Sunday Stroll: A Drive Around

See who else is strolling over at The Quiet Country House.

Sunday Stroll: Garden Update

I have been taking a stroll around my yard every morning and evening lately. There is a lot of activity to keep up with! All of these pictures are from the garden today. I thought I would combine the garden update and Sunday Stroll this week to keep things simple. Plus, I have a lot of other things to post about this coming week.

Potatoes are finally up! Yay!!

I have picked and picked, eaten and shared, and yet till - the asparagus is going to seed.

The first row of peas is really growing. The second row is up and about 1-2" tall.

My little bitty lettuce. This was one of the first things I planted. It is growing very slowly but I'm just glad it lived.

The onions have doing great all along.

The garlic is huge!

I saved the best for last. Check out the blossoms on our new pear tree! This is the one that I just planted a few weeks ago. The pear tree that I planted last year has a lot more leaves but no blossoms yet. I can see this little blossoming tree from my window.

See who else is strolling on Sunday over at Quiet Country House.

Sunday Stroll

This pear tree came through the winter just fine!


Four new Heritage Raspberry canes. You can't see it in the picture but they are getting little leaves.


I think this is a flowering cherry tree. It is in the island between the driveways and gets these gorgeous blossoms every year. I have never found one speck of fruit there.


The wheat is growing tall!




It won't be long before we'll see blossoms!


Here's a view of the back pastures from where I was working on the fence yesterday. Off to the right is the wheat field.

See who else took a stroll today over at Quiet Country House. Have a great Monday everyone! :)

Sunday Stroll... Sort of

I just really didn't feel like doing much today. Yesterday Brian cut up our old rabbit cage so I could have 2 pieces of plywood for our new farm sign. I painted them this morning. Then we went to breakfast with Brian's Grandpa. I'm pretty sure he turned 93 this year! After breakfast I put on a second coat of paint. We watched King Corn. I was really disappointed! I guess it might make a bigger impact on people who don't farm but it really didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. I was hoping the film would help Brian to see why corn in everything is a bad thing, but it wasn't too convincing.

After the movie Brian worked out in the shop for awhile. It was pretty rainy and cold today so I didn't go out. I've been working on our website like crazy and it is almost done!! Get ready, I'm going to want everyone's opinions of it once it is done! :) Then I worked on tracing our logo on to the farm sign. I've got one piece almost done, then I can paint it. Anyway, since I'd really like to get back in to Sunday Strolls, I have some garden pictures to share from this week, plus one that shows where I've spent most of my day!

The garlic is getting so tall!


The onions are coming up!


I have been so tempted to snap off a piece of asparagus to taste...


The peas are coming up. I really thought they wouldn't make it since I planted them so early. I'm glad they did!


This is where the cat and I have been, and I think I'm heading back there...


Head over to Quiet Country House to see who else is strolling today.

Sunday Stroll

Today I did some more painting around the windows and Brian took down the old trim in our entryway. I did venture outside long enough to take some pictures. It was over 40 again today so a lot of the snow melted away.

The garden and the little red barn. I hope we can tear it down this summer, it is in major disrepair.

Here you can see the stone landscaping in front of the porch. I did two sides of the house last year and will finish the other two this year.

Our fields

The piles of snow from plowing all winter are melting fast.

The end of our driveway. I added more stonecrete to the list of future improvements.

The last of the round bales.

This wheat is growing!

The flatbed all loaded with round bales. We have enough left to sell these to a friend.

Especially since the barn is still full of square bales!

The end of our pasture and a big part of the next field always flood.

Angel, of the ewes. They were hilarious jumping over and playing with this bale.

I was trying to catch a picture of Bonnie chewing on my pants. She is due February 23rd and will be our first ewe to deliver. She is also the one who had the scabbing on her face. It is almost completely cleared up now.

Be sure to visit everyone else's Sunday Stroll over at Quiet Country House!

Our Winter in Pictures!

I'm away from home at the Michigan Vet Conference this weekend. I want to get a post up but don't feel like saying a lot so I thought it would be a good time to post some pictures. These are all from the last few months (some are from fall). I'll take advantage of the hotel's wireless and upload these now instead of fighting with my connection at home. Enjoy!

Brian's grader, our grain setup in the background.

Our first batch of Seventh Generation TP, Maci apparently wanted it out of the box!

The TP neatly stacked in the cabinet. We really like it BTW.

Sam doesn't help much when I'm sewing.

Our Christmas tree with all western ornaments this year.

It is hard to see but look close: you can see Maci's paw about to clock Baxter upside the head, and him about to fight back. They box all the time!

He crammed himself behind the printer to recuperate.

And they're friends again...usually not this cozy.

This is from early fall. Brian built this calf shelter in one day. I had mixed feelings about treated lumber and decided it is better for us than replacing/rebuilding every few years. I was so proud of him. :)

My first every meat loaf. I'll post the recipe someday. It was a special request from Brian when I announced that I'd like to start making a meal plan. He said it "tasted like meatloaf" which is what I was going for!

Our new logo, many hours in the making. What do you think?

An interesting pic I thought, it shows how badly we need to insulate around our basement.

Brian's latest project - a new sheep feeder!! We used the plans found here and he made it in just an hour or two. Works great and saves a lot of hay waste.

Rocky & Shady, our two Arabians.

Pistol & Pooh Bear, relaxing in the sun.

They have hay 24/7. That is how they stay warm. They have been doing great even in this extreme weather, with only a couple wind blocks. The four of them can eat a round bale in 2 or 3 days in this kind of weather.

This is a typical Sunday, when we're lucky.

Funny, I have similar pictures in all four seasons now. Don't believe what you hear - chewing is not always a phase!! :)


I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse in to our life during the past few months. It can be kind of crazy around here but we (usually) think it is worth it. How do these pictures compare to scenes from your own life? Which pictures do you like and want to know more about/see more of?

I'll have a more substantial post up sometime soon!