Our Newest Addition

Eric hasn't been worn down enough to let me get a pony for the girls to ride, so I satisfied myself with a Halloween addition. We introduced Bony Pony to the herd on Saturday, much to our amusement.  Saffron is NOT a fan and has Powered Up into Protect the Herd mode like a good donkey. Gwyn has decided it's just another thing that Mom throws at her and she should ignore it.

We also hung skeleton person, who has seen better days. It seems more halloween decoration acquiring is in my future :D 

Saffron on high alert

We also took a trip over to our neighbor's house. She has brand new baby chicks!

Both girls were thrilled!

And on Sunday a friend came over and Gwyn got lots of loving.

Happy Gotcha Day Saffron!

Facebook politely reminded me that 2 years ago today I brought Saffron and Arwen home to Firefly.  Arwen has since gone to a new home where she is doing amazingly (I'm friends on facebook and see pictures!)

Saffron has blossomed with our little family. Without the maternal need to protect a baby that she was never properly weaned from, she bonded nicely with Gwyn and has begun to trust humans a bit more every day.

There are still holes in her handling that will come with time but looking back on where we started, where we had to push her onto the trailer and she was plainly terrified, where I didn't dare take off her halter in case I needed to catch her. Now she'll stand still and let me curry her and use a shedding blade. I can put medicine on her fly bites on her legs.  She's absolutely petrified of fly spray, but I use the fly spot stuff with her and drip it on her back and she's okay.  You can pet her all over. She has never once tried to bite me or the kids. We're still working on leading but she walks with me more than she resists and I've learned she's not above being bribed with treats to move.

She's a good donkey. I've grown attached to this sassy long ears.

Spring Prep on the Farm - Happy Eostre!

Back in January we planted our seeds

We moved the seedlings to medium cups and finally to larger pots!  We have a TON of tomato plants, some peppers, cilantro, parsely and basil. 

Waiting to be transplanted.

We decided that we wanted less grass, and that having the garden near the house would be highly convenient for watering and for tending it. Plus this is a super sunny spot! The plans for a set of raised garden beds were hatched.

We had help with repotting.

We started by removing the rock from the existing garden bed. It will be used to bolster the seasonal creek in the pasture.

Then came rototilling!

This is all getting dug up!  The birds have been having a FIELD day.  I welcome it. The more japanese beetle grubs they eat the healther our trees and plants will be!

Leveling and smoothing out the dirt and removing the sod clumps to be repurposed in some low spots in the pasture.

DANGER NOODLE

Feed me

Saffron is getting more comfortable with me! Today was the first day she let me take nose selfies. AND she was interested in the phone. This is HUGE for a little jenny who would run away from me when I tried to go near her.

She even let Hazel glomp all over her. I swear, all of our animals love Hazel. Even the cats.

My batgirl and her Daddy.

Tomorrow we get deliver of a huge load of cinder blocks and patio pavers. We've got a ton of well composted manure to fill the raised beds plus we'll be able to top off with the topsoil getting moved around in the leveling process.

Happy Solstice and Welcome Winter

Happy New Year as well!

We now have a facebook page, huzzah.

We had snow and the snow is gone. The weather was gorgeous for New Years weekend here in Michigan and we spent today outside with minimal outerwear. Temperatures are supposed to drop though, so it's back to deep freeze.

Saffron now has her own turnout sheet for those blustery wet cold days. Since the wind whips right across our property it seemed a good investment. I'd often see Gwyn out in the open without a care in her sheet while Saffron would be huddled by the tree line. Now they're both out.  These are just rain coats, if you will. Neither critter is clipped so they have their own fur for insulation. When the temperatures really dipped, poor Saffron was shivering, so I knew we were in need of something for her.

Eric got some pepper seeds for Christmas so we're sprouting them and have decided to set up a hard to utilize corner of our kitchen as a mini greenhouse. Seedlings will be moved downstairs and eventually into the aquaponics set up, since having the plants will increase our fish survival. Plus a coworker of Eric gave him a small fish tank so we can run a mini aquaponics set up and get some seed water for the larger set up.

We need more grow lights.  That's the TL;DR

Goals and To-Do List for the Farm in 2017
-Have a successfully cycling aquaponics set up: any size
-Regularly harrow the arena
-Replace and regrade the footing in the pens
-Spread manure in resting pastures
-Fix lawn mower
-Finish the drainage stream through the pasture
-Fix the drainage path from barn to stream
-Acquire wood chips for pathways
-Revamp play set (replace tarp, fix lean on the A-frame)
-Plan and plant front garden

Our christmas tree, still with root ball. It will be planted in the spring, until then, it's living inside!

Itty bitty but pretty!

We made our own plow for the driveway. It worked really well. I'll go more into that in another post.

Me dressing up to go feed dinner.

I added barn lights because my imagination was going crazy. I kept opening the door in the dark and turning on lights with my heart racing, expecting to see something waiting for me. Logically I know it's silly, but this helped.

Saffron's new blanket. 

Keep Saturn in Saturnalia!

Our stockings. The left one is mine, made by my grandmother. The other three were made by my mom for E, K and H. Hazel has the biggest stocking of them all.