Morning Chores, unedited

Here's a bit of what our mornings are like. These videos are unedited so they are a bit long... And make me a little nauseous from the angle... Also one of them is upside down. Oops! At least it's a short one. But if you are interested, they are here! 

As you probably know we are pretty new at the farming thing, but we're learning every day. We are going to start putting our chickens in the pasture again soon, but this time in a mobile coop. When they were free range before, they just went off and got eaten all the time. This way, they'll have the pasture without the danger. Right now they are in a run and they eat organic feed. I usually give them our veggie scraps, but we are starting to compost in a bucket so we can throw it on our garden. We will be buying silver grey dorkings soon, so our chicken population is about to increase 5x. 

Our sheep may or may not be pregnant. They were born last year, so we aren't sure if they mated in the fall. Sometimes they mate the first year, and sometimes they don't until the second. We are going to get them tested at a vet, but I suspect they aren't pregnant. If they are, they should give birth in late March/early April. 

This week we are hardening off the plants that we started inside and we will be planting them outside next week. Hardening off is basically slowly getting them accustomed to the outside. I've put some on the roof for today, and some I left inside (the ones that we have thinned).

Next I will have to get a queen bee for my new hive! I'm so excited about my bee hive. I can't wait to see them buzzing all around the flowers and trees.

Now I'm off to plant herbs and maybe build some planters. Enjoy the videos and photos! 

Visit Facebook.com/markumfamilyfarm to see the videos 

Seedlings

I desperately wanted to buy fruit trees this year, but we decided to do it next year. So I've decided to grow my own seedlings in the meantime. I know nothing about growing trees from seed. But with my handy dandy "Complete Encyclopedia of Country Living" and my good friend Google, how can I go wrong? Here's my first baby. Just started

This avocado seed today. 

I welcome any advice! 

Pear Jam

Today I made pear jam. I had 9 pears, and I added 1 apple to get the right measurements. I have been thinking and reading a lot about farming and country living lately. I've always loved the finding out where things come from. I love taking things back to the very origin. I'm always annoyed when I look up a recipe and it includes biscuit mix (sooo, you could just say flour, butter and water?) or a can of cream of mushroom soup. That's not a recipe. Anyway, I am learning how to make things for myself. Like soap... Did you know you can make lye from ashes? Pretty cool. And I'm learning to grow things. And... Make my own jam! So here is the product. I haven't tasted it yet, but I'm pretty excited about it. 

Here is where I found the recipe: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/spiced-pear-jam#.

Walk the Farm

 Around noon today, I went to the street to turn the water back on since the temperature was above freezing. I took a walk around the farm to see how the trees were doing, and thought I'd share my walk with you.

Enjoy, 

Laura

Wild Pear Tree

I'm not sure what this tree is. A lot of the trees on the land were planted before we moved here, so it will be fun to see what bears fruit. 

This is either a peach or a plum tree. We have both... I think it's plum