Spring is a time of new life on our farm. We all enjoy the birth of new animals and look forward to caring for new babies, spending more time outside, garden produce, flowers, and green pastures. Today is a cloudy, cool spring day. We had a nice shower overnight and the grass is beginning to green up. There is excitement as we think about what we will be planting and the projects we hope to accomplish. We are constantly praying and seeking guidance and wisdom. Spring is a time when we set very high goals and sometimes think we can accomplish more than our time allows. Unfortunately, something always suffers in the heat of the summer, but each year seems to improve.
Chickens
Last year about this time we invested in 50 laying hens with a plan to sell good quality, nutrient dense eggs. We purchased chicks, started them in our brooder in the barn, and when they were big enough to get moved outside, we placed them in our homemade chicken tractor on our pasture. This is moved daily. After a few nights some coons broke in and killed all of our hens. This was a devastating financial loss to us so we decided to put this plan on hold. Our son Aiden who diligently cares for our chickens and collects eggs every day expressed interest in selling eggs. After some thought and prayer I offered to help oversee the business, wash eggs, and help him advertise. To keep our investment down we hatched out our first round of eggs from our own chicken eggs and were able to hatch out 10 healthy chicks. We started another batch today and will continue until we don’t have extra eggs. Lord willing Aiden will have eggs for sale in June. They will be raised with our beyond organic feed on good quality pasture.We will be carefully documenting our expenses and will have a price and a plan by that time. We will be sending out more information when the time gets closer.
Upcoming Craft Show
The Spring Craft Show will be held at local businesses in Stromsburg this year and we plan to participate. Save the date of April 7, 2018 from 9:00 to 1:00. We love local businesses and look forward to being a part of this. We will have our natural skin care, handmade aprons, quality raised beds, and we will be taking orders for pork and eggs.
Animal Care
We experienced a harsh winter in Nebraska this year. With the snow and Nebraska winds our animals certainly went through more feed. Our animals were all on large sacrifice padocks with shelter from the weather. Cory fed the cows, sheep, and goats round bales that we had cut ourselves and placed them throughout the paddock. We were so blessed to be able to borrow my parent’s skid steer this winter. That saved us a lot of time! About 3/4 of the round bale was eaten and the rest was left on the ground. This added a cover for the ground as well as a place for the animals to be out of the mud. We will be planting cover crops in all of these paddocks in the spring. The pigs also had a large area to roam, root around, and seek protection in their shed. They will be moving soon to our tree line and potato garden from last summer to forage. Despite the cold temperatures the chickens and guineas were out pecking and scratching around every day.
Planning and Organizing
Cory and I have a lot of big ideas, but we aren’t always good at calculating the time it takes to get them done. We are really working on this and over the winter we spent more time in planning and organizing our planting season. We have set dates for planting everything and planned exactly where everything will go before we ordered seeds, plants, and trees. The spots have been flagged out and are ready for our deliveries. Since we always seem to be planting in the dark by flashlight this should help everything to go more efficiently. Despite my husband’s full-time job, caring for the animals (things we can’t do), and cutting wood for heat, he has finished several projects this winter. I am so thankful for all the shelving in our closets that he has built and the new garage doors he installed. He is the hardest working person I know and we all feel well cared for. Rather than spending his time watching tv or surfing the internet he spends his extra time with us. We all look forward to his funny stories and the fun times we get to share as a family!
Family Life
We are having a great year of school and were blessed with some great opportunities. Along with our classical education our kids were able to learn some new skills. My very generous Aunt Sarah taught our kids beginning Spanish over the summer and while all of them have been working on it this winter my daughter Kailey is flying through the Spanish program. Sometimes I hear sentences in Spanish instead of English and have to laugh. Alena is working with her grandma learning upholstery and continues to sew new projects along with her apron business. She is very interested in homemaking skills and is a fabulous cook and loves to help with the little ones. Kailey has been working on training a young horse and enjoys watching Paralli videos in her spare time and implementing those skills when the weather is fair. She is very excited that her dad will be purchasing a riding arena for her this spring. She also had her first year of piano lessons and really loves it. It will be so beneficial to have one of our family members with that skill. She is also a great cook that loves to experiment with new recipes and will be sharing a natural recipe on our blog each month. Caleb has taken an interest in worm farming and is planning to take care of the fish for our new aquaponics system. This will allow us to grow plants in our house through the winter. He also enjoys building and is always learning more as we do projects around our place. He looks forward to selling pumpkins again in the fall. Aiden loves anything with a motor and begs for everything that doesn’t work. He has taken apart numerous things and enjoys building new creations. He is working on a lightweight, battery operated vacuum for me to suck up bugs from the gord and pumpkin flowers in the garden. Since we don’t spray our plants we hope that this will save some time. We love to see the different talents the Lord has blessed our kids with and look forward to seeing how he uses them in His plan. Annika (4) and Asher (3) love to do school and help with everything. They are always pulling up the step stool in the kitchen or heading out with daddy to feed the animals. Abigail (6 months) is starting to sit up and loves nothing more than snuggling. At times the older children sit down with the little ones without being asked when they are done with their school to play or teach them something.
Conclusion
As spring begins we look forward to blessing others with our products and the work that lies ahead. Homesteading and farming are not simple tasks, but when you enjoy the work you are doing and get to feel a great sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, it is completely worth it. We are all in agreement that we could put hay up all day and feel better than if we head to the city for a day of recreation or shopping. As spring approaches we pray that you are encouraged to grow great food, find and meet a great farmer to buy from, slow down and enjoy each day, and be blessed with abundant health!