Hi. Welcome to the Homeland Farm blog. It is shaping up to be a great summer here in Maine.
We had beautiful weather during May, which has jumped our hay quite a bit. We currently have 4 horses, and end up haying about 40 acres of mixed hay, mostly Timothy. Cliff has been busy since he returned from Nevada, hardly stopping to rest.
We have managed to get the garden all planted, and the flowers set out. Cliff has repaired the haying equipment, and we all just had a hand in painting the baler and hay rake. They look pretty spiffy with a new coat of paint.
I have just finished my spring housecleaning in time for a MASSIVE influx of Pine tree pollen … oh yay. My entire house has a nice green layer of greenish-yellow pollen on every surface. Time to get started cleaning again (insert heavy sigh here). We still need to do a lot of fencing and need to restack last years remaining hay in the back of the barn to use first in the fall. My daughter is moving home from Florida for the summer, and I feel certain this is a job she would NOT want to miss out on, so we will anxiously await her arrival next week.
The hens are laying great, for 2 year old birds. They took the winter off entirely, so they should be very well rested. I know you can use lights in the winter to increase pro-duction, but we don’t. As the old saying goes, what’s a hen’s time worth anyway?
The garden is in and looks great. Let’s see if we can keep ahead of the weeds … always a challenge. Every year I can tomatoes, pickles (if the cukes do anything), and make jams and jelly. We make homemade rootbeer, and need to get that first batch underway. Ever had a homemade rootbeer? Ice cold? Oh myyyy … it is So much better then anything you can buy. Have to get on that soon. I know my daughter doesn’t want to miss out on that either … better wait for her. (I know what you’re thinking – she is gonna be one busy gal – and you’re raight!) We have four horses that need attention. She sent me a note on Facebook saying that “everyone needs worming when she gets home.” I said I would hold Cliff by the tail while she does it!
We are still awaiting the date for our segment on My Ghost Stories to be sent to us. They said they will email it to us before the date so we will be sure to watch. I did a blogradio show the other night about our adventures here at the farm, paranormally speaking, and the host asked me if any activity had ever occurred in the kitchen. I said none that I was aware of. Two days later, we woke up and every cupboard door in the kitchen was WIDE OPEN … all of them. We didn’t do it. Question is …who did??
That’s it from Homeland Farm today. Got some serious dusting to do. Have a great week!