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Snapshot

Bent Pine Farm Year 3

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Here’s Year Three (Spring 2016 – Mar 2017) in a nutshell…rather large nutshell, but there you are.

The Tea Garden Project progressed, as we built the Tea Patio in the Tea Garden. Most of what we buy in now is fruit for the Kefir smoothies, so… We started a food forest with fruit trees and vineyard with Florida friendly Muscadine grapevines.

We built new Tilapia pools and began harvesting Tilapia…delicious! Expanded Pole Barn 2. Bred the three does, with Half & Half as the sire. We now have 8 kids for a total of 13 dwarf milk goats! (They are all for sale, trying FB and Craigslist.) The kids have been dehorned (de-budded) as necessary, except for Emma’s two, Reed and Sawyer…both bucks, but we waited too long.

Anyway, lots of things going on…see what you think.

Happy Homesteading,
T.

Feather Pen Post

Fairhaven

Bent Pine Farm Winter 2016-17

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This year we planted Mandarin Oranges and a grape arbor with muscadine grapes. We fenced a double pen for the four American Guinea Hogs; Alexander and Cheerio are at the point of breeding, so we’ll see how that goes. We’re feeding them rice with banana peels and sweet potatoes, and we add kefir milk when we have extra.

We fenced the barnyard into two pastures and added another pasture on the hilltop. There were four litters of rabbits; we sold two and put half a dozen in the freezer. We’re growing sweet potato vines from our own slips in the greenhouse, also Florida friendly bananas and Mexican Sunflowers. From seed we have basil, peppers, creeping thyme, and greenhouse cukes.

Our red star layers are slowing down a bit. They are over two years old. We have 6 Isa Browns and three new Red Stars. We waited a bit too long to milk Emma, so will start again next time she has kids. Cow appears bred.

Talulah Goose is laying again and she becomes very protective of her eggs. Ray gathers her egg each morning and if she notices the theft in progress, she chases him around the barnyard, nipping at his jeans!!

 

Happy Homesteading,

T.

garden

Starting the Fall Garden 2016

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The Fall Garden 2016 got off to a slow start. It was still quite warm during the days, so some of the cool weather crops are struggling. Two kinds of spinach are doing well – Cholesterol and Longevity. These are good greens for the ducks as well. Some tomato varieties, mostly heirloom are not so hot, although the Chadwick heritage is doing well and the Big Boys look okay. The pickling cukes seem to only grow in the greenhouse…so that’s where they have been stationed. Broccoli and Cabbage are doing fine, too. The Pigeon Peas (second variety we planted, which is annual) are starting to flower and seed.

The rabbits love the Pigeon Pea, so we will be collecting those seeds for next year. The first type of Pigeon pea was supposed to be perennial and grow into a hedge. However, the plants were all stubby and the seeds never developed. We like the annual better so far.

The rest of the West Veggie garden is planted with Austrian Winter Peas…a great favorite in the barnyard, and one of our favorite cover crops as well. The entire Hilltop Garden, with the exception of the sweet potato bed is planted with A. Winter Peas for cover and nitrogen fixing. These plants put abundant amounts of nitrogen back into the soil, if you are careful not to let them flower and then turn them in before they do.