Other Ongoings...

Although the garden has been neglected, we're still getting all we need!

Lots of tomatoes!

I planted 6 Roma tomato plants to put towards ketchup! In the past I've gotten all the ketchup made and canned in an afternoon and this year it took me 3 days because of Carter related interruptions!...not a good idea to mess with boiling liquids with a baby on your hip!! I put 50 lbs of tomatoes towards this ketchup recipe and got 24 pints!! This will (hopefully) last 2 years. It might seem like a lot of ketchup, but we always end up rationing in the end! I can't even use store bought ketchup anymore! Making ketchup was my main goal for this year's garden. Next year I'd like to plant corn for the first time!

Our first eggs from the hens!! We're starting to get eggs more regularly! I LOVE going in the hen house and finding these little gifts!! This morning we fried up a double yoker!!! We get a range of light to dark brown and even some green eggs! Our first real "farm" venture has thus far been successful! In the next couple weeks we'll be culling out some of the ornery rooster for the supper table :) This fall I'll be getting some Buff Orpington chicks...probably 10 chickens and one rooster. By the time late spring rolls around we'll be getting eggs from the new chicks and we'll probably cull some of the original hens. My plan is to have all B.O. chickens so I can create a self-sustainable flock of pure-breds. I might even put some in the fair next year!..why not?! Anyway, we're getting a lot of pleasure from our first "farming" venture!

This is Callum (my brother) in our field with my Grandfather's horses. He had 4 mares, then plus a stallion, then minus a stallion, and then 4 foals (2 fillies and 2 colts), one mare died after delivering her colt and the colt was given to a deserving family, then 2 mares and 2 foals were given away, and the mare and filly in this photo were the last to go just yesterday. What a busy year of horses for my Grandfather!
Callum needed a photo of himself for the cover of the book of poetry he published! The photo did not have the horses in it, but it wasn't for a lack of them trying!