Be Fruitful and Multiply!!!

I think that says it all :)

Meet Pongo!

In keeping with our storybook/movie character names for our goat herd, meet Pongo! 101 Dalmations ring any bells?!  Meg thought of it and we all agreed it was perfect!

Our neighbor, Mr. Jerry, who lives right down the street has 6 does(females) and 1 buck(adult male). All of Mr. Jerry's goats come from a local goat dairy farm, Split Creek.  They are known for their milk and milk products at that farm.  We took a tour to Split Creek last summer here.  We had inquired about buying some of their goats but they wanted $300 per goat!  Pretty fair for a pure breed, come to find out.  All of Mr. Jerry's goats are Nigerians and they all had babies in January...15 total!  I'd say we are BLESSED since Mr. Jerry gave us Pongo for FREE!!   Now we have a billy, from a good milking stock, to mate our does!

 Checking out the newcomer...

Isn't he a cutie!?!  We are thrilled and love to see our farm expand yet again :)

Spring has Sprung

Oh flipflops, tanktops and popsicles...how we have missed thee!!  It's finally warm here in SC.  Warm enough anyway to enjoy being outside all. day. long.  Nights are still chilly, but we are past the last frost date for our zone.  SO garden plans are underway!!  We've had our garden plot plowed...here is our neighbor, Mr. Covington, who graciously offered to plow some land for us!

...we've made garden stakes to mark our rows with our friends, the Perry's...

...and we have started our seeds!!  We came up with a clothespin idea for the trays.  Each row of seeds will be marked with a pin so we know what it is.  No doubt, there are many different ways to do this, but clothespins were what we had on hand. 

We saved seeds from last year's garden...saving and replanting can only be done with heirloom seeds!  GMO's are incapable of this...make sure you invest in pure heirlooms so you don't have to re-buy seeds each year.  We bought a different brand of heirlooms last year and we are doing an experiment in this year's garden.  We are comparing the growth of last year's choice seed to this year's choice seed.  Last October I stumbled upon a wonderful seed company, Baker Creek.  They have an abundance of seed to choose from...many things we've never even heard of!!  The husband and wife team collect the heirloom seeds from around the world, grow their own crops, then save seed and sell them in their catalog and on their website.  Hopefully I followed the drying of seed instructions properly and ours will grow!  We dried and are replanting...

green beans

red peppers

basil

tomatoes

Little gardeners hard at work preparing!

That's a good start!

After we got all the seeds planted in our starter trays we headed on down to the creek at the back of our property.

Big, protective, loving brothers are the best!!

Searching for salamanders!

Our hunter (we seriously should've named Christian just that!) found a snake on our hike to the creek.

Salamanders for the snake.

Our peach trees are blooming beautifully, and we have noticed our bees all over it!!  Hopefully, because of the bees, we will have a bountiful harvest of peaches...I can't wait!!

Our pear trees are adding beautiful color as well!...these aren't actual pear producing trees, they're just called that because when full-grown, the tree's look the shape of a pear :)

And our broilers are growing!  Only 3 weeks until processing day!

Hooray for Spring!!

barn hop #106