We are starting our new coop construction today!

Today is the day we are starting our new, permanent coop for our girls!  Yes, they did all turn out to be girls and we think they are White Leghorns.  We really don't care about the breed though.  They have grown into really sweet chickens that we enjoy watching.  We can't wait till they start laying!

Our girls looking almost grown up!

I will do another blog post complete with pictures and details of our new coop.

Our "New" Tractor!!

We got a tractor!!  It isn't a huge tractor or even a new tractor but it's a tractor and it's ours!  :)  I'm very excited!  It's a Kubota B6000 which is a sub-compact tractor.  It's a 70's model so it does have some age and some wear and tear.  I also have the plow attachment but we are planning on buying a few other attachments for it as well.  The tractor also has sentimental value.  It belonged to someone very special to me and I'm so happy to have it!

My dear husband has already been tinkering on it and has said he will restore it to it's former glory.  I can't wait to see what he does with it! :)  That's one of the many things I love about my husband; he's a "Petrol Head".  Anything that uses diesel or gas he can figure it out.  He's a handy fella! :)

Memorial Day Weekend & Heavy Spring Cleaning Outside

The Husband and I decided to make our three day weekend a four day.  We took off Friday and started working around the house.  We had a few goals for this weekend: 1) Pressure wash the house 2) Pressure wash the front porch 3) Pressure wash the deck 4) Mow

I would show you before and after pictures but I honestly didn't get to get any before pictures and the after pictures wouldn't look as good without the before.  We worked hard all weekend and got everything done that we set out to do.  We will have to seal our porch and deck still, pressure wash the garage and pressure wash the walkways but I couldn't be happier with what all we've gotten done!  The other stuff will have to wait till another weekend! :)

I would also like to say thank you to all of the veterans and military personnel that have served our great nation and died in the line of duty or have since passed on.  You are not forgotten!

God Bless America!

Izzy

I just wanted to share a picture of Izzy. She is a Border Collie/Airedale Terrier mix that we got from our local shelter.  She was around 10 months old when we got her in September of last year.  She is such a joy!  She is smart, sweet and very protective.

Izzy

If you are thinking about getting a pet please go check out your local shelters.  There are so many animals there that would be wonderful pets if given the chance.  Our local shelter gets purebred animals all the time as well as mixed breeds.

The Husband built me a raised bed for some veggies! :)

The husband was nice enough to make some time to build (the first of many I hope) a nice raised bed for me.  I guess all in all it's probably around 25 feet long.  I does "L" and to be honest I haven't gotten down to measure it.  I'm sure he would know, and I may ask him at some point if I think of it.  Anyway, he constructed it using decking screws and treated landscape timbers.  It has different depths throughout.  I used old feed sacks as ground cover to keep weeds and grass from coming through.  They seem to work very well and I have an endless supply for free, so why not?  :)

My other raised beds did really well (collards, head lettuce, romaine lettuce, broccoli, onions & strawberries).  I ended up giving everything to the chickens except the strawberries though because right when I needed to take care of some pesky bugs my grandparents got sick and went into the hospital.  That turned out to be the better part of a month long ordeal so my raised beds were put on hold.  I'm not complaining though!  I love my grandparents dearly and I'm so thankful that they're back home and feeling so much better!

I will put up some pics of them when I get everything planted and growing pretty good.  All of these pics are before I put the ground cover (old feed bags) down too.

We got a farm truck :)

We bought a farm truck this week!  I'm so excited!  We really needed a truck to haul materials with.  We have a fairly large trailer we can hook up to one of our 4-Runners but that gets old after awhile.  Now we can just hop in this and go get what we need.

1994 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 Single Cab 5 Speed Long Bed

It needed a little work but nothing the Husband couldn't handle!  He has enjoyed every minute of it!

10 Pullets

We finally got our chicks!  We went to Tractor Supply and they were almost out so we got these girls for $1.00 a piece!  They are supposed to be pullets (girls) but you never know really what you're getting until it's all said and done.  Either way, we are tickled pink with our chicks!  

The Husband is already thinking of coop designs and dreaming of endless egg sandwiches!  ;)

9 of the babies

What a sweet baby!

Raised Beds

I decided to to some raised bed gardening.  We had some solid cinder blocks laying around and I constructed a few crude beds out them.  I think I can get my husband to build some beds for me from wood this year but I really wanted to get some things planted now.  I'm a bit impatient.  :)

From top to bottom: Collards, Head Lettuce & Romaine

From top to bottom: Strawberries and a few of my broccoli plants.

From top to bottom: Onions (they look pitiful, lol) and broccoli.

I hope everything does well.  I'm looking forward to watching it all grow!

Redbud Trees

We have a lot of Redbud Trees on our property and they are so gorgeous right now!  I just had to share a quick picture!

Redbud Tree in bloom

This is really giving me Spring Fever!

The last snow of winter...hopefully

We've really had a nice winter this year.  Honestly we were due.  The past two winters were horrible for our area, snow that stayed on from the first part of December until the last part of March accompanied by bitterly cold winds and well below freezing temperatures.  I remember a few days getting into the 30's and it felt like a heat wave!  We normally have some snow but those were ridiculous!  Brrr...  But like I said, this winter has been relatively mild.  We've only had a few snows and I hope this will be the last one and that spring will be close behind!  :)

Part of our long driveway

A snowy mountain view :)

I love how the snow clings to the trees!

Hello!

I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for stopping in and checking out our blog!  My husband and I are slowly (but surely) turning our property into a hobby farm.  Later on we may delve into farming as a supplemental money maker but right now it's just for fun.

We have 20 acres in southwest Virginia.  It is a private piece of property and we love it!  We love living in the Appalachian Mountains.  We have lived here our whole lives and love it.  We travel quite a bit but this is home! :)

This blog will have quite a bit about our life journey.  We will talk about our farm, our lives in general, southern culture, travel, recipes and pretty much anything else that comes to mind!