The Rainy Season

We're having some heavy rains in our area for the past few days. I'm not complaining at all. I know when July gets here I'll be wishing for rain.

William is still working on the chicken yard. He's doing a great job but gets frustrated because it's slow go. The fence is between eight and ten feet high so as to keep out most predators. All, maybe, except the flying ones. But we haven't had too many hawks around in the last couple of years. We seldom hear an owl either.

Our two rabbit does had kits last week. One had nine and one had five. The one that had nine lost all of hers even though we've made a new bed for her and the babies. The brown one (Cocoa) lost two of hers. She still has three live babies. It's disappointing but at least we have three living. That's better than what we've been getting our of their deliveries. Usually, none live.

My stepfather gave us his two does and a buck. Both does are bred so we're hoping that they will give us some babies. William had to rework some cages for the does but we have them taken care of. I wasn't too keen on getting more rabbits but William seemed to like the idea so we have three more to add to the three we already had. If they don't produce, we're going to have to get rid of them. Food is too expensive to feed pets. We need some young ones to put in our freezer and to sell. All we can do is try.

We haven't begun gardening yet. It is getting about that time. We have a chicken tractor with two hens and a rooster that we're moving around to the raised beds and letting them eat the chickweed that springs up every winter in our garden. They've done a great job and have fertilized the beds also. The hens are laying too. Now those are the kind of animals I don't mind feeding. :)

We are planning to try to root some roses, forsythia, gardenias, hydrangeas, snowball bushes and anything else I can find in the yard that I think I can root. If we can get a good many of them to root, we plan to take them to a flea market to see if we can sell them. That is something we need to do when we come home from our visit with my Daddy's brothers and sister.

Along with the flowers I may plant some herbs and see if I can sell those also. It will be something for me to do and maybe we can make a little extra money with it.

Well, that's about all that's going on at Hunny Bunny Haven. I hope you all will come back again soon. Thanks for stopping by.

It's Been A While

It's been a while since I've blogged. Winter time kind of throws me off my regular routine. However, the temperatures have been in the low seventies in the last few days and it feels like SPRING. I don't expect to keep these springlike temperatures very long but they're nice while they last and they make me want to garden. :)

William bought me a small greenhouse last week. He has it set up and ready for me to start seedlings for our garden and flower gardens. I want to find a nice size container and plant some mixed lettuces so we can have fresh lettuce from our own garden (or greenhouse garden). We can have salads from one pack of seeds for a couple of months if I plant every two weeks. Salads at the grocery store are expensive and the lettuces wilt and become mushy after a couple of days. YUCK!

We still have our chickens and the ones we ordered last spring are laying. We should be getting almost three dozen eggs each day but we're getting anywhere from ten up to fifteen eggs a day. It's keeping us in eggs as well as our children. That's a good thing. Eggs are expensive at the grocery store and chicken feed is expensive too. I'm glad we're not having to buy eggs during the wintertime.

William has retired from teaching. He's staying busy outside (on the days he can get outside to work) He's working on a fenced yard for our birds and building nests for the rabbits. He has both the does a nest built but my stepfather is giving us some more does so we have to build nests for them too. The does will be bred when he gives the does to us. We'll have babies running out of our ears if all four does deliver. But that's alright too. I can taste the rabbit stew or rabbit hash now. Yummmy...

I will try to be more faithful with my blogging. Thanks for dropping in and I hope you come back again. :)s to you all.

Veggies Still Blooming

The zucchini are still blooming. There's a few blooms on the yellow squash but that's all....just blooms.

We've had some temps down near freezing. The low temps didn't seem to hurt the squash but they did a number on the cucumbers and green beans. Those plants are withered.

I guess the garden season is over for us this year. I was lazy and never did get the greens planted. I am thinking of putting some flower pots in the south window of the kitchen. I may try my hand at growing lettuces, kale and chard inside. It's not going to hurt to try and if it works then we'll have fresh greens and if it doesn't work then I'll know next time to get busy and plant the seeds outside.

The animals are doing good. No more varmint invasions since the guineas were killed. We've have some o'possums come prowling around but they didn't leave. All the predators will soon be hibernating and then maybe we can sleep a few nights without the baby monitor.

Since the time change, Mr. Rooster is all mixed up. He crows at three-thirty every morning. Then he crows around four-thirty and finishes out the "Wake-UP" at five-thirty. I guess he wants to be sure he's crowing at the right time. LOL

Veggies Getting Ready To Harvest

I checked on the garden this morning. There were two zucchini ready to gather, tomatoes were ripe and the green beans have small beans on them so I'm looking for beans to be ready to gather about Monday or maybe Tuesday. I think we will have a vegetarian dinner one night next week using all fresh, homegrown veggies.

Tomorrow morning we plan to dig the sweet potatoes. I'm hoping we'll get a few to put up. I only put out eighteen slips so I'm not expecting a lot of potatoes. I'm excited that there's potatoes out there. Our first try has rewarded us with some sweet potatoes at least.

I'll have to make a picture of our sweet potato crop so I can post it here on the blog. Now you all don't get too excited about this. LOL

Varmints have killed some of our birds. Some animal killed all four of our young guineas. Hurt my heart. They were so pretty. I was looking forward to raising some to sell next spring. We still have two but I think they're both hens. :(

We found a skunk in the ducks' pen Wednesday night. He's no longer living but his smell is going to be around for a while. Fortunately, I had the monitor on and heard the ruckus. None of the ducks were injured/killed.

That's all the excitement we've had around here lately. Other than the skunk William caught in the live trap. I appreciate you coming by to check us out. Come back any time.

What's Going On Around Here?

First I have a confession to make. I never got the greens planted. It may be too late now as we have temps in the 40s forecast for the weekend. I guess I can wait and plant the seed next spring. The day I was planning to plant the greens rain came and came hard. That stopped the planting for a few days.

Another excuse I'm using is that I've been really busy with taking care of all the paperwork that we inherited when my MIL passed away September 3rd. It's been like a maze trying to get through all the bills, insurance policies, etc. I'm still working on it and I know that I have several more weeks before I'll be finished.

On another note, the green beans are loaded with blooms. We should have fresh green beans in the next few days. The yellow squash are beginning to produce and I found some small zukes. Both squash and zucchini are full of blooms. I wish every bloxxom would produce fruit.

The cucumbers have blooms also. I haven't found any cucumbers yet but if we don't get a frost there should be some soon.

The jalapeno peppers are hanging with red peppers. I don't have enough sweet peppers to make pepper jelly but when I go to the grocery store I plan to buy some to use for the jelly. I love pepper jelly on a sandwich.

William and I are trying to decide if we want to sell our animals. I got an offer one day last week but it wasn't near enough to pay me back for what I paid for the ones I bought. I can't do that. William suggested waiting until spring and then trying to sell them. I just hope that the critters don't come calling and we lose a lot of them. This happens most every fall. I hope the pens are reenforced enough to keep the varmints out.

One more thing that is about to take place is our oldest grandson is being deployed again. He flys out this Saturday for more training and then it's off for another tour. There's going to be a ceremonial send off Saturday for his unit. We plan to go. I know it's going to be so hard to say goodbye to him but I want to see him before he leaves. He's a fine young man and I'm so very proud of him. Still I wish he didn't have to go.

That's all I have to say for now. I've been wordy enough, don't you think?

Greens, Greens, Greens & More Greens

We have the bed ready to plant the fall greens.....Turnip Greens, Mustard Greens, Collard Greens and Kale Greens. I'm thinking there'll be some good eating around here this fall and winter. Good and healthy!

Now, I have to carry myself out there and get the seeds in the ground so they can be watered in by that rain in the forecast for next week.

This a short post. I have to get to work. Thanks for coming by. :)s to you all.

The Latest Block For A Forum Quilt

I had planned to have the quilt block sewn and sent off by September 3rd. I didn't know that my Mother-In-Law would pass away. We thought she was getting a little better. We were wrong.

Anyway, William and I have been busy taking care of things that have to be taken care of. I wasn't sure if I'd even get the block sewn. But I did! It's mailed and should be there tomorrow. I like the colors in this block. It's hard to see the bluish/greenish color in the center square but it's there. :)

This block is called Squares In A Square:



I'm glad that I had time to finish the block and get it mailed.