Tuxedos,Strawberries, Window Boxes and A Dog With A Sense of Humor!

Things are pretty hectic here on the homestead. Out youngest will be getting married in July, and things are starting to get real. I have been in denial, since we just had the next to youngest get married last summer! These kids are trying their best to make Pud'nin and I old!
So, with that in mind, Pud'nin had to go get fitted for a tuxedo Yea, a tuxedo. For anyone who knows him, you know that he does NOT wear tuxedos! He rarely wears a shirt that is even in one piece. He is a jeans and sleeveless denim kinda guy. Just goes to show, this Dad will do anything for his kiddos. Even wear a monkey suit! But, I have to say, Pud'nin cleans up pretty good!

Nice!

Shiny shoes!

We also walked around the Mall checking out dresses, went to Hobby Lobby and ate dinner with Mom, Katrina and Joy. THEN, we came home just in time to watch Kaeli play basketball in her Intramural games. She did AWESOME!! My phone was dead, so I didn't get any pictures. If I get a few I will post them so you can see her cuteness. She really was a force to be reckoned with on the court.
It was quite a busy day! Fun in so many ways, but still, by last night I was more than ready to go to bed, lol
Today, was a new day. It was sunny and the temperatures were perfect. Of course the normal chores were still there! Flossie has been losing quite a bit of weight and we were thinking it was Ellie being such a piggy. But we noticed today that her hay roll was packed so hard that she could not tear any off and eat it during the day! I am heartbroken! Of course she still gets a lot of stuff to eat other than that roll of hay, but still, I feel like a bad cow mom! Tomorrow we will take that roll out, and replace it with one that is not hard as a rock! I also have to go get feed tomorrow so I will get her some Alfalfa cubes to help her with her nutrition. Even though she still gets 3 huge coffee cans of 16% feed twice a day, plus about 4 to 5 flakes of Bermuda hay at night, she needs hay during the day!

That is the offending hay roll in the background!

After my morning animal chores, I weeded the strawberry bed. I am a bit sad that it is not spreading like I had hoped. Still a good stand of plants and I cannot wait until the berries are ripe and ready! Freezer Jam here I come!

Oooooh Berries!

The window box that Pud'nin made me for the barn is now up and bloomy! He did such a good job, and it was such a sweet surprise. I love flowers and maybe with it being up in the air little Miss Jayne will not dig all the flowers out, lol That doggy is the flowerocolypse! Here is the flower box in all its cuteness.

Pretty!

We also checked the eggs in the incubator and out of 9 dozen eggs we only had about 6 that were not viable. Woot! So in about 2 weeks we are going to have little fluffballs popping out everywhere. I can't wait. Baby chickens are just too darn cute. We are really hoping that we will be able to turn this into a money making project. Wouldn't that be awesome!?
The seeds I planted are sprouting and looking all healthy and green. I cannot wait until it is time to get the garden ready and start planting. I absolutely love summer and all the fresh fruits and veggies. We are out of several yummies and I need to restock the pantry!

Squash

Peeking out of the dirt!

Now, about that dog with a sense of humor. Let me tell you, just because you feed a dog every day, let them in and deal with their terrible gas, do not think they will cut you any slack at all..they will not. I was sitting out in the yard, enjoying the sunshine under the peach trees. Then, without any warning at all, It happens!! Trina yells for me to LOOK OUT! I turn around, and THIS is what I see!!

WHAAAAT!!

That is exactly what it looks like! Ace, was PEEING in the tree I was sitting by! Of all the nerve! Only I, have a dog, that will literally pee right on me! Luckily Trina yelled, and I was able to jump out of the way of the waterworks. Of course, I did whip around and take this quick picture, because after all. without pictures it didn't happen!
That about sums it up here on the Backwards Homestead. I am so blessed to be able to live out here in the country, surrounded by nature. This life can be hard, and the hours are long, but I cannot imagine living anywhere else.

Springtime On The Farm!

Busy days around the farm. Warm weather brings a lot of work with it cleaning up all the mess that Mother Nature left during the winter. Flowerbeds to clean, leaves to rake, sticks and limbs to pick up. Not to mention all the spring animal chores like cleaning their pens, fence repair and making sure they are ready for the new season. Even though it is a lot of work, I can say that it is just so wonderful to see the flowers blooming and the sun shining!

I even managed to plant a few things in the garden! Yay me! Pud'nin tilled me up a small plot and I put out some cabbage and broccoli. I also planted some peas, lettuce, spinach and onions. It is always nice when it is time to garden. My favorite time of the year. Earlier this year we found a couple of the little greenhouse thingys on sale at Tractor Supply. We picked them up and I did manage to get some seeds started in there as well. Not many, but it will be nice to get an early start on a couple things. I will say that the wind has made the greenhouses a challenge, I have to tie them to the fence to keep them from blowing away!!

Such cute little things!

I checked yesterday and the seeds are actually sprouting, Woot! I am pretty excited, and I also planted some cabbage in a big pot that I have in the yard. It works like a charm every year. Keeps me from having to buy the plants from the store.

Look! Baby Cabbages!

Flossie and Eleanor are doing great too. Ellie is growing and is just beautiful! The only negative is that the little piggy is getting almost ALL of the yummy Flossie milk! She is quite the eater, lol She is eating hay, grass and will even belly up to the feed trough with her mama for her share of feed. She is leading pretty good, but a but stubborn! Hopefully we can get her all ready to be a milk cow like her Mama! It will not be too long before she will be old enough to wean, and I am sure she and Flossie will not be happy about that little bit of news. We are trying to figure out how to get Flossie and Ellie out in the pasture, but I am worried that once Ellie hits the open range, she will be hard to get back out to train. Not to mention that Twister can be a real turd and I do not want him to hurt her..Then we have Keg, the steer. He is just too aggressive for us to go out in the field to get her or Flossie. It is past time for him to go to freezer camp, but I actually have NO room in the freezer for him at this time. Seems nothing is easy when it comes to the farm life!

Here's my girls!

Ciskgo in the afternoon sun

Princess and Elvis are adjusting very well to their new home and they have become best friends. It has been really good for Princess since she is getting older and the huge pasture was sometimes a challenge for her as far as getting up to the barn at feeding time. Now we can keep a close eye on her and she does not have as far to walk to get to the food and water.

Elvis saying hello!

Time for a Spring Brushing!

We also have a few chicks this spring. We have Silkies, Buff Orpington and Polish Crested babies. We also have several eggs in the incubator. I sure hope we have a good hatch and can sell the little fluffballs to make a bit of money here on the farm. These guys need to pull their weight a little bit, LOL! Here are a few pictures of the little cuties!

Getting ready!

Chickies!

Little Polish Crested

Buffies enjoying the great outdoors!

Look at all these eggs! They were all laid right here on the farm! We are having a bit of an issue with Jayne getting in the chicken house and eating the eggs, so not so many eggs these days. We are working on persuading her to stay out of the henhouse, and I am sure she will get the point soon, She is a smart girl!

Can't you just hear them peeping!

The piggies are also getting along just great! Hopefully we will have the pitter patter of little hooves this summer. I know Wilbur has been wooing Charlotte and although she does not seem as impressed as she could be during the day, who knows what happens in the pig pen at night!? Here is the happy couple.

I am especially excited about something that is not even an animal! Pud'nin made us a fire ring! Yea, I am SO happy. He made it from the rim off an old tractor tire. Took him a while to cut the old tire off, but now I have not only a nifty flower bed, but we also have this nifty fire ring! Last night we all went out and roasted hot dogs and made s'mores. It was so nice, Sadly, I do not think we gone ONE picture..BOO!!! We were just having so much fun I suppose. But, I do have a picture of the fire ring filled with wood and ready to go.

Too Cool!

Well, that is what has been happening here on the Backwards Homestead. Now off to do a few more things on the endless list of chores! It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day, so lets all get outside and get some warm and cheery sunshine on our faces!

Charlotte Has a Boyfriend!!

Earlier in the year our new sow Charlotte lost her babies. For some reason, cold weather, the move to come live on the farm, or just something unknown, she went into labor early and her babies were gone..We were sad that we were not going to have spring babies. But, as luck would have it while I was perusing the sale pages on facebook, which just happens to be the same place I found Charlotte, I saw that the same person was selling Wilbur. I was really excited! I had been wanting to ask her if she might be interested in selling Wilbur, but I really hated to ask such a question!
After talking to Dawn, who I had found out before belonged to a cow forum that I love love love, we set up a pick up date. Dawn and I were actually excited, as silly as it was, that Wilbur and Charlotte would be reunited. He was actually the daddy of the babies that she lost, so they really were old friends, lol
 Here they are getting to know each other again. As you can see, Wilbur made himself at home taking a mud bath first thing!

I am not too sure that the Donkeys were too impressed. They probably figured that one pig was stinky enough, and two was just unacceptable!
Both piggies are Large Black pigs. The Large Blacks are a heritage breed, which awesome since way too many animals are forgotten as society mistakenly thinks that it needs to reinvent the wheel. The Large Black hogs are a very docile breed, known for being hardy and easy to raise. They forage well, and have excellent meat. They also have large litters, 13 piglets is not uncommon, and are wonderful mothers. Since they are black, they even do better in the hot summer without worrying about sunburn!These guys are just an all around good choice for our farm.
As you can tell, I am pretty thrilled with Charlotte and Wilbur. They really are very calm and sweet pigs, which since I have had a long time fear of pigs, it pretty nice! I can actually skritch and rub them both and they love the attention.
We won't be eating these two, but  they will have plenty of babies to go to freezer camp and also to hopefully bring a bit of money to the farm.This year we are going to try and get back to the way we were a few years ago. The farm was bringing in enough to support itself, and we have not been as diligent as we should have with all the things that have been going on in our lives. But we have a plan, and we are going to have a great year!
Another new thing on the farm is baby chicks! We picked up a couple that we are not sure of the breed, a few topknot polish, and also 7 Silkies from a local feed store. Here is a pick of the silkies on the way home to the farm.

The weird colors on their head is the marks the store put on them so I could tell them apart, lol There is 4 white Silkies, and 3 Splash Silkies. These guys are just too darn cute as they look like they are covered in long silky hair instead of feathers when they are grown!
Now if this weather would just co-operate I could get the garden started too! Pud'nin did try to till me a small strip to plant a few cool weather crops, but the ground was just too wet. Grrrr! I also got a small greenhouse, and I am very impatient to get a few things started in that as well, but low temps at night of 21 is NOT making that possible. I am so ready for Spring, to behave like Spring!