn't take as much rushing water and debris as the back of the farm did.
This is the area that now has 13 trees planted in it.
Hope to be back soon!
Have a fabulous evening!
Sue
Because I'm mmmmeeeeellllting......
It sure has been a hot summer! I know it has been for a whole bunch of states but when I'm outside it's so hard to think of anything else but to get the work done and try to keep breathing and wiping the sweat out of your eyes and everywhere else you weren't aware you could sweat from. I mean...really? really?? You can sweat there??? And it looks like we are in for another week of killer temperatures. Today at 11:00am it was already hitting heat indexes of over 100. The animals all hate it and the milkers are slowly drying up as their bodies don't want to use up the energy to make milk and try to keep cool. And how can I fight that? Air conditioned barn? Sure..and technically we have that right now...tear off a wall and BOOM you have AIR conditioning....HA! Not the cool air type mind you, but there sure is a nice breeze in there. At least the barn is cooler then it is in the middle of the sun baked pasture.
I just finished participating in a Sweet Goodness Swap and posted pics over on my other blog..www.artisanfarmgirl.blogspot.com(at least I think I did...seems to be having a problem today. I'll check again tonight and see if there is a post)
I also have been thinking a lot about our CSA and next year we will not be continuing in this venture. We will be focusing our directions elsewhere. With the flood and then this heat and drought it's been so hard and folks depend on us to provide them with veggies and fruits and pay good money for that service. How do you explain to someone...After the flood the soils changed and then this heat and dry spell has caused the pollination fo the plants to stop and the plants are conserving their energies and concentrating on their roots systems and not on the fruit on the vine...there is nothing happening right now...and not just with me, but with every true farmer I now. Of course there are those that are still selling at the farmers markets and calling it their own, but in reality a lot of them are going to the Mennonites in KY and buying what they are growing are reselling it as theirs! Hurts real farmers, but what can you do? So I continues to watch the fields and get out there are 5:45am each morning praying for something to start growing(other then weeds) and praying for some relief..rain, cool weather, both?
Gotta get back to it and refresh waters and keep everyone comfortable......
Stay fabulous!
Sue
December? Really? That was my last post? Yikes! I've been a very bad blogger. Let me share a little of what has been happening here at Bountiful Acres.
In January we had crazy cold weather and my days were busy with toting water to the barn and making sure that the animals were all safe and dry so that they wouldn't freeze to death. Our outside water faucet had frozen solid so I was taking water out of our master bath tub and walking it through the house and then outside to the barn. It was not a fun winter..but we all survived and were happy to see spring arrive.
In Feb, March and April I was busy getting our 2nd year of the CSA together and planned out. We had grand new plans to expand our crop area by more then double. This year I was going to be selling at Farmer's Markets as well as the CSA. Seed orders were going out and coming in, tractor time was being arranged with our farmer friend and of course the animals were busy expanding their families. Our duck, Miss Gulch, hatched her first brood and we had fun watching them grow.
Our sheep lambed in April and we have been having a grand time with lambs! Yea!!! Dawn had twins, a ewe and a ram, and I named them Morning Glory and Evening Son. Mocha had a ram named Cappachino. Raven had twin rams, Apache and Cherokee. And Eve had a ewe we call Ava. I tried to name all the lambs something that matched their moms. What do you think? Here are a few pictures of the lambs.
This is Eve and Ava. Eve was the first to lamb and this was her first lambing.
This is Dawn with her twins. We were blessed that the white one is the ewe.
Then on May 1st and 2nd in our area of the country it started to rain. And rain. And rain. And rain. On Saturday we knew we were in for some flooding, we just didn't know how much. And of course looking back, if I knew then how much we'd get I might have headed to airport and never looked back.
In the afternoon on that Saturday Farkle, Miss Kitty and I all headed to the barn and started to move the sheep, lambs, and goats to the new high barn that we got in spring. In October when we had some flooding the water never got that high so we knew they were going to be safe. (ha!) By the time we finished moving all 26 animals we could tell this flood was different. It was coming fast and had surpassed October's flood in about 30 minutes. We knew it was time to move the rabbits. We headed back to where their hutches were...and we couldn't get to them. The water was to high and moving to fast. We all tried from several different sides..it wasn't going to happen. We knew we had to get back to the house and start moving things to higher ground. We checked on the birds and it seemed that most had gotten up on something. We moved our cars to higher ground and by then our home was surrounded by water. We live in a manufactured home and we have skirting around the base. We could here the creaks and groans as the water was rushing so fast it was ripping the skirting off the house. 2 x 4's and all. As it climbed the steps of our deck we knew we had to go, but the waters were already covering the roads and we didn't know if we could get out. I called a friend for prayer and then another who lived close and asked her if we could come there and she volunteered to come help us. She called back in about 10 minutes and let us know there was no way in...how were we getting out? Well as God already knew all this was going to happen and He had things in control...here is how we got out. My sister, Miss Kitty, had her furniture and stuff in storage in FL and had decided that week to go get it...she rented a 27 foot Penske truck(Like a semi) and she had just gotten home on that very day. There was a semi in our drive. Miss Kitty and our Aunt got in the front and Farkle and I climbed in the back along with 5 dogs and 4 cats and we plowed out of there. It continued to rain most of the night and all I could do was plead with God to keep our animals safe..they were all there. The goats and sheep locked in that barn that was surrounded by water by the time we left, our rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guineas, and two great pyrenese dogs.
This is out our front door. As the water are rising. The depression there is our pond. And the barn there is where the goats and sheep are.
Not 10 minutes later...................
Behind the barn is where our road is.
The waters were coming fast!
I couldn't sleep most of the night and at first light I was ready to see if we could go home. I awoke my husband, Farkle and my sis, Miss Kitty and we were ready to head back home. We left Aunty at our friends home while we checked on what awaited us. My friend and her husband came with and brought their livestock trailer so that if our animals were alive she'd take them back to her farm for awhile.
We got there and all the water had receeded. Our home seemed secure. My friend, Butterfly Morn, went right to the barn for us and opened the door.....to bah's and neigh's and "where the heck have you been?" from the goats and sheep. All had survived. They climbed up onto anything and everything they could. Looks like the water was about 2 feet deep in the barn. How the lambs lived I'll never know except to say...God is mighty and awesome and He was watching over them.
Our rabbits didn't fair so well. Their cages all floated and all of them drowned. Again, Butterfly Morn was right there and emptied all the cages for us so we never saw one of them. She put them back in the creek and said "What the creek took the creek can have back". We collected all the empty cages and just cried over them. Even as I write this two months later I'm crying over those silly rabbits.
We also lost 4 of the baby ducks and about 20 chickens. And as far as structures, our home was dry inside but the bottom had severe damages, the barn had some damage and some out buildings moved from one field to another. And lots of fencing and gates were down or gone.
This was Sunday morning.
Then it started raining again..and Sunday the floods were worse. We got a knock on the door from the fire dept..."You've got 15 minutes to get out!" Again we panicked and left. Our goats and sheep were at Butterfly Morn and we got in my car and the truck again and left. My car didn't make it through the flood waters and stalled out and we started to drift....Miss Kitty rammed us with the semi and pushed us out of there. We slept in a hotel that night and came home again the next morning to worse damage then the night before.
This is the barn. There was a wall here the night before. It is just gone. The front walls were pushed in about three feet and are off the cement footers.
So for the last two months our lives have involved calling insurance(we have flood insurance), F.E.M.A, our CSA customers, contractors, etc.., It's been quite the expierence. As I write this this morning, I can hear the 5 guys under my home that are working to install the insulation, vapor barrier and to fix our duct work. Insurance will not cover the barn or the animals though. And, FEMA doesn't cover that either, so we are doing what we can with what we have. I'm making art and lotions and selling what I can to help cover the barn repairs as winter is going to arrive soon and we need a better home for our goats and sheep.
During this time our goats have also been kidding! And that has been fun.
Farkle and Lavender sharing a moment. (Notice the missing wall behind them?)
Good things that have happened since the flood:
7 turkeys were hatched by one of our turkeys and are now free ranging here.
5 guineas were hatched by our guinea and are are growing up really stinking cute!
(they sleep on our deck at night.)
2 of our ducks have hatched about 19 ducklings between them.
I've started a new blog that will have my art on it. www.artisanfarmgirl.blogspot.com
Through all this I clung to a phrase that I had heard from a friend..."Don't tell God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big your God is!" That's how we made it through those days...
Be well!!
Sue
I am participating in the Sweet Goodness Swap and later today will post pictures of what I've made for my swap partner. 
Life has just been tough lately. My Aunt (who lives with my hubby and I) has been in the hospital for a week as of today and last night Farkles dad went into the hospital in FL with pneumonia and they had to put his mother in Assisted Living while dad went to be cared for. Hopefully today we will be feeling Merry enough to put up our Christmas tree.
Do you like luffa sponges? I do. And this year I grew some. But boy are they a chore to get to the sponge part. Here's a picture of the green gourd after it has dried on the vine for awhile.
And here is how they look after several weeks of sitting in the sun
The brown one is the one that's been sitting on the sun for over a month. The green ones I just got out of the garden on Wednesday.
Then after I soak them and peel them this is what they begin to look like
There's a luffa sponge starting to emerge
Just wanted to show you the seeds for next years luffa also. Those black spots are the seeds.
And finally here is the finished sponge....
Here's another view of it from the side that you might recognize Sorry about the turkey. Looks like he as a new head..lol. But he's always by me when I'm outside. He helps me get the scratch and feed the rabbits and peel the luffas and feed the sheep and goats and do my little projects. He's also very fascinated with my wedding ring..I guess it sparkles in the sun and he wants to peck it.
When I'm inside on the computer..this is my constant buddy in there
This is Emmy. Such a sweet kitty.
If you're interested, we'll be selling the luffa's in another week or so.
I posted about this house two posts ago and had some encouragement to ask about it...find out about it...what could it hurt?
So I did....
We have a farmer that has been helpful to us and shares some knowledge with us and I also get some of his produce that he grows and I don't..like the most fabulous sweet potatoes...anyhow I asked him about it today since he seems to know a lot about what goes on in these parts. He told me that it was the McClanahan farm(we live on McClanahan Road) and the lady that lived in there is now in an assisted living facility. Her family is getting ready to sell the farm as they need the money to support her. He tells me that there is one man that has first dibs on the farm. If he isn't interested, or can't buy it then Farmer Bill's son-in-law is second on the list. He had run some cattle there until they asked him to move them so they could sell. So chances are that he might get that property. I'm said I hope they sell it to a farmer. Farmer Bill's son-in-law would keep it as a farm..someone else might come in and divide it up and sell it off in tracts. UGH!!! I asked him what his son-in-law would do about the house if he got it and he said probably rent it...I told him WE'D BE INTERESTED IN THAT...for sure!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe we could even convince him to sell us the acre or so that it sits on..... maybe.... still dreaming....
I finally have been able to get a spinning wheel....The Elizabeth from Ashford is on her way to me and I'm waiting.......
We keep checking the gate to see if there are any packages...
This is what she is supposed to look like when she gets here...
Oh I can't wait!!!!!!
We moved to Bountiful Acres in Feb 2007 and we have 8 acres here. Well almost..technically we have 7.78 acres. Surrounding us is farm land. While we do have some neighbors they are far away and we like that. This house sits on the hill right next to us. It's the old farmhouse that is part of the farm that the land we are on and all the land around us was once a part of. This old beauty sits empty. I look at her often and I wonder how I can be the one that cares for her now and decorates the natural beauty she holds. I know someone had to have lived there not to long ago...look closely at the picture. Do you see the satalitte dish? I often think of calling the county and finding out who owns it now and seeing what I can do to be there.... She also sits on 100 acres... 100 acres...100 acres of hills and valleys and spots that don't flood. I dream of what it would be like to have Bountiful Acres become part of that land and home also....our goats and sheep frolicking on the land and me in that old home. I can see our wicker furniture on that old porch and smell the fire that I've built in the fireplace. I can see the lace curtains billowing in the breeze as the windows are slighty ajar on spring mornings. I can hear the birds chirping as I take my morning coffee on the porch sitting in my wicker rocker. I can see the chickens, ducks, guineas, turkeys all watching from the other side of the white picket fence I've put up around the house(it replaces the chain link fence that is there now, of course). I can see my laundry flicking in the wind. I can imagine my current pasture all set up in crop as my goats and sheep could move over here to the hills and valleys.
This is another view from my pasture looking across the creek up to the house.
And I know the goats see it and think the same thing....'if only we could frolick on those hills'
But then reality hits and I realize just how wonderfully blessed I am to have the home and the land that I have and that I have goats, sheep, and all the birds and that I am living my dream come true...as a wife to a wonderful man and as a farmer. Just sometimes I think about what might be......
Here's some pictures of our pastures and trees and the creek....
The creek is beautiful when it stays where it's supposed to stay..;-)
This is my new friend. He likes to follow me and he seems to be talking to me. Nope he doesn't have a name...other then Dinner.
While out in the pasture one can never be alone. The goats love people and want to be where you are. Here they come.....
These are the sheep. Couldn't care less if I'm around. Unless I have some food....
And one past picture for today...
I've learned to solder and made some necklaces. I love it! And I loved making these.
Have a fabulous day!
I'm a wife to the world's most fabulous man who loves to create beautiful things in life through crafts, food, gardens, and just everyday living in general.
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