A New Beginning, The Update

It's been so long since I've posted anything that I've erased the past and am starting new. The reasons are long and varied and unimportant. I first want to post an update on our little farm, then get to what this blog will be all about now, and what we are doing to improve our lives including spending less and getting more for it with coupons, sales and the garden, learning to can, pressure cook, use a steam juicer, dehydrate, crock pot, once a month cooking, freezing, and more. This blog will be a daily or near daily log of our adventures because we're so new to it all and I want to record our journey. If you want to come along, you're very welcome, as are your comments. If it's not for you, that's OK, too. I'm sure we'll run into each other elsewhere on the net. But sure to wave.

Now on to the update.

It's August now. August! When did that happen? Soon it will be my favorite month of the year, September. Why my favorite? Well, I love Autumn and September is the month Autumn graces with its beginnings. Fall has so much to offer. The sun backs down a bit, for which I'm ever so grateful. The harvest is nearly done and all the hard (but fun) work of putting up the harvest is winding down. Families begin to draw together as the daylight shrinks and the weather cools. Food turns from cool, fresh and crisp to hot, fresh and saucey. Yeah, I like that word. Saucey.

I find myself looking forward to September, the holidays, and Autumn, but I'm still very much entrenched in today and all the goodness today has to offer.

Our farm has evolved a bit. We concentrate only on chickens and ducks now. We have a lot of both for new small farmers. Our ducks are in two families. One is about three weeks older than the other. The older ducks hike the yard to the creek every morning, then return across the yard every evening, to huddle in the garage against the night and predators. They've done this since they hatched out of their eggs out there at the creek. Its a long walk and a joy to catch should you be outside or at a window when they're at it.

The chickens are many, as well, and have all found that getting out of our fencing is easy and fun. They wander so widely they give new meaning to the term "Free Range". They offer us two to three dozen eggs per day and they always sell out immediately.

Our miniature horse is a bit of a problem. He bites. Always. You can't do much with that.

Our garden is growing well but blast it, we got that tomato problem they refer to as "late blight". All of my beautiful tomato plants are gone. Now I need to burn them and do something to keep that blight from returning. I'm really sad about that. I'd have had one heck of a crop of maters this summer had things gone differently. Of course, I know I'm not alone, many, many of us are going through the same thing. I'm sorry for us all.

The zucchini is prolific. Maybe too prolific. I've been baking zucchini dishes and dehydrating zucchini sticks, shreds and rounds for weeks. I'm freezing it all.

We have other things, too, in smaller quantities... small cucumbers, radish, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc. They are not yet harvest ready, for the most part, so more on them later.

This concludes our update, boring as it is I want it here to look back on as things evolve. Thanks for joining me today. I'll be posting this evening about my day's adventures with a gazillion peaches and zucchini.