It's been a long time since we've written. We've been busy with our home business (Paws In Time), working on the house and getting the outside cleaned up, so I have not taken the time to write. I'm hoping to change that. If nothing else, I plan to at least post a monthly update.
For a quick update on the house...we've pretty well finished the bathroom. It took a while. Rich did a great job of texturizing the walls and painting. We put up shelves for decorative purposes and towels, etc. We do still need to add shelves in the closet, but we decided it was more important to put our money and efforts into the outside projects at this point. We can live with the house the way it is for now. Granted, there is still a lot more to be done inside. However, on the outside, we need to get fences up, gardens going, and plants and trees in the ground.
We want to transition to Huckleberry Hill Herb and Fruit Farm being our main source of income as soon as we can.
We know it is where our hearts and interests lie. It's where we feel we can make a real difference. As we learn more about the community and talk with people, we realize there is a demand for the powerful healing fruits and herbs that are (and will be) growing at Huckleberry Hill. It's important to have local food choices - to know where your food comes from, how it's grown and to experience how nutrient dense these foods can be when grown in a synergistic manner with nature and by nurturing the earth where they're grown.
We are eager to get plants in the ground, so they can start maturing. I'm excited to get the foundations of the different gardens in place, so we can really get moving with all this. We have the plans drawn out, but it can be maddening how slow things move sometimes. Honestly, much of what slows us down is the lack of funds. We do not want to acquire a debt to do this, so it can be slow going at times, but we'll get there!
Here are some of the projects we have accomplished in the last few months:
We added a small flock of hens to our farm last June. We needed to build a safe chicken yard, so we put up a temporary enclosure. Fortunately, we found a coop on Craigslist for $30.00 last fall that we just had to modify a little. We are going to build a permanent and larger coop soon. That is our next project after fixing the deck. (We don't want the deck to fall down this coming winter - priorities, you know.) We are happy to be getting three to four eggs a day! They are busy girls! It's been fun watching their antics and getting to know them. They all have their own distinct personalities. We plan to add more hens, so we can offer fresh organic eggs at our farm stand.
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| Pumpkin - Buff Plymouth Rock |
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| Cinnamon - Partridge Plymouth Rock |
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| The girls |
Rich added some outdoor lighting:
We planted the beginning of our tea plant garden:
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| Camellia Sinensis - Tea Plants |
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| Got to love the deer proofing. We need proper fencing! |
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| Beautiful Tea Plant Blossoms |
We've cleared and cleaned, and cleared and cleaned some more:
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| This will be part of the herb garden. |
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| This will become the berry room. |
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| Future location of the children's garden. |
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| Rich saving a volunteer sunflower. |
We've started herbs:
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| Peppermint |
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| Thai Basil |
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| Borage. Such beautiful flowers! |
Next time...our plan for the property. How the "big picture" looks. Plus, I will be adding a recipe page soon. I've enjoyed creating recipes with the bounty of our garden and look forward to sharing the recipes!
