2015 has officially ended. Let’s look back at how our farm and gardening endeavors played out this past year. We had a fairly steady year with good food being grown and plenty of animals to keep us busy.

CHICKENS

We dabble in a variety of things related to farming and gardening, but chickens will always be a main stay for us. That being said, this year we did take a slight step back. We didn’t incubate eggs, we didn’t attend any shows or swaps, and Farm Kid2 decided not to continue with poultry in 4H. But, that doesn’t mean we’re short on chickens.

We chose not to incubate eggs this year. We did, though, have 3 broody hens hatch small clutches. Click here to read about the first hatch and click here to read about the second.

The majority of our birds are Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers. But, we still have two golden polish hens that are nearly 4 years old. They lay a fairly small egg and are such a great looking bird.

Mo, our Easter Egger rooster, has been demoted. For a number of years he was our top rooster. However, some young, cocky boys have moved up and taken his spot in the pecking order.

Three of our handsome fellas.

We were given this Old English Game bantam. I think he’s beautiful. He’s meant to be a show bird, but at the moment nobody in our family is showing poultry.

This wasn’t an outstanding egg year. One day, though, Farm Girl decided to count how many eggs we had.

We raised 10 birds for meat. Usually we roast the whole chicken, but one night Farmer John made chicken strips. They were delicious!

Four white leghorns, one buff orpington, one barred rock and one black australorp were added to our laying flock this year.

DUCKS

The ducks have given us a bit of excitement by each hen hatching eggs this year. That’s a first for us.

Our two Welsh Harlequin ducks.

Sally, our male Muscovy. The left photos are from January and February of this year. The right was taken in September. His looks changed significantly.

Both ladies sat on eggs this year, which was a fun experience for us. To read about the first hatch click here. And click here to read about the second hatch.

I’ve enjoyed watching how the Welsh Harlequin/Muscovy cross ducklings change as they mature.

Unfortunately, we lost Sally and one of the Welsh Harlequins to predators in the fall.

GOATS

The goats are cute as can be doing goat type things. You can read more about them here.

PIGS

We’ve had two sets of hogs this year. The first round Farm Kid1 raised 2 and sold them to earn money for a computer.

The second round was to fill our freezer, as well as to sell. The pigs were a Hampshire/Berkshire cross.

OLIVER & LOIS

A couple weeks ago we acquired a pot bellied pig named Oliver, and his friend Lois, a pygmy goat. My hope was we could be their forever home and they would live happily ever after with Sven and Olaf. Unfortunately, things aren’t working out as well as I had hoped. So, we are in the process of finding them a new home.

FLOWER BEDS

There wasn’t a lot of action this year in our flower beds. But, the same ol’ trusty trees, shrubs and perennials put on a pretty show mainly in the spring and summer months.

The ducks, unfortunately, are not great for the plants. They step on them. They sleep on them. They poop on them.

The deer also make flower gardening a challenge. Apparently some of our plants are quite tasty.

The only new additions to our flower beds were 10 lavender ‘grosso’ plants. They’re in an area that I’ve struggled with for years. I finally decided lavender was the thing to spruce it up.

PONDS

We have two small ponds that I love. Our farm critters as well as wild critters love them, too.

GARDENING FOR FOOD

Another thing we didn’t spend as much time on as in years past, was the garden. It is incredibly time consuming keeping up with the weeds and by the end of summer it had gotten a bit out of hand. We did harvest some produce, though. We got onions, potatoes, a few eggplant and squash, cherry tomatoes & herbs.

We tried the three sisters method in one area of the garden. Corn, beans and squash all growing together. It worked kind of . Everything grew. But, we tend to have trouble with corn and it didn’t grow fast enough before the beans grew tall. The squash (pumpkins & gourds) grew well, though.

Many of our seeds didn’t germinate this year. I think the birds got to them. Darn it. I should have had a fabulous showing of tall sunflowers mixed with viney cucumbers growing underneath. What I got was one sunflower. One.

This was not a great year for tomatoes. We only picked a handful of big, juicy red ones. It was so hot this summer, I actually think we didn’t water them enough. We did, however, get renegade yellow cherry tomatoes. They reseeded from last year and were a pleasant surprise.

Fruit. My favorite items to pick from the garden is the fruit. Our grape vines are finally producing well, we got a couple apples, lots of plums and lots of raspberries.

NEW PATIO

Our only big project of the year was pouring a much needed back patio. We decided to do stamped concrete, which was a lot of work. But, I’m so happy to finally have a patio. The ducks, too, are quite happy with the patio. It is one of their favorite places to hang out and poop.

AQUAPONICS

This was our first full year experimenting with aquaponics. We have three grow beds, one fish tank and a sump tank.

A good sized pump cycles the water and aquarium heaters keep it warm. Depending on the time of year we keep the water between 70 and 80 degrees.

We have a fan for circulation in the greenhouse.

Grown in the garden beds were/are peppers, Mexican sour gherkins, tomatoes, eggplant, mixed greens and okra. This growing method works very well.

I also started nasturtiums right in the garden bed and overwintered geraniums that loved the greenhouse.

We grow tilapia in the fish tank part of the aquaponics system. The fish aren’t growing as quickly as we thought they would. But, at the beginning of December we did finally catch a couple fish and have them for dinner. I was hoping they’d be good, and they were.

Whew! There were no major plant or animal changes this year. But, just keeping up kept us plenty busy. It’s so much work living this way, but so rewarding. I can’t wait to see what 2016 will bring.

The post Farm and Garden Recap of 2015 appeared first on .

Summer weather has arrived and with it many wonderful things are happening around our farm and garden.

Gardening for Food

This time of year is when our garden really starts producing.

Lots of squash, gourds & pumpkins are flowering

My herb row isn’t as prolific as I was hoping, but it’s doing ok. I was able to make a small jar of pesto from the basil.

White-crowned Sparrow nest and babies in the mint.

Flower Beds

The flowerbeds are still full of color, but many plants are almost past their prime.

This daylily is in nearly all the flowerbeds, simply because it grows so well.

Both the bees & I love the lavender.

Farm Kid2’s flower bed near the chicken coops is full of shasta daisies.

The hummingbirds have been loving the nasturtiums.

Aquaponics

Well, we’re still working on getting the aquaponics system set up to perform at its best. There are only a couple plants left growing in the garden beds & the ph is shifting more than Farmer John would like in the water. But, the tilapia seem to be thriving.

Smaller fish in the Sump Tank
We have a dedicated tank to hold fish. We also have a sump tank. The sump tank holds water and the amount shifts based on the amount of water coming in and out of the garden beds. The fish were supposed to stay in the fish tank, since its water level doesn’t fluctuate. But, they were so small when we got them that they swam right through the pipes and into the sump tank. And, there they’ve stayed.

Bigger fish in the Fish Tank.
The tilapia seem to be growing at different speeds. Farmer John has taken the larger ones and moved them back to the fish tank, where they seem to be doing very well.

Goats

Love them!

I planted sunflowers and zinnia along the fence line. I purposely planted them out of reach (I hope) of the goats. I also have chosen not to pull any of the weeds closest to the fence in hopes that the goats will eat those instead of trying out my flowers. So far, so good. But, they’re probably a smidge too close. Sven can almost reach some of them.

The kids and the goats playing has to be one of my all time favorite things. The laughing that goes along with this playing is priceless.

Ducks

Quackin’ & Flappin’

Sitting on eggs that are not fertile.

Swimming in the new pond.

Chicken Keeping

2 year old Golden Polish hen peeking through the grass.

The Littles are growing up and spend much of their time roaming the land.

They know I’m bringing food.

Typical teenagers

Wildlife

This is a great time of year for wildlife watching.

I’m glad tadpoles are making use of this barrel.

We have a few resident deer that we see nearly everyday. This one is munching on greens right outside the garden fence.

Snakes are kind of cool, but I’m not a huge fan. Although, our kids love them. For a couple years in a row there was a huge snake hanging around. The kids named it Tiger.

Cardinal Meadowhawk
I’ve watched this guy a number of times. His favorite hang out is perched on this grass hovering above the new pond waiting for a snack to catch.

I’m certainly grateful for all these fabulous things surrounding my family & I this summer.

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Weather

There was a lot of rain this April. Not unusual for our area, but it gets depressing after awhile. Luckily, we did have a few nice days & the chickens took full advantage of it by taking fabulous dirt baths.

I’m fascinated by the moon & stars. I have a difficult time, but I continue to try to take photos of the night sky. So, when the Blood Moon was supposed to be visible there was no doubt I would try to capture it on my camera. I did get a couple shots of the beginning of the eclipse. But, by the time it was a total eclipse & the moon was supposedly red tinted the clouds hid it & I never saw it. Darn it! Maybe next time in October.

Sadness

April began with the loss of a dear part of our family.

Flower Beds

There was a lot of digging, hoeing & more digging going on this month.

I dug up what was supposed to be our strawberry patch & replaced the few berry plants with heather. I had a helper water the heather after I got them all in the ground.

This is not wowing, but I hoed & dug out a kazillion weeds from the flower bed in the Back Yard. It was a lot of work & I was exhausted. Maybe I shouldn’t let it get so overrun with weeds before attacking them.

There has always been a problem area in the Bird Village. We’re solving that problem by getting rid of the dirt, plants that won’t grow & weeds that grow too well & replacing them with a pond.

Gardening for Food

The tomato plants are off to a good start.

Farmer John rototilled the garden rows.

The kids planted peas.

The ducks were on slug & weed patrol in the garden. Although, I’m afraid they may have eaten the peas the kids planted.

Chicken Keeping

More chicks hatched this month.

A friend & I were vendors at our first chicken swap.

One of our Black Copper Marans is broody. We had to move her from her coop to keep the eggs protected. For the first few hours she was not impressed with the move & paced the fence wanting back home. Thankfully, she eventually sat on her eggs. Since then she has rarely gotten off them. As long as those few hours didn’t mess up the development of the embryos we should have chicks hatching any day.

Now this is what I call a fluffy chicken butt.

Wheelin’ chicken poop to the compost pile.

Aquaponics

Farmer John got the plumbing installed for the first garden bed, fish tank & sump tank. He’s still working on getting the ph & bacteria levels correct before adding fish.

We have lettuce started! The medium Farmer John chose for the first garden bed is clay balls.

Goats

It has been fun getting to learn the personalities of Sven & Olaf.

Olaf scratching his foot. Although it’s kind of a weird photo, I think even his teeth are cute. And, I hate teeth. I could never be a dentist.

Wild Birds

We’ve had lots of birds around lately. But, my favorite was the day an eagle flew over.

There are bald eagles living nearby. But, I never see them around our house. I was ecstatic when I peeked out the window & saw one overhead. So, I grabbed my camera & headed outside.

There were also a number of ravens doing some kind of dance. We often have 2 or 3 ravens around, but I never see this many.

Some how the eagle was a part of the raven dance party. I’m not sure what his purpose was. Was he just flying by & took part in the festivities? Or was he looking for dinner? Eventually, he continued on his way.

During all the raven excitement a couple vultures were circling.

April has been a busy month for outdoor projects! Yippey! I love this time of year.

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