So much to catch up on!

Hmmm, where to start? A lot has happened since my last post. 2010's garden was okay, but we found we had a lot left to learn. 2011's garden did quite a bit better but could have used more attention. Bug-picking and weeding were kept to a minimum due to our health issues. We had a decent harvest, but I'm sure the weed competition didn't do anything to help the vegetables grow. We still put up many, many jars of amazing canned veggies and grape jam for our use throughout the winter.The seeds and tubers for 2012's garden have been ordered. More on that later.

In September of 2011 we planted a small stand of winter wheat. Not only is it acting as a ground cover, it will provide us with wheatberries (for us and the chickens) and wheat straw (chicken bedding and mulch for the garden). It greened up and grew a bit recently when we had a bout of (strange) warm weather, so hopefully it will make it through the rest of the winter with any pending frosts Mother Nature decides to toss our way.

The honeybees survived the bitter winter of 2010/2011 and did really well in 2011. They appeared to be strong going into this winter as well. We won't check them until the weather warms up this spring. Since it's been a mild winter so far (crossing fingers!), they should be just fine.

Our new chicks will be arriving this spring. The current laying hens are still healthy and happy, but we have lost 2 to predators and since they're now almost 2 years old they're not laying as much. Of course their molting during the fall and the short days we're having now aren't helping, but their age is working against them in the laying arena. The new chicks will be a combination of sexed pullets and straight-run chicks, so this time we're pretty much guaranteed a few roosters since the straight-runs usually are about 50:50 ratio of hens to roosters. We'll keep the nicest roo for our flock and the others... Well, let's just say they'll be taking a different road when they're a few months old. It doesn't make sense for us to continue to pay a premium at the farmers market or grocery store for organic, free range chicken when we're able to produce it ourselves for a fraction of the price. More on that in a later post.

In 2011, we welcomed the newest addition to our family, a baby boy! We're looking forward to teaching him about our passions, especially my favorite: playing in the dirt!

Here's to an exciting, productive growing season in 2012!