A Mud Free Makover (This time!)

Those that follow this blog semi-regularly (all two of you--thanks Mom!) might notice something is a little..... different.
Did I change the curtains? throw some paint on the cabinets? Well, if you can't quite put your finger on it (and you're the type that wonders what ever happened to the herd of mammoths that used to roam the neighborhood--) I'll put it in a nutshell. Everything is different.

You see, when we moved to the new homestead and off of the rental, we had intended to keep our old name; however while I was pouring over google maps I noticed a large farm about 3 miles away from our home with virtually the same name! Shenanigans!!
Not only does it exist-- the pretenders have the audacity to have a farm sign next to the school! THEY ADVERTISE DUCKLINGS!!

So, suffice it to say-- to avoid any confusion our little farm has undergone a re-branding.

Why the palm tree wallpaper you ask??

This might be strange to explain to non Arizonans, but I kid you not-- palm trees are a staple along the horizon of the west valley farm country. Hay farms and homesteads the valley over have the tall frondy things.

As for growing our little farm experiment?

We have made leaps and bounds. We have expanded from one cow to 4. (See my last post about Milking Martha.) A herd of 9 Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goats have been given to us and we anticipate a busy kidding season in February-- we have 6 pregnant does and the breed is known to not only give birth twins with regularity, they often drop triplets and even have been known to have quads!

Our flock of welsh harlequins currently stands at 15 breeders. We also had donated to us a flock of 5 Pekin ducks, and we have housed them with our mixed breed and cayugas for an exceptional meat duck breeder pen.

Our two wyandotte hens are grown-- we enjoyed them very much, but as we are focusing on the ducks for eggs we've listed them for sale hoping to share them with a chicken fancier. Candidly speaking, I should probably part with some of my more ornamental duck hens too!

Our thanksgiving turkeys are in the freezer waiting for the big day-- their two sisters are healthy and vigorous and will be staying on as breeders for the next generation of Dusky Acre turkey dinners. We also added 3 new young turkeys-- one baby red palm hen from bourbon red heritage stock, and two young Fall Fire toms that should do an excellent job fathering next year's holiday meals.

Our geese have stayed on-- Goliath and Ethel are still joined at the hip flirting with the idea of setting a fall nest. Brucie and Lucy are a little more aloof, but I am hopeful they have what it takes to raise their own family in the spring.

Since we came into the new place at the beginning of fall garden season we worked quickly to get something--- ANYTHING planted, so we have a large series of pots and dresser drawer boxes full of dirt and plantings.
We've got bell peppers, tomatoes (romas and heirlooms), tree onions, salad bowl lettuce, herbs, cucumbers, peas, zucchini and cantaloupe sprouting and looking incredible. A much better turnout than we had at the leased property. We have plans to put in more raised beds and get an extra large strawberry patch and a decent asparagus patch going within weeks-- beets and beans, chard, carrots, leeks and potatoes hopefully to follow as space permits.

Fixes and projects have been slow going but they are going!

We completed our first goat pen before the goaties arrived (thank goodness!), we have a lawn now where there was only dirt before. The demolition on the old deck wrapped up today and the space is clean and ready for new skirting and raised beds made out of the salvageable old deck wood to house the rest of those veggies in my list. Next the demo on the old white singlewide begins with that old deck to become the strawberry boxes.

We have a grape vine planted next to our covered porch to climb the lattice-- we have two vanilla plant starts that are doing well in their new pots. We have two shade trees (desert willows) to plant in front of the house that will be much appreciated when the heat kicks up again in a few months!

All in all, we are seeing progress every day-- I can hardly wait till we have more than eggs on "farming status"!