Several Year Catch Up!

 Well, it is nice to look back at this blog and see how some things have changed. We have moved to Minnesota, and purchased a hobby farm.

Nine spoiled hens and one lucky rooster (back left).

We got chicks this past spring. They were housed in the shed on the property until a couple of weeks ago, when they moved into their own sunny shed.

We butchered fifteen roosters and now have one rooster and nine hens to overwinter. We also have a decent amount of meat in the freezer and quite a bit of tasty chicken stock. 

We were getting around six eggs a day at the beginning of the month, but now it is two eggs a day. 

LOTS of designing and hard work from hubby.

Chickens are a fun reason to go outside in the winter. Oh wait, it's still fall! The weather could have fooled me.

 We spent a great deal of time on this chicken shed this past year. It is based on Fresh-Air Poultry Houses, which have been successful as far north as Canada for a century, so it seemed like a good design for our birds as well.

Clearly it is not completely done, but the chickens don't seem to mind too much. Next year we will add the siding, chicken door and fancy details (like paint, ha).

Herb and vegetable garden tucked in under mulch and snow.

Any other free time I had was spent implementing and bettering a garden. There is a lot of lawn on our acreage, and while I learned to mow it, less is definitely better. Turning lawn into a food-producing garden has been a great exercise program. We have a vegetable garden, as well as an asparagus bed, a strawberry bed and an herb garden.

Our garden soil leaves much to be desired, with lots of packed clay and rocks. I have added some mulch, compost and manure, and plan to add much more over time.

Red Prairie Spy apple tree ready for winter.

There are currently some veggies sleeping under that snowy mulch in the picture. Under a blanket of leaves and straw are parsnips, carrots, leeks, green onions, parsley and kale (lots of kale). It got above freezing last weekend and I was able to go out and harvest all of the above, as well as turnips and fall radishes. I can't say we are feeding ourselves only from the garden, but it is nice to have fresh produce from your backyard for a number of months.


I also spent many days planting fruit trees and bushes. Tender young plants are like candy to deer and mice, so trees need to live in cages to make it past the critters. Hopefully all the hard work will pay off in a couple of years, with lots of tasty results!

I planted three apple trees, two pear, a sweet cherry, a tart cherry and a peach tree. All are hardy to our Zone Four weather, with most of the stock coming from a nursery in Wisconsin, so I am optimistic. There are also blueberry, gooseberry, current, raspberry and blackberry plants.

Many frozen apples left for the deer.

There are two apple trees on the property from the previous owner. He is a big bow hunter, so the trees are well-placed for deer access, and not so much for people. Consequently, they saw minimal care before we got here.

We pruned the trees early this year, and also gave them several holistic sprays, based on this lovely book. We harvested a great deal more apples this year than last year because of these sprays.
There is still a lot of work to be done, but I have at least identified some of the problems to address. Judging by the harvested apples, we deal with apple maggots, coddling moths, plum curculio and a couple types of fungus.

It's pretty easy to see why apples are among the heaviest sprayed produce!

Veggies, fruit and stock.

Throughout the growing season, I've been working on putting up as much produce as possible. The applesauce is from our trees, and that fact alone is thrilling to me.

A lot of things were still purchased in bulk from the farmer's market, to have a large amount to can at one time. The bunnies really hit my beans and beets hard before we got the fence around the garden.

It is easier to buy a can of veggies from the store, but it is nice to look at the cupboard and feel a sense of pride in its food.

We have a decently full freezer right now, and soon to be quite full, after we get our quarter of beef. We purchased our first quarter in February from HD Beef Works. The meat is grass-fed and delicious. I look forward to more options when shopping from the freezer!

Allis Chalmers tractor

Our most recent exciting development on the farm is that we got a tractor. It is older than both of us, but is the right color for my husband's family, and will be a lot of help around here. It also means I can call where we live a farm, right?

The day we brought it home, we used it to haul chicken bedding from the big shed in to the garden, as we were relocating the chickens to their new home.

The plan is to also use it for snow removal, as it seems like we will have a harsh winter, similar to last year.

The plans a tractor opens up for the future previously seemed like dreams, and are now just an attachment away! I'm sure someone used that as a sales pitch at some point.

It is so easy to give into the winter blues at this time of year, so it is very nice to look back fondly at a very productive year. I love looking back at the previous blog posts and seeing many of those dreams fulfilled. It makes one very optimistic for the future, and for the fact that dreams do come true! With an awesome husband and a lot of work, that is. ;-)