Oakparkhatesveggies Petition, please sign!

I normally don't ask for people to sign petitions on my blog, or get political, but I am going to today because I think this is REALLY important.  You may have read my post about the Bass family and their battle with Oak Park, MI to let them keep their front yard garden.  Julie is now facing 93 days in jail, yes folks you read that right.....93 days in jail for having a garden in her yard.  Jail!  Seriously?  I thought jail was for criminals, not moms growing a garden to produce organic foods for their family!  Anyway, there is now a petition and we need you to sign it.  Every signature counts.  Every single one.  So please, it takes a brief moment, you can be anonymous if it makes you feel better.  Here is a quick link for you Stop the Prosecution of the Bass Family and let them keep their garden!

Thank you friends!  

This week around the garden.......

This has been such a strange gardening season.  We are finally getting summer (meaning hot sun!) which is really helping the garden out.  Things are finally starting to grow and finally producing fruit and veggies.

Here are a few of the tons of pears we are getting.  There are a couple of trees and they are loaded!  We have to walk under one of the trees to get to the goat pen and every time I walk under it I conk my head with a couple of low hanging pears.  It makes me happy!  :)

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Our Roo (the white bird) and some of his women.  I may be partial, but I think he is shaping up to be a mighty fine looking bird!  He is sweet too!  You can cradle him like a baby and rub his belly and he doesn't seem to care!

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Oh, lovely little red buds!  I can not wait for you to turn into pomegranates!  We have never grown them before, so this is a new, exciting adventure.  We pruned the tree before we moved in here and are hoping we did it justice!

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Zucchini and squash!  We harvested some Goldbar Squash last week to eat with dinner.

It was FANTASTIC!  Looking forward to a lot more!  And by the looks of our bushes, we

will be eating it for awhile!

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Bluebelle and Clover are settling in very nicely!  They love being next to the fig trees!

Bluebelle (the white one) has a mad crush on Chris.  Which is really funny because this 

happens often with Chris.  We have had several female animals that crush on him.  I keep telling him

he has "animal magnetism".  Yes, I crack myself up sometimes!

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Some hidden yard gems.........

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And Maggie standing next to the "quail bush".  We call it the quail bush because

there are a bunch of newborn Quail in it.  The mama and papa have been feasting

on my strawberries, and I have let them.  Now we get to enjoy watching their sweet little babies 

walking around.  They are so itty-bitty!

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We have already harvested potatoes, onions, squash, lettuce, kale, peas and lots of different herbs.  I am eagerly waiting for our tomatoes and cucumbers.  The cukes have lots of flowers (that I see our honeybees on all the time!) and the tomatoes either have lots of flowers or fruit that is finally turning red.  Our garden has been such a rewarding experience.  I am so thankful for the ability to do this!

Oak Park Hates Veggies

It's always interesting to find stories like this around this time of year when we are celebrating our independence and freedom.  But here it is folks, a story about a woman who is facing a lot of trouble with Oak Park, Michigan. Apparently the city has issues with Julie Bass growing a vegetable garden on her property.  In her front yard.  If you click on the link above it is a news story with video.  Check out her small garden boxes.  What is wrong with this being in your front yard?

From what I gather from reading her blog, this all started because of the city.  Apparently they planted trees at the front walk way when the houses were being built.  As the trees grew, their roots got bigger, stronger.  Eventually they grew so much that they broke the water lines to the Bass' home and they had to dig up their entire front yard.  Not only that, but there was also damage to her home as well that they (the Bass') had to clean up, pay for, etc.  So while in this transition, they decided that since their yard was a mess from the work they would grow vegetables for their family.  Funny thing was, Julie called the city every step of the way and made sure there were no laws against it.  Once she found out everything was fine, a planting she went!

I am appalled that tax money is being spent on this issue.  It is about the most ridiculous "crime" I have ever heard of!  What happened to freedom?  With the leaders of this country crying out about childhood obesity, more diseases being more prevalent, with a organic garden being grown at the White House, how on earth can this be a crime?  Does Oak Park, Michigan not have anything better to do?

If you find this to be as crazy as I do, please stop by Oak Park Hates Veggies and give her some bloggy love.  Also, if you are on Facebook, stop by and "like" the page her friend has going for her.  Any support she can get would be encouraging!

We still live in free America, let's worry about the REAL crimes and stop harassing Julie Bass and her family!

It was goat day on the farm!

Isn't it funny how well thought out plans totally change without much warning?  Chris and I have wanted goats for awhile now.  We were totally decided on Nigerian Dwarf's.  In fact, we only wanted Nigerian Dwarf's.  "We don't want no big goats" was a common statement (ok, may be we worded it a little different, it just typed out much more fun sounding this way!).  We talked about goats often, how they would fit in, what we would use them for, where we would put them, you know, all the things you talk about when making a big, educated decision.  Well, after much talk we decided that we would put off getting goats until next year.  Or so we planned.  Then came the phone call on Friday morning.  Our friend Vanessa called and said she had 2 milking goats, a mama/daughter team that they just don't have time for, do we want them?  And without much thought we quickly said YES!  So here it is, Monday and they came home today and we are in love! 

 Check out these faces!

Mama Bluebelle

And sweet Clover

They are as sweet as can be.  I am very happy with how well they are adjusting here.  And I especially love when they hear us coming down the hill they run over to the fence to greet us.  Gives me the warm fuzzies.  

So, some of you may be asking (especially the ones who know us) "what do you know about goats?"  Well, that's they funny thing.  We know absolutely NOTHING about goats!  But we are learning.  A crash course if there ever was one.  I have been doing tons of reading and learning from the good folks at Backyard Herds have been so helpful and kind.  I found Backyard Herds back when we joined Backyard Chickens a couple years ago.  Both of these sites are GREAT sources of information.  I feel really blessed to have them at my fingertips!

So the immediate plan is to get these girls eating well and used to their surroundings.  Then around August during a heat cycle we will send them off to a breeder.  Hopefully we will get some babies because besides having great pets, we are dying for some good down home milk!  

Now that we have goats we are officially feeling like a farm.  With the dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, bees, garden and goats, I think that does make us a farm.  We have been trying to think of a name.  Trying to name your farm is as hard as naming a baby!  We seem to like Whispering Creek Farm.  But not totally sure yet.  I liked the idea of calling it TICA Farm.  Which would stand for "Things I can't afford" which is funny, but sadly true!  lol  

If anyone has suggestions, please feel free to shoot them in a comment.  I would LOVE to hear them!  

It's been a long day on the homestead and I am tired.  Good night all!  I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July, for those of you in the USA!

On my mind.......

I've been gone, but now I am back! For good this time!  I am trying to get back into the swing of blogging again.  There has been so much going on in the last few months, hopefully I can get caught up with some pictures and posts next week.  Lot's of fun, new exciting things going on around our little homestead!

For today I am going to be joining in on Rhonda's post at down--to--earth.  Every Friday she posts a lovely picture with a bit of explanation about it.  I figure this will help ease my way back into blogging!

So, this lovely lasagna I made last night is on my mind.  I followed a recipe from Rhonda's blog and was very, very pleased.  Slightly different than how I normally make lasagna, but I think that's why I liked it.  It was fun knowing that I made the pasta for it, I picked veggies from my garden and my family loved it.  A big win all the way around!!  We had 2 small pieces left over and my mouth is watering to eat one of them for lunch!

One other thing that is on my mind, I need a blog makeover.  Big time.  The focus of my blog was primarily homeschooling, but as life changes and evolves my blog is turning into a blog about simple living.  So, even though I am dreading trying to do a blog makeover on dial up, I need to do something, soon!  So keep an eye out for some changes.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

                                                                          Bobbi