It went dark cuz I
Bugged Out!!
The relocation started in the late spring, long about the time I was wrestling with starting the garden so, there was no garden in 2013. Swinging a move and a garden just wasn't a doable thing that year.Since there was no garden, there was no blog.
But, a lot changes in two years. The Bug Out is a modest success.
We have established, base camp at Happydale. It's not the ideal spot, but it will do nicely.
Last year was a busy year and time kept slip sliding away. I took pictures, I intended to get the blog up and going....
I'm an imperfect being, and some things didn't get done.
But, I did take pictures...
I'm choosing to view last year as a dry run. We weren't as organized as we could have been. We added a lot new things all at once. We're still adapting to circumstance.
But last year had some good things in it.
We found out what was already here...
These still need to be dug up and split out. They were too crowded last year. It's still on the list.
The day lilies did quiet well. Would like to thin these, and the patch by the corner of the house, and spreed them around.
We got our first chickens last spring.
 | |
| The original Happydale flock. |
Then came the Pea Hens, our Indigo Girls.
Then came The Cracken....
We had six turkeys last spring. This was a big learning experience.
Our birds free range and we weren't prepared with fencing, on either side. The chickens weren't too bad. Though they ate more of the strawberries than we did. The Indigo Girls were selectively destructive. They didn't mess with the tomatoes, but the yellow squash didn't survive them very long. My house plants still haven't recovered from their short time outside.
The turkeys were like General Sherman marching to the sea. They laid waste to the tomatoes. Seems turkeys are fond of green tomatoes. By the end of the summer the turkeys were confined to the pasture with the horses.
This year the turkeys need to be contained or kept out.
Kathy's been working on fencing the garden. But it'll be a work in progress for awhile.
We got the basic layout marked.
We worked on it sporadically....
We had some nice mild, wild garlic pop up. I saved a lot of the seeds.
The strawberries did fairly well. But, the chickens and the bunnies got most of them.
The blueberry bushes had an early setback and spent the summer in solitary confinement, cuz something was eating them. They were doing fine at the end of the season.
This worked well for the container plants. Most of them have survived the winter and will be back out in the garden soon. Would like to use this pallet for herds this year and put down another one for larger container plants.
We got some tomatoes. Had enough to make a really good batch of spaghetti sauce. We got some for slicing. Had a whole bunch of green ones, some of those went to fatten Nippy up for Thanksgiving dinner. Which was all good.
We got two of the yellow squash, before the Indigo Girls took out the plants completely. We did harvest some of the peppers.
And...
We ate zucchini for days, many different ways! I lost count of how many big, fat, squash those 2 plants produced. We still have zucchini in the freezer.
So, last year wasn't the greatest. We weren't organized. There weren't enough hands helping. We didn't have all the supplies we needed.
But,
We managed to keep most of the plants alive. We got some good veggies last year. Froze some. Pickled some. Had some good homemade sauce.
And a tree.
We managed our own 40# turkey last Thanksgiving.
We're still getting eggs. Production is starting to pick back up.
Got some niffty pictures.
All in all not a bad first year.
If you want to know more about Happydale, you can check out Wild Rambles.
Or for a more day to day view, and pictures, visit.Happydale Homestead. on FaceBook.
We have land and ambition. We lack motivation and money.
But, I'm finding as spring advances motivation returns. This place has potential.
With an eye to the development of that potential, we have the...
Hopefully, coming soon....
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