CC Post: Asparagus Frittata with Spring Garlic Greens

My new Community Chickens post is up. Asparagus Frittata with Spring Garlic Greens. Check it our for a great "in season" recipe!

Knee Caps and Ears

Today was the first day where we had a dry spell. About two hours after taking these photos the skies turned black again.

The girls got to run and jump a bit. They're first time on leashes. We are training them to come when we make a clicking sound with our tongue and cheek.

Gretta is the Dark one. She has a very gentle, typical Nubian face. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her.


Nan has a lady face. She is very dainty and precious.

All Sort's of Happenings

We've had some exciting things happening around Iron Oak Farm lately. We have French Black Copper Maran's hatching in the incubator. Chick #4 just popped and we're waiting on 5 and 6. Looks like we got a Wheaten Maran in the mix. Occasionally a Wheaten will be thrown from two Black Copper Parents.

But the most exciting news is our new babies in the barn. Meet Gretta and Nan. Our two new, adorable baby Nubians. I have a hard time leaving the barn, and may just move in down there!

Knittted Baby Booties

I knitted these for my friend Liz's new baby Lillian. She's an adorable peanut, with two big sisters to dote on her.

I love these little projects because they make me feel like I'm a knitter, without going out of my mind with repetition.

Teenager Update

The chicks that many of you tuned in to watch on the web cam are getting gigantic. Here are some recent photos of the now teenage Blue Laced Red Wyandottes.

Some nice promising Blue pullets (I think?)
And a splash cockerel? We'll see?

They're getting so big!

Spring Patterns

Red Bud flowers fully open.

Red Maple just opening its leaves.

Weeping Willow just starting to bud.

Tiny hairs of moss in a patch of sunshine.

Flower petals on mossy pavement.

Large patch of wild Violas.

Cauliflower leaf.

Fresh feathery needles

Lilly of the Valley, which grows through the pavement on our driveway.

So perfect.

Ornamental Cherry

CC Post: Bath Time at the Lavender House

Check out the latest Community Chickens post Bath Time at the Lavender House.

Pumpkin Contest

So my mom and I decided we were going to have a pumpkin growing contest this year. Don't tell, but so far her plants are bigger than mine, erggg!!! I think I rushed the hardening off period and it stunted them. Haste makes waste, and all that jazz...Anyway, I was thinking, (I do that now and again) how many of you grow pumpkins?

I was thinking we could have some sort of a competition but I would need help figuring out how to set the judging. I'm fine with the honor system, I trust everyone. I could use the same blind answer document that the chicken contest is used, that way you would just enter your information without seeing everyone else's entries. But how would we determine it, size? weight? beauty? I was thinking circumference might be the easiest as it might get hard to weigh some of the larger varieties. My mom and I are growing "Dill's Atlantic Giant" which can get up to 500lbs!! We're also growing the heirloom "Connecticut Field Pumpkin". What varieties do you grow and what are your techniques? (or maybe you won't tell...? Huh? Huh?) I want to try to grow a milk fed pumpkin and see how that works. I first read about it in Farmer Boy from the Laura Ingalls Wilder series. Almanzo Wilder grows a milk fed pumpkin and wins first prize at the County Fair.

The entries would have to share a photo of their pumpkin and would receive a prize of one of our homemade items. Let me know what you think. The deadline could be Halloween Day?

Last Lavender Out!

The last lavender is out, hatched and running around. We had a pretty good hatch, we lost one, mid-hatch and I think it's my fault. We had some really cold, rainy days so I thought I was doing something great by putting a heat lamp on the hens and the new babies, but I think I may have messed with the humidity levels with the extra dry heat and she never made it out of the shell. Let nature do its thing...lesson learned. But we got 4 out of 5. The hens are getting restless now that they don't have to stay on eggs. Today we had a torrential downpour for most of the day, but the next semi-dry day I will let them free range out in the grass and get some vitamin D and exercise. 

Fresh out!

Probably another lavender, here's hoping it's a boy!

Mamma the jungle gym.

The whole gang.

We Bought a Farm!

Zach and I have exciting news to share with all of you.

Today we closed on a 14 acre, 100 year old farm. I didn't want to let on, from fear that I would jinx us, but today it was official! It's a traditional yellow farmhouse with a giant two story, red barn with lots and lots of sunny alfalfa pasture. We have so many plans and ideas, ways to make it our own,... it's a good kind of overwhelming. I will be keeping everyone updated as the move progresses.

This new change and adventure will open up so many opportunities in our lives and I can't wait to share it all with you. I feel like Laura Ingalls when she moved from the big woods to the prairie. I will miss the place of my childhood terribly, the woods, the ponds. In so many ways every tree and woodland creature has touched me in some way and made me the person I am today. The hardest part of all, is that so much of my father is here. He passed away a year ago, and there are memories of him etched in every corner of our home and property.

But I can take those memories with me, I have my camera of course, which helps me to document my life, and my collections of acorns from my favorite oak trees, seed pods, special stones, and a shard of bark from my thinking tree. These are tiny fragments from a place so special that I am blessed to have lived here at all.

But life is about change, something that I more often than not, have a hard time with. As I get older I find that change helps us to grow, and become something we've only dreamed we could be. My whole life, I lived in the woods and wished I had a farm. Sometimes getting what we want can be beautifully petrifying. But I am brave, and I have the love of a man so encouraging and supportive, that I know we can't go wrong. The things that we've only dreamed of having and doing have just became possible and I am blessed, so very, very blessed.

More Lavenders Today

Kiss, kiss

 So sleepy

Actually, this one will be another Coronation.

The Lonely Goatherd

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd.

 Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo

Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd

Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

One little girl in a pale pink coat heard

 Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo

 She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd

 Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Hopefully, you've all seen The Sound of Music, if not you may think I've sprung a leak. You might think that anyway...
The girls love to walk in the trails behind our house. There are some really steep hills and cliffs and they LOVE to jump up on them. The higher the better.