HOME Sweet Homestead

I can't believe it has been a week since our two newest lambs were born, but it has.

 We walked out to the field to move the sheep and there they were. We knew Ruby, their mother, was close to having them, but we thought it would be the next morning. They were born (we are guessing) a little before 7 pm. She had one black ewe (girl) lamb and one white ram (male) lamb. We have named them Opal and Gilbert. Since our flock is entirely black, we were excited to see our first white lamb. We are expecting more lambs any day from one more ewe.

 Our garden is still not entirely planted yet. Last year, I planted the entire space in a day. This year it has taken me weeks. But it is big. We are harvesting spinach, garlic scapes, and lots of radishes these days. The strawberries get picked before they turn completely red by the boys and I ate our first Sun Sugar tomato last night.

 

 It's good to have bees again, and both hives are doing well. 

I really love our new location for them this year. I can see the hives from our front porch.

  

The kittens...well, they are just so cute and playful right now.

The wildflowers in our fields are beautiful right now. The pastures are about to be bush hogged so they will come to an end shortly, but I'll enjoy them while I can.

 

 I am itching to paint our dining room these days and my new piece of furniture given to us by a sweet friend is making me want to even more. Both the walls and it are getting a fresh coat of paint one day. Until then, you get this sneak peek.

Also, if you like to see what's happening, 

I post a lot more to Instagram, so check that out for more pics.

HOME Sweet Homestead

Boy, oh boy, do we have a lot going on at our sweet, little homestead! 

It is definitely Spring around here! 

We've been busy planting and still have more to do, but we've also been harvesting, too.

 Flowers are popping up all around in some unexpected places.

 

Our Muscovy duck is sitting on 16 eggs! We will have ducklings very soon.

 

In the last month, Bryan built our laying hens a new eggmobile. Our chickens could already move around in the pastures, but not very easily in the very heavy coop that we had from the city. Now we can move the chickens so much easier and it can hold so many more chickens.

 We used metal that we found in the barn to cover the sides and a trailer for the base. 

We still have a few finishing touches to do, but it is now in use.

 Our first batch of 25 Rainbow Rangers came last week. These meat chickens will only live for about 11 weeks and then they will be processed and added to our freezer. We are hoping to raise another batch of 25 this summer. We are raising our own protein!

 We pick up our bees (2 hives) this coming Saturday. So we've been painting bee boxes!

 Mabel has been moved in with the sheep in electric fencing, and they get moved to a new section of grass every other day. She is a year old and slowly, but surely, she is growing into adulthood (thank goodness). She is now a Livestock Guardian Dog!

  

And....

today our first lamb was born!!! 

Her mother, Harley, gave birth to her shortly after 5 a.m. 

She is healthy and strong and her name is Victory.

{Keeping Bees} First Honey Harvest

 We knew back in the summer that our bees were not thriving. We were hopeful that they would have enough honey to make it through the Winter and then we were going to re-queen (to establish new bees) in the Spring. Two days ago, we checked on our bees and discovered that they were all dead. So yesterday we harvested the remaining over-winter honey.

 

 (We, along with three other families, bought a honey extractor, 

so we can use it whenever we need it.)

 We harvested 4.75 pounds of honey from five (not full) frames.

Although we lost our bees, we are hopeful to have a couple new hives in the Spring,

and a day filled with honey will always be so sweet.