Onion Extravaganza

Sunday afternoon while Chris was fixing the goat pen I harvested our onions.  I had a couple that I had to toss out, but I am pretty impressed with what we got.  I did think they would be a bit bigger, but I'm not complaining!

  I love, love, love onions!  We already harvested a few a week or so ago and they were wonderful.  I’m sure these will be just as good!

Goaties = T-r-o-u-b-l-e!

The goaties got in their first real trouble yesterday.  Chris had gone down late afternoon to check on everyone and found Bluebelle and Clover on the other side of their pen eating figs.  They had that “busted” look about them and knew they were in trouble.  So we had some work to do.  A little rearranging, hopefully they don’t escape again.

 

   

                    We really like Bluebelle and Clover, but we are contemplating on not keeping them.  Kind of breaks my heart because I am already attached, and I know Maggie will be heartbroken.  But we are noticing they are very skittish, not very welcoming (not mean, just offish) and our intentions are to milk them.  We can’t even just walk up to pet them, how on earth are we going to milk them?  So, we have some heavy thinking to do.  I think we would prefer to get babies and raise them ourselves so they know us and trust us.  Right now I don’t let Maggie in the pen with them.  Which is a problem.  She needs to go in and help.  But I am not comfortable with it.     I think for an experienced person, they would be great.  But for noobs like us, it’s not a win-win.  And I want these girls to have a good life!   We are still thinking it out.   Not an easy decision.  <sigh>                                                   

Worth the wait….or so I'm told!

    
















 






















 
 
As you may remember from my post the other day we had a sweet cherry tomato turning red on the vine.  I’ve checked it while watering, tempted to pick it, but waited.  Waiting by the way is not one of my strong points!  But I held back and did the right thing.  Thinking about how yummy that first little red pop of goodness was going to be!


    I needed to go down to the garden to gather some herbs to make the chickens some tea and low and behold that tomato looked ready! 

 

Well, Maggie was with me, so who do you think got to pick it and eat it.  Yes!  The girl.  And she made sure to tell me how juicy and sweet it was.  I will get the next one! 

On My Mind……..

This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join.   Your photo should show something at home that you’re thinking about TODAY.

   To take part, all you have to do is post a photo on your own blog, write a short caption explaining it and post a link back to down--to—earth.  Please write a new post, don’t use an older one.  When your photo is published, go back to down--to—earth add a comment with a link to your blog photo so others can come visit you.  Please visit other blogs and leave comments, get to know your fellow bloggers!                              

On my mind is our sweet teeny, tiny egg our sweet Strawberry Shortcake gave us.   We have been anxiously awaiting it’s arrival! 

What Holistic Beekeeping Looks Like.......

On Tuesday night, Chris, Maggie, our friend Darla and myself went to a holistic beekeeping meeting.  What an eye-opening evening!  We have two beehives and we want to take care of our bees in a more natural way.  We scour the internet, and we find things, but when you can find actual people to learn from, especially so close to you, you jump at the opportunity! 

The above picture is actually of a swarm the woman holding the meeting went and rescued.  It was inside this log, so she transported the log home and there they have stayed!

This picture is of some of the bee-friendly flowers she has planted.  At the left you can see a pretty glass bowl filled with water (they need fresh water!) and lava rocks.  The bees love the little holes on the lava rocks.

A wine barrel hive

    

           And another.  This one has sugar snap peas starting to grow over it

Since I am so new to beekeeping  I am going to refrain from talking about holistic beekeeping and refer you to a couple of sites I was given last night.  The Melissa Garden and Gaia Bees.  I think you will find both of these sites very informative.  Hopefully  my pictures have inspired you to take a look and see the difference!