Bees, Bunnies, Battlestar Galactica

If you’re an Office fan you’ll get my headline… In one episode Jim copies Dwight’s mannerisms and says the phrase "Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica.” And it’s hilarious. If you’re not an Office fan, well I am not sure we can be friends.

We're busy, but luckily we have this super smart pig to help us with our chores. I'm totally kidding, but he's so cute.

The last few months have been really busy. The garden and chicken coop were really time 

consuming. 

But it was well worth it. We ate so many fresh veggies and canned some soup and salsa.

So much produce!

Luckily he knows what to do!

Peeled tomatoes

Soup

They all sealed. Whew!

The chickies are living the dream. Vegetable scraps and sunflower seeds galore. Hopefully, we’ll get some eggs in return soon.

We want eggs!

On the flip side we had a bee problem. Actually I think they were wasps. (I’m not changing my headline so picture crazy waspy bees with black bodies and mean eyes.) Michael was trimming some trees down by the mailbox and all of a sudden he was getting attacked by aggressive stinging insects.

Look at that ankle!

We got spray, but it wasn’t good enough. Michael wanted to purchase a blow torch. But we worked together to get the nest down. I was the driver, Michael had a hoe. I drove passed the nest slowly and he swung at it. It was petrifying. I felt like we were part of the mafia. But we got them, and walking down the driveway is safe again.

I have a video of this drive by, but I'm not techy enough to embed. 

The other big news is we gave the bunnies away. In a month, I realized I was not a bunny person. But the people who rehomed the bunnies LOVE bunnies. They already have plans for a better set up than we had. I am very happy for them. They were so cute, but a lot more time consuming than I realized. I’ve learned to do a little research before I fall in love with fluffy animals. Goodbye Salt and Pepa. You gave us a few laughs, but mostly just a lot of poop.

My back porch looks clean again. I’m ready to decorate it for fall. I planted some mums, and we found a surprise pumpkin on the property. I’ll slowly start getting some fodder and scarecrows out. Maybe when it’s not 95 degrees.

Trying to decide if we should plant a fall/winter garden…maybe with some beets. Ha!

Why does everything take longer than we think?

When I use to work in the corporate world, requests would pop up on email asking me to do a flier “real quick.” What clients don’t realize is there is no such thing as real quick because of other projects in the works.

And as much as those requests would make my eyes roll, I’m in the habit of doing it to myself every day. I can do this chore real quick or make those muffins real quick, and it always puts me behind. That’s when I get stressed.

I can do it real quick! Insert eye roll. I always get behind!

We’ve learned on the farm, nothing happens quickly.

Remember we started the chicken coop in February. Although it’s fully functional now, it’s still not 100% done. Michael has used all his free time and worked relentlessly, but things happen – rain, more materials are needed, etc.

It's taken months!

Long hours

But the chickens have a coop!

We just need to paint it to match the outbuilding. We used a tin silver roof to match. 

Ta da!

The chickens come and go as they please.

They are very sweet.

And they make us laugh!

The chickens love all the room. They come and go as they please. And Michael built the coop like Fort Knox… we call it Fort Cluck. Although, Snoop Hoggy Hog decided he has a taste for chicken food and tried to root his way in. Not on our watch buddy. Michael chased him away and ended up ripping his shirt in the orchard. I am trying a different approach. We’ll see what way works better.

Snoop is a sneaky pig!

Another project that requires daily maintenance is the garden. Now, I don’t give it attention every day, but I was weeding it twice a week. Those weeds taunt me and grow faster and higher all the time. 

This was a few weeks ago. This random patch is where we planted the pumpkins a few days ago. A late start but hopefully we get a few.

Here is the garden now. 

I have one sunflower growing. 

At least we’re finally seeing a harvest. I am making all sorts of dishes out of zucchini and squash. But aren’t they really just vehicles for us to eat more parmesan cheese.

The side gardens need weeding once a week. 

All the berries are ripening. Enough for us and the birds!

Harvest!

We like fried green tomatoes.

This is our first year planting okra.

I'm adding these to every dish I make.

Yum!

It’s all worth it though. We enjoy getting out there and working. It sounds cliché but working with your hands does give you a level of satisfaction. I always think I’m so dirty and tired, I deserve an iced coffee or more cheesy zucchini.

So as I head into the school year, I do want to keep in mind my time. When I try to do too much I stress. When I mentally say, I can do it real quick. I want to pause and see if I really have time.

Love spending time with these girls...

and on this land.

No experience needed – try sunset yoga while raising money to feed Haitian children

I bought a shirt a few years ago that read, “Follow my blog instead of your dreams.”

Now, I purchased it because it was comfy and $1.00. I didn’t have a blog or a real need for a sassy shirt, but what a steal.

Fast forward to now… I randomly found this shirt in my pajama drawer and kind of giggled.

Who knew I would have a blog with like 10 readers, but I love it. It’s funny what you find yourself doing in life.

Take Eva. I met her through church and found out she owned a mobile beauty business called Hello Beautiful. Her makeup skills were impeccable so I hired her for a few events. I ran into her a few months ago and discovered she was now a yoga teacher. She teaches gentle flow on Friday mornings at 9 a.m. at the Downtown Yoga Center in Johnson City.

Eva teaches gentle flow yoga at the Downtown Yoga Center.

My brain started turning, and I thought how cool would it be to have a yoga session on the farm and discussed the idea with Eva.

“There is no better place to practice yoga than in nature,” she said. “It’s my absolute favorite. Feeling and hearing all the elements around you just brings a different (beautiful) energy to the practice.”

I was so excited, everything was falling into place. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to have an event that benefited others.

Eva posted a photo on Instagram about her time in Haiti.

She shared she had a heart for missions, and it was a real eye opener when she visited the country.

“A lot of people lived in shacks, no fresh water or means to produce,” she said. “But the people were great and the children just clung to you – that’s what really got my heart.”

Eva's first mission experience in Haiti.

Meanwhile our church, Renewed Church, strongly supports missions. I heard about an interesting project with Ragged Edge Ministries. They were working with the Kore Foundation in Nashville to fund the building of a chicken coop for Haitian children. The project, located in Pignon, will provide a job for one farmer, the coop will be filled with 180 chickens. Approximately 150 eggs per day would go to feeding the kids in local feeding programs.

Our chicks are growing. We have 14. I can imagine 180 chickens could feed a lot of people.

It clicked.

Sunset yoga would now be a fundraiser to help this project!

Please join us on Friday, June 22, at 6:30 p.m. at the Farm at Holly Hill. All you need is a yoga mat, yourself and a friend to experience it with you! Your $15 donation includes an hour long yoga class in the valley, a brief talk about the specific needs in Haiti and how your donation will help and light snacks and drinks by the picnic tables!

Your view during yoga. 

“It’s a beautiful experience to be able to benefit yourself and someone else,” said Eva. “Come out and reward your body for all that it does for you by doing the yoga class, mingle with friend while you snack and all the while helping complete strangers with their basic needs.”

You can RSVP through the Facebook event called Yoga for Haiti.

Mail order chickens

A farmer’s son was returning from the market with the crate of chickens his father had given to him, when all of a sudden the box fell and broke open.

Chickens scurried off in different directions, but the determined boy walked all over the neighborhood collecting the birds and returning them to the repaired crate. Hoping he had found them all, the boy hesitantly returned home, expecting the worst.

“Pa, the chickens got loose,” the boy confessed sadly, “but I managed to find all twelve of them.”

“Well, you did real well son,” the farmer beamed. “You left with seven.”

This is obviously a joke I found on the internet, but it’s how I feel with 14 chickens. And now they are big enough they are little Houdini’s trying to escape.

Fluffy chicks

We weren’t even going to get chickens until this summer, but to be honest, I didn’t really want to wait much longer.

Michael has been working on the chicken coop for about three weeks now. It would have been easier to buy the cute one at Sam’s. But we wanted to use one of the historic outbuildings to house our chickens. The inside has new wood and chicken wire to keep any varmints out.

A friend recommended Hoover’s Hatchery to us. They have a variety of birds, as well as free shipping.  I wanted friendly birds that would be good layers too. The final list was Tetra Browns, Dominiques, Light Brahmas and Americanas.

She's in heaven.

Loving on these baby birds.

The online hatchery give you options on if you want male, female or surprise. You can also pay extra for vaccinations and beak trimming. For around $50 bucks we bought 15 hens with vaccinations. Hoover’s sent an email telling me when the birds would arrive. I called the post office to give them a heads up. They, however, said it wasn’t their first rodeo and would call me immediately when the birds came.

The chicks arrived very early in a little box. The brooder was warm and ready to go. We dipped their beaks in the sugar water. They were alert and chirping, except one. And in the end she didn’t make it. She was weak and never really warmed up.

They arrived early in the morning!

Getting them in their new home.

We switched out the sugar water to apple cider vinegar with mother to aid in preventing pasty butt. Later that day, I inspected and wiped their bottoms. And that was my last time. Something about it raunched me out, and I didn’t really like the birds. Michael took over.

Playing with the birds.

Do you see that side eye? She's my favorite. 

Birds have always made me nervous. Their pointy beaks and crazy eyes just give me the willies. But after two weeks, I am starting to understand why people love chickens.

We can't tell them apart yet so the yellow ones are Banana, black ones are Dolly and the striped ones are Cash.

We’re holding them more and learning their personalities. Some of them perch on our fingers. The Americana’s are my favorite, and the Dominques are feisty. The Brahmas think they are tough and the Tetra Browns discovered their wings first.

So sweet.

So fiesty. This one is hanging out on the feeder.

This one has a red head so we call her Lucille Ball. 

I am really surprised how quickly they are growing. Bailey is really curious about them. We let her smell them, but if she gets to close the chicks give her a warning peck.  She gives them a quizzical head tilt but keeps going in for more.

Bailey checking it out. 

Smelling the bird. Getting her nose pecked. 

But much like the farmer’s son in the joke, I feel like we are going to keep adding to our flock. Give me a Silkie!