It's been three months since I last posted to this blog.  A lot has happened in that time.  The most important being our grandson returned home from Afghanistan safely.  We're so very thankful for that. 

Another that has to do with our homestead is we sold a lot of our animals.  We had an over abundance of both rabbits and roosters.  We sold fourteen rabbits and sixteen roosters.  This should make the feeding costs a lot less.  We still have plenty of rabbits (7) and unknown number of hens with two roosters left. 

The hens are laying good now.  I'm hoping we don't have to buy anymore eggs for a while.  There, for a while we were not getting any eggs.  That doesn't set good when we were feeding all those fowl for nothing.

William and I are staying very busy.  We clean a couple of houses, he's doing substitute teaching several days a month and we have a flea market booth in Meridian that really keeps us busy.

We spend at least one day a week "junking" for items to redo or repair or just shine up to place in the booth. Then another day is spent pricing the items and getting them set up in the booth.  We're not getting rich but it's fun.

In the last post I mentioned William had caught a skunk in a trap.  Since I last posted he's caught a couple of more skunks along with some possums. 

Even with catching the scoundrels, we've still lost two of our Khaki Campbell ducks.  I'm really not too sure if they were lost to four legged varmints or two legged thieves.  Either way, they're gone.  We only have one duck left. :(

This is a quick catch up post.  I'm going to try to be more diligent in posting from now on.  At least once a week.  I now need to get back to addressing and writing Christmas Cards.  So on that note, I wish you all a very blessed Christmas Season!

A Little Of This And A Little Of That.........

William caught another skunk in the trap.  He's trapped four skunks in the last three weeks.  I don't know why they've chosen us to visit.  We're not the only ones with chickens and other birds.  Also, it looks like the word would get around in the skunk community that this is a dangerous place to come to visit.  They come but they don't leave.  William has said instead of "Boot Hill"  he has "Skunk Hill"   behind the storage building.   

I realize the varmints are only doing what varmints do to get ready for winter but we don't intend to fatten them up for hibernation.  We are like Marie Laveaux....Instead of man it's "Another skunk done gone."  :)

We have had a beautiful day today.  The temperature was fifty-four degrees at seven o'clock this morning and the skies have been so blue they were  breathtaking.  The next few days are predicted to be much cooler during the day and sunny with nighttime temps in the mid fifties.  Sounds like autumn is in the air, doesn't it?  All three days of autumn that we have as my sister, Carolyn likes to say.  Three days of autumn and then it's winter.

I hope Carolyn's wrong about this.  The cucumbers and squash are beginning to produce and we have tomatoes that are starting to bloom.  Winter would be early and our garden would be gone! 

I hope to be able to get the kale and swiss chard planted this week.  We have to remove some old tomato plants and some green bean plants.  Then get the soil ready for planting. 

We were looking for some ideas for using wooden pallets today.  I found one that was used for gardening.  Some good soil had been leveled and a pallet laid on top of the soil.  The seeds were sewn in the spaces between the planks of the pallet.  We are thinking of trying this for the collard greens and maybe some mustard, turnip greens and radishes while we're planting the other greens.  I really like the look of the bed.

There you have the news from our little homestead.  About the most exciting happenings around here at this time is watching the veggies bloom and hoping we'll get a harvest before frost.  O.K....and trying to keep from surprising a skunk while we're outside is a little nerve wracking  but we're still enjoying the outside....Thank you for coming by.  Please drop in anytime.

Issac's A Come Calling

We've had rain brought in to us by Isaac the barely a hurricane that has wreaked destruction over the southern part of Mississippi and is doing a job on central Mississippi now.

I woke up to rain this morning and tornado warnings for our county and the counties below us.  I don't think there's been a full five minutes that rain wasn't falling today.

About ten o'clock we were under another tornado warning and this time the weather guys were spotting the rotation about two miles from our home.  We were spared yet another time.  But, we're under a watch until five in the morning.  It will be a restless night for me.

Our garden looked alright as darkness fell but we did get some heavy rain and some wind out of the last system pushing through here.  I'm a afraid to see what the garden looks like in the morning. 

I hope our birds will have sense enough to get in their houses and stay there while all this rain is falling.  They'll be drowned if they don't.

That's the update on Isaac for east central Mississippi.  I hope and pray that everyone in his path will be safe. 

There's A Storm A Brewing

Issac is in the Gulf of Mexico and seems to be heading in the same path Katrina took.  I can't bear to think about what another storm like Katrina will do to our Gulf and to our garden.

Katrina brought a lot of damage even further than we live north of the Gulf.  We had trees down and power outages.  In fact, William and I slept on the floor in front of the screen door for seven days.  We had no power for seven nights and days. 

Our garden is growing great guns.  I hate to think about the havoc a storm will do to the garden.  The tomatoes will be torn up as will the peas.

The Marianna's Conflict tomatoes are beginning to ripen.  They are very nice tomatoes but are cracking open.  I'm thinking the cracking is being brought on by the several days of rain we received a couple of weeks ago.  I sure was looking forward to those big, delicious tomatoes on a sandwich or two or ten....The last tomato sandwiches of the summer are always the best. 

I hope that I'm stewing over nothing.  I'm praying this storm will fizzle out before it reaches our coast.  We're still recovering from Katrina.

William caught the skunk that had been coming to visit.  He is now resting in pieces.  I think there's another one around making a stinker of itself.  I know they think they've found a source of food but I hope the pens are secure enough that the rascals can't get into our birds.

Hunny Bunny Haven has been relatively quiet except for the skunks coming to visit.  Even the dog and cat are getting along.  :)  Thank you for dropping by.  Please come again.

A Rainy Week

We've had rain here at Hunny Bunny Haven almost every day this week.  The rain has put a halt to any garden work. 

I did get to work around the cucumbers one afternoon.  They've shown their appreciation by growing a foot (or so it looks) since then. 

The cucumbers are all that's gotten any attention from me because of the rain.  William put some fertilizer around some of the garden.  The rain will help with getting that food down around the roots of the tomatoes, peas, squash, etc. 

The tomatoes William transplanted aren't growing as fast as I expected them to grow.  I'm sure we will have some more ninety degree days and then they will jump up like jumping jacks.

We've sold the chickens we were trying to sell and really more ducks than I'd intended to sell.  I had six ducks advertised in the Mississippi Farm Bulletin but I sold seven of my ten ducks.  I'm keeping a trio.

There you have it, the news from our little piece of heaven right here on earth.  Thanks for coming by and do come again.  :)

Peas, Pictures And Posies

All the vegetables we planted two weeks ago are up and growing. The peas are still coming up. One hill of squash and one hill of zucchini disappeared so they will have to be replanted. That’s fine and dandy as there will two hills bearing a little later than the others. I’m not sure what happened to the plants unless Tomomi, the cat scratched them up or decided to use the plants for a bed. They’re gone completely.


Bed one of theZipper Cream Peas 

Bed two of Zipper Cream Peas

There’s some nice looking green tomatoes on the Marianna’s Conflict plants. We have six of these tomato plants so in a few weeks we should have plenty ripe tomatoes for more sandwiches. This variety of tomato is really good for slicing either for sandwiches and for a side dish. I’m eagerly awaiting the first ripe Marianna’s Conflict. The tomatoes usually grow to the size of a saucer. One slice will cover a slice of bread!



The cucumbers and green beans are looking good. We will need to pull some soil up around them Monday and give them some fertilizer. In fact all the new garden beds will need to be worked and fed.

 Satirday we took a little trip to French Camp, Mississippi.   On one side of the highway is a Christian school with grades up to twelvth grade. The school is for children who either have been in trouble or have a troubled home life. French Camp Academy is one of my favorite places to invest my money. No, I don't get dividends except knowing that the dollars I send to the school helps children find their way and become productive citizens.

On the other side of the highway is this quaint little town, an old French settlement. Some of the buildings are still standing from the time Leflore settled there. The other buildings are old buildings from around the area that have been moved into the town and redone.
  Storage Cabins


Blacksmith Shop and Tractor Barn


The Museum.  Unfortunately it was closed so we didn't get to tour it this time.


 French Camp Inn bed and breakfast is made up of two cabins that were moved into the village and joined together with other old building lumber.
  

The B & B

  

The post office is over seventy years old and is now used as a pottery studio. The antebellum home is former home of one of Choctaw County's earliest politicians,  Colonel James Drane.  Building of the home was begun in 1845..

The Post Office


Drane's Antebellum home



We rode through the area and found the lodge and lake for the Camp Of The Rising Son. It’s a beautiful lake and the lodge looked inviting.

William and I posed in front of the lake. The yard slopes down to the lake. I felt like I was going to slide right into the lake hence the look of “Hurry up and snap the picture” I have on my face.


   William

 
Me   


We ate lunch at the Council House Café. They don’t have much of a varied menu. Only two sandwiches, two salads, three soups and two desserts were offered but the food was good and I learned one thing……Don’t order soup and sandwich there.

The waitress asked if I wanted a cup of soup or a bowl of soup. I ordered the cup of soup which was almost a pint. Then she asked if I wanted a whole or a half of a sandwich….I ordered the whole sandwich…..I couldn’t eat half of the sandwich because it was piled so high with meat and lettuce and tomato. Oh well….I have dinner for tonight….Wonder what William is going to do for dinner.

There’s a syrup mill set up on sight also. The woman in the gift shop told us that syrup is made each Saturday of October. I’d like to go back in October and watch the syrup being made. Last time we were there we bought a jar of the syrup while it was still warm. Yum!

The last three pictures are of the crepe myrtle at the back corner of our house as well as a mound of Oxalis and a Cannas. The tree came from the crepe myrtles that my daddy set out long years ago across the lower part of their yard. It’s blooming beautifully right now! Every time I see the blossoms I think of my daddy and how much he loved flowers.



The purple plant growing in our tomato bed is oxalis given to me by my friend gigi. I don’t know how it came to be in the tomato bed but I plan to have it in the front flower bed by next spring where everyone who comes to see us can enjoy the beautiful burgundy foliage and the lavender flowers.



The yellow/red Cannas is like a ray of sunshine in a dull, weedy area of the garden.  It is surrounded by volunteer Tommy Toe tomatoes.  I'm planning to move the Cannas to the front flower bed this fall.  We can enjoy their birght colors and have more area for gardening in the back.  These Cannas were given to me by my niece, Daphne. 



That was our Saturday. A “Date day” we both enjoyed. Now, I’m looking forward to the next “date day” which will be in early September. We plan to go to the Cullman, Alabama flea market on that date. Being married is fun if you keep your marriage interesting by spending quality time with each other. It doesn’t have to be a trip just time together enjoying each other’s company.

That last paragraph has nothing to do with peas, pictures or posies. Just a little tidbit that we have learned in our almost twenty five years of marriage.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you’ll come again soon.

 

Not Musing But Amusing....

I'm a facebook junkie and I'm the first to admit it.  Although, I will say I've gotten better....Not quite as addicted to facebook as I once was but I do still like to read other people's opinions even though I don't agree with a lot of them.  But, that's alright...It's called free speech and this is still the United States of America.

I said all the above to say this.  A few weeks ago we had over a week's worth of days when it rained every day.  People were wanting rain before the rain came.  After a couple of days people on facebook were complaining...moaning and groaning...sick of the rain! 

We've had a week of very hot temperatures and no rain.  People (again on facebook) are complaining...moaning and groaning and praying for rain.  I find it very amusing that some people cannot be satisfied even as a friend of mine once said "if they were hung with a new rope." 

We need some rain.  We need it badly but I have learned in my sixty-something years that rain will come.  It always does and it's right on time. 

I've also learned that if the rain comes and comes and comes and comes that one day it will stop....Everything will dry up and life will go on.  No amount of complaining, whining, moaning and groaning is going to change anything.  Now praying will help...after all we're not in charge of the weather...We can't do anything about it except wait.  It will change in a day or two.  Just give it time!

That's all folks.  My take on people who think complaining about the weather will change it.  :)

One Heck Of A Husband.....

Well at least most of the time....LOL.   William was nice enough to transplant the tomatoes this afternoon while I made our dinner.  He put four plants in the front flower garden (what's more beautiful than big, red, ripe tomatoes?) and two in each of the pepper beds. 

It's been thundering all around us as well as raining in different areas in our county.  If we could get a good rain right now the tomatoes should be set to grow.

Our late summer garden is now planted.  It's up to us to keep it watered and fertilized.  Then it will be up to us to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

We need to be finding a place to make beds for the winter greens (collard greens, kale and swiss chard) along with the greens we grow in the autumn (lettuces, turnip greens, mustard and spinach). 

William drained his goldfish pond because water  moccasins decided to use it for a swimming pool.  If we filled it with dirt we'd have a great bed for our greens.  I wonder what he's going to think of this.  It's just an idea but it's also a lot of soil.  The bed is six feet by ten feet and two feet deep.  Anybody want to take a turn at the shovel and wheelbarrow?

There you have it!  My exciting life living at Hunny Bunny Haven.  Truly can't think of any where I'd rather be.

There's Always Something To Do.....

Heat Indexes can get up to 112 degrees or the chill factor can be down to 10 degrees but there's always something to do on a homestead.  The temps were so hot today  walking out on the porch made me start to perspire.  The humidity was so high that opening the door to step outside caused me to almost lose my breath but even so there's things that have to be done.

We had chickens  hatch on March 29th and 30th.  When they were old enough William built a small building with wire on each end to house the chickens.  They'd outgrown the area so today we chased chickens to move them into a larger pen.  Talk about hot....and....sweaty (no perspiring in this case it was plain, old, hot sweat) we both were hot and sweaty when we finished with this chore.

We have some younger chickens that will be moved from the brooder into the small pen.  We have chicks of two ages.  There's about two weeks between these hatches.  I'm hoping that we can combine these two hatches in one pen without any major troubles.  There's only eight chicks in all so the area should be large enough to house all eight without too much fighting, feather picking or roosters marking out their territory and pullets.

We have a pen that has to be repaired.  It has two or three holes in one side which is an open invitation to skunks, o'possums and raccoons to come and dine.  It's getting the time of year when the critters start fattening up for hibernation.  I don't want them to be feasting on our animals to get that fat.

When the pen is finished we're putting the four roosters in it.  I'm going to fatten them up for freezer camp.  At least a couple of them will be sent to the freezer.  I want to keep one to use for breeding and another to keep in case my breeder decides to bite the dust or some varmint decides to bite him.

We have to get the hens away from the roos because those poor hens' backs are in terrible condition.  I have some of the chickens listed to sell in the Mississippi Farmers' Market Bulletin.  Right now, I don't know if anyone would want them they look so raggedly. 


We have some young roosters in the chicks that were hatched this year who will taking the older roosters place next spring.



As I said at the beginning there's always something to be doing on a homestead,  This is one job that we can't say we will do the chores only if the weather permits.  It has to be done come one hundred degree heat or ten degree winter time temps.  All animals have to eat and drink or they won't be here long nor will they produce eggs and meat as we want them to do.

This is my in depth discussion on not being able to stay inside with the air conditioner in the summer or the warm heater in the winter and the reason why.  I don't want to live any other way than what I'm living right now....heat or cold.

Thanks for dropping in.  Do come back, ya hear!

They're Jumping Up Like Nobody's Business!

The seed we planted last week are coming up.  They're popping up like popcorn in an old cast iron skillet. 

If we could get a good rain the plants would jump up like Jack's beanstalk.  Rain is in the forecast for tonight and for several other days this week.  I am praying the forecast is correct.

William fertilized the peppers, eggplants, late tomatoes and the old tomato vines.  Rain would help them also.

There's just something about gardening that brings a peace to me.  Good food too!

I am trying to sell some of the birds and rabbits.  I have the birds in our state market bulletin and the rabbits on a local Buy, Sell and Trade site on facebook.  We need to downsize to at least half of what we have now. 

If we don't sell the birds and the rabbits this time we are going to have to send all of them to "Freezer Camp".

 I will check on the flowers in the morning and see if just possibly the marigolds are sticking their little heads out of the dirt.  That would be a nice surprise!

That's all folks! Thanks for coming.

Flowers Planted!!!!

We planted marigolds, zinnias, cosmos and purple coneflowers this afternoon.  As soon as we got the seed covered the rain came.  A good soaking kind of rain. 

I'm looking forward to the flowers coming up, transplanting them all through the bed, then a sea of colors and all this before frost. 

If the seeds germinate as I hope there will be a lovely sight to see when we look out our living room window. 

I'm also going to put three or four tomato plants in the bed.  So the bed will be producing food as well as beauty.  This is my plan if I can find some tomato plants in town.  If not I will break some suckers off our plants that have just started bearing and set the suckers out.  They should root and produce fruit before frost.

Oh!  Did I say it rained?  A slow, soaking kind of rain!  LOL  I know I have already told you all about the rain but I'm just so happy about that nice shower that I thought it deserved saying twice.

More next time.  Thanks for coming by.  Please come again.  :)s to you all.

The Deed Is Finally Done....

William and I finally got the late summer garden planted this morning.  We planted two beds of Zipper Cream Peas, three hills of yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers and planted green beans around one of the teepees.  Now if we can just get a rain so the seeds will germinate and we can have fresh vegetables until frost.

We plan to remove the early tomato vines in a few weeks (they're still producing right now and they're all we have at this time) and plant Kale and Swiss Chard where the tomatoes were.  We will most likely do this around the first of September. 

We could use another raised bed or two.  I'm not going to tell this to William though.  He's worked so hard building all the beds we have that I'm daresome to ask for more.  I would like to have a nice size bed for collard greens and one for a mixture of mustard and turnip greens.  As my Mom always said "Your wants won't hurt you."

It's very hot here today.  We came in when we finished planting and have been inside ever since.  The heat index is supposed to be around 105 degrees today.  That's a little warm to suit me.  The a/c is working it's fan off to keep the house cool. 

This is about all that's happening around here today.  Nothing exciting but that's the way I like it.  See ya'll later, neighbor.  :)

Sunflowers, Watermelon Preserves And A Birthday Party.....

The sunflowers are in full bloom even though they’re not lifting their heads to the sun. The reason for that is the sun hasn’t shown it’s face for a several days.






We plan to try to get some more planted Monday. We’ve been trying to get seed in the ground for two weeks but we’ve been rained out every day. If it wasn’t raining we had doctor appointments that took up most of the day. If we get them sown the first of next week we have plenty of time for a harvest.


This week I’ve made eight pints and three half pints of watermelon preserves. It’s been a lot of years since I’ve made the watermelon preserves but these turned out just as I remember.






There’s a young man who came to my house when he was just a kid. His request every time he came was “Do you have any leftover biscuits and do you have any watermelon preserves?” He’s grown up now but when I see him he always asks about watermelon preserves. I plan to give Pepper a couple of pints. The rest will be given as Christmas gifts. That is all but the pint I carried Mark this afternoon, I couldn’t wait until Christmas to give him one of his pints. J


Monday, July 23rd is William’s sixty-fifth birthday but as many as could got together to eat Mexican food this afternoon. All four children were there. The three sons-in-law came and three of the grandchildren. It would have been wonderful if we could have had everybody there but that’s life. We all have obligations and we have to keep those obligations. Maybe, for William’s sixty-sixth everyone can be together.

The birthday boy:




Chowing down:





The other end of the table:





There you have it. The news from Hunny Bunny Haven. With pictures!!!!!!

More Rain...No Seeds...

We had rain most of the day yesterday (July 12th).  Everything is soaked now.  A very good thing!

There is a crepe myrtle that I had rooted on the back door step.  William and I have watered it but it still turned brown and I thought it had died.  Lo and behold since the rain came the leaves have come back green and pretty.  The cutting came from a crepe myrtle my Daddy set out in their yard many years ago.  It's kind of special to me and I hated to see it die.  Now that I know it's still alive it needs to go into the ground and soon.

We've decided to plant Zipper Cream peas.  These are William's favorite peas.  I called all three suppliers in Philadelphia.....Nobody has the seeds.  So I called Lauderdale County Co-op.  They have the seeds but we can't get down there until Monday.  I will have to call Monday morning to see if they still have any in stock before we drive fifty miles to get seeds.

I hope we can get the garden replanted Monday and Tuesday of next week.  Then we will have to set up a schedule to keep it watered.  It's still summer in the south.  It's still hot and will be dry again before long.

When we get the garden cleaned up and replanted there will be more pictures. 

The sunflowers are blooming so I'm going to try to get some pictures of them.  The flowers aren't as large as I was thinking they would be but the stems are the nine feet tall listed on the seed envelope. 

We're planning to dry the flower heads to give to the chickens this winter.  I wish we had a good size patch we could plant sunflowers and harvest for protein in the chicken feed.

We actually sold five of our rabbits today.  That is good!  Maybe we will soon be rid of most of them.  The rabbits we don't sell will be sent to "Freezer Camp."

This is all the "exciting news" from Hunny Bunny Haven for now.  I'm going to attempt to add some pictures the next time I post.  

Thanks for coming by and try to stay cool.  :)

It Finally Got Here.....

The rain that is....We got quick showers for four days.  Showers that may have lasted ten minutes.  Today we got the rain.  It's rained off and on most all day.  A good slow rain is what we were needing and that's exactly what we got.  Right on time!!!

Now we can get the beds ready to plant another garden.  We're thinking the bed we have cucumbers in now is going to be planted with Zipper Cream peas (that is if I can find some seed).  The yellow squash bed will also be planted with the Zipper Cream peas.  The bed where the zucchini was planted will have yellow squash planted there.  The Swiss Chard bed will be growing cucumbers and we will pull up the green beans around the teepee and replant with more green beans. 

In our front yard we are planting flowers (zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos of several different heights and colors but across the back of the bed we will plant giant sunflowers. 

I'm thinking a few tomato plants in the flower bed is a good idea too.  Now is the time to get those last tomato plants in the ground so we can have tomatoes until frost.

That's our plan for the garden for now.  Of course as things go this is subject to change.  I'm hoping nothing changes and we can have veggies until frost.

Nothing new is happening with the animals.  We're just trying to keep them as comfortable as possible in the heat. 

That's the way life is here at Hunny Bunny Haven.  The best kind of life one can live.  Thanks for coming by.  I hope you'll drop by any time. :)

It's Hot. It's Dry. It's Summer Time.....

In Mississippi.  I am not sure when we had rain the last time.  It's been a while.  We are watering our garden and it is still turning yellow.  It's so hot here right now that we can't hold out to do much work outside. 

So far our animals have survived.  They're getting plenty of water and most of them are in a shady area.  We did have two baby chicks get away from the momma hen and both of them died.  :(  We have five that survived!  It's wonderful to have a hen go broody and hatch the babies so she can take care of them.  It's a lot easier than having them hatched in an incubator and then we have to be momma to the babies. 

I am planning to put more tomato plants in the garden.  If we don't get rain this week I will go ahead and set them out and pray for the best.  I also want to plant more yellow squash and cucumbers.  I know the heat won't be kind to them.  I will have to keep them watered and again pray for the best.

William has taken down the wall that was between the living room and dining room.  Now we have one large room.  We are going to move the living area into what was the dining room and put the table between the living area and the t.v. watching area.  We will have a living area, a dining area and a den but they will all be in one large room.  When we have company we can get away from the television and maybe people won't sit and watch t.v. instead of visiting. 

We went to visit with William's Uncle John and Aunt Marilyn last Saturday.  They gave us a bushel of peas and a bag of green beans from their garden.  I put five quart bags of peas and three quart bags of green beans in the freezer.  We appreciate the peas and the green beans since we don't have peas in our garden.  We really don't have room to grow enough peas to put any in the freezer.

Tomorrow is the birthday of our nation.  Let's all take a moment to be thankful for the freedoms that we have and the lives we are allowed to live.  Happy Birthday America.  I thank God that I'm a citizen of the United States of America everyday!  Happy Independence Day everyone. 

Lunch For Two

We had errands to do this morning.  William and I were hungry when we got home so I needed something quick and easy to make for lunch. 

I decided on pork chops along with Tomato Pie. 




For dessert Turtle Cake fit the bill.



First I baked a pie shell.  Then I coated the pork chops with Dijon mustard and salt and pepper.  In to the oven they went.to bake while I let the pie shell cool.  I mixed some mayo, sliced green onions, basil, shredded Cheddar cheese and shredded Mozzerella cheese.  The tomatoes were peeled and sliced into thick slices.  I lined the pie shell with the tomatoes then sprinkled some Parmesan cheese over them.  Next the mayo mixture was spread over the top of the Parmesan cheese.  The pie was then put into the oven to bake for thirty minutes.  We had lunch in about forty-five minutes.

What does this have to do with gardening?  The tomatoes were from the Early Girl plants we set out around the last of February.  So the Tomato Pie was made with tomatoes from our garden.  The pie was served with baked pork chops and sliced cucumbers (cucumbers also from our garden). 

I must admit that not all the ingredients for our lunch came from our garden nor did they come from our homestead but some of them did and that makes me feel good about what we are eating. 

If I could we would raise everything we ate but marriage is a partnership and my partner says "No." to raising pigs and calves so I do what I can do with what we do grow here at Hunny Bunny Haven.

Oh and I keep working toward getting a pig and calf to raise to go into our freezer.  I may have a while to work on this as it took around six years to get the okay to add guineas to the homestead.  Eventually he said yes and now he seems to like the guineas.  I think he'd like the pig and calf too if he gave it a chance.  I know he'd love either one of them when it was served up on his plate.  :)

Thursday William and my step-father butchered twelve young rabbits.  Step-father kept one for he and my Mom to fry and William and I put fifteen quart bags of rabbit in our freezer.  That's a lot of stew for this winter.

Next week William is planning to butcher at least twelve more rabbits to go in the freezer.  We will have fifteen young rabbits left to either sell or send to Freezer Camp.  After the rabbits are butchered and put in the freezer we will start on chickens.  We have twenty young chickens to go in the freezer and two roosters.  When we finish with the chickens and  put Thanksgiving, the turkey in the freezer, we should be set for winter time as far as meat goes. 

Life is a little busy here at Hunny Bunny Haven right now but that's a good thing!

Garden Becoming Meal For Worms.

We try not to use any kind of pesticides/insecticides on our garden.  I'm being sorely tempted to hunt up something that will make the bugs and worms think twice about dining on our squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and beans. 

First, let me explain my terrible fear of worms.  Wait a minute....I can't explain that fear.  It's just there.  I'd rather someone throw a snake on me than a worm.  I know, I know it's all in my head and it probably is but I get ill if I touch a worm or a worm touches me.  

Bugs and worms have invaded the squash.  I pull a beautiful yellow squash off the vines only to find a worm devouring the bottom of the squash.  This makes me sick to my stomach. 

When squash bugs get on the squash plants, I have no problem scooping them up and sending them for a  swim in soapy water with a little oil in it.  But the worms....well I just have to step aside and let them have the garden. 

OR.....use a insecticide or pesticide.  I don't use either so I'm not even sure which one to use to get rid of the crawly things. 

Our squash vines are full of young squash.  I need to figure this one out soon or all those lovely squash will be infested with worms.

The green beans have spots on them where the worms have been eating.  So far, I haven't gotten one of those nasty things in my hands.  But, I know it's only a matter of time.

These pests aren't choosey.  I've found them in the squash, zucchini, cucumbers and have seen where they've been eating on the tomatoes and green beans.

I know my fear of worms is psychological and that I need to deal with it but I can tell you now....It ain't gonna happen.  Not if it entails me holding a worm to get over my fear.  I'd just as soon get into an airplane and fly around the world and that ain't gonna happen either.

Well, that's off my mind.  Now you all know that when it comes to worms...I'm out of my mind. 

I may have to give in to the dust that is supposed to kill everything around it including the worms.....

Garden Pay Off!

The garden is finally paying off...For our dinner we had grilled pork loin, grilled zucchini, yellow squash and onion (the squash and zucchini were from our garden), cucumbers from our garden, sweet banana peppers and jalapeno from the garden and bought tomatoes.  I could eat like this every day.  The best part of the whole meal is everything was low in fat, carbs and calories.

I put four quarts of yellow squash and three quarts of zucchini in the freezer before we left on our trip to Alabama.  The next harvesting will be canned along with the green beans.

The tomatoes haven't started ripening yet.  I'm trying to hold off until they are ripe but if they don't hurry up and ripen I'm going to be having "Fried Green Tomatoes".

This is the time of year that I enjoy the most.  Fresh vegetables for most every meal.  I truly believe that there's no better food in the world than fresh garden vegetables.

Off the gardening subject:  We gained a son-in-law this last weekend.  Erica married Timmy Bozeman on Saturday, June 2nd.  They were married on the beach in Orange Beach, Alabama.  The ceremony was beautiful as was the scenery but neither compared to the beauty of the bride and the groom was very handsome.  I hope they'll always be as happy as they were that evening.

 

Erica and Timmy, June 2, 2012.

Thanks for dropping in.  I hope you'll come back soon. 

What A Difference A Couple Of Weeks Can Make!

Two weeks can make a big difference. When I last posted, I put some pictures of our garden in the post. The green beans had started running but had not gotten very far up the teepee. Now they are up to the top and are blooming.




The cucumbers were running up the wire support. Now we have cucumbers about five inches long. These are the Burpless cucumbers.



The eggplants were about six inches tall but now they’re much larger and have buds on them. Soon there will be eggplants.



Zucchini and yellow squash are blooming. There are several zucchini fruits on the vines and the yellow squash….Well, what can I say. We couldn’t wait so we gathered all we could find and had them for dinner one night this last week.



There are a lot of small yellow squash on the vines now. I’ll be more patient and wait until they are larger before I pluck these off the vines.



Clusters of tomatoes are hanging on the mature vines. The seeds William planted are coming up. He put three seeds in each hill so we will have transplants.



The tomato plant that came up volunteer in the Swiss Chard is blooming and we think it’s a Tommy Toe. That one plant will be all the Tommy Toe tomatoes we need for the summer. We need sandwich size tomatoes.



William built another teepee and we have Rattlesnake beans and Mennonite Purple Stripes planted around it. When our Louisiana Purple pods are done producing the newly planted beans should be ready to start producing.



That’s the tour of our garden for today. We are still waiting for all the vegetables to get ready for eating. It won’t be long now. They will be worth the wait.



A note about the guinea that was setting. She hatched ten keets. Two have died. Some how some of them escaped their pen and one was dinner for an unknown animal and the other one drowned.



This has not been our year for poultry. Now rabbits that’s another matter. Our rabbits have lived up to the old saying “Multiplying like rabbits.” I wish the poultry and water fowl would do the same.

Jan, Jan, How Does Your Garden Grow?

In raised beds, on teepees and any place else I can find to sow......

Green beans growing on a teepee and a raised bed filled with cucumbers, one potato plant and one tomato plant (the tater and mater came up volunteer).


Eggplants and a bed of zucchini

 
Early tomatoes, bed of yellow squash and the bed of zucchini.

 

Peppers (sweet bell, cayenne, jalapeno, and sweet banana), the green beans and cucumbers.


Our blueberry bushes.  We have three bushes planted in one big hole.  I wanted to put some more out this spring but didn't get to do it.  Maybe we can find some this fall and get them in the ground.  I'd love to have six more bushes.


That's all we have planted so far.  We plan to plant one or two beds of green beans on teepees.  I know we have room for one more teepee.  I'm hoping for two.

We have more tomatoes planted in the bed with the early tomatoes and plan to put some at the end of the eggplants and the jalapeno peppers.

That's our raised bed garden.   I think it looks pretty good.  Can't wait until it starts to produce fruits.  Yummy veggies and good sweet blueberries.

Rain...Glorious Rain.

This morning I woke up to rain.  We've gotten a couple of light showers this last week but we haven't had "real" rain in several weeks.

Our Garden is happy for the drink of water.  The plants are standing upright and are growing.  The peppers have blooms on them and the tomatoes are fruiting.  Yipee!!!!  Tomato sandwiches in the near future or just as good we'll have fried green tomatoes.

We planted more tomatoes today and replanted some of the sunflowers that didn't germinate.  There's still enough space in two of the raised beds for more tomatoes.
 
We are planning to till an area to plant more green beans.  I hope we can get to that next week but the forecast calls for rain several days of the week. 

I have some Rattlesnake bean seed that I want to plant.  A late friend, Mrs. Gladys, used to plant the Rattlesnake beans and she would give me seed.  I haven't had seed for these beans in a long time.  Thanks to Martin I have some now.  :)

The goose never hatched her eggs.  Trinity cleaned the nest out last Wednesday.  Also, none of the duck eggs hatched. 

The incubators that we have do not hold the temps as they should and this is causing the eggs to not hatch.  We're going to have to give up and buy a good incubator.  I think it will pay for itself in the long run.

We do have an incubator full of hen eggs going right now.  We are more successful with hatching chickens than the ducks, geese or turkeys.

If we are going to hatch birds to sell, we're going to have to do better than what we're doing right now.

We have twenty-seven baby bunnies born this week.  This makes us a total of sixty-two rabbits!  Far too many for me!  No more breeding bunnies until we sell some of the ones we have.  I sure hope William reads this.

This is all that's happening at Hunny Bunny Haven for the week.  Thank you for dropping by and do come again.

May Showers Make Jan's Garden Grow

The garden is up and growing.  William did a great job getting the beds ready and getting the seeds into the ground. 

He fertilized all the beds today.  Then after lunch we got a good rain.  I could almost see the plants growing if I looked closely enough.  LOL 

The duck eggs we have in the incubator haven't started hatching yet.  I hope they hatch.  There's a duck setting on a large clutch of eggs.  If the incubator eggs don't hatch maybe she will hatch us some ducklings.

The goose is still setting.  It's getting about time for hers to start hatching.  According to what I've read it takes about 34 days for goose eggs to hatch. 

We also have more baby rabbits on the way.  All four does are bred.  We are going to have rabbits invading all our spaces.  We already have twenty-nine baby rabbits and MORE on the way.  Help!!!!

I'm doing much better after my accident.  I'm doing all the inside chores and get to go outside every once in a while.  I have to be careful in the sun so as not to sunburn the areas that were burned in the accident. 

We're going to a large flea market here in Philly this weekend.  We have a booth there and are hoping we clear out some of the clutter from our storage building along with making a few extra bucks!

It's a busy time around here right now.  I hope to have some pictures of the garden and of our new babies to post in the near future.  I invite ya'll to check back soon and see what we've been up to.

The Garden Is Planted!!!!!

My husband has been so faithful to help me when I need help. This spring has been a time when I really needed help. I had an accident in my kitchen on March 28th. I slipped and fell by the stove and pulled a large pot of boiling red beans off on me. I had second degree burns on my abdomen, right and left thighs and upper left arm. I'm getting around but still not able to get outside to work in the garden.

William has planted the cucumbers, squash, zucchini and green beans. The cucumbers are coming up. We had tomatoes out for several weeks before the accident. They are getting ready to start blooming.

We still have to put out the peppers and some more herbs. That is going to be the extent of our garden this year.

William has also been taking care of all the animals. We had sixteen baby chicks hatch while I was in the burn center. One of the young ladies that I babysat when she was small took care of the chicks for us. She did a great job!!!! Thank you Trinity.

William has an incubator full of goose and duck eggs going now. He has all the rabbits bred. He's turning into quite a farmer. :) Thank you William.

We got a nice rain today. It rained most of the day. No storming just a good, slow rain. Just what we need for the garden so those vegetables will pop right on up and we'll get to enjoy them soon.

That's all the news from Hunny Bunny Haven for now. I hope you all will come back soon.

The Colors Of Spring

The weather has been beautiful beyond words the last three days. There's an old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words." I'm going to let the picture speak for me.

A Sunny Saturday

We've had a beautiful, sunny Saturday. It was hard to stay inside on a day so beautiful but William burned a pile of brush this morning. That kept me inside because of the smoke. Drat it!

Maybe tomorrow afternoon I can weed the Swiss Chard and plant the squash....both the yellow squash and zucchini. I may get the cucumbers planted too.

Our nights are going to be cool for a few days. The temperatures are predicted to be in the forties but the daytime temps are supposed to be in the mid-seventies. I think the soil will be warm enough to do some planting. I'm going to try it anyway and if I have to I'll plant over. :)

It's been a quiet day here today. Nothing much happening. When those seeds start popping out of the ground then there'll be excitement around here. Or the eggs starting pipping!!! There'll be excitement everywhere. LOL

It's Spring Again.....

The trees have new leaves, the grass is green, flowers are blooming every where, birds are singing and the spring peepers are at their noisiest. Children are running around wearing flip flops and shorts. Daylight is lingering longer and the sun is warm again. All signs of spring.

I have itchy fingers to start digging in the dirt. I've already transplanted six tomato plants, the swiss chard is up and growing and the lettuce that I planted in the containers is almost ready to start eating. Fresh salad is on the menu in a few days.

We have twenty-four baby rabbits in most every color rabbits come in except for white. They are beautiful little bunnies!!

The incubators are going. One has forty-one chicken eggs in it and the other one is full of duck, goose and turkey eggs. The chicken eggs should start hatching on March 29th. The others will be about a week and a half later.

Another spring. Another chance to watch the Earth come alive again. Another chance to put a garden together. And hopefully another chance to eat the delicious vegetables from that garden!

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.